Ballerina Box

Got my copy of The Bitter Oleander this week. My story "Ballerina Box" appears in the latest issue. I'm thrilled! There's something about seeing my words, my characters, my story in print, something about holding it in my hands that's so richly satisfying, so enjoyable. It never gets old.

Time

It's been a while since I last posted and the reason, I've determined, is time. As in I don't have enough of it. I've been extraordinarily busy these past several months. Just as I begin to get a handle on one thing (or, more precisely, the 5 things I'm juggling at any given moment), another something pops up that needs my attention. I used to think this demand would settle down, smooth out; now I believe it's never ending. I fall into bed each night, exhausted, and dream of things I need to do: appointments to make; bills to pay; baskets of laundry to fold; piles of paperwork to sort. Long gone, it seems, are the nights when I would drift blissfully off to sleep, cushioned by restful images in my dream world.

When was the last time you thought about TIME? It's one of life's givens, like death and taxes. It cannot be bargained with. It's a constant; it marches onward whether I'm ready or not. But here's something funny/peculiar/interesting to consider the next time you're sitting with a warm cup of tea: is it possible that time is speeding up? I've had this thought several times over the years. Always fleeting, yet it persists. And I know it sounds silly, maybe even crazy, surely spawned by my life-on-the-hamster-wheel feelings of late. But it's possible, right? In the grand cosmic realm of things, anything's possible. Right?

By the (time) numbers:

2: HOURS I spend each day thinking about/researching/preparing gluten-free food
2.5: YEARS I've been dealing with a frozen shoulder
3: HOURS I stole last Saturday for a nap
3: DAYS since my last rejection (story)
3.5: MONTHS since I read anything that wasn't a grocery or to-do list
5: HOURS I spend each week driving my son to/from school
7: WEEKS since I've written anything that wasn't a grocery or to-do list
9: HOURS of sleep I got last night
13: HOURS to drive from Racine, WI to Birmingham, AL
14: DAYS since my last batch of stories went out
21: MONTHS since my last oil change
95: DAYS since my last (story) acceptance
175: DAYS we've been waiting for our federal tax refund

I need more time. Or at least the ability to push the "pause" button every now and again.

Sturgeon Moon

You know me and full moons... drawn to them like (fill in here with any number of cliches!) On August 24th, the Sturgeon moon was full at 1:05 p.m. ET. It was given its name by fishing tribes because the sturgeon fish (in the Great Lakes and elsewhere) were most readily caught during the month of August. Notable about this month's full moon is that it's the smallest full moon of the year. It will be 252,518 miles away - the farthest distance its orbit takes it from Earth.

Here's a picture I took 1 day past full with lots of clouds:










The moon is no longer full in this picture but my husband and I were out with the telescope looking the moon... it looks so awesome through a telescope! My next challenge is to figure out how to hook my camera up to the telescope so I can capture the closeup image. In the meantime, I used the longest camera lens I have... I like the detail that shows up here:

More Ireland!

A lasting impression I have from Ireland is one of flowers. They're everywhere! Big bunches of color in containers - bright and welcoming. All the stores and businesses in every little town have flower boxes at their windows filled with vibrant and colorful flowers. I never saw any that were brown or droopy and it made me wonder how they kept them all so fresh-looking. I decided it was all the help from Mother Nature: rain, misty and ever-present for at least a little bit, it seemed, every day. Left: in Durrus, on Sheepshead Peninsula (county Cork).


In Blarney (county Cork), at a restaurant called Muskerry Arms:











In Bushmills (county Antrim):











A hostel in Killarney (county Kerry):














In Northern Ireland, a street in the walled city of Derry (county Derry):

Ireland!

We just returned from 2 weeks in Ireland. It was both exhilarating and exhausting. The entire country is 170 miles wide and 310 miles long - roughly the size of Maine. But the roads! The roads near the bigger cities (Dublin, Cork, Derry) are 2- and 4-lane "motorways" and are wide enough so that you don't feel like you're going to smash side view mirrors. But everything else, especially all the coastal roads, are unbelievably narrow with so many twists and blind curves that it makes for a very traumatic and slow-going experience. We toured nearly the entire country, driving almost 1700 miles! I wouldn't do that again.

The people are very open and friendly and the landscape is beautiful beyond words. And when the sun comes out - wow - it's magical. I took over 1400 pictures! Here are a few from the beginning of our trip...

Sunrise on the Sheepshead Peninsula:










The coast of Sheepshead Peninsula:














And what would Sheepshead Peninsula be without sheep?










More to follow...!

Great reads:

I visited the local Barnes & Noble while I was out of town recently and picked up a couple of journals that my hometown B&N doesn't carry. I love, LOVE the stories I found:

From the #6 - Spring/Summer 2010 issue of HOW Journal:

"Economics" by Aryn Kyle. I fell in love, all over again, with words while reading this story! I realize this sounds a bit strange because, really, words are just words, right? No! They are so much more. I found myself pausing as I read this, letting the beauty of the prose sink in. I even read a passage to my husband (whose reading list includes entrepreneur type publications, as well as sports magazines) because I was so enamored with it.

"Confabulated Stories: The Doctor's Wife, From 1960-1962" by Luis Jaramillo. The style is more sparse than not and the story is broken up into sections, each with its own subtitle. The wife/mother is never given a name, always referred to as "the Doctor's Wife." But all these combine into a charming, engaging story.

From the Spring 2010 issue of The Pinch:

"The Apple And Paradise Too" by Erica Johnson Debeljak. I slipped right into this story. The prose was colorful and warm; it enveloped and lured me in.

"High School And The Mysteries Of Everything Else" by David Borofka. Interestingly enough, this story is also separated into distinct sections, each with its own subtitle. David creates a very likable character in Leanne, one who is at once smart, witty, and vulnerable.

Fireworks!

I've been playing around with my camera (code for trying to learn how to USE it) and thought the fireworks presented a terrific opportunity to experiment with nighttime photography. I did lots of research beforehand, attempting to assimilate the various required settings and admit the most frustrating part was trying to figure out how to GET TO the "bulb" setting. But I found it! I was pleasantly surprised at how well the photos turned out - they look like actual fireworks! It was a lot of fun though fending off the mosquitos was not.