Why Am I Passionate about writing?

I used to be obsessed with writing. Or so The Mother tells me. Before I even knew how to spell, I would fill pages and pages of spiral notebooks will an illegible chicken scratch language. I would "read" the stories aloud; their plots were simplistic and their characters one note, but they were stories nonetheless.

Reading Pamela Ribon's essay in Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreadly Times reminded me of a hood submerged in words. My single mother surrounded me in the greatest form of entertainement she could afford - books. She hooked me on the sci-fi and fantasy of Dean Koontz and Shari S. Tepper. She encouraged me to wander the asiles of Half-Price Books thumbing through anything I could get my hands on. And she kept me stocked in paper and pens, a practice that turned me into an adult with a stockpile of office supplies unrivaled the world over. I wrote because my brain couldn't hold it all. And when the rare occasion arrived when my brain had nothing to offer me (really, I promise it was rare), I'd write numbers into my notebooks - starting with one and counting, as high as I could until the words returned. Putting pen to paper made me feel more alive, more engaged, more myself.

And somewhere along the way, I set aside the stories from https://www.chaturbaterooms.com and forgot how it felt and what it meant to be a writer. I wasn't good enough, wasn't knowledgeable enough, wasn't disciplined enough... didn't look good enough in turtlenecks and berets. I had nothing to say about the world at large, no big words to add to the din. I had merely a small life, and I was convinced it was not worthy of anyone else's notice or my own commentary.

Bookmark Now, with it's four sections, details the journey of the writer in a media-saturated age, when pundits claim that the younger generations are turning their backs on the literature that generations before them marveled in. Bookmark Now proves that writing and reading have not gone into hibernation, but rather are evolving with our culture. Weblogs are not the enemy - how can we discourage a form that encourages both the writer and reader and creates a community between and around them? This book, to me, was the embodiment of hope for an artform and a passion, and the voices within herald the arrival of a new Golden Age of literature, one less elitist that the era that came before it. Good news for a closet novelist who dreams of being Annie Dillard. I've got a ton of empty spiral notebooks on the shelf waiting for me to pick up my pen again.

Is dessert ever not appropriate?

We received an invitation to our neighbors house for “wine and appetizers” this upcoming Sunday at 4:00. So while apparently dinner will not be served, some sort of food will be.

I just got a recipe for mint chocolate no bake pie that I am dying to try, but I can’t make it for just Matt and I. So would it be ok to bring it over to the neighbors? Even though we aren’t eating dinner and dessert doesn’t typicall follow appetizers?

I know it’s a silly question, but as much as I love our neighbors some times they’re a bit… different and I don’t want to offend them. I imagine dessert is always welcome but I thought I’d get other opinions.

Mmmm… mint chocolate no bake pie. If it turns out half as good as it looks I’ll post the recipe, even though it’s cruel of me to do so

Father’s Day

My Dad will be in Florida over Father’s Day this year. At first I was a bit excited to visit www.jasminlive.mobi, as rude as that may sound. Not that I wouldn’t be able to spend the day with him, but because it gave me just a bit of extra time to figure out what the heck to get him. He’s never any help and always says there is nothing he wants, and I’m getting tired of buying him the same stuff - shirts and cologne.

But I gave up. I can not think of a single thing to buy him, that he would actually want and have a need/use for. I also felt bad about not being able to give him anything on the actual day, so I ordered him this and am having it delivered to his hotel:

Only his cookies will say “Happy Father’s Day!” and “Love Jenn and Matt”. I also ordered an extra dozen cookies with nuts just because the basket alone wasn’t enough food for him ;) Good thing he’s there with friends - also cops who can enjoy the bear uniforms - so hopefully they can help him out before they all leave on Monday.

Nothing the most exciting gift but it should be tasty and he’ll get it in time. And while I’m thinking of it, I should probably call my brother and remind him that it’s this weekend so if nothing else he actually calls our dad.

There is a reason why I’m paying people to take my picture AND do my hair

So playing with the veil sounded like a ton of fun. I picked it up at lunch and brought it into the www.jasminelive.online office to unpackage it, make sure it’s what I ordered, and show it to some of my coworkers. I hung it on one of my shelves and kept looking at it all afternoon, barely keeping myself from wearing it around the office.

I came home, showered, put my makeup back on, and dried and curled my hair (I had left it naturally curly earlier today) just so it would look nice and cute while I played with the veil.

Which was fun for about 2 minutes. It may be me, maybe I’m just a bit dorky, but it was hard to get a good picture of me in my veil. And the last thing I wanted to see was a crappy picture with my veil on because then I freak out and worry about looking like shit on my wedding day.

Also, there is a reason hair stylists go to school for their job. Sure, I can put the veil in my hair, but make it look super cute in a style I would actually want to be wearing while having 800 pictures of myself taken? Nope, can’t do it. So like I said, it was cute and fun for a couple minutes but then I got frustrated at my inability to make it look perfect.

I’m not posting any pictures of me with the veil on, but here is one of the veil details and the brooch.

Update - I showed Matt the veil when he came home from golfing. I was thinking of hiding it from him, but I need to hang it in my closet to (hopefully) release some of the wrinkles, so hiding it was not going to work. I put it on without doing my hair and he told me I looked beautiful and that he couldn’t wait to see me on our wedding day. Awww, just what I needed to hear!!

My veil is in!!

I’m going to go pick it up during lunch. I’m so excited!! This might even be better than my dress arriving because I don’t have to be worried about how my veil will fit ;)

When we got home Sunday I was sorting through the mail and saw that my brooch had been delivered while we were gone. I was a bit nervous to open it, I was afraid it wouldn’t look like I expected it to, but it does and it’s absolutely beautiful.

As I explained in this post (you need to be logged in to see it), I won’t be wearing the brooch as a typical brooch, instead I plan on wearing it in my hair like a barrette.

I have my hair and makeup trial scheduled for July 6th, however we still have not worked out contract issues with her. Her contract is basically fine except, like all other vendors, she pretty much says that she can cancel for any reason without refunding any money. It also says that any of her employees can be sent in her place to do my hair and makeup the day of my wedding. Um, no, I don’t think so. There is no way we’ll be paying this ridiculous amount of money for one of your assistants. If you offered a price discount that would be one thing, but I’m not paying your fees for someone else to do it.

I spoke with one of her assistants who said the lady had been doing hair and makeup on location for a couple weeks and had not been in the office to review the changes of the contract we’ve asked for (mainly that she can not cancel for any reason other than death or dismemberment and she, herself, must do my hair and makeup not one of her assistants). Hopefully she gets around to it soon b/c I’m not paying for a trial if we don’t have the contract worked out for my actual wedding.

Oh yes, one more thing, Matt and Katie were almost struck by lightening yesterday! Yikes, how scary. Matt told me he was outside doing yard work when it started thundering and all of the sudden there was a huge flash of lightening, a huge boom when it hit, and Katie freaked out. I thought he was just exagerating about almost being hit but you could see the ground scortched just on the other side of the fence from our house. So, from now on Matt will not be doing yard work during a storm! Thank goodness he didn’t learn that lesson a more painful way.