Mood:  blue

1. Who lets you have your way more than you should?  my husband lol
2. According to the cliche, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but what’s the way to yours? basically just take care of me.
3. What’s something that should have been put away but hasn’t been? oh gosh...the pile of stuff on the end table
4. When did you last weigh yourself? last time i was at the doctor
5. What do the cops in the donut shop say? way-o-way-o way-ay-ay-o-o-way-o walk like an egyptian!!!!!!

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 12:38 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

writing was difficult yesterday :(

mcdreamy, my husband, came in after i'd written about six lines or so (this was my morning pages, which is about the only writing i'm doing right now) and wanted me to take care of the baby while he went to the bathroom.

gah!  all i want is 30-45 minutes of uninterrupted time in the morning (or afternoon/evening if i don't wake up in time; i'm trying to be more flexible about this) to write.  i try not to ask for more right now because i want to make sure i do my share to help take care of the baby.

more later... :(

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 12:13 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  happy

i entered an essay contest my dear friend larry was having...and i WON A COPY OF JUICY PENS, THIRSTY PAPER.  i doubt it will get here by the time the blogging contest is over but i am so 'cited!!!!!!!!!!!

whoo higgity hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love~

elizabeth

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 7:16 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  cheeky

well, my beloved susan ariel rainbow kennedy (aka sark) is having a blogging contest relating to her new book, which releases, today, "juicy pens, thirsty paper."

i sooooooooooooooooo want this book.  i haven't gotten it yet.  but i plan to.

the contest deals with how we write and how sark fits into that.

i started keeping a journal in 2001.  the journal i wrote in was "sark's journal and play! book"

(i need another copy because my beautiful autographed copy was auctioned out of my storage unit :( )

as i started to read more of sark's books, they inspired me to read more books.  the most profound influence on my writing i think has been julia cameron's "the artist's way."  i have had an on and off relationship with her "morning pages" for five years now (gosh, i can't BELIEVE it's been that long).

i also discovered SARK's "Marvelous Message Board."  there is a wise, wonderful, and wacky woman who posted there (and still posts on the sarkforum at free forums.org) named DeNisey.  she turned me onto nanowrimo, or national novel writing month.  i wrote three novels in three consecutive novembers.

last november, i was finishing the first trimester of pregnancy and could barely get out of bed i was so tired all day.  so i didn't complete a novel then.  got in about fifteen hundred words.

so all because back in the mid-90s i bought a poster about how to be an artist, and then bought a journal, i've done all this writing.

thank you, dear SARK.

elizabeth

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 5:37 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink

Mood:  not sure

So I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity ever since my dear friend Larry announced that he was having an essay contest about it.   (Some of the prizes include copies of SARK’s new book, Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, which I am salivating over and know I won’t be able to purchase my own copy of for quite some time.

Primarily, my thoughts about creativity have focused on what role creativity has been playing in my life lately and what role I’d like it to play in the future.

I’ve been at a bit of a crossroads in my life lately.  I just became a mom two and a half months ago.  I feel an enormous, sometimes overwhelming, amount of responsibility to my daughter.  It’s my job to make sure she is aware of everything that’s positive and possible in this wonder*full world in which we live.  And it’s my responsibility to finally, finally be healthy.  There is nothing left for me to take care of my daughter if I don’t fill my own well first.  And that’s where the creativity comes in.

I want to create a life that I love so that I have over-spilling joy to share with Melanie.

This includes…

• getting to the root of why I cut.  I never, ever, want to cut in front of my daughter.  This is going to involve therapy for a looooooooooong time and probably dialectical behavior therapy.
• listening to music that I enjoy.
• investigating life coach training.
• re-reading Wishcraft.
• continuing to read Simple Abundance (I can already feel this book changing my life).
• re-committing to journaling and artist dates.
• micromoving toward my creative dreams NOW.

So there it is, dear Larry.  My essay about creativity.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Much love~

Elizabeth

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 3:26 PM EDT

Updated: Thursday, 14 August 2008 7:17 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  cheeky

1. Of television programs that aired before you were born, what’s your favorite?

oh oh oh so many...if they had to go off the air before i was born, i'd probably say something like the honeymooners or i love lucy.  if it started before i was born and ended after...i love taxi and wkrp in cincinnati, happy days, laverne and shirley, the facts of life, dif'rent strokes (i don't think i watch enough television LMAO).

2. What person of historical significance was from your neighborhood or city?

Kirk Douglas is the only one I can think of.  As far as my current neighborhood/city is concerned, well, John Michael Montgomery and the Judds are from not too far away, and Billy Ray Cyrus and Loretta Lynn are both from my current state.

3. What’s a story that’s often been told about someone in your family in the years before you came along?

i love this one!  my grandfather on my mom's side was an insurance agent for john hancock, and this was back in the day of door-to-door visits from your agent.  when my cousin jack (the first grandchild for my grandparents) was born, my grandfather was out in the town of florida (just outside amsterdam, ny) making calls.  when he found out that the baby had been born, he raced down to st. clare's hospital in schenectady as fast as he could, only to be told that my aunt and the baby were resting.

are you ready for this?

he said, "but i came all the way from florida to see my first grandchild!"

