Refreshing Air and Writing

Summer is fading away into Fall rapidly - on the calender. We are still expected to hit 100+ degrees again today. School started this past week and our classrooms were beyond uncomfortable. 

The person in the thankless position of monitoring the use of utilities which includes our room temperatures sent out emails about the doors being left open while the air conditioners ran. 

Well due to some funky rule that was put into place to reduce sick building syndrome, close to 30% of our room air is brought in from outside and mixed with the circulated cool (or warmed in winter) air. 

Well, 30% of 100+ degree air mixed with 70% of the air cooled with 10 year old AC units makes a real warm stinky mess in an enclosed box-like room when co mingled with a teacher and 30 or so middle school students with changing hormones and hygiene-in-training. Are you breathing in the details?

So what does this have to do with writing or musing?

Glad you asked!

There's been some really great zinger emails circulating. 

Guys, this is great material! I save these zinger emails because they reflect real characters, real issues with great descriptions. 

Emails are real and they can be very fresh! They can refresh your own writing!

Save those emails that contain zest, zing and angst! These are good material to use as motivation, style, character development or any number of ways in your own descriptive writing. You can even use them as springboards. 

How would your character describe a really hot day? 

How would your character (or you) respond to a certain email?

What might cause a rift between 2 reasonable professionals? Whose perspective is "right"? 

Can you see characters that you can use in stories based upon their emails? Sure they will need to be fluffed and altered a bit to protect little things like a current J-O-B but there's good meat in emails.

The best thing is that you can save them without taking up garage space! 

(more to come on this subject later).

Rev Up Your Writing Habits

Today was the first day back to school for my family and me. I work at a middle school in a special education classroom. I'm also working on an MA in Special Education through the University of Phoenix online, although I won't start back to class there for awhile longer.

Thank goodness! So much to do and adjust to. New people, schedules, routines, actually having to get up by a certain time and more demands of time all around.

I like to get up before anyone in the home. This morning I spent the time watering my plants, watching the sun rise, and scrambling with last minute back-to-school details. Not exactly my preference.

I'd rather spend the time writing. Well, watching the sun rise and writing. I have my favorite chair set up in the picture window and the sun rises over the meadow across the street.

I make a pot of coffee and sip and write until its time for my son, Red to get up. I sometimes set the kitchen timer if there's a chance the time will get away from me so that I remember to get him up. Yes, that's happened before. I tend to hyper focus sometimes.

I've spent the whole summer getting up and enjoying my mornings all by myself. Now, I've got to set a time limit for writing, get Red up, do the rest of the morning routine to get us out the door and to school.

Ironically, I tend to write more when I know that I have a limited time. What about your writing? Do you have writing rituals, habits, or tendencies? Are you content with your writing practices or are you looking for some changes?

Try something - anything. You may discover your writing hits a higher metabolism. The primary thing to do is to create a writing habit that works for you. Sometimes an external schedule is just the ticket for greater productivity.

What Do You Need in Order to Write?

What do you need in order to write?

Do you need to be inspired? Would a grand vista just outside of your home make you a better writer? What would you write if you could look outside and see the waves crashing along the ragged shore, the very edge of the world? The ultimate springboard! What couldn't you write? Does your muse require this to write?

Sure it'd be wonderful to have and many a writer has been fortunate to have this type of view but speaking as a Muse, Irene E., you really don't need this to be a writer.

Perhaps a pristine or ornate writing desk with proper lighting and while were dreaming, lets add in the views of groomed gardens in the foreground and ocean vistas in the distance, in order to write. LOL

Sure! I'll take that! But add in an Apple Computer, huge screen, and state-of-the-art software, including digital cameras and other office equipment.

Truly, what you need is a few simple writing tools (pen and paper really) and the habit of writing. That's it!

You read advice from writers in magazines, books or papers and their number one question is, "How can I become a writer?" and their pat answer is always,"Write"!

So what are you waiting for? Get to it - Write something. Anything even if its a, "to do" list that includes buying a new home along the coast! Just write it!

Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking

Reading is an essential aspect of writing - I can't imagine not being able to read anything for an extended period of time! Reading is also a vital tool to critical thinking.

I was glancing through an autobiography by Senator John McCain, the section on his POW survival and was reminded about another POW, Dr. Phillip Butler, I was fortunate to be assigned to interview for a class project.

Both men had been POW's in Vietnam for several years. I wont go into the tactics that the Vietnamese used to demoralize the men held in the Hanoi Hilton except that these men were deprived of reading and writing materials. In Dr. Butler's case that was 8 years! Only it was an open sentence, he had no way of knowing he would be a POW for 8 years.

