On Our Way [socs]

On our way… to better days. That’s what we say, pumped up with our New Year’s Goals. Like many others, I’ve vowed to get in better shape… and the parking lot at the gym is crowded now. Yes, I drive to the gym, even though it’s in my condo complex, since management can’t seem to program my electronic key to get me through the last walk-thru gate. It’s like the opening sequence to Get Smart, if you’re old enough to remember that show. But whenever I ask about the key, the person who needs to deal with it has just left for the day. 🙄

I’m trying to avoid getting raging angry about so many things (another resolution). So what if I can’t walk through to the gym? It’s not the worst thing in the world. Now, the gate closest to my apartment has quit working from the outside… that’s okay, right? They’ll fix it eventually and it’s fine to take the long way around to a different gate. More exercise! Plus, it’s not like I do everything perfectly myself… I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life too. As long as one gate works, and I can get home… like, whatever. 😜

My three words are from the chapter titled “Worth” in Jennifer Weiner’s book Hungry Heart. I don’t know why I purchased this book, except it has a picture of an upscale looking Hostess cupcake on the cover. I don’t think I’ve read any of her novels. I wanted to enjoy this book, because cupcake and also a smart and funny writer writing smartly and humorously about feeling fat and unloved… that’s so unusual! 🙃

But HH is incredibly tedious and dejavuey… like haven’t a million other smart fat girls written smartly and fatly about being smart and fat? Yawnnnn. And I find myself skimming much of Jennifer’s complaining. I loved her trip to Israel though, and how she finally decided to say eff it regarding other people’s opinions when she returned. Yeah! Who cares what people think! 😎

I thought the story would really take off from there, but no, back to yawwnville. An autobiography doesn’t have to be boring; I’ve read interesting ones. But they need to be edited, and saggy sections should be cut. Am I going to abandon it? No, I’ll probably skim the rest, so I can get credit for it on Goodreads. And I remain hopeful that there is something more to it I can enjoy, since I did get totally immersed in the one section. 🤩

Speaking of saggy things, exercise makes you hungry. If you burn up 100 calories on a bike, your brain will say hello time for a vat of pasta. And you can say no brain we are having a sensible scoop of tuna and some yummy crisp veggies. But our brain is sulking and plotting on how to trip us up. It’s not about being a “good” person or a “bad” person; we all come from a long line of people who avoided starving to death when there was very little food. Yay us and our superhero metabolisms. 😜

I see I forgot to finish this post Friday night and schedule it at 4am Saturday because I’ve been obsessed with watching Jeopardy on Netflix this week (not the GOAT thing, but catching up from last year). When I got home at 10, I turned on the TV, forgetting all about blogging. That’s unusual for me, but these are strange times. 😳

Luckily, I woke up earlier than God… and the first thing I thought of was yikes I didn’t post for SOCS! 😱

~*~

Image credit to Shelley Krupa.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

2020 🥳✨💖

I am my own gaslighter;

I sabotage my dreams;

I whisper insults in my ear;

And dismantle my best themes.

But this time I refuse to yield

To my old self-doubting threat;

I begin to set my sights on stars

And I’ll have my best year yet!

~*~

Image from the Happy Color app.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Laura’s Music Challenge 38

Laura ends the year on a musical note by bringing back her song challenge and asking us to post 5 videos about beginnings, endings and/or looking forward.

Happy New Year! 🥳🥳🥳

~*~

Image from Bitmoji.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Looking Forward

I have been enjoying other bloggers’ recaps of the year past and usually I do something similar. This year however I’m skipping that type of detailed post. One reason is that I’m just too lazy to copypasta links to my top ten posts in a new post. Another is that I just don’t care which posts received the most views ~ and if I don’t care, why would you?

Lots of times a post I love (usually a poem) gets fewer views and comments than some picture of an old flower or whatever, so I find the stats pretty meaningless. I guess if I were monetizing the blog, I would obsess over such things, but I’m not and don’t. Also, it matters which day of the week and time of the day a post goes live, but I’m too busy to check that further. Plus, it’s boring.

The most important part of recapping the year in my opinion anyway is to thank everyone who has read my blog, whether regularly or sporadically, and interacted with my writing. So, would like to extend a hearty thank you to all my readers! ❤️ I appreciate all of you! 😍

Looking forward, my intent is to keep on blogging as usual but perhaps a bit lighter on quantity, since I’ve been refocusing on my unfinished writing projects. I began a new humorous story recently and it’s now taken priority over every other piece of fiction ~ I hope to have it available for sale on Kindle in the next few weeks. After that, I want to get serious about cleaning up my writing to-do list, like I said I would last year. 🙄

I spent a fair bit of time dealing with audio books last summer and was disappointed in the small amount of sales. I thought the talkers would do promo. I also assumed the site itself would market me. All wrong. Oh well. Since that was no fun at all, but writing is, I’ll stick with the written word.

