Blogging Challenges and Pressure

     During the month of January I took on the Ultimate Blogging Challenge and NaBloPoMo and with this post, I have completed both.  That is 31 posts in 31 days!  YAY me!    When you sign up for a month long blogging challenge you do so with a certain feeling of foreboding and an equal level of excitement.  No one knows what the future holds, so planning to diligently write every single day tends to go from a major undertaking to completely doable over the course of the month.  Now there are those folks out there that have it planned.  They write up all 31 posts one snowy Saturday afternoon while sipping a hot cappuccino and schedule them to publish accordingly.  While I am sure there are people out there like that, I can assure you I am certainly not one of them.  I am simply incapable of having things THAT planned. I am not an organized individual.   I live life on the edge writing each post each day as it comes.  There are some months I crash and burn, and then others like this month where I successfully accomplish the goals I have set for myself. 

        Over the course of the month I overcame several obstacles to make sure when this glorious day arrived, this final post would indeed be number 31.  There were a few days here and there where I was under the gun to get a post published before midnight.  There were even a couple of times I had to double up writing more than one post a day to get caught up and schedule accordingly.   January brought blizzards, snow days, dangerous below zero wind chills and temperatures, and finally a new set of glasses for me at the end of the month.  Yes folks, I flew through January practically blind.  So happy I can see NOW!!  Through several of those calamities, I felt the pressure.  How can I not?  I am human after all.  I had my moments of hyperventilation and diarrhea and I survived making it to the toilet every single time…thank God!


       Through it all, I never would have persevered if it weren’t for the continued dedication and support of my loyal blog readers and a splendid group of writers and dear friends who who make up the Write Tribe  group which  I am affiliated with.  Thank you all for your comments and encouragement! ♥ During the month of January this site has seen a complete design overhaul.  A special thank you and monstrous hug to Corinne at Everyday Gyann for all the help she gave so freely to make my vision for this website a reality. ♥   Have I learned my lesson about signing up for month long blogging challenges?  No, not really.  They keep the blood pumping, the brain from going soft, and me sane so you can bet I will be signing up for more.  That is the way I roll…under pressure with God as my co-pilot.

Tweet
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

She Looked the Most Beautiful...

      He watched her primping in the mirror and making faces at herself.  “It is hopeless.  I look the same no matter what I do to myself.  Nothing helps!!”  She applied lipstick, ran her hands through her hair with a dab of gel, scrunched her nose again and twirled to face me.  “I am as ready as I am going to get! Let’s go!”  Out the door we went her hand in mine.  I smiled as she giggled, taking her place in the driver’s seat.   “I’ll drive!” she announced with a devilish grin.  She put the top down and cranked the radio full blast before speeding onto the road that followed the coastline.  Music filled the interior as she started bopping to the beat, singing along to the music with conviction.

      She happily let the wind wreak havoc on her hair.  She hardly resembled the girl that had primped, worried, and fretted in front of the mirror moments before.  All thought of perfecting her hairstyle was lost in the pure exhilarated joy of feeling the wind toss her unruly locks as we sped along.    It was pretty obvious thoughts of being self-conscious about her looks were long gone.  She was too busy having the time of her life singing along to the music and entertaining me with her endless chatter.   As long as the mirror couldn’t taunt her with its reflection, she forgot what only she could see within it.    Her lovely, generous personality came forward and she shined.  With her smile brighter than the sun, her soul truly sparkling through her laugh, smile, and the twinkle in her eyes, she mesmerized me.   If only she knew how much I truly loved her!  It was then that she looked the most beautiful to me.

       

Tweet

Ratatouille Haiku

Diced chopped and sautéed

Hearty taste of French cuisine

Vegetables stewed

Tweet

Useless Haiku

love letters rendered

wedded years to another

unrequited love

Tweet

Working Towards the Dream

Thomas Leuthard / Foter.com / CC BY

     

     Sitting behind the glass, apart from the hustle and bustle, deeply engrossed in the intricacies of anatomy, she prepares for her future.  The world passes by oblivious to her dream.