(ie, about 20 minutes away, not an entire side of the country away as he implied).

LOLOLOL!

4. Which of previous generations’ dumb mistakes (in deed or thought) baffles you the most?

Everything surrounding the Holocaust.  From trying to "appease" Hitler (the anschluss happening without bloodshed, etc) to everyone turning a blind eye to the genocide.  And the Catholic Church not even acknowledging it until the 1990s!  Ack!

5. What aspect of life in the good old days would you love to see a return to?

Safe neighborhoods.  Where I live, it's difficult to get food delivered because so many delivery drivers have been robbed.  My husband won't let me walk to the gas station down the street alone so I can buy a newspaper.  Part of the reason we're moving is that we can't afford to live in some of the more affluent, safer neighborhoods in Lexington.  I don't like living in an apartment building where I have to wonder if my next-door neighbors are cooking meth or beating each other to death.  I look into the face of my sweet, beautiful daughter and can't imagine anyone, ever, wanting to threaten her safety, even it's through blatant selfishness and callous disregard for fellow people.  And yet, in the weeks just before she was born, I was on the phone with the police trying to figure out what to do about the potential meth lab next door. 

Also, I'd like to see an American nation of debt-free people who don't rely so much on credit.  And this is a bit forward-thinking rather than "good old days" thinking, but I'd like to see young kids (in their economics classes in high school) be taught things like how to keep a checkbook, and how to stick to a budget, and how to navigate the advantages and pitfalls of living on credit.  Have consumer math be as much of a requirement as algebra and geometry and trig, so that when a kid gets a joe job at mcdonald's or a store, he/she can make change even if the computers go down.

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 10:53 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  a-ok

i am working today.

a dear friend of mine, larry (hi larry!), is running an essay contest among members of the message board in which we participate.

the subject is creativity.

this has gotten me thinking a lot about creativity and the role it plays in my life.

the truth is, i have a...not necessarily a love-hate relationship with it, but more of an on-again, off-again relationship with it.

i grew up a square peg in a family of round ones; and they were bound and determined that they were going to smush me and smush me until i fit in their little round hole.

and every time i start trying to invoke a little more creativity in my life, i get into trouble.

i don't go to work so i can stay in my pajamas all day, build a blanket fort, and eat ice cream for all three meals.

i journal ALL THE TIME.  because when i'm feeling truly creative, creative energy just POURS out of me and i'm afraid if i don't express it, it will dissipate and be gone forever.

when i'm creating, i'm bursting with joy, like i am today.  as long as i wait for inspiration to strike, that is, and don't try to force something to happen.

but it's very easy for me to feel "stuck" and "stifled," and that, my friends, is when depressions strike.

right now my creative impulses are running toward my daughter.  she's only two months old, but i dream dream dream of homeschooling her...

...of tooling around new york city with her, going to the metropolitan museum of art, lincoln center, and the statue of liberty, and finishing the day with a trip to fao schwarz and chocolate gelato at fiorello's.

as i ruminate over all the things i want to do with melanie as she grows, it occurs to me that my true creative joy lies in helping others reach their creative dreams.

i know in the artist's way that julia frowns on that as some kind of creative copout.  but what truly gets my motor running is writing lesson plans!   

as much as i love writing songs, they just don't come in a constant enough flow for me to make a living at it.

i.  love.  TEACHING.

and i'd be able to do a LOT of teaching...

* if i homeschool melanie

* as a mary kay independent sales director

so my goal is going to be directorship by the time melanie starts kindergarten.  that way i can homeschool her and be a work-from-home parent.

eee i'm so excited i'm going to e-mail my sales director right now!  she's in dallas at seminar, but she'll get the message when she gets back!

more later....

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 12:38 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  happy

maybe i'll keep transcripts of my inspirational messages on my websight.

maybe i'll offer creativity workshops like my friend andrea is doing.  i really miss teaching and i think i'd be good at teaching creativity.

maybe i'll attend celebrate your life every year.

maybe i'll work on workshops.  maybe i'll create a set of affirmation cards and then hold a workshop where people create them.  i've got the construction paper.  maybe i'll offer journal-making classes.

maybe i'll make my spare room into a truly wonder*full creative space with funky fabric on the wall and pictures of people who love me.

maybe i'll inspire myself first...and then others will be truly inspired...AND delighted.

maybe next year i'll do life makeovers and make it all the way through the book.

maybe i'll make a family tree out of pictures of all my friends.

maybe i'll reread fabulous friendship festival and inspiration.

maybe i'll reread wishcraft.

maybe, just maybe, god wants me to live a creative life.

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 2:09 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  celebratory

happy birthday...to kip perkins, one of my dearest friends, who turns 35 today.

i started my inspiration line today.  i recorded a message and then uploaded it to be used as the greeting.  i talk, i sing, it's great (i think.)  i hope my callers enjoy it.

going to fr. tom's 25th anniversary mass later.

then going home to tear my apartment apart looking for our baseball tickets for tomorrow.

more later...

Posted by ruthieb17-ivil at 2:31 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink