😬 10 things grateful: Tranquility, good friends, and the moment the pieces fit #GratitudeAndShit

Madison took this stormtrooper photo the same day at Kings Mountain as Hayden did. Very similar pictures! I’ll use one Camdyn took next time.

I’m usually better at this.

You know. Staying in the present. It’s how I’ve managed to keep the train on the tracks when all else fails. I remind friends of this when they cling to the past or fret about the future. Frame where you are now, and be fully in it.

If one of those friends said that to me now, back, I’d see how impossible it feels.

Madison is moving to California next month. I’ll take a 40-hour road trip with my oldest and her cat, Munch. I wake up at 4 a.m. every day worried about it. But I’m getting better. She’s excited. I’m excited for her, and I’ll work extra hard to buy plane tickets to visit her early and often.

#AtoZChallenge: 🤟 Y is for what you would do to help your friends and family

Actually, the you is me.

This is another prompt from the book 300 Writing Prompts. As you might have read, it’s a book a friend gave me when I left Red Ventures. I carry it with me everywhere. When I’m on a plane, I ask someone to pick a prompt for me to tackle.

It usually goes well, the ask.

The person who helped me with this one was in for a huge change in life. I’m going to send her the link to this, so I don’t want to give all the details. It was a great conversation and I have a feeling she’s doing wonderful things where she is.

🎳 #AtoZChallenge: X is for 10 (my favorite players to wear that number)

Moment of honesty here.

I got sick of the normal X words. As if X words are normal. I’m sure somewhere someone is writing about xylophone adventures and xenophobia. More power to ya.

I say, let’s go with 10.

You know, the roman numeral for 10, X. Quick story here: I was a no-soccer-experience soccer coach at first. I made my own formations and positions, such as junker. (It was like a sweeping fullback, full of badass.)

🖕 #AtoZChallenge: M is for middle finger, mercy rules, and mating (Go Ask Daddy)

So, there’s a story I want to tell and I don’t care if you judge.

One of my kids made a gesture at the TV yesterday that told a story. We’ve navigated this lockdown like good astronauts (minus zero gravity and Tang.) But as my girls worked on a puzzle during a Hulu session of Malcolm in the Middle, an ad came on and triggered her.

Social distancing doesn’t have to mean we have to be distant socially, the sugary-voiced lady was saying to promote something I can’t even remember.

Instinctively, a middle finger arose. She didn’t even look up from the puzzle. I said nothing. I get it. Social listening data tells us that people love ads like this. They want to know corporate America is in it with us. That they’re doing their part.

✊🏻 #AtoZChallenge: H is for haiku (my quarantine journal)

At first, I titled this photo “stormtrooper fortnite.” Yeah. It’s 1:05 a.m. and I’m 48 years old.

What a month this week has been.

The pessimist in me wonders what not wearing jeans for four weeks has done to me physically. The optimist in me feels as if this quarantine has at least kept the Colorado Rockies from the dredge of the NL West for now.

The artist in me has documented, for better or worse, my thoughts each day in the pandemic – as daily haikus.

Some are flippant, some sad, some confused. Like any other March that I could have done this, but only this March is historically significant. Not just because there was no Final Four, but because when has the entire world ever has so much in common?

I just started hacking away, inspired each day by Twitter or TV news (I’ve cut way back) or just what was going on that day.

Let me know how the quarantine has been for you, and which of these, if any, resonated with you. A college today said she can’t just go day to day anymore, and I get that. So I’m hoping to get to the ballpark soon and the beach even sooner.

Just as soon as we get the all-clear.

COVID haiku journal

March 18

Overreacting?
I’m honestly not too sure.
I’ll just stay in place.

EJP

 

March 19

My people, our house
Not a big house, but enough
I can’t hear anyone

March 20

The big Pop Tart box
Seems like the best choice right now
One tart at a time

March 21

No solicitors
No Jehovah’s Witnesses
Was that Amazon?

March 22

Don’t you miss hugging?
I know it has just started.
Just looking ahead.

March 23

Lots of people out
When I pick up our groceries
Am I a chump too?

March 24

Finding time to write
Should not be so difficult
Work days are so long

March 25

My back feels so sore
My ass is getting flattened
Always pajamas

March 26

Four rolls left in here
TP is greater than gold
We are middle class

March 27

I’ve lost track of days
And how long since I’ve worn pants?
At least we have cheese.

March 28

Out of cat litter
The shit might hit the fan now
Is this our world now?