I also need to read more books. With my move and other busy-ness, I’ve been in a reading lull. Writers need to read! Not just blogs and news, but real books. I can always feel my creativity and imagination begin to bubble and boil when I dive into the worlds that other writers have created. It’s a crucial component of the craft.

Dream big, my friends! 💖✨🥳

~*~

Image from Bitmoji.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Glory Days [socs]

I’m amazed at how many people my age or even older yearn for the past. Perhaps they truly did experience magical childhoods and wonderful years in high school. Or… maybe time has softened the rough edges and brought the happy times into clear focus. Memories are tricky things. But I’ve never been one to page through my old yearbooks, pining away for days gone bye. I hardly even look at the scrapbooks I made of my kids and pets… and those were a lot of fun.

Instead, I’ve always looked ahead, excited for the year to come and what may be in store. Yep, I know… even so. Whether a new school or calendar year is approaching, I’m happy to start fresh, hoping to achieve my goals and walk a better path. This doesn’t mean I’m unhappy or beating up on myself, but for me life is always about personal growth and change, even incrementally.

~*~

Images from Shelley Krupa and Bitmoji.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Little Drummer Boy Challenge [dating story]

Oops, I did it again! 😀 Won the Little Drummer Boy Challenge, that is. It’s this fun game where you try to avoid hearing any version of LDB between 12:01AM Black Friday until midnight December 23. I first found out about it on ye olde book of face, but the host has a blog and a twitter, so I am able to stay connected, yay! I think I’ve been playing for 5 years and have lost once or twice.

I know I lost once for sure because it was at a Barnes & Noble, where I ended up after meeting one of the strangest dating site men. And that’s saying something, trust me. It was 2016, when I was totally broken-hearted and trying to recover, as was my way, by immediately flinging myself into something new. This guy and I hit it off online because he was funny. I like the funny. Funny is good. He was a bit mean though, which I don’t like, but often you have to take the mean with the funny. That’s how it works. I have heard, which I know you will find absurd, that I also am mean. I KNOW RIGHT? 😱

Anyway, this guy, let’s call him Mitty, was a total extrovert online and in text. He even called me in the mornings on the way to work and just jabbered away, all upbeat and flirty. I thought maybe he was gonna be too talkative and pushy for me, IYKWIM (AITYD). But I really wanted to meet him (or anyone above-ground) to get my mind off that other guy, so I proceeded.

We decided to meet at a Bed, Bath & Beyond because Mitty needed new drapes. We had these fun ideas like we’d pretend to be married as soon as we saw each other and try out the beds because ours had “worn out,” etc. I was definitely excited about experiencing his sense of humor in person, though a lil worried I might not be able to keep up. 😬

I needn’t have stressed. In person, Mitty was a mouse. 🐭 He could barely mumble hello. Where was the funny, flirty man on the phone? Idk! He was the same guy as in his photos, but he did not have the same personality… so weird! Maybe he didn’t like me in person, but I had sent accurate pics, so I don’t think that was it. In any case, we spent about 15 minutes looking at drapes, then Mitty said he didn’t like any and was going to try other stores. That’s it. The pre-date was over. Never heard from him again.

But the point of the story is that I had like an extra hour to kill before meeting my friends, since the Mitty meeting was so short, and that’s when I waltzed into B&N, only to get blasted with a version of LDB! Oh noooooooo! Not only had Mitty failed to lift me out of my sea of heartbreak, but now I’d lost the LDBC too. Life was so unfair. 😢

But I haven’t lost since, not even last week when I was at a real live Christmas carol singalong. 🎶 They didn’t do LDB, whew! The funny thing is that I actually love the song and there are so many fantastic versions. On the way home from work today, I heard Josh Groban’s for the first time, and it was so good!

I’ll leave you with Joan Jett’s take on the tune, one of my faves. Have a wonderful night! 🎄🎁❤️

~*~

Image from Bitmoji.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

10 Reasons To Be Thankful You’re Single At The Holidays

Yeah yeah… it’s great to have someone to snuggle with as the days grow dark and cold. And who doesn’t want to sneak in a kiss under the mistletoe? 💋

But some of us will be single next week on Thanksgiving… and after that on Christmas (or Chanukah) and New Year’s Eve too. We won’t even mention Valentine’s Day. Oops! I think there are some darned good reasons to be grateful for that… so I made a list. Feel free to add to it in comments! 😀

1. No arguing over whether to spend turkey day at his folks’ place or her folks’ place… or worst possible outcome… volunteering to host the event yourselves!

