What is going on????

I realize that having a politician finally admit what we all know is newsworthy, but is it more important than the ethnic cleansing going on in Georgia? BTW, Edwards, denying the child before DNA results come in is not a good move, because when you have to have another press conference to admit it's yours, you're going to look even more ridiculous. Also, claiming that it's a private matter when the entire world had to hear about your wife's breast cancer? Where exactly is that line drawn?

Another item off my checklist!

Because I'm living with my mother right now, I don't have room for all my stuff in the house (it's a small house), so I have one of those off-site storage units. I've been wanting to go through the boxes and sort things out, throw away the trash, put aside things for Goodwill, and repack some of the boxes because they're starting to collapse. It took two Saturdays, but I finished today! Another item off the list!

I still have three boxes to go through. They're all personal files--old utility bills, bank statements, etc--and when I have a free weekend, I'll bring those home and sort them out. Old stuff will be shredded, I'll repack the keeper items, add new stuff and take them back to the unit. That'll be another time.

Another item on the list I'm working on is scrapbooking my photos. I have, oh, I don't know how many pictures...not even worth counting. But I'm determined to get them caught up. I finally finished my overseas trip and now I'm working on my nephew's wedding. If all goes well, I'll have them finished by the end of this month (just a couple days away!). Then I'll jump right in to my Milford trip, then I'll start all my South Carolina pictures. Then I'll hop into the Wayback machine and do all the older pictures.

But here's the sad thing. A few years ago, I used to sell Creative Memories scrapbooking/memorykeeping supplies. I quit about two years ago, mainly because I was in South Carolina and battling depression. I kept buying supplies to make my minimum quota sales, but did nothing with them. I packed them up and moved them to my Winchester storage unit and forgot about them.

I had a few things here at the house and finally decided to get rid of them by selling them on eBay. I sold a few items, then took that money and bought some CM-specific pages in white off of eBay so I could finish my nephew's wedding album. Today (back to the "sad thing"), as I was working in the storage unit, I came across a box half-full of CM-specific white pages! Here I went and spent money on something I already had! I'm still steamed over that. But because I'm the optimistic type and try to see the good in the bad, I can balance that discovery with the fact that I need page protectors as well, and found a whole stack of them before I went and bid on some.

This is why I was going through my storage unit, to see what I had. So now I know, and I'll be auctioning off a lot more stuff on eBay in the coming weeks. And yes, that's another item on the list! Not checked off yet, but hey, I'm working on it.

Another Item off the To-Do List, pt 2

Just thought to add this...

For the past two months, I've been debating with myself about going to a writer's conference. It's in Myrtle Beach, so not too far a trek from Winchester, and it's at the end of October, which is a really nice time in MB--still warm enough to go to the beach, but far enough out of tourist season so the beaches will be empty. The cost is maybe a smidge high, but no so high as to be unreasonable, so I've really been debating it.

I've talked to several people about it, and they all said the same thing, which was "Go! Do it! You'll love it! You'll learn so much! You'll meet so many people!" etc, etc. Not a negative comment in the bunch. I did get differing opinions as to whether or not I should sign up for an agent/editor critique. I feel my work isn't really ready and some agreed that I should wait until I am, while others said an agent/editor would be able to give me guidance as to which way to go with my work. That, I guess, was the reason I was delaying making a choice. Deep down, I feel I'm right in not going for a critique yet, but I understood the other point of view as well. So, back and forth, should I? shouldn't I?

Yesterday, I finally said "Enough procrastinating! Isn't that why you've pushed yourself to finish the Belfast/Glasgow scrapbook? So stop putting off registering for the conference. Do it now before the seminars you want are sold out!" So I logged onto the site (here if you're interested), filled out the form and it's done! I'm going to my first writer's conference in October!

I have three good story ideas and I'm going to bring synopses/outlines of each, just so when someone asks what I'm working on, I can answer them intelligently. And I have some pre-work for one of my seminars, so I need to get going on that. So right now, not much to do to prepare, but some work to do.

So...my wonderful but silent fans...have any of you been to a writer's convention? Any ideas/tips of what I should/shouldn't do? Come on, you know you want to share!

Another Item off the To-Do List

Three years ago this week, my mother and I set out on a journey overseas, to spend eleven days in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland. Part adventure, part work, we went to do a little genealogy research and, heck, just to see these two great cities.

My mom’s grandfather was from Northern Ireland and he we know he was a school teacher in the village of Ballindrum (which no longer exists, but we know where it was). They left Ballindrum for Belfast and her father was born in Belfast. They then moved to Glasgow when he was about ten years old. His father joined the ship-building trade and I imagine my grandfather did as well before emigrating to the United States.

While we were there, I took—no joke—just over 700 pictures. I figured I may never go back (though I’d love to go back to Belfast), so I might as well take as many pictures as I can.

Why am I telling you this? Because, after three long years, I finally, FINALLY, finished my scrapbook of this trip!

Oh, relax, I’m not going to start preaching about the wonders and pleasures of scrapbooking. I might start preaching about the pleasures of getting over the procrastination bug and finishing a project, though. It gave me such a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that something I’d been thinking about and worrying about and fretting about for three years is finally done and I don’t have to think about it any more! Do you know what that’s like? It’s bliss, I tell you, bliss.

But here’s the funny part. I pushed myself to work on it every evening this week. Monday evening I gathered together everything I needed. Tuesday, I journaled the Belfast portion of the trip, Wednesday I journaled the Glasgow portion of the trip (adding a few embellishments to the pages each night), Thursday I put each page into page protector sleeves and Friday night I bound all the pages into two books, then put everything away. I was done around 10:15-10:30 each night, but Friday I was done around 8:30, tired, satisfied, and yet strangely, at loose ends. I wanted to keep working! I was glad I was done but I wanted to do more. But I forced myself to relax and just enjoy the evening…because Saturday I start a new project!

The pictures of my nephew’s wedding came in on Thursday, and I want to get those into an album as quickly as possible. Far fewer pictures—about 200—so it shouldn’t take me three years…hopefully only three weekends. I want these done because I still have all my South Carolina pictures (Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head), plus my trip to Chicago, not to mention all the pictures of my nieces and nephew that have been crowding numerous picture boxes for numerous years…