Writing as a job

Not as easy as I thought it would be. When I started this blog on Friday night, I was certain that the momentum would kick in, that I wouldn't need much of a push, that I would sit in front of the laptop and the words would fire away. Sitting at the community centre now on Sunday morning, with 1 child in dance class and 1 child working on an activity book waiting to go swimming, I am getting increasingly frustrated with how I can't conjure up delightful poetic images to appease a reader's palate. I stopped to send a quick email to someone to let her know about my blog. Now really, if I want people to read this, I'd better have substantial text to back it up.

"I don't know what to write about," I said to my husband. He replied, "You don't know what to write about?" and went back to reading his newspaper. I am blessed to have such bountiful wisdom at my fingertips. As the words hit the page, I let out my best witch cackle, which of course got his attention. We need to give husband a name. A few possibilities crossed my mind and then I decided on Mr. Unfazed. Over the years, my life partner has shown that he is not easily fazed by things.
A groan of frustration escapes me and I look around at the community centre to ensure that I haven't scared anyone too much. Perhaps I should just record the events naturally as they come and then my writing will evolve as I get more and more practice.

Let's start with this morning. My 3-year old, we'll call her Spitfire, has dance class starting at 8:30am. Her 5-year old sister, we'll call her LittleLady, has swimming starting at 9am. That means that we'd better be up by 7:30am to ensure bellies are fed, clothes are on and Mr. Unfazed and I have had our morning joe. Who am I kidding? Mr. Unfazed usually hits a Tim Horton's once Spitfire is in class. But I'm getting ahead of myself. At 7:35am, Mr. Unfazed wakes me up saying, "It's 7:35" (he has such a gift to state facts of a painfully obvious nature), "...and you said you wanted to be up at this time." I did indeed say that the night before. I said it because I wanted time to pass through the McDonald's drive-thru. I blame it on those new commercials with their bouncy, dance-friendly jingle. Yup that's it. The commercials. LittleLady enters the room groggy and unwilling to start her day. "I'm too tired", she exclaims as her hit heads the pillow and her eyes are shut tight. Hmm...I think...what to do to rouse LittleLady? "I'm going to give you a back rub to help wake you up gently", I say to her. She doesn't respond but doesn't yelp as I gave her a massage. I then whispered in her ear, "The sooner you wake up, the sooner we can go to the McDonald's drive-thru." LittleLady is unimpressed and lets out an "ehhh." This task will not be as easy as I had thought.

Stopped to get Spitfire ready for her swimming class at another community centre.
Will write more after doing some project management course work. It's an online course and I only have access to the content for another 14 days. eep.

5 minutes

Five minutes. That's all I'm allowing for this blog entry. Then I need to stop. Ceremoniously, ok, unceremoniously shut down the computer and get ready for my Afternoon Tea today. For me, getting ready, is a multi-pronged endeavour. It's not just making raspberry scones or ensuring that my Royal Albert English Country Roses set is ready for use. It's also about setting a mood in the home. I start by ensuring that I'm happy in the home. If there's laundry to be done, I must toss it in. The humming and faint smells of detergent that sometimes permeate through soothe and invigorate me. That provides me with a sense of purpose. Same goes for a running dishwasher. That too gets me going. I guess I work better with noise. Something I always knew as a young student but had a hard time convincing teachers and parents of that. Another rule for blogging as I ramble along is that I'm not allowed to edit. I did edit earlier but I will stop now. I hear my email dinging and my blinged up Blackberry (a picture for another day) buzzing. I've got one minute left. My 3-year old, pretending to be a baby (role play), is screaming. When we ask her what's wrong, she says, "Wah wah." She stoppped. 5 minutes are up.

The Untidy Kitchen

I look nervously over my shouler, in fear of being caught. I know that I've been naughty. I have a friend coming over tomorrow and my kitchen remains untidy and somewhat uncleaned. I look back again to the stove where the baking tray has a couple more coconut lime macaroons (they're tasty, trust me) and am tempted to eat another macaroon, surf Facebook and basically shirk any real responsibility at the moment. Keeping this blog will be a good thing for me, I think. Now I'm accountable. Now I'm putting my naughtiness out for the world to see. It will make me more responsible. I almost LOL at that one. And no, I haven't been drinking. Off to clean.

It's time to stop hiding

I have time on my hands now. Or at least that's what I've told myself. It's been over 3 months since I was laid off from my job with an insurance company. Since then it's been a ride. I've thrown myself into cooking classes, sometimes fitness (not so good about that one but I do love zumba!), Toastmasters (I had started with my previous employer and there was no way I was going to stop!), a project management course (ends in 16 days, eep!), even attempted to join a writer's group (went to 1 meeting and everything, or as George Lopez would say, y todo) and getting my driver's license. I'm almost 35 years old and do not have a driver's license. Don't know how I've managed (actually yes, I do, public transit and charitable rides from friends and family). So now I'm going for it. I've been up to my eyeballs today in G1 online practice tests. OK. I exaggerate.

But I have gone through a lot of online practice tests.

I guess my inspiration to make a serious attempt to blog came from watching Julie and Julia. How ingenious was that?! To cook recipes out of a book and write about it. Love it. Simple and beautiful.

But I'm rambling and am going nowhere. I guess for now, I'll stop. Finish cleaning my kitchen of the macaroon mess. Made coconut lime macaroons. Learned the recipe in a Thai cooking class this past week. Even made pad thai last night. So proud of that one.

ciao, will write again, I promise