Happy St. Patty's Day

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I sadly have to work today, but I am wearing green in celebration. Then I think I should have a wild night of homework. I know do not be jealous of me. But it is the grad-student life.

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Hope you all have fun and a little bit of a wild night.

We all have a writing story

Hello lovely readers,

I am happy to announce my second guest blogger. YEAH! Please welcome Kimberly from Here's What I think About That. She has an opinion on just about everything and is happy to share them with anyone that will listen (or read). 

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I have so enjoyed this Blaire's blog. I’m so delighted to be a guest. As I thought about what I wanted to write, the thing that kept coming to me was I wanted to talk about writing. Specifically my writing story.

I used to journal writing intermittently in my adolescence.  I struggled with being “real” in my personal writing. I really wanted to avoid the angst filled teenage diary.  Not sure what that was about. Perhaps I was self censoring because of the thought that one day my diary would be discovered.

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Also, there was a period of time that was so deeply sad that to write about it felt like a betrayal. And to write about anything else felt like a different betrayal.   –You know in sitcoms when a girlfriend tells the boyfriend something sad (like a couple their friends broke up). The girlfriend is clearly upset and wants to commiserate.  The boyfriend? Not so much. He’s like, are you gonna finish your pie? And she’s like: how can you think about food at a time like this?  It was like that.

Many years ago, I went to see Anne Lamott speak about writing. [Side note: If you get the chance to see her speak, take it! ] I fell in love with her when I read “Operating Instructions” a story about the first year of her son’s life. I absolutely loved this book. It captured the sweetness and the raw emotions that are mothering. Anyway...I remember her saying that we should do two things in life:  1) Always eat dessert.  (Because life is short). And 2) write as though your family is already dead. –That seems a little harsh. I really wanted to paraphrase that to say “family will never read this”, but she really said “dead”. I suppose the writing would be different if you wrote as if they were dead. To be honest, I have not been able to do that. I can’t.  –So okay, although I’m a writer, I’m not an Anne Lamott writer.

Natalie Goldberg, in "Writing Down the Bones" says, “Go for the jugular”. Write about the thing that hurts.  And go all the way. Eeek. I don’t like this advice either.

So,  I SAY, “Write what you want to write”. And, if you don’t want to write about sad things...don’t. If you do want to write about sad things...do.

Many “how to write” writers say “if you can talk, you can write”. Everyone has the right to create. There are no special skills and no secret society that decides if you are worthy to be a writer. If you want to write and you write, then you are a writer.

My day job (career) is not writing but writing has helped me in everything I do. Writing has helped me formulate my ideas and be able to articulate them to others. {I write out my thoughts before a meeting so that I feel prepared.  –I don’t have to take the notes into the meeting...it is the writing that makes me confident that I understand the issues and can present my thoughts.}

Away from work, I always wrote letters (epic)! I wrote Newsletters: (Christmas Newsletters, Church News Letters, Book Club Newsletters). If I was participating in something I was always happy to be the scribe.

Then one day, someone asked me point blank: “Are you a writer”. Wow! That question was a turning point. Was I going to go public with it? “Yes”, I said, “yes I am”.

Since then I began to take my writing more seriously. I write more often and take advantage of more writing opportunities.  I even wrote for my employer's magazine. {That was exhilarating and scary at the same time. It was a slick magazine shared through out the entire company.}

I participated in the National Novel Writing Month. Yes, I completed a work of fiction. It is something I wouldn't share with anyone in its current state.  But I actually challenged myself and now have an IDEA {only an idea} of what it takes to write the first draft of a novel.  

Someone I knew once said, "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly." I thought I had misheard until he went on to explain: Many of us are frozen, afraid to do something poorly.  When, if it is really worth doing, it is worth doing regardless of the end result. First attempts are not supposed to be perfect. We miss a lot of life {and a lot of writing} by holding ourselves to high standards before we even begin. 

So I say to you:  Write Often and Write On!  What's more, I say: ENJOY the process.

Denver Trip

Let me start off in my post called "Offline Lovies" my blogging friend Kaysie at A Day of K  asked me to take pictures... I will say I didn't take any pictures of Colorado I mostly took pictures of my niece. But when you have a niece as cute as this... it is hard not to. Yes I am totally bias but she is adorable.

At Hammond's Candy Factory

Now for my post:

Let me say I consider my self a Bostonian, while I was not raised in Boston from my first trip to Boston visiting schools I felt like I belonged here and when I left I had a little pain as if leaving home behind. On my second trip to Boston I told my mom I was going to tie myself to a park bench so I could stay. Then the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and I felt it was fate of course it didn't hurt getting my acceptance letter. 

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But after this trip I started to wonder if I really belong in Boston. I mean I love Boston but I miss seeing my niece grow up. Last time I saw her was in June and back then she talked a little but most of it was mumble. Now she is talking and while she says words that don't always make sense with some translation through my sister she and I communicated.

Her showing off her glasses

Her sayings:

"Papapo"- her dog Parker
"Isee"- her dog Cassie
"Big sista"- is what she says when you ask her what she is.
"That five"- is what she says when she walks by her future school that she will be going too when she is five.

My favorite:  "Abba" that is what she calls me because she can't say Aunt Blaire, I don't know if I want her to call me anything else.

Playing with her Pooh ball

During my trip we did uneventful things but life things like going to the park, playing with the ball in the yard, and baking cookies.

Baking cookies

We also went to the Hammond's Candy Factory, walked by the river front in down town Denver, and went to the zoo. She loves the zoo and anytime we mentioned going some place else she said "no zoo" so we had to remind her we were going to the zoo on Monday. I also taught her "rock, paper, scissors" of course she didn't understand the game but it was sweet how excited she got to play it. But I quickly learned when she likes something she does the sign and says "more" until you tell her no more, which she does understand. My favorite memory was on Sunday we went to church and I was walking down the hall she saw me and she gleefully yelled "Abba" then she ran to me and I picked her up in the air. I loved that memory. 

Showing off the shirt I got her
"Always hoppy"
"Boston"

Then we went to the zoo on Monday. To explain this story I have to explain the week before I came to visit my niece visited my dad and step-mom and they took her to the zoo. At the zoo she saw a rhinoceros that pushed a ball around with its nose, she must of really liked it because she mentioned it a lot during the visit. Of course she didn't say rhinoceros she kept saying "nose, ball" instead. So all day at the zoo she kept saying "nose,ball" at least every 10 minutes. We kept promising her we would not leave until we saw the rhinos.

Her looking at the rhino

Sadly the Rhino was quite lazy and did not push the ball around

Well that was my trip to Denver. It may not be as exciting but it was a wonderful trip. But it was hard to leave Denver. My sister has been telling me to move to Denver since I moved to Boston, I have been telling her since I moved here that I felt this is where God was calling me. But once my sister had a baby, she finally found something that would make me want to move to Denver to be close to her, and it is my cute niece. While I love Boston, and the feeling of home I get in Boston, I sometimes hate being so far away. 

I just liked this giraffe... mostly because it was sitting down
and I have never seen on sit down

Quick Update

Hello Lovely Readers,

I am back in Boston and will write about my great trip to Denver soon. I will admit as much as I love Boston it was hard to leave Denver and my niece who calls me "Abba" because she can't say Aunt Blaire yet.

Will write more soon.
-Blaire