Christmas Musings by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Merry Christmas! I hope your family is prepared since at this point the holiday is just days away. I know Konnie is. But Konnie is ready for Christmas by the first week of December. I’m not as organized as her.

I know her system, I just never get my act together enough to utilize it, and this year I’ve had the added issues with car problems hindering my shopping. I’d normally be done with Christmas shopping by the first week of December too, just not as leisurely as Konnie manages it.

You see, Konnie only shops for like her oldest son in December. That’s her system. Each month of the year she checks who has birthdays coming up and buys both birthday and Christmas present for those who are on her list that month! She ships me both my birthday and Christmas present before our July birthday. Can you believe that?

I’m not that organized. Actually, I’m not organized at all.

In fact, I found several gifts hiding in my spare room the other day that I bought one to two years ago! And the weird part is that I didn’t forget to send those few people a gift for Christmas the last couple of years, so wow. I need to get better organized.

And, on top of being disorganized, I’ve been having car problems making it hard to get any shopping done, ergo, I am not ready for Christmas yet. Hopefully, I can get ready in the few days remaining but going shopping this late in the year is going to be horrendous. For one, electric carts will be scarce, and the stores will be crowded.

If I could I’d avoid the stores from Thanksgiving to December 26^th (you know the day with all the lines of people returning gifts they didn’t like). Yeah, I avoid Black Friday and the day after Christmas at all costs.

And what am I supposed to get?

My supervisor got me a new Nativity. I wasn’t even thinking about getting her something, now what? And I have a friend who also got me a Nativity, but I didn’t get her anything. I usually do, because I know she will get me something, but I haven’t had the means to do any extended shopping.

I wouldn’t be surprised if my neighbors get me something, they’ve surprised me with Nativities a few times. But what I do get them, and their three kids? No clue. And I really should have done that by now, but not only have I had car issues, but I just spent over a week sick. Which certainly isn’t helping the money issues any.

Did I mention my car registration is due this month?

And now it looks like my car battery needs replaced. I don’t have that kind of money. Great.

I’ve honestly thought about starting a GoFundMe page, but I doubt that would help. Who has money to spare? And why would they give it to me, even if they did?

So, I’m short on money right now and will remain short on money for the foreseeable future, which makes fixing my car all the harder.

On top of that, I haven’t been writing or editing. I did get some critiques on my chapter I submitted to a “First Chapter” contest, but I’ve read the first page of critiques, and well one of them essentially wants me to put back all the info dumps I already took out.

Not her words, but that seems to be the gist of what she is saying. She says she’s confused about the time and place of the story, which to me means she wants the time and place spelled out upfront instead of shown in the story. Either that or she missed the part about it being contemporary speculative fiction.

Not sure how I can make it even more explicit about the time and place without an info dump, which isn’t a good thing to have in a novel.

Another lady complained about how many characters were introduced in the first chapter and questioned the title character using first and last names of his family and friends. She has a point, I’m just not sure how to solve that issue.

And, yeah, I know I can’t please everyone but why can’t they at least agree on something. If they agreed on just one thing, I would know I need to fix it, but three critiques and none of them brought up the same issue. NONE! Now, what do I do?

Anyway, what are your Christmas plans? Are you ready?

If you are going to be traveling for Christmas, stay safe out there.

And Happy writing everyone!

How Time Flies by Konnie Enos

Time flies.

Just yesterday I was writing down an appointment date and I had to remember it was not in 2022 but rather in 2023 and it’s only about three months away.

So I’m sitting here astonished, yet again, at how fast the time does go by. Looking back on my life and the memories I have and realizing they weren’t yesterday, last week, last month, or even last year.

The pandemic hit over two years ago and 911 was 21 years ago. Other major events that I can remember are things like Regan being elected and the time he was shot at. Or Nixon resigning. I can still remember what I was feeling and thinking when all my classmates were cheering President Carter getting elected and I was off to the side thinking that President Ford was given a short shift simply because he was associated with Nixon, yet he was a good man.

And yes, I admire President Carter too. I probably would not own my home without him. If not for his friendship with the Fullers Habitat for Humanity might not be the worldwide organization that it is today and I therefore would probably not have my home.

And then it wasn’t long ago (of course that could mean two years ago) that I was looking at a picture depicting the long movie lines waiting to go see the brand-new release of STAR WARS. While the picture was not taken in my hometown it still clearly represented the era and I could just envision the line I stood in as a teenager myself so that I could get my first chance to see that spectacular movie. It boggles my mind that was 45 years ago. Not to mention, the Bicentennial was 46 years ago and I can remember that celebration too.

