I'm Simply Wrote Out

I am loving my creative writing class.
Loving every second of it.
I now carry an entirely different bag, along with my purse, filled to the brim with notebooks, pens, highlighters, pencils, my nook, a clip board, small slips of paper and my net book.
I'm a writing fiend.
I simply can't get enough of it. Crazy plots, characters, dialogue and ideas are constantly streaming through my mind.
Until....
I sit down to write a quick blog post.

BLANK

That's what my mind does. It's like it just shuts down.
I guess it could be a form of writers block, only...I have no problem writing anything and everything else.

It's such a rush writing.
I love having others critique my work, I'm learning so much...and when I get a "oh my gosh, that's phenomenal you need to run with this idea!" or "keep it up, I love this"....I'm literally on a writers high! It's fun, rewarding, challenging and keeps my creativity flowing.

Then it comes time to jot a little something down, to keep up with my blog and...
I think I'm simply wrote out!

I'm so glad it's Friday!!

Always The One With An Active Imagination

My creative writing class started yesterday!
Really?
Okay, I realize if you read this blog, then you already know I started class yesterday...considering it's all I've blogged about in my past few entries.
Moving on.

So far, after day one, I love it!
It's more about the practice of writing and how to separate the creative mind from the critical mind.
Ha! and I thought I was the only one that had different voices constantly clattering, crashing and clashing around in my mind!
Alas, it turns out, I'm not the only one.

The first assignment was to introduce ourselves.
Easy enough.
After reading my fellow students introductions, it got me thinking about what it is I like about writing.

I'm still not sure!

All I know is that, from a very early age, I've always had a VERY active imagination. I always have a cast of characters running rampant in my mind, or some plot unfolding in my day dreams. I also found, again at an early age, that I liked the way writing evoked feelings from the reader. I wrote poems for friends and family to make them smile or laugh or just to make them remember a time that we shared together. For fathers day one year, I wrote a poem for my dad. I remember sitting patiently, waiting for him to open my framed "masterpiece" and read my words out loud. I couldn't wait to see him read the words that I had worked to piece together to show my admiration, gratitude and love for my dad. The moment came, he read my work out loud, my mother cried (they do that, moms, they cry at anything their children create from the heart...I've learned this over the years), my dad smiled and I was beaming with pride.
Just a few months ago, I was visiting my parents, and I happened to be sitting upstairs in my dads home office. We were chatting...well, to be honest I'm sure I was doing all of the chatting, I tend to do that (me!? yeah it's hard to imagine, huh!?)....I glanced over his meticulously organized bookshelf and spotted the framed poem, displayed beside a few other trinkets dad deems important enough to keep on display. It made me smile and it made me realize that it didn't matter if I was a great writer. It only matters that I do what I enjoy and maybe along the way, for brief moments in time, I can make someone smile, laugh, cry, or think.
I don't write because I'm a word master.
I write because it's fun.
I don't blog because I think anyone with access to the world wide web should know (or heaven forbid, agree with) what I think.
I blog because it's a creative outlet for me and maybe, as a reader, you'll appreciate (even if just a snidbit) my crazy, sometimes random, imagination.


Toodles!
I'm off to write the REALLY JUICY stuff in my PRIVATE journal!
Ha! I kid...I'm pretty much an open book and what the heck could I have that would be considered "juicy" ;-)

I Knew There Was a Reason

In the process of getting my office organized for 2011, I opened my box of old college notebooks and began to sort through them.
I tend to do this once a year.
I pull them out, dust them off, reminisce...decide that there is really no point in keeping them...only to put them back in the box and stuff them back in the attic.

Well, as I was doing the above, this past weekend, I came across my old Creative Writing notebook.

I actually enjoyed sitting down and reading the bits and pieces I wrote for the class and decided I could probably benefit from keeping that particular notebook out and referring to it for my class that starts...TOMORROW! eek.

I knew there was a reason I was such a pack rat when it came to keeping old college notebooks!

It even gave me a little boost of confidence as I read the comments my previous professor had noted on each of my writings.

I think I'm ready to be a student again.

Swamped!

I'm swamped at work...and I'm waiting to go completely under, no return in site.
Until then, I'm still chugging along and treading water.

My writing class starts next Wednesday! I'm very excited and starting to get a tad nervous!
I've been jotting down writing ideas all week, so hopefully I'll be a prepared student on my first day.
Yes! I realize that sounded dorky.

I'm not sure what I felt Monday morning when I got the call that there would be NO WORK....due to SNOW!!
WHAT?? A snow day? Are we even allowed to have those as an adult?
I won't lie, it was one pretty sweet day of being L-A-Z-Y.

