I Stinketh Mucheth Give-Away Question # 9

What is it that you absolutely, royally stink at but you continue to do because you either have to, or because you love it anyway?


Okay, I'm all about the positive, and let's focus on our good points, but I also believe in the fair assessment of ourselves in order to truly know who we are.  I'm not a fan of the 'give a trophy to everyone' philosophy.  Those are the same individuals that grow up punching out camera people on American Idol because they think they are rock stars, and they still remain in their mediocre awfulness because someone wasn't kind enough to tell them they'd best be suited to seek out other talents.

  We aren't all rock stars.  We aren't all swift and agile athletes.  The sooner we learn what we aren't, the sooner we can get on with the business of honing in on where we are best.  


I learned veeeeeery early in life that I FLOP at math.  I was 'that' kid, counting on her fingers, long after it was socially or academically acceptable.  I remember word problems making me cry stinging hot tears of embarrassment.  I just couldn't get it.  I recall it was fourth grade when I first began to realize that math was like trying to learn a foreign language.  I am in genuine awe of anyone that finds ease with numbers.  It fascinates me.  I trip over my own clumsy calculations, baffled that anyone could group and regroup, see sets and understand number relationships.

Then I hit algebra and someone threw random letters into the mix!  Are you kidding me?  As if jumbled groups of numbers wasn't enough?  Now I have to consider how 'x' and 'y' fit in with all of this?  Really?  Can't I just write you a poem and get an 'A'?


Serious anger and frustration arose in my years trying to get through Algebra.  I remember many a wet textbook from my tears pooling on the pages.  I wasn't beyond destruction of property either...I gouged a page or two and snapped a pencil over it.  When I reached college and knew I was going to have to keep my head above water in Algebra (again?  will someone PLEASE explain WHY I needed to take this AGAIN?!) I had the wit to enroll at the community college back home so that my Dad and my brother could help me through it.  Yes, my baby brother, a few years behind me in school.  I was completely humbled and accepting of any and all help.

I made it outta there with a 'D' -
First and only one I ever made.  I didn't care.  It counted as 'passing' and better yet, wouldn't 'ding' my GPA.  Good riddance, foul math.

Remember my trip to Chicago?  I sat in on a session with Greg Tang. If I'd had him and learned his practices back then, I might not have developed math phobia.  I wanted to kiss him.   With him I didn't feel stupid, just mistaught.  Google him and check out his game he invented - Kakooma.  This might make me a math genius yet.

So that's my stinky thing I am awful at but have to do anyway, but thankfully it's only to add/subtract/multiply/divide.  And they make calculators for that.

What I blow at that I actually enjoy?  Painting!  Like interior walls and such.  I really do love it!  And I stink BAD at it which is the reason we are having it done.  So there ya have it!

Toe-may-to/Toe-mah-to Question #8

Mucho apologies for yesterday's question getting out so late.  I also attempted to answer some questions in one long post, but I think it is getting in the way of finding the questions so I'll save that for the end.  I have a whole list of people to recognize, posts to link and questions to answer!  Here's today's - tried to keep it short, maybe sweet, but always fun.  Yesterday's question if you need to catch up Popcorn, Extra Butter.
One SHOUT OUT right now - Tortugarachel over at Turtle Tracks joined the contest in a big way and caught up with the ENTIRE list of questions at once over at her blog!  Round of applause!  She also wants that hammock pretty bad.  Look out.  Her eyes are set on the prize.  Anyway, you have GOT to get over there and check her out.  Her answers are AWESOME and I knew I would love her when one of the sounds she loves is THE SOUND OF A LIGHTSABER.  Why didn't I think of that!  


I realize by the fact that my eyes really are falling out that my last few posts were leh-ooo-ho-oooong so I'm going to give us all a reprieve and make this one short and sweet.  When facebook first came around, there were these quizzes and things that always popped up.  I was a quiz-taking junkie.  Loved the 422 question lists.  So let's do some either/or, shall we?  Of course I'll be breaking my own rule and adding 'buts', 'and's and 'neithers'.

Feel free to copy and paste the list to make it easier to answer today.

1. wheat or white?  Neither unless it's gluten-free, then sparingly

2. nature or people?  perfect smattering of both

3.  leather or denim?  both

4.  beach or mountain?  This one's obvious by my posts.  Mountains have their merits but I find that people are either beach or mountain folk

5. fire or water (you interpret)?  Water - ocean, rain, rivers to tube, baths to give babies, water fights,
    sprinklers in the summer, cool showers, hot baths

6.  shoes or barefoot?  2-inch wedge flip flops around the house, barefoot makes my arches ache but I
     drive barefoot most days.  In shoes, my toes get claustrophobic.

7.  Electronic message or letter?  What I wouldn't give to get a seriously handwritten, old-fashioned letter in the mail. These are almost completely gone, aren't they?

8.  hug or kiss - Probably a hug because they can be dispensed to a larger reach of people

9.  rain or snow - I am doing my rain dance as I type this for all of you that are suffering in drought in
     the midwest.

10.  color or black and white - vibrant color for most everything, black and white for photos

Go!

Popcorn, Extra Butter Question #7

(I'm running feverishly, waving my arms wildly like I'm being chased by a swarm of bees, yelling...)  I'm coming!  I'm coming!!  I promise!!!

I sat in front of my computer for the better part of yesterday doing checkbook damage control so when the time came to go shake and shimmy, I was on that like teflon on a pan.  We had my in-laws' anniversary to celebrate this morning (give it up for 'em - 40 years!) and then just when I got home and thought, 'AT LAST! I am going to blog until my eyes fall out', my daughter called to say she'd locked her keys in her car...On the way home?  Hubs calls requesting that I bring home some ice...