Not being able to read or write would be one of my definitions of hell.

Of course, the POW's were deprived of all communication - an even greater hell!

Yet the men communicated in spite of the Vietnamese using a tapping code. If the they were caught they were severely beaten. "They'd work you over for a week". But that was less important than the need to communicate.

When I'd commented on the strength of character it must have taken to survive 8 years as a POW Dr. Butler became agitated and adamant, "The reality of our survival is...because we communicated and maintained a social network with each other...it enabled us to survive and come home".

In other words, it was the strength of the group - not the individual. Community.

Umm, How often do we consider our community, let alone the strength of our community? How often do we give any consideration to the reading materials we can choose from, or the ability to write? Or the ease with which we have access to information?

I do not consider myself a "Bleeding Heart" Liberal but do tend to lean to the left on most issues with occasional wanderings over to the right for other issues. In other words, I choose. I choose based upon several factors that include, reading, and communicating with others. A process of critical thinking.

To have these basic privileges taken away is an abomination to the human spirit - a tactic of war.

Dr. Butler claims that, "Americans don't think. They have no empathy, Which I find very disturbing. What is the most important child? Is it an American child? We lost, Americans killed in Vietnam, 58,000 and change. And they lost somewhere between 2 and 3 million people in that war".

I've been working on my MA in Special Education through the University of Phoenix Online. As part of the requirements I have spent the past couple years in a middle school setting often sitting in regular education classes assisting students with special needs. I have also compared observations with classmates across the country. We've noted a problem.

Americans are no longer being taught to think.

American schools are not geared toward teaching any type of thinking beyond rote memorization and the skills required to take the exit exam. Students today are especially not taught critical thinking. Sure there are exceptions and many teachers do make an effort to include teaching critical thinking however ,the focus of sanctioned curriculum is narrowly geared toward passing an exit exam.

Dr. Butler is right, Americans don't think.

We, as a community, have all these freedoms and privileges and access to books, Internet, and other sources of information and we choose to not think!

This next generation will not even have the skills to think regardless of their access to advanced tools and data. As a community of Americans we need to ponder the implications of a generation lacking the ability to think critically.

Write Here!

Surely there is an inner god or goddess in us all who deserves the luxuries this world has to offer.

Irene and her daughter, Kasmira and I took a tour of this central coast castle's gardens and may I just say, Wow! Oh how we wanted to loose ourselves from the group and play among the grounds, take a dip in the pool, and luxuriate in the spender. Sigh.

Blooms were everywhere, flowers and color supported by statues, and garden structures unavailable to most mortals. Butterflies drifted and flitted in the sun and there was a Kodak opportunity at every rove of the eye.

We took as many pictures as we possibly could and practiced the art of pre-writing under the limited time we had. Fortunately there are many pictures to jog our memories, and research tools available on the web or in books to further assist us in our writing.

The point? Get outside of your normal routines and jostle your muse of course!

She Came, We Saw, We laughed and Loved

How much fun can be packed into a two week vacation with my daughter?

Posting to this blog was all but stopped so that I could spend as much time as possible with my daughter... "Stop, in the name of Love..."

Kasmira lives in Georgia so we had a lot to catch up on. We wanted to fit as much as possible into her visit so we were constantly going, doing, eating, laughing and loving.

Here are Kasmira, Red and their brother Mick (yes, Mick's a dog)outside of the Bagel Bakery in Pacific Grove California, home to their grandparents.

PG is a fun little town along the central Coast but tends to be a bit foggy. It is also very cold in the summer months especially to visitors from the South East.

Kasmira went from temperatures in the 90s to the mid 50s in a few short hours.

Carmel Beach is one of our favorite places. The white beach and dog friendly locals make this a must place to visit.

Kasmira wasted no time at all house hunting.

She chose this home adjacent to Pebble Beach with access to the Carmel Beach on private steps. She clearly understands the 3 most important aspects to real estate; location, location, location.

Her second choice wasn't shabby either, The former newspaper tycoon's castle on the Central Coast in San Simeon wasn't available though. It is now an historical monument and state park.

Umm, tough call to make... so many houses available in Carmel along the beach... if she does get the one next to Pebble Beach, she may just have to take up golf.

The locals are friendly in either location although down in San Simeon they tend to hog the beach. These huge elephant seals are amazing beasts to observe. A word of caution - stay upwind and do not walk among them on the beach.
We got in a lot of shopping. The amazing thing is that we were not thrown out of any shops, including this Macy's at Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey California. Here is Lacy, my Mom, posing with some of her "friends".