We were also told to come in at noon on Tuesday and then I couldn't have been happier when I was told that on Wednesday I would get to sleep in AGAIN and come in at 10!
It was nice.

Then I was told that I will need to make some work time up by staying later and...
reporting to work at 7am this Saturday morning....way to ruin my good Snow day mood.

Oh well, guess being an adult really ISN'T all it's cracked up to be.

Investment Numero Uno

So, in order to follow my own advice and "invest in myself", I came up with a list.

First, I came up with a list of things that interest me.
This took me awhile and required a lot of paper, lots of things interest me.
I enjoy learning and trying new ideas.
I tried to narrow the list down into things that were really interesting enough to spend my (limited) free time on.

Then from that list, I came up with a list of things that I want to try to accomplish in 2011.

Then, I sat back, closed my eyes, took my index finger and randomly placed it down on top of my list

"THIS is what I will start with! This is what I'll try first!"

I opened my eyes, I was full of enthusiasm as I glanced down at my first "investment" endeavor.

"Bring it on!"

My finger was on the bottom left portion of the page.
My list didn't extend into that area.

"Figures"

So I took my list to the computer and sat down to do a little bit of research.
I guess if I wasn't going to pick my first "investment" blindly...I was going to have to make an educated decision.

I finally concluded that my first endeavor will be to work on my writing skills.
Skills?
Okay, so I'm not 100% confident that I even possess the "power of the pen", a way with words, or the skills to succeed.
All of heaven knows I don't have a lick of grammatical or spelling sense,
but dang it, I have fun when I write.
I've kept journals, notebooks, a diary, word documents, and this blog for years.
It's a creative outlet for me.


I signed up for a creative writing class today at my local community college.
I start this month.

Investment Number One: Write more.

I'm SO, VERY Excited!

and for absolutely no reason, what-so-ever.
I'm just happy.
I have been telling myself that 2011 was going to be a good year, MY year! Great things are going to happen this year, wonderful, happy, fun, interesting, different THINGS are going to happen.
Nope, I can't see into the future. Nope, I have no clue what tomorrow will bring. Nope, I don't have some, off the wall, perfectly thought out, plan of adventure that I'm about to partake on...unless you consider the plan that I do have all of the above.
My plan for 2011 is to just BE HAPPY and to INVEST in myself!

I jotted this quote down in my Moleskin (that's a journal for you non "journaling" people..I just felt super important and cooler than I really am by saying "Moleskin") yesterday and thought I would share.
So I shared it with Severyn.
Severyn laughed at me and then said "I've heard that before, where did you copy that from?!".
Well...I don't care if he laughed and for his information I did not copy from anyone or anywhere...I just thought about it and it made sense and I decided it was Moleskin worthy material, ha!

So...because this year I have decided not to care about what ANYONE says or thinks, because I have promised myself that I am NO LONGER going to allow myself to fear failure, and because I've decided that 2011 is going to be MY YEAR.....here is my quote:

"The secret to success is investing in yourself...then getting others to buy into you"

I'm dedicating 2011 a year of investing in myself.

We'll see where this year takes me!

AAAAAAhh chooo

I was trying to think of a title and could NOT stop sneezing...so I found the above appropriate ;-)


Lately I have been:

WORKING my hiney off! If the economy is doing bad...my company has yet to catch wind of that! (please note this is NOT a complaint!)

On a tapioca pudding diet. Well...pudding, jello, chicken noodle soup, and ...basically anything mushy diet. It's the only thing I feel like eating with this lovely little cold I have.

Going through an entire box of puff plus (with lotion) a day! Yuck!!

Trying to organize my house for the start of the new year! It's a work in progress.

Reading on my new NookColor....LOVE it!!! I can hardly put it down. I don't know what took me so long to finally come around to the hand held reading device idea.

Researching classes offered at my local technical college. I've decided that I'm going to register for a new and exciting class to take this year! It's a small treat for myself...YEAH! I'm THAT girl, the one that really loved school and dreams about going back....so much so that I'm willing to take a class just for fun! Ohhhh if only my highschool self could see me now.



okay...well that is all I've got for now. The pile of work on my desk is starting to block my view, I better get back at it.

Like Death Warmed Over

THAT is exactly how I feel!!!

UGH.

Not exactly how I wanted to start this new year...but what do you know? Here I am, nose stuffy one minute and the next I can't find enough tissues. One minute I'm coughing my head off, the next I can't see straight I'm sneezing so hard.

Yuck.



Regardless of how I feel welcoming in 2011, I am positive this is going to be a good year!
I have my list of resolutions, maybe I'll get around to posting them later...
if I survive the first week.