SPARKING A BIT OF ME (ME) — WEEKEND FAVORITES — JULY 23

Good morning, and welcome to A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.

It’s been awhile since I participated in this event, so I’m excited about doing so.

This Weeks Question: What’s your favorite weekend activity?

Weekends don’t hold the same kind of magic as they did when I was working at a career outside my house.  Those days, I lived for the freedom of the weekend.  Freedom from schedules and work responsibilities.

Nowadays, I freelance at home and set my own schedule.  But there is still a bit of excitement in the air as the weekend approaches.  Sometimes, especially if I don’t have to “babysit” grandchildren, I enjoy the luxury of reading all day if I wish.

This weekend, I’m reading on Sparky, my Kindle…but then I got the message that my battery is low, so I’m recharging it.

I could read while it’s recharging, but I took this opportunity to check out the blogosphere.

That’s another thing I still enjoy on the weekends.  Those weekend memes, as well as reading.

Then there are movies.  I enjoy eating lunch in the neighborhood mall, having a cocktail, and going to a movie.

Family get-togethers are fun on the weekends, too.  Sometimes the older grandkids come over and we hang out at the mall, have lunch, and maybe see a movie.

Last weekend, my son and five of my grandkids (all teens) enjoyed a lunch nearby.

What about the rest of you?  What do weekends mean for you?

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SPARKING A BIT OF ME (ME) — OUTDOOR MOMENTS — JUNE 18

 

Welcome to another event that sparks memories of times in our lives.  Times we can share and spotlight.  Hosted by There’s A Book, click on the link and join in.

 

This Weeks Question: What outdoor activities do you like to do?

Okay, I’ll admit that I prefer the outdoors in a limited fashion.  On vacation, I might enjoy something like this visit to the Grand Canyon, where I vacationed a couple of years ago.

 

And in the winter months, I have fond memories of times spent in my son’s Big Bear Cabin.

 

 

 

Or, on this trip to Sedona, I enjoyed a rather bumpy jeep ride up into the mountains.

 

 

Beach moments are the best, though.  I love the sand between my toes and breathing the scent of the ocean as it lashes against the shore.

 

What about you?  What do you enjoy?   I hope you’ll share….

SPARKING A BIT OF ME (ME) — JUNE 11

In today’s A Bit of Me (Me), our host There’s A Book poses this prompt:

This Weeks Question: If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?

After reading this one, I sighed.  And then thought to myself that with only three wishes, I should be very, very careful what I wish for.

1.  I wish that all of my family members have healthy, wonderful lives, and that a number of their wishes are granted;

2.  I would love to experience peace in the world in the foreseeable future;

3.  And, on a lighter note, may my next published book be enjoyed and adored by a number of fans.  Okay, that one is totally selfish, but then again, it’s my wish.

What are you wishing and dreaming about today?  I hope you’ll stop by and share!

A BIT OF ME (ME) — CHILDHOOD MEMORIES — JUNE 4

 

 

Wow, those old memory sparks are gathering today, as we launch another A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.

This Weeks Question: What’s your earliest memory?

My earliest memory is vivid and consistently the same thing.   I’m sitting in a crib pushing toy cars around, feeling trapped.

I had the measles—the old fashioned kind that has horrible after-effects sometimes—and the room is dark.  To protect my eyesight.  I don’t really remember how long I was there, in the crib, but I was three years old.

Here’s a photo of me from that time, a little while later and after I was released from “confinement.”  I was throwing my favorite teddy bear in the bushes…why?  I was expressing a generalized frustration from the weeks of confinement.  Yes, a couple of weeks.

SO THERE, TEDDY BEAR!

 I also remember stomping on a pair of sunglasses that I had to wear outside afterwards.  Again, bratty frustration.

So what are your memories?  Hopefully happier ones, but I think we tend to remember the ones that are somewhat traumatic.  Hope you’ll stop by.

A BIT OF ME (ME) — THREE TOP BOOKS — MAY 28

 

Welcome to A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.   Here we share bits and pieces of our “real” lives, but occasionally, and in today’s post, we zero in on books again.

This Weeks Question: Because BEA is happening I’m breaking the “no book rule” and asking you to share your top 3 books you are looking forward to reading in the coming year.

Here are three books I’ve been drooling over enough to have preordered them from Amazon.

The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta (coming in August)

Never Knowing, by Chevy Stevens

Darkness, My Old Friend, by Lisa Unger

Now I’m really eager to grab each of them, but they won’t be coming for awhile…sigh.

What are you drooling over?  What books set your heart racing?  Please come on by and share!

A BIT OF ME (ME) — WHICH ONE’S THE LIE? — MAY 21

Today’s A Bit of Me, hosted by There’s A Book, poses an intriguing task for us.

This Weeks Question: Name three truths and one lie that not many people may know about you. (You can choose when to share the lie out of the bunch!)

What fun!  Okay, so here goes.

1.  In the year 2001, I wrote my first book, Miles to Go.

2.  Back in the day, I was a bit of a rabble-rouser, joining in protests and being a “flower child.”

3.   I took a whirlwind trip to Boston, MA in the eighties, and met someone with whom I would then have an intriguing relationship.

