Words

I have been trying to carve out some time to write. I have words to say, but no direction in how to say them. And when that happens, I journal write or blog...so here I am. I want to write a book, I want to restart my current script, and I want to re-write my finished script, but all of these things take somewhat of a clear mind and little distraction. I also want to read the 4 books I have going right now, I want to paint my cute Halloween and holiday wood cutouts that I have sitting in my workshop waiting for me to play with. I also want to spend some quality time with my family. It is Fall Break this week at the U and Scott has the week off from school. I think I just have too much that I am wanting to do and it is overwhelming me. So plans, plans...I need to make a list!

On a different note, its a beautiful day!

Thursday's Word of the Day: Compassion

Today I have been thinking a lot about compassion and taking responsibility for the things that you say. Sometimes it is fun to be snarky, or to crack a non-pc joke. I do it, lots of people do it. However, I think that it is important to realize that while you think what you are saying won't hurt anyone, chances are when you say it in a public forum, you will hurt someone.

All I am saying is that a little compassion can go a long way. There is this great commercial from Liberty Mutual about responsibility. There are people who see other people struggling, or who have dropped something of value to them and then how people are responsible (compassionate) and help the people they see in need. It may not be a big deal to you, but it may mean the world to the person you are helping.

Ok, sounds preachy, but really I think that there is something to be admired about posessing the compassion quality. > I have been working on this my whole life and I hope that one day, that will be a trait that makes up me.

Happy Thursday!

PS - I got the Admin job over in Humanities! HOORAY!

October Already...

I have a TON of garden pics to post, but more importantly I have a job interview tomorrow. It's at SLCC in the Humanities Dept. for an Admin I. I am STOKED! I hope I get it because we need this so much. To be continued...

4 Year Anniversary

This past weekend, Scott and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It seems insane to think that it's gone that fast, and that we have been together for that long. We stayed in Las Vegas at the Cancún Resort, which is on the strip about 4 miles south of Mandalay Bay where we got married. We swam, gambled, caught up on movies and enjoyed each others company. Only thing is we missed our baby like CRAZY! All in all it was a fun trip, and it was super fun to walk in the door at my mom and dad in law's and have my little monkey run to me and give me a giant hug and kiss :) Love that little girl so much! Pics soon <3

Green Thumb...TBD

Finally! Finally the garden has been tilled and the seeds and little plants are in the ground! Happy Summer!

Cherry Tomatoes

Chives

Bell Peppers

All three

Before

In progress...

Still in progress...

Finished!!

The bounty!

We also planted a strawberry plant, and I am hoping to get some potatoes in there somewhere. We shall see!!

The garden....

...is growing!

Now I hope this weeked I can tear all the weeds out of the veggie garden and get the seeds in my greenhouse project. If only it would stop raining!!

I am so excited to get this garden going. We got our trees in the ground, so the veggies are next! And I will be tearing out the enormously ugly bean shaped planter in the middle of my yard and making it a pretty small planter around our gorgeous maple. Exciting!

Also, I made our moms a hand painted herbal tea garden window box, and I am now obsessed with tea. YUM....

Are you there, Universe? It's me, Cherie.

I want to be a stay at home mom who does side projects for the hell of it. Make it happen. GO!

How does your garden grow...?

Mine hasn't grown in anyway yet, but I bought some cute little potted plants from Target yesterday. They are tiny! I got cherry tomatoes, chives and sweet peppers.

I have also been eyeing some strawberry and raspberry plants, and as soon as this damn weather clears up, I will be a gardening fool!

Also got some butterfly and hummingbird flower seeds to put in my front yard, so I will update on that too :) I plan on ripping out the middle section that is currently shaped like a bean and a pain in my ass. I want to put grass seed down and then put one large tree for shade. I may even transplant my desert garden to the south where the control boxes are because we can't mow there anyway.

Fam update - All is well and we are looking forward to going to Vegas in 5 weeks! Much needed vacation!

Happy Thursday!

Gardening with a black thumb...

So I have the cutest little patch of dirt out in my backyard. I asked my sweet husband to dig it up for me last year so that I could have a vegetable garden. Well, that was a good idea except I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to gardening. The season started out promising, I had planted green onions, pumpkins, peas, carrots and squash. I only had peas. Lots and LOTS and LOTS of peas. I couldn't kill the damn things. Well, I also had a tomato plant from Mother's Day and I think I got about 3 tomatoes, maybe 4 from it. Anyway, I have this plan to use these mini soda bottles to put them in. I can't decide if I want to try them topsy turvy style, (the topsy turvy was born from a design with 2 liter soda bottles) or if I want to plant them right side up and just use the plastic for a mini green house effect. Maybe I should try both? Yesterday I bought pumpkin, corn and onion seeds. I want to grow tomatoes, maybe romaine or iceberg lettuce, strawberries and maybe some raspberries along with the pumpkins, corn and onions. I am going to try to take pictures and keep a mini blog of how my lil garden progresses, or not. It will be fun to do this with Josie. She is big enough now to play in the yard while I weed and tend to the plants. Now if it would just get warm!!! Happy Spring (kinda)!!

WTF?!