I can also remember the joy I got watching Star Trek back when I was in grade school. And those were repeats because I was eight by then and it went off the air when I was seven. And yes, I’m still a fan. It’s possible to love both a Star Trek fan and a Star Wars fan.

Then there are more personal events that seem like yesterday and they aren’t.

Things like I finally finished my bachelor's degree five months ago. The last time I had to drive any of my kids to school was three and a half years ago. My oldest grandbaby will be four soon which means my daughter has already celebrated her fifth anniversary. My mother has been gone for 15 years and my Dad for 20. My youngest is not only 21 now, but he’ll be 22 in less than six months. Of course, my oldest child is now 31, has been married for over 5 years, and has two daughters. Which just reminds me I’ve been married for 32 years. Seriously, it flies so fast that I have to calculate it.

But what I’m thinking about today is those specific events that happened well yesterday, just 23 years ago. I can remember getting dropped off at my doctor’s and expecting it to be just an hour or so. It was after all just a check-up on my baby who was due sometime between Christmas and New Year’s. What ended up happening is the doctor admitted me so he could induce me the next morning (as in today, 23 years ago). (I still say there was nothing wrong with my baby, he just didn’t want to be called in over his Christmas break.)

So yea, I’m thinking about that precious baby born 23 years ago today, my oldest son, Tony. Oh and the fact that brat doesn’t want to me to celebrate it with him, after all, he’s not a baby anymore.

Happy birthday anyway, Tony.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Opposites by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Being mirror twins means that Konnie and I are mirror opposites; basically, she’s a left-dominant, and I’m a right-dominant. But yesterday as I was freezing driving to work, I thought about Konnie and how warm Vegas must be this time of year.

Yeah, I know people in Vegas don’t think it's warm. I still remember my last Christmas visit to Konnie’s and how I borrowed one of her jackets because it had dipped to like 60 degrees and all I had was my winter coat (which was decidedly too heavy for 60-degree weather). Come Sunday, I’m wearing one of Konnie’s jackets, and I see people enter the chapel wearing parkas that are all done up, and they are shivering all over the place complaining about how dreadfully cold it was!

I repeat it was around 60 degrees, yesterday morning it got up to a balmy 34 degrees (Sunday morning when I went to Church is 24 degrees and freezing rain), and down in Vegas they complain 60 degrees is too cold! I look forward to 60 degrees, but it won’t arrive here in Idaho until about May, if not later.

Of course, when we get up into the 80s and 90s around here, Vegas is sweltering in temperatures that could make a sidewalk melt.

This is why a few years ago when we talked about getting together for our birthday, I told Konnie, if you want to see me on our birthday, you’re coming to me, period.

This still holds, I plan on never going to Vegas in July.

If I can manage it, I’ll go down there for Christmas, but not for our birthday, ever.

She’s more than welcome to come up here for our birthday.

And what does all this have to do with being mirror twins? Well, only that the climate each of us lives in is the opposite of the climate where the other one lives.

Opposites.

Which is what has been on my mind lately.

Of course, we are not vastly different. We are members of the same church, and we both write (just not all the same genres). I could add something about being married, except these days I’m a widow, she isn’t. Then again, when my husband was alive, we were married and our husbands, well about all they had in common was being members of our church and they married twins.

Tom once said he had nothing to talk about with Jerry. They had no shared interests.

And yes folks, I did note the Tom and Jerry part.

It’s kind of hard not to note that especially when you consider that Tom was as close to six foot as I am to five foot and quite a well-built man (no six-pack, but he did have muscle definition), while Jerry is so short, he’s lucky he found a wife shorter than him. He’s a small guy. And I’m guessing Jerry isn’t quite as hairy as Tom was, considering Konnie’s aversion to hairy men.

So yeah, our husbands are Tom and Jerry, literally and figuratively.

Another thing is of course, that I live alone with one cat. Konnie still has three kids in the house, and they have a whole menagerie of animals under their roof.

My house is quiet except when I have the TV on, am watching YouTube, or something on my phone. Konnie’s house is rarely quiet. There are too many animals and people for that. And they rarely watch TV. I’ve been known to turn my TV on just for the noise.

When Konnie last visited here for our birthday, one day I left a few hours to do my volunteer work, she stayed home, and when I returned, I found she had a video on, but she was also writing. I was surprised at that. Konnie looked at me and said, “It was too quiet, I couldn’t concentrate.”

Yeah, well, I have the opposite problem at your house.

