Tag Archives: Blogging

Jan 05 2013
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Family, Life, Travel, Writing

Blog Birth Announcement: Patrick O’Bryon

It’s tradition around here to welcome new blogs with open arms. Tonight I want to share the blog of someone I hold near and dear to my heart, my uncle, Patrick O’Bryon.

Uncle Pat, as I know him, is a writer too. He recently finished his first novel, Corridor of Darkness, a book inspired by his father’s, (my grandfather’s), adventures in Nazi Germany. He is also an avid traveler and plans to post stories of his own adventures, as well as trip ideas for your next escape to Europe.

If you like my blog, (which I hope you do if you’re reading this post), I bet you’ll like his too. Show him a little love and go check it out!

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Nov 17 2012
12 Comments
Family, Life, Teaching, Writing

Patience is a difficult lesson

I remember hearing once that we are presented with the same lesson over and over until we really get it. If this is true, my current lesson is definitely related to patience and progress. Maybe that’s what I get for questioning the old saying, patience is a virtue. I still stand by the idea that sometimes it’s good not to be patient. However, this season of my life seems to be all about patience. Patience with my writing, patience with my teaching, patience with myself.

My love for writing has not waned, but my belief in myself wavers all the time. The description of my book is an eternal work in progress. I tweak a little here, a little there, a little better throughout time, but still not what it needs to be. Expecting Happiness also deserves a revisit with what I have learned in the past couple months. Naga (my NaNoWriMo project) was off to a good start but now I’m questioning whether my foray into fantasy was just that, a temporary adventure. I get that every word is progress, it just feels unbearably slow sometimes.

Teaching. Is. Hard. I was telling Alex last night that I feel like a big part of my job is improv. Sure I plan my lessons, but when it comes down to it, no script is ever going to work. Real life is messy. Kids are messy. Their ingenious questions redirect my plans all the time. Yes I’m getting better, but teaching is not something you just work hard at and then are instantly great. In fact, it was the first thing in my life where the correlation between hard work and success wasn’t immediate. Then you add in a pilot teacher evaluation system where I am graded on rubric after rubric and I start to feel a little less than stellar. I know it will pay off, but the progress is much slower than I’d like.

Me. Patience with myself is harder to define here, open to the world. There are just certain aspects of my life that I expected to be different by 30. No, 30 isn’t here, but it feels like it’s knocking on my door.

The lesson in all of this, progress takes time, little by little, bit by bit, day by day, hour by hour… The important part is continuing to put in the work that will eventually get me wherever it is I am headed. But here’s the best part. Thanks to this blog, I don’t feel alone in this. From my heart, I appreciate each and every one of you that is accompanying me on this sometimes slow journey, from friends and family in real life to friends on the other side of a computer screen. Thank you.

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Nov 06 2012
2 Comments
Life, Writing

Grown-Up Halloween

If you like my writing, you’ll love Katie’s. Check out her new/old blog that she moved from Blogger to WordPress this weekend:

Grown-Up Halloween

Yes, I’m slowly convincing every blogger I know in real life to make the transition…

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Oct 25 2012
14 Comments
Family, Home, Life, Teaching, Writing

Thankfulness Thursday: Who do you choose to be?

Part of whatever it is that is happening right now is that I’m learning to be me. We live in an age of extended adolescence. In my case, adulthood is starting at age 29. And, I don’t mean this in a time to buy a minivan kind of way, (no offense to the lovely twenty-something minivan drivers in my life). Instead, I mean this as I’m finally starting to figure out who the heck I am.

I’m a teacher, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a writer, an occasional traveler. I’m each of these things because I choose to be, not because I think I should or always will be, (although I hope to be most of these things all my life). I am incredibly grateful to be in the exact place I am right now, even though it is hard and even though I want some things to change. I think that’s the big difference. I used to fight life, to fight all the parts that were hard or not perfect.

Now I see it as part of a general movement in the right direction. I look back five years, things are better despite the bumps along the way. I am optimistic the same trend will continue with faith and a lot of hard work. I’ve got the hard work part down, so really it’s just a matter of maintaining a positive outlook and enjoying the journey, bumps and all.