4.   That young man became my third husband.

….

See my “lie” at the bottom of the post.

So now what do you all have to say?  Are these some tidbits you’re willing to share?

(#4 is the lie)

A BIT OF ME (ME) – OUT ON A LIMB – APRIL 23

Welcome to another A Bit of Me (Me) adventure, hosted by There’s A Book.

Today, our leader has posed this question:

This Weeks Question: Do you believe in ghosts, the paranormal, extraterrestrials and/or life on other planets?

This is a fascinating question, since I’ve been thinking about these aspects of life lately.  Especially since I recently saw another interview with Shirley MacLaine, who first triggered this fascination in me with her book:  Out on a Limb.

Then I watched the miniseries and bought the tape.

After the “visual” experience of the movie version, I was totally hooked on the ideas—the channeling of spirits and many things that suddenly began to make sense that never did before.

I can’t say that I’m totally into these ideas, but I certainly find them compelling.

What about you?  Do you have any particular thoughts on this topic?  I hope you’ll stop by and share.

A BIT OF ME (ME) – ARTISTRY — APRIL 16

Welcome to another edition of A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.

As usual, our prompt from our leader helps us dig down a bit, exploring those bits and pieces of ourselves.

This Weeks Question: What is your favorite type of art? Or do you happen to have a favorite painting/artist/sculpture/etc.?

Art is in the eye of the beholder.  Isn’t that something you’ve found to be true?  I am enamored of many artistic expressions, but my all-time favorite is PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART.

When someone captures an image on film (or digitally, as today’s technology dictates), we can see another version of art.

Since some of you know that my eldest son is a photographer who has been capturing European images for several years now, I cite him as the perfect example of photography as art.

In my blog header today, I am sharing an image he captured when he was quite young, and the subject was his sister, at age fifteen.

A couple of years ago, he focused on the Berlin Wall, under reconstruction, and showcased the process from start to finish.

The Wall Under Reconstruction

Craig Robinson, Berlin Photographer

A Piece of the Reconstructed Wall

And here’s one more:

In some ways, this is art twice created:  first, from the painters brush to the wall; and then, captured by a camera.

What are your artistic choices?  Why don’t you stop by and share…..

A BIT OF ME (ME) — WRITING & READING — APRIL 9

Welcome to today’s version of A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.

Every week, we share bits and pieces of our lives—the real versions that we don’t necessarily share on the web.

Here’s today’s prompt:

 

This Weeks Question: What are/were your favorite subjects in school?

That’s an easy one, actually.  As long ago as my preschool days, I loved books and reading.  Curling up with a book was my favorite thing.  As soon as I could “create words,” I loved writing; I spun my little stories, illustrated by pictures from magazines.

So…in school, reading and writing became my passion as well, formalized as “English literature” and “creative writing.”

Even when school was on a break, you could find me writing or curled up with a book.

Nowadays, you’ll find me at my creation station, blogging and writing.  Here are some of my CREATIONS.

Sometimes, the things we love in school turn out to be what we do later in life.

But along the way, I did some other things. In college, I realized that I loved psychology and understanding human behavior.  After I got a degree, I started a career in social work.

I learned a lot about people in this career, and managed to combine some of those experiences with my current writing life.

What were your experiences?  How did the things you love become your life?

A BIT OF ME (ME) — WORRIES & OBSESSIONS — APRIL 2

Good morning…and welcome to A Bit of Me (Me), hosted by There’s A Book.

Every Saturday, we gather around and share bits and pieces of who we are, prompted by a question.

This Weeks Question: If you could change something about yourself, what would it be & why?

Okay, there are probably SO many things on which I should focus here…I’ve had a lot of years to establish my patterns of behavior.  Many, many years…LOL

So, presumably, there could be a whole host of things.  A series of things, even.  And…can you see what I’m doing here?  Totally rambling on as a way of avoiding the question.

Because…if there were things I wanted to change, wouldn’t I have already done so?  Why am I still beleaguered by these traits, behaviors, and attitudes so completely that I’m still clinging to them?

Okay…let’s start with my tendency to WORRY.  Worry about the strangest things can actually wake me up during the night.  Did I remember to do this?  How about that?  What if?

My thoughts are full of these kinds of questions.  In some ways, worry is just a side effect of my obsessiveness.  Yes, if I didn’t obsess so much, than I wouldn’t have these full-blown worries.  I could be like this little person:

When you think about it, worry (and it’s first cousin obsession) take a lot of the joy out of our lives. So if I could curtail this even a little bit, at least, I could sleep better at night.  I might not feel the need to do things that keep me going from morning to night, with very little let-up…like the obsessive blogging, for one thing.  LOL

What am I trying to prove with that?  Well, yes, I tell myself that I have a lot of blogs because I want to express all these various aspects of myself…and that would be true.  But is there more to the story?

Hey, something more to worry about!

So what about you?  Do you have any big, bad habits or patterns you’d like to change?  I hope you’ll stop by and share….