Category Archives: Wuss Out Wednesday

I’m Not Stressed

Posted on March 10, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is another lovely warm day in the Mohawk Valley, and I am not in any position to enjoy it.  Much. OK, I’m loving it.  Only I would love to go running again and I cannot.

Today is the read-through for Leading Ladies, (all together now:) the play I am directing at Ilion Little Theatre.  We haven’t even started yet and I am stressed, Stressed, STRESSED!  Oh dear, mustn’t admit that.  I hope none of my cast members read this.  They might get worried and quit.  I’m thinking as soon as we get started I will be fine.  There may be one bad moment at the beginning, where everybody is looking at me expectantly and my mind will go completely blank. I’ll tell you what, the Actor’s Nightmare is nothing compared to the Director’s HeebieJeebies.

However, it will not last long, if it even occurs.  I’ll start talking, and then we’ll rehearse.  I don’t know why I’m even worried, but there it is.  And here I am in the middle of a Wuss-out Wednesday post, trying to remember what-all I thought I absolutely had to get done before heading over to the theatre.

Here’s the funny thing:  it did not even occur to me to write a blog post on a break at work today.  I had planned to work on next month’s article for Mohawk Valley Living, the deadline for which is looming.  Unfortunately, I brought the wrong notebook to work with me.  You might think that once I realized that, my thoughts would turn to what other useful writing I could do. Instead I started looking at the script, because I am still struggling with working out a rehearsal schedule.

That was arguably another useful thing to do, but it doesn’t help you much, does it?  Here you tuned into a blog, hoping to read something good, and what did you find?  Me.  Then again, regular readers are probably not surprised.  I guess I’m not either.  Tune in again tomorrow, and we’ll see if I resort to Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

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Hit Publish and Drive On

Posted on February 4, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

After yesterday’s blubbering about how I couldn’t write, I got a little stern with myself.  I left my puzzle book home and when it was break time, I sat down, took out my notebook, and started to write.

I had been thinking about what I was going to write before I sat down.  That usually helps.  Very often after I have been going through a dry spell or putting off a particular writing project, I sit down and I write it.  Just like that.  I spend some time after that wondering what my problem had been in the first place.  I make a mental note of the results, reminding myself that next time perhaps the operative thing to do is to, damn it, just sit down and write the thing!

Well, I’m rarely as prompt as I ought to be about any given chore, be it laundry or writing.  Still, after several episodes of finally sitting down and writing something, I do try the Dammit-Just-Sit-Down-And-Write method a little sooner than I used to.

Aaand (you saw this coming) sometimes it doesn’t work.  Maybe I don’t try it soon enough?  Maybe I tried it too soon?  Maybe I didn’t sit in the right place.  Or work on the right project.

Full disclosure:  I do have a mostly finished blog post about a cheesy movie we recently viewed.  It is just too long for me to type in right now, and I would like to edit and perhaps add a few things.  It was just too much trouble to do that tonight.  I have a baby afghan I am finishing for a co-worker (don’t say anything; it’s a surprise).  I need to sit and crochet.

So we’ll call this a Wuss-out Wednesday, hit publish and drive on.  I hope you’re having a lovely middle of the week.

 

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Blame Edith Wharton!

Posted on January 28, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

My nice husband gave me a volume of novels by Edith Wharton for Christmas. I’ve been reading House of Mirth, and tonight I just could not put it down till I finished it.  So I have a very literary reason for this week’s Wuss-out Wednesday post.  Doesn’t that sound higher class than “I’m tired”  or “I’m drinking wine”?

In fact I am tired, and I have to admit that it is for no discernible reason.  I worked for a mere eight not very strenuous hours and did not go running after work.  I obviously did not write a blog post while at work.  Did I write? Oh my, yes, I did.  Just not a blog post.

I am working on the actual script for the murder mystery Ilion Little Theatre is putting on for a church’s fundraiser.  I started it yesterday, dragging one sentence at a time out of my brain. I knew how I wanted it to start, so I wrote that.  Then what?  Another line. What next?  Another line.  Then a line that gave me a few more lines after that.  Maybe this would work.

Today it was different.  I had ended yesterday not exactly sure where to go next, but thinking in a vague sort of way that I would figure it out.  While I worked I just sort of let the characters float around in my head.  Full disclosure:  I’m not even sure who the murder is yet.   Soon a few lines of dialogue magically appeared.  Then a few more.

