Sweet!

Did you know?

A little after midnight was this moment: 12:34:56 7/8/9. It only happens once a century. How cool is that?!

On a Much Shallower Note...

Or

Six A.M. Is Too Early For This Conversation

Or

A Confluence of Envy Rivers

Me: "Oh, you made the lottery for the New York Marathon? That's nice.
And you are going to stay with your daughter, who lives there? That's nice.
Ya Don't say. She's a freelance writer? That's nice."

Let's Change the World, Shall We?

Or, if not change the world, perhaps start the week with little old fashioned rock and roll? This is one of my craptastic running songs.



So, I've been thinking about changing the world.

Not like the, "Maybe I should get around to that someday." More like the, "Maybe I AM changing the world every day and I better start paying attention to how I'm doing it."

How I raise these little people will matter to them forever. How I raise them will matter to whoever loves them in the future. It's this ripple effect... and it never stops. Our words, our actions... there are no small consequences.

"There are no small feelings."

I keep coming back to that. There are no small feelings here. There is nothing small about how we spend our time, who we reach. Tiny acts of compassion are not always tiny to the receiver.

I have to stop acting like there is nothing I can do about our world.


And if I believe it, I have to BELIEVE IT. It matters. "How much do you have to hate somebody... and not tell them?"


I want to go somewhere. Do something.

Maybe combine travel and changing the world? It's not much, but I'm dying to travel. I am changing the world, whether I want to or not, right? It's a start. I can start from today.

I am so doing this.

My Favorite Things: America!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy (Merry?) Canada Day to my Canadian readers! Oh, who am I kidding... Happy Canada Day to my Canadian Reader. I heart you, Canada.

My other favorite thing, besides Canada? These United States.

My Favorite Presidential Quote

"You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other." - John Adams

My Favorite...um... Just Because


My Favorite Soldier

This is CH (CPT) Timothy Fary. When I was young, Tim was there when my parents had an awful wreck. He had to be the one to come find my sister and me, to tell us our mom was really, really hurting.

Every day he is there for soldiers who are really, really hurting.

He is there. He shows up and sticks around.

He has done three tours. (His wife, Sarah, and their children, have done three "tours" at home.) I am forever grateful that he was there for me once. I know his soldiers feel the same way. When I think about the Fourth of July, I think about Tim.

My Fourth of July Playlist
(Special thanks for these ideas to Tim, Jamie, Virginia, Randy, Marcie, Priscilla, Mattie, Molly and Jami!)

(The lame ones are mine. I take full responsibility.)

Ray Charles: "America the Beautiful"
James Taylor: "Fourth of July"
Bon Jovi: "Miss Fourth of July"
Mariah Carey: "Fourth of July"
Bruce Springsteen: "Born in the USA"
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Hendrix: "Star Spangled Banner"
"Battle Hymn of the Republic"
Dvorak: New World Symphony


Neil Diamond: "Coming to America"
James Brown: "Living in America"...for Rocky IV USA vs Russia
Louis Armstrong: "What a Wonderful World"...for the The Sandlot fireworks scene
Chicago: "Saturday in the Park"
"Yankee Doodle"
"Stars & Stripes Forever" with Piccolo!
"God Bless America"

And last, but never forgotten,
"Happy Birthday Song"

What's your favorite music for the Fourth of July?

Blog-cation until next week. Have a great holiday weekend, everybody!

My Favorite Things: NYC!

You knew this was coming, right? There might not be words for Today's, "My Favorite Things," musical selection. It's ten minutes... and worth it.



New York, New York.

Where to even begin? Do I romanticize it and dream of it in black and white? Yes I do. (Thank you, Woody Allen. I really, really liked Manhattan. Thanks for the recommendation.)



Do I understand that unintentionally hilariously crazy people live there? Yes.

Do I know that it's expensive, crowded, unrealistic, and not easy? Yes.

I am always going to love it. There is nothing anybody could ever do to talk me out of it.

Why? Because Brooklyn has these guys. Welcome Wagon!

Manhattan has this guy. Keller!

Please don't misunderstand: I have worked very, very hard to be content where I am. I mean it. If I lived in Mayberry for the next sixty years, that'd be... a decision I have peace about. Or, as Madeline L'Engle calls it, A Circle of Quiet.

Did I tell God that it would be fine with me if I had to leave here and live in New York? Yes.

Until that day... I'm planning a marathon vacation. A girl's gotta have a goal, right? Everybody is invited!

My Favorite Things: Blueberries!

What do you think of THIS?




Moving on...

One of my favorite things? Blueberries!

Blueberries are good for you.

They come with memories. Picking blueberries on a farm in Michigan followed by the sugar-shock blueberry pancake dinner after with all my cousins... this was a favorite day.

Blueberries bring festivals.

This is the most awesome of awesome giant blueberries.



I can't stop looking at this picture! Blueberries and chocolate. Can you imagine?

photo by sara

Finally, the subconscious mind bought this (beyond deliciousness) for me yesterday, totally forgetting I was writing about blueberries. My subconscious mind frequently gets me into trouble, but yesterday, it did good work. Thanks, Freud!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Next week is, "A Few of My Favorite Things," Week here at Freelance Life.

Songs, movies, books, blogs, people, places, things, and lions and tigers and bears... you name it and I'll cover it. I want to hear about your favorite things, too!


