Livin' La Vida Loca

Livin la Vida Loca....or, "Does this career make me look weird?" 

Living the crazy life. Yesterday, I read an article in Scientific America "The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric". It basically, scientifically, with all the mumbo jumbo they can cram into five online pages ( you need a subscription to read the rest), explains that creative types are naturally crazy.

I didn't think there was anyone questioning this.

The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People are Eccentric

"Highly creative people often seem weirder than the rest of us. Now researchers know why"

So, they gathered a bunch of creative people and tested them to see why they are weird. That's weird. Like herding cats I imagine. I'm sure they cooperated perfectly.

After all their science-stuff was imposed on the "creatives" this is the label they came up with...schizotypal personality, meaning they have the following;
magical thinking ( fanciful ideas or paranormal beliefs)
unusual perceptual experiences (distortions in perception) 
social anhedonia ( preference for solitary activities - preferring work over socializing)
mild paranoia (unfounded feelings that people or objects in the environment may pose a threat )
 .....not included but I think they skipped this.. personification (giving personality traits to random objects)

The researchers tempered this by saying that even with this personality disorder, they are often very high functioning, talented and intelligent.

(now they are just complimenting the cats.... think they were scared, er scawed)

None of this is new. But I suppose giving creative people a label puts the scientific minds at ease. "Ah, they have a schizotypal personality, that explains everything."


....if I sound snarky. I am. There are days, (like all of last week) that I considered taking a "real job." Granted I'm not good at much of anything "real"  But, that didn't stop me from imagining myself heading off for work, in work clothes, gathering a predictable paycheck on a regular basis, going out, coming in, being normal.  

Writing for a living is wonderful, I love it, and I hate it. I spend hours talking to myself, consult all the random thoughts in my brain, make up things and people and places. It's odd, it makes me odd. Or so I thought. Now science comes along and says, no. The work doesn't make you odd, you are just crazy. Thanks.

No, really, thanks science folks. That does help.  

Art disturbs, science reassures.  

~Georges Braque, Le Jour et la nuit  

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com


Creative types, stop what you are doing, sit back, relax and listen to this talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. Guaranteed to change the way you approach your work.

......then when it is over, GET BACK TO WORK.

Olay- Olay, Olay, Olay!

Coffee Love

How do you like your coffee?

 I had my first cup of coffee at my uncle's house in Michigan. 

I was 16. It was Folger's instant and it was perfect.

Putting anything but coffee, in coffee, seemed sacrilegious from day one. 

Nablopomo asks, "How do you like your coffee?"

Black, strong and constant, that's how I like my coffee. 

It's more than just drinking it though. It's the process of grinding the beans to help wake me up in the morning, then making sure my limbs all work while I pour the water....

When I am stuck on a word....I get up and pour a mug of coffee....

while trying to jump-start my brain, I often misplace said cup of coffee.

So while I go through several cups a day, I don't actually drink as much as I pour. 
(or, at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

coffee, Coffee, COFFEEEEE!!!!!

(cartoon by toothpaste for dinner)

Lemonade stand sweetness

My daughter held a lemonade stand today with her best friend. They planned their set-up for a good week...right down to matching outfits.

($3 sets from Walmart, $1 flip flops and $1 visors-two girls, two outfits, under $10, not bad)

Planning their outfits was not the end though, they also made fliers announcing the opening day of their Lemonade stand, made a collection of duct tape wallets and purses and slowly added to my grocery list, item by item...so I wouldn't "feel" the impact.  :)

After swim team, they set up the stand at the first intersection of our neighborhood/a.k.a. the school bus stop and there they sat for several hours. Serving customers, having fun that only best friends can understand.

To say the sale was a success would be an understatement. 

Due to all their preplanning, talking to neighbors and being overall very cute.....they pulled in $72 in profits.

Not kidding. SEVENTY TWO dollars.

(My older daughter wants to incorporate...build up teams of lemonade girls.....across town,

but I suspect they are all on to bigger and better things.) 

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The neighbors were all so sweet to these little entrepreneurs, tipping and coming back for seconds...even buying their homemade wallets and promising to come back next time. Love my neighborhood. :)

.....in response to the Nablopomo prompt of the day...."Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?"....it would be my little lemonade pusher, asking me to come help tear down the business...til next time.

Let's do lunch....if you're game

 Who would you love to go to lunch with?  (question of the day)
...lunch, hmmm.....

My recent schedule, up-run-work/write-swim team-work/write-football camp-work/marketing-swim meet-set up next days work-work/painting....leaves little time for "lunch." In fact, it leaves little time for much other than essentials, like laundry, feeding the chicklets, making sure the gardens aren't going to take over the house....

To the person who says to me, condescendingly, just block out your work hours and don't let anything disturb you...

I say,
                   nothing  ~chirp, chirp~

It's not worth it. 

I love my work, I love the flexibility and yes, I even love the busy chaos. This is WHY I do what I do, so that I CAN go to swim meets and watch my son play with the big boys at football camp. I am free to do this most days, (one day a week is full of teaching from morning to night) but the rest of the week is MINE.