When it was lunch time I wrote like a maniac, quickly getting down everything I had been composing in my head.  Then I came up with a few more things.  The only problem was, what I came up with does not follow consecutively with what I wrote yesterday.  This is a problem I shall easily solve in editing.

Ah, now I must get to editing, mustn’t I?  I came home and fired up the desktop to type in what I wrote.  Then I was overcome with fatigue. I called my mother for a pep talk.  I told her how tired I was, but when I got off the phone I said I would try to do something useful.  She said I should do something fun,  “like read a book.”  So I picked up Edith Wharton JUST FOR A MINUTE.

And that brings us to the present.   Ooh, and it’s 400 words.  That’s pretty good for a Wuss-out Wednesday.   Hmmm…. would that have made a better headline?  “Pretty Good for a Wuss-out Wednesday.”  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Or do you suppose I used it before?  I’m too tired to check.

 

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Wrong Writing on Wuss-out Wednesday

Posted on January 21, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes you don’t have a reason to feel the way you feel.  Sometimes you just feel a certain way and you just have to keep feeling that way until you don’t feel that way any more.

Yes, it is Wuss-out Wednesday, and this is Yet Another Post About How I Can’t Write A Post.  On the brighter side, I  do not intend to go on an on about how it makes me FEEL.  Don’t you just hate it when people go on and on about their feelings?  Oh yeah, like YOU never do it!

Where was I?

I spent all day trying to think about something to write for a blog post.  Sometimes, for a change of pace, I thought about that novel I started to write a couple of years ago that I VOWED I would finish.  Remember that novel?  Remember Finish That Novel May?  That was, of course, last May.  The novel still isn’t finished.  However, I remembered a trick I read about re-energizing a stalled novel.  You write a brief summary about the story as a whole, perhaps in the form of a rave review or a book flap blurb.  I tried it.  I’m not sure it worked, but I wrote a page anyways.

As I have stated on this blog before, any writing counts.  My problem now is to get to the RIGHT writing.  My novel.  The murder mystery script.  A better blog post.  We’ll see what I can come up with on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

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Woe and Wuss

Posted on January 14, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today is Wuss-out Wednesday due to computer woes.  I must compose quickly and get off my device while I still have power.

My plan had been to write something BEFORE getting on the computer.  Did I? Of course not!  I had Blogger’s Blank.  Ooh, nice alliteration there.  Usually I have Writer’s Blank, but in fact I wrote a couple of pages on a letter, most of an article for Mohawk Valley Living, and a page and a half in the TV Journal.  I can write fine!  I just can’t seem to write a blog post.

Winter continues to pummel the Mohawk Valley, but unevenly.  Some places got lots of snow, some a little, but everybody at least some.  And it was COLD!   I know, I know, it’s January.  I wasn’t complaining about it, I was just reporting.

After work today I met with a lady who wants to do a dinner theatre as a fundraiser for her church.  She reached out to Ilion Little Theatre for help, which I say was a very good choice.  When the matter first came up at one of our dinner meetings, I said, “You know, you do have a member that used to write murder mystery dinner theatre and is dying to do another one!”

A few actors expressed an interest.  I started writing.  Today, as I said, I met with the lady from the church, and it looks as if this is going to happen.  That will definitely be worth a blog post or two!

For today, however, this is all I got.  At least it is over 250 words.  I’m going to go back and write some more in the TV Journal.  Happy Wednesday, everyone.

 

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Should Have Used Vanilla

Posted on January 7, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today is Wuss-out Wednesday and you can just be mad at me about it.

I tried to write a post.  I had, in fact, over 200 words of a post typed in and some of them were pretty good words.  I think my readers would have enjoyed them.  But were they honest words?  They sounded good, but I think I lied.

I really REALLY do NOT want to start complaining about my aches and pains again.  Oops, I guess I just did.  The point is, I do not have the brain power to finish that post.  I am hoping to come up with something mildly amusing now.  Slightly entertaining?  Vaguely not boring?

Oh, this is ridiculous!  I should be able to write with a headache.  I’ve done it before.  When I was in college I aced a couple of essay tests with strep throat and that brought on some major head pain.  Of course I wasn’t trying to be funny.  I think it’s harder to be funny.

