A Writer's Life

Nano 14,15

As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking about the connection between novel writing and fitness training again.  I was thinking about my tough workout last night and the moments in which I felt determined to go on, even when it would have been much easier to stop.  And how I’m sore this morning but it’s okay because it’s a rest day, in which my body is repairing and rebuilding.  Rest days are actually a part of my fitness plan—but they haven’t been part of my novel writing plan, not this year, anyway.

I’ve taken them in the past, usually on a Friday night.  This November, I’ve had had my Friday nights free and have tried to amass some word count during those hours.  However, I’ve really struggled to write on those evenings, and I think the reason why is because I need a rest day when writing my novel.  Ah, but then what happens to the word count?  Do you have to write exactly 1,667 words per day to win?

Of course not.  When I’m on, I’m capable of generating many words in a short period of time.  When I’m not on, it’s like I’m limping through my words and stumbling over them.  It’s simply because I need a rest day.  A novel writing rest day isn’t going to limit my word gains—it’s going to maximize them.  So, that’s part of the reason I finally said yes to putting on a pretty dress and going out to a friendly dinner on Friday. 

Starting off the week with 34200,

Rachel

Nano, day 14

Oops, I missed a day in my count because I titled a post Halftime.  Welcome to almost Halftime for November!  I stayed up late last night because I had a little writing jolt that took me to 30528 (okay, I said little, lol.)  I am writing from the coffee shop after meeting with my personal fitness consultant and getting my week one results...I am giddy with excitement because I lost 2% body fat this week, including almost 4.5 pounds of fat loss and .45 muscle gain.  I'm ahead of the curve in my novel and in my fitness world.  I'll take both because I never know when I'll hit a little plateau in either. 

It's amazing how many parallels I keep finding between those two worlds. :)  Novel writing requires focus, dedication, and a custom plan to fit your lifestyle.  Fitness requires focus, dedication, and a plan put together specifically for you, that's customized and that changes as you work towards your goals. 

Fitness has surprises, like learning that you actually are leaner than the week before, even as your home scale seems to stay the same.  And learning that the reason you were more sore at the beginning of the week and less sore at the end of the week is because your body is changing.  Novel writing has surprises, like learning that some of your nicest characters aren't really that nice at all and getting the novel writing jolt when you think you're done for the night. 

Fitness requires a solid commitment of time in the gym plus time recording food and workouts each week; novel writing requires solid hours of time, time spent saying "yes" to the keyboard. 

Fitness and novel writing both require a big decision at the beginning to do it and to not give up on yourself.  They also require choices.  Choices to spend time at the keyboard instead of at the mall.  Choices to just say no to donuts.  Choices to count out 10 sun chips and put them into 6 ziplock bags so that you can easily pack your lunch bag for work. Choices to try new things that you never thought you'd like before.

Support is crucial in both worlds.  Checking in so that you don't check out.  Touching base.  Confirming what's working and where the patterns are.  The "one word" that might keep the experience moving forward.  Not being afraid to ask for help when you need it.

The best part about both fitness and novel writing is that they are both a learning experience.  You're learning about your characters and your story line in your novel.  You're learning about the correct way to lift and the difference between the glycemic load and the glycemic index in fitness.  But through both processes, you're mostly learning about yourself, that you are a person who has the strength to do hard things.  And at the end of each process, you have a body of work, lol.

Back to the word count...and onto more reps tomorrow.

Rachel

Nano, day 12

I don't have a word count to post yet tonight.  I'm over 29000 and would like to hit 30000 before I call it a night.  I'm having a quiet night in, eating my Carbmaster yogurt, typing my novel, and watching my new favorite channel, Oxygen.  If Snapped was on tonight, it would be perfect. :)  No, I don't have DVR, so I can't just watch the episodes I didn't record last week.

Tomorrow starts week 2 of my fitness program.  I'm hoping for any preliminary results.  I'll show my fitness consultant my food diary, my cardio diary, and my strength training diary.  I've been on task all week, and my nutrition has been really good.  I did all the hard cardio and the strength training was a real challenge.  I couldn't finish every rep perfectly, but I committed to it, and I didn't give up.

Oh, and I had a couple of normal blood pressure readings this week, so it appears that everything is working correctly.  And all my other bloodwork from the doctor's office came back normal. 

I don't really have any insights into the writing process or into life tonight.  If my internet holds, I'll post an updated word count later.

A few hundred in,

Rachel

Nano, 12

Thursday are another busy day for us.  Gymnastics, dinner with friends, an intense hour at the gym, and homework.  After J. fell asleep on the couch, I propped my laptop on my knees and prepared to start hitting the word count for the next section of my story.  I had project runway on at the same time, and I turned up the heater and snuggled under a blanket because I was cold.  A mere 600 words later, I was sleep on the couch.

Sometime during the night, I turned off a couple of lights and turned off the television.  But we all slept downstairs last night.

More words to come this weekend, lol. 

28600.

Rachel

Nano, day 11

I'm at 28000 words tonight.  I hadn't planned to get this far, but my story took a wicked turn, and I got carried along with my characters.  My daughter gave me an insight that helped the story keep moving along, and as I read her my final few hundred words for the night, she said "you can't stop there!  I want to know more!  Keep going!"  That's a good sign. 

I know what's going to happen next, but I'm scared to write it down.  It's not a very nice thing that's going to happen, and it's kind of horrifying.  My characters have gone from one extreme to another in their boxes, and just when they start thinking that things are getting better...they get worse.  Which is a great novel writing trick that I'd forgotten about until tonight.

When you have writer's block, take your scene and turn it upside down.  There's more than one way through any situation, and once you've tried following the rules, then break them. Turn the situation around and upside down.  Ask yourself, "what's the worst thing that could happen?" and then double it.  Make it twice as bad as you ever thought it could be.  Or twice as good.  Or funny.  Or happy.  Or sad. 

