Category Archives: Blog

Musings, momentary insights and sometimes mundane details of life as a 50 something single female at the beginning of the 21st Century.

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I love this time of year when all my favorite celebrities share their favorite holiday gifts. Unfortunately for me whenever I peruse one of these high profile lists I get sticker shock. Honestly often just one item will be more than my entire holiday budget. So every year I make a list of my own. Be forewarned I am a little bit on the frugal side but that doesn’t mean I don’t spend a lot of time picking the best of the best for friends and family, just not a lot of money. Things I value most are happiness, music and well written words, so if you have anyone on your gift list who likes to laugh or listen to great music or enjoy the well turned phrase, here are my picks for this Christmas. Five are for those who want to buy and have someone else do the work and five require you purchase the supplies and do the work yourself. All ten say the gift giver is one thoughtful and quirky person and can quite likely win this years "Best Gift Ever" contest.

1. For the Funny one in your crowd or just the one on your list who never quite recovered from their tenure at Catholic School I highly recommend http://heynunnienunnie.com/  This little website offers the most hilarious $15 Christmas CD  I have ever listened to, ever, and the two ladies who produced it actually have a large enough vocabulary they can make you laugh without bleep-able  verbage!  And a perfect stocking stuffer is the $5 Get Out of Hell Free card; this is the kind of soul insurance everyone on your "naughty" list needs.

2.For the guitar player on your list I suggest any CD by Mel Brown, but i especially recommend "Chicken Fat". I was reintroduced to him recently by the gurus of sound at Hoodlums music. Not only do I recommend you pick up the CD I totally recommend you buy it local. If you live in the Tempe/Phx area I recommend Hoodlums on the SW corner of Mclintock and Guadalupe. If you are one of my many friends who live elsewhere, then have your own local harmony hookup bring it on, and may I say, buy one for yourself. It is always in my Ipods "most Played" list.

3. For the musician or music lover who lives in the greater Phoenix area I cannot recommend highly enough the gift of tickets to the Musical Instrument Museum or MIM. I was taken for my birthday this year and cannot wait to go again. Regular adult admission is $15 and tickets can be purchased on line, although if you are already in Scottsdale pick up the tickets in person and check out their gift shop in which plenty of lovely and unique low cost items also abound. Here is the link for admission tickets  https://tickets.themim.org/show.asp

4. For  Something unique to put a giftcard or sweet sentiment in, or if you just want to turn over a new leaf; try this etsy site for imaginative paper boxes and "clean/dirty" leaves. http://www.etsy.com/shop/branwen71. The ceramic leaves can be used as dishwasher magnets or magneted to a lapel can set the tone of the humor at your next holiday party.

5. And my top book recommendation for gift giving is as always a children’s picture book, well like the "Giving Tree" is a children’s book. They even still have signed copies at Changing Hands, also in Tempe. Located conveniently close to Hoodlums music. Check out this review of this witty bit of lit.  http://www.motherreader.com/2010/08/its-book-jackass.html.

Also some other authors websites to check out for can’t lose autographed books that come in full adult novel sizes try:
http://www.chrismoore.com/
http://www.heretherebedragons.net/
http://ginikoch.com/

And my top 5 DIY Christmas projects this year are where you buy the supplies but supply the love and construction time are

1. http://web.me.com/chrismcveigh/mintinbox/home/Entries/2010/11/29_Lego_Death_Star_Ornament.htm

2. http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/drwho/drwhoscarves.htm
3.http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/hatfelticesplash.html  Only don’t use the novelty yarn like they do, just make and shape the hatr from their pattern  and then attach a lovely dollar broach or silk flower on the Right side.

4. http://www.crochetme.com/media/p/90002.aspx

5. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Homemade-Book and add your own poetry, pictures or comics

And that is my favorite things under 20$ this year.

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Writer’s Block: A charming defense

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My patronus  is the crow (not Raven, Crow), although Coyote’s and Bears are my frequent teachers and protectors as well.What is ironic is that these are my animal protectors from an Italian/European Strega background (Wild Yellow Dog was how I knew Coyote growing up) and now I live in the southwest where they play the same roles in the stories. The crow is wise, playful and very loyal. One cannot know crows well without admiring and befriending the species, like many (including humuns) whose jobs are in clean-up Corvids are unfortunately not popular in modern society except for the angst/horror image of  ‘Poe’ish Ravens.

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Why I have been silent…..though maybe Just being wise…

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 There was an old owl lived in an oak
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard
O, if  we were all like that wise old bird!

What time for writing I have had has been spent on my dystopian fantasy/sci-fi mash-up novel for this years nanowrimo. 

This message is In case anyone is missing my rambling blogs and thinks maybe it is my usual unhappy silence. Its not. I am happy.

Really.

Happiness was visiting my favorite local places yesterday. Yup. I swung into Hoodlums to pick up some mood changing music and Changing Hands where I scored a classic for under 5$  yesterday. Even the air there is somehow sweet with independence….

