the writing itch

Remember when I proclaimed I was going to try to finish a novel this year?  And then continued to blog about writing?  Well, just in case you were concerned, I'm still working on writing.  I am also being realistic though because it 'tis October and I'm not quite sure my novel will get finished this year...but I'm working on 'er again. Around August, I received a pamphlet in the mail from Pennsylvania Highlands Community College about their fall semester community classes.  (thank you to the previous owner of our home who signed up for the mass mailings!)  There were a bunch of classes that I was interested in ranging from Photography to Japanese at-home cooking, but I also  noticed a creative writing series that I just couldn't pass up.  So, I made arrangements with our parents to alternate Tuesdays to watch Grey and I signed up for the class.  I'm in school again!! yay!

Our instructor, Kristy Baxter, is a local author who writes Young Adult novels and is currently awaiting some submissions (ah, good luck!) She is hysterical and a deep sea of knowledge and experience in writing novels.  I have really enjoyed spending my Tuesday nights in the class surrounded by other people who are also writing; people who are also frustrated and excited about the stories in their head.  Our class is made up of different types of writers; some who went to college for journalism, some who have articles published, some who went to school for Spanish and was a teacher and never had a damn thing published in her life (that's me), and some who  are just trying to finish a story they started years ago for no one else to see but themselves.  It's thrilling to be around like-minded people -seriously, I strongly suggest if you're feeling uninspired and sort of a blah at the moment.  On my way home each Tuesday, my mind is humming with ideas and I can hardly wait to sit down at the computer and get my thoughts down.  It has made a difference in my writing and how often I'm writing...which is quite a feat.  

I have learned a lot in the past few weeks, but the top three biggest "aha!'s" came from:

1. WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.  keep writing until you get to "The End."  it doesn't have to be perfect the first time around; that is what the editing process is for.

This is important to me because I'm a blogger.  And there are no second or third drafts in blogging.  There's this one draft that goes out to all of you to read.  Granted, I do read it over two or three times before I choose to publish it, but I'm not doing any major changing (here's where I'm apologizing for the spelling/grammar errors that you all might want to slap me for).  So when I'm writing my novel, I have this intense feeling of pressure that whatever I'm writing in my story needs to be perfect before I can move on...thus the months-long break I took when I could not get past my main character's work place.  

2. Give yourself permission to suck.  Piggy-backing on important thought #1:  push through the parts that you know are just crappy.  Keep Writing!!  Look at it, resolve that it just sucks/its bad writing/its missing important stuff that you need to research, make a note of it and keep pushing through.

Again, the research on my main character's workplace has been holding me back from writing.  Since I know little about my main character's career field I am hung up on the research part of trying to figure out how much I need to know about it to make sure it doesn't sound unintelligent and fake in the book.  why don't you just change his job then?  asks the crowd...I don't know, I just can't.  In my mind, that's what he does and to force him into another job would feel phony to me.   So now I know its perfectly fine to say, I'll research this later cause I know that right now it stinks...leave a note and keep writing.

catch a theme there, I just need someone to be whispering to me all the time, "keep writing, keep writing, stop overthinking, keep writing, stop criticizing, keep writing..." hahha.  anyone up for the job?

Another thing I learned about was flash fiction writing...which is oddly enchanting to me.  If I start a monthly flash fiction writing group...would any of you join in?  Here are the rules:
1. our flash fiction must be less than 1000 words
2. whatever genre of fiction you like
3. link up on the last friday of the month, aka Flash Fiction Friday
hehhe.
I'm doing it.
you do it too.
let's read and write and be happy together.

visit to Uch & Jojo at Lock Haven

Here's a riddle:  Who is 32 inches tall and can make two college kids skip out on a Saturday of drinking to visit the playground and hang out watching movies instead?  Greyson Rudy, that's who.  Booboo and I visited Aunt Uch and Jojo at Lock Haven in early September.

Aunt Uch is living in an apartment off-campus this year with her friend Paige and we got the grand tour of the cute place followed by a trip next door to the local library which was having a huge sidewalk sale of old books.  I purchased (of course, like I could pass up a book sale) about 8 books for Grey and me for under $4.  And I'm talking legit books like:  Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult for me and I Hear by Helen Oxenbury for booboo

Then we drove over to the playground near the Susquehanna River to run wild.  Grey is so lucky to have his Aunt Uch because she is always willing to go for rides and slides with Booboo so he isn't afraid.  This is certainly not the first time that she's been willing to climb and crawl so Grey could have some playground fun.

"airmane!"

jojo helping Grey up the slide steps

so obvious that he loved it?  HAH

thank Goodness for Aunt Uch!

my baby gets hypnotized on the swings

After a fun, sweaty time on the playground, we headed back to the apartment for some water and rest.  Hey! This baby bump needs breaks!  Tash got to work on her dinner for us - which was inspired by a Pin she'd seen:  Chicken strips wrapped in bacon - which was seriously delicious.  Booboo and I both enjoyed it and it was so fun being at my baby sister's "house" and see how she's a real grown up (even though I'll probably always see her as about 14 years old in my mind - sorry, Tash - I can't help it!)

Source: foodgawker.com via Tasha on Pinterest

After dinner, we got ready to head over to watch the Lock Haven football game.  They were playing Millersville.  The place was filled, much to Tasha's surprise, and Booboo loved being surrounded by all the people who were cheering and clapping.  Like at past events where people start clapping and cheering, Booboo would join in on the fun to and scream and clap right along with everyone else.

