Sara Zarr Said This:

On her blog, Sara Zarr said this:

November 28, 2009

Semi-Annual Semi-Hiatus (this year, also known as Advent)

I haven’t taken an extended break from Internetty networky things since summer 08. I am ready! I was thinking December, generally, but since tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent, it seems a good time to start. And Epiphany, January 6, seems like a good time to stop.

All social networking notifications will be off. If you need or want to reach me and are used to doing it via Facebook or Twitter or the like, I’ll be available via email. The address is easily found on this site. If you have my phone number, you could even call me! (gasp!) ... It’s not like I’ll be on another planet or even going offline—just not living through the o’sphere for awhile. (After, perhaps, a frenzy of activity today!)

You are welcome to join me in this break. Think about it.

I love you! I’ll miss you! Happy, blessed holidays, secular and sacred. See you in 2010.

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I'm joining her.

In the month of December, I will be:

1. Taking the GRE

2. Applying to Grad School! English: Rhetoric and Composition, thank you for asking.

3. Finishing the first draft of that book. I promised.

4. Finishing up the class I teach: making finals, grading finals, failing kids I actually like, and maybe crying about it.

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Is this an unrealistic list? Well, yes.

However, I know I can't do it while I blog, and tweet, and book the face. So... Here goes nothin!

(As soon as the GRE is over on the 22nd, I plan on being in a state of perpetual rest).

I miss you guys already.

Have a great Holiday season.

Three Things Thursday: Gee, Thanks!

* Bear with me, Canada. It's an American Tofurkey Day.


** Well, fine. It's not really Thanksgiving yet. Everybody's busy that day, knowwhaddamean? This post is early so you have something to do while twiddling thumbs at work, waiting for vacation to start.


1. I am thankful for good health.

I took the big kid to the doctor this week for a tiny rash.


We left with a prescription for an ear infection. And sinus infection. AND STREP THROAT. (Parenting fail.) Even as I was griping about the hours in the pediatrician's office, I was aware that we were going to be OK. It's not cancer. We have access to medicine and health care. Our "problem" involved a morning, not a way of life.


2. I am thankful for my husband.


He is a good, good man, and I am a very lucky woman.


3. I am thankful for you.


Thanks for reading. Thanks for the support. Thanks for sharing what's going on in your world, and reading about mine.


(And one more because it's my blog and I'll add if I want to: I am really, really thankful for pecan pie.)


WHAT ARE YOUR THREE THINGS?

Writing Encouragement, Squared

1. Example of a run-on sentence: I was reading the blog of the newest Blogroll addition, Kiersten White, and her book is coming out soon and I thought, "I wonder what she was doing a year ago," and a year ago, she was writing writing writing and deleting ENTIRE CHAPTERS and just slogging through, making it work, and I thought, "Yes: just get it done!" so I am.

2. I heard Donald Miller talk about STORY Saturday night and it changed my whole life. Seriously. It was good. All the God stuff I'm still thinking through, but the writing advice is easy to digest and fan-flipping-tastic.

A. Story: A character wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.

B. A protagonist can be flawed, but not self-righteous. If a character is self-righteous, we immediately assume she is the antagonist.

C. Save a cat! If you want the audience to care about your character, you have to make her do something sacrificial for somebody (or something) else.

You know why we still like Michael Scott? Because he came to Pam's art show and bought her work. Every so often, he does something nice, and we are roped back in. Remember Rocky XXVII? The man serves a homeless person a meal, gives a single mom a job, mentors her kid, and literally rescues a dog. SAVE A CAT! The protagonist has to have one redeeming quality.

My poor main character. She was just a jerk. I've got to find a cat to rescue.

Oh yes! The (self-imposed) deadline! Ehh.... oh... the pressure!.... OK. I'm sticking with it. December 31, 2009, my first draft will be done. With or without that computer.

THE BOOK

Seriously. Keep asking about THE BOOK. It keeps me honest.

"As soon as the marathon is over, I'm going to finish THE BOOK in the month and a half left in 2009."

THE BOOK is on THAT computer. (Insert power cord incident.) Now, THAT computer will not wake up.

I do have the book saved in an online program, but THIS computer does not have Word.

(I realized that this is a modern era and really I should have figured out a solution by now, but I. just. didn't.)

The grand plan was to do a NaNoWriMo, but a month after everybody else, because I was busy running.

And then the power cord incident happened.

I let EXCUSES TAKE OVER.

It is so embarrassing even writing this, because I hate feeling this unprofessional and basket-case-y.

Eh. It's the new (honest) me.

Running a marathon was a BIG DEAL on my life list, but this book seems like the ultimate unattainable goal. When it came to a marathon, I was like, "It's just running. Yeah, I can do that."

FINISHING THE BOOK SEEMS MUCH, MUCH HARDER.

