Jun 07

T13 no. 9

Thursday Thirteen 3 Comments »

Thirteen Things that are on RUS’ mind. . . .


1. Why do my Starbucks cups leak whenever I am wearing a white shirt?2. Why does this seem to happen early in the morning, when I’m on my way to school, and I don’t have any possibility whatsoever of changing my shirt?

3.  It would make so much more sense to just get my coffee at school, or at least not attempt to drink it until I’m in my classroom.

4.  But what fun would that be???

5. I miss my seniors who have just graduated. I really hope they are being as safe as they can be during senior week.

6. I saw the first draft of the cover for my book the other day, and it was absolutely thrilling. My book. My cover. My characters coming alive from an artist’s interpretation of what she saw when she read the book. Too, too exciting.

7. I”m looking forward to spending a lot of time early in the summer getting the book ready for its November launch. I don’t want any last-minute surprises or disappointments. This is one of those “big moments” that I want to make sure it goes just as I have planned it.

8.  I am scared, though, of the reaction it might receive. I’ve played around with placing an author’s statement at the beginning of the book to explain my position on some things. A little voice inside my head tells me to not go there, though. Let people just read the book, and don’t intrude on their experience.

9.  I’ve started working on my next story, not to mention a few other shorter works that are for a slightly younger audience. I don’t know….There’s just something about finding a rock in your yard that has a cryptic note painted on it. There’s a real story there, for sure.

10. I’m going to enjoy visiting the other Thursday Thirteens today. When I went back into my archives to check the last time I did this, I was shocked that it was in November of 2006!

11. Playlist write now? One Love, by Bob Marley, Demo of While My Guitar Genly Weeps by George Harrison.

12. If you haven’t checked out LOVE by the Beatles yet, please do it very soon. It is mind-blowing.

13. Speaking of mind-blowing, go here and check out the new computer coffee table. Beyond mind blowing!!!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Nov 09

T13, no. 8

Thursday Thirteen 4 Comments »

Yikes! No fancy banner this morning, as I get back in the swing of blogging….I’ll add this to my list of things to do by…..next Thursday!

Here’s my list, nevertheless… :)

Thirteen things I have every reason to be happy.
1. My life, right?

2. My incredible family and kids. I cannot be with them enough these days.

3. My mom and my sister who continue to corner their cancers and dare to live fully every moment of every day.

4. This morning’s sunrise. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to arrive at school with the early morning’s innocent rays spilling across the crimson and amber trees that line the sports fields…Breathtaking, I tell you. Breathtaking.

5. Novel no. 3 is going well for me, and I have the motivation to get no. 2 in the mail before December arrives.

6. I discovered today that all of the Grateful Dead’s concert downloads and Dick’s Picks are on iTunes. My heart hurts for the record stores, but really–why do I need to go there anymore except for the experience of smelling the incense while roaming the rock and folk aisles?

7. My first-quarter grades are in. This should be nos. 7 through 11. :)

8. The recent elections in Maryland and across the country. The times, they are a’ changin’. . . .

9. Seinfeld, season 7, is released on November 21.

10. My micro-blogging community is THE BEST. :)
11. My students are wonderful. They feed me chocolate and pizza, especially on rainy days.
12. Tomorrow’s Friday already!
13. I am back online! Yippeeeee! :)

Sep 28

T13, no. 7

Thursday Thirteen 3 Comments »

Thirteen song lyrics I wish I had written:
…

1. True Believer that I am, I am blind. Lead me on, lead me on. Blessed Receiver of your love, I own my own time and I’ve been holding on, holding on. Leave the word unspoken and the spell wiil be broken. ~James Taylor, “I Will Follow”
2. Sunshine Daydream. Walk you the tall trees, Going where the wind goes, Blooming like a red rose. Breathing more freely, Light out singing. I’ll walk you inthe morning sunshine. Sunshine Daydream. Walk you in the sunshine. ~Grateful Dead, “Sugar Magnolias”
3. I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping, While my guitar gently weeps. I don’t know why nobody told you how to unfold your love. I don’t know how someone controlled you. They bought and sold you. ~Beatles, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
4. Maybe somewhere in the southern hemisphere there could be room for all this love, where they’ve saved a place for innocence. ~Shawn Colvin, “Orion in the Sky”
5. And there’s always retrospect (when you’re looking back) to light a clearer path. Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good laugh. You start at the top, go full circle round, catch a breeze, take a spill, but ending up where I started again makes me wanna stand still. ~Indigo Girls, “Watershed”

