Category Archives: updates

What I Learned From Fluffing Plastic Bags (and living a better life)

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

When you volunteer to work at the food bank, you probably think to yourself, I’m going to help people and that’s a good thing. I’m going to help people who have hit hard financial times and need a lift in their spirit as well as food in their cupboard.

You imagine the recipients will look upon you as a Mother Teresa-type, grateful to your sweet spirit of volunteerism of handing out turkeys and canned pumpkin and toys for the kids.

A week before Christmas, I showed up on time for my assigned volunteer shift,  ready for my Mother Teresa benevolence to begin. read more

I’m a Survivor and You Are Too

Merry Survival! Merry Survival!

“Your book title tells me nothing about your book,” says the literary agent.

She sits across from me at a table in the far corner of an empty room. She flips through the pages of my book, Five Minutes For France, with nonchalant abandon.

I assume she’s a nice lady in real life. She probably packs her kids’ lunches with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with brightly-colored Post-it notes reading: “You’re awesome!”

But at writers conferences~agents who sit behind tables in far corners can morph into Cruella Devilles.

Not that they’re intentionally mean. But they don’t want you to get your hopes high without equipping yourself with some nice, hard truth. And there’s a lot of hard truth for a writer to swallow. read more

The Rude and Uninvited Guest

Arizona

When you move to Arizona, you never think about crickets. Not at first, anyway.

Once in awhile, a bold cricket will barge into our house without permission.

This happened the other day. A rude and uninvited cricket ascended my bookshelf, which is a rather tall bookshelf that reaches almost to the ceiling. Once the cricket made it to the top, with the assistance of a harness and nylon rope, it yodeled oh-lay-dee-hooo and hollered “I’m king of the mountain” to see if it could hear an echo.

top of bookshelf

The cricket camped out and sang inside the shelf’s corbel.

Then he got down to business and began chirping his heart out. Chirr, chirr, chirr-pity-chirr, chirr, chirr….CHIRRR, CHIRRR… read more

What I Suddenly Realized Was Missing From My life

The Thinking Chair

The Thinking Chair

I have a thinking chair. I got the name from the deliveryman who maneuvered my new chair into my office. “This is your thinking chair,” the deliveryman proclaimed, noticing its serene location facing a window view of our desert tree lit up in lemon-yellow blossoms.

I’ve never had a thinking chair. Or for that matter, a chair of my own. In the past, I’ve had to do my thinking in chairs other family members claimed as well. Community chairs, that’s what we had…dining room chairs, family room chairs, dusty patio chairs and uncomfortable wooden folding chairs. read more

Beaches & Bedrooms With Cats (And Other Things That Make Your Life Better)

When I asked “What makes your life better?”~no one gave the answer traffic congestion, touring a wastewater treatment facility, waiting in line at the post office during the Christmas season, or sitting barely dressed on top of a cold table in a proctologist’s office. The theme of what makes your life better, according to your answers, relates to moments of tranquility, inner peace, beauty, and love.

Here are your replies and some fun facts too.

Shianne: The BEACH

The beach is Shianne's happy place. photo: A Day at the Beach by Mircea Vasiliu

The beach is Shianne’s happy place.
photo: A Day at the Beach by Mircea Vasiliu

Beach Facts~A jellyfish has no heart or brain. A group of jellyfish swimming together is called a smack. I could find no reason in my research for the term smack. I recall getting stung by dead jellyfish washing ashore and feeling like I could smack anyone near me as I jumped and hollered and swung my arms around writhing in pain. But I don’t think that’s the reason for the term. Why do we call fish swimming together a school? Moving on to flower facts … read more