Some of my friends have updated their blogs with a "Year in Review" type post and it inspired me to do the same. 2011 was a big year -- I hope I can remember everything! Thank goodness for my Google Calendar. Here's a summary, month by month.
January - I rang in the new year at my in-law's house. Somehow, despite the fact that I was almost 9 months pregnant, I was the only one who stayed awake until midnight. Frank and I took a birthing class as the hospital --I later wound up giving birth in the same room that we toured in that class. I had an eye check up because Midge ate my glasses. The Patriots clinched the playoffs and then suffered a devastating loss to the Jets in the first round. We found out that miraculously my cousin Sarah who had been trying for years was pregnant! As soon as I found out I just knew she would have the same gender baby that I did. I had a feeling they would both be girls. Also found out my friend Allison was pregnant with her second. Stephanie came down to spend the weekend and we did a lot of cleaning and cooked a bunch of meals for the freezer. I had my baby shower at work.
February - Early in the month Frank bought a picked up his Fiesta. I took a Civil Service exam 10 days before my due date (and got a 95, thankyouverymuch). I took a breastfeeding class at the hospital and started maternity leave. Stephanie went to California to see Bobby home from Afghanistan. My due date came and went. Frank and I went out for our customary Valentine's Day sushi. I enjoyed my last week of freedom and relaxation for probably the next 15 or so years. The day of my sister's baby shower (which I wisely skipped) I went into labor and the next day, February 20th, as Steph flew back across the country, I delivered my sweet Laura Violet. Life changed in ways that, despite years of preparation, I could not have anticipated. The rest of the month was a sweet blur of learning and love.
March - I slowly gained my footing as a mother. Frank returned to work. We celebrated St. Patrick's day with my family. I left Laura for the first time to go to a belated birthday dinner with Frank -- in a restaurant that didn't get cell phone service. We all survived and Frank and I enjoyed a lovely meal, complete with a Super Moon. I ventured from the house with Laura by myself for the first time for a playdate with Kyla, Scarlett and Hadley at Colonie Center. I started the Farseer Trilogy, and actually was able to read quite a bit while Laura napped or nursed. My Mom, who came down at least once a week throughout my maternity leave left for South Carolina. My Dad baby sat while I went into the dentist after a filling fell out. My dear friend Hayle found out that her beloved mutt, Brisby, had cancer and had to be put to sleep.
April - We took Laura to a charity spaghetti dinner with my extended family. I took Laura into work. I took Laura to meet Mim. I took Laura to visit Eleanore. My nephew was born on the 11th. I had my follow up OB visit and everything was all clear. Steph came down to spend a couple of days and baby sat while I took the animals to the vet. We had Easter at Uncle Sam's. Allison found out that she was having another boy. We met with Felicia, who would soon because our beloved babysitter, for the first time. Hayle came up for the weekend to meet Laura.
May - Sarah found out she was having a girl (I love it when I'm right)! I started back to work one day per week while my Mom babysat. I celebrated my very first Mother's Day. Laura had very first weekend at camp Memorial Day weekend, followed by her first day with Felicia that Tuesday. I went back to work three days per week. We went to KerriAnn's Prom walk in. Sarah P came to visit and meet Laura.
June - We went with my parents to the village-wide garage sale in the tiny village that my Mom grew up in. She loved showing off the baby. Frank and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the Melting Pot and I celebrated my 29th birthday with my cousins at the Barge. Bobby came home to visit. The cousins met to start planning Sarah's baby shower. We celebrated my youngest cousin graduating from high school. We got Central Air installed, and thank goodness because it was a hot summer.
July - I went to NYC for an amazing day with Hayle and Becky (and my pump). I left Laura overnight for the first time on a work trip; we all survived. It was amazing to get a solid night's sleep!
August - Laura was baptized and Steph and Ralph were officially named Godparents. Kate and I started a writing workshop to share out work. I did another overnight for work. Laura turned 6 months. We had Sarah's baby shower. My Mom and I took Laura to the Schaghticoke fair. We set up our very own camper at camp -- the same one that my parents had used when I was a baby.
September - We had professional family portraits taken. Laura attended her first clam steam. We survived Hurricane Irene with only 12 hours of power loss, although there were tons of trees down out back. I attended Nick and Melissa's wedding, Heather's Baby Shower and Chrissy and Len's wedding. Stephanie got mono. We helped her celebrate her 30th birthday at Bomber's where we met her new boyfriend, who I instantly liked. Allison's son Gavin Ryan and Sarah's daughter Karyn Rose were born! I was able to visit Sarah in the hospital. Karyn had so much hair, almost as much as Laura!
