Stick Horse Cowgirls

I hate to even look back to see how long it has been since I last wrote.  My work has been unbelievably busy.  I know that sounds like a cliché—we are all too busy—but this has been a time when I had very, very little down time, sometimes going weeks at a time without a real day off.  Writing in our blog has not seemed an option for the past few months. Do I sound whiny?  Well, that probably fits.  I feel whiny.  And I feel too old for this pace! But I am determined to pick my blogging back up.  It has, in times past, been a real lifesaver for me; which also sounds like a cliché but it is not much of an exaggeration.  It has been my therapy in times when I have needed it to get through my divorce situation and it has been my favorite pastime—a healthy outlet even when I no longer needed therapy!  So I have made it my goal to write more.  Everyone needs a healthy outlet,right? Now for some updates: First, I am divorced.  Yea! ...

I awoke with a start this morning before 4 a.m.  It is not unusual for me to be awake at this hour, but to be so fully awake and with such purpose right off  is not my norm.  What has got me going is the holiday bustle.  Belatedly. I’ve mentioned earlier that MIL came up with the bright idea of going out to eat.  It seemed, at first, an affront to long-standing family tradition, but as I thought it through, I came over to the other side.  We’ve found a lavish Thanksgiving buffet to attend and have duly made our reservations.  My family will gather at the restaurant this year, and each one of them seems excited by the change. Because I am not cooking for the meal, I have not purchased one, single extra item from the store.  Son is away at the beach for a week, so it’s only me here.  My mother is coming tonight.  So I knew I had to get a few things in for while she is here. And then it happened: the slide back toward busyness. ...

Once again our blogging friend from Add Humor and Faith…Mix Well came through our town last Thursday.  V, MIL and I picked her up at the motel and spent the evening over dinner, laughing and sharing stories—just four bloggers out on the town. The restaurant we visited has a replica of something V and I both vi vidly remember from our childhood half a century ( egads! ) ago…Laughing Sally.   Sally was a mechanical doll (a bit larger than life-sized) who shook and laughed over and over and over.  She was displayed behind glass at the amusement park attached to our Zoo.  V and I shared the same childhood mixture of horror and attraction when it came to Sally.  Whenever we were fortunate enough to con our parents into going to “the rides,” (2 ride limits, for they were a quarter apiece), a visit to stand staring at Sally  in nervous fascination was required.  But, b ack to our dinner:  Sandra is exactly as V and I have grown to know her t...

The other night I had insomnia.  It's been a while since I really had insomnia. Well, I guess, not all that long in the broad scheme of things. At the beginning of my marital problems three years ago I would often go on three hours of sleep a night.   Let me tell you, that’s not good. That is highly uncharacteristic for me, I was always the kid who required the full eight hours. I was, throughout my life, early to bed and very early to rise.  (Unlike V, who was mostly the opposite—a night owl)   It is still common to find me in bed before 9 p.m and up before 5 a.m.  Falling asleep is easy—it’s the staying asleep that is sometimes difficult. My sleep patterns have become very odd over the past year or so.  Most nights I have a pretty good night’s sleep.  Chili usually wakes me to go out (wolf dog that he thinks he is) around 2 ish, but normally I cruise by the bathroom and go right back to sleep.  Some nights, well, I wake up inspire...

One the blogs I have followed and enjoyed these two years since V got me hooked on this blogging thing is “ Rue’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Life. ”  I was sad to see Rue close down her site this month, and I will miss voyeurism into her life—hearing about her projects and about Rich and the kids.  See, I get attached to you guys. Rue has left the public realm, going to an invitation-only site.  She didn’t just leave us—she posted a “good-by,” giving us an explanation, which I appreciated.  Otherwise it would have been leaving friends abruptly, without a proper leave-taking….unthinkable.  Rue said some things in her “good by” to us that made me think….and you know how I love to overthink. She has been disillusioned somehow by some of her fellow bloggers, something I’ve not experienced, thankfully.  But one of the things that struck me most was her comments to the effect that she was tired of going around life thinking of how every little thing might ma...

