irrelevant (and sometimes questionable) ramblings

It’s September, and the Offspring starts school on Tuesday. It’s about bloody time, let me tell you. We’ve had a good summer, but it’s becoming obvious that the (mostly) unstructured days just aren’t fun anymore and the kidlet is actually ready to go back. This is the first year that she’s expressed excitement about returning to class, and I’m taking that as a good sign.

Truthfully, I think Autumn is my favourite time of year — perhaps tied with Spring. I love Autumn’s cooler days (well, not really happening yet, but next week — according to the long-range forecast) and the return of routine. I’ve been busy putting a schedule together for myself, actually, and looking forward to implementing it starting next week.

I’m actually doing things for myself this year (or at least I’m going to try). The plan is to take piano lessons and join a choir. Those activities, along with getting back into a fitness routine and starting work on new writing projects, will definitely fill up my time. We’ll see how it goes, especially after the first blush of excitement and newness has worn off…

I will make more time to blog and try to increase my internet presence, as well. Dipping my toes into the promo pool is long overdue. It’s hard and it’s a lot of work, but it’s a necessary evil, I guess. Unless one’s name happens to be Stephen, Danielle or La Nora.

Ah, well. Onward and upward, wot ho?! Catch ya later, folks…

I wish teh Interweebs would just shut up about Lindsey Lohan and LeBron James.

I. Don’t. Care.

Of course, some other celebrity will eventually have their own train wreck and take center stage. It never ends.

That is all I’ve got to say.

Those who know me know that my thumb is actually more on the brownish side than greenish. I tend to somehow always kill everything but the hardiest things. However, this does not usually stop me when it comes to a veggie garden.

This year, B.E. and I have a plan in place for veggies in our own back yard. (Last spring was way too busy with the wedding and everything else to even consider a garden.) I have now started seeds in my little mini-greenhouses inside (read: plastic boxes store-bought croissants came in!) — remember, we’re in Northern Canuckland. We don’t want to take a chance and even *think* about putting anything outdoors until the end of the month, at least! We could still very easily have frost.

Yes, this does make for a short growing season, but we make the best we can of it, and see what thrives in a couple of months.

Ideally — and I realized this *after* B.E. turned over the sod in the yard to make our veggie patch — I think I would have more success with a square-foot garden box, instead, but that’s okay. This year we’ll try it in the ground and maybe next year we’ll try a box version. Maybe B.E. and the Pater can get together and build one or two boxes at some point…

Anyway. We’ll see what happens with the veggies. It’s like everything else — hurry up and wait. But that’s okay, I’ve got plenty on my plate to keep me preoccupied over the summer!

With ideas, that is!

But sadly, they’re not story ideas. They’re everything but story ideas.

I’ve got ideas for craft projects, for decorating, for gardening, for baking and almost everything else under the sun flitting around in my brain, but not a single new story idea popping up.

And while I really am enjoying this flow of creativity in general, I wish at least a third of the ideas could be writing-related. It would be very helpful, you know.

It must be a pregnancy thing. *sigh* Oh, well.

I finished the book I’d been reading yesterday afternoon, and as such couldn’t find anything I really wanted to read in bed last night. So instead, I pulled out a couple of my old notebooks to skim for potential story ideas. It was very interesting, because at least one story popped out at me as a potential new project, though I’m not sure where it’s going to go, or what’s going to happen with it (I’ve just got a setting and some characters and a really, really vague premise…). And there’s another that’s been on the back-burner, which is now looking for attention. Hm.

The part that gets me, though, is, I am so disorganized when it comes to ideas. I have lost track of how many notebooks I own where things are hastily scribbled down — to be truthful, I’m not even sure where all of those notes/notebooks are!

How do you other creative types do it? I know I should probably carry *one* single notebook around with me for those inspirational moments, but I never remember to do that. Dunno. Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out a better system.

Or maybe I’ll end up scrambling like this for the rest of my creative life. Who knows…?!?

I should know better than to do a Google image search on something innocuous (pony clip art, for God’s sakes! You know, little cartoon horsies?!?) with Safe Search switched “off”.

