What's missing?

I missed a few days on the blogging. So NaBloPoMo is basically done for me. I could have posted something quick and pointless but didn't want to. I didn't want to force myself to write something just for the sake of writing something. Yes, sometimes you have to push through and just write. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. I do it with fiction all the time. But the stuff that sucks, I put aside and work on it another day. Sometimes I make it into something that's not too bad. Other times it gets worse. I just can't do that with blog posts. Well I could but putting them aside for later wouldn't get them posted that very day, so I would still be missing a post right now. So instead I didn't post at all because I didn't want to post the same thing over and over or something pointless just for the sake of posting.
Sure I had a few topics listed that I could have wrote about but once again I didn't want to write them in haste just to make sure I posted for the day. They deserve better than that and so do the few of the people who actually read these posts.
Instead I used the little time that I had to work on my fiction. And that went okay. I'm still behind on NaNoWriMo but even if I don't write another word on that story this month, I still have over 10,000 words of a new story, which I know is way more than I would have had I not joined NaNoWriMo.
The month's not over yet and I haven't given up on my writing goals. I'm just reassessing them and being more realistic about what I have time for given the fact that I have a job, errands, chores and most importantly, people that I have to make time for. If that means not putting up a lame post every now and again, that's okay. Just as long as it doesn't become a habit...again.

The Bestest Friend Ever!

Jenni is the bestest friend ever because she gave me this new awesome computer that I'm now using. It's much faster and has many more great attributes than the last one I had. The best part is that Jenni gave it to me out of love, not because she wanted free Internet.

And since I'm using terms like "bestest friend ever", let me tell you what I did last night. I went to see Twilight. I know, why, when I didn't really care for the book? I had some weird hope that the screenplay would add more action and cut out a lot of inner-dialogue, which is usually what movies do to ruin stories that I loved in book format. This movie left in all that whiny, selfish inner-dialogue and had about five minutes of decent action. No good. I wanted to leave in the first fifteen minutes. Slow moving and completely unsuspenseful. Of course, the giggling and applauding teen girls in the crowd apparently thought differently.
I dragged Slipstream with me and he says it doesn't matter if he "looks" 17, he's still over a hundred and dating a 16 year old. And that's just not right.

Books are my new blogs

I want you all to know that I feel very lonely not having regular Internet access. I miss my daily blog readings. If your blog is in my sidebar I most likely checked it daily, if not twice daily because I have no life. Now I only get to check them once a week.

I'm trying to get over my loneliness and utilize my time without the Internet. I'm happy to report that I'm up to 32 novels this year, which has me well on my way to this being the year I finally read 50 novels.

I finished Iron Kissed from the Mercedes Thompson series, the werewolf books, by Patricia Briggs. I was seriously surprised by the end of the last book. Usually nothing bad ever happens to the main characters. Something almost always prevents it just in time. This book did not end up like that. I was amazed the writer had the nerve to do that. And from what I read she's writing another book in the series. I'm curious to see how that turns out.

Today, my co-worker and future roommate lent me the last book of the Twilight series. I find the main character to be selfish and whiny, and I can't understand why two immortal and supernatural beings are fighting over her. Yet, I can't seem to go without ever knowing how it ends. My co-worker dropped me some hints about why I'll like the main character, Bella, even less.
After that I'm not sure what I'm going to read.

The Weekend

I have the weekend off from work. So today is my last chance to post without going a whole week without posting. Unless of course I made it to the library this weekend, which could happen.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything deep and meaningful to write. Just a few updates.

Writing group went well on Monday. Sadly, we're starting to fade out again. August is filled with vacations and weddings. Before you know it, school will be back in again. We're going to try to have a few more meetings in August and make an attempt at meet once a month during the school year. Hopefully, we can hold it together.

My summer reading list is getting longer. I started reading the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz, as well as continuing with my werewolf series by Patricia Briggs. I'm not sure what the series is called but I just read the second book, which was Blood Bound.

And I've given into peer pressure. Thanks to my co-worker, I'm now on the third book with of the Twilight series. Those young adult romance novels about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. Apparently, they're huge. There's a movie coming out in December and the fourth book comes out next week and they're having midnight book parties for it. I have some thoughts about these books but I'll share later when I'm done.


Also, I miss my Internet friends. I hardly ever get a chance to e-mail Jenni anymore. I haven't had a IM chat with DBEcho in forever. I've tried my best to keep up with every one's blogs. Hang in there with me. I'm trying to fix this.