P.S. The power cord has been ordered. If this doesn't fix it, I'm gonna hurt somebody. I don't know if this should change the deadline? A week or two for technical difficulties?

P.S. 2 My running buddies just gave me a time goal for my next half marathon. So, writing buddies, what should my time goal be for finishing this first (half-done) draft?

Three Things Thursday: Mental Health Edition

1. I'm having an identity crisis. Still. Every day I think the following:

... Oh, forget it. I'm not going to tell you what I think because I really THINK THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYTHING I THINK.

I do believe to told someone I was excited about Christmas, and told someone else I am a Scroogette... oh, about thirty seconds apart.

Loony bin.

2. I'm getting observed next Tuesday. The fact that I have never had an education class only occurs to me the week before observations.

3. While I still had the Anti-Stalker-Stalker-Stat-Counter Thing, I said something very REAL and PERSONAL and EMBARRASSING on someone else's blog. Later that day, I had all kinds of readers from that blog.

I thought, "I don't know what you are looking for. I don't have any answers. That is why I just made a giant fool of myself on somebody ELSE'S blog. Don't come over here looking for wisdom."

Because I am really OppositeWoman, two seconds later I was all like, "Well, why not? What is so frightening about being real? I have no idea who I am. Who I am will be different in a minute or two anyway."

Things like Post Secret and Anne Jackson's, Permission to Speak Freely, are popular for a reason. People LOVE secrets. The cliche about secrets is that they are only a big deal A) to us and B) if left unsaid.

Cliches are cliches for a reason.

I am rambling.

The point here is that I saw the power of honesty that day. I am searching for more of that.

WHAT ARE YOUR THREE THINGS?

Free Money?

Yes! Free Money!

Hey, Chattanooga. Julianne over at Another Gray Hair is giving away a $50 gift certificate from the new Earth Fare!

Check it out!

Epic Tale of the Marathon

This morning, the better-half said, "Oh man! I'm really sore from the (looks at me) lunges I did... (trailing off) ... yesterday." I am pretty sure I threw something at him. Wait! I'm getting ahead of myself.

It all started yesterday at 4:00 AM. The big kid came in and said he had a sore throat. We sent him back to bed with a cough drop, but it turned out to be less of a sore throat, and more of a STOMACH VIRUS. uuuuuuggghhhh.

I happen to be married to the best man alive, (despite the complaining of sore lunge-y muscles), who got up and changed sheets and let me sleep!

OK. I didn't really sleep. I mean, your kid is throwing up, and you are Mom, you are AWAKE, you know? I'm awful. I pretended to sleep.

SORRY for all the throw-up talk. Gah.

My friend Claudia, (who I am just using for rides because she has SEAT WARMERS and this is big deal if you are a runner), (Not really. I really love her. But I love her seat warmers, too.) picked me up at 5:30 ish, and we sleep-drove our way to the race course.

After getting our "free" t-shirts, race numbers, and timing chips, we wandered around looking for every body else we knew. There were about ten of us from our town, and we all trained with or around each other.

We finally gave up any hope of finding anybody, but as we lined up, we happened to line up next to Cindy! Yay, friend!

Cindy said, "Cannon."

We said, "What?"

BOOM! A Civil War cannon started the race. Everybody screamed. I mean. A cannon? Are you trying to kill people with heart attacks before we even start?! OK, yes, I screamed too.

Somebody jokingly said, "Hey, Bethany has a sign." I look over and see this.

I ran over and hugged the sign holder.

Cindy and Claudia thought I was a crazy girl. "Do you know her?"

Yes! It was Marcie!! Yay, friend! (SHE TOOK ALL THESE PICTURES! AREN'T THEY GREAT?!) And, now she's famous against her will. bwahhahaaa. She is a friend of a decade (how can that be?) and a fan of the blog.

As I ran around the loop, she snapped this picture. Still insanely happy. It had only been a mile.

Somewhere after the first mile, we ran into (not literally) one of my writer-y types, Michelle. Yay, friend! I'm pretty sure we annoyed everyone behind us who tried to pass the four girls running together. I didn't even care. It was going to be a long day, and I wanted to be with my peeps!

Before I could get some decent complaining going, my course veered away from theirs. They had trained for the half. My friend Danielle, who was doing the full marathon, was an hour in front of me. (How depressing is that?) I had planned on doing the first thirteen with friends, but the course was not designed that way, so I was alone WAY earlier than I wanted.

For the rest of the way, it was just me and Santigold. And the Beastie Boys. Don't judge.

The beautiful scenery helped.

I was surviving until mile 18.

At mile 18, I wanted to die. My body was screaming for me to quit.

BUT I DIDN'T!

The farthest I had run before was twenty miles. When I hit 21, I did a little dance (on the inside, of course.) Wow! I've never done this before.