I am finally here, and have been catching up for the last hour and a half or so on some really amazing folks who have joined the contest, and trying to get to all the comments.  I have also compiled a list of the questions they have posed for me and will address those separately in a post, figuring it would be easier that way.  You people need to be doing this question thing - you come up with some questions that rock!!

We do blog best with our feet propped, don't we?  There's my Magmonster in the background.

Since I referenced a movie in my last question title and it wasn't about a movie...

What is your all-time favorite movie and why? What do you snack on in a theater when you go?

I start by saying I am not a huge movie buff.  I can be a bit picky about what I watch, and I don't like just anything, particularly the 'latest' movie craze that often sends the rest of the nation's population into a froth.  If you were to start naming movies, recent or classic, famous or obscure, there's a good chance I'll answer - "Haven't seen it."  I just succumbed to renting the updated version of Footloose...and hated it so much that it made me mad.  HOWEVER, when I love a movie?  That means something.  I have quite a few that are top of my list, and I had to deliberate between two to pick my #1, but decided on this one because it has so many things that about it that make it special to me. That, and the other one might be a bit more 'cliché.  

Why Hope Floats?  It was filmed in a little town in Texas that holds most all of my favorite childhood memories: Smithville, Texas - home of the 'goat man', hot guts and barbeque, and 'the honey house'.  I spent weeks and weeks of my childhood there and still go back any time I am in Texas.  

www.hookedonhouses.net

This house?  The house where the movie was filmed?  RIGHT down from my great-grandmother's house.  I had driven past this house a zillion times as a kid.  Oh, don't think that my Nannie lived in a huge estate - this house was THE house in Smithville, original owners were wealthy, but the rest of the neighborhood were quaint little abodes.  My Nannie's house was precious.  I'll have to write about it one day.  It was a box - a room in each square corner of the house.

This movie holds top position because around the time it came out, my grandfather was in the later stages of Alzheimer's.  There's a scene where Sandra Bullock goes to a nursing home to visit her Dad who has Alzheimer's.  He sees her as the little girl she was, and stands up to dance with her...the first time I saw this in the theater, I was so thrown into a state of grief that I couldn't breathe, and had to get up and run out to go cry ragged sobs out behind the theater.  As painful as that was then, now it reminds me that this scene helped me face what I could not face, and try to accept it.

I love the overall theme of the movie: HOPE.  Hope that rises out of difficult, seemingly impossible circumstances.  

The strength of Birdie, the main character, draws me to 'Hope Floats'.  All the women in the movie, actually.  They remind me of the women in my life.  How colorful, and multi-faceted they all are.  How funny and beautiful and flawed we all are.

I won't give away the movie's story line, but the storyline is about getting that second chance at something you let get away.  Priceless.

The soundtrack is awesome.

Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses.  

This adorable supporting actress is incredible.  My favorite scene of hers is when she's trying to kick Justin Matesse (Harry Connick Jr) off the front porch and says her Mom had a pet skunk named Justin and was always saying, "You stink, Justin Matesse!"  But even better?  The scene where her dad leaves from coming to see her...she should have won an Academy Award.  If THAT doesn't rip your heart out, you don't have one.

I love so many of the lines from the movie and I can quote many of them, verbadim.  

Childhood is what you spend the rest of your life trying to overcome. That's what momma always says. She says that beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will... 

This one?

Dancing's just a conversation between two people. Talk to me. ~Justin Matesse

Serious melt factor.

As for what I snack on at the movies...well, I don't go to many in theaters (remember I am picky) but if I go, I usually just get a drink - Coke Zero.  If I could walk in and miraculously all the calories could disappear?  I'd have popcorn, extra butter and a big box of Raisinettes.

Time to Celebrate

I know for a fact I can probably get Melanie over at Sporkin' On Down the Road to join in, but I have been at the bills/checkbook disaster all day.  I have rewarded myself with a dance in the kitchen to this, and I am headed out the door to go to my very first Glow Paint Zumba party.  Whoo hoo!

Brave Heart Give-Away Question #6

Warning: This one is longer.  Do not feel compelled to match comment length to post unless this particularly fires your writing engines.  
No - this is not about the movie, or any reference to Mel Gibson.  I want to know about your courage.  I have SO MANY questions I want to try now, that I have two drafts going, and a bazillion others swirling about the noggin.  I am quite sure now I will be sad to have this Give-Away come to a close.  (Incidentally, I have another one I'm pondering.  I will save it for later, but it's going to be goooooooood.)
So here's my question:

Have you ever had a time in your life that you have had to be particularly brave?  Describe that time.


Not that I am She-Woman or anything, but when I thought about answering this question myself, several things came to mind that I could share - the act of parenting itself requires great bravery (parenting that is done well...it is hard), the time my son had the seizures last fall Stricken to Greater Faith, or the time I was met at my school after a field trip with my class by police and a crazed mother, thinking I had kidnapped her son (never wrote about that), or the time on my road trip that I awoke having stupidly fallen asleep with my car hatch open to find two men standing outside my vehicle in the middle of the night -Purpose.

I thought about my recent trip back in May to Chicago.  As is typical of me, I haven't gone back to finish writing about that, but I will post a short snippet here.  One of my friends, upon learning that I was going to Chicago - a place I'd never been, said, 'You're so brave.  I could never do that.'
For me, I could never NOT travel solo, but I recognize that there are elements to what I do that require bravery.  One such thing is venturing out in new locations (some times potentially dangerous locations) by yourself.

My Mama wasn't all too keen on the idea that I was going to 'a big city' by myself.  That's right - I am a grown woman with teen/near-adult children, and she still frets at my doing things like this.  I kind of understand - apparently my daughter has taken notes...she wants to do a beach trip like my Hammocks Beach one with a couple of her friends...and I was like, 'Ummm...let's talk about this later.  MUCH later.'

