Things I Learned About Writing from Watching Football

I love football.  I have a favorite team.  I have favorite players who do not necessarily play for my favorite team.  On Sunday, you can find me curled up on the couch enjoying a game or two.  I even watch ESPN SportsCenter.  While my husband doesn't complain, a good handful of my friends and family often do and like to ask what I find so fascinating about football.  Beside the fact that it is a good ol' American pastime, football reinforces a few things to me that are not only great messages in general, but important to me when  thinking about the pursuit of my dream to write:

1.  There is power in the battle.  Use it as motivation.  There is always another force you are going to have to compete with while pursuing your dream(s) whether it be naysayers, a passion for procrastination, not having enough time, etc.  The list can go on and on.  The important thing to remember is you need to be prepared to fight the battle.

2.  Some days you're ahead, and some days you're behind.  Not everything is going to go your way every time.  The best you can do is be present:  show up, be prepared, and give it your all.  Loss isn't permanent.  Neither is pain.  It's just a part of the battle.

3.  Practice, practice, practice.  Constantly work to improve yourself.  There are no excuses for missing practice.  Aim to be better every day.  A good friend of mine always reminds me: "Persistence beats resistance."

4.  Study your sport.  Know the other players.  Watch what they do, what they say, how and why they implement their strategies.  Find positive examples and follow them.  Educate yourself to motivate yourself.

5.  Critics are one thing.  Haters are another.  Learn to discern the difference between the two.  You want fans who will be there no matter the weather, who will offer up support and advice because they care about you.  All haters want to do is bring you down, and you never want to make it down to that level.  In the face of haters, hold your head high, and be the bigger person.  A fine example of this in the football world is Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady's response to the Jets' Cornerback Antonio Cromartie harsh name-calling, "I've been called worse...but he's a good player."  You can't let the haters allow you to take your eyes off of the game.

I'm sure I could expand on this list for at least another few pages, but you get where I'm going with this. (And please feel free to share similar lessons learned.)  At least I hope you do.  Now, get to watching some football.  That's where I'm headed. (And later this evening, I'm going to practice on some revisions!)  Enjoy your Sunday!

Grandma on Men, Balls, Birds, and Hypocrites

My brother, My Grandma, Me, My Grandpa in Summer 2010

My Grandma is 85 years old.  As she gets older, she gets feistier and more opinionated, and more vocal about her opinions.  I love talking to her any chance I get.  She may give me the same story or advice from time to time because her memory is not as sharp as it used to be, but even when she repeats herself, it seems to me someone must have believed I needed to hear that lesson that day.

I enjoyed leftovers of red enchiladas and her incomparable refried beans for lunch with her today.  Once we served ourselves our "teeny" dessert of biscotchos and Sleepytime tea (she is not supposed to have any sweets), she told me she had lots of advice she wanted to share with me today.  I've recorded the advice in her words, minus the long explanations/stories behind the wisdom, because such wisdom I feel many can relate to and quite possibly get a good chuckle and a smile from today:

• "Don't give men too much freedom.  Give men enough cotton-pickin' freedom and they'll mess anything up.  When a man gets done with something, it is never the same."
• "Women have more balls than men."  (According to her, she has more balls than any man she's ever known, and if you don't believe her, you can ask my Grandpa.  He will set you straight.)
• "Birds are smarter than humans.  I put whole pecans for them in a pot every week and they come to find them.  They can eat a whole pecan by just poking one teeny little hole in them.  I'd like to see a human do that."
• "If someone tells you they don't like you, they are a better person than anyone who pretends to like you but you know very well doesn't.  We have too many "hypocritas" (with an emphasis on the o), that is Spanish for hypocrite, and anyone who doesn't like you, well, they can have a mass for you when you die."

Wishing you a cheerful Friday, Andrea

Poodles, Sandwich Complaints, and Cold Drinks

I occasionally take to my Twitter to report my lunchtime observations, but lately such observations are worthy of more than quickly getting crammed into a 140-character count. Going forward, I've decided to include them on my blog and encourage others to share their observations.

Lunch is a time of reflection, a moment that allows you to break up the monotony of the work day, an opportunity to take in the little things we so often rush by without notice. Sometimes, these lunch breaks help bring a little sunshine to my day and remind me that everyone is unique, the world has so much to offer if we look for it, and that just when you might think you are weird or crazy, someone else is out there to prove you wrong.

My lunch observations for today:

Poodles on a cardigan can be cute. Who knew? Just keep the poodle-print small.

Don't order a chicken sandwich and then yell at the poor girl delivering your food in front of the whole restaurant saying you specifically requested "no chicken" when the name of the sandwich has chicken in it. There is no job for a Chief Complaint Officer that I've heard of, and if there was one, I'm sure it would offer zero pay and matching benefits.

And if you've been cold all day complaining about how your feet felt like ice blocks and your fingers like little icicles, just stand around a soda fountain with a large group of people competing for drink refills, ice, lids and straws, and you'll realize life isn't as miserable as you deemed it all morning once someone drops their cold soda on you.

An aside:

A little girl with a Yorkie on her red sweater just came up to me and said, "I like your computer. It matches my sweater. Red is my magic color. Is it yours too?" Her mom must be the one wearing the poodle-print cardigan, and today, her little girl has brought the biggest smile to me even though I am sitting here shivering and writing while the soda on my clothes dry.

All in all, life is good today, and I promise I'm not being sarcastic. I hope yours is as well. :)

New Year, New Hmmm...

Hello Blog and Blog followers,

I am at a crossroads.  And there are way too many directions, suggestions, dirt roads versus paved roads - well, you get my point.  I hope.