6. Queen of light took her bow, and then she turned to go. The prince of peace embraced the gloom, and walked the night alone. ~Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”
7. And I could easily fall from grace, then another would take my place for the chance to behold your face. As the days of my life are but grains of sand, as they fall from your open hand, at the call of the wind’s command. Many words are spoken when there’s nothing to say. They fall upon the ears of those who don’t know the way. To read between the lines, that lead lead between the lines, that lead me to you. ~Alan Parsons Project, “The Eagle Will Rise Again”
8. The ice is thin come on dive in, underneath my lucid skin. The cold is lost, forgotten. Hours pass days pass time stands still; light gets dark and darkness fills my secret heart forbidden. . . ~Sarah Mclachlan, “Ice”
9. Me, my thoughts are flower strewn. Ocean storm, bayberry moon. I have got to leave to find my way. ~REM, “Find the River”
10. One part of me just wants to tell you everything; one part just needs the quiet. And if I’m lonely here, I’m lonely here. . . .How can I hold the part of me that only you can carry? ~Toad, “I will not take these things for granted”
11. I dream of rain. I dream of gardens in the desert sand. I wake in vain. I dream of love as time runs through my hand. ~Sting, “Desert Rose”
12. An old fairytale told me the simple heart will be prized again; a toad will be our king, and ugly ogres our heroes. ~Keane, “The Frog Prince”

13. Come fly with me, let’s float down to Peru; In llama land, there’s a one-man band, and he’ll toot his flute for you. Come fly with me, we’ll float down in the blue. . . . ~Frank Sinatra, “Come fly with me”

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Sep 06

T13, no. 6

Thursday Thirteen 4 Comments »

Denise has presented a challenge to TT’ers this week: “I would like to challenge all Thirteeners to come up with 13 things they like about themselves on the next Thursday 13…September 7. I feel like we, as women, spend so much time scrutinizing ourselves that we sometimes forget the good stuff.” Crikey. That’s a tough one for me. But…a challenge is a challenge, so here goes:
Thirteen Things I like about myself, even though I’m not a woman,
but apparently I play a pretty damn good one in this here blogosphere…

1. I’m pretty happy with my writing, especially in where I have taken it, and it has taken me, in the past few years.
2. I’m a good teacher, damn it. I relate well with my kids as individuals, and I love the death out of each and every one of them.
3. I’m a good dad to my kids, especially when I’m able to put my needs on the shelf for the weekend and just exist pleasantly with them in whatever worlds they create.
4. I”m really open-minded when it comes to music, especially in steering clear of the top pop 40 that they keep playin’ over and over and over again on the radio stations that I grew up with (that was a time when zeppelin and the dead ruled the airwaves).
5. I’m a sucker for the more sensitive side of things in life; I cry at movies a little too easily, and on each of my first daughter’s videotapes of winter concerts and little plays, you can hear me sniffling away the tears as I roll the tape…
6. I have been told I have nice eyes…a rich hazel color that is quite chameleon-esque at times.
7. I don’t forget the power of love for anything or anyone.
8. I’d like to think that I am still loyal to my friends in need, although I cannot drop my life as I once could for y’all now that I have kids.
9. I recognize the importance of those friendships, especially those made online that would have never happened otherwise; it’s a grand thing to get to know genuine, good-souled human beings in all corners of the globe with just a few keystrokes and a smile :)
10. I’m a pretty good photographer who will wait days for the right shot to present itself with the theme or mood I wish to capture.
11. I respect the Earth more than a good lot do; I could always improve on this, though.
12. I drink cheap wine from good crystal, and expensive wine from plastic Madeline sippy cups. It’s the journey that matters, not the vehicle you take the ride in.
13. I’m a huggin’ kind of person who isn’t afraid to give you a kiss on the cheek and a warm embrace; time’s too short to wonder how many freaking pumps I’m supposed to dry-hump your hand before we say goodbye. :)
Aug 10

T13, no. 5

Thursday Thirteen 3 Comments »

Thirteen Things that Rus MUST do before school begins!