      This post was written for the Trifextra challenge where we are asked for 33 of our own words inspired by the above picture. We are required to give proper attribution to the photographer by providing a link to the photo, not just to Trifecta.  

\

Tweet

She Had the Last Laugh

       Working late again? She didn’t believe it.  He was cheating on her… again! She grabbed her keys and headed toward his office downtown.  Along the way, she saw him wrapped around a leggy blond in front of a popular bar. 

       Instantly enraged she swerved in front of traffic and jumped the curb barely missing them.  Jumping from the car, she rushed up and exploded.  “Working late again, are you?  I see you are working hard to get her dress off you slime bag!”  Fed up with his behavior, she pointed the gun at his crotch and fired. No more cheating!

This is a fictional story which I wrote for the Write Tribe's 100 Words on Saturday writing prompt.

Tweet

Koala Zentangle

Tweet

My Compliments

        Today Write Tribe is challenging me to write about the best compliments I ever received in honor of National Compliment Day.       The best compliments I have ever received came from my readers in the form of comments.  It is those comments that marvel how my fiction story could be real, how my post made someone laugh, shake in terror, or made them cry.  It is the comments that compliment my writing or my art.  The best ones that say my writing or art evoked exactly the emotion I was aiming for when I created what I did.  That is a big thrill!  The comments that are so kind they bring a tear to my eye.  They ring with a shred of truth and authenticity.    In other words, the person isn’t just trying to find something nice to say.  They have convinced me they mean what they say!!!

   It is those comments that keep me from throwing in the towel and continue writing even on my darkest days when my heart is filled with doubt of my abilities.  It is those days when I pray to God that if I am meant to write then He should give me the words.  It is then that the words seem to tumble through my fingers onto the computer screen as if on their own accord.  The stories, blogs, poems, graphics, and music come together easily.  It is then I know I am doing exactly what I should be.

      It is exactly why I answer every single one of my comments and return the favor by reading their work and leaving kind words for them.  It is so easy to spread a little love and share a smile.  It will make them feel good, and you will feel good in return.  It is a win-win situation!!  It is National Compliment Day, so go forth and spread the love!  

Tweet

Bad Tempers: Getting Pissed and Pissed On

      I have noticed that since I have got older I have mellowed considerably since my youth.   While I still have the bad temper that I had then, now I only go bat shit crazy after being provoked repeatedly.  I am like the guy in the movie “Anger Management”.  I warn people not to go there, and if they choose to go there despite the warnings, well then they do it at their own risk.  I have a zero tolerance level for stupidity.  There are enough ways in this world to acquire knowledge so generally there is no excuse for it.  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me or so the story goes.  By the time I have seen red, it is too late the movie's advice and start singing "I feel pretty!"

  

  
   Of course, the level of bat shit crazy and the amount of Whoop Ass that I unleash on the world depends on the level of the aggravation.  As my children happily remind me, when it is really bad, the explosion that comes forth is not only instantaneous but fairly violent and scary.  Needless to say no one has to wonder if I am ticked.   I am as obvious as a billboard in brilliant red and neon yellow.  On the upside, once I have blown my top I calm down fairly quickly and life as I know it marches on in a more peaceful, Zen-like way.    I hate drama; therefore I tend to eliminate those that like to cause it.  Those that cause it are not a part of my life.

       As I grow older I have noticed that it is easier to control my temper when under pressure.   Even though it is a very fine line where I tend to become harassed and hyper,  I can hold it together if I need to.  If you see me starting to count it is generally not a good sign.  Since crossing over into the “mental-pause” years I have had my share of Towanda moments.  You know the ones where you go ape-shit with very little provocation and do things that in your right mind, you would never ever do.  Yes, I have been there and done that.  There are those moments when remorse inevitably creeps in and then I find my level of happiness and Zen once again.  Actually some of those moments are rather comical in hindsight.  So there you have it NaBloPoMo, I have a temper, I am a virtual ticking time bomb under pressure, and there have been moments when put under pressure I have felt compelled to do just the opposite of what is asked of me…because that is the way I roll and it is all good.  It keeps life colorful, and in the end a rousing rendition of "I feel pretty!" can't hurt.

Tweet