I’m going to go bleach my eyeballs now.

Amongst all the happiness and chaos surrounding the upcoming appearance of the Junior Peanut, there is some sadness.

At the beginning of May, the lease on Yours Truly’s kick-butt Starrmobile is up and the keys must be handed back (along with the vehicle, of course) to the dealership.

Am I sad about this fact? Yes and no. Yes, because I have enjoyed having my car. She was a fun gal to bomb around in…and no, because having her has been an extra financial strain that has really required pennypinching to maintain.

Does this mean that Clan Starr will be a one-car family evermore?

Not necessarily. It’ll depend on a few things:

• Will we be able to function on one car? Many, many families do. B.E. is able to carpool quite a bit and (weather permitting) ride his bike to work. Will we have conflicts? You betcha. It’ll require creative planning on those occasions when we both need to go in different directions, but it’s not impossible.
• Could we afford another car? Maybe. It would depend on a steady, significant increase in income for me to be able to comfortably cover car payment, insurance and fuel and repairs. But it’s also not impossible, if we look at a smaller, used car with a lower price point.

Rest assured, should the need arise, we will revisit the second car issue. I admit to a bit of selfishness on my part — I’ve had a car of my own for years, and I’ve gotten quite used to that fact. But dropping to one car will also help financially, which will also help allow Yours Truly to remain duly self-employed and continue to bring you tales that titillate. Heh.

Unless I manage NYT bestsellers that give me a six-figure income. Then all bets are off and we’re going car shopping. Woo!

This was forwarded to me via email. It’s a supremely graphic anti-drinking and driving video from Australia. Perhaps if more people watched this our incidences of alcohol- and drug-related accidents and fatalities would drop.

Maybe.

Not suitable for all viewers. And be prepared to deal with the post-weeping headache like I am.

It is wretched, let me tell you.

Why, do you ask? Well, it’s simply dreadful not having enough hours in a day to do all the things one wants to do. *sigh*

Consider this: some recent Interweebz surfing had me stumbling on uber-cool crafting websites like Dollar Store Crafts (where all supplies can be purchased at a Dollar Store! No, really!) and other blogs like Happy Together and Ruffles and Stuff where these incredibly talented women whip up amazing craft/sewing projects that simply make me ache with longing to do the same thing. (And believe me, I’ve been very careful about following too many links, ’cause there are tons of these blogs/sites out there and I’ll just get sucked into them and never find my way out again.)

Here are the myriad problems, see. A) I don’t have enough time for all of that. Writing, homemaking, cooking, parenting, etc., etc. seem to swallow up huge chunks of the clock. (That, or maybe I’m just horrifically bad at time management. I don’t know.) And B) I don’t have a space in this house to do crafty stuff. Yet. I hope eventually I’ll be able to set up a spot where I can occasionally putter. It’s just not high on the priority list right now. Finally, C) you know, I’m not actually very good at doing that sort of stuff. I’m kinda like a “Jill-of-all-trades” when it comes to being creative in that sense. My attempts tend to look like preschooler art projects more than anything. I can *just barely* sew a straight line with a sewing machine. I can’t paint worth a darn (not anything detailed, anyway). My knitting is relegated to super-simple things like scarves.

I’m a crafter wannabe, that’s what it is.

So the question becomes, do I even dare try to tackle some of these (seemingly) simple projects found online? I don’t know. I guess the thing is to start *really* small and work my way up. Who knows, right? All I do know is I have some things in the basement that *could* be turned into something cool. There are leftover wedding centerpiece supplies and all that that have possibilities. Maybe it’s just about taking another leap of faith and trying. (Yeah, yeah. No Yoda quotes, okay?)

I’ll keep you posted.

Open letter to the teenage boys who stand in the street outside our house and smoke pot before going to school:

Attention Doorknobs:

The girls you want to get don’t like loser potheads who have no ambition and can’t see beyond the immediate gratification of the day, and who subsequently have no future. You’re killing the few braincells you’ve got left in there, and you will never get laid. Quit that shit while you’re ahead.

Signed,
A Concerned Citizen