#AtoZChallenge: H is For Here, as in Far From Here (Guest Post by Beatrice Pittoco)

I’ve been strict with water and sleep and even exercise.

In fact, lots of puzzle pieces of life are fitting together. As they should. Not the forced way we did as kids. One by one, the frame, the corners. Maybe something in the middle, like a hamster or eyeglasses or even Sandra Bullock.

A piece I haven’t put into place is writing and that is a shame not because of my words being bottlenecked, but the words of talented and feeling friends that sit idle in my folders, a place you could never appreciate them. I wish I’d posted this on Father’s Day.

Beatrice Pittoco has been here before, in a #GirlsRock piece. It was beautiful and moving and included her incredible photography. She’s back today, sharing a poignant piece about a place she’d love to build a tunnel to.

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#AtoZChallenge: G is for guest post – Lauren Mayhew, on buried treasure

I love reading about writing.

It’s how we get better, right? That, and eating vanilla wafers. (Science has yet to chime in on the wafers as of this publication date.) Today’s guest writer, Lauren Mayhew, writes a fantastic blog about writing.

She also managed to complete the A to Z Challenge and did this really cool theme about songs played on her iPod.

Today, she’s here to expand upon her recent 6-words answer to this prompt. (No, that post hasn’t published yet!) Lauren has an awesome imagination and invites us to chime in with our answers here, too.

#AtoZChallenge: F is for Finally, he’s writing again (Thanks Cheryl Strayed!)

So, it’s been a minute.

And by a minute, I mean a month. Holy hell – how did April get outta here so fast? Everyone’s wrapped up their #AtoZChallenge, and I’m still stretching my hamstrings. Yes, I’m on the letter F. And there’s plenty to post about.

I have a guest post from Madison, even, that she sent me as a PDF and why do post-millennials do things so differently than we do?

I also have a guest post from Lauren Mayhew that you’re going to love. And the rest of my posts about looking for my next job. I got plenty of words: What I don’t have is plenty of space in the day to write such things.

#AtoZChallenge: E is for is he EVER going to catch up?

It’s never too late to be thankful, right?

I’ve tried to tie my weekly Go Ask Daddy posts to the Friday gratitude attitude going around the blogging world. The combination ranks higher than, say, those KFC-Taco Bell duos you find sometimes out and about.

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to jot the good stuff in my notebook, though.

I’ve been thankful for, you know, a job that offers benefits and enough dough to get my kids off free lunch. This feels like the American dream to me. But I want to make this list not just about that because I’m almost kind of tired of writing about it.

#AtoZChallenge: D is for designer, as in graphic, as in #GirlsRock: An interview with Amber Lorine

I always told Hayden I thought she’d someday own a business.

I still believe in that. She just has that enterprising spirit, that quiet assuredness to get the job done. Today’s #GirlsRock spotlight falls on a woman who started her own business and gave it her name.

Meet Amber Lorine, the graphic designer behind Amber Lorine Design.

She also works for Rezenerate as a graphic designer. Today, D in the #AtoZChallenge is for designer. (I can be clever like that, and it’s a good way to get this interview in. We finished it a couple of months ago!)

#AtoZChallenge: C is for Courtney Wright, guest blogger

I’m gasping for air a bit in all this #AtoZChallenge hubbub.

Hypothetically, of course. While the entire universe shares its tales of the letter E, I toil away, seeking bits of time to steal to write my C post. And it’s essentially written for me, thanks to today’s guest poster, Courtney, of Blog Me This.

Thanks for the lift, C.

So Courtney is along for the ride as my C-train ticket. She writes a wonderful blog, but even more crucially, she’s an unshakable blog friend who will shine through for you in your darkest or most blog-less and snack-less moments.

#AtoZChallenge: B is for Boy without a job

Note: This is part of an occasional series about my journey to find a job.

This is a story about a boy.

This boy has a story to tell. He hasn’t been allowed to tell it. Then, he thought better of telling it. Because it’s a story about losing a job and feeling lost and helpless. He usually tells stories of enchiladas and bad-ass soccer girls.

But he’s standing here now, wearing a hair net and smelling of bulk scallops, wondering who he is right now.

Only, that thought lasts less time than it takes to bag up a pound of scallops (or wrap a whole salmon without dipping your sleeves in salmon slime.) When an employer tells you you’re unfit to write any more, out of the blue, you can do one of two things:

#AtoZChallenge: A is for Approachable

Easter, baseball, the Final Four, disc golf weather. Clearance Easter candy. Life is good.

The #AtoZChallenge snuck up on me.

Like, big-time. Like heartburn after 1 a.m. hot wings. Like your first gray eyebrow hair. Not that I know anything about that. One minute, I’m searching for Tums, and the next, I’m reading my friend Tamara’s Facebook post about her first post.

Ah, hell.

So, without officially signing up, and without a theme reveal post, and without, really, anything that even smells like a plan, I’m off. Two hours, 15 minutes from Day 2 of the challenge (it’s already tomorrow in Australia, so I’m way behind already.)

Who we’d pick to take our place, in 6 words

My actual shelf with getting-ready stuff. The badge has since been retired. The Star Wars figures never will be.

It’s not easy to be me.

It’s hella fun, as the kids used to say. (Some kids. Somewhere.) So, when I shot out the prompt for this month’s 6 Words post (which actually went out in 2017, but it’s taken me a while to post), it wasn’t easy to come up with an answer.

Every month, I ask friends, bloggers, strangers and strange blogger friends a question that they will answer in exactly six words.

Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he asserted that any story could be told in six words. The prompt for this month: If you had to pick someone to be you for a day, who would you want it to be, and why?

Guest post: Emily(2) Fundraising for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

It’s like, still cold in the Carolinas.

Finding the time to blog lately hasn’t been easy.

Sometimes, you have to rely on friends to pick up the slack. I’d intended to publish a #GirlsRock interview with Emily Meintzer, whose sister plays on Camdyn’s team at Lake Norman Soccer Club.

Emily and I have become sideline friends, watching her sister and my daughter mixing it up on the soccer pitch.

Today, I’m featuring a cause Emily and her friend, Emily, are working to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Many of you know my father died nearly 18 years ago of leukemia.