I took time to make an appointment to go down to SCORE this morning because I have been toying with the idea of buying a salon, or starting a salon on my own. To do this I need financing. So I made an appointment to meet with a counselor at SCORE. I don't have a business plan made up, I set this up to be a "help me find my way" type meeting, and it was an EPIC FAIL on their part. The lady smiled at me like I am a stupid hair stylist, and that how sweet of me to come in looking for help. She gave me no helpful insight other than write a business plan. I needed help! So I went to get it! I hate conplacent people! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!



Now, more than before, I am determined to get this fucking thing off the ground. Bring it.

Thank the gods...

So I had a really great breakthrough this week. I finally figured out how to combine two of my screenplays and I am so excited! It finally just came together after a looooong prewriting process that left me feeling like I had all these plans and blueprints, but nowhere to put them. Like trying to fit together puzzle pieces from 10 different puzzles. But finally I deciced to stop making it harder than it is and voila! I have a really great start, I think.

Also, we had a breakthrough with Josie. We have had a really hard time getting her to sleep through the night, and even for more than 15 minutes at a time. Her teeth really bother her and she just hasn't been feeling all that great. So last night she and I colored and then when Scott got home they ran around the living room and played. Afterwards, I put her to sleep in the usual routine, but I had swiped the play yard from my MIL and set it up in our bedroom. After 2 attempts at sleeping in her crib, I put her down, somewhat sleepy but still awake in the play yard, and you know what? She slept. She slept all night long. It was bliss.

Speaking of...I better get some shut eye too...Night.

Stuck in the mud

I am so pissy today. I feel like such a lost little loser. I have no direction, I don't have anything that I can call mine that I am proud of career-wise. I don't have a career. I work part-time, I don't have time for anything and I am sleep deprived. Fuck My Life today. Seriously piss poor attitude. S I G H.

I need a vacation to clear my head, get me out of the state, and figure out what I am going to do with myself.

S O S

Writing, writing, block block block

I am writing a screenplay in a genre that I don't usually like or lean to. It's a sci-fi and I love my concept, but my execution SUCKS! I can write a lead in and it works wonderfully, but then when it comes to expansion, I am stuck. I want it to be great, but I want it to be great now, and if anyone knows my adopted writing philosophy from Anne Lamott, it's "Shitty First Drafts." This means that you just sit, and you write. You write whatever comes to mind and no matter how bad it is, you just keep pushing ahead until you get what you need out of you. Then you go over it with a fine toothed comb and you fix the things that don't work, and you rewrite the awkward passages and you restructure if that is what you need.

So why am I not taking my own advice? Good damn question!!! I had a revelation the other day. I was in the car and I was driving to who knows where and it hit me: I am done with school right now. I was taking classes, feeling my way in the dark because I was lost. I didn't know what to do and I thought that if I went back to school, it would be this gleaming beautiful beacon that would lead me to my true destiny. Did that happen? Um no. What did happen, you ask? Well, I read a lot of books, I learned that I think that technical writing is kinda fun, but not for me, that I loathe grammar, that I am okish at prose writing, but at the center of my being, I am a screenwriter and a writer therefore. So what does it all mean?! That I need to stop dicking around, wasting my time doing homework, and I need to write. And I mean NEED. This is something that is an outlet, and I was losing my grasp on good screenwriting.

So I am going to chase this dream down until I make it mine. Then the sky's the limit. Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land in the stars.

Seriously? What the hell?

I just read an article from seattlepi.com about how the government has voted to continue to fund advertisements on NASCAR stock cars. While on the other hand, they are content with killing funding for Planned Parenthood. Are you fucking joking? What the hell is wrong with this world that we can justify advertising but we just can't justify a health facility that helps people who have to no money to get care where they need it the most? Guess what folks, just because you stop funding it, doesn't mean people are going to stop having sex, or using condoms, or getting birth control, or having abortions, or getting PAP SMEARS!! The only thing you are doing is making the treatment of STDs go down, the use and purchase of condoms/birth control by young people go down, therefore creating MORE teen mothers. Is that your ultimate goal? Really? Are you ok with young people resorting to using hangers for abortion because they couldn't afford to go anywhere or they were scared to go somewhere they might be recognized to get an abortion? That they just screw without a prophylactic? The only thing you are creating and endorsing is irresponsibility. Does Planned Parenthood prevent all of these things? Not necessarily, but it does give youth a sense of anonymity when trying to be responsible and making the right choice FOR THEM. You do not need to parent these people or any of us people into your moral corral. We can make our own choices and we don't need you to do that for us.

Another day...

I told myself today that I would be a productive girl and take studious notes from my nutrition book, but instead I find myself putting together a book club through goodreads.com. It is now 3:00 PM and I have pretty much accomplished nothing, but a book club! I guess that's something, right?

Josie scared me on Valentine's night. She was standing in the living room, Scott was there playing a video game, and I was in the kitchen mashing potatoes, when we hear this giant thud and then screaming. Scott scooped her up and I guess she fell straight back and hit her head. She was shaking and doing that scary little kid cry where they don't breath for what seems like minutes and I about lost it. Scott kept telling me to calm down, but my baby was not ok! We checked her whole body for bumps, her mouth for blood and her pupil dilation to make sure she didn't have a concussion. Everything checked out but the rest of the night she sat with me and wouldn't let me put her down.
This made me realize 2 things:

1- I need to not freak out when scary things happen to her
2- I need to make a better effort to spend fun playing times with my girl

She has such a funny little personality. And she is getting so many teeth and when she laughs, she shows all her teeth. God I love her more than anything. My little Peanut.