Tag Archives: Writing

Time For A Change

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Time For A Change

For the longest time I’ve been posting twice a week, Sunday and Wednesday. I write about whatever happens to come to mind at the time. I’ve decided to change it up for a while. There will be one post a week for sure and the day will vary. If you’re a follower of my blog you’ll be notified in the usual way. If you’re not a follower, I’ll still be sharing to Facebook so you’ll see the announcement there.

I’m much busier here in Washington than I am in Mexico. I’m finding it hard to devote the time I want to the book I’m writing so I have to cut back somewhere. Giving up fitness classes or Tai Chi is not an option. My health is a priority at this stage of the game.

My social life is busier here as well. I have more friends, many of whom have become family to me over the years. I’m in year eight now in Washington. Yes we do go to fitness classes and Tai Chi together, but there are also activities like Leavenworth Summer Theater that I enjoy.

It also looks like a trip to Canada is in order again this summer. I’m hoping to actually be with both of my kids at the same time, something we haven’t done in almost eight years. And of course I’m looking forward to seeing my granddaughter. I enjoy the video calls but what I really want is to hug her and hold her in my arms.

Last week I was out at Lake Chelan for the day. The weather was wild. Windy and rainy when I arrived. Then in a matter of minutes it cleared up and was sunny. The museum is always interesting and they revamped it over the winter. A video about apples was added and some of the displays were changed around.

Fire season has begun. We had a Level 1 warning over the weekend over a 250 acre brush fire out near the airport, about a ten minute drive from where I live. Thankfully it was brought under control quickly. We could really use some rain here but there doesn’t seem to be any in the forecast.

I’m headed into Leavenworth today. That’s where my hair stylist is. Yes, I know there are hair stylists here in East Wenatchee. And I’m reluctant to change that. I discovered Shears during Covid and Lisa knows my hair well although I’m only up here six months of the year.

Jurassic Quest is coming to Wenatchee and I’m contemplating checking it out. The movies were all pretty great and I’ve seen them in English and in Spanish. Now to see those dinosaur up close. I remember a ride at Disney where we were surrounded by dinosaurs. That was back in the 80s and I’m sure the special effects are greatly enhanced now.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Five Things You May Not Know

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Five Things You May Not Know

A friend challenged me to write a blog post about myself. He asked me to write about five things that most people don’t know about me. Obviously some people may know these things, but most people don’t. I have followers from all over the world who do not know me personally at all. So here goes.

One. As a young child I was double-jointed. Yep, I could do the splits among other things. Of course I’ve also been arthritic most of my adult life so I wonder if that might be why.

Two. If I ever accidently eat anything that contains liver it triggers a gag reflex. Yuck!

Three. A boyfriend once gave me a dog for Chanukah……a big dog even though it was a puppy. I was living at home at the time and my parents strongly suggested I give it back to the breeder after it chewed everything in sight and wasn’t the least bit interested in being paper trained.

Four. One summer I took a merit typing course in summer school. I wanted to learn to type and because I was in a university entrance program, typing was not offered during the regular school year.

Five. I prefer living in small towns rather than in large cities.

There you have it. Five things you may not know about me.

Prompt Of The Day

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Prompt Of The Day

WordPress always suggests prompts every day. And I usually ignore them. But one caught my eye and I’ve decided to go with it today. “What topics do you like to discuss?”

I like to discuss a lot of topics. The only ones I really shy away from are religion and politics, although occasionally they do find their way into my blog posts. My blog has changed a lot over the years and I find myself writing about a great variety of topics these days.

Originally I began writing a blog describing my life and travels in Mexico. I was living in Tlaquepaque at the time. I’ve moved around a lot and then discovered Washington state. My blog posts were still mostly about travel and events and contained a multitude of photos.

Then Covid came along and I wrote about my adventures while seeking asylum in two foreign countries. In the past year I have found myself doing more writing and cutting back on the photos. I actually just use one featured photo per post now.

I haven’t done as much traveling in the last few months. I spent six months in Aguascalientes and only made one trip to Culiacan to see my family. Other than commuting from East Wenatchee to Wenatchee, I’ve only even gone to Leavenworth three times and I’ve been back for well over a month.

I like writing about writing. If you’re a writer, you’ll get it. My characters in my book are doing weird things these days. I think they’ve got their noses out of joint because I spend my time teaching fitness classes and have found other activities at the Senior Center in Wenatchee. In Mexico this past winter I really focused on my WIP and my characters got all my attention.

I like writing about family although sometimes my family don’t exactly like what I write. I try to embarrass my kids less often and they’re more than happy about that. Writing about people who are no longer with us is easier. They aren’t around to be embarrassed or to criticize me for writing about them.

I like to write about my friends. I have some amazing friends in all three countries. We may not see each other as often anymore but when we do get together it’s like we’ve never been apart. Because I don’t live anywhere near my blood family, I always tell my close friends that they’re my family and they’re stuck with me as a sister.

Weather occasionally is mentioned in my posts. Once in a while I write about teaching ESL or fitness classes. Sometimes I discuss music, pets, crime, courses I take——whatever happens to come to mind. Once in a while I throw in holidays and memories.

I enjoy writing about the seasons of the year. I arrive in Washington in the spring when everything is budding and coming to life. And I head back to Mexico in the fall when the leaves are absolutely spectacular here, giving Vermont some competition.

This weekend the Apple Blossom Festival has begun in Wenatchee. Events from a children’s parade to a classic car show. The temperature soared to the high 80s today so I didn’t venture out to the parade. Watching it on TV was a much better option. I hope it cools down by next weekend for the car show.

And yes, I even write about me sometimes, about my feelings and other more personal stuff.

Have A Great Sunday!

Tai Chi And Me

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Tai Chi And Me

I know absolutely nothing about Tai Chi. I’ve heard that it’s a good fit with the SAIL fitness classes I teach and A Matter Of Balance. I recently joined the Senior Center in Wenatchee and Tai Chi is one of the activities offered. Okay, Karen! Here’s your chance to try it.

And I did. I went to my first class yesterday. The instructor has the patience of a saint. He has me in his class. I’m really getting to know my right from my left. And I’m getting into these interesting forms we go through. Weird names. Part The Wild Horse’s Mane. Repulse Monkey. Golden Rooster. Needle To Sea Bottom. Those are just a few. I’m game. I’ll go to another class.

I’m more than halfway through the Suicide Prevention course I’m taking. Still doing Duolingo for Spanish. Two more sessions left in the Boundaries discussion group. I also need to select something to read at Writers’ Group next week. Life group on Zoom. Lots of activities at the Senior Center and at the library that I still need to check out.

Writing mode is diminishing. I think my characters are annoyed that I’ve gotten involved in so many other things now that I’m back in East Wenatchee. I think they may even be a little jealous of the time I’m spending with friends here. They’ll get over it.

Have A Great Wednesday!

Writing

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Writing

As much as I enjoy writing today, there was a time when I absolutely detested writing. It began in middle school where I had an English teacher who absolutely lived for character sketches. I never could get into those.

Then there were the teachers who wanted you to summarize chapters. I didn’t want to regurgitate. I wanted to create. And I was never free to express my opinion which quite often differed from the author’s.

Anyone out there remember iambic pentameter? Why was that one chosen to be the norm back in the 60s? Thankfully times have changed.

In college I got to take a course in Creative Writing. Finally a place where I could safely express myself! Even the write your own obituary allowed for creativity. That was a pretty awesome course and I’ve taken one or two more online over the years

But one thing I really wish schools would bring back are classes in grammar and spelling. Back when my kids were in high school I used to cringe when I read some of their assignments.

Having taught ESL in Mexico for several years, I became very conscious of grammar. I became known as the grammar guru in more than one school. But since I’ve retired my grammar has somewhat fallen by the wayside. I’m really struggling with grammar in Spanish although my friends remind me that most Mexicans aren’t fastidious when it comes to grammar.

Write your hearts out people. Be creative. And most importantly, enjoy the writing experience.

Have a great Sunday!

Last Post From Ags

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Last Post From Ags

It seems like I just did my first post from Ags. But this is my last one. I’m traveling next weekend and won’t post on Sunday. So I’ll be back a week from today.

By the way, no one has correctly guessed the place from my last post. No, it’s not my tree either.

