2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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An Homage to Versatility – and a Thank You

Holy cow – it’s Monday again!

Seriously – I had very good intentions when I wrote last week that I wanted to get back on track by today, but lo and behold, it’s 9:39 and I’m just now sitting down to write and post something. Grr. Argh. I keep losing time, and I honestly don’t know where it all goes!!

Today I want to take a minute to say thanks. I’ve somehow managed to convince someone, somewhere that I’m halfway decent at this writing thing. Hooray! (teehee) So I want to take a minute to say thanks to my buddy Paul Dail, since I’ve been graciously awarded the Versatile Blogger Award again. If you don’t know Paul’s work by now, check out his blog – and his novel, The Imaginings. If you want my take on it, it’s here. Paul writes fabulously creepy stories that will make you jumpier than a pondful of frogs in a hurricane – and his blog posts are insightful and interesting. Definitely worth the read. Thanks so much for the acknowledgement Paul!

So I’ve fulfilled the first of the three requirements for the award: 1 – Acknowledge those who gave you the award. Now on to the next: 2 – List 7 interesting details about yourself.

I like doing these. I don’t know if the details I pick are actually interesting or not, but I still like doing them. Perhaps because I like talking about myself (teehee), perhaps because I think I’m inordinately interesting (teehee again), perhaps because I like that they give me an easy topic for blog-writing (teehee thrice). Regardless, here goes with the latest round:

  1. I am the most introverted extrovert you will likely ever meet.  People who meet me always think I am outgoing, a people-person who loves nothing more than to sit around and talk with anyone and everyone all day long.  People who know me know I greatly dislike social settings, crowds, small talk, and forced conversation.  I was a lawyer in government relations – I spent a LOT of time at cocktail parties and dinners and fundraisers and other schmoozy-events.  I was good at my job, but it drove me crazy and wore me out (hence the “retiring”-in-order-to-write thing, which is – mercifully – done in the solitary quiet of my own home).  I can chatter with anyone.  I can talk to strangers about anything.  I can smile and laugh and sound interested.  But it exhausts me – mentally and physically – and makes me very surly.
  2. I could easily spend all day, every day, sitting around doing nothing.  This does not amuse The Husband, who is a doer, not a sitter.  But I could.  I could spend my days reading, lounging about, having lunch with my best friend, watching movies with the kids, sitting by the pool (if they ever dig it, that is), going to the library, playing on the computer/phone…  I am a HUGE slacker by inclination.  I have to force myself to sit at the desk to write.  Once I’m there, butt-in-chair (hi TLB!) I’m usually fine – but getting my B-i-C is ROUGH, everyday.
  3. I think being Jimmy Buffett must be the greatest job in the world.  Seriously.  All he does is sing songs he likes, surrounded by people he likes, in places he likes, while drinking margaritas and eating cheeseburgers and sailing on his boat and rolling in the dough.  How sweet does that sound?!  And it must be – because he ALWAYS looks happy and smiley and like he’s having fun.
  4. I love a clean house but hate to clean.  I love a pretty, landscaped yard but hate to garden.  I love a clean and shiny car but hate washing/vacuuming it.  Sensing the trend yet?  If not, see #2 above.
  5. I have recently become an auction junkie.  (Thank you in equal measure to The Husband for taking me and to Bontrager’s for hosting said auctions.)  If you’ve never been to an auction, you have GOT to try it.  It’s so fun!!  I’m talking local-level stuff – house and yard things, trees/plants/flowers, that kind of stuff.  I don’t do collectibles or art or high-end, very expensive things.  I like finding the $12 box of someone’s leftover stuff that has 2 interesting old glass bottles to keep and a lot of garbage to pawn on someone else.  The bidding is fun and sucks you right into the drama of winning, the price-points are low and we’ve gotten some great deals (especially on things like trees/plants).  And it’s so fun to listen to them talk so fast – I can only dream of talking that fast…  sigh.  😉
  6. I wouldn’t want to play in an NYC/Hollywood screenwriting environment, but I think it would be great fun to write for TV.  Everything always has such nice, tidy resolution, and there are great opportunities for snarky one-liners and clever bon mots.  Top five shows I’d want to write for (and I know they’re not all still on, but still): Don’t Trust the B* in Apt. 23 (they say the most unbelievably outrageous things!), Absolutely Fabulous (for the same reason), Will & Grace (I still quote a bunch of Karen Walker-isms), Phineas and Ferb (hysterical cleverness), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (because I’d love to work with/for Joss Whedon – he can do anything!)
  7. I think I’m going to put up an “awards” page on my blog.  I’ve won a few now (from this kind of nod from a colleague to an actual blog poetry contest), and I think I’m going to set aside me “it’s gloating, eek, don’t do it!” thing and accept that they are, instead, positive feedback in support of getting my BiC (see #2 again).

Now, about the third requirement of this award: 3 – Nominate 7 other people.  I have a hard time with this one.  I don’t actually read a lot of blogs, and the ones I do have already gotten nods from me for other award lists.  So I’m going to be a brat and not name anyone.  First, because I don’t want to be repetitive.  Second, because it takes a surprising amount of time to respond to these and I don’t like to make work for other people – because I don’t want them making work for me.  I know how hard it is to stay focused and find time to write your *real* writing.  While I enjoy doing things like this list, it is admittedly a distraction from what I should be doing, and I won’t willingly enable the distracty-ness in anyone else!

2 comments to An Homage to Versatility – and a Thank You

  • I agree with much of this (especially the part about enjoying writing about me :))

    Otherwise we have many points in common. I think I’m probably like you on number 2 in the sense that I can always find a distraction. Just read the War of Art, and I think he calls this “Resistance.” I got plenty of that, and usually I enjoy my distractions… until I start feeling either guilty for not working or a little crazy when I’m not venting my insanity on the page.

    And speaking of distractions, I’m not necessarily an auction junkie, but my recent guilty pleasure has been Storage Wars and Pawn Stars. It was the former that got me started and when I ran out of episodes, I started watching the latter. But I imagine there would be a thrill in finding someone else’s stuff… and maybe some real gems inside.

    And yeah, put up that awards page. Brag away!

    Paul D. Dail
    http://www.pauldail.com- A horror writer’s not necessarily horrific blog

    • Teehee – glad to hear I’m not the only one a teensy bit enraptured with writing about myself…

      We have been watching Storage Wars for a while now & Pawn Stars only recently. The Husband also loves American Pickers. I must admit that I am starting to enjoy watching them – altho the “Yuuuuup!” guy on SW drives me INSANE. It is pretty wild what kind of miscellaneous stuff people own/keep/store! I don’t have the patience for all that kind of stuff in real life though – I just like watching the action (and, more importantly, the PEOPLE) at auctions. It’s crazy-interesting to me to see everyone go nuts over someone else’s crap! 🙂

      As always, thanks for your comment and stopping by! Hope the writing week is going well…

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