28000 on this day of remembering,

Rachel

Halftime

Tuesdays are busy for me.  I have a tough workout at the gym, followed by two+ hours of helping with sixth grade homework and of course, I can't miss the Biggest Loser.

Through it all, I decided last night that I wanted to hit the halfway point in my novel.  So, when I was cursing the mean machine known as "elliptical with arms," I had an idea for my story, involving one of the members of the ad agency team, a woman named Morgan.  It's kind of weird that I knew my characters Scot and Karen and Jack before I started writing about them...but I'm just getting to know the other key players-David and Morgan.  For example, yesterday, I just found out that David had been married and divorced (of course, everyone else discovered that at the same time.)  And although all  of my characters have been looking at each other for the entire first half of a novel, I didn't know that quiet little Morgan had platinum blonde hair cut in a conservative bob.  The things you learn about people as you type.

25000 (and a little more for good measure.)

Rachel

Nano, day 9

Yesterday, we worked at the coffee shop.  After we got done, I carefully packed up my laptop, but when I opened it last night, the "A" button was stuck.  I was tired and didn't feel like figuring it out, and besides, I couldn't do a search on any internet sites because almost every search term involves the letter "A," which I couldn't type.

So I researched it at work and came home and solved it for myself.  Yay!  Because it would be awfully hard to type the rest of my novel without using any letter A.

My new workouts are tough, and I'm tired, so I'm calling it at night at 22500.  I may hit the halfway tomorrow...between a workout, the Biggest Loser, and Tuesday night homework, I guess we'll see.

22500,

Rachel

Nano, day 8

It's the second week of Nano, and I'm sitting at 20018.  Jaeme helped my break through my writing wall last night.  We went out for dinner last night (I had compliant chicken, brown rice, and veggies) and then continued our lovely tradition of getting her a craft project to work on while I wrote.  On the drive home, I told her where my story had stalled, and she said ONE thing that helped me figure out where to take the story next.

Sometimes writer's block feels insurmountable, but believe me, sometimes all it takes for a cure is just one new thought.  If you can't have that thought on your own, talk to your kid or a friend or your significant other.  Because you never know where that little hammer is going to appear. When it does, grab it and don't let go.  Smash down as many bricks as you can and keeping going until you can't go any longer.

20018.

Rachel

Nano, day 6/7

Today marks the end of the first week of Nano writing.  I should be at 12000 words to be on track, but I am at 15600.  Which is good and not good because last night, I had a total writing block and decided to just watch Legally Blonde twice instead of writing.  I picked up my computer during commercials and churned out a mere 600 words and it's all awful.  Really bad writing.

Today's been busy, with a visit to the gas station, the bank, the bookstore, the grocery store, the coffee shop, Dilliards, the nail salon and my personal trainer/fitness consultant.  I'm very excited about my new plan and will be meeting with my new consultant on a weekly basis to go over my results and to tweak my plan to make sure it's working for me.  My ultimate goal is to lose about 14% body fat, in 18 weeks. 

Tonight, I'll take J. shopping for a craft project, and I'll try and get focused back into my story.  My official diagnosis of HBP yesterday threw me for a bit of a loop, but I'm happy to get it under control.  I told my doctor that'd I'd been having awful fatigue and headaches and she said it was no wonder, that my heart had been working twice as hard as it should.

Anyway, I'm a bit stalled, but there's still hours left to write before I go to bed.

Rachel

Nano, day 5

I went out for dinner with friends tonight, and we were talking about the novel writing process.  I was telling my friend K. about the reason why I love Nano, and that's because you have to keep writing. You can't let a case of writer's block stop you because you don't have time to mull over every word and wonder if you've made the right choice.  You've got to keep laying those words down and building your story up, and with words, you're not using cement, and you can always go back and strike out and rearrange when you're done (meaning, when you've won the contest.)

Sometimes when I'm writing and I realize that I should have written something in a slightly different way, I'll go back to the place where the writing happened and type in the change, without deleting the previous words.  I don't erase what I wrote before, and I'm just adding my new text as a "note to self" type of thing.  I did this a couple of times tonight, in one place where I realized that the character needed to take 4 pills instead of 1 and another place where I realized the gift couldn't be in a plain white box with a red ribbon.  So, that's my writing tip of the day.  If you need to edit, do so in an "adding" kind of way instead of a "subtracting" kind of way.  And don't strike text.  

I'm exhausted again tonight, but I'm going to hit the 15,000 word mark tonight.  Frankly, I did have about ten minutes of writer's block, but I took the lead from my character who was handing out gift boxes and made the other characters guess what was inside of the boxes.  They were surprised when they finally opened them...

Rachel

Nano, day 4

I'm at 12189 words right now.  I've been chomping at the bit all day to write, especially since my daughter gave me a great little plot twist on the drive to work this morning.  I got home and had to spend a few minutes cleaning the living room because the mess was unwelcoming when I opened up the front door.  Then it was off to run errands as my daughter needed a new leotard and tights for her impending gymnastics class tomorrow.

Finally, after trying on fourteen different leotards, we got kicked out of Danskin when the manager said, "ma'am, we are closing in five minutes."  Whoever said customer service was enjoying a new renaissance these days was wrong.  Twenty percent off later, we were gone, and I came home and typed furiously for an hour.

Now it's laundry and the never-ending sixth grade homework.  Then I'll sneak in some more writing where I can.  I'm at another good place in the story, and I don't want to stop.