October - Kate came to visit and meet Laura! Sarah P. came to visit again with Lulu and Zeppelin. Laura had her first trip to NYC to visit Aunt Hayle. I went to KerriAnn's fashion show. Steph and Josh came down to watch football with us. Steph and I went to see Weird Al in concert. Laura was an Octopus for Halloween and we visited Eleanore, my work, Frank's work and Steph's work (with cousin Karyn).
November - Went to a jewelry party at Tiff's. We celebrated Laura's first Thanksgiving.
December - Frank's boss scared me to death by calling me and saying that he was in the ER with chest pains. Thank God it was only a torn trapezius muscle. Steph and I had another successful Bake Fest (we made a little over 500 cookies, plus nut candies). Bobby came home for Christmas. We celebrated Laura's first Christmas. I finally finished the Tawny Man Trilogy (remember I started the books in March), with much bawling.
Whew! Writing all that out makes me realize what a busy year we've had! I had intended to come up with some resolutions, but I think I'll have to save that for another post on another day. Happy New Year!
Showing posts with label writing workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing workshop. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Friday, September 2, 2011
Deadlines
They're so motivating. Especially when you miss one. Oops.
I've always done most of the work of writing in my head, which is helpful when you have little time to actually sit down and write, but as we've already established "Only Writing Counts As Writing," so before I knew it, it was September first and not a word of the moody vignette I had been mentally crafting had actually made it onto paper.
So last night, after a rather up tempo rendition of Goodnight Moon I settled down and banged out 500 words in about half an hour. Actually, it was probably closer to 1000 words originally, but I went back and made myself cut a lot of the chaff. While this did give me a lot of hope that I'll actually be able to do NaNoWriMo this year, it was also nice not to be working toward a word count.
I quickly got as far as I had made it with the "mental writing" and against my better judgement decided to quit for the night because I had a book calling my name from the bedroom. But tonight I'm going to hope for another smooth easy bedtime so that I can finish up the piece and submit it to the writing group only two days past our deadline. Maybe even early enough to get in a couple more chapters of my book.
I've always done most of the work of writing in my head, which is helpful when you have little time to actually sit down and write, but as we've already established "Only Writing Counts As Writing," so before I knew it, it was September first and not a word of the moody vignette I had been mentally crafting had actually made it onto paper.
So last night, after a rather up tempo rendition of Goodnight Moon I settled down and banged out 500 words in about half an hour. Actually, it was probably closer to 1000 words originally, but I went back and made myself cut a lot of the chaff. While this did give me a lot of hope that I'll actually be able to do NaNoWriMo this year, it was also nice not to be working toward a word count.
I quickly got as far as I had made it with the "mental writing" and against my better judgement decided to quit for the night because I had a book calling my name from the bedroom. But tonight I'm going to hope for another smooth easy bedtime so that I can finish up the piece and submit it to the writing group only two days past our deadline. Maybe even early enough to get in a couple more chapters of my book.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Progress
Well, even if I haven't had time to update my blog this week, I've spent at least a little time writing. The baby took an exceptionally long nap on Sunday and I was able to duck into my office and bang out 1700 words before she woke up.
It wasn't an official project -- in fact, it seems a little silly, but I've been trying since she was about four weeks old to get down the story of my labor and delivery in as much excruciating detail as I can bear to recall. In the course of trying to cram in every detail, I've been surprised at how much I do remember when I put my mind to it and how much I came close to forgetting. I'm constantly going back and adding some little detail or adjusting the time-line. So even though it isn't anything that I'll likely share, I was very happy to have the chance to get some work done on it. Maybe someday the bambino will decide she wants to read it, after which she will likely decide that she never wants to have children. And I haven't even gotten to the part where I was yelling at Frank about how all I had really wanted was another dog, so why the hell was I doing all the work? Amazing how your hormones try to make you forget all that once you have a smiley, giggly little 6-month old.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to either wrap that project up soon or else I'll have to set it aside, because I have another deadline coming up. My friend went ahead and set up that writer's workshop I had mentioned in the last blog, and we've agreed to submit work on the first of each month. Gosh, that's coming up awfully fast already. Luckily, there's no hard and fast length requirement, and it's not like if I'm a day or two late I'll be kicked out, but it's amazing how that simple deadline can help with motivation. Now I just have to decide which of the ideas bubbling around in my mind that I want to pluck out and set to paper.
As for the healthy living end of things ... well, there's not a whole lot to report there. I do have some thoughts, but they'll have to wait for another blog. The pump calls.