So, what does it mean to be me today?

It means I write what vibrates in my bones, popular or not. It means mermaids for NaNoWriMo, even if practically every agent on the planet currently claims to hate mermaids. It means yoga in my living room and a make-shift altar on my coffee table. It means Sunday night dinners with my family, coffee dates in sundresses with my best friends, Wednesday nights in my pajamas watching TV with my husband. It means teaching in a way that leaves my heart aching.

I am part hippie, part hipster, part bohemian, part yuppie, part vegetarian-in-training.

As silly as it sounds, today I’m grateful to be me because it took me a very long time to get what that means, even if who I am is still an evolving mess of ideals and dreams. Maybe I’ll always be this way, but that’s alright, I’m starting to get that the labels and the knowing and the destinations aren’t the point.

***

Link up for Thankfulness Thursday @ Domestic Fashionista.

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Oct 11 2012
2 Comments
Family, Travel

Just wanted to share the love with the announcement of a very cool new blog authored by one of the most amazing people I have yet to meet! Hope you’ll check out the Saul family’s big adventure…

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Sep 27 2012
6 Comments
Life, Teaching, Writing

Thankfulness Thursdays: Inaugural Post

Going back to school following summer break has been an exercise in positivity. Imagine seven glorious weeks where your entire life is in your control. Write whenever you want, do yoga whenever you want, visit friends and family whenever you want… Okay, maybe that is my vision of freedom, not yours, but you get the idea.

Then, suddenly, your life belongs to thirty (deserving) children once again. It’s like the ultimate post-vacation hangover, because you aren’t just lamenting a week or two passing, you’re letting go of what has become a habit-forming, newly-adapted lifestyle. You get a really good taste of freedom and then it’s gone, and when I say gone, I mean welcome to one of the most draining, time-consuming-yet-equal-parts-rewarding jobs on the planet.

But, this is the real life of a writer and human being, bills need to be paid, and other passions need to be fed, which in my case, means teaching children, at least for the time being. Eight weeks into my return to the classroom, I find it hard to believe an entire “summer” has passed since my cherished seven weeks ended. Overall, I have adjusted and am finally getting back into my groove, but I still miss the freedom.

Accordingly, when I saw another blogger generously share her idea (and image!) for Thankfulness Thursdays leading up to Thanksgiving, I had to jump in. I know gratitude is one of the healthiest fixes for the soul, or at least for mine. Accordingly, a quick list of this week’s gratitude highlights:

1. Monday, Career Day for spirit week, a little girl comes in dressed in jeans and a cardigan. “So, what career are you modeling?” I ask, skeptical she might be taking advantage of the day to wear whatever she wants, instead of her regular uniform. “I’M YOU! You always wear these sweaters!” she exclaims, tugging the sleeve of her sweet, little teal cardigan, very proud of herself. Talk about heart melted! (And, yes, I may have a cardigan obsession.)

2. Unwired Wednesday. After a state of near tech burnout Tuesday night, I decided Wednesday would be computer-free afterwork. 5PM, I shutdown my laptop and did not look back– a glorious return to hot yoga after two weeks of finding excuses, delicious dinner with the husband, and the second episode of Downton Abbey’s newest season. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G how the simplest evening can feel so good. Thinking Unwired Wednesdays might become a tradition.

3. Today marks four working days until my week-and-a-half fall break. Looking forward to sending out my query letters, celebrating my three-year wedding anniversary in wine country, attending Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with my much-missed Bay Area friends, and spending time with my mom in Mt. Shasta. As much as teaching can wear me down, I am also incredibly grateful it fluctuates between busy and freedom. Going back to a life with only 3 weeks off a year seems unthinkable, (unless, of course, I’m writing novels…).

So, what are you most grateful for today? Feel free to jump on the Thankfulness Thursday bandwagon and borrow Ashley’s lovely graphics.

Above all, here’s to being healthy and alive!