Rachel

P.S.  I came home from work and the place was such a mess.  I turned on Oxygen to keep me company, and there was this movie about a girl who wants to be a ballerina.  A male character in the story was told that his technical technique was perfect but that he needed to THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX and find a way to make his dancing, his own.  His advisor said, "find something...or someone...that you're passion about, and use that passion for inspiration."  Got to think that's a signal that I'm on the right track with my story...or else I've happened upon a pretty common cliche. :)

Nano, day 3

I'm home from the salon, after three hours of having my extensions removed and my hair color refreshed.  Having the extensions removed was much more painful than I expected because I had lots of tiny little knots where the bonds were attached.  I wasn't sure what my own hair would look like since it hasn't been cut since April, but it retained it's shape quite well, and my stylist only had to do a bit of trimming.  My own hair is collarbone length, which makes me happy.  It may not be long hair at the moment, but it's not short hair either. 

My head is sore and my hands are tired, but I managed to type a few words to hit the 10,000 word mark, which I'd usually be looking for this coming weekend.  I like being able to bank a few words here and there, so that I can account for the important things in life, like hair extension removal.

I'm going to write for an hour or so and then call it a night.  I'm pretty tired.  Or is that pretty, tired?  Or a tired pretty?  LOL 

10,000.

Rachel

Nano, day 2

It's day 2, and the story is writing itself.  I feel like I'm typing faster than I can think.  I don't cheat and write during the workday...as I simply don't have time.  Too many projects at work to sneak in any extra word count at all.

I am at 8489.  My heroine is Karen, and she's leading her in-house ad agency through a great experiment in thinking outside of the box.   So far, there's been an evaluation box, a conference room box, a challenge to make things out of boxes, a cubicle box, and something interesting is about to happen. 

I can hear the conversation going on in my head, so I'm off to transcribe for a few hundred more words, Alex.

Rachel

Let the Writing Begin!

All hail, NanoWrimo!

I woke up this morning and felt unsure of my story.  Then I wasn't sure if I wanted to go forward in this year's contest or not.  I opened up the laptop anyway and started writing.  And now I'm at 3200 words.  I always like to get a few extra words on the first energy when I'm in a good novel writing groove.

My story is already taking on a life of it's own, but that's what happens during novel writing season.

Stay tuned!

Rachel

October 1

If this is your birthday, and you recently tried to contact me elsewhere, please e-mail through my blog.  I want to say hello, but my old e-mail address no longer works...and I don't want to pay $54.95 to do it.

Thanks,

Rachel

Birds in a Line

Today at work, I was watching it snow.  The snowflakes were swirling across the parking lot, and all of the designers were trying to convince me that it was really just a special effect caused by snow blowing wind across the roof.  I knew better, unfortunately.

I looked out the window, and I saw a hundred birds swooping across the power lines and down through the parking lot and back up again.  They all lined up neatly on the power line, and even where there were spaces, errant birds filled in the blanks.  I thought about the old saying of having all of your ducks in a row and wondered how come there's no saying about having all your birds on a line.  

Speaking of ducks in a row, my notes for Nano are coming along.  I don't usually make notes, but in my window-staring time, I am starting to hear the parts of my story being revealed.  I am anxious to start writing and although I know a couple of people who have started (shhh!), I won't until it's officially November 1.  I will be Nano compliant without complaint.

Rachel

Of Cats and Girls

My daughter is officially signed up for Nanowrimo.  She told me tonight that her story is going to be about the life of a cat.  I love the way that she picked something she wants to write about and is ready to go full steam forward, no doubt, no hesitation. 

I'm having lots of little doubts this week, in all areas of my life and that includes my plot.  But I'm going to find the joy in my plot, and I'm going to write it.  Is it weird that I know that there's going to be a boyfriend named Jack but that I don't know the name of my main character yet?  I know what Jack looks like, and I know his personality, but I don't know quite as much about her.

I guess that's part of what I'll discover along the way.   She'll eventually get a name, kind of like my assistant editor's practically-new baby nephew.  It didn't happen immediately, but it did eventually happen. 

Rachel

One Week...

It's one week from the beginning of NanoWrimo.  I'm looking forward to three things in the first part of November, including:

November 1: The start of this year's writing contest

November 2: Meeting with my fitness coach (finally!)

November 3: Having my extensions removed (I've had them in for five months now, and I'm tired of the maintenance.)

Bring on November!  I'm ready for a new start!

Rachel

100K Household

No, that's not what you think.  I'm talking about words written in November.  As some of my Facebook friends already know, my daughter wants to write a novel with me this November.  I'm very excited to be a 100K WORD family, even though I've never seen that choice on any questionnaire.  

In the past, I've always occupied her every Saturday night with a special craft project and written for a couple of hours in the evenings, after she's gone to bed.  This year, we'll be journeying with our laptops to different wi-fi spots in the valley and chiseling away at our stories. 

I've been making notes on my book, which is a different take for me.  Which is fitting, given the plot of my book.  There are moments when I just want to start writing because my characters start talking in my head, but I'm holding back on the word count and just jotting down ideas for chapters. 

It's getting closer, and I can feel it...just like I can feel the chill in the fall air. 

Early Arrival

Last night, I wrote about digging out my old mantra: "the words will arrive at precisely the right moment."  Well, guess what?  After I posted, I was in the bathroom, curling my hair, and my story started wrapping itself around me as I wrapped my curling iron around my hair.  I "wrote" in my head as I curled my hair, and then I started making a list of ideas in Word.  I am not writing the story about the writer...this one is the more innovative plot line that I was requesting as I typed my blog last night.

I composed all night long, and this morning, I started explaining the story to my daughter.  She gets me; she really really gets me.  And my story. 

This is a story for my character, but it is also a story for me.  My J. is going to be my accomplice as I write, and I about can't wait to get started.

Rachel

P.S.  When I say I composed, I mean that I was brainstorming in my mind.  No actual writing until November 1. 

