Good-bye, 2018. You won't be missed. Not entirely.

I'm going to share something incredibly real and raw with you all.  I don't think being vulnerable is necessarily a BAD thing, but it is not something that I'M entirely comfortable with, so bear with me.

As 2018 comes to a close, I have done a LOT of reflection on how things went.  The ebb and flow of life, as a whole.

Rite of Acceptance yesterday.

I'm still trying to process what yesterday was as a whole, but I have something to show you.  Yesterday, as I mentioned in my previous post, was the Rite of Acceptance for us who are participating in the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) classes to become a Catholic.  We were brought formally before the congregation as either a Candidate for Confirmation or as a Catechumen (someone who's not been baptized yet).

Philosophy, Auntie-Grannie!, and other ponderings...

Here I am. I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo next month, and I'm really excited. I've been taking my time getting things in order, and so far, it's going well. A few days ago, I reached out to the people in charge of my program and I've asked if I can hold off taking the next course before the big Capstone project until December. I want to have time (and energy) for both work AND play. Not that I really go anywhere interesting in my 'off' times, but nonetheless. :)

Halloween - History and its cultural changes

One of the oldest holidays known throughout human civilization, Halloween dates back some many thousands of years.  In the Celtic culture, it's called Samhain (pronounced sow-ain), and in Roman culture, it was commonly known as 'Pomona Day.'    In the Celt tradition, it was the celebration of the ending of summer and the beginning of harvesting as well as the dark, cold winter, which was commonly associated with human death.  Dark, right?

There's a vast difference in pronunciation of 'Samhain' and Halloween, and a lot of us aren't really farmers that need to harvest anything, right, so let's take a look at why Halloween is, well, Halloween.

Why isn't the kettle sounding off...?

Alright, so the world needs laughter.  Desperately.  Please, allow me to be a contributing factor to such comedic relief!

Alright, lovelies.

They say ‘truth is stranger than fiction,’ and some of the best stories start out with, ‘No bullshit, I was there!’

So, I’ve decided to do a little something different. This was inspired by the SECOND time I’ve attempted to cook something and it didn’t go quite as planned (at first). I’m starting a new series, and I’m going to call it ‘The Blonde Chef’ - bounced this idea off of a pretty close friend of mine and she encouraged me to do it. So, here we are.

Gather ‘round the spatula, children, and I, I will tell you the tale of a crockpot and a FryDaddy.

Ready?

Recommitting to my art, to myself.

I love books. I love the texture of paper in my hands, I love the sound of opening a brand new hardcover and hearing that satisfying crack of the spine, like it’s waking up and saying, ‘Oh, hello there!’ I love words, I love that we can take 26 letters and arrange them in such a way they make words, and words can be strung together to make a sentence.

It's preview time. :)

To make it up to you about the sad state of things at present - my constant absentee-ism... - I'm going to share something with you that if I don't do it NOW, I'll NEVER do it, so here we are.

I ask for three things:
1 - you do not judge too harshly.  This is my first-ever attempt at writing in this genre.  This is also a RAW copy.  As in, it is not edited yet, and this is just right off the cuff.  Well, I had started hand-writing it, but I want to share it, so I had to type it out.
2 - DO NOT pirate this.  I will find you, and it will not bode well for you!
3 - If you share it, understand that this is INTELLECTUAL COPYRIGHT TO ME, as it is MY brainchild.

A formal apology from an insomniac.

Ya gotta have goals, kid!

Recently, my friend, Rebeka, mentioned to me that she’s wanting to make a plan for her writing, plotting her novel and making things easier to write.

Well, Rebeka, and of course anyone else reading this, I really can’t help much in that department, but I can help with something else on that front: Making sure you have a way to make a goal for yourself to at least write something.

Being a rainbow when everything's black and white.

Recently, I had someone come to me and ask for advice on how to survive. Specifically, how to come ‘out’ to the family about their sexual orientation. This person has expressed concern about having been previously treated as a pariah, sending this person – not compassionately – to counseling as a way to ‘purge’ this information from this person.

