Tag Archives: writing

But It’s Not Wednesday Yet!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

What is it about Tuesday? I never have my act together on a Tuesday! I never have, now that I come to think about it. Tuesdays have often been the Bad Day of the Week. I must ponder that sometime.

In fact, I did have my act together sufficiently to begin writing a blog post this morning before work began. I don’t think it was going too badly. Unfortunately, I do not have enough time now to finish it. Also, I mentioned somebody by name and I am not sure if that person is OK with that or if I should employ a pseudonym (or should I say “alias”? I think alias sounds more sinister. Would this person prefer that? Decisions!).

Adding to my stress is that I have rehearsal in about an hour. Am I ready? No! Part of the reason I did not finish my blog post is that I was studying my lines on my lunch break. I knew them better than I thought but not as well as I had thought I would by this time. Well, sometimes we do not live up to the standards which we set for ourselves.

My post-Christmas letdown finally kicked in this afternoon, at least for a short time. Then I had other things to think about. If it doesn’t come back, that is the mildest, shortest post-Christmas letdown I ever had. Score!

Looking at what I’ve just typed, I must say this reads more like a Wuss-out Wednesday than a Tired Tuesday. I suppose I shall be quite tired later, after rehearsal. Luckily, I will already have written my blog post.

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Not Quite My Post About My Destination

Posted on January 4, 2015 by mohawkvalleygirl

Full disclosure: I don’t dare write about anything but the destination I was so happy to reach at the end of yesterday’s post. I know I left at least one loyal reader in suspense and I do NOT want to start alienating loyal readers. Further disclosure: This post may not be very long or very good, because I have a band-aid on my left index finger and I have to keep going back to fix all the ensuing typos.

My destination was the Oneida County Historical Society at 1608 Genesee St. in Utica, NY. I was visiting primarily because I hoped to write about it for my favorite magazine, Mohawk Valley Living. I write for them.

I always feel a little self-conscious going into places and saying I’m going to write about it for the magazine. And not a little silly saying, “I’m Mohawk Valley Girl.” But imagine my delight when people know who that is because they read the magazine. Then we have a little love-fest for the magazine. It really is a high quality publication. I am proud to write for them.

I was at first hesitant to write for the magazine about the historical societies, since the directors are often contributors as well. However, I write from the perspective of a visitor to the society, so I feel I make a contribution. And the magazine can always pass on printing the article.

Incidentally, I always mention that last point. I say I am writing an article to submit. I can’t make any promises. So far I have written articles about the Herkimer County Historical Society, the Little Falls Historical Society, and the Rome Historical Society. As you may guess (or as you may already know), I love these community museums.

So I introduced myself to George Abel, who was manning the desk in the main room when I arrived. He immediately introduced me to the director, Brian Howard. I had just read Howard’s article in the December issue of MVL about the Unadilla Railroad, so I was happy to tell him how much I enjoyed it.

I took numerous notes during my visit and have in fact written the first draft of my article. I must polish it and submit it. And edit it to be a blog post as well. In the meantime, I thought it might make a different writing-about-writing post to talk about going to a destination for a magazine article.

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Tired, Old, and Reading Other Blogs

Posted on December 31, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, I was all set to have another Tired Tuesday. In my defense, I seem to be coming down with some weird winter malady, the main symptom of which seems to be that I am tired. And headachey. And not a little vague. The sad thing is that I have so been having Mohawk Valley adventures. I hemmed and hawed, listening to the little voice in my head saying, “I CAAAN’T write a real blog post today!” It was not the little devil on my shoulder; she is a good deal more robust.

I really wanted to write a better blog post than about how tired and ill I feel. I went to Facebook and got some info for a local business I patronized recently and thought to give a shout out to. Then I came back to WordPress. Of course blogs I follow popped up first. I just had to read a couple.