And I've added another link to the sidebar. Chad is another writer who stumbled into this blog. I've checked out his blog and I think the links worth sharing.

I don't want to share

Sometimes I have these weird moments when I tell somebody I'm a writer and they tell me they would love to read something that I wrote. Most of the time I don't stress it because I might never see them again or at least not often enough to have it be a huge deal that I keep "forgetting" to bring my work.
There are other times when people I see everyday, finally ask to see some of my stories. That's when I seriously panic. There's no way of getting out of it other than to say "no," which of course they'll take personal offense to when really it's not them, it's me. Seriously.
I'm paranoid that they are going to think my work is a joke and I can't just not ever see them again, like when I send my writing to editors. I never have to see them. No problem. But if it's someone I have to see because I work with them or just like their company, then that's stressful to me. If my story is not good enough to be published then I can't convince myself that it's good enough to let others read.
What if these people I see everyday, think my story is ridiculous? They would never tell me that to my face, so I would spend every minute thinking that they think I'm a bad writer.
Anyway, this all started when my boss decided he was going to write a novel and decided to chat with me about writing. Now he wants to read my work. How can I get out of that? I can only put it off for so long.
Then the other night, Slipstream decided he wanted to read what I've written. And to me that is even worse. He's very accomplished in his creative work. Lots of people pay him money to share his creative genius. It's hard standards to live up to.
Sure, I give my work to my writing group but they're putting themselves out there as much as I am so I feel like it evens out. Of course, I can always share work that the writing group has already read. I know that it can't be too incredibly terrible if my writing group had positive things to say, right?

'Hey, did you know your work was in a magazine?'

I was hanging out with my RC Car painting friend today. I feel I've mentioned him enough that he needs a better blogname so from here on I'll call him Slipstream, since that's the name of his airbrushing business. The term has something to do with RC cars but I don't really remember what.
So I'm hanging out with him today and he hands me a national RC magazine and turns it to a full page photo of a car. I stare at it trying to figure out what the heck I'm suppose to be looking at. Perhaps some sweet paint job that he wants to attempt or something he thinks looks like crap and can't believe it got into a magazine. I'm not an artist so sometimes I don't exactly notice the little technical things that really make a difference, one way or the other.
Then I realize 'hey, that's your logo!' How totally awesome for him that he got a full page picture of his work in a national magazine! The issue was from April and he didn't even know the picture was in there until one of his customers mentioned it to him. He didn't send it in for consideration, someone just took a picture of a car he painted for a pro RC racer and it was a sweet enough paint job to end up in a magazine. Needless to say, I'm super happy for Slipstream and he was pretty excited. Now I'm trying to find a back issue of it because I totally want one.

It got me thinking how cool it would be to have someone just walk up and say 'oh I read your story,' and have it be a total surprise. Of course, that doesn't exactly happen in writing because it has to be submitted, it's not something that just gets stumbled upon. Although, it always seems that way in the movies doesn't it. The incredibly talented person, who thinks they're not talented at all, somehow or another finds out they really are talented when their work happens to fall into the right hands. They make it look so easy.

Anyway, I just wanted to write about how awesome it is for Slipstream to have such a cool thing happen, because he's super talented and really deserved it.

Nobody...is ever gonna bring me down

Okay, I'm done complaining. I had a great weekend that I got to spend with the most important people in my life. They all exceeded expectations in making my days. I am no longer giving up on all of humanity.

I spent too much time enjoying my companions and time off to get anything written this weekend, but I'm okay with that.

Now I figure I better mention my thoughts on Wicked before I forget what it was about.
I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan. In fact, when I was little, my grandma, Dorothy, told me the movie was about her. I cried for days feeling so bad that she had gotten carried away by flying monkey's. I really thought it was about her and that's probably why I love it so.
Anyway, Wicked, obviously, didn't have the light-heartedness and childhood optimism the Wizard of Oz movie had. I've never read that book so I can't say how Wicked compares on that level.
Overall, I thought the book was good. It was an interesting take on the story of the wicked witch, who wasn't really wicked at all. It just depended on who's point-of-view you were looking from. And according to this book even Dorothy didn't think she was wicked, no one really did.
I questioned some of the freaky sexual behavior that was thrown in. It didn't really seem to be relevant to the story most times.
I have to say I liked the first part of the book, way better. The characters' growing up and at school were the best parts. After that it seemed a lonesome road that spanned way too many years with not much going on.