She particularly liked the colored hair and the flash-back fashions that still make even mannequins look pregnant. What are designers thinking?

We drove the coast highway from San Simeon into Carmel and the Monterey peninsula. Words can't do justice to this incredible journey. We stopped several times for pictures.

The Bixby Bridge has been featured in several movies over the years and is one of our usual stops. No matter how many times we stop there is a magic and newness that still leave us in awe.

The recent fires that raged through this area didn't seem to harm the view along the highway although they did burn a lot of the Los Padres area.

The last weekend we had a rendezvous in Santa Barbara for a mini family reunion. We ate and played and only slept when we absolutely needed to. Balderdash was our nightly game of choice and we had plenty of laughs and interruptions for leftovers and passing hugs.

Beaching with the family during the warm sunny days was a natural choice. The cousins went swimming in the waters, played paddle ball, and just sat and visited.

Kasmira and I walked up the beach and got a stranger to take our picture. I can't spend enough time with her. The clock has been racing from the day she was born and she is headed at warp speed to her future at Embry Riddle and the Air Force.

I know it is cliche, but why must they grow up so fast? And why do they do this during the years we are busy scrambling to make a life for us all? The best I can do is snap some pictures and hold the memories close.

We got a new family picture taken. My brother's backyard patio is perfect for this type of thing. Red and Mick especially do better with these informal photo sessions. That's not to say that they can't be a challenge but as the years go by they get better. Sadly there was one family group missing, my sister who now lives in Colorado. Missed you Ro and family.

We went to the water park with friends several times while Kasmira was visiting. She's been instrumental in teaching our friend here how to flirt (not that much instruction was needed).

I put my baby girl on the airplane and sent her home to her dad on Monday.

I was mostly able to keep my smile up while she was here but the last few days were a challenge. I spent close to 15 minutes sobbing as her plane took off and had to rinse my contacts before starting the drive back home.

I tend to have random cries for a fw days after she leaves and periodically thereafter. Red understands this now and offers many hugs to help me through.

I am so blessed to have such a beautiful, intelligent and sensitive daughter. I love you my dear and wish you such happiness and success in your new adventure in college. May you be blessed with friends and challenges that serve you well. Always.

Soaring Vicariously

My daughter, Kasmira is visiting for 2 weeks before going on to college this fall. I can't begin to say how proud I am of her! She has had her focus on her goals and met them through her high school years and I'm certain she will continue.

I didn't have that focus when I was her age. In hind-sight there were a number of factors that hindered me, primarily ADHD. I've learned coping strategies that have helped me function better over the years but it has been and still remains a struggle.

Kasmira chose to live with her dad on the other side of the country from me for her high school years. Honoring her decision was the hardest thing I have ever done and has contributed both her success and her brothers. They have both thrived being only children.

When Kasmira comes to town I feel as if the lights have been turned back on in my heart. We've been having a ball shopping, poking fun at the crazy things offered up for sale, weenie roasts on the beach with friends, and watching movies. She's always been mature but I see a young lady where the girl with happy feet once danced.

These days she has her sights high - literally. She is going to be a meteorologist and even has ambitions that include flying with the Air Force and working with NASA one day. I know Moms have watched their children soar into their futures before but I am in awe of the beautiful person she has become.

I am a writer, frustrated that the words for the pride, and feelings welling up inside are so limiting. A part of my heart soars with her dreams. Forgive me for posting in my blog less while she is visiting, I am selfish and want to spend my time with her laughter and dreams.

I will write more about our adventures - I promise. In the mean time, I will celebrate her presence, make sure she gets to visit family and friends and enjoy her break before she lifts off to the next level of her dreams and future.

A part of me is envious of her clean slate and wide-open future. I miss being able to have unbroken dreams and aspirations beyond the reality of crashing and burning in relationships and other poor choices I have made. May she take heed of my mistakes and set her own flight course.

I'm going to take a lesson from Kasmira. I'm going to shake myself free of those binds and blast free of my past reseting my own course. I just need to refocus (ha! There it is again the ADHD! LOL) and relaunch myself. Writing is my best defense to ADHD and helps me remain focused. Writing is my way of charting my course.

* * *

Kasmira, know how much I Love you and how very proud I am of your accomplishments. I recognize how brave you were over 4 years ago when you chose to live with your dad and how difficult a decision that must have been for you. I admire your focus, have always respected your decisions and choices and want to be a part of your life and to vicariously enjoy your flight to your aspirations.

I Love you. Always.

Mom