Let's start where all good things should start, shall we? Shakespeare!

My Favorite Sonnet


Sonnet 30

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
- W.S.

Life Mechanics

Did you ever see this sign at car repair places?

"We offer the following:

1. Fast Service

2. Quality Service

3. Cheap Service

Please choose two."

Isn't that the way life is?

I can tell you something that is honest, kind, or thorough, but you can only get two out of the three.

I can get ready on time, look cute, or have children with me... but only two out of three!

Can you think of another one?

The Problem With Being An Outdoorsy Girl...

Or, more specifically: The Problem With Being an Outdoorsy Mom Dragging the Kids Out for a Hike in Central Tennessee the Day Before Bonnaroo...

The Big Kid: Mom, what's the funny smell?

The Parents: (Glancing at each other, before a lot of ummmm's and uhhhh's)

Me: That's, uh, Nature, son.

The Better Half: (Laughing too hard to be of any help at all.)

The Big Kid: That doesn't smell like Nature to me. (Failing to notice that we were now back in the parking lot, and technically, OUT of Nature.)

The Better Half: Just say no to Nature, son.

Everything, YES EVERYTHING, You Needed to Know About Writing

This blog has it all. The business of writing, finding an agent, submitting queries... ALL OF IT!

This is Rachelle Gardner.

She is Rachel's agent.

Her CBA Ramblings Blog made this year's list for 2009's Writer's Digest: List of 101 Best Web Sites for Writers.

Her blog is amazing: thorough, easy to understand, full of useful information, practically perfect in every way. I spend a little time there every day. You should too.

Important Lessons

Last week, I went running with my new running buddy, Jennifer. While I was warming up, I took the car key off the ring and tied it to my shoe. I double knotted and then double knotted again. I made extraextra sure that key was going no place. Nowhere. Very safe in place.

After our hour of running, I got back to my car... and... WRONG KEY!!

The week before that, I was at the Y, and because I was protecting my purse/iPod, I locked all the doors.... on the car that doesn't unlock.

What's the lesson here, kids?

Do not exercise.

Bliss

"Maybe there are slumbering pockets of ignorance best left undisturbed; no one likes a know-it-all."

- Nick Hornby The Polysyllabic Spree

Worst Salesman Of All Time, Babe

I believe I have admitted my resume is a little Administrative Assistant heavy, yes? Yes. I spent many a year accidentally answering the phone at home they wrong way.

"Thank you for calling Davis and Williams. How may I help you?"

"Um... Bethany? You're at home, right?"

Right.

Anywho. I answered me a lot-o-phones.

When I was in college, there was this gym that called the office every day. I don't know how we got on that calling list, but EVERY DAY these people called. If you can tell you called an office, and not a person, you should just hang up, right? They were very persistent, these gym phone callers.

After hearing the spiel for the umpteenth day in a row, they start wearing me down. I mean, a free week at a gym! No strings attached! Get fit in time for summer! Say yes to a healthy future! And it's really, really FREE!

So I go.

I meet Dude. Dude was my age and muchmuchmuch smaller than me.

Dude said, "Hey, Babe, nice to meet you."

Me (To Self): (Oh no he didn't.)

Dude's boss, Meathead, gives me the once over and glares at Dude. "Do NOT waste another application. It's the last one." He says this while I AM SITTING RIGHT THERE!

Dude looked all teeny tiny and embarrassed and ready to prove himself.

For the next half hour, I get a membership guilt trip before I even got a tour. I had only seen three square feet of the entire place, and based on Dude and Meathead, I wasn't jumping to be part of the scene.

"So, Babe, tell me why you are interested in joining a gym."

Me: (Because you called me every day for a month.) Out loud: "Because I want be healthy."

Dude: "Is that ALL?"

Thinking to self: (He actually wants to hear me say I'm fat!)

For the next five minutes we go round and round about why I REALLY want to join his gym. Why is he arguing with me again?

Me: (Sigh. Fine.) "It would be nice to lose a few pounds."

Dude: (Visibly relieved that I finally said the right answer.) "THERE we go Babe. That's what I'm talking about."

Me: (Glowering.)

Dude: "So, Babe, let's do this thing! Let's sign away your life for a million dollar membership."

Me: (Still wanting to see the place... do they have treadmills even? But thinking it's not worth more arguing.) "No thanks."

Dude: Babe, come on, Babe. I know you want to join. You said yourself you wanted to lose a ton of weight."

Me: (Oh no he DIDN'T.) "No thank you."

Dude: Why are you here? Did you just want (starting to yell) to get SOMETHING FOR FREE?

Me: (Isn't that exactly what you said on the phone? Get something for free? Who did he think he was talking to?)

I got my free week, but that day was my first and last day.

And Dude? He didn't have to waste an application on me. I'm sure he was thankful that I let him keep it. Babe.

I AM Fourteen

The problem with growing is that it is awkward and embarrassing.

I feel like all of me is just a giant mess.

I feel like I'm all fourteen with giant feet and skinny legs. Except I never really had skinny anything. And I mean emotionally? But whatever.

I am just a mess. I am glad God loves me through this.

I feel like whatever I am supposed to be learning is right around the corner... I just can't see it yet. What am I missing?