I hear the musical is quite different and it seems it would have to be. I think a few friends and myself are going to attempt to see it when it's here in August.

Now I continue with my Lord of the Rings trilogy. And I have another book lined up to go after that.

We have a winner...sort of.

Okay it looks like the results are in and according to Jenni and D.B.Echo it can go either way pairs or pair. So I wasn't wrong and my boss wasn't right, which makes me happy. Not to mention that Missy, Jenni, myself, two fellow employees and a customer all thought that pairs sounded better so in theory I'm more right. Yay me!
Thanks to everyone for their research and opinions!

Today's not as bad as it seems

I must admit, there are a lot of things that happened today that would put me in the not best of moods, but for some reason I'm doing okay. I have a few ideas as to why I'm not so upset. Maybe I'm learning not to sweat the little things, maybe I'm just becoming to use to things going badly, maybe there are actually good things in my life out weighing the bad. Maybe it's a little of all of the above.
All I know is that I had intended to complain about all the reasons I'm annoyed with my boss, fellow employees, the United States Postal Service and the state of Michigan, but after a few minutes of annoyance I've calmed down.
Now my plan is to take it easy. I'm getting into bed with a notebook and a novel. First, I'll write in the notebook and then I'll read the novel until I'm sleepy.
I'd say I'll hope for a better day tomorrow but today was actually pretty good, despite all the bad things. I think that's a win for me, right?

A little something upbeat

I'm sorry to burden everyone with sad post. It's not good so here's a post about a little something that is good. Literally, there's good in the name. I'm talking about GoodReads.com.
I joined back in October, but I wasn't on it much at first. My co-worker, R the artist, invited me but hasn't been on it since to approve our friendship. So I felt lonely but then I found someone I knew and then someone I knew found me then I started sending out invites.

I think it's a really cool site for serious readers. Anyone can discuss books, review books and rate the books they've read as well as list books they're reading or that they want to read. There have been dozens of times on here I've been trying to figure out what to read or looking for a particular book and I feel like this site is perfect for just those occasions.
Lots of times I find that I want to read a really good book but how to know which one? The only books I ever hear much about are classics and popular, mainstream books. So hopefully GoodReads will be full of suggestions about lesser known books that are great reads.
Who knows maybe one day I'll have my own book on there. Ian at En-Blog has his short story anthology Chopper listed on GoodReads.

Of course, I sent Jenni an invite and she's hooked. I also sent D.B.Echo an invite but he has yet to list any books!
I've added a widget (what an adorable name!) to my sidebar. A few of my highest rated books are listed and clicking on GoodReads goes to my profile where the above mentioned friends can be found.
Now I'm off to read. It gets my mind off of things and I'm also eager to list another book on GoodReads!

Just When I Was About To Get Really Irritated

Saturday I was at work with ten minutes to go until I could lock up and head home to my weekend. And of course if anyone works in retail or a restaurant, if the closer has some place to be, those ten minutes will include a customer walking in and keeping everyone past closing time.
That's exactly what happened and of course it put me in a not-so-hot mood. I tried my best to keep up my pleasant attitude but it just annoys me when people don't bother to think that maybe, just maybe, I have a life outside of your job.
And I must confess, at this point of the day I was already testy due to the more than usual amount of rude customers who were more rude than usual. On top of that there's a super difficult employee, more difficult to deal with than the employee who's bad behavior inspired Behind the Naugahyde. Not to mention that the store is just doing badly and it's super slow all day. Under these circumstances time does not go by fast and that makes it even more frustrating when the store's been empty all day until it's time to finally go home.
Wow. I'm really ranting and getting off subject here. Sorry about that.
Anyway, this woman seemed nice enough and I'm pretty certain she didn't realize that we closed when we did. A few other stores in the plaza stay open later and most people assume everyone is open that late. So I tried my best to be less annoyed since it didn't seem she knew any better. Besides maybe she would be a quick customer.
I made chit-chat while we looked for her semi-dressy walking shoes.
"Special event coming up?"
"I'm going to New York"
"Oh, that's exciting, I've never been but would love to go. Business or vacation?"
"I'm going to a Writer and Illustrators conference."
All of my annoyance flies out the door.
We chatted about writing, her name is Ruth McNally Barshaw, and she is the author of hte children's book Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel. Her latest book comes out in July and it's Ellie McDoodle:New Kid in School.
She drew the coolest little sketch of Elli McDoodle. (When I got home I checked out her website RuthExpress, where I learned loads about Ruth and Ellie.) And when I told her I would look in to buying her book she offered to come back to the store and sign it if I ever did.
I didn't want to keep her too long for my own selfish reasons when minutes earlier I had been hoping she would walk out. The conversation we did have was valuable, mostly her saying that writing is a hard business to get into. Her publisher told her that she wished she could tell everyone with a great story that someone would publish them but the business was too competitive for that.
What I enjoyed most about Ms. McNally Barshaw was that she talked about Ellie like she was a real person. As she described the plot of each book she made it sound like Ellie was a little girl she knew that vacationing with annoying family and dealing with mean people at a new school.
Overall, I was just super excited to find a nationally published author lives in my hometown and I sold her the shoes that she is currently walking around NYC in. If I can't be in her shoes at least I sold them to her, right?

