Let’s Do It!

December 30, 2010 ~ JodiLea

I am joining the Word Press Challenge. To Post Every Day in 2011.

Every day???

I decided I would join the Post a Week option. I knew I could do that. I have been doing that fairly regularly since August. I LOVE my little blog that nobody knows about. Except for a very select group of readers (mostly relatives) who pop in now and then, my blog is an undiscovered territory in the vast universe known as the Internet. Yeah, I know. Call a WHAAAmbulance.

I really wanted to join the Post a Day people, but I was terrified. I do not work well under pressure. Sometimes my muse goes off on vacation and I am left here alone with my laptop, a cup of coffee, and no coherent (or even interesting) thoughts coming to my head. Yet – I feel like writing. Why? I don’t know. I wish I didn’t. I wish I could pass by the stationary section in Ross without buying an empty journal or two. Blank pages bother me. I’ve got to write something on them. It could turn out to be drivel, but it’s the writing I must do.

As I read about how to sign up and participate, the Others (more about them in a different blog), started giving me crap. And they were right in doing so. I started my blog because I wanted to get into a habit of writing everyday, like the published authors say they do. I am an undisciplined writer. I want to write when I feel like writing, and I will not become an author that way.

So… I am sucking it up and making the commitment to post daily. Even if I can’t edit each post to perfection, I will post Something. Every Day.

Jodi Lea

P.S. If you are reading this: Have you seen my muse?

A Gray Christmas

December 23, 2010December 23, 2010 ~ JodiLea

Seven days & nights of continuous rain. Heavy rain. Often accompanied by nasty blasting winds.

How dare Mother Nature. This is Southern California for crying out loud! I have not been able to relax on my private porch. I have not needed sunglasses in over a week! If I wanted to live like this I would move to Seattle.

I woke up smiling this morning because there was light coming in the window. And, the best part, cloudless patches of gorgeous blue sky playing peek-a-boo with the lingering grayness. Now, two hours later, the grayness wins out and all is gloomy again. I check the weather websites for hopeful news. Tomorrow and Saturday cloudy. More rain on Sunday.

Scotty! Beam me up and deposit me in Maui. Or shoot me. Something.

Snow would be a different story. It is magical and peaceful. I love watching it fall, especially at night. That kind of weather this time of year would be lovely. Even if the skies were gray it would be a White Christmas. Alas, Mother Nature only finds it in her heart to snow in southern California once every 50 years, and this is not one of them. The only snow I will see is the stuff falling on my blog.

This sunless gray world is turning me into a curmudgeon. I feel depressed, grumpy and tired. The kind of “leave-me-alone-don’t-bother-me-I-just-want-to-sleep” mood clings to me like the snails and worms on the porch seeking higher ground. YUCK! The fact that the house is festively decorated for Christmas, barely registers any response from me. Unless you count “Bah Humbug!” .

Then and Now

December 7, 2010December 7, 2010 ~ JodiLea

1985 2009

How in the Hell did this happen?

Wasn’t I just standing with my best friend, her car all packed and ready to go off to Woman’s Weekend, impatiently waiting for her husband to take the photo, so we could run away from home? In 1985 I was a single mother. Little did I know that It would be a year before I would meet the love of my life, change my career path, catch chicken pox from my daughter and nearly die.

Now I have been married to the love of my life for 22 years. I went back to school for a degree and graduated the same year my daughter graduated from high school. That was weird! Made 2 more career changes, 3 years later became a grandmother, and 3 years after that I was diagnosed with diabetes days before slipping into a coma. Of course there was a ton of other stuff in between – but this is not my autobiography…

Mentally I am 25 years old. A glimpse of my reflection startles me now. Who is that old woman ? Oh yeah, it’s me. Bummer. Just when I start to feel like I am getting a handle on life it’s half over.

What has brought on this melancholy tonight? I think I had a hot flash. I’m not sure if that is what happened. All I know is, I was hot. It felt like a fever without being sick. Part of me thinks OMG! The other part of me is thrilled – maybe this signals the end of 15 years of pre-menopausal HELL.

I have many questions these days. For example, is it just me, or do police officers look like they should be in high school instead of patrolling the streets? How do people with piercings pass through airport security? Don’t teens know that tattoos are permanent? Will somebody teach my hubby how to text, so I can have someone to sext?

Do I have to buy a red hat now?