It's true. If I’m visiting her house, the likelihood of me getting any writing done is slim. And yet Konnie is so used to all that racket that she has trouble concentrating on her writing in my quiet house.

Though all of this has to do with what we’ve gotten used to. Even when Tom and I had upwards of thirteen cats and kittens in the house, it was never noisy in the place. And, if I wanted to write while he wanted to watch TV, I’d just close the bedroom door so I couldn’t hear the TV.

At Konnie’s house, you can’t get away from the noise.

And another difference is I do NaNo and she doesn’t. By the way, I had to really buckle down and concentrate for that last week or so, but I did it!

Happy writing everyone!

Of Immune Systems and Sickness by Konnie Enos

 In the last few weeks, we discovered that Tony has a pretty strong immune system but Royce’s isn’t that strong.

You see it’s flu season and apparently not only is covid and the flu going around again but RSV is too. On top of that Royce started earlier this month as an Amazon seasonal employee.

Now Amazon can be a great place to work and one of the first things Royce found out when he started there was they have rooms set aside for their employees with Autism to go to have time to calm down from a meltdown.

Yes, you read that right. Amazon understands people with Autism enough to accommodate their needs. Royce had at least two fellow employees tell him that they were personally close to someone with Autism, as in a family member or close friend.

So Royce is feeling pretty good about the job, right up until he comes down with a cold. At that point, he’d only been working a week and was too sick to go in. And figuring out how to report that and get the time off was stressing him so bad he actually went and applied for a different job. (Unfortunately, they turned him down.) But, Royce is figuring out how to navigate the system. Mostly he has learned that they have people hired to help employees navigate the time off system. Still stressful, but he’s handling it, even though he’s had to get time off a second time in the less than a month he’s worked there.

But all that brings us to the main issue.

I don’t know why, but every time Royce gets sick I get it from him and only sometimes does anyone else in the family get it.

The first time he got sick. I got it, though not as bad.

Now this time? So far Jerry and Tony are the only ones not affected.

Which is bad.

Melinda and I do most of the housework and we both are so sick we both saw doctors yesterday.

Yes, both of us were prescribed antibiotics.

This brings me to my issue.

It’s my turn to post and I’ve been under the weather since at least Saturday. I’ve even been crashing for the night before, or very shortly after, 10 p.m. I finally let Bonnie know that I hadn’t written my post yet and I wasn’t going to be able to write it any time soon. Like possibly not at all.

Due to taking Melinda to quick care and making sure Tony got to and from work, Jerry couldn’t take me to quick care until later in the day. (I have slightly different insurance than my kids and the nearest quick care won’t take my primary insurance.) Needless to say, both places were pretty busy and it wasn’t quick at all.

The only reason I didn’t go straight to bed when I got back from the quick care last night was that I hadn’t had dinner yet. And the only other thing I managed was to let Bonnie know I was sick before I crashed for the night.

Needless to say, my post did not get written. And Bonnie wasn’t able to get one done because, unlike me, she has a job and other responsibilities.

I’d rather still be asleep, but the sun is coming up and I’m somehow awake at this hour, and since there was nothing posted yet, I thought I’d at least attempt to get something written as to why I didn’t do this sooner.

Oh, and Royce has decided that whether or not he likes them, he will wear his mask at work from now on. He even said he was going to get him a hazmat suit. Though for now, he’s making full use of all the hand sanitizer Amazon has available for their employees to use. That and wearing his mask of course.

So that is my week so far.

I’m also falling back to sleep so I’m going to end this post.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Distracting Research by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Time is running out, and I am way behind in my writing this month. I’d like to say my transportation issues are what is causing me to be so far behind on Nano but the truth is it's still social media. Really need to stop scrolling through the stories on Facebook.

I’ve read so much about rude people, entitled people, and dumb people and it totally surprises there are so many stories like this.

I was just reading a story about a guy who helpfully raised his hand so the witness could identify him! And that wasn’t even the dumbest story in the post. And some of the "rude people" stories were so outrageous I wondered how they could keep their jobs, but then in some of those the employees did lose their jobs, just not all, in most of them, they only lost a customer.

And that doesn’t even come to the entitled people.

I mean I’ve read stories where these insane people think they can claim to know the owner of some business to get away with all sorts of shenanigans, but the funniest ones are when they claim to know the owner and they are speaking to the owner! Though I read one where the business was owned by three siblings, and one customer claimed to know the oldest of the three and even used his first name in the claim, but the next second one of the sibling owners walk past and the customer says hi to him calling him by the younger brother’s name – it was the elder brother.