P.S.  The main character is not going to be a writer.  I don't know her name yet, but she's got a boyfriend named Jack.

No Plot, No Problem?

I mentioned fear of creativity in a previous post, partially because I've got a bad case of it right now.  I'm playing around with plot ideas in my head, and my brain is in super analytical mode, dismissing everything as silly, impossible, implausible, and imperfectable.  The deal is: once I starting writing on 11/01, I will simply write and write and write, with little "thought" to what I'm typing.  The words will come, and although I rarely use my old mantra these days (the words will arrive at precisely the right moment), perhaps I need to dig it out of my trunk and reinstate it.

I'd like to paint it in huge words right on my wall: the words will arrive at precisely the right moment, but I won't do it.  I don't want to get too creative and wind up paying thousands of dollars to have it fixed.  There's some fear of creativity for you.

One of my plot ideas this year is about a.......writer.  Yeah, it's a default, and I made myself NOT do it last year.  But this involves someone who is looking for a writer on a dating site, finds one, gets her romantically attached and then winds up captivating her with his story, a story she winds up writing.  Of course, there'd be a wicked twist in the middle as she'd wind up turning into one of the characters in the story, and he'd wind up hating her for it.  And that would just be one of the many twists. 

I like the idea, but I wonder if it's too predictable.  I would like to do something a bit more unconventional. 

I guess we'll see what November brings me.

Rachel

Creative Immunity

Why are people so afraid of creativity?  You'd think it was a plastic rat hidden inside a lunchbox or an unexpected twist in an horror film.  Creativity=endorphins for me.  It's another form of stress relief that's forgotten when the doctor tells you to exercise more and eat less fat.

I have been called many different things as a creative person, like a diva, like not a team player, and yes, like even weird.  I vacillate between wanting to fit in and wanting to fit out.  And I'm afraid that being fearful of creativity may be an airborne illness, kind of like the swine flu.

I didn't catch the swine flu when I was exposed last May, so maybe the fear of creativity is something that I can ward off with plenty of vitamin C and lots of hand washing.  There must be something I can do to support my creative immunity. 

Rachel

Targeted

In my job, we use disclaimers.  Since I am used to them now, I will start this post with one.

DISCLAIMER: I love Target.  I shop there at least once a week.  Maybe more.  I know that the employees who work there are only doing their job.  I have put my time into working the floor of a retail establishment for minimum wage.   

*At Target, have you ever wondered why it's called "Target?"  From the time my daughter was two, she's been able to identify the bulls-eye.  I always thought that they were targeting low prices, but today, I found out that they are targeting the customers.  And I found this out after being in the store for two minutes and being asked three times if I needed help.

It kind of annoyed me that it happened three times in a row, so I said something to my daughter, and the girl behind the meat counter heard me.  And she told me the truth: at the Target near my house, the customers are targeted.  Whenever a customer is within a ten foot radius of any Target employee, then it's a BULLS EYE for the customer.  The darts come in slightly different forms: "Do you need help finding something?"  "Are you finding everything okay?"  "Did you need help with something?"

As soon as I learned that I was the target, I started extracting the darts.  When the guy came up to me in the dairy section, I actually was looking for a smaller carton of heavy whipping cream.  When he asked if I was looking for something, and I said YES, you would have thought I'd just told him that he'd won a million dollars.  He was beaming because he finally had a customer who didn't yell NO and run away to finish her shopping in peace.  There were no small cartons of cream, but he was still happy.

Now that I know I'm the Target, I'm preparing a list of responses to the questions.  When I'm asked in the meat department, I'm going to say, "do you have any wild ostrich?"  When I'm asked in the produce section, I'm going to ask, "can you tell me which of these salad mixes has the most nutrients for the least amount of calories?"  When I'm asked in the shampoo department, I'm going to ask, "can you tell me if it's really true that you can use Suave coconut conditioner for shampoo?"

It's either that or a measuring tape with me and make sure that I'm at least 10.1 feet away from every employee. 

Weight and See

After my first week of actually following some kind of eating plan, I am down 2.9 pounds.  Which is a good start, and as my daughter told me, it's happier to think of losing 7.1 pounds instead of losing 10 pounds.

Happy with my initial loss, I took my blood pressure at some mall store today.  My doctor told me that he couldn't rule out "white coat syndrome" with me, aka anxiety at the doctor's office (even though this high blood pressure thing just started making an appearance this summer.)  I was advised to take my blood pressure when I was out shopping, aka not around any doctors. 

So, the results today were on this electronic thing that announced my results aloud.  If there'd been a shush button, I would have pressed it because I really didn't need everyone in the store hearing that my blood pressure was ONE FORTY OVER ONE HUNDRED WHICH ACCORDING TO THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION IS HIGH.  Nice.

I wonder when the benefit of losing weight will kick in on my blood pressure.  In 7.1 pounds, will everything magically fall back into normal range?  Is there a correlation between pounds and points?

I guess I will just have to weight and see. 

Build A Rachel

We were at Fashion Place Mall today, and a lady in red approached us.  I tried to run away, but she handed me a couple of coupons that I liked, so I ascertained that she was not a Mary Kay lady trying to book a party with me.  One of the coupons was for Aeropostale, where they were having a "buy one hoodie, get one free" sale.  So, I bought one for me and one for Jaeme.

The other coupon was for one of those stores that I can't stand.  Hello, Kitty? No.  Claires?  No.  Build A Bear.  I just can't bear to be in that place (ha ha) but my daughter still loves it, even the horrible part where they ask her to kiss the bear's heart before they stuff it inside and sew said bear shut.  The whole story is a candy-colored upsell machine, and although I love the Build A Zebra that she got me for my birthday last year, I just hate stepping inside.  Today, to make it even more fun, there was a boy working behind the front counter who was loudly ringing a bell and telling everyone to clap. 