But I digress.  So my Mom and I talked every day/evening while I was there in Chicago and she loved that.  She was particularly fond of calling around, ooooooh, 8:00ish to see that I was tucked away, safe and sound behind my hotel door, chain across the frame, bolt in place, chair securely under the doorknob, in my pjs in front of tv.


I don't go to new places to hide away in my hotel/place of lodging to curl up and do what I could very well do at home.  I travel very differently than a lot of people.  I thrive on expeiences.  So when I go somewhere, I want to experience it in its wholeness.  Part of that is getting out to some of the more 'local' places.  


So one such night she called 'to say hey' (i.e. make sure I was bolted behind closed doors) and she asked what I was doing.


Me:  'I'm headed over to this cool restaurant I read about where they have sushi.  I might try it."
Mom: 'Oh gag, sushi?  Yuck.  Well, I want to hear about it when you're done.  Going back to the hotel after that?  (subtle hint...)"
Me: 'Eh no - Jeff (my bro) told me about this jazz club that I want to check out.  I am going to go over there afterwards.'
Mom: ......silence....'*sigh...Please be careful.  Let me know when you're back at the hotel.'
Me: 'Sure thing.  I don't plan to stay long.  Just want to check it out.'


So I walked on over to the restaurant and decided, once the waitress asked me if there were any health issues that might keep me from eating sushi (at the time, my heart) so I decided, instead to go for some little meat skewer things and try kangaroo and alligator.  The alligator was like a tender beef and the kangaroo tasted like....._____________.  


I ate by myself (obviously) which I also love to do but apparently for some this is an act that takes courage.  


Afterwards I took the several blocks over and down to get to 'Blue Chicago' - one of the best jazz dives in town.  I will have to share more about that (I hope).  It was incredible.  It was there I saw this band (don't know their name) and this singer (wish I could remember her name) that brought the house down with her song, "Fat Daddies".

Is she not awesome?

So here's the deal - I am brave, but I try really hard not to be stupid.  I will walk city streets by myself and frequent interesting places that may or may not look a little seedy from the outside.  But here are some 'safety tips' that I came up with on this outing:

• Walking unfamilar streets in big cities?  Become a local.  Walk like them.  Dress/look like them.  And for crying out loud, don't be craning your neck, mouth agape like a tourist.  Be ninja subtle when referring to maps or your gps app on your phone (I act like all the other people phone obsessed, like I'm texting when I'm really looking at my phone following the little blue dot.)
• Have a plan.  Go ahead and prepare for 'worst case scenario'.  In this case, on the way to the restaurant, I was very alert and thinking, 'Okay, if someone comes up behind me and tries to grab me, throw that back round house kick you learned from the Taebo videos while reaching with your left hand (because I am left-handed) for the acrylic hair stick and turn swiftly to jab said sharp stick into creep's dangly bits.  All this while screaming like a howler monkey.'
• Wear hair sticks when walking in these situations.  They are potential weapons.
• Upon leaving an establishment at night (I think I left the club around 11 something) and you are obviously alone, have a plan.  I had been there long enough for fellow patrons to know I was by myself.  There were quite a few men in the joint, and some of them also by themselves.  So I made my way across the dance floor to the powder room, thinking about how I would leave and not attract any unwanted followers.  On my way out of the facilities, I put my phone to my ear, acting like I was trying to take a phone call.  It was extremely loud so no one could know what I was saying but I was playing it up big like I was hurrying outside to hear my caller.  I stood outside for a minute, still playing like I was on the phone to wait to see if anyone else came out.  It was well-lit and still close to a place with lots of people.  Better to be assaulted there than get a half a block away where there was no one.  While standing out there having the most riveting conversation with no one on the other end, I 'ended' my call and proceeded to make sure my phone's gps locator was on.  Reason?  IF I was grabbed and nabbed, I would throw the phone nearby and trackers could pick up my last location.
• Last, I tried calling my mamacita.  She'd asked me to call, and I reasoned that it would be less likely that someone would abscond me if I was on the phone, having an active conversation with someone and that person could hear me screaming and scuffling. Besides, look like a local.  EVERYONE in Chicago walks fast talking on the phone. Mom didn't answer...(grimace)
• So I activated Siri - I NEVER use Siri - she annoys me.  But she kept me company the entire way back, trying to 'understand' what I was saying as I pretended to have yet another spellbinding conversation.  She was no fun to talk to...beep beep beep.  'I do not understand what you are asking.'  'I know Siri, I just want to hear your voice while I walk back at night by myself.  Hang with me, seester. Gah.'

So there.  I guess I'm brave for traveling alone, being that I'm female and all.  You didn't know you were going to get safety tips to boot.

When were you brave?

We Interrupt this Give-Away Fridge Poetry

I have let this slide.  Then I found myself this morning, coffee cup in hand, shuffling words and forming phrases.  Here's my latest Fridge Poetry installment...

We are closing on the first week of the Great Get-To-Know-You Give-Away.  I'm not going to lie - when I started it, I went, 'EEEK!  Post daily?  Can I keep this up?'  I sit here, in my cozy nest, the dvr'd Opening Ceremonies as background, and SO very grateful that I did.  I have had a ball getting to know some of my blog friends better, learning about their lives and drawing the circle smaller on the world in which we live.  I have smiled that I have been more alert and attentive to the sounds around me, finding new ones to love.  Blog friend comments have sparked future ideas for posts, and they have said the same.  I love it.  It's relational.  It's getting to know people, and I lerv people.  

Robin, over at Thoughts and Reflections, posed the question to me - Why Nicaragua?  What led you there, and do you revisit?  I have not told that story here yet, but had plans to when the Give-Away was over.  I will do a series - it will probably take three parts.  I am grateful she asked.  


