Book List - October 2012

33. To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carl McD. Wallace.  This was a rather interesting book about real American heiresses who married their British peers.  This book was one of the inspirations for Downton Abbey.

I Dreamed a Dream

Everyone has a dream, something they want, something they want to do, something they want to be different.  But let's be honest, most people's dreams don't come true.  They are just ideas that for a moment make you feel like something is possible.  You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket.  If your dream is to be on Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White and Pat Sajack aren't just going to appear at your door and beg you to spin the wheel.

Whatever you're dream might be, you have to work at it.  It won't just fall in your lap.  Last night I was watching Charlie Rose interview J.K. Rowling and once again I realized how much I am failing at my attempt to be a writer. Yes, I write and some people think by doing that I should consider myself a writer, but I don't.  My dream is to get a book I wrote published and until that happens I don't consider myself a writer.

The three Ds of writing are desire, determination and discipline. And actually you can say you need those three things to make any dream come true.  I have the desire and the determination but I struggle with the discipline.  Finding time to write is always difficult and making yourself write after you've worked an 8 hour day is hard.  At any writers conference you go you're told that you have to give something up in order to find time to write (sleep, watching TV, reading, spending time with friends, Facebook, blogging - wait that counts, doesn't it?).  If you can do that you're half way there.  The other part is where discipline comes in.  You have the time, now write.  It was kind of like when you were in school and it was time to study.  Who hasn't made their bed, cleaned out the closed, sorted their socks, before they could start studying (fondly called procrastination)? 

I am constantly struggling to find that balance.  There are things I won't give up, like sleep.  Waking up an hour early to write before work is not an option.  And even if I did, anything I would write at 6 a.m. would be totally unreadable,  Lately I've been trying to write during my lunch hour (time I normally spending reading) but it's hard.  It's a limited time period and part of that time is finding someplace quite and seclusive to work.  I know, I know, excuses, excuses.

So after watching J.K. Rowling last night I realized I won't ever have the perfect situation in which to write so I somehow have to make due with my current situation.  And if I want this dream to come true I'm going to have to work at it every single day (not just days when I feel like it or the time presents itself).  I am going to keep trying.  And whatever your dream might be you should keep trying too.  I've heard that all the hard work pays off.  We'll see....

What was your major?

Kiplinger’s just came out with a list of the worst college majors in terms of getting employed after graduating.  Unfortunately, a lot of them would be considered very creative career choices.  Here is the link to the list that includes unemployment rates, average salary, job growth, and (my favorite) likelihood of working in retail.

http://money.msn.com/personal-finance/10-worst-majors-for-your-career

And here are the top 10 worst college majors:

10. English

9. Sociology

8. Dram and Theater Arts

7. Liberal Arts

6. Studio Arts (painting, sculpture and other media)

5. Graphic Design

4. Philosophy and Religious Studies

3. Film and Photography

2. Fine Arts

1. Anthropology

I wasn’t surprised by most of these, although I didn’t expect to see Graphic Design.  I did expect to see my major, Journalism (my emphasis was in editorial, which meant I wanted to be a newspaper reporter).  It was hard enough back in the day to find a reporter job and now with so many newspapers going out of business it’s probably be even harder.  Plus, in my opinion, the quality of work done by journalists today, especially television journalist, is appalling bad, really, really bad.  My journalism degree did help me get jobs in other semi-related fields such as advertising, public relations and marketing (which is what I’m doing right now). 

Around my senior year in high school the only thing I was really interested in was writing.  I had a GREAT language arts teacher who was encouraging.  I had taken a creative writing class and was on the school newspaper.  I thought I’d have a better chance of getting a job with a journalism degree than with a creative writing degree (which isn’t even offered everywhere).

My senior year in college I interned at the Windsor Beacon (Windsor, CO), which has since been bought by Gannett, graduated and spend 9 months looking for a newspaper job before landing in southeastern Colorado at the Rocky Ford Daily Gazette.  That was the one and only journalism job I ever had (it lasted about 3 years – and that’s another story for another time).  While I did work at the now defunct Rocky Mountain News, that was in the advertising department.  Today, many, many, many years after graduating college, I don’t think I would want to go back to reporting but I do enjoy creative writing and hope to have some success with that.

No Ice Cream For You

Road trips mean junk food.  You may start out with good intentions, you pack fruit and trail mix but the first time you stop to get gas and walk into that convenience store the healthy food you packed goes out the window.