Let’s try this. Picture me hitting myself in the face with a cream pie.   An ice cream pie.  Aaahhh…. Ice on my headache.  But what a waste of chocolate.  And now the syrup is dripping down my neck and will stain my sweatshirt.  Dammit, why didn’t I use vanilla?

 

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Not Wuss — Winter!

Posted on December 30, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

Winter returned to the Mohawk Valley last night (Tuesday, Dec 28).  I could hear sleet hitting the windows when I woke up in the night.  When I got up I saw the back yard was covered with snow.  Well, we knew it was coming.

I had planned to go running today.  For one reason, I could make a Running Commentary blog post.  For another, I’m getting fatter.  And for just one more, I promised myself I would run up the hill to Herkimer College before the end of 2015.  Perhaps the rain would stop before I got out of work.

During lunch I left stepped outside of my place of employment briefly.  Cold rain was falling and a bitter wind blew.  Even more ominous for my running plans, the sidewalks were covered with ice and ice water.  Yikes!  I could probably talk myself into running in the cold, POSSIBLY the rain (although I don’t usually).  Icy sidewalks, however, are to be assiduously avoided.  I revised my plans:  I would run in place on the mini-tramp while looking at a movie.  I might still have a Boris Karloff flick on my DVR.

I was feeling dreadfully tired by the time I got home, but rather than have a Wuss-out Wednesday post, I was going to try.  Then I saw a neighbor shoveling the snow from his front walk.  The neighbors on the other side had already shoveled their walk, as had other houses.  I felt I should be a responsible homeowner.

Shoveling snow is exercise, I assured myself.  Were the shovels on the back deck?  Yes.  I went inside only long enough to put my bag down then went out and got started.

It wasn’t long before I realized that while yesterday I had worn my work shoes home, today I had sensibly changed into my sneakers.  I told myself not to worry about it.  Even if my feet got soaked, I wasn’t going to be out there long enough for it to matter.  I would be out there maybe a half hour.  Half an hour is a good amount of exercise in the middle of the week.

I started on the sidewalk.  It was crunchy, iced-over snow, but it wasn’t too deep and it wasn’t too heavy. I had my reward right away when a nice lady came along walking her dog.  I petted the dog and chatted with the lady.  She said she had seen me walking a little white dog.

“Did you lose her?”

“Yes, she had cancer.”

She offered her condolences and I petted the dog again before they moved on.  I do hope to get another dog one day, possibly in the spring.

As I continued to clear the sidewalk, a gentleman from the apartment building next door came out and started shoveling the end of their driveway.  We chatted a bit about winter, commuting, and store-brand cottage cheese.  This shoveling wasn’t a bad gig at all.

When I started on the end of the driveway, things got a little less fun.  Between the snowplow piling more snow up and our vehicles going in and out of the driveway, the snow and ice was more stubbornly in place.  I worked away with determination.  I was rewarded with further conversation when the neighbor who lives on the other side came out and started shoveling their driveway.

I ended up shoveling for an hour.  I did not get the whole driveway done, but I cleared enough that Steven should be able to pull in and park.  I wasn’t sure I could get a blog post out of it but decided to try.  You be the judge:  is this better, worse, or about the same as one of my Wuss-out Wednesday posts?

 

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We’ll Call It a Win

Posted on December 24, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

I hope everybody is having a Merry Christmas Eve Eve.  That is what a friend of my sister’s declared December 23 many years ago.  They said, “Today is Christmas Eve Eve.”  They even got a little silly and started saying that yesterday had been Christmas Eve Eve Eve.  I don’t remember how many Eves they got to before they got bored with it, but they had no use for my suggestion that the day after Christmas must be Christmas Vee.

I lead with a memory to avoid straight out declaring that this is Wuss-out Wednesday, but I think we all knew it was coming.   Christmas preparations, what a tiring endeavor!  I had thought to write a blog post while at work today and save us all the pain of Wuss-out Wednesday, but I had no ideas.  Then I started thinking about a murder mystery I had committed to write and found out I actually had lots of ideas.  Once I got on break, I started writing on that.  Oh, what fun!  I love writing murder mysteries!