This… is a delicate matter. There are a lot of people who don’t agree with this lifestyle, and there are a lot who do. It’s been a constant source of contention for many, many years, probably centuries. But, sticking with the modern era, and with some of the crusty old political types trying to force us back into the 1950s, well, I can see the concern as being quite valid.

Colour is all around us, but... Where do the different names come from?

Colours. Everywhere we look, our vision is assaulted with a riot of colour, screaming and demanding our attention. Whether it’s that guy at the post office rocking the especially LOUD Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts, right down to the socks full of holes poking out of his sandals, to the colourful packaging that holds our favourite things we purchase at the grocery store, there’s literally zero escape.

Love hurts when it ends. But, why?

Love. There are varying definitions of that word, but I want to talk about romantic love, and specifically, why does it hurt so much when a relationship ends?

My niece asked me to try to answer this question. I told her I would do my best. I won’t go into the specifics behind her reason, but I will say that there’s not been one person I know who HASN’T gone through the blistering heartache of a breakup. We all have, regardless of how amicable (and in some cases, toxic) it was.

Alright, so here we go.

'The Devil beating his wife' - what does that even mean?!

I don’t know about you, but I use a lot of really old (and sometimes cliche’ [don’t judge me!]) phrases and sayings.

For example: last week, my neighbour and I were sitting on her patio talking, and it was raining. At one point, while it was still raining, the clouds opened up, and my neighbour commented, ‘Oh, no. The Devil’s beating his wife now! The sun came out and it’s still raining!’ We sat and watched the weather shift a little and she and I pondered about the origin of that statement. How did it even come about? WHY would someone say such a thing? The devil wasn’t ever married … was he? Is he? I don’t think so. Given what he is (species), as far as I’M aware, there’s no such thing as marriage for him or any other angels.

Earworms - Frustrations of the human brain!

Let’s talk about earworms. You know what earworms are, right? If not, let me sum it up for you:

Earworms are those little fragments of a song (sometimes just irritating theme music from bad telly programming) that get stuck in your head, seemingly on a never-ending loop. No matter HOW HARD you try, you can’t seem to shake it. Like right now, I’ve got that annoying song, ‘Shake it off’ in my head, just because I said ‘shake it’ in the previous sentence. See how easily they can be triggered? Yeah, I know you get it. I see that look in your eyes, that look that says, ‘Oh, yeah, I getcha, girl. I am right there with you!’

I think Amazon's trying to kill me.

Awhile back, I'd found this book available on the Kindle store for pre-order about Helen Keller. Now, I remember a bit about her when I was a kid, I used to have a little book about her that I was OBSESSED WITH. I read it till it fell apart. You could ask me any factoid about her, and I probably knew. Now? Notsomuch.

Hello!!!

Hello, faithful people of the blog! So, it's been a few weeks. I had some serious changes happen, as you can tell from the new URL link. But wait! There's more!

I know, it's been awhile... I'm sorry!

I know it's been a little bit, faithful followers of the blog.  I've got an announcement, so you're well and truly informed BEFORE the big change takes place, so as to avoid confusion (hopefully).

It's time we get serious about our fun, people.

Alright, boys and girls, let's take a moment to talk about a little something with big, serious, and weighty consequences.  Bullying.  Specifically, in this case, AUTHOR BULLYING.

No one likes to be picked on or attacked.  Growing up, as children we tested the proverbial waters of what is, and is not, socially alright.  Regardless of what isn't alright, though, sometimes there are those people who do cross the line and say or even do terrible things to their fellow humans for whatever ridiculous reason that drives them to ugly behaviour.  Bullying, in any form, is NOT alright.  PERIOD.

DIY MFA Prompt #2 - Honouring My Reality

This isn't an easy one, but it must be addressed.

Origins of a Word Nerd: My Story

Hello out there, readers!  I'm going to try a little something different for the next few weeks.  A lady whose blog I follow, DIY MFA, has started this really neat book club thing, and I'm going to use the prompts she shares as a jumping off point for blog posts (who knows what will evolve after that, am I right?).

The first one is how I got started writing.

Alright.  Here's a 'coffee thought' that hit me yesterday while I was putting my recipe for chili for dinner last night.