Mid-morning on the first day driving back to Colorado from Texas my Mom wanted vanilla soft-serve ice cream  She just spent 6 days in the hospital and her medication was upsetting her stomach so we wanted to get her ice cream  We stopped at the first McDonalds we saw for ice cream and a bathroom break.  I walked inside, waited in line, placed my order, paid my money and waited.  Then I was told that the machine was broken, there was no iced.  I got my money back and we got back on the road.

Down the road at the next McDonalds (because there seems to be one at every highway exit) we stopped again and pulled into the drive-thru.  I ordered a soft-served ice cream and was told the machine was broken.  What the heck?  We drove across the street to Burger King were we got ice cream (I always preferred BK over McD anyway).

About the same time the next day Mom wanted ice cream again.  We were still in Texas (that is one big state) and hundreds of miles from where we were so we stopped at the first McDonalds.  And guess what?  No ice cream.  We got back on the highway and thankfully there was a Dairy Queen at the next exit.  And yes, they had ice cream.

Moral of the story: if you're in Texas and want vanilla soft-served ice cream, don't go to McDonalds.

Book List - September 2012

31. Off Balance: A Memoir by Dominique Moceanu.  Dominique was on the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics "Magnificant Seven" gymnastics team.  I have always loved watching gymnastics and this book really goes to show you don't know what goes not behind closed doors of public figures whether they are entertainers, politicians or athletes.

32. Getting the Pretty Back by Molly Ringwald.  This is kind of a self-help/memoir.  None of the self-help stuff is new (basically common sense stuff) but there were a few insights into this 80s icon life that was interesting.

Finally Fall

Fall is almost here (Hip Hip Hooray!) and that means the fall television season is starting.  I don't have cable for a couple of reasons so I'm limited to the tradition network's selection of shows.  Here are some of the new and returning shows I'm looking forward to:

Sherlock (PBS) and Elementary (CBS).  I was never a Sherlock Holmes fan.  I never read any of the books and the only Sherlock Holmes movie I saw was the Robert Downey Jr. one (and I wasn't that impressed).  But last year Masterpiece Mystery aired Sherlock and I was hooked!  In this very modern-day telling Sherlock is pompous and knows it.  It's witty and suspenseful with great writring and acting.  Now I'm looking forward to Elementary as well.  This Sherlock just got out of rehab and his Watson is a woman.  And the creators have promised there will never be a romance between this Sherlock and Watston.

Glee (FOX).  I admit I've been a Gleek from the beginning but this season premier didn't really do anything for me.  A bunch of characters were graduating seniors last season and I missed them (although we've been told they will be back at some point).  And the two new main characters were rather dull.  The best part of the season premier was guest star Kate Hudson as a alcoholic washed-up NYADA dance teacher who used to work on Broadway.  Hope this show improves as the weeks go on.

Downton Abbey (PBS).  I am a SUCKER for British period piece dramas and this one totally fit the bill.  If for nothing else than the wickedly witty lines from Maggie Smith.

Once Upon a Time (ABC).  Last year two "fairy tale" drama debuted and for me this one was the clear winner.  If you were a fan of Lost, the same people are behind Once and you'll notice.  It's a mix of fairy tale characters in present time and past "fairy tale" time.  It had a great cliff hanger last season so I'm looking forward to where things will go from there.

Raising Hope (FOX).  There are a lot of good half-hour comedies out there but this one is really quirky and funny.  The story is about a young man who becomes a single father (the mother was a serial killer who ending up in jail and SPOILER ALERT supposedly got hit by a bus at the end of last season) but the stars of the show are the parents (Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt) and  dementialy challenged Maw Maw (Cloris Lecchman). 

So let the viewing begin....

Book List - August 2012

27. Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. This is the second book in the Discovery of Witches trilogy. This fantasy is the continuing story of witch Diana and vampire Matthew. You definitely need to read the first book to understand all the intricate characters and plot twist. It does get gruesome at times but a good read.

28. Where We Belong by Emily Giffin. I read almost the entire book in one four hour sitting waiting for my car at the mechanics. It's the story of a women who, 18 years earlier at the age of 18, gave up her daughter for adoption. The daughter finds here and she now has to own up to her decisions. It's a story that's been told before (and probably will be told again) but also a good read.

29. The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner.  If you know anything about this author you'll know that this book reflects some of her recent experiences and is also more like her first few books.  A young single woman tried to make it as a Hollywood TV writer with her grandmother in tow.  It's another good Weiner book.

30. What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill.  A young college student goes to work as a nanny for an upper-class finance family in London two years before the market tanked in 2008.  Lots of finance terminology but interesting characters.