Just to be clear:  it’s not a novel and it’s not a real play.  It is interactive dinner theatre.  At one time I wrote a good many of them. They were very well received by certain North Country audiences in the 1990s.  But people who go on about past glories are tiresome (except when it’s “tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago,” like in the song).

After work, I had barely an hour and a half before Steven got off work and it was time to whisk off to Rome and my parents’ house.  I thought briefly about making my blog post then, but I had several chores to finish.  With that in mind, I put on some coffee, jumped in the shower and once I was clean, dry and dressed, I got to work.  I packed, I wrapped, I loaded the car, I checked my to-do list for what I had forgotten, I took care of the stuff I had forgotten, I remembered some stuff that was not on the list, I took care of that.

And I got it all done!  All Steven had to do when he got home was change his clothes, put coffee in travel mugs and let me drive us to Rome.   I was awesome!  At least, I have not yet remembered anything else I forgot, so we’ll call it a win.

And now I have written an unusual 400 some words on my silly blog post for the day.  If only I could come up with a title, I would be reasonably content with my lot in life.  Hmmm… nothing is coming, although I am getting a few more ideas for that murder mystery.

 

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A Little Christmas Spirit?

Posted on December 3, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

“Oh by gosh, by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and holly!”  My Dad used to sing that at Christmas time.  I thought he made it up. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was really a song.

Yes, I am having a Wuss-out Wednesday post.  I merely led with a Christmas memory in hopes that my readers’ Christmas spirit will lead them to forgive me and keep reading.  It’s not too early for Christmas spirit is it?  I like Christmas spirit.

It does not feel like December in the Mohawk Valley.  To me it is more like November, dark and gloomy with cold rain. Mind you, I like November.  I feel the gloom is part of its charm.

Steven put up Christmas lights on our porch today, finding time between precipitation.  He left them turned on all afternoon, because it was such a gloomy day.  So I got to see the porch lit up when I came home shortly before four.  It did not look as nice as it will when it is truly dark out, but I appreciated it.  I hope for some non-rainy evenings so we can walk around Herkimer and admire other people’s lights.

I confess, I am not entirely basking in Christmas spirit tonight. I am sad, because of yet another shooting.  So much BAD is going on in the world.  But I have nothing wise or insightful to say about it.  If I can think of anything remotely helpful to do about it, well, I will do so.  In the meantime, I shall hit publish before I bring everybody else down.  Hope to see you on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

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I’m Grateful I Finished This Post

Posted on November 26, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

You know, in a little more than a month, people are going to start asking each other what are their New Year’s Resolutions.  And some people will answer, with varying degrees of huffiness, that THEY do not make New Year’s Resolutions.  Some will say they are perfect as they are; the less obnoxious will say they always strive to improve and do not NEED an arbitrary date to do so.

What has this to do with Thanksgiving, you may ask.  Well, I will tell you, I hope with no huffiness but with honesty.

I try to spend my life in a state of relative gratitude.  For one reason, when you are feeling grateful, you feel less depressed, angry, resentful, sad and other negative emotions.  For another reason, it helps to counteract my usual complaints and whining, which I’m afraid can become rather tiresome.  In confess, I pursue this attitude with a greater or lesser degree of success at different times.  As Billy Wilder so aptly observed, nobody’s perfect.

For example, I complain about my husband’s job but hasten to add that I am grateful he has a job.  I used to groan over the necessity to go to the laundromat but hastened to add that I was grateful there were lots of machines and the place was clean.  Right now I am almost purely grateful for our new (to us) washer and drier.  Soon I’ll find something there to bitch about but no doubt will hasten to add how grateful I am that I have them.

You see where I’m going with this.

I am looking forward to tomorrow (Thanksgiving) as a day I will spend time with family and eat a lot of good food.  I am not going to wax eloquent about all that I am grateful for.  Please believe that I am grateful for many things.  And feel free to share your own list of gratitudes on Facebook, in person, in a comment here or in your own blog (my computer is telling me “gratitudes” is not a word, but I can’t think of a better one).

More astute readers will remember that this is Wuss-out Wednesday and be nodding wisely.  I am, of course, grateful for all my readers (you know, for not posting a list, I have mentioned a few gratitudes, haven’t I?).  I shall humbly sign off now and begin pondering tomorrow’s post.

Now, about that New Year’s Resolution…

 

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