Write with TLC

I awoke the morning of our third day in Florida, our only full day in Miami to discover it was raining. Not a little rain that would go away in twenty minutes, but the kind of rain that hangs around all day and messes with your plans. I was determined to live in the moment and enjoy each moment regardless of my struggle the day before. Okay, I still really wanted to go to the beach, but I was willing to just see where the day took us. First things first, find a place for breakfast. A Google search directed us to The Front Porch ( see review on my review blog .) in Miami Beach. We made the short drive to Miami Beach and found a parking place. In the process, we saw a bunch of stage lights, large cameras, cabling, and a few 1950/60s cars (I think. I'm not good at placing cars in the right decade.) staged on a couple of closed off streets with police officers directing traffic around them. There was no indication what was being shot, but my curiousity was piqued. So much so, I woul...

My second day in Florida seriously tested my resolve to go with the flow. When I say seriously, I mean grit-your-teeth, plant-a-smile, pull-out-the-Southern-charm kind of serious testing. Let's just say "That's nice." popped into my thoughts more than once and many of you know exactly what that means. In my husband's defense, he did warn me before we even left Oregon that he might need to work a little while we were in Florida. I nodded and told him I understood. I did understand. The week before we left had brought some complications at work, so it wasn't a big surprise. Plans for day two were something along the lines of the following. Awake early, eat breakfast, and take a nice lesisurely drive down the coast to Miami arriving in Miami some time in late afternoon. Late afternoon but still early enough to go to the beach - at least for a walk. Actual day two in Florida bears little resemblance to this plan. First we slept much later than planned. Then my ...

The plan today was to continue sharing my Florida experience and experiment of going with the flow with you, but I can't concentrate on that right now. We'll return to that program tomorrow. That said, I guess this interruption is in a sense another exercise in going with the flow.  Meme eyeing her new bed...  Today, my cat, Meme, is having a full mouth teeth extraction. My heart is aching. I miss having her jump on my lap and knead the hell out of legs leaving me looking like I have little pin pricks all over my thighs. I miss her meowing just to let me know she's in the house. I miss her pushing my keyboard away from my hands, so she can sit on my lap. I miss her jumping on my desk and swatting my screen. Okay, yeah, she's my naughty, self-centered, little diva, but I love her for it. Meme on my desk searching for treasure If you're reading this without knowing the story, here's the background. Ever since Meme came to live with us as a kitten, she...

It was our first day in Florida. We got off the plane around seven in the morning, grabbed a quick and disappointing breakfast at a restaurant whose name I can't remember, located the hotel we couldn't check in to yet, and bought a few supplies. Then we decided the intelligent thing to do was determine exactly how long it would take us to drive to the Astronaut's Hall of Fame in Titusville where we would watch the shuttle launch on July 8th, so we made the drive. So far, this was exactly what I'd expected for the morning, but , I wanted to to find a beach and stare at the water for a while. Maybe take a little dip in the ocean, but I was still undecided on that one. I really wanted to do something where there would be no photos taken, I wouldn't feel selfconscious, and very little energy would be required. When my husband suggested we see if the Kennedy Space Center was open, I took one look at his excited face and decided not to remind him I wanted to go relax on ...

Okay, I love Florida. It's official. After a week there, I was ready to move. Yes, it rained and stormed two solid days, but guess what, it was still warm out. I didn't have to find a sweat shirt or a coat or go buy long pants. I wore my shorts and my sleeveless shirts. I wasn't freezing. Yes, it was hot and humid the other days. Yes, the sun was even punishingly hot at times.  Yes, forgetting to put sunscreen on any part of my exposed skin was a huge mistake and resulted in a sunburn in a short period of time in the sun. And, yet I felt free, comfortable, and happy. As soon as I stepped out of the Orlando International Airport at somewhere around seven o'clock in the morning on July 4th, I smiled. The rush of heat and humidity felt like coming home. I know. I'm weird. It's okay, you're not the first to think so. Now, I have to admit not being able to check into the hotel until four in the afternoon started to wear on me fairly quickly after flying all nigh...

Once there was a girl who was best friends with a guy. She told him he was like the brother she never had. She told him she loved him like a brother. He told her he was in love with her. She laughed it off. He said he was just kidding. She wondered which was true. She told him her deepest secrets. She told him her secret pain. She told him her dreams, even the outrageous ones. She told him everything. He told her his ambitions. He told her how he envisioned his future. He told her he'd always protect her. She trusted him like no other. Then one day he betrayed her in a way that crumbled her foundation. He turned her trust in him back on her and destroyed her ability to trust her own judgment. He hurt her more than anyone ever had and told her he did it for her own good. She cried. She hid. She tried to disappear. She became self-destructive. She dreamed about ways to die. She dreamed about ways to punish herself. She lost herself and everything that made her her. She looked ...

Let me start by saying as a writer I rather enjoy playing the "What if..." game sometimes  - well when I'm in control of the game and it doesn't take control of me - because it often leads to some pretty awesome story lines. Thinking what if I'd made that decision instead of the one I made. Thinking what if I run into a friend I haven't seen in years. Thinking what if I run into that person who not only broke my heart and ripped it to shreds but set it on fire and urinated on it before handing it back to me with a sly smile that said you'll never forget me now will you. I've played these what if games and used the different scenarios to generate stories and poetry. The mental exercise I often tend to not like is "This would be perfect if..." or "The only thing missing is..." Now, don't misunderstand, these can also be great exercises to find story ideas or to fix scenes that aren't working. The problem with these scenarios...

Yesterday marked the halfway point in my year of gratitude project. At the beginning of the year, I decided I wanted to live in a more positive place. I wanted to focus on the good in my life, fix the fixable bad, and let the rest go. I thought one way to do this would be to focus more on the positive things in my life. In the 1990s, I kept a gratitude journal of sorts. I would write in my journal and then at the end of that, write down a list of things for which I felt grateful each day. It helped me see that there were lots of things in my life to be grateful for, many of them very simple things. Over time as I journaled less, I also quit keeping the gratitude journal. I found myself growing more negative and focused on the problems instead of the solutions in life and in my writing. Last Fall I decided I needed to do something to change this focus, so I started keeping my gratitude journal again. By January 2011, I had some thoughts in place on what I want...