1. Make time to visit the ocean for a sunrise. When I was teaching in southern Maryland, I would spend the early morning before the first day teaching watching the sunrise, allowing the water to wash over my feet, feeling the sands come and go between my toes. It was an exhiliarating way to begin the school year, and I miss being on the water very, very much.
2. Take my guitar to a quiet hill and play. Just play. I am not a “good” player by any means, but there is something about making music in the outdoors that is magical. . . .3. Write a love poem, an ode, to something or to someone whom I have never written. I find it espeically important to find love under some stone that has yet to be turned. It’s ideal, of course, to do this daily. But with such love celebrated on the eve of a new school year, I will be able to offer just a little more in those first few weeks.

4. Cut the lawn, weed the garden, plant a few new hardy flowers for the late summer, early autumn days ahead.

5. Create a new playlist for the new school year. What songs will mark the beginning of the 06-07 journey?

6. Buy new clothes that make me feel fantastic.

7. Enroll in a fall yoga class.

8. Go on a photo shoot at Loch Raven Reservoir before a storm unleashes its beautiful fury.

9. Write Chris, Trina, Bryan, and Theresa and re-establish some form of communication that is once again meaningful and central to my life.

10. Volunteer somewhere. Anywhere, for any cause. Maybe clearing trails with the Appalachian Trail Conference, maybe helping out at the library. maybe seeing how I can be of service at the Red Cross. Service. Anywhere.

11. Finish reading Wicked.

12. Finish writing Cold Rock.

13. (Deep breath): Clean my classroom, write my curricula for English 12, Adv. Photo, and Publications, re-read Cuckoo, send off final yearbook spreads, send out sr. supplement, reconfigure all 21 macs in the lab, rescue LCD and set up in room, attend countless meetings, set up teaching website, contact TCs around the state, send maryland voices to the printer, send RESPECT posters to the printer, prepare for in-service workshop coming up during first week of school, buy rest of school supplies. . . .. (exhale….and then continue on and on and on…..) :)
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Aug 03

T13, no. 4

Thursday Thirteen 4 Comments »

Thirteen Things pulled from Rus’ DAYBOOKS!

Ok, folks. These are little original gems that I have pulled from my daybooks (journals) over the past few years…Which is your favorite?1. 25 February 2004, 11:30 p.m.: Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Being Peace, On the wooden board outside of the mediation hall in Zen monastaries, there is a 4-line inscription. The last line is: ‘Don’t waste your life..’ Our lives are made of days and hours, and each hour is precious. Have we wasted our hours and our days? Are we wasting our lives? These are important questions. Practicing Buddhism is to be alive in each moment.” And so I repeat: Don’t waste your life. Don’t waste this day. Don’t waste this hour. All that I do contributes to the wellness or the destruction of my being, and this directly affects my ability to bring peace to others. So: Don’t Waste Your Life.2. 15 July 2004, 8:30 a.m.: In the years 1989 to 2004, beginning with the death of my father and ending with the birth of our last child, I learned that I am not immortal, I am not guaranteed love, and evil is a prosperous business in this world that continues to thrive with unrelenting passion. I also learned, however, that mortality is a good thing, love can only be appreciated when it is given, and this same love truly does conquer evil.

