No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on March 30, 2016

Caroline was disappointed that she couldn’t do something that I can do with ease which, in this case, was scramble an egg by whipping the fork through the egg. I pointed out to her the number of years that I have been scrambling eggs and the number of years that she has been scrambling eggs. By the time she has kids, she’ll have this technique down too.

I have to remind her that more often recently. That there are things that she couldn’t do a couple of years ago that she is now proficient in.

I think about all the things that she has learned in her 13 years on this planet and it is rather amazing.

I think about all I have learned during her 13 years in my life and I am astonished.

I had an artist once tell me that if you think you have learned everything about how to do something, then you are sadly mistaken. There is always something to learn or a new way of doing something or new materials and tools that make it harder or easier depending on the task at hand. Or to put it another way, never rest on your laurels.

I like learning things. I always have. I have been frustrated sometimes in my education but the act of discovering something I didn’t know before gives me a little jolt of happiness.

When I find a topic that I am interested in, I will research it to the nth degree to try to find out as much as I can on the subject. Fortunately I am at the point in my life that I get to choose pretty much what I want to learn rather than having others tell me what I need to learn.

My brain is one of my best assets and I try to keep it in good working order. Not easy at time, but I do my best.

I do enjoy teaching others things I have learned. I like passing on knowledge and may be saving someone some time from trying things I did that I know won’t work. I can add teacher to the list of things that I am. Maybe not a formal one with a degree but I can and do teach. Actually technically I can teach theater with my MFA from Yale because of the sort of degree it is.

I am grateful for learning in all its myriad forms.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 29, 2016

I pushed the pause button on crafty work for a bit.

I was getting too anxious about what I was working on so I gave myself a pause to regroup and then figure things out.

In a perfect world I would have time to just sit and work on projects but this is not a perfect world and I have responsibilities.

Also I need to quiet my brain a bit. I have been dealing with a lot of things that I have been needing to deal with but it has not been conducive to being creative.

I was reading an entry from three years ago that was three months after Peter’s stroke and I talked then about the creative not in the mix at the time.

Going to see Ariel this weekend helped getting some things in place. I also had some time by myself to just sit and think which I apparently needed to do more than I knew. So I got some clarity and some more things got foggy but it was nice to have the time.

Now it is time to take the pause button off and finish off some projects before starting some new ones. I can do this.

I am grateful for the pause but now it is time to play.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 28, 2016

The visit with Ariel, Anthony, and the to be born in a month or so AJ, was very nice.

On the way up I broke it into two pieces. On the way back I decided to try it in one.(edit: OK we were going to leave after lunch which would have been 1 to 2 and then we would have stopped but we left at 11 because we were trying to avoid a front that was going to bring strong rain and wind which is why I did the drive the way I did.)

The journey home was long. Not much traffic just a long drive. Thank goodness for Big Finish and Graphic Audio.

About the time we got to Allentown, I figured that we could make it home that we did after going through the city, which I hate to do. But my GPS sent me that direction and I couldn’t get it to take me another way.

Which turned out to be a good thing because traffic the way I wanted to go would have probably added another two hours to the trip.

By the time I was done, my ears were ringing so hard I had a headache.

This morning the ringing is down to a dull roar. My forearms are a little over worked from gripping the steering wheel and my neck is stiff. But I got us safely home.

I am grateful for the number of green lights I got crossing Manhattan.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 27, 2016

This morning Caroline and I are off to an early mass. Then we are packing up and saying our good-byes and hitting the road to go home. Caroline has Monday off of school so I have two days to get us home.

This has been a good trip and I am very glad that I brought Caroline along for the ride. I think both sisters needed some time with each other.

I am grateful that it was the right call to bring Caroline.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 26, 2016

Story ideas I have a plethora of. I can work out a story in my head and tinker with it until I am happy with it and then file it away until I need to write something.

I can do really good loglines and have written the TV guide equivalent for book catalogues and the like. I even did some under the table for people at Ballantine because I was that good at it.

But that’s the easy part for me.

The hard part is actually writing the story out of my head and onto paper or electrons or whatever.

I can do it. I have done it. I have been published.

Right now I am working on a Captain Nemo novel that takes place shortly after the events of 20,000 leagues under the sea. I have scrapped most of my manuscript twice now because I don’t like what I am writing. Again I have the idea and the outline but now I need to expand to a point where people will be satisfied with the final product.

I also have agreed to a short story in an anthology that I have given the logline for to the editor. They love it and have given the go ahead to write the story. I have an idea where it is going to go but I also have to do some serious research to make sure that I am “authentic” in what I am going to be writing even though I am in the realm of the historically inaccurate.

There are a couple of other projects I am noodling on as well.

Again all well and good but not the final product that I need to produce.

So I guess I’ll do what I have done before which is write my way to that one scene I have so clearing in my head and then write to the next one.

I am grateful for an ability to write well.

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