The thing is, I am inspired, and it is by all of you.  THAT is a good thing.

Comfy Corner Question #5

We are almost to the end of week one of the two-week Great-Get-To-Know-You Give-Away!  You can find all the details in that link there.  If you're just joining in, no worries!  Pick right up and come along.  There are a couple of serious competitors out there but it comes down to the draw and you never know! One thing I would like to assure you, please don't worry about shipping.  I would run with the hammock on my head to get it to you if I could.  If you win, I desperately want you to have it, so please - comment, answer the questions, and ask away.  Don't forget you can ask any question for an additional entry.!


Speaking of far-away distant lands - 

This is Arabic for my one friend in Kuwait that dropped by.  Very cool.  

SO Josie over at Two Shoes in Texas posed a question for me and I thought, BRILLIANT!  This will be the next question!  I often wonder about where you, the reader, are in the world and what that little corner of the rock is like, especially your area where you most enjoy to blog.  Here is her question:

What is your favorite place/time/mindset for blogging?

Way to go, Josie!  You think she should get an extra point for her question inspiring a question?

This one will be a post that can be short and sweet for you all (if you're feeling like this is a bit like A-Z Part 422)  if you want it to be.  A short description and a BONUS if you can include a picture.  Can you do that in the comment section?  I don't know but you could post it on your blog, link it and DONE!

I don't have any one favorite place because with my computer, have laptop, will sprawl anywhere.  So as I sat down to post, I took a few pictures of what I see or my 'spots' where you might find me curled up bloggity blogging.  

What I am looking at right now from the left corner of my couch.  I will often perch here, lights low or off with candles.  I am particularly enjoying the soft new paint color (we're still at it, by the way) and my uplighting in the corner.

I generally have about fourteen pillows around me - I build nests.  Cushy, squishy nests where my arms rest on some, laptop on another and burrow down.  There might be wine.  Two Buck Chuck Cab Sav from Trader Joe's.

The bedroom will be finished in the morning.  It will be all white and blues, a sundry of shades of the ocean and sky.  Some times, when I have the house to myself and I don't have to feel guilty about doing absolutely what I want to do, I will pile up in my bed nest and blog from there.

Now, when I gaze up at the ceiling to think?  I will see the color of the sky, even inside.

From the beginning of the hammock, I have generally blogged late at night, being the night owl that I am.  Times have changed somewhat, with teen children that don't ever sleep.  How do they function, anyway?  So I am also a bit more fluid there too, having found quiet in the morning - and with teens, it doesn't even have to be the wee part.  noon thirty is good.  (kidding.  sort of)

This is going to sound weird, but I'm about to share one of my 'quirks' - some times I will run my hairdryer beside me while I write.  I don't know what it is, but that sound helps me focus.  I am a white noise junkie, and should have included it in my favorite sounds list.  I am also cold-natured so bonus that I thaw my feet and hands.

My mindset can be varied.  Inspired is good.  Reflective is where I probably write best.  Determined and impassioned about something?  There's no telling what I'll say.  

Headed to Friday and the weekend!  Who's with me?

What's That Sound? Give-Away Question #4

I wish I could give a point or two for whoever it was that visited my blog yesterday from Trinidad & Tobago...Five points for the most exotic locale to have ever breezed through the hammock?  Now on to our regularly scheduled nonsense...

Hello and welcome to my hammock where a deliriously amusing give-away is going on right this moment!  Basically, tune in for the next two weeks (ends August 5th) and answer the daily question either in the comments or on your own blog as a writing prompt (but link it back, por favor) - you get a point.  If you ask me a question in addition to answering, you get another point.  The more you participate, the better your chances of winning THIS fabulous hammock, brought back from Nicaragua!

So all you lurky-lookers?  Leave a comment!  You'll be glad you did!  If you're one that needs all the information before you can commit, here - Great Get-To-Know-You Give-Away.

So today's question:
Can you name up to ten favorite sounds?  Can you name more than ten? (extra point?)  Let's be fair and not list ten songs - you can name ONE that is a particular song.  Go!
1.  Hearing my two kids interacting/laughing together.  There's nothing better.  
2.  Ocean waves
3.  A distant train OR a close up roar and rumble of the train and its whistle.
4.  The subtle but oh so inviting gurgle gurgle of a coffee pot perking its black gold first thing in the morning in a quiet house.
5.  The song, Drifting by Enya  (there's my one song)

6.  My son's drumset vibrating through the wood floors - some parents would cringe...I love it.
7.  Every now and again, I will turn off music in the car on a long drive to hear the hushed thump thump of tires on pavement.
8.  Windchimes, particularly the ones that ring with a deeper register.
9.  Cello
10.  Friends' and family members' laughs - especially those wildly freeing cackles.  
11.  The creak of my real hammock.
12.  We don't hear this sound much anymore, but it harkens back to my childhood - the cht cht cht of a water sprinkler that rotates around slowly then fast - chtchtchtchtchtcht...yes, I made the sound audibly to see what letters would match.
13.  The drumline of a high school marching band.
14. cicadas out the window echoing from the back yard to the front
15. A table saw sheering through a plank of wood (don't get me started on the smell of cut wood...)

Sunshine in the Forecast Give-Away Question #3

Hey hey!  Love my girls, Robin over at Thoughts and Reflections, and Funny at Funny in My Mind for taking on my 'heavy' question about stress and being overwhelmed.  As we say in these parts, 'bless your hearts' and now hang on for more upbeat questions.  But first, a song!  You can't be stressed hopping around to this song.  Thank you, R.E.M.