3. 8 August 2004, afternoon: I am outside with the girls as they play in the sprinkler, the pool, the Little Tykes playset. I have always been amazed at the fact that unless I turn my face directly to the sun, I will tan more on one side than the other. How many millions of miles has this light traveled to me? And yet, one inch to the left means all the difference in the world. When I have a discussion with another person, I am equally amazed how dramatic a cordial correspondence can turn with a roll of the eyes, a heavy sigh, or a shake of the head. When I am having a discussion with another person, let me be nothing less than the direct sunlight: even, with nothing in the shade, and my commitment to the person unconditionally felt.

4. 13 November 2004, 11:39 a.m.: It was 3:56 a.m. when I opened my eyes. And although Madelyn weighs just over 30 pounds in her petite frame, her smile loomed large, gentle. “Daddy, I’m hungry.” I rubbed my eyes, and refocused. There she stood, still smiling. “Ok, Maddie. Let’s see what we can find.” “Thank you,” she replied, her smile only growing. I tucked her back in bed after a small snack, and the light from across the street spilled a sparkle into her eye as she smiled. “Good night, Daddy,” she whispered. As I left to return to bed at 4:12 a.m., I kept that smile with me. Now, at 11:43 a.m., I still have it. :)

5. 27 November 2004, 9:01 a.m.: Here’s today’s point: The way society is structured, we do everything we can to discourage balance. By requiring people to live a certain way, with so many demands placed on us to make money to live a certain, minimal way, we are locked into this level of living that prevents most people from ever getting the opportunity to experience balance as it was meant to be experienced. It goes against our very nature to “schedule” extreme regimes of relaxation to counterbalance the extreme digressions from balance. The answer is to stay close to the center. Always. Thus, my goal to live a life free of these societal constraints that force these extremes. . .

6. 8 December 2004, 5:47 a.m.: What will I make of today? Only I am responsible for how I handle all that comes before me on this day. Just remember that you are so truly blessed with magnificent gifts from god, and he has empowered you to do his work along the great and magnificent journey. Embrace all that comes before you today with strength and a smile. Love all, and allow yourself to be loved as well.

7. 12 July 2005, 10:25 a.m.: Val shared this with me, and I love it. “It doesn’t interest me what you do. . . .I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.” That’s from the Invitation, Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

8. Ginny says that the artist in you is going to come out one way or another. You can allow it to flow freely out of you and into the air, where it can have its own life. It, that within you, needs to live freely. It is yours to nurture, to grow, to nurse, until it is ready to fly. And when it is ready, your channels must be open to let it go. But when you don’t let it fly, it warms in the lack of light, swells, bloats, wallows in the sick environment. Becomes cancer, and decides to eat its way out of you to live on its own, which is what it needed to do in the first place. Either way, it’s going to come out of you. It’s your choice — through life or through death?

9. 31 December 2005, 9:15 a.m. at Panera Bread: Here we are once again: The last day of the year. May 2005 go into my history book as the year of awakening — health, spirit, love. We all have the opportunity to make tomorrow’s brand new day mean more than just the first day of 2006. Everything works from the inner core to the heavens. Be the light between the stars. What if every drop of energy that emanated from us was positive? Let us begin the process of genuine and positive change. . . .

10. 26 February 2006, 4 a.m., listening to Jerry Garcia play Dear Prudence: At 3:33 a.m., I awoke to three strong knocks. Wide awake. As if the switch had been flipped from sleep to wake, there was no inbetween these two states. Eyes wide open — waiting for some confirming noise outside to confirm that I should be scared as hell. I waited, just in that state, for several minutes, but only silence followed these three sharp knocks, and nothing else–not a strong wind, not a creaking of a door, not even sirens or footsteps or three more knocks–nothing but three whatevers of complete silence. And so now I am brewing coffee and writing. Perhaps these three knocks led me to you, great Daybook, to learn something that I did not know. Trust the process, right?

11. Same morning, 5:48 a.m.: I feel as if there needs to be a rebirth process, in the bigger schemata. Perhaps reincarnation is just that. In this lifetime, we have smaller “rebirths” to cleanse the system of all of the toxins that have accumulated, but eventually in death, there is a rebirth, a total rebooting of the soul. A fresh beginning that we cannot control. it is bigger than all of us. But here, now, we can control these micro-rebirths to be rid of the toxins, the poisons, so that we may live more fully. I feel better than I have in a very long time. A good place to be, flowing, living the acknowledgement of this rebirth taking place. I will not stand in its way. Clearly, this is an ongoing awakening. Why was I led to the journal at 3:33 a.m.? I need not question. The observation comes, it goes, and I smile broadly for that.

