The Gift

“I seriously don’t understand what you’re still doing with Mark,” Gina said, loud enough to penetrate the bathroom door. “All you do is complain about him.”

“Yeah, I know. But he does have his good moments,” answered Lori.

“Have you ever stopped to count his good moment, bad moment ratio? It can’t be good. I mean he’s a creep. Didn’t he sleep with Stacy a few months ago?”

“Well, yeah, but we were on a break. So it doesn’t really count.”

“Lori, you were on a break for like five minutes, it counts.”

“But, it was a really big fight. I shouldn’t have pushed him the way I did.”

“Oh yeah, you shouldn’t have made a big deal about him standing you up to hang with his buddies,” Gina said rolling her eyes. “Besides he didn’t even get you a gift for your birthday.”

Lori opened the bathroom door, color absent from her face, white stick in hand. “Oh, he gave me a gift alright.”

I Would've But....

I have a back ache.

I really need to clean my house since my mother-in-law is coming next week.

It was a long day with the baby and I'm tired.

Those were all the excuses I gave to let myself off the hook for working tonight. Then, I remembered how much I hate when people tell me they're going to do something and then give me 100 reasons on why they didn't get it done. Aren't I making a pledge to myself every week to write?

I've never understood this concept, the whole making excuses thing. Don't get me wrong I do it too, if not for writing, than definitely for working out and eating healthy. I'd rather put razor blades under my toe nails than miss a meal. Seriously, you'd think I was starving the way I glare at my husband for saying he's not hungry, when I want Taco Bueno (mmmm...tacos). It's pretty ridiculous.

I wonder why we all feel like making excuses is better than just getting our work done and accomplishing our goals? And again, I'm including myself in that sentence. Once I get my work out or word count done, I feel so much better about my day. I do a Snoopy happy dance every time I accomplish everything on my to-do list. I go to bed feeling great about my day and with a new motivation towards the next day. But alas, it seems holding onto the euphoria is easier said than done.

So how does one hold onto that motivation to make such things as meeting a word count or working out daily a habit? How do we set aside the excuses and just get things done? Where do we go to find willpower, discipline and the desire to achieve what we obviously want?

Honestly, we have to look to ourselves. No one is going to do it for you. No one is going to make me get my butt off the recliner and onto the treadmill. No one is going to make me turn off the TV and write. No one is going to tell me to put the taco down (mostly out of fear I will tear them from limb to limb zombie style, don't mess with my tacos). I have to make up my mind and do it. I wish there was an easy fix, but there's not, so let's all (again this post is mostly about me... mostly) make a pledge to stop with the excuses and just do it (don't sue me Nike).

Awards

Awards 2012:

OWFI contest - 3rd place in Inspirational
OWFI contest - 3rd place in Confession Story


Awards 2011:

Write On - 1st Place in 1st Page Contest

OWFI contest - 1st place in Contemporary Romance Novel
OWFI contest - 2nd place in Short Story
OWFI contest - 3rd Honorable Mention in Picture Books

Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest - 2nd place in Fiction
Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest - 1st place in Stories for Children

Awards 2010:

Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest - 1st place in Nonfiction

Awards 2009:

Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest - 2nd place in Fiction

Listen To Your Mother

Headed to Fayetteville, AR for the Listen To Your Mother auditions tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Update: I did not make the show. Of course I'm bummed, but I tried my best and I know it's not my typical genre, so it was always a long shot. It was great to be a part of the auditions.

Ariel's Obssesion

Ariel grabbed the bag of potato chips off the passenger side seat. As she munched on the salty snack she looked through her binoculars and gazed at the blue house across the street. Dropping the binoculars she picked up her journal.

11:58 pm – Still inside bedroom with her, lights are off.

“Apparently he’s into sluts now,” she said to herself as she wiped her greasy hands on her jeans and moved on to the Peanut M&M’s. “I’ll show her.”

She grabbed her keys off the dash and skipped to the slut’s car. In careful block letters she smiled as she scratched 'I’ll kill you' into the driver’s side door.

Getting back into her car she grabbed her journal.

12:03 am – Got rid of the slut.

Eye of the Beholder

My Clever Fiction piece is up, check it out ~ http://www.cleverfiction.com/31/post/2012/03/eye-of-the-beholder.html

Snoopy Happy Dance

Doing my Snoopy happy dance, got an e-mail from Listen to Your Mother - Northwest Arkansas, they want me to audition my Nap Strike piece in a couple of weeks!! YAY!!