Thanks to a Former Coworker and Still Friend

Today I met Lori, a former coworker and still friend, for lunch. We worked together for many years, me as a financial editor and she as tech support at a big-deal investment bank. Lori helped me out of many a PC jam, week in and week out. Time spent together created a friendship. We both left the big-deal investment bank many years ago, but we keep in touch. We are both writers, in addition to what else we are!

The last time Lori and I met for lunch she told me about The Write Group, an organization created by and for writers that meets in Northern New Jersey. She told me about the Saturday morning free write meet-ups and the weekly email newsletter. After that lunch I went home and signed up to receive the newsletter.

I love my Mac! My husband Mike surprised me with it. I kicked my PC to the curb and never looked back. The Best!

Today I thanked Lori for broadening my writing horizons. If Lori hadn’t told me about The Write Group I would not have had the opportunity to attend some of its Thursday night meetings like Social Media, Memoir Your Way to Freedom, and Legal Issues for Writers, to name three. I would not have learned about MEWS, an organization that was founded to bring together writers and editors in a Northern N.J. town. And then I wouldn’t have taken Pam Satran’s one-day novel writing class; I learned more in that one-day class than I have at any other writer’s gathering, ever.

During class I write long hand, which is NOT my preferred method.

And if I hadn’t attended these events and workshops I probably wouldn’t have signed up for the five-week free-write class I have been taking on Monday nights; it’s a challenge for someone like me, an editor, to sit and just write for 20 minutes without sneaking back and editing what I’ve just written. And it’s difficult for me to read what I’ve written out loud to my classmates. But I’m learning. I’m learning to let go of my old edit-as-I-go habit and I am conquering the fear that hits me every time I hear myself volunteering to read what I’ve just written in class.

I figure that if I can just write, as Pam Satran, the many writers I’ve met over the past year and my Monday night instructor and classmates say I should, then I will create something truly special.

First, write it down. Put all that wonderful stuff in your head onto paper or computer. All of it. Or as much as you have time to do in the time you have.

Second, edit it. But edit it at another time, a time far removed from the initial creative process. Assign a day or time to “just edit.”

<deep breath>

Now excuse me while I go practice what I just preached.

Ice Fishing: It’s What Grown Men Do

I love my husband Mike. That said, I don’t understand his fascination with ice fishing. He’s ice fished with basically the same group of males since we were all 17 years old. It’s an annual thing. One year I was due to deliver our daughter Tory and Mike asked if he could go ice fishing on the same weekend she was scheduled to be born (I know Doug, the best man in our wedding a million years ago, put Mike up to asking. I KNOW it.). Needless to say, i said NO! Other than that weekend, my loving husband has trekked to western PA for his ice fishing fix for more than 33 consecutive years.

They are fishing as I write. Take a look!

Thursday night TV lineup with the boys.

How many boys does it take to drill holes in the ice? I ask you.

Base camp. It ain't the Arctic, but I guess it's close!

Photos courtesy of Mike and his crackberry.

© Adventures of a Middle Age Mom 2009-2012.

Happy New Year, My Friends

Business as Usual Here. What Are Your Plans?

This is what I've been doing since the early morning hours of Wednesday!

Last night my husband Mike and I quietly welcomed 2011 in the comfort of our family room, me stretched out on the sofa and Mike in a leather recliner. We stayed up until 12:30! I am still recovering from my major stomach malady of earlier in the week so this is how I toasted the beginning of 2011:

Yep. I toasted the New Year in with water and Cheerios.

Our daughter Tory and five of her friends reveled below stairs at our home, listening to music, talking, dancing, watching the ball drop on TV and playing Twister. The kids were noisy, then quiet, then noisy again. Typical teenagers.

While the three of us celebrated at home, our son Max and his many (20, at last count) buddies travelled to a friend’s Catskills home for fun in the cold and general revelry. Haven spoken to our son, I can assure you that no one was hurt or hospitalized before, during or after the festivities. Their Mad Men-themed party was deemed a success!

The young men are Eagle Scouts and they are ready to test themselves once again.

Now our Eagle Scout son and his good buddy Eagle Scout Sam and one of Sam’s summer trip-to-Alaska-to-freeze-his-butt-off-and-learn-how-to-survive buddies are driving to New Hampshire where they plan to spend five days hiking in the freezing, blowing wind and cold up some major (for the East Coast) mountains. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a year know that Max and Sam and their Eagle Scout buddy Oliver (who can’t make the hike this year since “I have to be back at school on Tuesday. And I hate freezing my butt off anyway!”) did a shorter, less-risky trip to the Catskills for a winter hiking adventure last year at this time (Camping with the Buds, No Not Beer).

Max and his two hiking buddies are pumped for this trip to the White Mountains. They packed and repacked, strategized and consulted maps. They claim they are ready to take on the mountain and return, safely. They will be out of cell phone and human range for days. I will be praying daily, perhaps hourly, for their safe return from this adventure. Would you like to join me?

Garden Club Flower Show Results: Surprising!

A Blue Ribbon, Wow!

I didn't think I had wrestled my plant material into blue ribbon form so today's ribbon was a wonderful surprise!

I submitted my “small” floral design this morning at 8 a.m.; small-standard flower show judging began at 9 a.m.; and results were publicly available at 1 p.m., when the garden club’s Annual Holiday Tea and Flower Show began. When I dropped my design off I saw one other “small” designer, my friend Kathleen, but not her design as it was neatly tucked away to protect it from the cold. Neither Cynthia nor Nina, two other friends and fellow competitors, had arrived yet. The four of us were competing in the “small” category. Typically, Kathleen and I compete against each other as we are on the same “level,” while Cynthia and Nina are one level of experience and expertise higher. All three designer friends are very talented and all four of us bring a different design esthetic to the table. I was really looking forward to seeing how each woman interpreted the theme in her design!

Imagine my surprise when I heard I had taken a blue ribbon today! I was delighted. . .and amazed, considering my talented friends. Take a look at their designs and you’ll definitely see what I mean:

Today was my lucky day!

My design, which I showed you yesterday.

A gorgeous "creative" design; I aspire to start doing creative designs; it's a big leap (for me) from the "traditional" style designs I do.

Kathleen's wreath! I'm in love with it!

Nina's design is so evocative of the season. Boxwood rocks!