2. No freaking out over whether your honey is going to think badly of you when he or she discovers that a huge chunk of your family belongs to that political party.

3. No agonizing over what gift to buy for your sweetie… is it too soon to buy a pricey gift? Will he be offended if you get a funny gift? OMG, is her mom going to get me a gift too?

4. Okay, it’s cold, right? And you want to wear big cozy layers of sweaters not sexy little bare dresses… well, guess what? You can! You don’t have anyone to seduce, yay!

5. And no more stress about spending a wad of cash on some stupid NYE event you wouldn’t have enjoyed anyway just to impress a date. Whew! 👍🏻

6. You know all those sappy movies you secretly pretend to hate because you’re adulting? Now you don’t have to be a faker! You can indulge your love of Frosty The Snowman while drinking hot choccy and wearing flannel jammies because the cat doesn’t care.

7. Speaking of hot choccy, we may put on a few pounds over the hols, amirite? But now we can relax about that because no one is gonna be seeing us de-layered for a long, long time. What a relief! 😻

8. Unfortunately, the holidays can be a tense time for romances and many of them fail around now or soon after, but we don’t have to worry about this because we’re all alone, wheeeeeeee!

9. We can make our New Year’s Resolutions all about ourselves… our hopes and dreams and goals for the future, without worrying what a “significant other” might want, and chances are he’ll dump us anyway. 🙄

10. Finally, the best reason to be thankful for being single at the hols is when we wake up alone on January 1, 2020, we can say to ourselves, hurrah, I survived last year without getting married to an axe murderer! 🎉🎉🎉

~*~

Images from Pexels, Pixabay, Google.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Sun in the Fun

A lovely new follower I suggest you check out, Chaotic Blonde (what a fabulous name!), has gifted me the Sunshine Award! Thank you so much, CB! 😍

These days, I’m not much into posting awards and tagging others, but I will still answer questions people have taken the time to compose (when I have the time).

1. What made you want to create a blog?

This blog was created in March 2011 as an outlet to post song lyrics, poetry, etc. that related to my emotional distress at the time. It changed as my circumstances did.

2. Do you prefer writing at night, or in the day?

Whenever the mood strikes, but mostly at home, at night. 🌙

3. What was the last film that made you cry?

Hmm, I can’t remember. It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything good/moving.

4. What’s an interest that not many people know you have?

People were surprised recently when I expressed interest in going to a reptile farm, but snakes are fascinating. 🐍

5. Describe yourself in three words.

Funny, reliable, neat.

6. If you were a cocktail, what would you be?

Irish coffee. ☘️

7. Do you believe in astrology?

No.

8. Name three things on your bucket list.

Travel by train; finish all my WIPs; learn to crochet.

9. Do you think happiness comes from within, or that it’s something to be shared?

Within.

10. To you, what is love?

Chemicals.

11. What’s changed the most about your writing style since you first started out?

I quit writing “poast” because it annoyed Fandango.

~*~

Image credit to the Bitmoji app.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

PFF21 ~ Novelty

Welcome to my Friday Flashback! This is a post from 8 years ago when I was 20 years younger (do the math). Back then, I was able to leap out of bed at 4am and write like a maniac for 3 hours before going to work. I wrote at night and all weekend too. I can’t do that now, nor do I want to even try… so if anyone cares, no, I am not doing NaNo this year. 👻

OMG!

People. I wrote a 58K novel since early September whatever.

OK, it started as a 4600 word short story, so technically I wrote, uh, less than that. But not that much less because, you know, short story –> novel. Thing. I am so dead here. Can’t think in sentences anymore.

Now. I do not mean I barfed out a bunch of garbage (no offense to barfers) (or garbage). I mean it’s good. For a romance novel. I just went and cut 1000 words to get the 58K. Thinking I might cut 2000 more before I send it, or not. Maybe I should leave it alone. The only parts I feel are cuttable are the non-protag parts, which I like for comic relief. So the editor can suggest cuts if she wants, right?

K. I’ll reread in a couple days for stupids, etc. before sending.

Onto NaNo. No clue really. Do not have time to plan like a maniac, but I have a week of thinkies, which should be good enough.

~*~

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

321 Quote Me ~ Lifestyle

Sadje tagged me to continue the lifestyle theme in this round of Rory’s 321 Quote Me game. Thanks Sadje! 😻

The above was Part 1 of 321 (a thank you). Now I will do Part 2, which will be my two quotes.

Part 3 requires me to tag 3 more bloggers. I think I’ve seen this tag around for a day or so now, which means the usual suspects have already been tagged. I’ll open this up to volunteers instead. It’s a great way to get in the game if you haven’t played yet. Post a couple lifestyle quotes and link back to me (and Rory).

Have fun! 🎃👻😈

~*~

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.