Of Bathrooms and those Decorations by Konnie Enos

It is Tuesday night. My alarm notifying me of the time, so I remember to stop scrolling Facebook or reading and actually go to bed reminded me of several things.

1)      I’d told my husband I would get up soon (off the bed), so he’d be able to get the bottom sheet, which loves to come off on his side, back on.

2)      I told him I’d get up because I had to empty my bladder and it was even more of an issue now (several minutes after I’d first mentioned it).

3)      And not only is it Tuesday night, but this week is my turn to post. Something I obviously hadn’t even thought about yet.

With all this in mind, it was clear my first course of action would be to go to the bathroom and remind my husband that he needed to remake the bed.

My first course of action was to therefore clear everything off the bed in front of me, putting most of it, including my lap table away, or otherwise getting everything out of my way. Then I had to extract myself from the bed. Getting my feet on the floor took more effort than standing up did, but both required struggling.

Only after I was standing up did I even bother to glance toward the bathroom. That’s when I realized the bathroom was occupied. Someone was standing at the bathroom sink.

My initial assumption was my husband, whom I could easily slip past and still use the toilet while he was in there.

Then I realized the person in the bathroom was dressed all in black, not to mention obviously taller than my husband. Like about 5 inches taller (clearly since he is nearly a whole foot taller than I am). The thing is, he NEVER uses our bathroom unless his is already in use.

I practically yelled at him letting him know I needed to use the bathroom and if he was in here, that meant the other one was occupied, so what was I supposed to do.

My son wisely and immediately left the room.

Thanks to the volume of my comments, my husband realized I’d vacated the bed and immediately set to work on remaking the bed without me having to remind him of his need to do so. By the time I got back to the bed, it was completely made. (Well, except the blankets he was still getting situated.)

I sat down and considered what else I needed to do.

It was far enough past 10 to say bedtime, but I wasn’t exactly tired yet and there was the issue of my post.

I debated my options and finally pulled my lap table back out, then got out my laptop. After it was on, and I’d logged in, I opened Word. Clearly, since it just happened, my thoughts were completely on the events of the previous few minutes. It takes more time to type up what happened than it took the events to transpire.

The only other thing I could possibly come up with was my last post was about our inability to get our Christmas decorations down because my daughter and I had been sick.

Within a week of my post, I went into the living room to again discuss the issue with my daughter. During the conversation she pointed out that she had managed to take down the window decorations and our wreath, which I had not noticed. All that were left was our tree, and my nativity and Christmas village.

Obviously, the most time-consuming part to not only put up but take down.

We set a specific time to get together and work on it and even told my son when we were going to do it, because we’d need help with the boxes.

When the hour arrived, my son was asleep. Yes, it was the middle of the day. He tends to be a night owl. So instead of my son, I roped my husband into helping us. (I just told him to come out to the living room and started telling him what we needed.)

While he and I boxed up my nativity and most of the Christmas village buildings, my daughter took all the lights and decorations off the tree. Then she began getting all the smaller pieces from my village packed up. At some point my son woke up and my daughter told him to pack the tree up. Once everything was boxed up, the three of them got everything stored away.  So, all four of us worked together to get everything put away until next November.

Anyway, we got our tree down before February. Now to start gift shopping for this year. My granddaughter's birthday is in March.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Writing Woes by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

I don’t know if anyone ever told you this, but writing is hard.

I have at least started or have notes for pushing fifty titles. Some of these stories I may never finish; I’m not even sure I want to, while others I’d like to finish, but am stuck on them.

Then there are the ones where the story playing in my brain is far ahead of where I’ve written to, that I’m having a hard time rewinding my brain to the point where my writing is.

And please don’t tell me to just skip ahead. I tried that. That story still has a major hole in it thanks to skipping ahead. I can’t seem to go back and fill it in, any more than I can rewind the story in my brain to match where I’m writing.

This is just how my brain works.

That isn’t to say I can’t rewind and get to where my written story is to add to the story. I have done that, but not at the pace I want to. My brain has a mind of its own.

My brain also doesn’t always remember what I’ve written already. Case in point is the fact that this week I unearthed an old manuscript I started, I have no idea how long ago, but it is clearly a sci-fi, and older than the series I’ve been working on for like six years now. The series that I thought was my only sci-fi. It isn’t.

The only problem is, this old one is so similar to my current sci-fi that it would be counterproductive to finish this old manuscript when this current manuscript is so much further along and, well, better written. I don’t need to produce boilerplate Sci-Fi’s.