I read some were about the customers claiming to be a wife, or some other family of the owner while talking to an actual relative to the owner, but the best one was when a guy tried to claim to be the owner’s favorite grandnephew, he knew the name and everything.

Only two problems. The owner’s oldest (and favorite) grandnephew was in his late teens but the guy making the claim was clearly closer to thirty. And the second problem? That idiot was talking to the owner of the identity he'd claimed as his. The kid had a name tag on and everything.

One story had a woman claiming to be the wife of the owner. The so-called “mere” employee she claimed she was going to get fired stared at her and said, “That’s funny; you don’t look like Mom.”

I mean really, how can dumb can you get? Claiming to know people you don’t know! Things like that can be proven.

I read one where the customer wreaked some havoc and then claimed the owner would believe him, a supposed best bud, over some mere employee and the employee was going get fired. The so-called employee turned and called into the next room and said, “Hey, Dad, you want to come out here and hear this customer’s complaint?”

That’s even better than all the various stories I’ve read where disgruntled customers go into a tirade demanding to speak to the manager, only to have the person they are ranting at, give the fool some version of, “You’re speaking to him.”

But the one I really liked was the kid who, in response to a request for the manager, said, “Sure, I’ll go get the manager on duty,” then walked into the other room, turned around, and came back out and asked the ranting customer, “How can I help you?”

Cute.

The best part was the customer had been calling the kid all sorts of names, mostly deriding her about being female, and that manager would put her in her place. Yeah, right.

Like the grandmother arguing with the manager (name tag indicating that and all) and asking a nearby employee to please go get her boss. The said employee pointed to the person she was railing at. The grandmother refused to believe a person of color could be the manager and demanded to speak to another manager in the place.

The only other manager on duty that day was also a person of color.

I admit I got hooked on these stories a few months ago when I was doing some research to be sure the antics of the “Karyn” in one of my stories weren’t unbelievably over the top. Folks, I had to amp it up, because I wasn’t even close! Not by a long shot!

But I keep reading to find more fodder for my story. Except it's not the one I’m working on!

I really need to work on this new one. And I hate the idea of not finishing but it looks like I may not finish this year. I’ll keep plugging away, though I clearly will not be done by Thanksgiving, not a prayer.

Happy writing everyone!

Of Coincidence and Memories by Konnie Enos

 

I’m sure most people have heard stories of people looking through old pictures and finding out that at some point in their past they’d crossed paths with someone they’d met much more recently. Recently I was reading some of these types of stories and it got me thinking.

I remember when we were about fourteen and Jacki’s then-boyfriend came around and talked about crashing a birthday party for some girls he did not know. The friend that told him about it did not know them.

Somehow, I was talked into going with them. (Bonnie may have gone too.)

The birthday girls were in fact twins and the party was in their large front yard. And yes, no one kicked us out though after a while I had to use the bathroom. Someone tracked down one of the hosts for me and got me permission to go inside and use the bathroom, but I was told to come straight back out.

I hurried in, did my business, and went to dash back out but was stopped by a display of family pictures. One in particular. I stayed long enough that one of the hosts came in to find me. I asked her if she knew who was in the one picture or where it was taken.

She told me where she and her twin sister were in the picture and what she knew of the others in the picture, then mentioned she was told one of her cousins took it and she thought the two youngest girls were his kids.

They were.

I remember Dad taking the picture in Grandma’s living room.

Yep. We unknowingly crashed the birthday party for Dad’s cousins.

Well, all this got me thinking about the Bicentennial.

Why?

Because it was chock full of these weird crossed-path incidents.

First, there was the young man (eighteen to be exact) who was in the color guard leading the parade in our hometown that day. Not only was Bonnie also marching in that parade, but it wasn’t the first, or last time our paths would cross his. And apparently, the first time was while we were still in our Mom’s belly. The second was just two years previously when Bonnie declared she would never have anything to do with any man who felt that way about boys playing with dolls, even if those dolls were meant for boys. (Our brother had some action figures similar to G.I. Joes', but closer to what Barbies are.)

The next time Bonnie crossed paths with him they ended up dating and then happily married.

But the eeriness of the events from that one parade doesn’t end there.

To this day I can still remember a small group of people riding and prancing their ponies around the street as they passed where I stood watching the parade. One of those ladies came right up to me and I’ve never forgotten what that young cowgirl looked like.