However, today at BAB, I found out that the bears and I have something in common.  Besides now adding shoes, panties, dresses, skirts, jeans, tops, costumes, and glasses to your bear...you can also buy your bear hair extensions.  In brunette or blonde.  

(Mine are blonde.)

Miles of Fun?

What’s the point of driving from your perspective?  I hate to do it, so for me, it’s mostly about getting where I want to go with the least amount time spent behind the wheel, while avoiding the Escalades, Suburbans, and Yukons that crowd the lovely streets of Draper.  The one exception is the drive from here to southern Utah, which is a relaxing drive that I love.  Most driving, however, is definitely not what I would call fun.

But people try and make it that way.   Just yesterday, I saw two people who were having fun driving (or at least I think they were.)  The first one was this guy who got out of his car at a stop light (busy intersection that I hate because I had a wreck there once) and proceeded to dance all the way back to the truck behind him.  Yes, his car was running, his driver’s side door was open, and the music was pumping.

Then I saw another guy speeding  through the “pond” of water that accumulates behind a local outlet mall.  Pond is not the right term—think small lake instead.  He gunned his engine and was going about 50 and there was (murky) water spraying everywhere.  It must have been super fun because then he turned around and did it again. Could have been a good photo op, but I didn’t have a camera handy. 

I guess I do have some fun observing other drivers.  Enough to blog about it, anyway.

Notable

My daughter is taking a logic class this semester, and the topics are fascinating.  For a recent test, we were talking about words and how the same word can have different meanings to people, depending on their age, culture, and reference points.  I found the perfect example today.  

When I was a child, if someone told me to bring a notebook to class, I would have grabbed a binder.

When I did a search for notebook on the Walmart.com site (I am writing an article about notebooks, the old-fashioned kind!), guess what came up?  A list of notebook computers.  Which you could definitely also take to class with you!

The next time someone asks you to buy a 499 notebook, don’t just say yes.  They may be talking about a $4.99 binder stocked with notebook paper—or they could be requesting a Dell.

Stuck in the middle

After my skinny jeans story, I thought it was important to muddle through my middle story.  So, here I am, almost 43, and I have what the authors of the 6 Week Cure would call a "middle-aged middle" and what I would call the muffin top.  It's not the yummy kind of muffin top featured on Seinfeld, either.

Now, not everyone knows that I have m.t. because I'm pretty good at dressing around it.  And as long as I don't wear tight jeans and a fitted t-shirt, I can pretty much keep it under wraps.  However, the eating of muffins (and other corresponding sugar and flour concoctions) has contributed to more than just a few "vanity" pounds: it may also be connected to a few recent bouts of high blood pressure readings over the summer.  My doctor rx'd more exercise and a ten pound loss, so here I am: back to a low carb diet until I lose another 8.4 pounds.

I know, I know.  Just what you wanted.  More posts about me losing weight.  Don't worry, I'll have a hair extension post for you in just a couple of days.  It will be just like the good old blogging days. 

Rachel

-8.4 to go

The Skinny on Jeans

I was never even going to try a pair on.  After all, I've watched enough episodes of "What Not to Wear" to remember that bootcut is the way to go.  And although I'm a single-digit size, I'll never be skinny, which I thought meant that skinny jeans were just never going to work on me.  I never planned to try them on or to buy a pair, but a recent discussion on my nutrition board, on how short women should try on skinny jeans to elongate their legs got me to thinking about it.  And then I thought about it again when J. and I saw a local diva-ite's daughter trying them on today.  That's when I realized that my daughter might be able to wear a size 0 in junior's...and that's when she decided that SHE (of the same build as me) decided that she wanted to try on a pair of skinny jeans.

What's a supportive mom to do?  Of course I went to Aeropostale and tried on skinny jeans, too.  And then to Wet Seal.  And finally to 5 7 9 where we found skinny jeans that we both liked for less than fifteen dollars per pair.   I was actually so surprised that they didn't make me look heavy, that I bought myself a pair.

Now all I need is a pair of skinny boots to go with my skinny jeans.

P.S.  Did I mention that I'm thrilled that my daughter is just about three years away from being old enough so that I can steal her clothes and wear them?  As it is, I'm thrilled that she can wear the smallest of junior's sizes because it means that we can shop in the same stores, and that I never have to go into The Children's Place again. 

Falling for Feathers

When I worked at a different magazine, one of my most favorite things to do was spot trends in fashion.  I haven't gone trend spotting for a while, however, when I'm at the mall on a Sunday afternoon, I can't help but notice what's in.  This fall, the feathers are flying...onto t-shirts, dresses, and earrings.  There's a mix of faux feathers, illustrated feathers, and featherlike brush strokes on graphic tees.  I didn't happen to see a feather in a cap, but if you find one, put it in yours and call yourself stylish.  I guess feathers are the next wing of "animal prints"...watch for feathers to be fluttering onto shoes and purses near you, oh my!

P.S.  Title for this blog post is from my daughter, J.  I was going to call this "Feathers For Fall," but she suggested "Falling For Feathers," which I liked much better. 

Don't be Chicken

Did you know that you can get a value meal at chik fila for $6.13 for one person or that you can roast a chicken at home for $1.50 per person and still have leftovers for the next day?  Of course, at chik fila, you're gonna get fries with that, and a drink, too, and the service is so super fast that you'll be eating chicken in two minutes instead of two hours. 

Of course, roasting a chicken is just as easy as driving a car through a drive-through window because all you have to do is buy a neck-free chicken, put it in a pan, and cook it at 350 for 2 hours.  Plus, along with the neck-free thing, it's also free from breading and preservatives and can count as a "whole food."