It wasn't an official project -- in fact, it seems a little silly, but I've been trying since she was about four weeks old to get down the story of my labor and delivery in as much excruciating detail as I can bear to recall. In the course of trying to cram in every detail, I've been surprised at how much I do remember when I put my mind to it and how much I came close to forgetting. I'm constantly going back and adding some little detail or adjusting the time-line. So even though it isn't anything that I'll likely share, I was very happy to have the chance to get some work done on it. Maybe someday the bambino will decide she wants to read it, after which she will likely decide that she never wants to have children. And I haven't even gotten to the part where I was yelling at Frank about how all I had really wanted was another dog, so why the hell was I doing all the work? Amazing how your hormones try to make you forget all that once you have a smiley, giggly little 6-month old.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to either wrap that project up soon or else I'll have to set it aside, because I have another deadline coming up. My friend went ahead and set up that writer's workshop I had mentioned in the last blog, and we've agreed to submit work on the first of each month. Gosh, that's coming up awfully fast already. Luckily, there's no hard and fast length requirement, and it's not like if I'm a day or two late I'll be kicked out, but it's amazing how that simple deadline can help with motivation. Now I just have to decide which of the ideas bubbling around in my mind that I want to pluck out and set to paper.
As for the healthy living end of things ... well, there's not a whole lot to report there. I do have some thoughts, but they'll have to wait for another blog. The pump calls.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Update: The Nobodies Album
I was reading over my old blogs and realized that I never updated regarding The Nobodies Album writing contest that Frank encouraged me to enter last summer.
I won! I won the Grand Prize!
Granted, there didn't wind up being a large pool of entries, definitely under twenty since it was a limited contest, but nonetheless the publisher chose my entry for the grand prize. So I am now the proud owner of a Bose iPod Sound Dock. It's not something I ever would have bought for myself, but the sound quality is amazing. More than anything though, I see it as some sort of confirmation that I *am* a good writer and I need to push myself harder. Because the truth is, there are thousands of excellent writers out there. Many I'm sure have skills far superior to mine -- but as long as I'm writing and they're not, I'll be the better writer.
As I clearly illustrated with my 11th hour story entry, goals and deadlines are a writer's best friend. Ever since I decided to recommit to my writing, I've been thinking over different ways that I can keep myself motivated. Crazy as it sounds, I do want to attempt NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) again this year after skipping it in 2010, but that's not until November. I do have a neglected writing journal and belonged to an online writing competition that I could try to revive, but I think I might need to ease myself in a little bit before I give myself a weekly deadline. A friend and fellow writer has suggested starting a casual writing group to exchange our work once a month or so. It sounds like a great idea ... but is it normal that I'm still terrified to share my work?
Writing is so unique in that you are in a complete private vacuum while you're creating and then you're expected to just throw it out into the world and hope it can stand on its own. Just a couple of months ago I thought it would be motivating to let my cousin, who is like a sister to me, read my draft of At Setting and the second I sent it to her I started having a massive panic attack. I think I emailed her about five times almost pleading justifications for the imperfections in the draft. When she was done, she said she liked it and wanted to read more, but my nerves were to shot to probe her for much more of a reaction.
I guess the only way to get over that crippling fear is to just make myself do it. After all, isn't the goal to have as many people hear your story as possible?
I won! I won the Grand Prize!
Granted, there didn't wind up being a large pool of entries, definitely under twenty since it was a limited contest, but nonetheless the publisher chose my entry for the grand prize. So I am now the proud owner of a Bose iPod Sound Dock. It's not something I ever would have bought for myself, but the sound quality is amazing. More than anything though, I see it as some sort of confirmation that I *am* a good writer and I need to push myself harder. Because the truth is, there are thousands of excellent writers out there. Many I'm sure have skills far superior to mine -- but as long as I'm writing and they're not, I'll be the better writer.
As I clearly illustrated with my 11th hour story entry, goals and deadlines are a writer's best friend. Ever since I decided to recommit to my writing, I've been thinking over different ways that I can keep myself motivated. Crazy as it sounds, I do want to attempt NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) again this year after skipping it in 2010, but that's not until November. I do have a neglected writing journal and belonged to an online writing competition that I could try to revive, but I think I might need to ease myself in a little bit before I give myself a weekly deadline. A friend and fellow writer has suggested starting a casual writing group to exchange our work once a month or so. It sounds like a great idea ... but is it normal that I'm still terrified to share my work?
Writing is so unique in that you are in a complete private vacuum while you're creating and then you're expected to just throw it out into the world and hope it can stand on its own. Just a couple of months ago I thought it would be motivating to let my cousin, who is like a sister to me, read my draft of At Setting and the second I sent it to her I started having a massive panic attack. I think I emailed her about five times almost pleading justifications for the imperfections in the draft. When she was done, she said she liked it and wanted to read more, but my nerves were to shot to probe her for much more of a reaction.
I guess the only way to get over that crippling fear is to just make myself do it. After all, isn't the goal to have as many people hear your story as possible?
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