Tag: A. Catherine Noon

13 Balls in the Air

1. My blog – recently, I’ve only written Thursday 13’s, my Rachel Carmichael serial, and Wiley Wednesday essays. I’d like to get back to regular flash fiction as a method of priming the pump for writing my novels and nonfiction books.

2. My novel Conservator – my current WIP (Work-In-Progress).

3. Two Artist’s Way Workshop Clusters – one on the Writer’s Retreat, and one on PDS. I do the work along with the workshop participants and we share our experiences together.

4. One Vein of Gold Workshop Cluster – on the Writer’s Retreat. Again, I do the work along with the participants. I’d been looking for others to walk the Vein of Gold with me, because I found it an intense process to do alone. I’m enjoying it this go-round.

5. Morning Pages – from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. I do these daily. It’s been a challenge this week, which has thrown all the other balls in the air awry, so rather than this nice, neat juggling ring I have something more like bowling, except I’m the pins.

6. Artist Dates – also from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. I find these incredibly difficult, and also rewarding. I finally managed to make myself, coax myself, whatever myself into doing one tonight. And voila, just like that, I’m writing my Thursday 13 for the first time in three weeks. Ms. Cameron, you are a genius.

7. Daily Walks – from Julia Cameron’s Vein of Gold. I do these with varying degrees of success. I had a lot better luck once I started wearing my pedometer regularly again. I like the one carried by Weight Watchers, since it’s easy to calibrate and will track miles once you enter your stride length.

8. Strategic and Operational Planning class – for my MBA. I’m enjoying it a lot, but there’s a lot of reading and essays.

9. Principles of Accounting – for my MBA. It’s an online course through my university, which is a first for me in this context. While I’ve taken online courses before, I’ve never done so for credit. It’s a challenge but I’m getting the hang of it. I still prefer in-person classes but this may be a way to accelerate my program.

10. Business Manager – my job. I manage a small practice for a financial counseling firm. It’s challenging and rewarding, but we’re entering our busy season and I find my time gets telescoped.

11. Relaxation – I am naturally a driven person, with lots of balls in the air (as you may have already guessed). I actively work on relaxing, with scheduled massages and yoga. Oddly, “doing nothing” is hard work for me.

12. My physical health – I recently joined Weight Watchers again and am not paying attention to my weight. In fact, I ask the weigh-in person to not tell me. I want to focus on changing my behavior, not on the scale, because my behavior is something I have control over. Breakfasts are challenging me, but as my first goal I’m optimistic I’ll succeed eventually. (Just HOW many light bulbs did Edison create before one finally worked? It’s like that…)

13. Some kind of social life – this is actually difficult, since it falls under the “play” category. We’ll see. Some days are better than others.

Happy TT!

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

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13 Things I Carry With Me

1. Backpack – To hold stuff. Has a cool laptop case.

2. Lunchbox – Front pocket holds transit cards and stuff.

3. Umbrella – One too many times impersonating a drowned rat.

4. Cell phone – In case I get stranded somewhere. (Like, say, Minnesota.)

5. Journal – For morning pages, talking to myself, self defense.

6. Extra pens – Never write in blood on the train. It causes talk.

7. USB keys – Jump drives, portable memory cards, whatever they’re called, I love them. Lets me carry my writing with me.

8. Homework – Why they have to make textbooks so bloomin’ heavy, I’ll never know.

9. Extra sanitary napkins – What? I have to spell it out for you?

10. Makeup – I’ve heard guys complain about ladies doing makeup on the train. Two words for you: shut. up.

11. Nail file – Why am I the only one in a four block radius who carries one of these? Srsly!

12. Clive Owen – What? I can dream, can’t I?

13. Food – Bananas, apples, cheese, nuts, yogurt, vegemals, all kinds of things.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

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13 Thoughts on the Nature of Time

1. Humans experience time in a linear fashion.

2. Cats can bilocate.

3. The written word provides permanency of thought.

4. Written media propagate ideas across time.

5. Time for humans only goes forward.

6. To slow the relative personal experience of the velocity of time, one must pay attention.

7. Writing helps this process of paying attention, because by its nature writing by longhand is an immediate task. It’s difficult to keep the pen moving while the mind (attention) is elsewhere.

8. Dogs live in the now.

9. The word, written, has power.

10. The word, spoken, is ephemeral but not devoid of power.

11. Control of the written word is hallmark of, but not limited to, dictatorship and totalitarianism.

12. Humans are driven to communicate.

13. The word, written, can only be temporarily blocked but the Flow cannot be stopped.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

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13 Questions

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions they don’t have to worry about the answers.” – Thomas Pynchon

1. Who says morning is the most productive time? Why do we have to start work in the morning? Why don’t night-owls rule society?

2. Why DO we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

3. Why in the U.S. are the polls (you know, those thing you vote at?) (yes, dear, I know that’s grammatically wrong; pay attention, or we’ll never get through this!) only open during working hours?