I actually have a paragraph for yet another sci-fi, and notes on another one, which I didn’t include in the list I made of my titles, since there was so little about them.

That isn’t to say romance novels don’t dominate my list, because believe me, they do. I’m just saying I have done more in the sci-fi department than I originally thought. And I do like sci-fi, but I also like romance.

And in all that, I still have my one manuscript, which I thought was romance with a touch of sci-fi, or paranormal, or something, but it turns out it's just speculative fiction.

It does have aliens in it! Why couldn’t it have been sci-fi?

Honestly, because I don’t have any futuristic or alien technology in it. I don’t have that in this story because it didn’t fit the story details.

Oh, well.

And it’s not like I was trying to write a sci-fi when I wrote that one; I was trying to write yet another romance.

Yeah, writing is hard.

And that doesn’t count how often I have to stop and use my Spellcheck. You would think a person who likes to read as much as I do and loves to write would be able to spell just about anything, but the clear answer is no, I can’t!

I might point out that way back in high school, my creative writing teacher once complained that of his two students with the most potential, one couldn’t spell correctly, and the other was horrible at punctuation.

Guess who the poor speller was.

He has suggested that the two of us team up. The only problem was that our writing styles didn’t mesh. My writing style is more on the level of feel-good/happy endings, while his was decidedly a lot darker. Yeah, I wasn’t going to work with that guy. Sorry.

Let’s face it. Konnie and I both write, and we are identical twins, but we have yet to fully collaborate on anything.

I’m not saying we don’t help each other; we do, a lot.

I’m just saying that, well, we have yet to co-write anything other than this blog.

There are bits and pieces of her work that are really all me. Believe me. Konnie couldn’t write a Male POV right if her life depended on it. So, any scene where the man’s POV is actually spot on – yeah, I helped a ton on that.

On the converse, my one female character, who was a bit shy and easily scared, yeah, I’d have never pulled that story off without her help. I had so many plot holes in that story until she stepped in; it was horrible to read.

So, yeah, we don’t collaborate, but we do help each other. She just needs more help with the Male POV than I ever need with the Female POV.

Too bad she can’t help me fill in the gaps I have.

But then we don’t write each other’s work; we just guide each other in ways to fix the problems.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone!

Of Decorations, Energy, and Bad Omens by Konnie Enos

I believe I’ve mention before that our usual habit is fighting my husband through October to not decorate for Christmas until after Halloween. Then having our decorations up from early November until early January. This used to be our normal until, well the great Christmas debacle.

One year, nobody had felt up to decorating until mid-December, but that also held true for putting away all the decorations. We simply didn’t get the tree down for um, well, at least three years. Probably four. But eventually it did come down.

Then in 2024 it was mid-December again before we got our decorations up but at least half the issue was our old tree really needed replaced and it took a bit to get a new one, and some more (i.e. working) lights. My daughter had everything back down within days after Christmas.

Okay, so no more keeping it up for years.

This past Christmas we actually managed something closer to our usual schedule and had the tree, and my Christmas village set up before Thanksgiving. I fully expected everything to come down before my husband’s birthday (early January).

The reality?

Let’s put it this way. I’ve had multiple conversations over the last few weeks discussing how long they are going to stay up this time.

When all the females in your household (in this case, just two) are in anyway under the weather, well, things slide.

I came down with what we are assuming is this nasty flu bug around my husband’s birthday. At some point I developed an ear infection to go along with it. Yes, I got antibiotics but those could do nothing for the flu. So, I was still coughing, and my nose was still running.

 During this time my dear daughter was either experiencing a fibromyalgia flair or coming down with a cold of her own. When her throat started to get really sore and scratchy she went to the quick care. What none of us expected was the doctor telling her that she had strep.

So, not only do we have that nasty flu spreading through the household, but now we have to worry about strep making the rounds. Oh fun.

Then this last weekend, with me still sick, though getting a bit better, my daughter added to her misery by starting her period and getting the accompanying migraine. Needless to say, neither one of us was up to our weekly grocery shopping trip.

Being in slightly better shape, I finally managed a small trip on Monday.

Last night we realized my excursion wasn’t as well executed as we had thought. In that we had overlooked the fact that we were completely out of a fresh garlic, and our planned meal requires fresh garlic. Nobody is going to the store just for garlic so we’re going to have manage with powdered garlic, which we do have.

But that’s not the only thing we discovered. I wiped out our supply of onions, bell peppers, zucchini, and both sweet and russet potatoes. This means that the stew we’d also planned on making this week will not be made this week, because we do not have the vegetables to make it.