You can still go back to question #2 and answer for your name to go in the hat.  Then come back here and work on focusing on what brings you joy!  If you're just jumping in (come on, people...I 'see' you stopping by), you can learn more about the details of the give-away here Great Get-To-Know-You Give-Away.  It's really easy - answer my daily questions and pose one of your own for a chance to win a fabulous hammock!
Today's question:
What five things in life give you joy?
Yeah!  What makes you breathe deep and go "aaaaaaaaah, this is living"?
Here are my five (and there are more, but these come to mind first...)

• Time with my family when we are all finally in one place with no where to go.  As kids get older, they have schedules, and a social life that takes them out the door much of the time, so when we have rare occasions that we're all actually sitting around the table, we laugh!  I love that.
• Being outside - I am one that needs the be outdoors a good bit to feel healthy, happy and wise.  If I have to be inside, please God, let there be a window, preferably a big one.  First thing I do when I get to my office is throw open the tacky blinds, and everyone has come to learn, 'Yep, she's here - blinds are wide open.'  I try to make time to get outside at least a little bit each day.
• Coffee - especially when said coffee is enjoyed on the front porch, which is my daily routine with Hubs in the summer.
• Music - particularly paired with driving in my car, top down.  Hey, bonus!  I'm hell-bent determined to find the positives...I have a commute of about 20 minutes.  Yeah!  Daily road concerts coming up!
• Having something to look forward to - I cherish having something on the horizon that is enjoyable, or fun, or what I want to do.  Something to yearn for.  Yes, I already have a beach get-away booked for fall break in October.  May have to go solo, but I already look toward that and get excited.  

There ya go, lovelies!  Hugs to any that dare take on my Debbie Downer Question 2!  

Great Give-Away Question #2

For all those just tuning in, I have a frantic, two-week give away going on to win a hammock that I brought home from Nicaragua.  For the full details, check this out - Great Get-To-Know-You GIve Away.  Here's the summary:

1)  A question will be posed daily here for the next two weeks (Why two weeks?  Plenty of opportunity for ample questions but sets a time limit since this will have me here daily.  Besides life is about to get slap crazy with real life cranking back up full steam.)

2) You can either answer in the comment section under the post OR post it as a writing prompt for your own blog but be sure to let me know in the comments and link it back here, pretty please.

3)  As a bonus, you can ask me a question - anything!  I'll answer it with your comment/question!  This will count as a second entry!  BUT - if you want to ask me a question, you HAVE to answer mine!  :)

In summary, if you answer my question, that counts as one entry in the drawing.  If you ask me something, it counts as two.  Plenty of chances to win!  The final question will be Sunday, August 5th in the morning.  The drawing will take place some time that day, with a winner announced by midnight Eastern Time. 

The cool thing is, YOU CAN JUMP IN ANYWHERE IN THE GIVE AWAY!!  Hint, hint!!  You don't have stand by silent!!  In other words, if you're lurking around, reading all of this and trolling back months and months of posts, get crazy!!  Jump in there and answer a question or two!  It'd be fun! I promise!

Now for today's question - I had intended on getting it up here sooner, and actually had another one planned...and then today happened.  So here goes: (warning - this one isn't quite so 'sunny' as summertime)

What overwhelms you?  What are the stressors in your life, and what do you do to relieve stress and feelings of being overwhelmed?

Some of you who may have been around longer than a few months know that I was once a school teacher.  When it nearly ate me alive, I was given an opportunity to not only change jobs but go part-time and that is what I did this past year.  I am a professor, now teaching teachers (yes, the irony is so thick, I'm choking on it.)  This past year, I had the chance to step back, and breathe and quite frankly heal from crippling stress and depression.  One of my more popular posts details this very dark time for me and you can read it here: Palm of His Hand.

Things are quite different now, and in a million ways better for what I went through then.  I finished last year with the idea that I would be going into another part-time year, and honestly, I was relieved.  A month ago or so, that changed, and I was offered full-time.  After much deliberation and struggle, I accepted.  I'm not so sure about this decision, but I keep telling myself there is a reason.

I went today for a brief meeting, and to get going with what I needed to do to pick up two more classes.  I left so overwhelmed (familiar echo from the previous time) that I drove home looking through tears.  I know all of this will make sense, and I do believe that we are presented with things repeatedly some times so that we can learn from it, but I am hesitant to walk this road again.

So what do I do, or have I done to combat stress?  Over the years, the things that help me most rotate but in college, I would go to the park and swing.  Or color in a coloring book.  With the mega whoopin' 64 pack of crayons.  I've driven fast (not good, and I don't do that anymore...).  I like to hear glass breaking, so I'm in charge of recycling.  I also hurl over-ripe produce off my back deck, aiming to splat it on the tree front and center.  I also run. I think that I would also very much like boxing, so I might get a punching bag and string it up in the basement.

So I might just train to be the next act on America's Got Talent, because I'll be the most talented page-coloring, glass and fruit tosser, boxing running singer, doing all of this at once.

I promise: Tomorrow's question won't be so 'heavy'.

The 'Great Get-Know-You' Give-Away!

(Oh go on...be a poor sport and skip to the bottom for the give-away details, the prize, and the first entry if you're in such an all-fired hurry.)  :)

I have said I was going to do this, and have procrastinated ruminated over just how to go about it, but I am going to do what I do best, and fly by the seat of my pants and get this party started!  It will be wild and crazy fun, but only if we have group participation.  (said in my best elementary teacher voice) "Yes, boys and girls, that means we all have to take a turn.  Everyone plays!"  Mostly that's me, wishful thinking that you'd all take time to do this in some capacity.  We will all get a chance to know one another better, and all have some possible post prompts/ideas to boot!  What could be better?  A prize, you say?  Why, yes!  There's that too!  But first, in proper professor-y fashion, I must teach you something ...'Gather'.


(You didn't think I was going to just jump right in and share with you what the prize is, did you?)


Brief history of the hammock:  Hammocks have been around before North America ever was by 800-900 years, originating in Central and South America.  It is widely accepted that they began with the Mayan Indians.  They not only brought us that crazy calendar, but they make a mean relaxation device.  The earliest material used to construct them was the bark of the Hamak tree, and only began  to be made from the softer materials you find in modern hammocks in the last 50 years or so.  With trade prevalent in the lower Americas at this time, the comfort and convenience of hammocks spread its use far and wide.  Today, they are made of various materials and come in a variety of styles for both aesthetic quality and tranquility.

Did you know? There have been studies done to research the possibility that hammocks offer better and deeper sleep?  I can believe it!  Sometimes I can stretch out in mine, and jerk awake an hour later, feeling like I'd been clubbed over the head, I was sleeping so soundly.  It just might have something to do with the rocking motion.  To be more astounded and fascinated by this information, read here Sway Yourself to Sleep.  Got insomnia?  Get a hammock!

Nicaraguan Wedding Hammock

Want to know more about the best place on the planet to buy a hammock?  Nicaragua, of course! One more reason that place calls to me like nowhere else!  Go HERE and scroll down to learn more about the beautiful wedding hammocks made in Masaya, Nicaragua.  I couldn't get Hubs to venture there this last visit.  Rest assured, I will go next time, if I have to drive that stick shift car there myself!

Okay, Okay, Okay!!!

Get on with it already, right? 

Here's what I'm thinking...(look out...).  I wanted this give-away challenge to be about an exchange of 'stories'.  Let me take the pressure off by saying that no, it doesn't have to be lengthy or incredibly lofty.  Simple stories and thoughts shared among friends.  So for the next two weeks - that's starting tonight through Sunday, August 5th, I'm going to pose a question for you!  The thing is, I have to answer it myself following the question as the post.  Answer it in the most lengthy or short manner you choose, and as creatively as you'd like.  No worries there.  DON'T stress over sharing long unless you just want to.  Some question or prompt might really strike a chord but don't stress.  I am very anti-pressure here.  I wouldn't love hammocks if I didn't believe in 'chillin'.  You can either leave your answer in the comments below that day's question, OR post it on over at YOUR blog as a post prompt, linking back here, of course, but make sure you let me know in the comment box here that you're going to answer it on your blog.  ALSO, as a bonus 'entry' to win the prize from the drawing, you can ask me a question of your own!  Fair game!  In a nutshell:

1)  A question will be posed daily here for the next two weeks (Why two weeks?  Plenty of opportunity for ample questions but sets a time limit since this will have me here daily.  Besides life is about to get slap crazy with real life cranking back up full steam.)

2) You can either answer in the comment section under the post OR post it as a writing prompt for your own blog but be sure to let me know in the comments and link it back here, pretty please.

3)  As a bonus, you can ask me a question - anything!  I'll answer it with your comment/question!  This will count as a second entry!  BUT - if you want to ask me a question, you HAVE to answer mine!  :)

In summary, if you answer my question, that counts as one entry in the drawing.  If you ask me something, it counts as two.  Plenty of chances to win!  The final question will be Sunday, August 5th in the morning.  The drawing will take place some time that day, with a winner announced by midnight Eastern Time. 

What do you win???

A cotton canvas-style hammock brought from Nicaragua!!!

 (Don't mind the string of lights. We leave them up year-round in these parts...kidding.  It's 'mood lighting' for my deck')

 It measures over 6 feet in length for all you tall drinks of water out there.  If you're taller than that, let your feet hang off.  Still fun!

 It measures almost 4 feet wide...I will refrain from commenting on width.

Isn't it beautiful?  That is hand-hammered metal in the hook...love it.

Don'tcha want it?  Then get to crackin' and write!

Here's the first question - keeping it easy and light to start -

What is your favorite thing about summertime, OR your favorite summer memory?

Summer has to be my favorite season.  Cliché, I know, but when you are a teacher, you live (crave, long for, fantasize about) summer.  I also prefer the temperatures myself.  I don't mind sweating, really. Want to read more about my sweaty experience to a Korean spa?  Go here - Gonna Make You Sweat.

There is so very much to adore about summer, but one of my summer 'loves' is something so simple:  cruising as the sun goes down, listening to tunes.  I have done this as long as I can remember, although with gas prices, I don't wander for quite so long.  However, I set out quite often, in search of the best vantage for watching the sun go down, favorite tunes blaring, windows/sunroof/top down.  Recently, on one of my summer drives to chase the sunset, this song came on:

...and I screamed..."I love this song!!!" to the traffic around me.  I sang it loud and it brought back so many memories of my days, 'back in the day' of my new wave/alternative phase.  I could have SO been Andy in "Pretty in Pink" or even Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds in 'Breakfast Club'.  I had that part of me that was 'deep' and 'dark' and 'brooding' - all poetic and mysterious and edgy.  Oh yeah. I went through that phase.  More so, I loved this music.  Tunes by Echo and the Bunnymen, The Style Council, 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure, The Cult, The Smithereens, Siousxie and the Banshies, New Order and Joy Division.

So summertime, to me, is so many things, all wrapped up in sunset chasing, wind blowing  drives down memory lane.

And So...Moving Right Along

I have noticed among the blogging community in general a sense of 'needing space' and taking blogcations and hiatuses.  It is a slowing down with the summer heat and taking time for living fully in the moment without the constant need to document it, or have that rolling commentary in your head.  For some, life gets in the way, and still others struggle with keeping it fresh, or finding a 'niche' or knowing where to go from here and how to keep it going.


It's why I threw out a post about rearranging furniture.  Actually, it was an attempt to explain my current extended absence.  I feel I have come to know and like many of you and, as is courteous in my book, you let the folks you care about know where you're going when you're headed out the door.