This year, my motto is "Running down a dream..."  Yes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are serenading me in the background.  But, my feet are moving, and they are moving fast.  

I love to write.  I love to read.  I love writers/poets/creative souls in general.  I want to be a creative soul again.  So for 2011, I made a resolution:  Write more.  Read More.  Repeat the process.  Season to your liking.  So far, so good, with one minor exception:  my blog.  

And while I have only 3 subscribers currently, a number many would balk at, I like to look at the value of these 3 subscribers.  They believe in me; they believe in me enough to follow my blog.  Either that, or they think I am crazy, and well, sometimes I am, so I will take that too.  All in all, they still like me and/or my writing enough to click "subscribe."  And yes, I know you should write for yourself and not for the reader, but sometimes I have mixed emotions on that front.  These emotions are fickle.  Very fickle.  

So, I ask you, my 3 dedicated, amazing readers who I cannot thank enough (along with you occasional visitors I am also very thankful for):  What would you like to see on my blog?  

I have some ideas as to what I would like to write, too many ideas in fact, but I want some sense of general direction.  I can't have 331 different blogs.  I may have that many personalities, but I've got to consolidate and find some common ground.  

Thanks in advance for your feedback, and may your 2011 be full of hope, unpredictable laughter, and sparkling wine and biscotti, Andrea

Give Me a Book!

Trolling through my Twitter page this morning, I came upon a fellow tweeter (@brendamantz) asking, "What happens if you've given someone a Kindle book as a gift and they already have it?  Can they choose a different book?"  Beside the validity of this question (one I would like to know the answer to), I began to think about the last time I was given a book as a gift.  The unbearably disappointing answer is:  never.  I couldn't believe it.  No one has ever given me a book to read.  (Mom, feel free to interject here...BUT giving me a journal is not a book to read, although I am forever grateful for your gifts of support.)

On my book bag is a quote from Abraham Lincoln:  "My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read."  (Frown and sigh)  I have given countless numbers of books to people as gifts, and I think I was more excited watching them open these gifts than they were to receive them.  I even took the time out to write a little inscription in the cover with an encouraging note and my favorite lines from the book.  What happened to the act of reciprocity here, people?  I am sorry if my gift left you feeling like this little boy: Books for Christmas.

While I do realize that many people do not share in my passion for reading, I still can't believe I don't have one friend who would like to share a book that has touched their life in some form or fashion with me.  Everyone knows I collect books like teenagers collect songs on iTunes, and more in the hoarding sense of the word.  Now I am sounding like a selfish little child on Christmas morning who did not get everything she wanted from Santa, I know.  But, I guess the moral of this little story, or epiphany if you will, is that we need to give more books.  If you don't want to take it from me, take it from these people:

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." - Charles W. Eliot

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." - Oscar Wilde

"The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television." - Andrew Ross

"A house without books is like a room without windows." - Heinrich Mann

"When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." - Erasmus

So, I guess I will continue being my own best friend and buy myself some books.  I just bought my first book for my Kindle on iPad yesterday:  Jessie Carty's touching collection of poems, Paper House.  And I will continue to give books to my friends and family in hopes they will pretend to like them more and maybe even read a page or two.

P.S.  If you have more quotes on books or reading to share, please do!  I would love to read them. :)

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

 Even Papo (My Grandpa) is here!

 Dad, Myself, and Mom  - What a view she has!

 The Family with Mom (others were there in spirit)

 Dad and Auntie Linda with Mom

Mom getting ready to blow out her candles

And Death Shall Have No Dominion by Dylan Thomas : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.  Click on the link to read the poem...

My family and I went the day after Thanksgiving to visit my Grandmother at the cemetery on her birthday. What a bittersweet moment in life. It strikes you the way a cold gush of wind can take the breath from your chest. The only thing missing was Elvis' "One Night With You" playing in the background, but we were all singing it to ourselves in our heads. At least, I was. This memory is so vivid, and it unfolded itself just like a poem.

My aunt placed yellow roses by the headstone and secured them with a rubber-band, half standing on Mom's (my Grandma's nickname) side and the other half on Papo's (my Grandpa's nickname). I don't think we looked at each other for fear of the tears starting and never stopping. My dad opened up the champagne, laughed at seeing how far the cork flew, and as I was walking back from retrieving it, he poured a little of the champagne out for each of them. Other family members showed up, we made mimosas, toasted to Mom and wished her a happy birthday. We stood around and talked and laughed, all of this feeling so normal, just like we were sitting in Mom's living room. We lit the candles on the carrot cake, sang "Happy Birthday", and I cannot even remember who blew the candles out - maybe we just let them burn. Opened up another bottle of champagne, my cousin had a contest with my dad to see whose cork went the longer distance, and that was the way the day played out. We all went out for a late lunch and spent more family time together over fried ice cream. I feel as if I had two Thanksgivings this year.

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die, " said Thomas Campbell. Mom will never die, she just gets better with age, something I know she is smiling at as I write it.

Lyrics, Unfinished (A new poem)

Lyrics, Unfinished

I want to write words
To “Too Young to Go
Steady” and fill your mouth
With poetic relics thick
As peanut butter.  A voice
Trapped in quicksand,
A saxophone of thoughts
All leading back to this one
Memory.  I’ll fill your mind
With words of a lover you set out
To find only you won’t be able
To open your mouth for a kiss.
I’ll drown out the music, hold it
Underwater, as you try to swallow
And say clearly how you loved me
As we hid behind the sycamore tree
In the front of our school waiting
To catch the bus home.