So what if I write at 6am, 8am or 7pm,  paint at 2 pm....and sometimes 2 am....market throughout the day and scribble ideas all the day long. This is what I love. It's "work" because it pays the bills, but I'll let you in on a little secret....it's fun. :)

If I did take a lunch, it would not be a restaurant lunch.  I'd much rather walk and talk, or sit outside, see something new, amble through a new town, people watch...we could eat something along the way, grab a coffee or ice cream cone, whatever suits our fancy.

So the person I'd love to have lunch with would be someone willing to "have lunch" without "doing lunch"

  How about here?

lunch in Paris?

I don't even care if it raining..if we can walk down a street like this...

silly rabbit, tricks are for kids

Easy month of prompts...the question of the day is "Do you like to dive into things or take your time getting acclimated?"  

Which way to the high dive? 

Jump in, the water is....
.....um, actually I don't have a clue how the water is....
                                   but that won't stop me from trying something ridiculous.

Failure is inevitable

.....but that isn't the point. It's the process....

What do you want to do?

Do it!

It may turn out horrible...so what, do it again smarter....or better yet, do something new.

You'll end up with a lot of interesting stories at the end,

and surprise, surprise - you will most likely even find some success wrapped up in experiences, and tied with a pretty pink ribbon.

 

 

Droid=coolness

pics from last nights baseball game.....ha, it worked!  so excited.
Photos aren't set up the best- there is learning curve (for me) will get the hang of this. 

Pictures look pretty good even without any skill....

next, 

I'll see how pictures of sketches and art projects turn out, this could be revolutionary.
 

(I fully realize I am late to this party....

but, honestly, 

if you know me, you know that is completely my m.o.

Swimmingly

What's going swimmingly in your life right now?  asks nablopomo....swimmingly, what a great word. 

Definition of swimmingly 

successfully, effortlessly, well - 

with no problems or difficulties

What is going swimmingly, hmmm....well, I am crazy blessed to have awesome kids. So, that would mean parenting is going swimmingly.  Three teens and a "tween" ....it could be/maybe even should be, harder than this....but it's not. They get along-with me and each other, work hard, play hard and are generally very nice individuals.

  Swimmingly

I love my work and am very excited about future projects, so that's another element going swimmingly....after all that happened the past few years, it could have been very different....but

life didn't realize what a strong swimmer I am apparently.  

Sing along with me, 

"I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down"

 ....................................................................................................................................

yep, it could have been very different.....but I have to follow these rules...

Shoot, now chumbawamba is stuck in my head and I've said swimmingly enough to be tired of the word.... :)

Sad fishy

Doing a little combo post....stupid swollen neck/tonsillitis/enormous lymph node/crazy earache/deadlines/swim team duties/football camp...it all runs together. Three swim related questions to answer to catch up, (even though I couldn't put my head in the water all weekend... at the beach, on the boat, at the pool - denied.)
well, here are the questions, Are you scared of being in open water?  Nope, not at all....see sea turtle snorkeling incident mention in the previous post. I am very much fine and dandy in the water.


 What kind of fish are you most like?     hmmm,  a sad fish, duped by a fake worm that's what.

  (sorry, just a bit aggravated with my painfully stupid infection )

I'll try again, what kind of fish would I be, if I were a fish (for the record, this is a stupid question)  but, I'll play along, I am a pisces afterall. 
                                                    
                                                         how about this little pink cutie...

It's not really a fish though. Although it is called a Mexican Walking Fish, it's really a salamander type creature. Which really is appropriate. I like pink, I'm weird and hard to classify at times...and my hair often does odd things, especially when wet.  But today, this week.....until my neck goes back to normal size, this is the fish I am most like....a puffer fish :(

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Finally, to catch up with the prompts,

"Do you consider yourself a strong swimmer?"  

Yes.

                                     

Bye

                                                      I wonder if wallaby's can swim?

Strangest thing

NaBloPoMo asks, "What is the strangest thing you have ever seen in the water."

Didn't even have to think...by far the strangest thing I ever saw was a man with a harpoon.

Now, that isn't so strange, right?

Wrong.

Everything is relative. It was strange because of WHERE I was...in Maui, snorkeling, along with about twenty other tourists. This was not the open water, I was not encroaching on some secret fishing area, no, this was part of the "planned activity" for the group I was traveling with.

Happily snorkling along until I turn to see a harpoon. Until that moment, I probably couldn't be sure that I knew exactly what one looked like, but once I saw it...I knew.

Yep, that was a harpoon.



this is what he looked like, all protected and packing heat...

this is what I looked like, bikini clad and completely unaware of any creature large enough to justify a harpoon...



needless to say, my snorkeling adventure was cut short that day.

........I may sound all safe and aware, but actually, the next day in an attempt to see a giant sea turtle up close and personal, I went a bit too far....all's well obviously, but I gave my guides a bit of a headache that day.

I did meet a sea turtle though. I think he wanted to meet me too.

Race ya to the pool!

 

Where would you love to go swimming?

 Nablopomo theme for the month of July is SWIM. Perfect. The question of the day is where would you love to go swimming. EASY question....I love the water.  Where I would like to go swimming?

how about here

or here...

 

or...

race ya to the pool!  

Since this is 4th of July weekend, I get to go swimming more than usual...yeah!  

going on a boat one day, to the lake the next and then the big ol' pool

fishy fun