Roasted chicken smells fabulous and cooking one makes you feel like a real cook; chik fila, I will admit, also has a delicious smell, but since it doesn't involve turning on an oven and putting something in a pan, it's not going to fool anyone into thinking that you're some kind of chef.  

When you roast your own chicken, you get a chance to save the wishbone and get a wish.  Of course, at chik fila, you do have a chance to meet the chik fila cow, and if you're into free food and have a kid, there's this night when they can do a craft and eat for free.  That's if you're willing to be subjected to screaming toddlers in the playplace, something that I lost my patience for about seven years ago.  At home, there's no cow, but roasted chicken and rice is practically free, and if you're got some crayons, you can call that a craft, and it's relatively quiet, even if you're watching Tom and Jerry.

I agree with the chik fila cow.  Eat more chicken. 

Ant Chant

Today I watched

All the cars

Colonizing the parking lot

(the one by target and the bookstore)

And thought about how they

All looked like ants

Foraging in a group

Following a the pheromone trail

Or the smell of French fries

And making a bee-line

(ants are related, you know)

To the chik-fila.

 

From Wikipedia: “A forager that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants.”

 

Putting on the Brakes

In the last three days, it's happened twice: drivers randomly slamming on their brakes in front of me.  Now, I am a big fan of brakes.  I mean, it's good to stop instead of crash (or, as the Nebraska Driver's Manual states, "a preventable accident is one that could have been prevented.) 

So, no brake-discrimination here, but drivers, please.  Don't slam on your brakes just because you changed your mind on where you wanted to turn on a busy street.  Red lights and potential accidents=good reasons to break.  Feeling indecisive, not so much. 

Give your brakes a break, would you?

Rachel

Git Yer

I have never actually heard anyone say "git yer" in real life, until this weekend.  I was on a mini-vacation in a nearby resort town and actually heard a man say, "git yer damn shoes on," to his children.  I have read "git yer" in books, and I'm sure I've heard "git yer" in movies and on television, but this is the first time I've heard it screamed in a sentence by a real live man.

I don't know if he was related to the woman in Old Navy, who was swearing at her elementary-school aged daughter who got herself stuck in a baby stroller, but it's a distinct possibility.

Never really thought that Park City is where I'd hear my first ever real life git yer or that I'd be so impressed that I'd take the time to tell three people and blog about it.   But there you go.  Social networking at it's best.  Too bad I can't insert an audio file into this post.

To blog or not to blog

I'm trying to decide if I want to start blogging again.  I'm in the mood to write, and I have been writing blog posts in my head but not posting them in any social networking forum. I have interesting comments to make on relationships, work, dieting, and hair extensions, but with the exception of the last two items, I may be done putting myself "out there."  Many of my daily thoughts are shared via IM or actual conversation with C. and now J. as well. 

The downside to a blog is that it becomes a running commentary on my life, and I kinda just like status updates on Facebook for that sort of thing.  So, if I start blogging again, I want to go back to the "creative writing practice" type of model that I was following when I first started this blog.  In such a way that I'm using my life as inspiration for posts but not in a "dear diary, I had a flaxseed muffin for breakfast" kind of way. 

I'm also getting excited about NaNoWriMo, and of course, I'll blog as I write in November.  Have to write about the novel as I'm writing it, of course.

Haven't decided yet, so just consider this to be a bookmark of my indecision.

have some fun,

Rachel

Bookmark

I'm around.  Missing warmer temperatures, wishing that my house would clean itself, doing more reading these days,  trying to make myself do a list of things I've put off, catching an occasion glimpse of myself in the mirror, and wondering what to do next (literally and figuratively.)

Will write more as soon as I've gotten anything figured out.

Being loved for who you are

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, partially because it's something that I love to do with C. and partially because it's comforting to play movies when I'm working late at night.   My latest thing has been movies that feature the theme of being loved for who you are; being loved even more because of your eccentricities and "imperfections." 

Last Friday, C. and I were watching Good Will Hunting on cable, and we kept falling asleep, but I was touched by the scene in which Robin Williams is describing his wife's imperfections and how they made him love her even more, how those imperfections made her "his" wife. 

Tonight, I rented "How Harry Met Sally" and "Bridget Jones Diary" because they are the kind of movies I can "watch" while I'm working and because I wanted to think about the theme of being loved for who you are.  Both have pivotal ending scenes where the characters realize that everything that they ever thought made them weird or different or eccentric or even a little annoying is actually what makes them charming, adorable, cherished individuals.

Is there anything better in life than being loved for you who are? 

Rachel

March Martini Madness

Last night, C. took me downtown for dinner, and then we went to this martini bar called "The Red Door."  It was amazing.  They had list after list after list of martinis, including the traditional ones (like the Manhattan) and the high octane ones (like the City of Angels) and the decadent ones (with names that I won't repeat here, ha ha.)   I couldn't read the fine print on the menu, but C. read all the names and ingredients to me.  I had a Chez and a Cosmo; he had a Red Door and a City of Angels. 

The martinis were fabulous and the people watching opportunities were even better.  Seriously, I don't know that I could have scripted a better night than to be cuddled up on a couch next to C., martini in hand, and whispering about the other guests at the bar, trying to figure out who came in alone and who was leaving with someone else, deciphering the body language of these two girls, one blonde, one brunette, who clearly both wanted the same man, trying to figure out what was so special about one girl's watch--she kept flashing it around to everyone at the bar.

It was really the perfect date after a seriously long week. 

