Home from Hawai'i

We got home from our vacation late Tuesday. The trip was good, albeit with a little more rain than I cared for. Our first three days at the Four Seasons in Wailea were incredible. They upgraded us to a suite, and had so much stuff for Alex waiting for us that I couldn't believe it. A crib (with blue bedding), snacks, diapers, swim diapers, toys, basically anything he could possibly need. Having the suite made getting him to sleep sooo much easier. I would recommend the Four Seasons to anyone. They even found a (brand new) earring that I had lost!
We drove out to Hana on Saturday, and it poured the whole way. I was carsick for the entire (3 hour) drive, and when we got there, they had messed up our reservation! Our time in Hana was cursed, I swear. Everything that could go wrong, did. The Hotel Hana-Maui was supposed to be really nice, a luxury hotel (it was more expensive than the Four Seasons), but we didn't get great service there at all. Added to that Ron was sick the whole time, and it rained nonstop. I talked to the manager of the hotel after we got home, and he refunded one night for us, which was nice.
Once we got out of Hana and got to Waikiki, things started being fun again. Ron was feeling better, and we had a good time for the 24 hours or so that we were there.
Throughout the whole trip, Alex was a trooper. He was so good on both flights, and he loved all the new things that we did there. He's a great traveler!

Snow

It's snowing outside right now, big puffy flakes. Beautiful. Alex is looking super cute today (what is it about little boys and denim overalls?), playing with his dog. I seem to have caught a little something (sore throat and low fever), but I'm trying to ignore it, getting ready to leave for Maui on Wednesday. Alex is talking more and more these days, getting beyond his classic "look!", and "what's that?". He's absorbing things like a sponge-it's so amazing to watch.

Thoughts on life

I'm feeling good today-I think it has to do with the fact that the sun is out, my French language skills are reappearing at a rapid pace, and I leave for Maui in less than a week. Life is fine.

Alex is such an awesome little kid. Exhibit number 234: he spent most of yesterday walking around the house, babbling to himself, with his arms bent at the elbows, straight up (his fists were next to his ears). Not sure why he does this-I suspect it's because he can and does fall down regularly-to catch himself. It's soo cute. He loves to watch Hank play with his food bowl-he laughs and laughs. It's so much fun to be a momma. :)

Doing well on the weight loss front-down two more pounds as of this morning. Somehow, sunny weather seems to help. I made an appointment to meet with a trainer at the gym when we get back from Maui.

Alex and Ron at the Seattle Asian Art Museum

Catching up part deux

Haven't written here in over a month-now that the holidays are over, it's time to catch up again.

Alex is doing great-walking up a storm, getting into all kinds of trouble. ;) He's also talking a lot more as well, pointing at everything, saying "look", or "that", etc. It's so fun to watch him develop.

I've still been walking Hank at the dog park every morning. I feel healthier as a result, but I'm going to have to ramp up the exercise to see real results losing weight.

We're leaving for our trip to Maui in less than two weeks. Woohoo! I can't wait. Ron and I decided to upgrade our hotel, changing our reservation to the Four Seasons Maui for the first three nights, then the Hotel Hana Maui for the last two on Maui. We'll be on Waikiki Beach for the last night. We are also planning a trip to Japan this fall to visit Theresa, Ron's sister. Should be a lot of fun.

I started taking French classes again last week-French 1, at Bellevue Community College. It seems to be coming back pretty painlessly this time. I'm determined to stick with it until I become fluent. It's embarrassing to speak only one language. I've been enjoying it a lot.

We had our first round table meeting of the new year last week-two guys showed up. We talked about Campbell's book Primitive Mythology. It was an interesting discussion, to say the least. We spent some time on threshold rituals for the boy moving into manhood. Campbell talks about that topic quite a bit in PM. Next month's meeting will be on Oriental Mythology.

As far as the writing is concerned, it really hasn't been happening much lately. I've even been reluctant to write in this blog. I'm hoping that writing in the blog regularly again will get the creative juices flowing again.

See you all tomorrow-same place. :)

