Carolyn Creative

I love this post about having it all by Erin Doland on the blog, Unclutter.  I am specifically trying to work on Step 6: Say no to what doesn’t matter.  Why does this seem so hard?  Every time my defenses are down, I’ll agree to do seven thousand things I don’t have time for.  Well.  The buck stops here, people.  No more over-promising for this chiquita.

My mother, an avid reader, specializes in what I call  ”repressed Asian woman literature.”  I kid, I kid.  She also reads books about repressed women from other continents.  But I can’t really blame her for her penchant for this genre.  There’s something about the super combo of ancient rituals and male domination–so different from our experience–that provides the background for such moving stories, rich with details.

I just finished her last recommendation, John Burnham Schwartz’s The Commoner.  It was interesting and beautifully written. Haruko, a girl from a nice, yet not quite Imperial family, survives the bombing of Japan and eventually finds herself engaged to the Crown Prince.  Her adjustment to the traditions and imprisonment within the royal palace and the public eye as a “commoner” is both fascinating and heartbreaking.  Later, as Empress, she finds herself in position to influence the future of her daughter-in-law, an accomplished and independent woman (who I assume is not so loosely based on current Crown Princess Misako.)  A sad and lovely book.

Has anybody read anything spectacular lately?  If so, let me know!   I am always looking for lunch break goodies.

Spring has officially sprung!  Well, it kinda sprung a while ago.  To celebrate, my growing guru Kaaren and I made a trip to Lowe’s to pick up some leafy things for our patio.  (Where, of course, we received cheerful and helpful customer service.  One might even say the employees responded with alacrity.)

 Behold:

It's fun to get your hands dirty. And your toes.

Now, Kev and I have a few blossoms to perk up our urban paradise.  And so far, I have not killed any of my them.  Yet.

Last week was kind of a bummer.  My favorite North American truck manager — my husband, Kev — got laid off.  Sigh.  Stupid economy.  At first, we were shocked: we need to sell our livers, condo, and guitars!  But then we settled back down to earth, my ballerina flats and Kevin’s old school Asics making contact with the ground.  Yes, it was a hiccup in our semi-plans.  But we’ll be okay.  I still have a job (if I don’t get fired for instant messaging about boobs.)  We have all of our limbs and each other.  Life is good.

I’ve been following a wonderful writer, Gretchen Rubin; she writes The Happiness Project on Slate, a blog exploring different concepts, myths, and experiments about happiness.  She has a nice piece about how to process a crisis.

Very sound advice.  Except that ice cream bit.  Everybody knows it totally helps.  Duh.

I must share two observations which delighted me yesterday:

1.  In Earthfare, when you swipe your debit or charge card on the electronic scanner, the screen runs out of room for the letters.  So instead of the machine instructing me to “Please swipe card,” it says: “Please swipe car.”  As my family and friends often call me, “Care,” it seems the machine has personalized instructions for me.  Well, all right.  Since you asked so nicely.

2.  On the drive home, I noticed three sets of signs advertising for a shipping store lined up along McDonald.  They promise, with one word for each sign:

“We”

“Ship”

“Aardvarks.”

In case you needed to do just that.

Happy Saturday, y’all!  I have just started writing for a style site called www.carrieanddanielle.com.  It is based in Vancouver, a city I’ve always wanted to visit ever since my Mulder and Scully obsession in the late nineties.  I’ll be posting over there, too, so feel free to visit both places!  And share your heart out

Is Happiness Contagious?  One study says yes!

Last week, there was a little sparkle in the paper. Nestled between dour pieces about the weak economy and more lay-offs was an article exploring the positive effects of happy people. A study following over 4700 people over a period of twenty years concluded: “happy people tend to have happy friends, and it’s contagious.”

Read the rest of the article here…

Good afternoon, radiant readers.  And happy new year!  

Listen up!  Whatever you are doing, you must pause.  Stop your treadmilling.  Put down the laundry.  Stop working, or pretending to work because it is a weird day after a holiday and not many people are in the office anyway.  Get off your yoga mat and roll it up.  (Unless you have only done one side in a pose, in which case, please do the other side so you aren’t unbalanced.)  Go to the movie theater and see Slumdog Millionaire!

Kev and I saw it last night — brilliant.  The story is so clever!  A boy from the slums of Mumbai gets an opportunity to play “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.”  His story — heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring — unfold through each question on the game show.  The scenes are vibrant with the colors, sounds, and people in the best and worst parts of India.  And as a frustrated Bollywood dancer, I was delighted by the music and a brief dancing montage during the credits.  I cried.  A lot.  

Five sirsasanas from me!

I did it!  I finished my novel for National Novel Writing Month!  If you don’t believe me, check it out:

That’s right.  We also got a certificate we can download and insert our names.  Kaaren, my co-conspirator,  was a bit disappointed in our spoils.  Her husband  reminded her she didn’t do this for the money.  

 Satisfying and exhilarating, it also feels … a little weird.  I got used to writing 1600 words a day!  And I miss it a little bit.  This was one of the positive effects of the challenge.  Here are some other things I learned …

 1.  I use “and” quite a lot.  And then some.  And then some more.

 2.  I need to find more ways to describe voices.  If everyone had a “gravelly” timbre, things could get scary.  It would be a world populated with Al Pacinos and  Kathleen Turners.

 3.  Though I enjoy nature, I don’t dig describing it.  What if I pitched a book to a publisher that included postcards?  After finishing the book, you could mail them to your friends: “Hey, buddy.  Wish you read this book.”

4.  I tend to fast forward action.  Perhaps I should consider a sci-fi plot where people can be beamed places.

5.  Who cares about that stuff?  It feels wonderful to challenge myself!

Dream on, creative warriors!  Until next time …

Okay, I’ve made it to 18, 000 in my attempt at National Novel Writing Month!  Hip, hip, hooray!  Not that any of those words are particularly good ones, or work well together.  And yet I type away.

It’s week two.  Naturally, some of the initial excitement/fervor has worn off.  However, I’ve noticed other changes.  I am more immersed in the world of my characters.  Some of them have appeared in my dreams, or I hear snatches of dialogue and think about my characters.  I also notice things around me to include in my novel.  Like sounds, trees, weather, light, and cars.  I’ve always been somewhat doofusy about cars; it recently occurred to me that my characters need some way of getting around.  Well, one of them has a bike.  But that probably won’t work for everyone.

The hardest challenge so far has been the idea of turning off your Inner Editor.  When writing a first draft, we are encouraged to forge ahead — just do it! — instead of returning to previously written sections and change things.  Like, making sure a character has the same name on page 3 as he does on page two.  Or making sure a sentence has a subject AND a verb.

This is tough, but I like the idea of turning off your inner editor.  If we could apply this to life off the keyboard, it might be helpful as well!  Think of how confident we might be if we could switch off any negative dialogue in our head.  Of course an inner editor comes in handy if you are prone to oversharing at a cocktail party.  But often our inner editors hold us back from trying something new.  Would life be lovely if we let ourselves be first drafts now and then — sloppy, creative, and inspired?