The April calendar is already filling up with activities. I’m looking forward to getting back into SAIL classes and training for A Matter Of Balance. I’m also in an awesome group from The Ripple Foundation and can’t wait to meet everyone in person instead of on Zoom.

My friends here are teasing me because I have not really been a morning person this winter. My first morning back in Wenatchee church is at 9 am and then Monday morning I have a hair appointment in Leavenworth at 9 am. And then there are those morning SAIL classes too. Just for fun we’ll throw in the time change too. Washington moved their clocks and Mexico didn’t.

Yesterday was more goodbyes with friends; today too. Two of my friends are moving over to the Yucatan so that means more places to visit. The other day it was the taco stand and the hamburger stand. I’ll miss my chip guy two doors down. And I still have to stop in at the tienda to say goodbye as well as the bakery.

I decided to tune in to something in English on YouTube and found an old Guiding Light from 1980. Yep. A friend got me hooked on this soap. I was pregnant and needed an excessive amount of bedrest according to my doctor so I needed something to entertain me. Interesting. It’s now 2023 and I’m still using Dawn dishwashing liquid and baking Duncan Hines brownies, two of the too many commercials back then.

So far the snow is staying up in the mountains and it better stay that way. I do have boots and a ski jacket in my closet back home but I sure don’t want to have to use them. I’m traveling back in the warmest thing I have – a light hoodie. I will wear tennis shoes instead of sandals.

I’m listening to Blue Rodeo and am going to switch back to working on my book.

Have a great Wednesday, a great week and I’ll see you back here next Wednesday.

Scams

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Scams

I always hear people complain about scams. Usually it’s on their cellphones. I solve that problem by never answering a call from someone who isn’t in my contacts. If it is a legitimate caller and they’re not in my contacts, they’ll leave a voicemail.

I get bombarded with other scams by email. I’ve published two books and I’m always getting emails from supposed publishers who want to promote my books and promise higher royalties. I get at least one of these a week. Occasionally I glance at them out of curiosity. Their command of the English language is seriously lacking. And the names of the representatives are quite comical. Somehow a name like Jose Shakespeare or Mahalia Dickens don’t exactly inspire much trust. Neither does Bill Jones or Jack Smith. And the same representative will contact me claiming to be affiliated with two or three different publishers.

And then there are the testimonies published on their websites by authors they claim to represent. Unknown authors, books that have never been published. It’s easy to create a website these days. No. It’s necessary to do your homework when choosing a publisher.

I used the same publisher for my first two books. The jury is still out on whether or not I will use them for my third book. The genre is different and I’m exploring other options for this book. In the meantime, I’m enjoying writing fiction. No need for the disclaimers used in the first two books. No need to change names of people and places. Fiction is fun!

In other news, I’m in one of the rare states in Mexico that isn’t red. The USA seems to get their warnings out a lot sooner than Canada these days. I guess Trudeau isn’t as concerned about the safety of the citizens of his country.

Happy Humpday!

The Theme Tonight Is

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The Theme Tonight Is

I’ve been working on the third part of my book. And I’m struggling with how to get to the ending. I’ve tried four or five different sequences of events and I’m not satisfied with any of them. I get these crazy ideas in the middle of the night and it’s wreaking havoc with my sleep pattern. I seem to do my best writing in the wee hours of the night.

I’ve been checking out the time changes. Here in Aguascalientes we are not springing ahead. But they are in Washington. Not sure what’s going on up in Canada. I’ll have to check because one of the Zoom groups I’m on is in Canada. Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world was on the same time zone?

I was talking to one of my friends in Leavenworth last night. She’s moving to Wenatchee at the end of the month. We teach SAIL classes together and it will be nice to have her close by. I don’t really know many people in Wenatchee yet. Most of my friends are in Leavenworth, Dryden and Cashmere.

The weather has become incredibly hot here. Ninety degrees. The sun feels a lot stronger here too. Yesterday I met friends at a restaurant three blocks away from where I live. While I was able to walk mainly in the shade it was still hot, hot, hot! Then I see the photos of all the snow in California. I hope it’s gone by the time I get to Washington.

I need to get back to my writing. I just got another brilliant? idea. I’m listening to Eric Burdon and The Animals from back in the 60s. I wonder if that’s what inspired me.