I noticed that Today I Watched A Movie had reviewed Double Jeopardy. Sometimes he reviews older movies (it really grates on me to call a movie released in the ’90s “old,” because what does that make me, for heavens’ sake?). I remembered when this one was in theatres, so I perused his review. And made the following comment:

I always thought the premise of this movie was so asinine! You cannot legally murder somebody just because you got wrongfully convicted of doing so when they are still alive. Yes, I felt free to give away the whole plot without benefit of a spoiler alert because the TV advertisements and trailers did the same thing when this movie was in the theatres. We caught it on video, because at that time we caught almost everything on video (and now that’s the olden days. Damn!). Now I see my comment is running longer than your concise review. Sorry. I think I’ll use my comment for my blog post. Thanks for listening.

It would be nice to credit the other blogger who occasionally uses his comments on other blogs as his own blog posts, because that is what gave me the idea to do it myself. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which blogger that was. I thought it was a brilliant idea, though. To me it has a nice reduce/reuse/recycle feel to it. To others, it perhaps seems lazy. To my hazy, ailing brain, it seems acceptable on a Tired Tuesday.

And when I’m feeling better I may do a whole piece on how we used to trek to the video store and rent movies all the time and how much fun that was. Yes, I’m old! I embrace it!

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Props or Post?

Posted on December 18, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

It’s going to be post. A real Wuss-out Wednesday post, in fact. For one reason, I’m too flustered to do anything but sit here and type a few words. Sorry, kids, but you know this usually happens on Wednesday (and other days, you don’t have to point that out) (you know who you are).

I have mentioned I am in a play at Ilion Little Theatre. It’s called Busybody, and I have a sizable role. We have rehearsal tonight. At our last rehearsal, two nights ago, I made a big deal about needing rehearsal props and said I was going to bring in a bunch of stuff for my character. I wasn’t trying to be more actressy than thou. It’s just really hard for me to pantomime and not have magically disappearing whatever.

Last night was the only night I didn’t have any place to go in the evening. I had a list of things to get done, one of which was to gather props. Long story short, I did one thing on the list and that wasn’t it. In my defense, what I did was pretty important. I made White Trash to contribute to my workplace Christmas feast on Thursday. It is important to me to participate in these things. And many people like to eat White Trash.

Full disclosure: when I got home from work today I had enough time to look for props. And I had time while on breaks at work to write a better blog post than the one you’re now reading (oh, I hope somebody is reading it).

Unfortunately, I had a bad headache most of the day. It had dissipated by the end of the day, but I still felt all vague-headed and stupid when I got home. And I still had things I had to do. I had to take my dog for a walk and figure out what to wear to rehearsal. The latter was not as easy as one would think. For one reason, there is a part in the play where I have to shove a piece of paper down my front. This is not so easy to do in a turtleneck, as I discovered at the last rehearsal.

Wait a minute, I just realized something: the piece of paper I have to hide in my shirt is one of the props I had meant to gather. So by taking the time to go through my closet and find a shirt I could hide a piece of paper down, I lacked time to find the paper to hide. It was a lose/lose situation! Had I just worn the damn turtleneck, I would have had time to find the paper to hide but been unable to practice hiding it.

I know, some of you are snorting that a piece of paper is hardly a difficult prop to find. You’re right. I can probably manage that one. Anyways, while I was writing this nonsense, time has passed and I really have to finish getting ready to head out for my rehearsal. On the brighter side (for me, anyways), now this is done. I can hit Publish and not have to worry about this after rehearsal.

One final note: My Freudian slip was showing just now: I accidentally typed a space between Pub and lish. That’s right, folks, all things considered, I would rather just hit the pub.

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More Writing About Not Writing

Posted on December 16, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, it is not yet Tired Tuesday it is no longer Wrist to Forehead Sunday, yet I feel I qualify for both of those days. The annoying thing is that I did so write while at work today. I wrote at least a page before my shift started then a few paragraphs more at lunch time. I felt it was not contemptible. And yet. And yet.

What I really feel moved to write right now is an explanation of why I am not publishing what I wrote earlier yet. We’ll call it a Middle-aged Musings Monday and that will make everything OK (I do like giving things names) (I’ll write a blog post abut that one day).

After writing about Steven’s first Christmas gift to me (yesterday’s post), I thought it might be fun to do a week of Christmas memories. By age 51, I have quite a few. I have even been thinking about one particular Christmas lately. The reason I have been thinking about it is that I was broke then and I am broke now. I quite naturally began my post with that thought.

After a sentence or three I thought, “Somebody is going to tell me to stop whining.” You can’t tell tone of voice from typing. I felt I was being matter-of-fact about things, but no doubt some readers would hear whining. I wrote a few more sentences trying to dispel any notion that I am not facing my circumstances with cheerfulness, fortitude and a sense of humor (I’m not, really, I daresay I do whine, but wouldn’t it be nice if I did have cheeriness, etc.?).

Then I started to ask myself, am I even that broke? After all, I still have cable television and the occasional bottle of wine. I haven’t started stealing the dog’s food nor even applied for SNAP benefits. These reflections led to some half-baked philosophy about people crying poverty when the rest of us see none. This was not a Christmas memory! What the hell, Mohawk Valley Girl? So I skipped a line and jumped into the story I had intended to write, trusting to be able to clean it up later.

By the end of the day, I felt dissatisfied with what I had written. I felt certain there was a better blog post about that Christmas. And perhaps a Lame Post Friday post about comparative poverty or cheerfulness and fortitude. After work as I walked my dog, Tabby, I pondered my options, bearing in mind that I have rehearsal tonight and I was feeling more and more tired. I thought about writing about the walk I was taking. Then I thought about writing about why I could not publish the post originally intended.

And reading back over what I have written (I know, Truman Capote, it isn’t writing, it’s typing), I kind of like it. I will strive to be a little less tired on Tuesday.

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Not a Famous Post

Posted on December 13, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I sat at work I thought (yes, I can work, sit and think at the same time, although in general I am not a fan of multi-tasking), I cannot compose another blog post on the fly, sitting at my computer, typing off the cuff, Lame Post Friday or not. After all, there have been other Lame Post Fridays where I have handwritten in my notebook (my preferred method of writing) perfectly nice posts, an acceptable level of silliness for the day, readable, humorous (or did I flatter myself?). I’d link back to a few, but I’m awfully tired right now.

Yes, as you have guessed, I did not write anything earlier. I tried and tried to think of something. All I could come up with was something I have posted as a Facebook status:

If we know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer etc., why would we NOT recall the most famous reindeer of all? Hello! Famous? Does that not mean well-known? If we do not recall him, he’s NOT VERY FAMOUS, IS HE? (I guess I didn’t need the caps there; I’m getting a little cranky).

I was mentioning this at work and a co-worker, who knows I am Mohawk Valley Girl, thought it would make a good article. I thought it would make kind of a short one but did not despair of coming up with at least a couple paragraphs. Then as I pondered the question, I remembered something. In the Regency Romances I read, the characters often use the word “famous” the way we used “awesome” in the ’80s or “amazing” these days. Not for its literal meaning but just to mean really really good.

Oh dear, there went my blog post. And now I am really tired (I think I mentioned that earlier). And I have rehearsal to go to (I know I mentioned the play I’m in). But look, I’m over 300 words. That’s more than respectable. Happy Friday, everyone.

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What’s This All About?

Posted on December 9, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was, on wordpress.com trying to write a blog post. And it was not going well. So I left WordPress and went to Facebook, an ever-present help in times of trouble. I went to the Facebook page of the place I was trying to write about. From there I clicked onto their website and read some more about them, made a couple of notes, clicked back to Facebook, checked my notifications (only one), read down a few new statuses, kept scrolling, said oh yeah, blog post.

I came back to wordpress.com and clicked on an icon I had not clicked on before. Now, it seems, I am using the new editor. Will it make it any easier to write a post? So far I must say, I am not a fan. For one reason, there is no word count at the bottom. How can I know when I have met my self-imposed minimum of 200 words without a word count? You needn’t think I’m going to count them myself. I rarely do the math.

And what about the post I abandoned earlier? Don’t worry, I saved it. I intend to finish it, but I don’t imagine I will be able to do so today. It’s not Tired Tuesday yet, but I sure am tired. I’m hoping this nonsense will count as a Middle-aged Musings Monday.

I feel I should perhaps add that this is not the only writing I have done today. Earlier this evening I worked on an article I intend to submit to Mohawk Valley Living, my favorite magazine. And when I first got to wordpress.com I added to some comments I had made to another blogger, Return of the Modern Philosopher. So I’m afraid I used up the words that were in me today on frivolous things other than this blog. I hope nobody feels dissed.

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Unnecessary Angst

Posted on December 6, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I have a problem with writing about my Mohawk Valley adventures. I can’t seem to write about them right after they happen. So say I don’t have any adventures during the week, so I write stupid posts, then I have a couple of good ones on Friday, then Friday evening I finally get in front of the computer… I go blank.

I say to my husband Steve, “I don’t know what to make my blog post about.” He says, “Write about tonight.” But I feel if I just write off the cuff, typing off the top of my head as it were, I’m going to leave out important stuff and not do justice to the adventures we had.

Well that’s fine, someone might say, just write about it tomorrow. Oh, now the pressure’s really on. I waited a day so I could make it good. What if it’s not good enough? Oh no!

I’ve probably talked about this angst before. Now I’m repeating myself. This gets worse and worse. I’m not only going to not write a good enough post about what we did tonight, I’m writing a stupid post about not being able to write a good post now!

Then again, it is Lame Post Friday. And some people are amused by my ridiculous posts. As always, I can only try again tomorrow.

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As Truman Capote Said, “That’s Not Writing, That’s Typing”

Posted on December 5, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

It hasn’t been a month since I took a blogger’s sick day. Sorry, but I’m taking one now. However, since today can’t be the day I don’t make a blog post, I’m going to try to think of a few words to type in and I’ll hit publish.

I’ve really been quite blessed lately in suffering from fewer headaches than previously. And I am blessed in that I managed to put in a full day’s work (at least I spent the allotted amount of time at my place of employment, if you really want to be a stickler about these things) (and I know some of you do), and I got my laundry done, even folded. Perhaps not folded neatly, but what miracles of housekeeping do you want from me (this is a rhetorical question)? So much for looking on the bright side.

I have a great number of Mohawk Valley adventures planned for the next couple of days. So I should feel grateful I had the headache today, when I only planned to go to the laundromat. Here is a chance for some half-baked philosophy: is a hated chore made substantially worse by a migraine or is it under the heading As Long As It Sucks, Might As Well Really Suck? Discuss amongst yourselves.

As some of my more unkind readers are saying, “Speaking of sucking, this post…” I realize I am over 200 words. I can hit Publish and go back to nursing my head. Hope to see you on Lame Post Friday.

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Vegetables or Blog?

Posted on December 4, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

To chop vegetables or make my blog post, that is the question. Perhaps a little less profound than “to be or not to be,” but I find it entirely appropriate for Wuss-out Wednesday.

It would really be a good idea if I chopped vegetables for my lunch tomorrow. I have some celery, which does not last as long as one would like. I have carrots and radishes, which last longer but are not nonperishable. More to the point, I am NOT meeting my weight-loss goals and including raw vegetables in my lunch will help. If I needed another reason, there is the therapeutic benefit of chopping up vegetables.

Of course, one reaches the full benefit by also sipping a glass of wine (only one since there is a knife involved; safety first). I mean, it’s still a soothing thing to do even without the wine. But I say give yourself every advantage. Unfortunately I cannot benefit from wine till later. I have rehearsal in about an hour.

For those of you just tuning in, rehearsal is for the play Busybody at Ilion Little Theatre. It will be presented at the last weekend of January and first weekend of February. I have rather a large part. In fact, rehearsal is less than an hour away. Less than an hour? Yikes! No wonder I’m so flustered. I don’t think chopping vegetables would calm me down at this point with or without wine. Is typing in my blog post having a similar therapeutic effect? Not noticeably.

So I have determined that neither chopping vegetables nor posting my blog is going to make me feel any better right now. However, consider this: I can eat a lunch without vegetables. I have done it before. But in three years I have not gone a day without making a blog post. I am not going to start today!

Therefore I make bold to hit Publish for this collection of nonsense and continue getting ready for rehearsal. Will the vegetables ever get chopped? I don’t know, so I must leave you in suspense. See you on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

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