My son has a slight obsession with the moon - so he was also screaming, "Mooooooon!" and pointing for a lot of the half that we were there.  I texted B to tell him and he suggested that maybe Lock Haven change their mascot from the Lock Haven Bald Eagle to the Lock Haven Moons.  At least Booboo would be in favor of the change.

Its always awesome to take Grey to live sporting events because he is so enchanted by the crowds, and sounds, and the ball.  I don't know if its because he's a boy, or if it's because he's his father's son...but my kids loves him some sports.

The next day was September 11 and the four of us (Booboo, Uch, Jojo, & I) woke up to catch documentaries and newsbroadcasts about the 10 year anniversary of September 11.  Ten years ago, I was a freshman in college (at Susquehanna University) and Tash and Jo were seventh graders in high school.  We all agreed that although we knew it was horrible and tragic, since we weren't directly connected to it, it was like watching a movie about it.  As a freshman away from my family, I knew how scared I felt to be separated from them, but it still felt far away from me.  Watching the clips and memorials this time around made all three of us feel differently.  As though Sept. 11th was more tragic to us ten years later - when we've lived enough life to really understand how devastating the day was for so many people.  We watched an amazing documentary on A&E that showed witness clips of the day at the same time it had happened (starting at almost 9a) 10 years ago.  The three of us stay there with goosebumps shaking our heads at the videos in which people were saying how horrible it was after the first plane hit the tower.  We just kept thinking, they have no idea how much worse it is still going to get.

to the victims:  ten  years later, we are all still thinking of you and praying for you.  our hearts still ache when we think of that day.  we won't forget you.

After saying goodbye to our hosts, we headed home to watch the Steelers get pounded by the Ravens with the grandparents, since it was also Grandparent's day.  Brandon was in charge of lunch and  had made lots of tasty snacks including three different flavors of wings.  My mom finished painting the laundry room and Grey got to spend time with Pappy Butch, Gigi, Mimi, Abba, and Chum.  We bought this journal for the grandparents so that one day our kids (and their other grandkids, ahem Kayla & Tash) can learn more about their grandparent's childhood.

Zoo Booboo 2011

We made our annual trek to the Pittsburgh zoo with my family this summer the day after Jon&Ninny's wedding.

Since we were all in Pittsburgh already, it was a quick drive over and we spent the day watching booboo smile and laugh at the animals and run through the mist-ers until he was soaked.

It had been a little under a year since our last trip there and the difference in booboo's awareness was awesome to see.  He could walk/run to the different exhibits and make most of the animal sounds.

hahha, dadda lost hair and booboo grew some in 11 months!

It was super hot, hot, hot that day and a Sunday, so that made for a little bit of crowd, but Booboo loved every minute of it.  Since was more grown this time, he didn't only notice the animals that were fast moving (although he still loves the meerkats and Aunt Kitty claims he is getting on for Christmas...hi aunt kitty, can I remind you of someone:  Bullet.)  But he also enjoyed the lounging animals as well, like the resting deer (that he got to pet to Brandon's joy), and the basking tigers.  Last year we walked right by them because Grey was too young to even realize the non-movers weren't just part of the scenery.  This time we stopped at every animal because Grey was ready to point 'em out to us with big wide eyes and a surprised grin.

A moment to talk about cognitive development and its awesomeness.  Although, we (grown-ups) take advantage of having but when you start to see through a child's eyes, it actually pretty amazing when they gain this skill.  Object recognition is the ability to see an object - take into consideration it's shape, texture, what its doing, etc and make a guess as to from your past experience as to what it might be.  Adults have the ability look at thousands of things a day, and sometimes we just give it a quick glance and we can process what the object is...so my brain works like this all day (at the speed of about 1.2 seconds)
he's chasing bullet and laughing
he's probably trying to hit him with something 
quick glance 
something long and brown, rounded head 
it's a wooden spoon
move to get it off of him

It's been pretty fascinating watching Grey make his way into having full object recognition.  The reason that I even pay attention to this has to do with the fact that I was a teacher and that I notice Grey is still struggling with certain objects.  (so don't feel bad if you've never thought about this until right this second.  Now you'll be thinking of it constantly, so you're welcome - hah!)  We left the phase that anything that is remotely round is a ball (think cantaloupes and apples) around 11-12 months, but have now moved into any fruit that hangs from a tree are "apples".  Anything that flies in the sky (helicopters) are "airmanes" (airplanes).  Part of it is still lack of vocabulary and the other part is truly unclear object recognition; he thinks that apples can be both pear-shaped and apple-shaped - but its exciting to see him make connections and make a guess.  We got a laugh the other night when Grey saw a store cardboard box (that you would wrap clothing in for a gift" and said "pizza?"  thinking it was a pizza box.  (does that mean we need to cool it on the delivery pizza? hah)  In case you're wondering; children are still mastering object recognition up until they are nearing double digits, so don't expect your kid to know the difference between gourds and small pumpkins (um, do I?)

The below images might all look obvious to us as elephants, but if you think about looking at it from a child's perspective - they look a lot different.  They are different colors, facing different directions, different sizes, and in truth, most children have very little first hand experience with elephants (outside of television).  So now that Grey can see any or all of these images and give me his signal for elephant (which is currently lifting his arm and say "Brrrr"), it makes a momma realize how hard his little neuro-connections are working.

Well, we aren't yet at full object recognition...because Grey isn't going to do the elephant sound when he sees something abstract like this...so, we need to start visiting some museums I think:)