Love, Rachel

Marching On

Let's see, I can't remember the last day I posted, and I don't feel like stopping to check it out.  So, let me just tell some good things that have happened recently, and we'll call it good for up until tomorrow. :)

• Pomegranate martinis with C.  They are the best martinis that I have had yet!
• Making vacation plans with J., stay tuned for more.
• Confessions of a Shopaholic, way cute movie, we've been quoting it a lot.  And BTW, it's a movie about a writer, ha ha.
• Sleeping until almost noon last Saturday
• Forever 21!!  Need I say more?  Two stories full of adorable, affordable, fashionable clothes.  Bought an adorable top there for only 7.50.
• My new mantra at work: if we're not challenged, we're not learning anything.  Bring on the work, I can handle anything.
• Re-watching Vanilla Sky with C.
• The Wii Fit.  Still love it, glad I bought it even though it was pricey.  Have now owned it for 55 days. 
• Everyone falling asleep on the couches, even Jasmine.
• A few moments, scattered here and there, where I feel completely content.
• Bought a stack of magazines and fell asleep on the couch reading them on Sunday afternoon

March 11

The Ten Dollar story

Last week, I went to the Olive Garden to pick up salad for myself, and my work friend J.  She didn't have any cash on her that day, so I said, no worries, you can get it next time.  Cost was 7.50.

On Monday, one of our designers came over and asked if I wanted him to get me coffee.  I had no cash.  But J. had ten dollars.  She gave it to me; I gave it to him.

He came back with the coffee and gave me the ten dollars.  I told him I'd get his coffee next time.

Yesterday, another designer brought in the cookies I'd ordered.  I owed him 7.50.  All I had was a ten dollar bill in cash.

Today my friend A. came in.  She gave me change for the ten dollar bill.  I gave the change to my friend J.  My friend J. gave the 2.50 to her friend in the other building.

For some reason, it all struck me as kind of cute.  Seemed like that ten dollar bill bought a lot more than just ten dollar's worth of food and drinks. :)

Rachel

March 10

This post is positively negative or maybe negatively positive, ha ha.  Still, though, the outcome is ultimately good, so I'm saying that it's pre-qualified.  This morning, we went outside and I scraped the ice off my windshield.  The roads were crunchy with ice.  I dropped J. off at school, and started driving to work.  I could tell that the roads were slick, but I thought if I just drove slowly enough down the hill that everything would be just fine. 

Then the light turned to red, which forced me to stop and using the brakes caused me to lose control of the car.  It was only for about three seconds that my car was shuddering and sliding down the road, but it was a super long three seconds.  I regained control, I didn't slide through the intersection, I didn't injure anyone else or myself.

I inched down the rest of the road and made it to work safely.  Tonight when C. brought me home from getting coffee, the ice was melting into water and dripping off my carport and the skies were blue, and we decided that winter was over.  So it shall be.

Love, Rachel

March 9

I've got to admit; I'm fighting for this one.  The weather's got me in a crabby mood, and the lack of sleep due to the time change/nightmare combination last night has me feeling seriously cranky and extremely restless.  I am supposed to be working--it's 8:30 at night, but I can't get my work e-mail to engage.  Lovely. 

Because I mentioned fighting in my first sentence, I am going to write about how much I like the Wii Fit.  My favorite games are boxing and advanced step, which is kind of funny because both of them require rhythm, and I thought I had none.  There's not much that feels better than throwing punch after punch and feeling the Wii remote buzz, like you just really connected.

As of today, we've had the Wii fit for 45 days.  During that time, my Wii age has dropped to 36 (ironically, the age I was guessed at last summer at Lagoon) and my BMI has stayed the same.  Although it's a normal BMI, I guess I was still hoping that after 45 days of working out that I'd see a slight change on the scale.  I haven't.  But I forgot my other happy news for the day, pulling my 3/4 (vanity sized for sure) jeans out of the dryer and easily slipping them on.

So, all the fighting is good for something.

Love, Rachel

March Weekend

Lots of happy moments this weekend; I'll list them here.

Friday

• I brought no work home this weekend.  It was freeing to walk out of the building without my work laptop.  I will be on task and working hard all week to meet my deadlines, but just the thought of a relaxing weekend made me happy.
• C. and I have been dating for six months now, and I'm so glad to have him in my life.  He's in many of my happiest moments.  I drank my first martini with him, I had my first good sushi experience with him (more on that later!), and he's introduced me to many of the movies that I "lost" back in the nineties.  He's the first person that I want to tell everything, and he always keeps me close.  So glad I didn't cancel our first date...
• C. and I stayed up until 2AM on Friday, watching American Beauty and the Accused, in front of the fireplace with all the lights turned out.   He understood why I cried at the end of American Beauty, and we talked about the movie until we fell asleep. 

Saturday

• C. made me coffee and we went online to research the movies we'd seen the night before.  I love talking about the movies we watch together just as much as I like watching them.

• I was watching an old episode of Everyone Loves Raymond, and Marie (the mom) brings over a six pack of bottled Shasta Club soda.  I had to laugh; I just bought and blogged that same exact soda earlier in the week.
• We ordered in Chinese food, and C. came over with the Series of Unfortunate Events movie because he remembered that J. wanted to see it.  J. was watching on the couch, with Jasmine perched on her side and purring away. 

Sunday

• When asked to list words that described me, J. said "funny" and "caring" as her first two word choices.  I said, "do you really think I'm funny?" and she said, "you're always making me laugh, and C., too."
• I read a great book on leadership today.  I'm hoping to put some of the principles into effect in my leadership role at work.  Although I can't control everything at work, I can be a good leader for my group. 
• I found an adorable summer dress at the mall.  Although we are under a severe winter storm watch tomorrow, I am warmed by the thought of summer's arrival.

Love,
Rachel

March 5

I have a favorite drink.  No, it's not my newly acquired taste for martinis.  Nor is it an Americano (regular coffee drink) or a Mocha (vacation coffee drink.)  It's not regular Coke or Diet Coke or even a glass of chilled Riesling.  It's plain old club soda. 