So I shared my mundane, routine, blasé post about prepping the house for painting...(cue crickets chirping)

...and that is where I'm at with this blog.  I do feel I hold back quite a bit, not always posting what I truly want to share, and searching to find my place. And I post things about pushing armoires.

I smile, because Stephen over at The Chubby Chatterbox dropped by and commented.  What a sport!  I think I would bore me with posts about such things so if it helped you finally get much needed Zzz's, great!

That said, I plan to move forward and launch the 'Great Get-to-Know-You' Give-Away this evening!  Tune in!  It requires reader participation!  All the more to get to know each other - those stop by and comment on regular basis, and ANY of you that lurk behind the comment section...come out, come out, wherever you are!!!

What are your challenges with blogging and what do you do to overcome them?

Dance of the Armoire

I have been here less of late.  It's not that I don't want to be, I have just been displaced.  Wandering around glassy-eyed, looking for some small perch to land.  You see, we've been having the interior of the house painted.  It's not over yet.

For the past week, I have side-stepped and weaved through a maze of furniture, clumped in the middle of the living room.  It has reminded me a bit of a middle school dance:  awkward groupings of pieces of furniture in various corners of the room; pieces that don't go together looking as if they're trying to have a conversation, not knowing what to do with hands and feet that are too big.

This is actually somewhat orderly.  At one point, all the chairs, ottomans and that large behemoth of an entertainment center was all piled in the center of the room.  One of my daughter's friends pointed out that it made a lovely running track around the room, and demonstrated such.  It hasn't stopped us from having people over - they just have nowhere to sit, so they lean.  That, and peer around piles of stuff.

I have even 'danced' with most of this bulky furniture, swaying and sliding until I can move it where I need it to be.

Anyone in my household: 'You need help with that?'

Me:  'Nah, I got it.'

Anyone in my household: (collective sigh of relief)

Me: (Dadgum my stubborn independence some times)

Even Maggie has been wandering aimlessly, not knowing what in the world is going on.  This is what reminded me of the middle school dance - all the bulky, tall pieces lining the wall.  I danced with that one on the right a good distance across the room to get it there.  I know.  I give 'voice' to animals and 'scenario' to inanimate objects.  I can't say what my excuse is on a normal basis, but the paint fumes have been getting to me.

I"m over the roosters phase - anybody want a rooster?

I have also felt a bit like I am living in the middle of a garage sale.  Boxes and nick nacks strewn everywhere.  I have just about decided that while I'm going to all this trouble to pack up things and weed through items no longer wanted, I could just as easily slap a sign in the yard, throw open the door and let people come in and buy this junk.  While I'm at it, half the stuff is already boxed up - why not go ahead and move?  This has made me dread the idea of moving, by the way.  Not that I am any time soon, but moving is just no fun.


I have literally been boxing and unboxing for over a week, and there's still more to go.  In all of this unsettledness, there have been tears, and 'words' and feelings of displacedness ( I made that up...).  I have come to realize that I really do not have a place of my own in the house, a corner to call my own.  I had two cabinets full of books that have now been boxed and relegated to the basement.  I can not find a desk or area where I can 'do what I do' - read and write and think.  There are spaces for all sorts of media intake, but I am not a regular partaker.  So even when everything gets put back and rearranged, I might still find myself wandering.


In the mean time,  I've 'found' another sailing song that I've listened to quite a bit while I ramble aimlessly:

Maybe It's Time

"For whatever we lose (like a you and a me).  It is always ourselves that we find in the sea."
~e.e. cummings

This song has been on repeat today.  I think some of you may need to play it a time or two.  These lines jump out and grab me:

Now that my life is so pre-arranged

I know it's time for a cool change.

Is your life terribly pre-arranged?

Then this.

I came across this quote almost as soon as my eyes cracked open:

"I beg young people to travel.  If you don't have a passport, get one.  Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Dehli, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya.  Have your mind blown, eat interesting food, dig some interesting people, have an adventure, be careful.  Come back and you're going to see your country differently, you're going to see your president differently, no matter who it is.  Music, culture, food, water.  Your showers will become shorter.  You're going to get a sense of what globalization looks like.  It's not what Tom Friedman writes about, I'm sorry.  You're going to see that global climate change is very real.  And that some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water.  And so there are lessons that you can't get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people - Americans and Europeans - come back and go 'ooooohhh'. And the lightbulb goes on."

~Henry Rollins

I would beg people, young and young-at-heart to go.  Travel.  See something so completely different from the view from your front door.  Shatter all the pre-conceived, self-absorbed views from your subconscious about how the world is/should be.   See that people everywhere are really very much the same - they work hard, love their families and want better for their children, enjoy play time and laughter...

Then there was the commenter, Christopher Pratt who wrote, in response:

"I like this because travel is such a good experience, enriching an enlightening, but I would add -

-First, that those who come to North America and Europe from elsewhere also have 'AH HA' moments where they go, 'oooohhhh' and the lightbulb goes on, this has been happening everyday for a millennium since the first visitors from elsewhere came to our shores.

-Second (emphasis mine) , don't go anywhere just to see what's there, different, better or worse - that approach is demeaning to all.  Rather go everywhere looking for anomalies, not just between your home and the place you go, but in and among how things are done there and see them as opportunities, appreciate them and respect them, think about what this contributes to the potential for the entire world and how you can help be a part of that. 

-While the cities mentioned are nice places to visit and see other cultures, with many differences and similarities, I recommend going to Prishtina, HAnoi, Glasgow, Belfast, St. Petersburg, Russia, Wounded Knee, Gettysburg, Cairo, Warsaw, Heisinki, Vancouver, St. John's, Newfoundland, Mesa Verde, Ghana, Latvia, Estonia, Jordan, Morocco, Malaysia, Mongolia, Kit Carson National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, New Zealand, the Continental Divide, Algeria, Brazil, Portugal, but do not stay in the cities - go to the countryside on the train and the river.

