Well hello friends!
So, first things first:
How did I not know about this blog feature?! I live and breathe all things coffee. I stumbled upon Jamie’s blog post on The Perpetual Page-Turner and her version of If We Were Having Coffee. BTW Jamie, nice About Me page upgrade, hadn’t seen it! 🙂
I thought this was such a cute idea and though it promotes me getting a little vulnerable here–after all, as a fellow introvert in this world, getting a bit vulnerable and chatting about your life’s current events, is healthy, right? Now, though many would think,
Uh, don’t you have friends to do that with?
Yes! I have friends! Sheesh. What are you insinuating here?
As a person who likes to write (because I haven’t felt the guts to go on and call myself a “Writer”…IF I ever get published, maybe then, MAYBE, I’ll say such a thing) I have had a tendency of writing my emotions rather than verbalizing them. This has always been me, since I was a little tot. I’m horrible at verbalizing anything in my brain...anything! It gets frustrating, attempting to bring someone into my brain, verbally, expressing to them my momentary feelings and then failing at it. I then, proceed with what has become a bad habit throughout my lifetime…I just tend to not express any of my feelings. Surface ones, sure! Deep, important one? Nope. I lock them up in my mind, after they’ve shimmied on up from my chest, and push them far, far back into a storage bin, in the garage of my brain.
So! All that gibberish to say, I thought this was a cute way to put a person behind these blog posts. Normally, I’m pretty transparent, letting you all see my “specialness”, quirks and all but hey, let’s talk about our day, our week, our year so far.
Thanks Jamie for the idea!
So, here goes…
If We Were Having Coffee…
Let’s set the scene:
What are you drinking?
Today, BuckStars got my White Mocha right, which sadly, is not every day. All is well in the world as I sip my coffee goodness. But we are not at this popular coffee joint. Oh no, friends!
We are at the above joint. (ref. picture) I love this place but it’s a little bit of a drive and you have to pay for parking, so I don’t always make my way there. They have the best coffee in my part of town-bar none! The atmosphere reminds me of the authentic coffee houses in the North. I live in a large, overpopulated city where everything is commercialized, modern, fast. Good, homey, or cozy looks and feel of an establishment is lost to the people in my city. Hey, we all have different tastes and that’s cool. People who live here, love and gravitate towards the look and lifestyle of this place. I, on the other hand, live in the wrong state. Everything about my personality screams the opposite to where I live. *chuckles* I’ve been protesting, and kicking like a child having a tantrum that I need to move. One day…one day.
My point! This is the first place they have built here that resembles the coziness of places I visited when I lived on my own in KC for three years.
If we were having coffee…
I’d pull out the book in my purse and share what I’ve been reading, then ask you what you’ve been reading. If you haven’t been reading or just don’t, I’d assess you in my mind and see what to gush over and recommend. In my head, I’d be plotting to win you over towards a YA (young adult) book. *wiggles eyebrows*
This weekend, I was having an off couple of days–health wise. I have a few health issues we’ve recently discovered and are taking care of it–hence I needed to move back home a few years back and take care of stuff, also figure out my next move. Recently, I’m dealing with, just to name one, a heavy case of anemia, and my body likes to shut down on me WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! I then had the worst migraine (I hate those with a passion) and was out, gone from the world for two days. When my brain isn’t assaulting my eyeballs with pain, I turn to my trusty books for entertainment. When my brain cant, I turn to T.V.
I finally received, the long anticipated “Anna and the French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins.
Now, I’ve heard countless things about this for some time now. I was apprehensive due to the title that sounded a bit cheesy, so I waited, leaving it up in the air–whether or not I’d grab this one. After an ‘anything but contemporary’ binge read, I was in a funk with my TBR. I read everything I had that I was eager to read. Luckily, Jen @cupcakegirly (book blogger and awesome cupcake lady. I must taste one, one day!), she recommended a book, “Making Faces” by Amy Harmon.
And here is where I’d proceed to pull out my phone and show you the cover.
Oh, be still my heart…AMBROSE! I had no idea what this book would be about. The cover can be very misleading too! I cozy-ed up to it and read the whole thing…in one. sitting. I laughed, swooned and cried. It was such a beautiful story. One of the best I have read–truly! It wasn’t a steamy read, which you might conclude from looking at it. It was a solid, full of heart and soul story. A beautiful illustration of acts of true love. Go, read it! Trust me! GO! 🙂
That kicked off my contemporary reading. I then read “The Promise of Amazing” by Robin Constantine (Book Talk here), then “The Distance Between Us” by Kasie West and recently, I finished this weekend “Anna and the French Kiss”. Omygoodness, I absolutely loved this book. It was such a cute, funny, and just lovely story with a cute Brit (a little short for my taste but I still swooned over Etienne St. Clair) and set in Paris! Really cute story that I will be re-reading in the very near future. Don’t let the title sway you otherwise, pick it up!
