25 Random Things About CoffeeJitters

  1. I collect teapots but I’ve never been a big tea drinker.
  2. I just realized that when my as-of-yet-unborn daughter reaches my current age, I will be 76.
  3. This makes me want to grow very old.
  4. I can wiggle my nose.
  5. One of my earliest memories is catching my Dad putting sugar on his breakfast cereal.  This was strictly verboten in our home.
  6. I realized my Dad was a mere mortal rather than a super hero when I was about 9.  I went to visit him at his office and discovered that while he rendered his drawings with a regular no. 2 pencil (he was an architect), he used an electric eraser for erasing things.
  7. Once when I was six my grandfather let me hold the wheel in his Cessna while we were flying over the Butte.  He didn’t even let go of the wheel, but you will never convince me that I was not actually flying that plane.
  8. I have been face to face with a bear in the wilderness.  Luckily he just brushed right on past me as though I would be a waste of his time.
  9. I tend to notice things that others walk on by.  Sometimes this makes me incredibly lucky.  Often this makes me easily distracted.
  10. I crave quiet so much that I rarely listen to music.
  11. I’m a mess.  My house is a mess.  It doesn’t matter what day you are reading this.
  12. I suck at small talk.  I can unwittingly offend someone just by talking about the weather.
  13. I’m a rebel.
  14. What I’m rebelling against varies from day to day but usually involves someone who sees everything in binary terms.
  15. I am an introvert.  It takes a lot of effort and courage for me to reach out and interact with others.
  16. I love to cook.
  17. Someday I would like to write a cookbook, but I seldom measure and never cook the same dish exactly the same way twice.
  18. My husband waited till two weeks after our wedding to start learning to play the bagpipes.
  19. My husband is the most fascinating person I have ever met and it completely turns me on that he can speak in Spanish, Tajik, Farsi, and Arabic (ever seen A Fish Called Wanda?)
  20. I’m simultaneously overjoyed and terrified about becoming a mom.
  21. I am related to President McKinley.
  22. Now that I’m back in school and spending 6+ hours a day reading, I miss reading for enjoyment.
  23. I love old fashioned homemade chocolate chip cookies.
  24. I get annoyed when old fashioned homemade chocolate chip cookies have too many chocolate chips.  Why would I utter such blasphemy?  There is a balance.  I love chocolate, but chocolate chips are relatively easy to come by.  But the cookie part, the subtlety of the combination of butter, brown sugar and vanilla is magic and can easily be overpowered by all the chocolate.
  25. I appreciate subtlety.
Book Review: Writer Mama: how to raise a writing career alongside your kids

Book Review: Writer Mama: how to raise a writing career alongside your kids

Have you ever thought about making a living as a writer?  That thought has been a constant companion of mine for the past 25 years.  Yes, 25 years, and it was just about exactly one year ago that I actually started doing something about it.writer mama by Christina Katz

Now with a little one on the way, I wondered if that dream would need to be postponed yet again.  I really shouldn’t be so quick to sacrifice my dreams yet again to cater to the needs of everyone else around me.  One of the things I most want to provide for my daughter is a good example.  I want my daughter to grow up looking up to a mother who is loving and kind and attentive, yes, but also self-actualized, intellectually stimulated, self-sufficient, engaging, happy, and living up to her potential.  I want to provide this example to my daughter because I wish these traits for her (in addition to the fact that I’m worth it, dammit).

Writer Mama, by Christina Katz, talks about how to get a writing career off the ground while you have small children in tow: start small while babies absorb so much of your attention and grow your business as your children gain greater degrees of independence and self-sufficiency.

Topics covered in the book include (among many others):

  • how to manage writing time around caring for children
  • how to deal with the “clips catch-22,” or how to get published if you’ve never been published
  • the business of writing: queries, article submissions, contracts, negotiations
  • managing your home and while managing your writing business
  • how to conduct interviews
  • editing and polishing your work

One of the hardest things to deal with for many who work from home, not just moms, is the fact that others tend to disrespect the time of the home worker.   When people pack up their briefcase and head off to the office, that work time is respected and to some extent, even sacred.  Those working from home seldom get the same respect unless they are very clear about setting their boundaries with others in advance.

Because of People Who Don’t Get It, if you are not good at setting boundaries with adults and children, you’re going to need to start practicing.  I suggest you start sooner rather than later. If you wait until you have a deadline looming to try to convince family members that your work matters and that you deserve support in gettting it done, you will be sorry (and probably late with your work too).

I’m really appreciating this book.  It is well organized so specific topical information is easy to find.  I suspect I will be consulting it regularly over the coming months and years.

FTC Disclosure: affiliate links were used in this post.

Bleeding Espresso makes it to finalist round in the 2009 Bloggies

Bleeding Espresso makes it to finalist round in the 2009 Bloggies

My friend Michelle of Bleeding Espresso has made it to the finalist round for the 2009 Bloggies in the Best European Blog category.

Michelle Fabio, an American writer and attorney leaves the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania for her family’s ancestral village in Calabria, Italy, falls in love, gets two dogs, writes to her heart’s content and begins bleeding espresso. No, really.

Bleeding Espresso is one of my favorite blogs with wonderful recipes, beautiful photography and great articles that give us a taste of Italy, a taste of America, and anything else that sets her heart on fire. Stop by her blog and then stop by the bloggies and give her a vote.

 

Retail Therapy: “I’m a little teapot…”

I ran away to the mall a couple days ago.  Everything was coming at me from every direction and I was in need of some retail therapy.  Problem is, I have neither time nor money at the moment.  Then I somehow silenced the nagging “you don’t have time for this…” long enough to find myself at a part of the mall populated by baby stores.

I’ve been trying very hard to avoid spending my money on baby stuff.  I know the time will come when I have no choice, but now is not the time.  We’re moving and we’re broke.  If I’m going to spend any money I need to spend it on things we really need, like a stroller or diapers or one of those blue bulb thingies you shove up the baby’s nose to get the snot out.

This is not the kind of thing I need to be spending my money on:

teapot-lamp

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I collect teapots – but a $79 teapot lamp…  It took my breath away.  I stopped to take a picture of it in the store and I don’t do that.  I just sat there and looked at it for quite a while.  It’s so impractical. But I love it.

Finally I tore myself away and poked around a little longer until I found the one thing that there was no way I would be able to leave the store without.

teapot-toy

A stuffed teapot.  On sale.  $5.

I foresee a future full of tea parties.