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Sep 23 2012
7 Comments
Writing

Sunday Scatterbrain: Networking & Writing

This week has been an interesting exercise in connection making. Where I have not succeeded in getting my book out the door, I have widened my social circle to include more writers and bloggers. First, I reconnected with a childhood friend who quit his job as a lawyer to restructure his time to better allow himself to write fiction. Now he works in tech from home and writes nonstop. Talking shop with him was one of the highlights of my week– so nice to connect with another writer.

Then, last night at a work party, I talked with a writer who is working to publish his memoir about investigative journalism. His take on the publishing world and the advantages of self-publishing were very interesting. I left the conversation feeling encouraged to find a writing group to push myself to the next level.

On top of this, I boosted my online networking efforts to prepare for those pesky query letters. I reached back out to my personal Facebook community to bump up my author page likes, and then, thanks to a fellow blogger on WordPress, I discovered Sacramento Bloggers. Major score! Turns out there are a lot of women with similar interests blogging in the area. Not only has this bumped up my Facebook likes a little further, but I’m also very excited to follow their blogs and make some more connections.

Remember my little attempt at a girls’ blogging club this summer? Sacramento Bloggers has me beat. Very excited to participate!

The only downside, all of this networking stuff has eaten up some of my precious writing time for the week, leaving me feeling a bit scatterbrained as I attempt to focus. So, time to revisit the dreaded action list:

1. Enter remaining changes for last few chapters from my lovely proof-reader.

2. Get my rough query letter ready for individual agents. Submit to all 31 on my list. This was meant to be my July activity, but now it looks like my October fun. Thankfully my fall break is coming up, so hoping to get this done sometime between October 4-14.

3. Pick what’s next! I want to give myself a few weeks for this, so my goal is to be ready to join the Nanowrimo crew by 11/1 with my next story idea. I have a few in the works, just need to pick. More on that to come, I’m sure. This time, instead of trying to get 50k words out by 11/30, my goal is just to write well, with focus, for the entire month and see what happens.

Now all I need to do is stop multi-tasking and focus…

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Sep 06 2012
9 Comments
Life, Teaching, Writing

Blogging While Tired (BWT)

I think I have a new rule to add to my guiding principles for blogging…

Blogging while tired may be almost as bad as blogging while drunk.  I feel like I need some sort of little indicator that warns me to just give up and walk away. This week has been exhausting, not sure why, hasn’t been a bad week, but I’ve been beyond tired.  The last post I wrote took me what seemed like hours and I still was not able to really say what I wanted– had to go back and do some little cleaning last night, but even then, was too tired to really tackle it.

Then there have been all the other topics I’ve wanted to write about– a child referring to Mitt Romney as “A bad, bad man,” like a predator or the boogie man, while I tried to keep an unbiased, straight face, the less noticeable beauty of the sunset through the roof and tree-lines of the valley, (as opposed to the majestic unobstructed views shared elsewhere), an acceptance to the kind words/blogging award given over at Talkin’ Shit.  But, even today, my brain is just too tired to really piece together a meaningfully intelligent or humorous post.

So, instead, a decree.

No blogging while tired.  And, when I mean tired, I mean really tired, like when you have to read your sentences five or six times to make sure they make sense, (and then you still sit there scrunching your face at the screen, uncertain if you succeeded, allowing way too much valuable time to disappear into the black hole of the internet).

Too bad I’m already breaking my own principle. Hard to stay away. Must stop rereading sentences even if I can’t tell if they make sense. At least I can say I’ve never blogged while drunk… Although, can’t promise it would be much different.

Too tired to think of a whole post worthy of this picture, but I was struck by the reality that the sunset is only a tiny snippet of the sky where I live down in the valley.  Probably why I don’t notice it most nights… Still gorgeous last night though, the result of thunderstorms and smoke/smog/I really have no idea.

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Aug 25 2012
2 Comments
Family, Life, Teaching, Writing

Blogging Rules To Live By

A wise reader suggested I set guiding principals for my blog as my filter for what I publish.  It is all too easy to write whatever is on my mind, letting this become a space for emotional release instead of a platform to base my writing.  I have to remind myself, this is not a journal, it’s a blog with a higher goal.  Tangents are alright, alienating critical audiences is not.