But that’s not even the only issue we’ve run into this week.

Monday night I realized that my lower back ached enough that I could not straighten up when walking. But for some reason I didn’t realize why it was hurting until the next time I went to the bathroom and noticed how dark my output was.

Apparently, while I’ve been coughing and constantly blowing my nose, I have not been drinking enough water. Yes, I now have an appointment this morning to address my apparent bladder infection. So, round two of antibiotics. I am already expecting to address the inevitable yeast infection that always occurs after multiple rounds of antibiotics, close together.

On the plus side, my nose seems to have finally dried up.

But all this means that between my daughter and I, neither one of us has felt like addressing the decorations in our living room, which now has my son speculating on how many years they will stay up this time.

Fair assumption under the circumstances.

I’m hoping one, or both of us, will have the energy to accomplish that task before the month is over, but after the month we’ve had so far, I’m not holding my breath.

And if this disastrous start to the new year wasn’t bad enough, yesterday, both our dishwasher and our washer were giving us fits. So, we are facing the expense of either repairing or replacing one or both of them. At this point I would not be surprised if our older dryer or stove joined the revolt.

Hopefully things get better instead of worse.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Book Challenges by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

I’ve read a lot online about book challenges. Most are a challenge to read, like fifty books a year.

I, personally, don’t think I can manage that.

Not that I don’t like to read; I do. I own a lot of books, both physical and digital copies. But I’m such a slow reader that getting through that many books in a year seems daunting to me.

Then again, I’m presently on my sixth book so far this year. Some of those only took me two days to finish. The current one will be longer, but only because it’s so much bigger.

Finishing the whole series may take me a month, and that’s only seven books. Then again, the first five I’ve read included a four-book series, though those five books were by the same author.

Last year, I spent a couple of months going through my Dick and Felix Francis collection. And that is around thirty books. Maybe I did make fifty books last year.

I read my Francis collection, my HP collection, which does include The Tales From Beattle the Bard and Fantastic Beasts, and the five-book Percy Jackson series. I also went through all nineteen of my Box Car Children series. Of course, all those are easy reads.

And I have eleven books of a twelve-book series on my reader, as well as two other books.

No wait, those two other books were after the first, and some of the eleven were too.

Okay, I haven’t kept an accurate count of how many I’ve read and when.

I know I read a couple of my romance novels during that time.

Was it last year, or early this year? I can’t remember.

Okay, I do read, maybe I could read fifty books a year, but most of those would be relatively short romances rather than the longer, more detailed epics, which is what I’ve just started.

This series is actually, word-wise, longer and bigger than the HP series.

Then again, HP is supposed to be a children’s book, and The Work and The Glory is most definitely not a children’s book.

I did buy myself a bunch of new, or rather new to me, books over the holidays, and I really should read more of those. One of those four book series I read is part of the new purchases.

I finally acquired the final book of that series. I’d been holding off on reading it until I had all the books.

I was quite sure it would be good because I’ve owned one of the author’s earlier works for decades. She’s good. Actually, the fifth book I read from that author was rereading that earlier book. I still have her first published work, which I have read, just not recently.

Actually, one of the two romances I recently read was the newest book by a favorite author.

And yes, I have several favorite authors.

It partly depends on the genre, but even then, I could name one favorite, especially in romance.

And if you are asking, I’m sure I own way more books than Nativities.

I really need to complete my book inventory, which isn’t going to be easy, as often as I splurge on new books.

Not that I’m buying new (except in the digital form), I generally buy my books through Thrift Books these days.

The best part about Thrift Books is that I can get my hands on some classic titles, which I wouldn’t be able to do at a standard bookstore.

And, if you are asking, I’m positive I have way more books than Konnie has, simply because I have more room for books than she has, even if her house is bigger.

After all, I have a two-bedroom apartment to myself while she has a three-bedroom house, which she shares with three other people. So, she has a bigger house, but I have more personal space, which I don’t have to share. Unless you count Patches. And clearly, he doesn’t read, nor does he care how much space my book collection takes.

Well, maybe he would care if the books started to infringe on his living space, but it doesn’t right now!

And don’t expect me to consider whether or not Konnie can read fifty books in a year! Konnie can read way faster than I can. A book that will take two days to read will take her a matter of hours.

Anyway, are you a slow or fast reader? Do you think you can manage a fifty-book-a-year challenge? Or, like me, do you think that ideal is out of your league?

I personally don’t think I can manage more because I need some writing time, but also because I read slowly.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone!