It feels good to actually be writing again. It’s been ages since I sat down to be creative, to draw the images out of my tumultous noggin and get them on paper. Most people I know like to type nowadays. Me? I prefer the nice, lined composition books…you know the ones that are about 7″x10″ and you used in high school? Those and a crisp black pen. There is something imminently satisfing about filling sheet after sheet with scrawling words dancing across the page. I’ve rediscovered how dynamic my writing can be, just in how it looks…more fluid with prose, striking and harsh with action.

I finished part three of a story I’ve been working on, but I have yet to type it up. I just posted the second part to the Cape community and I’m hoping for some good feedback. We’ll have to see. If it goes well, I might try my hand at NaNoWriMo again this year. The goal with that is to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and 30. At this point, my November is free of work related travel, so it’s a possibility.

Anyhow, even if I don’t participate, I’m having fun putting pen to paper again.

I’ve been very lucky in that no one in my immediate family has had breast cancer. Several of my extended family members have had various skin cancers, but that’s mostly related to too much sun exposure. It happens when you are a farming family. I have however had many friends that have battled breast cancer and they are the reason that I’ve made this commitment. I have watched my dear friends deal with the fear and the side effects of their treatments with amazing grace and dignity and determination. Some have battled and won. Some have been called away, far before those of us left here were ready to let them go. In honor of these fantastic women who have blessed my life, I will walk.

My current fundraising goal for the 3-Day Walk is $2,200. If you are able to, please sponsor me. I’d love to pass my goal far in advance!

Pax,
Karen

When one of my friends on The Cape Radio hosted the Poetry Slam last week, it only seemed fitting to record it and send it in as my offering.

(Siderant… the general media enjoys portraying gamers as uncouth, slovenly idiots not fit for public appearance. In my three years of playing City of Heroes / City of Villains, I have found quite the contrary. The folks I play with are incredibly educated, successful, well read, well traveled, artsy people who often simply feel isolated from the lack of reasonably equal companionship locally. The amount of real-life related information that is shared in private conversations in game is massive. We support each other’s business endeavors in impromptu brainstorming sessions and resource referrals. We let others know of job opportunities in their areas of expertise. We comfort each other’s sorrows and rejoice in each other’s joys. We are not pasty, sun-deprived, pimply 14 year old boys living on Doritos and Mountain Dew, tyvm. )

As I noted below, I was really worried about how well it would be received and I was ecstatic at the response. Take a listen for yourself and tell me what you think: 

Excerpt from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer

Thirty-two blissful, chestnut colored disks of crispy mint perfection.

Can you eat just one? I can’t. But I can eat the whole stupid box. Evil I tell you. Evil!

Unfortunately, this irrational fear is personally crippling and I’ve made a committment to myself to move past it as quickly as possible. To that end, I’ve been participating in a few interactive events on my favorite player run radio station in City of Heroes, The Cape Radio. I submitted a poem for the Poetry slam that was on Monday evening and tonight was the City of Karaoke 3 and I submitted a song for that as well. It was stressful waiting to hear what people thought about my pieces, but I was really pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully soon, I’ll have the courage to start posting video regularly.

We ended up with ten bowlers from the kids in her class and a whole bunch of family. I made the cake of course and we had a vanilla cake bowling bag and a chocolate cake bowling ball, both covered in colored fondant. The kids also had pizza and soda and I think a great time was had by all.

My Grandpa Bill passed away in December of 2006, and every time we’ve been there since, I’ve had kids in tow and there have been a myriad of other things I had to focus on. This time, we actually got to VISIT. Grandma took us all over town, showing us off to her friends and was infinitely proud that her granddaughter was fixing her computer. We went to several luncheons and potlucks and out to coffee with her friends everymorning. I made two lemon merengue pies (they were always my Grandpa’s favorite) and even made her some Easter eggs since I knew we would be headed home the day before. It was awesome talking with my Grandma about all sorts of stuff that I never knew, simply because there wasn’t time before and we were always interupted. I also spent a fair amount of time scanning family photographs although I didn’t make much of a dent since Grandma is a photographer and former newspaper editor and there are boxes of photos in every nook and cranny.

Mom and I stayed up late every night just talking about life, family, work, her teaching, affiliate programming, my new business, just about everything under the sun. It was really a great trip and I can’t wait to do it again!!

 Read the full article at MSN