12. 26 April 2006, 8:40 a.m., to JT’s You’ve Got A Friend: Discrimination. I’ve been discriminated against. I know how it feels. I know what it’s like to be made fun of because of what I think, how I look, or who I am. But if we look at it this way: I never ever want to be seen as the one discriminating. I never want to make a single individual feel judged by the way he looks, she thinks. Any of it. So how do I do this?

13. 18 June 2006, 8:35 a.m.: Love transcends. Knows no boundaries. Is it conscious? Unconditional? Variable? Blind? Unstoppable? A choice? Sometimes This and sometimes That? Is it chemistry? Forced? Hated? Feared? Loathed? Impossible for some? Available to all? Do we ask for it? Consciously refuse it because of fear? What if we were to let go completely and free fall? What a life to go so uninhibitedly. This is what they are afraid of, isn’t it? That one day we may just let go and say to hell with all of you and with it all — to hell I say! To hell and back for all I care. No…Not a free fall but a free FLOW, Ain’t the ride so very nice. . .Let the river, this think called life, carry us as we meander and weather this storm, this boulder, this life in front of us. Indeed! the water is wide, so let us go, let us flow you and I so that we may know this thing called love, this thing called Love. Separately, yet in the same stream we flow, independent, yet forever joined by the waters all around us. . .

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

1. Janet

2. Bev

3. Something’s Missing

4. Zeus

5. Michelle

6.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Jul 27

T13, no. 3 follow up

Thursday Thirteen 2 Comments »

Thanks to all for your responses regarding my Thursday Thirteen…

The one untruth in the list is….no. 10. It is something that i have always wanted to do, but alas, I have never left North America….

And…I did get away from the cop in hot pursuit! How lucky I was that night….Though the duck-crossing sign never made it home with us. We had to go back another late, late night with better “implements of destruction” as Arlo would tell of the tale…

Jul 27

T13, no. 3

Thursday Thirteen 10 Comments »

Thirteen Things about Rus
Ok, folks. TWELVE of these are true, which means that one is not. Can you guess which one of these 13 is NOT true about me? Good luck!


1. I was a vegan for 18 months, lost 80 pounds, and took 100 points off of my overall cholesterol level.2. I drove my Cutlass Supreme on the Ocean City boardwalk at 2 in the morning with a duck-crossing sign hanging out of my window as an OC police officer was right behind me in hot pursuit.3. I have section-hiked nearly 800 miles, or nearly one-third, of the Appalachian Trail.

4. All of my children’s names are 7-5-13 when it comes to the number of letters in their first, middle, and last names; this was not done intentionally.

5. I have 2.5 gigs of music on my desktop mac, which is 2.5 times the total capacity of space on my mac powerbook.

6. Most people online mistake me for a female because of my name, my blog, and my belief in life and in love.

7. My music collection is mostly made up of James Taylor, William Ackerman, George Winston, and the Grateful Dead.

8. Besides writing, I express myself in watercolors, pottery, sketches, and now tie-dye.

9. I just bought a brand new 2007 Dodge Caliber, and it is quickly turning into my own little Hippie Microbus of the late ’60’s and ’70’s.

10. I have travelled to Germany, the Netherlands, and England tracing my family roots, only to come back to the states with more questions than answers about who I am and where I came from.

11. I am in the process of gathering evidence to prove that the Mayor of Baltimore in 1904 was murdered by his wife of 16 days, and that he did not commit suicide as is currently believed.

12. I shaved my beard off today for the first time in nearly a year because I am addicted to the products at lush.com (not to mention I wanted to get rid of the ghost-white hairs on my chinny-chin-chin.). At the time of this posting, nobody in my family has even noticed.