Well, V and I haven’t been able to write like we usually do.  V had hand surgery last week.  Here’s a word of warning to you all: V tried to shortcut her trips with groceries from car to house by carrying a bazillion  or so of those plastic bags at one time.  She broke her hand doing it!! I do the same thing—try to cut my trips back and forth down. I usually end up dropping stuff (having to beat the dogs back from it—they think anything I drop is fair game).  I need to buy one of those little folding cart thingys MIL and my mother have.  In fact, now that I write this, I think I’ll go by the container store, where we got Mom’s, and pick up one for me and one for V.  No more spilled groceries!  No more back-and-forth trips!  No more broken hands!! Anyway, the cast is driving her nuts.  And typing one-handed is frustrating for her.  She came over Sunday and we spent the day dreaming about improving our blog (we have soooo much...

Who knows where this post will meander.  I sit to write, but I have no idea where I’m going; I just want to write.  Do you do that?  Ah, I see now where I’m headed…I want to know about your writing rhythms.  And share about the stumbles in mine. I read all these wonderful blogs, and it seems like everyone has something to say all the time.  Maybe my life just isn’t all that interesting.  Pretty routine, actually… I realize this is all an illusion…that the pauses between writings of others are not so noticeable to me as my own, naturally.  And some of you will occasionally announce a hiatus from writing.  Those are encouragement for me—sad, because I miss some of you who temporarily suspend writing, but encouraging for the thought that you, too, have moments of no words. MIL is discouraged about her own writing.  Immigrant Daughter has given her a lot of joy in sharing with her family and others about her life.  Now she is in a ...

In his marvelous little book Tribes , Seth Godin defines a a tribe as …a group of people connected to one another…connected to an idea.  For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another.  A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate…People want connection and growth and something new… Last night V and I responded to the tribal drumbeat sounded by Kyran Pittman of Notes to Self.   We made the ritual trek to the “high place,” an 18th floor swanky room just perfect for our gathering.  What we found there was, indeed a tribe: about 25 young women (yes, we were the elders) who came together solely because we are members of the same tribe: Arkansas women bloggers.  V and I had not previously met any of the attendees, but when we walked into that room, it was clear that we belonged.  We had a common experience with each one of these women: blogging.  It was magical; and although...

Yeah, it’s French.  And, yeah, I’m faking it—I can’t speak French, at least not yet, but it’s the phrase that came to mind this morning.  See?  I know a little… I found myself wanting to write.  But about what?  Those of us in Blogdom know that one way to get a post done is to sit at the keyboard and let our fingers do the walking…mine just seemed to take off. I thought about taking off on a comment that Vickie of Sand Flat Farm made on my last post on cussing, no less.  Her point is that we are growing “numb” to things…yes, that’s a post all right.  But this morning I don’t feel like soap box ranting (do I hear a collective sigh of relief?).  Vickie’s inspiration will wait on another day.  No, I think I feel like just reporting.  On life.  When V first dragged me into blogging and we were considering names for our blog, one of the first names my cynical mind came up with was “As if You Care!”   But I find that I do c...

When I was in fourth grade (1961) we left our next-door-to-V home and moved out to the country where I lived until I married.  Immediately upon moving there, “Ginger” was purchased.  She was a tall, gentle  chestnut mare, and she was with me until she died, after my marriage. Ginger was my boon companion.  I rode her all over the countryside with a freedom unheard of in my world today.  It was magical.  I must write about some of the adventures that Ginger and I had.  But that is for another day—my mind is on someone else today. The tasks of feeding Ginger and caring for her (and her several later offspring) fell largely to me, which I did not mind at all.  Part of those duties was seeing to her feet.  And we were fortunate that our farrier, Bud, lived about a half mile down our country road.  When Ginger was in need of shoes, I saddled her up and rode down there.    That experience, too, was magical in a different so...

The main reason that I enjoy blogging is because it is about connecting with other people. You discover that your neighborhood reaches all across the world to places that you might never have the opportunity to visit in person. It interests me to "meet" other people and hear the stories they have to tell. Yes, I know I keep saying that everyone has a story! So in blogdom, it's not just about "us" and our stories, but about all our friends out there, most of whom we'll never meet in person. Our friend, Kathleen, from Four Miles North of Nowhere, and Kate, from Chronicles of a Country Girl, have posed questions as a means of sparking interesting dialogue on their blogs. Don't know if it'll work here, but I thought it would be fun to try it! I'll be first and I'll even use photographs to illustrate my answers! Feel free to answer briefly, or if you have an interesting related story, please share! So here are the 5 questions: 1. Where were ...