Carolyn Creative

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?

I voted!  I have cheerful sticker proving this fact currently clinging to my green coat.  It’s over!  I did it!  Now, we just have to wait, but not long — and soon we’ll know who will be our next president.

Actually, I had tried to vote twice.  Three times, if you count the time Kevin and I walked to the main library to Early Vote, but decided against it because the line wrapped around the building and we were hungry.  

First, I visited the precinct near my parent’s house.  Silly me, I never updated my registration, so for all the voting officials know, I still live with my parents.  Which wouldn’t be that bad.  They have TIVO, after all.  I waited in line for about a half hour, not too painful — I saw many yoga students and made some new friends.  There were also snacks.  But when I reached the check-in, there was a threatening sign mentioning that if you’d moved recently, listing your old address was a violation of the law.  They mentioned a provisional ballot, yet encouraged me to visit my proper precinct on Trade Street.

On Trade Street, there weren’t any snacks, but there were many chefs from Johnson and Wales wearing poofy checked and striped pants.  There was also a lady with awesomely long florescent pink nails, who took a long time to type in my information because she had to be mindful not to damage the aforementioned nails.

The most delightful thing?  There was no complaining.  In any other situation — airports, the DMV, the Apple Store — any line exceeding twenty minutes enrages Americans.  They’ve got things to do.  They are too busy to deal with that kind of crap.  But today?  People were patient.  They were proud and excited.

I felt a little verklempt when I pressed the button for president; I’m not sure if it’s related to the fact that this is the first time I’ve felt hopeful about a candidate or because I’ve basically had PMS since my wedding in September.  I left the precinct and walked across the street to claim my free cup of Starbucks with my “I voted sticker.”  But the line was waaaaaaay too long.  No way.  I’ve got things to do ….

Just another autumn Saturday.

Phoebe practices yoga by napping on the props.

Mechanically inclined Kevin sets up his new car stereo

At Fuel pizza, Kate counts on Diet Coke as fuel to start her Great American Novel.

I just went down to the Harris Teeter to buy a bay leaf and ham hocks.  They were playing “Winter Wonderland.”  Readers, please observe the date.  Winter Wonderland?  Really?