13. I once had a license from the Department of Natural Resources to capture and own creatures from the Chesapeake Bay for study. As a result, I experienced the thrill of saving a blue crab’s life during an especially difficult molt.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Jun 22

T13, no. 2

Thursday Thirteen 1 Comment »

Thirteen Things about rus vw on this first Thursday of Summer Vacation
1….First and foremost, Happy Birthday to Janet over at fond of snape. She always has engaging posts…you’ll spend hours at her site. Enjoy the day, Janet!
2. I think I am finally getting into a groove with summer vacation. It's taken us a full week to establish a new routine (Even BC is getting into a new nap schedule...).
3. HG leaves for camp on Sunday. She'll spend a week in the poconos with other gymnasts from around the world. She loves what she does (oh--and she does what she loves).
4. MP goes to the oral surgeon today for her final consultation before she gets her tooth pulled. We have been blessed with an incredibly personable pedia-dentist who has made a trip to see him a fun experience. My, my...how times have changed.
5. C-Loo has just finished her first cycle of chemo treatment in Tampa, about 1.5 hours from her home. She's having a terrible time of it...To whatever god you worship, please say a prayer or two.
6. This is her second bout with cancer. 15 years ago, she fought off lymphoma. Now she's fighting for her life. If the second cycle of treatment doesn't shrink the tumor, they'll amputate the leg almost immediately. Again, friends...Prayers to her and her family.
7. Speaking of her family, she's married to the greatest guy in the world. I can't imagine a more devoted spouse than Robster....He is an answered prayer in her life.
8. Mom is back in the hospital with heart problems, and they're seeing if the cancer's spread to her stomach...(is it too much to ask to save a prayer for her, please?).
9. Despite the tragedies and medical issues surrounding my family, we all embrace the same attitude: We love life, and we won't give any disease the opportunity to steal another moment from our lives. I couldn't be more blessed with such great people in my life.
10. My desk is almost clean! I've done a fairly good job of rediscovering my bookcases too....
11. Stage Two begins tonight: find the floor. :)
12. I'm thinking of painting the office purple and green....I can't seem to move on from these colors....
13. Love life. Love this moment. It's the greatest one that you've ever experienced. . . .
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Jun 08

Thursday Thirteen no. 1

Thursday Thirteen 1 Comment »

Thirteen Things about rus vw


1….Wickedly green I choose for this first Thursday Thirteen here at rusvw.net2. This is actually probably my seventh or eighth Thursday Thirteen, but up until now, I've been blog yo-yo-ing between blogger, typepad, and other blogging sites. I've been playing around with this now for a year, but I finally made the big leap and just joined BlueHost to make this a permanent thing.3. I love my job. The blend of teaching and writing is about as close to a perfect balance as I can get.

4. I just had a piece published in the June edition of Urbanite, which is a monthly mag here in Baltimore.

5. I'm always fascinated by the different reactions people give me for the pieces I publish. SK, a great, great friend and even greater writer/playwright, found things in that story I never even realized existed.

6. But they existed for him, and to me, that's the whole point of publishing your writing.

7. Last month, I bought a new car--the zippy little Dodge Caliber that I simply cannot get enough of.

8. It reminds me of my even zippier 3-cylinder turbo Sprint that I bought back in 1987. Now there was a fascinating little lawn mower on steroids.

9. I'm both excited and nervous about having my own web site. There is the pressure of publishing daily, but the obligations associated with writing for an audience will help me work toward my goal.

10. A-Ha! What is my goal, you wonder? To write and publish more than I teach. I'd like to have a book under contract each year, with 5-10 shorter pieces in print while working on each book.

11. Pipe dream? Nope. Not as long as I remember what will get me there: Persistence. Patience. Hard Work. A Whole Lotta Failin'. A Whole Lotta Love. :)

12. Surrounding yourself with writers is not a bad idea too. The whole ego thing works well in this scenario. Make it work for you.

13. Love life. Love this moment. It's the greatest one that you've ever experienced. . . .

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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