Fast forward almost thirty years and I’m in Nevada and I just moved into my house. When we attend the new ward (congregation) I spot a lady who for some reason immediately had me flashing back to that cowgirl even though she was not so much as wearing a cowboy hat. Yet, every single time I saw her, I flashed back to that cowgirl.

I did ask her if our paths had crossed somewhere but we had never so much as lived in the same city.

A few years later I was talking to her and she brought up the Bicentennial and mentioned her uncle roping her into riding with them in that parade as a last-minute replacement for someone else. I asked what city it was that she’d ridden in the parade for.

You guessed it!

Pocatello, Idaho.

That’s right, I flashback to that cowgirl because she WAS that cowgirl.

And reading those stories has me wondering if someday we’ll come across an old picture of mine or Jerry’s that somehow has the other one of us in the background long before we met and got married.

I mean, I know we both lived in the Salt Lake City area when we were toddlers/preschool age so it makes me wonder. Of course, that’s the only time we even lived in the same state until we met and eventually married in our late twenties.

Now I’m writing a story where the hero and heroine have their paths cross several times in their lives before the story starts. What is even funnier, while others find the earliest connection in their lives, I don’t think they ever do.

Have you ever written characters that have any of these “our paths have crossed before” moments?

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Social Media and Other Distractions by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Nano has started, and I’m not doing so hot. On days when I could have been writing for more extended periods, I didn’t because I was on my phone. I need to ignore my social media, at least for this month. It doesn’t help that I have several projects (knitting, crocheting, etc.) I am trying to finish before Christmas either.

Plus, I have this post to write and get up, cutting into my writing time.

I don’t know why I’m having so much more trouble concentrating on my story this time around. All I do know is I’m spending time doing other things instead of writing.

Yeah, I know I’m a turtle when it comes to writing, but I can usually keep up with the minimum words per day and write every day. Not this year. And I have no good excuse for it.

I have been doing National Novel Writer’s Month for a long time, and there really is no excuse for letting myself get distracted like this. This is becoming a huge problem for me.

Then there is my lack of participation in write-ins, which really isn’t my fault.

First, on Halloween night, I noticed my porch light wasn’t working. Getting my aide to change the bulb didn’t work so I had to call my landlord. Until then, I’m not leaving the house, if I’ll be coming back after dark, just not. It's way too hard to see the locks on the door without light. Let alone that it’s not safe.

Don’t worry it should be fixed today.

Of course, the Saturday write-ins are during the day at the library, but I missed that first one because of my car issues, which is ongoing because honestly, I don’t have the money to fix it. Which also means I don’t have the money to replace it either.

It does work. Sort of. The A/C/Heater/defroster doesn’t work, and my car overheats if I drive around too much. Which basically means short trips only and bundle up!

I’m still not sure how I can get all the work it needs done.

Worry isn’t helping my writing either.

And I’m supposed to avoid stress!

On a lighter note, some of my colleagues at work and I got into a discussion the other day about accents, which devolved into two of them talking about how many times they’ve had people ask them where they are from, then proceed to ask where Idaho is or mix Idaho up with several other states that begin with the letter I.

Of everyone there, there were only the three of us who are actually from Idaho, as in born and raised. We’ve all lived elsewhere, but I’ve never had that happen to me.

I did have an incident when I was living in Tacoma when a young man said he was from a small town in Idaho, that I would have never heard of.

Now the background for this is that I’d gone to a young adult dance with a friend of mine and we met a couple of young men who were in town for the summer, for their jobs. We’d all introduced ourselves, and my friend and I pointed out that we lived in the area. Not a lie, she was born and raised in the area, and, at that point, I’d lived in Tacoma for almost two and half years.

We then asked these two guys where they were from, and one said he was from LA while the other said he was from a small Idaho town that I would never have heard of.

My friend kind of smirked in my direction, knowing full well I grew up in Idaho. I folded my arms, looked straight at that guy, and said, “Try me.”

And he said, “A little place called Oakley, I told you, you’ve never heard of it.”

I thought that over a second or two and responded. “My uncle lives there.”

Now you could have scrapped this guy’s jaw off the payment!

He honestly thought neither of us would have ever heard of it, let alone I actually knew, was related to, people who lived there. But the funniest part was, I’d given him my first and last name, he knew it, and it never dawned on him that I might know his high school math teacher, even though we have the same last name. Or rather did, that was three years before I got married.

I still don’t know how he didn’t even consider I might be related to my uncle when our name is not anywhere as common as say, Smith or Jones.

And how are all of you doing on your writing? You can find me on the NaNo site listed as FaithfullSpirit2.

Happy writing everyone!