-Stay a while and meet people, eat, drink, sing, dance, walk, drive, talk, listen, look for patterns of similarities and differences, understand, enjoy and when you move on or come home, stay in touch with people there, and help connect people from one place to those you meet in other places.

-Go back and do it all over again...

Set on repeat.

Parting Thoughts and Ponderings

I have a post to share, upcoming, that will possibly give you some insight into this thread I find stitched to me and this little place over the ocean.  It is more than a mere 'vacation'.  I want a few days to work on that post.  I can't wait to share it.

In the mean time, I thought about all that I learned, and yet still want to learn about that crescent-moon shaped patch of cocoa-colored sand.

Here are a few of my ah-ha's and wonderings:

1.  It is confirmed: to establish complete mental and physical, spiritual and emotional health, I need to see large sections of the sky.
2.  They have lightning bugs (aka - fireflies) in Nicaragua!!!
3.  I could potentially grow mango, papaya and bananas right outside my door...this amazes me.
4.  Papaya is a natural stomach settler.  If you have a bit of a tummy issue, papaya is good for what ails the stomach.
5.  However, papaya can also be dangerous - its oils on the outer layer or the seeds, can cause allergic reaction and illness.  Particularly if a howler monkey flings said fruit at you from a tree (story from one of the guests where we stayed.)
6.  You know how (some of you that may pay even the remotest of attention) the air from a ceiling fan while sleeping causes me to burrow under 6 layers of blankets in my self-constructed igloo?  It has to do with the air conditioning because I was perfectly content to splay across the bed under a thin sheet (or not), oscillating fan mingled with the Pacific breezes coming in through the open windows. The air didn't bother me one bit.   I have found the temperatures that suit me best.
7. Note to self - in all my observations of people and cultures, pay attention to what the 'norm' is for attire.  I noticed that most of the women in town (the locals) wore skirts, or jeans or capris (and longer shorts to the knees).  I was reminded of my daughter's trips to Guatemala and the requirement to find cool and comfortable capris to cover the legs.  So are Central American men leg men,  apparently? It would stand to reason now...see #8
8.  Do not take a short cut through the intersection where the taxi drivers wait in your bathing suit bottoms/running shorts.  Not if you want to feel clean and fully clothed by the time you  make it through the crossing...Me(mumbling to Hubs): oh geez, I feel 14 sets of eyes boring into my calves right about now.  Gah - are they gawking?  Hubs (said from behind me): "oh yeah.  Checking you out."  Cripes.
When the locals wear skirts/knee-length attire, follow suit.
9.Who needs a brush?  Around Day 4 or 5 I was rifling through my suitcase and discovered, "Huh. There's my brush.  I haven't dragged that thing through my head since I got here.  Oh well."  I'd wash it, comb it through with my wooden, wide-toothed comb and let it air dry.  I'm fond of wash n- wear hair.  So on around Day 4-5 I snapped a rare shot of me with said air dry hair.  My naturally stick- straight locks find their inner sassy curl in the air of salt and sea.

S'cuse the shiny, bare-faced sheen.  It's hot, I tell ya.  

10.  Found a new author to explore further.  I read this:

 from Randy's shelves of 'not an exchange' book borrow.  Found a kindred wandering gypsy, who happens to write about it.

These are his other books that will find their way into my hands at some point, particularly A Walk in the Woods which is his account of his Appalachian Trail experience, which starts practically at my front door.

11.  I love trying out the Spanish language, and I am determined in this next year to somehow get lessons and learn it.  I found myself repeating words and phrases, like a little kid with brand new vocabulary, yet much too big for his tongue.  It felt both like a first kiss from a lover's mouth and like trying to hold multiple pins between lips - all enthralling and new with longing for more. 

12.

From the top of my unbrushed head to the tips of my toes pointed west, I found home away from home.  Or maybe I've found 'home'.  Upon leaving, the howler monkeys sang us 'farewell'.

la colección

I am trying to finish up sharing quips and photos.  I have a story to tell (an upcoming post) and need some time to get that one pulled together.  So I am going to try and wrap up in these next couple of posts of our time in Nicaragua - and hope to entice you to go.

I can't get enough of the vibrant color found all around...

...even on the crabs that are everywhere .  I was fond of making up crab commentary as I chased them down the street, their little claw hands up in the air as if to say, "hey, hey, hey senóra...back off or I'll have to peench you."

Loved this shot of the colors against the white.  Not sure what those are - towels?

Jesus en ti confio - Jesus, I trust in thee.

View of the bay from the statue

A sampling of one of Randy's shell/coral collections to explore...or capture

These trees beguiled me, and on the day I decided to stop and snap a shot, this horse posed.  Right in front of it. I know.  I was speechless.

On one of the days, we trekked around on the development where our property is located.  This house belongs to the guy that conjures up all the challenges and games on the show, Survivor.  We perched on this veranda, catching our breath, and shots of sailboats in the distance.

On the last night, we went to a little Mediterranean restaurant called El Colibri.  Fabulous food.  Magical atmosphere.  Out-of-this-world sangria.

This little garden may just find its copycat version one day on the hill not far from here...

The restaurant with all its lights aglow, happily churning away on the generator...

...and the restaurant by candlelight when the power goes out.  Carry patience and sense of 'roll with it' when you visit here.  There can be intense beauty found when the lights go out.

Husband and wife team delivering firewood from their wagon.

Traffic jam...
I hope I can get about in a horse and buggy when I settle in there...heeeyah.