Behind the Bell Swag-the coolest present ever!

Christmas was fantastic. I threw a Christmas Eve party with family and friends. A few people didn't make it but it was still a blast. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.
Christmas day was spent with just my immediate family and that went alright. Visit my livejournal to find out about my awfullest gift.

I must say that all irritation from awful gifts was completely erased by Jenni, out doing herself, again, this year.
I got a Mannheim Steamroller CD along with a picture of a shopping cart. This is a tribute to a former co-worker who tried to give me a stolen, regifted shopping cart in thanks for some Mannheim Steamroller tickets that I won off the radio on the first try after he had been trying all weekend.
She also got me an awesome "friend" frame with a picture of us at her wedding. In which she looks amazing and I look goofy, but I'm keeping it up so people can be in awe of how beautiful Jenni is and they can point and laugh at me.
There were lots of cool pictures, notes and cards that filled the package and some very generous gifts but I have to say the coolest thing was the time and effort that it took her to make a movie about the store that I still work at and Jenni has moved on from. It was nearly a half-hour of cool music, pictures, captions and the most creative thing ever. It's beyond fantastic. I wish I could share it with the world. It deserves an award! I can't imagine how much time it took her to make. And I know she has so little spare time between teaching, grading papers and all the other stuff that's piled on her to do list.
How am I lucky enough to have the absolute best of best friends in the world?

So Christmas is over and New Years is closing in. Work is madness and I'm still recovering from all the dishes and cooking from the last few days. I doubt much more will get done until 2008. I have plans though. I think I have a new writing project to start off the year.

*Since no one but Jenni will get the title. Bell Swag is this hideously ugly Christmas decoration trimming stuff that was painted to match the shoe store's pink carpet. And it is featured in the movie Jenni made.*

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I want to thank everyone for the cards and and holiday greetings.

I'm spending today and tomorrow with friends and family. Although, my best friend didn't make it but she sent me another awesome gift to say that she was thinking of me and of course I am thinking of her.

I hope everyone has great things to enjoy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Better brush up on my Spanish

I had a pleasant surprise. A friend of mine, that I haven't heard from in years because she moved to Mexico, just got an Internet connection. I know, why did I not call her all these years? Well I tried but she doesn't have a home phone. I could only contact her at work and guess what? She's the only one working there that speaks English. So needless to say aside from the long distance charges, there were other difficulties.

We were really close when she moved. She threw my high school graduation open house when my parents refused to. That's how awesome of a person she is. Well that's just one of many great things she did for people.

Anyway, I was extremely sad when we lost touch but luckily for me her sister and my sister work together and that's how I found out she now has e-mail. So I spent the good portion of yesterday writing an e-mail to catch her up on the last few years and of course overloading her with questions about her beautiful family and her new, well not so new anymore, home.

And I was happy to find this morning that she got the e-mail and returned it. She wasn't upset with me for not having called her because as she said, the phone works both ways. (I'm sure somebody else said it first but oh well.)

So other than me having a new pen pal, what does it all have to do with writing? Well the story that I wrote a few years ago, Papa's Little Angel, it's based on my friend and her family. Everything except the sci-fi parts of course. Her daughter could not teleport, to the best of my knowledge. So I have to thank her and her family for inspiring to write a story that got me second place in a writing contest.

And I just wanted an excuse to write about how excited I am to be in touch with her again.

