Low Tech Girl In A High Tech World

Happy Easter from my family to yours!!!

So I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a "girly" girl. Not often, anyway. There's no problem with that, really. I'm comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt and hoody. I usually have my hair back in a style that takes me about five seconds to do. And I'm definitely more comfortable wearing my glasses rather than contacts. My husband loves me just as I am and I am comfortable like that. Most of the time. For some reason, recently, I decided to get "gussied up". I thought that doing my hair, putting on clothing that was chosen with some thought and using makeup would give me some sort of professional appearance that would look polished and suitable for the world of retail. Other women do it, I reasoned. Hell, I even used to do it on a regular basis when I was working in sales. And really, when I was using makeup and styling products I even wasn't half bad at it (mainly, I suspect, due to luck and practice). Surely, once I had perfected the knac...

So, there's this saying. "Everything old is new again". Everything, and I mean everything, seems to go in cycles. Fashion, music, all sorts of stuff. I just kind of hoped that flooded basements weren't one of them. I guess I was wrong. Okay, so a little bit of backstory is in order, I guess. Years ago (well, a year and a half but it feels like a whole LIFETIME now) I lived in this wonderful little armpit of an apartment. It wasn't bad, I guess. It had a big bathroom (for an apartment). It only had two bedrooms, which meant my kids got to share just when one was starting that adventure known as the teenage years.The kitchen had been totally remodeled and it looked sharp. If only it wasn't for the random water, things would have been wonderful. Random water you say? Yup. The apartment building was located downhill (water tends to flow downhill by the way) from a car wash. Every so often, at random times, water that I didn't ask for would gush up and fo...

Something very good and very bad happened today. And they were the same thing. How can such a thing be, you ask. Something is either very good or very bad and generally, it is impossible for it to be both at the same thing. It would be like a sloth Hitler or like... like... a charity for orphan immigrants championed by Donald Trump. Generally, when bad and good  try to exist in the same space, it ends in some sort of Star Trek-esque parallel universe implosion scenario. And yet, yet, sitting in the bakery cabinet at Metro today, there was something very bad and very good existing in the same small, tart-shaped package. Have you ever had Portugese custard tarts? No? If not, you have no idea what I am talking about. I insist that you venture down to any store which has these items and immediately purchase one. Then, buy more. Because likely, unless you have no soul, you will want more. If you haven't found a place where you can buy them, you need to find a recipe and make them a...

So, I have a dog. Well two, actually, but the one is going to be the main focus of this post. He's a schnauzer and he's a big one. Giant, actually. If you think I'm being kind because you've seen a schnauzer before and it was a little guy and so you figure I'm overstating his size because he has self esteem issues about being called "standard" you're wrong buddy. He's about 80 lbs of, well, self esteem issues and neuroticness. This is him. That giant black dude staring out the window like a suspicious old man looking at a party house of free-range teenagers. No, the window isn't very low to the ground and no, the proportions haven't been screwed with. And now, after looking at the picture, no he doesn't have an electrical cord coming out of his foot. Quiet you, I'm a blogger, not a professional photographer. He came as damaged goods. Literally. He was a rescue who was surrendered after he ate part of his own foot. Public serv...

There are many things that I am, and that I will be. I am a wife, a kick-ass mother of two and an owner of a mini-zoo of various animals. I AM a writer (and hope I WILL BE one who makes a decent living from writing). I will (hopefully) be one of those grandparents that the grandkids LIKE visiting. Of all the things I can see myself POTENTIALLY being, there is one thing I will not be. Not ever. Not unless I accidentally step through some shimmery doorway into a Star Trek-esque alternate reality scenario. I will never be a professional organizer. Heck, I will never even be a skilled amateur. Who am I kidding. I wake up every morning and consider it a good day if I can find my socks and my car keys. But that doesn't stop me from WANTING to be more organized. I recently bought a book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing". It's by a woman called Marie Kondo and I've heard good things about it. I haven't ...

So recently, I started my freelance writing business up again. As I've mentioned before its been a few years since I was writing and there are a few different reasons for this. One was the job I was working at. Shift work in a factory is an incredibly draining experience. So much so that I really only had the energy to sleep when I wasn't working. When that ended, I was consumed with planning a move, dealing with a divorce, completely changing my life and so on and so on. I ended up with my kiddos in a two bedroom postage stamp of an apartment and I discovered that I have a hard time being creative with other people breathing down my neck. For a while, I thought I was done. Like totally done. Like never going to type another word, finito, pack it up kind of thing. My "being a writer" self was tied closely to my "being married to my ex". A lot of what I had written poetry wise was written to him, or about him, or about my life being married to him. I felt...