Then I’d remember the book I took out of my purse, which in fact, is none of these I’ve mentioned–go figure. I’m a girl and tend to bunny-trail.
I’ve also heard much about the Lunar Chronicles series and finally picked up the first two books at Target over the weekend. Those few times I peeled out of bed, trying to motivate myself to rejoin civilization, then would get home and collapse again.
So I started Cinder (book one by Melissa Meyers) last night. Have you read it? Re-telling of Cinderella and it has cyborgs and it begins set in New Beijing. Huh. Very interesting.
After gushing about books for probably an hour, hoping you’re not about to toss your coffee at me, I’d move on…
If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you how exciting I am–especially since a common question you’d probably ask me is:
“So what have you been up to?”
I’m back to writing my book! The last four months was complete radio silence from the creative chamber in my brain. I was working on the synopsis for the story as a whole, which turns out will be two books. I’ve been a bit anxious about this–the not moving forward, waiting for the synopsis part–because I’ve had the “Failure” monster on my shoulder, discouraging me. The last year has sucked, if any of you read my saying “Good Riddance to 2013” blog after New Years, you’d know. Writing this book has been the one project I’ve been dedicated to, determined to finish because I want to! In the past–and my bestie, Heather can relate to this–we always have ideas! We get these brilliant creative sparks and for a few weeks, a couple months maybe, we are REALLY focused and dedicated…then…we allow it to fizzle out and never finish what we started. My writing journey has encouraged her to pursue her own writing as well. We’re both encouraging one another and keeping the other accountable to not let this one fizzle out. Usually, it’s when it gets hard, or the odds seem stacked against us, we tap out.
I’ve made this a career goal. Other things in my life ceased and I needed to find what was next. I pursued a few things but they just weren’t panning out and I’ve had to accept, they’re not meant to, not at this time at least. Now, writing is something I’m passionate about but know it can’t be my only pursuit–financially. I need to think of financial means, long term. That’s where I’m a little frustrated, trying to find out what that will be. I had a career path for seven years and early last year, it wasn’t the right fit for me anymore, which was really hard to accept, but couldn’t deny.
So, my synopsis ideas came and I finally started drafting! YAY! Now, I’m working on just getting the story told through the first draft, avoiding being overly critical of myself. That’s the beauty of the revision process.
If we were having coffee…
I’d ask if you had any genius ideas for how to swallow so many freaking horse pills, daily?!?!
Those are my morning doses and then I have a separate evening pack. I’m okay, it’s nothing fatal. I have a few issues but am still very lucky. They’re able to be remedied. Others are suffering much more severe issues and illnesses. I need to remember, that yes, my issues are rough and suck, but others have it way worse and I’m truly lucky, blessed, to have my families support and will get through this. My doctor is hopeful that in the next year, I’ll feel like a brand new person. We’re attacking everything hard, hence my body gets tired some days and just shuts down.
“Too. Much…need…refuel”. That was my bodies response. ha. ha.
Anyway, I’m not horrible when it comes to swallowing pills, but dayum…this is a lot and with all the water to chug them down, I get full and nauseous before getting through half of them.
My mother tells me to have pieces of banana after swallowing a few. Any other ideas, folks?
If we were having coffee…
I’d finally shut up (not wanting to continue spewing about my negative on-goings) and let you update me and then probably not share anything else on my end because it’s what I tend to do. I become the good listener, who pulls up a couch and counsels other through stuff. I’ve always been dubbed, “Mother Hen”, which I used to hate but have embraced it in recent years. It’s always easier giving words of wisdom and advice than it is to take it. Huh.
So that’s all for today on this borrowed Blog Feature!
Hope next time I have more exciting things to report! Please feel free to write your own in the comments below or on your own blog. Leave a link to it in the commetns below, I’d love to read it!
*clink coffee mugs*
Cheers!
No…I’m not British.
Though, if you find one out there who looks like this: Edmond from How I Live Now…age appropriate, of course…
Send him my way! 😉
Okay, for shame. That was horrible, Des…just…walk away now. Walk. Away…Wait
*walks back. forgot coffee cup on table. grabs it…then proceeds to walk away*
Bye!
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