The same thing happened at 22. 23. 24. I was so excited to see all these big numbers that I was not sure I could ever hit.

After 24 though, I wanted to die again. Somewhere around there, I met Kim. We had been together the whole day, and finally introduced ourselves, and stuck together to the end.

At one point she said, "Wanna walk?"

"Sure," I said, relieved.

"I love you."

Somehow, I was still able to laugh.

At the last mile, I saw my family!

The big kid, (who threw up AGAIN in the car that morning) (FOR REAL? MY HUSBAND IS A SAINT) ran across the finish line with me.

I FINISHED A MARATHON!! I RAN 26.2 MILES!!!

It took a little more than 5 and 1/2 hours, but it was AMAZING.

At the end, I got to see Danielle and Marcie and that helped me forget about the pain.

I started running last September. I did my first half-marathon in February. I accomplished a lot in a year, and even though my time wasn't super-great, I am super-proud of myself.

If you want to do one with me, try this program. However. It might be a long, long time until I join you.

Three Things Thursday: What No One Ever Tells You About Distance Running

1. Buy it. Use it. Don't ask questions.

2. The very cute black and purple toenail polish? It's not because it's in season for fall. It's so all my toes match. While other (smart) runners will be spending their hard earned post-race cash on a massage, I (shallow) will be spending large amounts on pedicures.

3. The first mile is the worst. Always. It doesn't matter how far I can run, or what kind of shape I'm in. I am miserable until mile three.

IT'S THREE THINGS THURSDAY! What are your three things?

Make it: anonymous, real, silly, confessional, thoughts, hopes, dreams, or candy. Ready... GO!

This Week With Bethany's Freelance Life...

This week with Bethany's Freelance Life, (said with my best George Stephanopoulos voice), I'll be sleeping. Yes, that's right, sleeping.

MY FIRST MARATHON IS IN FIVE DAYS. *please ignore panic attack*

You know what I didn't understand about marathon training?

I didn't understand how much I would have to give up.

I didn't understand that I couldn't go out with my girlfriends on Friday nights because I had a long run at 5:00AM the next day. I didn't understand that my body would need ten hours of sleep (instead of my normal five.) I didn't understand how my house would suffer, my writing would suffer, my social life would suffer. I didn't understand I would have to say, "No," to many fun and good things because I. Just. Couldn't.

No matter if I ever do this again, I learned something I plan on bringing over to my writing career.

Giving up.

I am going to lose some quality TV time. My Twitter account is going to suffer. I may go back to five hours of sleep, just to fit in face time in front of this screen.

If I want to reach this goal of finishing this book, I HAVE TO GIVE UP. I can't raise these children, teach these big children, have a path through the living room, finish writing a book, and watch every Glee episode. Something (ahem) has to get dropped.

Check back Thursday for Three Things Thursday.

Monday morning, I go back to being a normal writer who runs three miles for fun just like ALL YA'LLS DOCTORS say to. Seriously. I mean it. Go run. (Just don't get carried away like I did.)

See you Thursday.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP?

Three Things Thursday

NEW THING!

I want to hear three things.

Are you: Recently thinking? Feeling thankful? Becoming thin? Always thirsty? Needing therapy?

Name three things. Make it random, make it silly, make it confessional, make it up, make it real.

Here's mine:

1. After a decade of tears, Dave Ramsey, late fees and bounced checks, we have lived on a budget for exactly two weeks. TWO WHOLE WEEKS OF AGREEMENT. This is big, people.

2. My writing career, as far as I can see the into future, is always going to include teaching the craft of writing. I love it. LOVE IT.

3. I took off my anti-stalker / stalker thing because I checked it every twenty minutes. Thanks for reading! I love you. I was a crazy person. I feel a thousand pounds lighter. What am I going to do with all the free time?

Me Too! A Confession

I suffer from Me-Too-itis. If you have a concern, a belief, a favorite fill-in-the-blank, chances are, I will, "too."

It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it is true or good. I just happen to agree. With EVERYONE.

Yesterday, I noticed someone's Facebook status-thing-a-ma-jiggy said, "Atheist." What was my first thought? "Yeah, I'm with ya."

Anyone who has known me for more than ten minutes know I'm not an atheist. When I'm mad at God, when I hate God, when I think we've got it all wrong about who He really is, even when I am ready to throw it all away, I don't doubt He's up there.

I don't doubt He's down here.

For that brief second, though, I was ready to agree with a near-stranger who I haven't talked to in a decade.

What is WRONG with me?

I have listened to your music, followed your hobbies, read your books, watched your teevee shows, bought your movies, thumbed through your magazines.

Most of these things aren't necessarily, "bad." They are just a symptom of something...um... pathetic.

I am too old for peer pressure.

Do you agree with everyone? Do you hear a different drummer?