By the way, I don’t live anywhere near Matamoros, although I have been there. It’s not one of my favorite border towns and what happened there this week doesn’t surprise me.

Happy Humpday!

I’m Just A Little On Edge

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I’m Just A Little On Edge

A month from today I’ll be back in East Wenatchee. I’ve warned everyone that they snow better be gone. I don’t expect it to be 85 like it is here, but I don’t want to see any of that white stuff either.

Charlotte arrived in Calgary the other day to -37 and her car buried under snow. Sharon arrived in Portland after a detour to Seattle because there was too much snow in Portland and the runways were a mess. In the news all I read about is the cold and snow up north and as ready as I am to head home, I don’t want to experience another winter up there.

Yesterday was Koal’s birthday. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone for over fourteen years. I would love to have a dog again but it’s bad enough that I deal with three different Immigrations every year and I can’t fathom doing it with an animal. Of course I do have seven chihuahuas waiting for me in Washington lol.

Today is Madeline’s fifth birthday. It seems like yesterday that I flew to Ontario when she was born. As I recall an ice storm greeted me there. Happy Birthday Madeline! Grandma loves you and we’ll party when I come to visit you in Kelowna this summer.

I’ve been on Zoom a lot this week. The Writer’s Workshop was most informative. The bible study I do with Church of the Rock focused on forgiveness this week, very thought provoking.

Of course in person is still better. I’m looking forward to the next SAIL training in April in Wenatchee. I really miss teaching those classes when I’m here in Mexico for the winter. It’s much more enjoyable to be with other people.

I’ve been listening to a lot of country music while I’ve been writing this week, mainly from the 60s and 70s. I alternate between Spotify, You Tube and of course Alexa. That genre seems to go well with the stage of my main character’s life right now. Of course it also inspired me to revamp the chapter I’m working on.

Have A Great Sunday!

Looking Back

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Looking Back

I was looking over some older blog posts. I used to share tons of photos which I don’t do anymore. That’s because I used to take tons of photos which I also don’t do anymore. Photos require time, time that I’d rather spend with people or writing. And writing has been my focus this winter. I don’t have the patience to sort through photos, edit them and store them in files. I really admire my friend Ann who has literally gone through thousands of photos and is organizing them all in files. They’re family photos that span a period of decades. My family photos are haphazardly stored in cyberspace as they haven’t really made it out of the ancient photo albums in any type of order at all. But the albums are safely stored in waterproof bins in my son’s basement. I wonder if he even looks at them or if they just come out of hiding when I’m in Winnipeg which has only been a handful of times over the last almost thirteen years.

Yes. This fall it will be thirteen years since I first arrived in Culiacan. I know. The news reports tend to focus on all the violence in that city, but Culiacan will always have a special place in my heart. I have wonderful memories of the year I lived there and I always look forward to going back to visit my family there. When I arrive at the bus station I still have a feeling of coming home although I moved away from there twelve years ago.

Coming home. When I visit Winnipeg it no longer feels like home. I’ve been away too long and the city has changed. Of course I’ve changed too. I feel like I have two homes. One is where I am right now in Aguascalientes. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood now for four years. Not much has changed despite Covid. I no longer do a marathon of museums and art galleries as I did the first couple of years. My Spanish has improved and I now am more comfortable talking with neighbors or people who work in the tiendas and restaurants here. I don’t feel like a tourist anymore.

My second home is Washington state. I lived predominantly in Leavenworth the first few years. But last spring I moved to my forever home in East Wenatchee with Christina, Danny and seven chihuahuas. I was talking to Christina last night and she’s excited that I’m coming back in a month. I think she missed me. Okay, I missed her too. It’s been a great winter but it’s time to return to family.

Of course it would be nice if the snow would be gone. But that’s out of my hands. On Monday it even snowed in Tucson. It’s been a crazy winter for weather everywhere except here. I found it quite warm in Mexico this year. Last winter I needed an extra blanket and was glad I’d brought my lined quilted vest with me. But this year I haven’t even needed a light jacket. It did snow up in Durango about a month ago, but that’s miles away from where I am.

Time for my writer’s workshop on Zoom. Fingers crossed that the Internet cooperates today.

Happy Humpday!