The best brand is Shasta (I also like La Croix, but they don't always have the plain kind at Target, and I don't like the lemon or lime flavored), and earlier this week, when C., J., and I were drinking coffee at the place that I call the bad H. (long story), I remembered that I was out.  So, we went over to the grocery aisle, and I found club soda...not in cans...(wait for it)...but in little glass bottles. 

OMG.  I love it.  I couldn't sleep the other night, so I got up and got a bottle of Shasta Club Soda out from the fridge and sat on the loveseat and sipped it until I fell asleep (no, I didn't add anything to it, ha ha.)  I only bought six bottles, and I am down to only one left tonight.  Hopefully we will go to the bad H. again soon. :) 

All hail club soda (the cheapest brands are the best, for some reason.)

Rachel

March 4

It's gusty here today, so much so that the T shaped light posts in the parking lot at work were swaying in the wind.  We're under a Severe Wind Alert, and the temperatures are forecast to drop thirty degrees, issuing snow in the morning.  Something that made me happy today was when I was stopped at a light and realized how great my windshield wipers work.  Brand new wiper fluid, a press of the button, and instantly, water spritzing prettily across the glass, and swipe, swipe, it's clean again.

Love,
Rachel

March 3

When I was younger, I always looked forward to certain nights of the week because of shows that I LOVED to watch with my family.  Let's see.  There was Dallas (who shot JR?), Fantasy Island, Love Boat, and when I got older, Family Ties and the Cosby Show.  Television doesn't seem the same to me these days, but I do like Tuesdays because of the show Biggest Loser.  It's silly, cheesy, campy and it's bad reality television at it's finest.  I love watching the challenges, and I about can't wait for the weigh-ins each week.  I could try and be all intellectual about it and say that it's a show about transformation and finding out who you are, but the truth is, I just like it for what it is (see silly, cheesy, and campy listed above.) 

That's why I wouldn't wish away a Tuesday in March.

Love, Rachel

March 2

When I was a little girl, I watched this show called Sesame Street.  When my daughter was a little girl, she watched it, too.  And although we've been post-Elmo for quite some time, I was thinking of that song about the people in your neighborhood.  They're the people on your street, the people who you meet, the people who you greet each day.  And although I don't really know my actual neighbors, I've got great cubicle neighbors at work.  Yes, my work friends are the people who I meet and greet each day...and here are the ones that I talked with personally today.

J.: one of the hardest workers and sweetest people that I know.  She makes me laugh whenever she says "No Mas, No Mas!" from the Beverly Hills Chihuahua movie.

J: my coffee-drinking compatriot.  He went and got me coffee at Starbucks one day when mine was all icky after they added protein powder to it.

J: who said, "I heard that this is the place to come if you want to be enlightened." 

A: who said I inspired her even though she is the one who always inspires me.

W: the funniest "bad cop" that I could ever hope to meet.

D: he is so passionate about what he does that it's contagious.

L: who is always smiling, even when he had an ear infection, and who makes me want to work harder because of his dedication to his own projects.

C: her first initial should stand for "class" because she's first-class in her interactions with others.

This list doesn't count the people I e-mailed or talked with on the phone today or yelled over the cubicle walls with late in the afternoon.

I've got good co-workers, people who I really like, and for that, I'm lucky. 

Love,
Rachel

March 1

My daughter and I have many things in common, including our love of taking quizzes.  Today we spent three hours at the bookstore, taking personality quizzes from the American Girl quiz book collection.  It was fun to see where our personalities are alike and where we are different.  For example, she's much more likely to just tell her friends if she doesn't like something, while I tend to just pretend issues don't exist and hope that they'll melt away on their own.  A recent e-mail she sent to a friend (which she shared with me) read: "I'm not going to do that because it would be a complete waste of my time." 

One of the quizzes was on how well do you know your parent or child.  That one was fun, too.  She knows my birthday, my most worn-out phrases, my most favorite restaurant, and where I'd sit on a roller coaster.  I loved it that she answered "wouldn't leave home without" with the answer looking nice.  She knows what my dream job is, and she said that my title at work was "senior marketing executive," which made me smile.

As a writer, taking quizzes can give you hundreds of ideas for different characters, tying actions and motivations into personality types.  Try taking a quiz as yourself and then as a character in your next writing project.  You'll get all kinds of insights into who your character is and whether or not you're writing about a version of yourself or someone truly fictional.

Love,
Rachel

Make March Memorable

I was driving home from work last night, exhausted and cranky.  I thought to myself, "I just wish that I could snap my fingers and have March be over."  And then I started to cry because I realized that wishing away whole months of your life is no way to live.  It's really not living at all and that's tear-worthy.

The work is not going to let up.  I'm truly going to be in the middle of a March madness, but I've got to find some joy in the middle of all of it.  So,  that's what my blogging is going to be about in March: looking for the moments of happiness amongst the panic attacks and the hair balls.  I'm going to do my best not to complain in my blog once  for thirty days (I know, it will be hard) and to find something happy to write about each day.

My mom said to find a pot of gold, and that's what I'm going to do here this month, one coin at a time.

Love,
Rachel

Leftovers

I haven't been updating much this month!  I'm exhausted from bringing work home at night and on the weekends, and my schedule is going to stay tight until May.  I haven't been having whole creative thoughts--only fragments here and there.  C and I are doing great, J. is loving life, and I really like the Wii Fit.  I am still having allergic reactions to my contacts, and I quit eating sugar (again) two weeks ago (not that those two things are necessarily related, ha ha.)  I just don't have any really interesting  leftovers to share right now, not even any scraps.