Accordingly, here are my three guiding principals:

1.  Write with the ultimate goal of traditional publishing.

2.  Write in a way that will not betray my loyalty to my school and/or students.

3.  Write without compromising my relationships with friends and family.

Simple.  Right?

Who knew blogging was so layered with goals and audience awareness.  Still, it feels good to verbalize these principals.

Happy Saturday!

Above all, family first.

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Aug 22 2012
7 Comments
Writing

Sometimes I Say Too Much But Not Enough

If you are a regular reader, you may notice the last two posts disappeared.  This was intentional. Something about those last posts did not sit well with me, too exposed for the good of my current commitments.  Rest assured, I may someday be more candid, but for now my first loyalty is to my students.  It is far too easy when feeling overwhelmed or emotional to lay pieces of myself out for all to see– but when I cannot fully express myself because they are not pieces that should yet be shared, I have to remind myself to wait.  Better to be in a place where I can type openly, than one where I have to censor myself while dancing on a very delicate line that affects real people that I care about.

Those last couple posts, I danced rather unsuccessfully.  The writer in me wanted to expose myself, to create words that are true and meaningful, while the teacher knew my obligation was first to my students.  The result was writing that was neither entirely truthful to my feelings nor as lovingly supportive of my role as a teacher as I would like.  So, for now, limited words on any related frustrations, and an effort for more openness in areas that don’t connect to these loyalties.

If you write, do you find yourself balancing your obligations to different worlds with your desire to write openly?  Which side wins for you?  At what cost?

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Jul 21 2012
9 Comments
Health, Life, Travel, Writing

Life Beyond the Computer Screen

Yesterday, I took a break from blogging, my first since summer vacation started.  After reading “iCrazy” in Newsweek while lying on Tunnels Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, I realized I have become too dependent on the public approval fed through Facebook and WordPress, the notifications popping up in little dopamine doses on my smart phone.

While I rationalize that blogging is at least part of my mission in establishing myself as a writer, the reality is that it has also become part of my greater addiction to the internet.  The number of likes and new follows either negatively or positively affects my mood after posting, (not to mention the compulsive checking of my inbox for feedback).  My solution, forced breaks, turned off email notifications, and only checking my blog when I post new material.

In just 48 hours of silence, I’ve already noticed that not receiving email notifications to my phone has made a huge difference.  Not knowing what activity I am receiving is better than the high or low of immediate reinforcement.  I no longer have the urge to pick up my phone every two minutes.  In fact, I left my phone off all day today and yesterday, save for checking for voicemails and text messages once in the morning and once in the evening.

Taking a day off blogging was also nicer than I thought, as I resisted the urge to complete my daily ritual.  That’s the thing, even on vacation, I derive satisfaction from the exercise of blogging, I am just trying to move away from it being an obsession.  So far, giving myself a little space is making it feel a lot less compulsive.  Best of all, a break made me hyper-aware of how often I think about being online or checking my inbox.  It was more often than I like to admit.  However, the more time I let pass, the less often I had the urge.

The important life reminder– I value time spent disconnected.  A big motivation in becoming a teacher was creating a life where I was not connected to a computer for work all day.  I have to remind myself this as I dive head first into the world of writing, an evolving world shrouded in technology.  If any of this resonates with you, I recommend reading the article linked above, although I’m not suggesting that it is a problem for everyone.

A few pictures below to remind you how beautiful life can be beyond the computer screen.  I look forward to reconnecting with you all next time I post!

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Jul 14 2012
10 Comments
Life, Travel

Around the World in Words

Blog stats are every nerdy international relations major’s dream.  Yes, I am talking about myself.  I won’t annoy you with breakdowns, but I will say this.  I am in awe of the global community on WordPress.  My words have gone more places than I have, and while this does make me a little jealous, I also think it is incredibly cool.  Armchair traveling at its finest.

Sure the good ol’ US of A is shaded darkest, but the fact that I get 10% of my traffic from other countries makes me geek out, in a good way.

30 countries and counting!  (Each time a new one hits the list I get excited like a little kid.)

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