World AIDS Day 2007

I just got back from the local World AIDS day observance. I think this year's was the best yet.
Robert's speech went well, he ended up cutting my opening joke because it was all in the delivery and he wasn't sure that he could deliver when nervous. And I don't blame him because I know I couldn't. He did end up adding in a few of his own bits on the spot but his presentation was moving. I was teary eyed and so were others.

Two of the other speakers were just amazing, Paula and Felix Sirls. I don't think they would mind me mentioning their names since they devote their lives to speaking up about AIDS. They're a married couple who are both HIV positive and they are involved in so many committees and programs that I couldn't even begin listing them all. Their speeches were wonderful. Not only did they speak but the sang and read poetry it was beautiful.
Felix is a writer who has works about being HIV positive and he's had three books of poetry published. I posted the link so that anyone who wants to can check out his work. And if you put their names into a search you can find quite a few different interviews and such by them.
They are amazing people and it was an honor to meet them. I hope our paths cross again.

Here is the speech that Robert gave, before and after some revisions. So it's not exactly the original speech but it's not exactly the speech he gave either.
And since it was about leadership, I just want to ask everyone to please take the time to educate yourself and others about HIV/AIDS, to get tested and encourage others to do so.
Thank you.

Speech! Speech? Speech :(

My friend Robert is volunteer who speaks about life with HIV and the importance of supporting organizations that provide HIV education and prevention.
When Robert had his first speech for a few years ago, he was nervous about what to say and I helped him write a speech about his life. Later he needed another speech about his life but he didn't want it to be the exact same speech since some of the same people would be there. And then he needed a speech about why he felt raising money for HIV/AIDS organizations was important, and another about why people should get tested. I wrote them all with his input about what he wanted the speech to say.
I won't even give details about the one time he ended up coming with something on his own at the last minute. He meant well.
Anyway, the point is that I write his speeches. It's my way of helping him share his story and helping others. The speeches are pretty basic and I never really mentioned having to write them because usually he only needs to give a brief statement so it's not a huge deal. It usually takes a half an hour to get everything worked out for him and it's only about three to four times a year if that.

Saturday is World AIDS Day and Robert is on the planning committee for our local organization. Today was their final meeting before the big day. They finalized plans and Robert will be speaking so he asked me to help him with another speech. A speech about being a leader in the community for the fight against HIV and AIDS. It has to be ten minutes long.
I have no idea what someone says to keep a crowd interested for ten minutes. I'm a little concerned. So Robert and I are going to have to work this out over the next few days.
Even though we've done these before I feel like this one has the most specific subject he's needed to cover, the hardest subject to come up with ideas for and it's the longest.
Before the speeches were just his story about how he got it or about how he lives with it. I really just sort of put it in order and added some snazzy vocabulary.
This time we're going to have to be creative and think about how people lead others in their community and what they can do to help with HIV/AIDS. I have no idea how someone steps up as a leader in a community. I've got nothing. I need to think this through. So that's my new writing project for the next few days. Wish me luck.

In the mean time stop by here to check out local events for World AIDS Day.

Things to be thankful for

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


I'm thankful that when things went crappy at work this week, one of my co-workers brought me balloons and another made me cookies.


I'm thankful that I have gotten an e-mail, three text messages and two phone calls wishing me a good holiday.

I'm thankful for everyone that reads my blog and that I have the ability to write it.

And so much more.

Thanks!

Seperation anxiety helps me feel better about not having any artistic ability

I could never be an artist. I've been talking to my two friends that are artists. One is R, who I mentioned going to her art show, she draws portraits. Then there is my other friend who airbrushes remote control car bodies. (I know it doesn't sound that complicated but he's amazing at it-see below).
Anyway, the reason that I could never do what they do, aside from the obvious lack of skill is that they can't keep it. Well they can but they want to eat so they sell their work. R just had her first art show so she's selling some of her first paintings and my airbrushing friend has probably painted and sold well over a hundred cars in the last few years.
I couldn't imagine putting all my time, effort, heart into a project and then just giving it to someone. With writing I do end up letting other people read it but I always keep the final copy. I keep all the rough drafts. I never have to give away anything.
Of course, I know R says she takes photos so she can make prints and people will keep her work for a long time. But I feel worse for my airbrushing friend. For one thing he takes tons of pictures but the detail on that small of a car can never be truly appreciated from a picture. Also he can't just make a copy. He can make another car and attempt to make it look exactly like another but he can't just take a picture of the original work, then print it. And he has to deal with the fact that after putting in all that time on a body, people will smash and bang them around and eventually they're destroyed. Never to be seen again.
I could not do it. So it's probably good that I have no artistic ability.