Alex-Touched by His Noodly Appendage

December Thoughts

December is always a busy month for me-for all the obvious holiday-related reasons, plus my birthday falling on the 12th and now Alex's on the 20th. I become contemplative in December, what with rolling over to a higher number on the birthday (next week will be 38), and the end of the year. This year it's also the end of the first year of being a mother. Questions such as: what do I like about my life (lots), what would I like to change (a couple of things, already discussed on this blog), what do I need to deal with.
On the health front, walking every morning has been doing good things for me-clothes are loosening, energy levels are rising, change is coming slowly. I still hold the 40th birthday goal in my mind, and try to make decisions accordingly. I'm feeling ready to ramp up my exercise amounts.
I'm thinking more about the possibility of becoming a school librarian. I do need to go back to work once Alex starts school, and becoming a novelist is to ephemeral a goal to count on. Ron has been incredibly patient with me (I stopped working as a technical writer in February of 2005), but a reliable income will be necessary once Alex doesn't need me at home anymore. At first, the thought of doing the librarian thing depressed me, like I was a failure as a writer if that happened, but now I think that it may be part of my path in life, just as writing is. I don't have to do it for the rest of my life, but it feels like a good fit during Alex's early school years, at least.
Another thing that has been on my mind lately has been my relationship with my mom. Our relationship seems to be degrading, and I'm not sure why that's happening. I know that I need to talk to her about it, but I'm scared to. There are complicated psychological forces at work here, for both of us, and I'm trying not to let myself fall back into the mind state of the 4 year old whose mother left her. It can be difficult at times. I'm sure I'd benefit highly from the work of a good therapist. :)

Lots to think about.

Cool Image I lifted from Endicott Studio blog

I couldn't resist posting this-it's by Tom Canty.

Writing

I've been reading Mark Helprin lately (such a wonderful writer). Somehow reading his wonderful prose seems to be inspiring me to write myself. Reading him is lifting me up, in a way, bringing me out of my funk. So, right now I'm plowing my way through his entire bibliography. :) If you haven't read him, pick up a copy of Winter's Tale ASAP. I recommend it highly.

Catching up

Haven't blogged in a while-sorry about that. Let's catch up.

After the funeral, Alex and I both caught colds, just as we were ramping up for Thanksgiving. I was feeling better by Thanksgiving am, in time to get the turkey into the oven. The holiday was great-we had 13 for dinner. Friends and family, it was exactly as the holiday should be. I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas. Ron's sister Theresa will be home from Japan, and all of his siblings but one will be at our house for the holiday. We'll also be celebrating Alex's first birthday party on the 22nd.

My birthday is also approaching (my 38th) on the 12th of December. I'm finding myself a bit melancholy this year. Not really sure why, but I suspect that it has to do with the fact that I don't find myself with a completed novel and an in-shape self, as I had hoped to by the end of 2007. Now that Alex is getting a little older and into his toddlerhood, and I've got the whole "being a mother" down a bit, I'm hoping for a rosier 2008 in those two areas.

On the getting in shape front, I've been walking with my friend Anandi at the dog park every morning. It's great for Hank, and she brings one of her two dogs as well. After a mere week of this, I'm feeling more energetic and ever so slightly slimmer. I'm still committed to my goal of being in great shape when I celebrate my 40th in two years, and I finally feel that I'm making progress.

As to the work on my novel, things are not as rosy. I took the situation with Charles de Lint perhaps harder than I should have. National Novel Writing Month has not gone as well as I had hoped either. However, I will persevere.

Our December round table meeting is on Zeus and Hera and the Royal Marriage, with delvings into the archetypes of the father and the mother (via Demeter). I've just started work on that material this week. I'm actually looking forward to moving on to our meetings on The Masks of God-it doesn't appear that this Greek Gods series was of interest to anyone but myself.

A Funeral and the Round Table

We're headed over to Eastern Oregon in a couple of hours for my Granddad's funeral-he passed away on Monday. I feel sad that I didn't know him better-when I was growing up, I didn't see my mom too much, and consequently I didn't see her parents much either. I know his death was in some ways a relief (his body had been failing him for a while), but it's still a bummer when someone passes on. It is a chance to see some relatives that I don't see often from my mom's side, and we get to show off our cute baby. :)

In other, cheerier news, the November Round Table meeting was last night-two people showed up. We really didn't talk about Apollo and Dionysus much-they didn't seem too interested. Instead I spent the time getting to know them better. It appears that this series on the Greek gods hasn't been a big hit. I'm hoping for a better turnout with the "Masks of God" series I'll be getting started in January. Oh well.

Apollo and Dionysus thoughts

Our RT meeting on Apollo and Dionysus is coming up on Thursday, so I've been thinking about the two of them a lot this week. As I was walking Hank yesterday I was contemplating the joy of being around animals and in nature-the earthy, natural smell of dogs and horses. So much of my day to day life is caught up in the world of Apollo-even this act of writing a blog post belongs to Apollo. But, my early morning walks with Hank take me into Dionysus' space-watching the mist rise off the river, the dogs playing with each other.

Alex's First Haircut

Fate of the Seattle Round Table

The writing has been going better recently. I'm enjoying participating in NaNoWriMo so far.

I sent out my monthly newsletter to the members of the Seattle RoundTable a couple of days ago. In it, I asked people to switch over to the group on meetup.com, to make it easier for me to manage the group. I got quite a few emails of complaint, enough that I'm wondering if I should just shut down the RT altogether. I spend a fair amount of time each month preparing for the RT meetings, and I'm not sure if I should continue if the group doesn't like my leadership, or whatever. Maybe I should just step down.

Wow, I realize that I've been doing a lot of bitchin' on this blog over the last couple of days. I'll try to perk up. :)

Today, its a special shame that my writing sucks

As you may be able to tell by the title of this blog post, not feeling so great about myself or my writing today. Got quite a bit of writing done today, as it's the first day of National Novel Writing Month. I changed my mind back, and I'm again working on The Mythologist. The work may not be much good this month, but at least whatever is good can be applied toward the cause.

The thing thats got me banging my head against my desk today is this. About a month ago, I met a writer who's one of the shining stars of the Mythic Fiction movement. He was doing a reading in my area. Through an odd sequence of events, he offered to read and give advice on where I might submit a story that I've written called "Anya and the Bear". So, off I sent it, full of hope, and I never heard back from the guy. So, fine. I'm sure he's busy, and if he didn't like it it's easier just to never answer than to tell me so. However, today I found out that Terri Windling's next anthology of mythic fiction stories is on the subject of animal transformation. If my story had been any good, this writer (who is good friends with Ms. Windling) could conceivably have sent it to her for possible inclusion in her anthology. "Anya" is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in the shamanic tradition of the Inuit tribe of Alaska. Clearly not going to happen anywhere other than my imagination. So, feeling a bit hopeless today. Not a great start for a month in which I'm supposed to produce 50k words.

Goings on

Posts have been a bit scanty recently. I've been reading up on the Apollo and Dionysus business for the next Campbell RoundTable meeting on the 8th, but mostly I've been getting all my non-writing business caught up in preparation for participating in National Novel Writing Month, which is held in November. I've decided that I won't be working on "The Mythologist", as it's already in mid-stream. Instead, I've decided to try to write a children's novel that I've had in mind for some time. The goal is to complete 50k words in the month of November, which comes out to about 175 pages, which should be just about right for a children's novel. I don't have a title for it yet, but it's about two siblings who discover a magic book. When you write words in the book, then put your hand on the pages, you're sucked into a story based on the words that you wrote in the book. The kids discover the book in the house of their new next door neighbor, a kindly old explorer and professor of (you guessed it) mythology. So, we'll see how it goes. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens if I just write full out for a month, and see where the story takes me. I think it'll be an interesting experiment.

Novel Writing Month

It's been a few days since I last posted, sorry about that. I've had some things I've been thinking over throughout the weekend, mostly related to whether or not I'm serious about committing to losing weight. A friend responded to my recent post about the pursuit of perfection with an offer to work out together, so I'm deciding if I'm ready to get started for real.

In other news, next month is National Novel Writing Month, and I've decided to participate this year, in an attempt to get The Mythologist written once and for all. I figure if I work, balls out, for one month, I can get about 200 hours in over 30 days, which may be enough to get a first draft finished, which would be such a relief. So, that would mean, no housework, no knitting, no reading, no working out, etc. for one month. I think I can do it.

Interesting Article about George Lucas

can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21365041/

titled: Can Lucas be trusted with the Star Wars Universe? Key Quote:

"What sent us out into the summer air from the theaters in 1977 and right back into the ticket line to see it all again was his ability to hit on a combination of certain mythological truths so ancient they’re practically embedded in our DNA, and he played that chord with big spaceships exploding in the background."

Thoughts on a new book

It's amazing the things that come to me when I'm hovering in the state between sleeping and waking. After I put Alex down for afternoon nap I lay down for a few minutes, with random thoughts flitting through my mind, nothing settling. I started thinking about the non-fiction book I'd been planning on writing eventually (on the journey of the artist through the underworld), and it came to me that the book I need to write (other than The Mythologist, that is) is on why story is important. Simple as that. Once Upon a Time: Why Story Matters. I need to think this through some more, but I believe this will work.

Apollo and Dionysus

So, the babysitter is here and I finally get a chance to write my blog for today.

I'm getting an early start on next months RoundTable meeting, which is on Apollo and Dionysus. It was interesting having Rich at last month's meeting-he brought up a lot of stuff on Artemis that I hadn't made the connection to, so I'm going to range a little wider in my research this month in an effort to make the conversation deeper. So, I've just ordered a book on the psychology of Apollo and Dionysus, plus I'll read Ginette Paris' chapters on Dionysus. We'll start there, and see where we end up.

On a related note, I knew I was married to the coolest guy in the world when I called him the evening after our lecture at Pacifica on Apollo and Dionysus, and he sent me the lyrics to this song. Ron is the best. :)