4. Same question re: banks. Don’t they WANT us to give them our business?

5. Why is the sky blue?

6. How come they don’t teach budgeting, checkbook balancing, grocery shopping – and bargain-hunting, job search skills, etc. in high school and college?

7. Why are bonuses taxed at 40% in the U.S.?

8. Why do cats always land on their feet and have to sleep on my computer – WHILE I’M USING IT?

9. Why are squirrels really nice when you DON’T have a dog, but the minute you get a dog, they turn into little harlots? “Wanna touch squirrellie?” “Don’t I have a nice tail?”

10. Why are people who own little, disgusting, barking, yappy dogs convinced that their dog is an angel – while it’s barking at effing THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING? (You know who you are…)

11. Why are people so rude? I mean, come on. If I’m walking on the sidewalk, TWO OBJECTS CAN’T OCCUPY THE SAME SPACE AT THE SAME TIME. It’s simple physics, people.

12. Why are CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) conductors so communicative when absolutely unnecessary (like, when we’re stopped short of a station with a train ahead of us, “We’re standing momentarily while the train ahead of us clears the station…”) and absolutely non-communicative during crises (like, when we’re stopped dead on the tracks, the conductor gets OFF the train to check out something on the tracks, then gets back on and we get underway without any explanation… what, did he see a donut or something??).

13. Why do people in public office lie and then stand by it when caught out on it, as though sheer repetition will make their lie true? (What? Of COURSE the sky is purple!)

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

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13 Things That Have Happened

Who in the heck IS this Murphy guy anyway? I wanna give him a piece of my mind! (And a kick on the seat of the pants. And maybe a baseball bat…)

1. My car died. Got stranded in Minnesota.

2. Got stranded in Minnesota. Winona, to be exact. While it’s a beautiful town, it’s still five hours from my house.

3. Got stranded in Minnesota. And the rental car place in Winona wouldn’t rent me a car one-way to get home, so I had to go NORTH (the opposite direction from home) to get a car at the Minneapolis airport, so I could drive SOUTH (the opposite direction from the airport) to go home.

4. My car died. In Minnesota. I got back to Chicago with a rented car. But MY car was still IN MINNESOTA. (Astute readers will begin to sense a theme here…)

5. The Bluebook on the car was $2,000. Repair costs STARTED at $1,000. I blew the head gasket, see. Going 75 mph on the open highway in the middle of a cornfield, IN MINNESOTA. (Fixated? Me?) Winona, while beautiful, is five hours from my house. Which is TOO FAR TO WALK. Ergo…

6. The mechanic offered to purchase my car. My boss, a financial planner, blew HIS head gasket at THAT suggestion, and told me that I should donate the car. The deduction, under U.S. Income Tax law, is good for up to five years, by which time we will have purchased our first home and could actually USE the deduction.

7. We managed to donate the car. In Winona. The internet is a beautiful thing.

8. I started MBA courses at Argosy University the same week I got stranded in Minnesota. I love stress.

9. The three classes I’m teaching, two on Artist’s Way related material and one on fiction writing, got behind while I was having my car drama. Two of these classes concluded last week. The fiction class is like a run-on sentence. (It’s a demo. So sue me.)

10. Michael (my husband, remember him?) had surgery on a deviated septum two weeks after I got back. BEFORE we were able to purchase the new car.

11. I got stranded by a cab driver! (GAH!) Actually, to be fair, I didn’t get stranded. But the idjit couldna get his credit card thingie to work. So he had to take me to the bank to get cash – while my drugged up husband wandered into our house by himself! I love stress.

12. I took the week of Michael’s surgery off, intending to clean my house from front to back, top to bottom. I love stress so much, that I slept most of that week. During the DAY. Because I was too stressed to sleep at night. My house is now in WORSE shape than it was BEFORE I took the week off. How the heck does THAT work? (If you know, this is a rhetorical question. Do not attempt to answer this question. In the event that you feel you must answer this question, stab yourself repeatedly in the left eye with a pencil until the urge passes. That’s it. Just like that.)

13. Where was I? … Actually, that’s not a bad question. Where WAS I? (If you say Winona, I’m so going to climb through the intertubes and kill you it isn’t funny.) (No really. It isn’t funny.)

If the foregoing was funny to you in any way, shape or form, you are a sick puppy. Please seek professional help immediately. Me? I’m going into a convent.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

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Thursday 13 – 150th Edition: 06/19/2008

13 Things I Am Grateful For

Note: these are listed in no particular order.

1. My health

2. My spouse

3. My home

4. My puppy dog

5. My kitten, Belii and Marina

6. My writing

7. Summer weather

8. Air conditioners

9. My friends

10. My voice

11. My doctor

12. My family

13. My computer

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
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Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
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