Because everyone loves pictures and so you can see what I'm talking about, when I refer to airbrushing remote control car bodies, are a few examples. It would take me forever to go through all the photos to find the best ones but here this should at least give people an idea.
And I post some of R's work but I don't have access to any. If I ever do I'll post it.

It's all very messed up

After posting last night, I settled into reading. The more I read of Haunted the more I realize it's characters are without a doubt the most f*#!ed up people I have ever read about in any fictional works. Of course, it makes for a very interesting story, sickening at times, but still interesting.

When I finish reading Haunted I plan on reading Giving by Bill Clinton. It was recommended to me and I thought it might be a nice change of pace after the gruesomeness I'm currently reading. Besides what better book to read for Thanksgiving? The book's name is right in the name of the holiday. It seems like good time to me.

Today I attempted to rake my lawn but rain and running out of yard waste bags cut into that before it was completely finished. And I got some running around done. That means I've gotten absolutely no reading or writing done until I started this entry.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I posted on my livejournal. It's a crazy customer rant that I could end up in Behind the Naugahyde one of these days.

And I still need to write a super long e-mail to Jenni because I've been slacking off on those lately and there's a lot to keep up on. Also I haven't chatted with D.B. Echo in a while and every time I try to read Tiffany's blog, I get kicked off-line. (Does anyone know what could be causing that?)
In short, I miss my friends especially since there is so much going on. I need my free therapy.

Kindness made my day

Okay this has very little, if not absolutely nothing, to do with writing but I'm posting it anyway. I was having a very bad day. I went to bed upset, and confrontations with different problems were making my day worse and worse. Then I went out to lunch with my grandma. And we were driving along about to turn left on a green arrow when a car coming from a perpendicular direction decided to turn left at the same time although he did not have a green arrow. I swerved and slammed on the brakes avoiding a van slamming into my grandmother. After completing my turn I carried on. Then all of a sudden a young girl comes running jumps over the sidewalk, over the little strip of grass and BAM! she jumps right in front of my car. I once again slam on the brakes, thank goodness I saw her in time, and missed yet another death. Of course both times people honked either at me because they didn't know I was narrowly missing killing people or at the people causing my dramatic driving reactions. So when I pull up to the next stoplight someone is honking again. And I'm thinking it's some ass that's mad at me about one of the previous incidents so my idea is to just not look. I already know what a middle finger looks like. Then my grandma says that it's a woman motioning for me to roll down the window.
I turn and roll down the window and this woman, probably about 60, says "I just wanted to say, you're a really good driver. You avoided two serious accidents that most people would not have even noticed until it was too late."
In shock, I said "thank you," and the light changed so we took off on our merry little ways
but I felt good. My day had gotten a hundred percent better because it is absolutely so rare when someone takes the time to go out of their way to tell you when you are actually doing something well, particularly when driving. I've gotten flipped off a million times and a lot of times I'm certain that I was in the right but whatever. And I try my best to not lose my temper with other drivers because mistakes happen and there's no point in getting angry. But it was so awesome of that woman to let me know that I had done something right for a change. Especially because she was older, I was younger and I feel like most older people think young drivers are careless.
I wish I had more of a chance to let her know that it meant a lot to me. But it was the last thing I was expecting and it happened so fast. Yet, it changed the whole dynamic of my day. So much so that I'm breaking policy and writing about it on my blog that I usually save exclusively for writing related topics. But I guess when you think about anytime I write, regardless of what it is about, it's about writing because I wrote it.
Anyway, I know the odds of the woman ever reading this are about a gazillion to one but to her I say 'thanks'. I sincerely hope that she didn't think I was just some young kid that rolled my eyes and made fun of her for being some weirdo lady. My reaction was the farthest thing from that. And since I have no other way to pass on how it affected me I'm writing it here. Hopefully, it will inspire others to do the same, which is why people write or at least why I do. To inspire others and to show them the other side of the story.
In the end it really kind of was about writing but I think just about everything in my life is.
Now I've got to go out of my way to tell someone something great about them because I'm truly inspired.

*Although it would have been awful, how much more of an entertaining story would this have been had I said that while I was so in shock of the woman's kindness, I took my foot of my brake and rear ended the person in front of me? Here's hoping I don't jinx myself.