OK back to writing.

And in case you don’t know who Hoodlum’s Music is yet…go read my October 31 entry. Or better yet, head to the SW corner of Guadalupe and Mclintock in Tempe.  Do yourself a favor and start at Changing Hands. I like to browse the classics and the sci-fi sections but this week I recommend you visit Fiction and pick up a copy of the latest novel by Jasper Fforde.  After purchasing it,  read the first couple chapters over a bowl of tasty autumn soup at Wildflower Bread Company. Now with body warmed and mind stimulated mosey south past the Pub to Hoodlum’s for a little euphonius sustenence for the soul. If you don’t leave there with at least two new CD’s, then you are either deaf or broke.

Now really back to my nanovel….

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Writer’s Block: A real eye opener

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That is a very tough question. Many ideas come to mind from the obvious like Homer or Plato or the Tao Te Ching and then circled to the usual suspects like  Emerson or Thoreau and then sallied to classical but fun writers like Dickens, Hugo, Bronte, and Twain then I think of  current authors whose genius will resonate past their deaths and books have reached  Italo Calvino, the author of If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, description of a classic: ‘A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say’. These are authors like Barbara Kingsolver, like Toni Morrison, and A.S.  Byatt and Ian McEwan and then took a sharp turn into the books I can never forever put down and also meet Calvino’s description of a classic like C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, James Owen’, Charles de Lint’s Newford books, Stephan Kings Gunslinger series and JK Rowling. The I finally settled on a young readers chapter book called "Wrinkle In Time." by Madeliene L’Engle. 

Cause if you can’t pick a "best", pick a "first". This little book has it all including the infamous first line "It was a dark and stormy night…"

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My moment of silence

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 Today I learned that a mythmaker died. Bards tell the story and are the faces John Q Public knows, but their are those who tell the stories of the stories and the storytellers that make the myths real.

http://inklingsfocus.com/bio.html

Look at the picture that says 1971, that is how I remember him still and how I believe he looks again.

Goodbye.

And  now some silence, so we can all go read the great myths

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Change is good, but I could use some big bills now…

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 Missing my Friday morning routine today. Friday is almost always a day off for me because of the veeeeerrrry long shifts I get longer week-ends (even when they come in the middle of the week). My Fridays usually involved coffee and breakfast at Wildflower bread company, book browsing at Changing Hands, then new music from Hoodlums, groceries from Trader Joes which usually included some tempura vegetable rolls or a greek salad for lunch, then home to eat, listen, and read. And now it is cooler it began and ended with a walk.

*sigh*

So todays plan includes unpacking, cleaning, organizing and writing. yea for writing! 

Moving and change discombobulate me and I truly miss Tempe. That corner of Guadalupe and McLintock is kind of heaven to me, on the other hand nothing fuels writing like roiling feelings, so off to Nanowrimo write again.

My characters are trying to take the plot into their own hands again, but what can you expect from talking dogs, over-medicated women and a robot built to look like Marvin.

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Lyrics by Ian Axel and another 2000 words.

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So number two song in my Nanowrinmo 2010 playlist and its kind of the novel synopsis, only a little less perky and a lot more political.

Keep writing y’all!

This Is The New Year
 Another year you made a promise
another chance to turn it all around
and do not save this for tomorow
embrace the past and you can live for now
and I will give the world to you

Speak louder than the words before you
and give them meaning no one else has found
The role we play is so important
we are the voices of the undergroud
and I would give the world to you

Say everything you’ve always wanted,
be not afraid of who you really are,
cause in the end we have each other,
and thats at least one thing worth living for,
and I would give the world to you

A million suns that shine upon me
A million eyes you are the brightest blue
Lets tear the walls down that divide us
and build a statue strong enough for two,

I pass it back to you
and I will beat for you,
cause I would give the world
and I would give the world
and I would give the world to you

This is the new year
A new begining
You made a promise
You are the brightest
We are the voices
This is the new year
We are the voices
This is the new year

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2000 words before breakfast, that is all I am saying

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 If you are looking for one of my lengthy pre-November rambles, I am sorry but those were practice. Now my limited creative prowess is being harnessed in the efforts to complete a novel.

I began the month by putting in 31 hours as a nurse over Monday and Tuesday, so no writing except a few pen to paper percolations of names and scenes during my clients rare naps, I successfully completed my first 2000 words before breakfast today. I have the last few things to finish at my old apartment and a rehearsal to attend, then a few more words and a resume to write before sleep. 

My goal is 10,000 words by midnight saturday.

This is the fun part.

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To sleep perchance to dream

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 Today started at 0315. Just got home. Word count day one is zero. Knew it was gonna happen and have planned for it.I am the turtle this year where always before the hare.

Tomorrow also starts at 0315 and I have to be cognizant throughout my nursing shift, so Good-Night!