March 29

Uncle Frank is ill
His test comes back in 3 days
Favorite uncle

March 30

Grocery order?
It’s canceled after 5 days
Instacart on strike

March 31

Totino’s pizza
Three of them to sustain me
For three days at least

April 1

It’s April Fools Day
I wish someone would play tricks
We could use the laugh

April 2

It’s my dad’s birthday
He would have been 68
I miss him so much!

April 3

Social distancing
Not happening in the parks
Bunch of dumb asses.

April 4

Was yesterday harsh?
My bad. I should be more kind.
Cover your damn mouth

April 5

Steaks on my new grill
Make happiness if you can
Steak is a good way.

April 6

Pray for my uncle
He’s fighting this thing so strong
Grant him all my strength

April 7

Girls want fried chicken
Who am I to argue that?
Food is everything

April 8

Uncle Frank update
He had a good day Tuesday
Let’s keep on praying

April 9

When this is over
Oh, how we will celebrate
Hug and kiss for days!

-30-

#AtoZChallenge

A is for Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, Adam and Avril, and Amidala

B is for Bonnie Marie Williams, voiceover superhero, a #GirlsRock interview

C is for Conversations, Camdyn and cookies (#GratitudeAndShit) 

D is for Dorsey Standish, yoga teacher and mindfulness coach, for #GirlsRock

E is for End-of-your-career awards

F is for Frank, my uncle

G is for 💇🏽‍♂️ Go Ask Daddy about what you GET to keep on Flea Market Flip, if I’m GOING to sit in a racecar next time I get my hair cut, and how high basketball scores GO

-3

 

🔚 #AtoZChallenge: E is for End-of-your-career awards

I have several entries stuck in a worn edition of 300 Writing Prompts that I will share during the #AtoZChallenge.

The one is in response to the prompt: It is the end of your career and you are up on stage being presented with a major award. What award is it, and what have you won it for? Global pandemics tend to shed a different light on such topics.

But I wrote this response long before the COVID took hold.

I think it’s good to reflect on such things. My day will someday come. The thought now is, what will I do between then and now? Plenty. And some of nothing. And a lot that can’t be classified as either.

#AtoZChallenge: C is for conversations, Camdyn and cookies (#GratitudeAndShit) 🍪

Turns out, I love L.A. Just not the dodgers or lakers.

I wonder how many people will go with COVID as their C word.

Or, coronavirus. It’s difficult for me to, even if I wanted to. Friday is my #GratitudeAndShit day, and pandemic viruses don’t make the cut. I am grateful, however, to have this new reality upon me. It’s not been easy, but there have been some pluses on small scales.

It’s exhausting to read post after post about how to work efficiently from home. 

I haven’t found that. There are small gains. There’s stuff like birds on my bird feeder and tortilla chips in my pantry to serve enough distraction to get me off track. But I’m eating less fried food and takeout, more conscious that I’d better watch my intake.

I’m not getting in those steps at Target and hustling to the bus stop these days.

🦆 Go Ask Daddy about cannibalism, odd ducks and New York minutes

Finally I have time to write a Go Ask Daddy post!

I’d hoped this quarantine era would at least give me more casual blog writing time. What it’s become is highly distracted work-from-home time, with work days that drone into the night. At least I know this because I change from day pajamas to night pajamas.

Just getting to this point is a victory, though.

The girls amazingly haven’t had any COVID questions, but there’s plenty in the vault from yesteryear. Hell, some of these questions have been around since the Spanish Flu epidemic. (Or, close to it.)

🚁 #AtoZChallenge reveal: A post smorgasbord

Much love to you, Seattle. Stay strong.

The A to Z Challenge is upon us.

I thought, man, I’m gonna need, like, a month or two at home just to write the daggum posts to do this daggum challenge this year. Well, I thought that a few weeks ago. And then this coronavirus thing happened.

So there’s no excuse now.

If I craft a post every time I hear COVID-19, that’s enough for 37 Aprils. And have enough to let a blogger named April have 31 for her next A to Z Challenge. Honestly, I don’t have to write much, because the Challenge has become the Month of Purge for me.

🤸‍♂️ 10 things grateful, including stuff that isn’t about my new job #GratitudeAndShit

I’m feeling a bit repetitive lately.

I’m grateful for the chance to write again, to have the time freedom to devote energy to blogging and this universe. I’d like to take that a step further, and get back to those posts I’ve missed so much. Posting all the great #GirlsRocks interviews I’ve had lately is one.

But I miss the Go Ask Daddy posts, too.

The girls ask fewer questions these days, but we have a ton in reserve. I learn a lot doing those posts. And the mindful Monday posts I hate to call Mindful Monday posts, also. There’s a lot going on in my noggin and I love hearing what you have to say about it, too.