FRIDAY STIR FRY - Wasted Time

http://morguefile.com

How much time do you think you waste in one day? How about one week or one month? I believe if we could figure it out, we would be a bit sick to our stomachs.

I'm bringing this up because I wasted a whole lot of time this week at my day job without knowing it until today. A person in our department is quitting and we hired somebody from a temp agency to replace her. I'm the main trainer (because let's face it, I know it all :0). Well, the new person isn't going to stay. Now, mind you, we are extremely short handed as it is. Our supervisor is out on sick leave. One of our other staff is also out on sick leave. This leaves 2 of us to do all the work. TWO. I don't have time to waste training somebody who isn't going to stay. It is slow and tedious and my work piles up and I'm too damn old and cranky.

Plus I had plans to write this week. I e-mailed my WIP to myself and I was going to sneak in a few words here and there during slow periods at work. Well, that idea flew out the window along with my patience. Why oh why can't I be rich and stay at home and write? I know there is a hell, because I'm in it.

Oh well, enough bitching. I have a three day weekend and I'm going to glue my butt in my chair and write, write, write.

What are your plans for this weekend? I would love to know.

FRIDAY STIR FRY - Writing Is Hard (or is it?)

http://morguefile.com

No, writing is not like digging ditches hard. Your life isn't on the line like a police officer's every time you sit down to write. There isn't a dangerous flame licking at you like it does a firefighter.

It's brain hard. Trying to come up with the right word, the perfect twist, the heroine's snarky comeback. And that's just the creative phase. Then you have the edits and the edits and the edits.

Sometimes it's hard just to get started whether you're in the middle of a story or the beginning. The fear of failure can seize your brain power and make it impossible to come up with even one word let alone a whole page.

Then (and this is the magic part), other times the words flow out your fingers like a rushing mountain stream. Nothing gets in the way and the exhilaration you feel has no equal. This is what keeps us coming back. What wakes us up in the morning and keeps us up late into the night. This is the joy of writing.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could bottle that feeling up and just pour it out when the writing becomes hard?

FRIDAY STIR FRY - Celebrity Deaths

https://www.morguefile.com

When a famous person dies, some people really freak out. Like last week when Prince passed, the sister of a co-worker totally lost it, couldn't work, couldn't sleep, couldn't stop crying. The memorial at his home keeps growing, and the tributes keep coming. I wasn't a big fan. His music came around in my life when I was in the middle of raising kids. New music somehow becomes less important. The old stuff is what we cling to. The music of our own youth. But, I get the grief. I really do.  

John Denver's death hit me hard. He, like Prince, died way too young and suddenly. I probably played his music for weeks after. I would get teary eyed and my voice would crack when I sang along. I actually met him once and have his autograph. So, silly as it sounds, I felt I really knew him.

Music has a way of connecting our memory with our heart. It embeds its words and melody in our very being. Plus, when the musician who brought it to us is kind and gives of their time and money to good causes, we tend to connect with them even more. From all accounts, Prince was very charitable. John Denver fought for the environment, bringing awareness to what we were doing to the planet.  

While we mourn, let's try and carry on the work they did to help others. There is no better way to remember them. 

Which celebrity death hit you the hardest? I would love to know.