I swear to Godzilla…

January 26, 2016January 26, 2016 ~ Meg ~ 29 Comments

Week 4 of the year of drinking adventurously! And it’s a fail!

The view from my front door at about 3PM Saturday. I’d already shoveled the front walkway once.

I tried, I really did. I knew the storm was coming. Rather than wait till the last minute, I started looking last week for the Japanese whiskey that was to be this week’s offering. According to Jeff’s book, Japanese whiskey rivals the best products of Scotland and Ireland. Who knew? I live in the suburbs of a major East Coast city so I figured one of the larger liquor stores would stock at least one or two varieties on their shelves. Nope. I searched for it online. The closest liquor store to carry it is in East Brunswick, New Jersey; a trafficky hour and a half away. I couldn’t even find it on the menu of any of the local Japanese restaurants. I will have to refer you to Lula’s blog to see how she liked it.

Now, you would think I’d take advantage of this enforced downtime to write, edit, research or something. But you would be wrong! We brewed our own beer! You knew I’d get around to alcohol at some point, right? Rather than bore you with the details (and I intended to bore you with the details but I bored myself just writing them, so…), I will just say that when this batch is finished fermenting, we will hopefully, have an English Ale. And because this week’s adventure should have taken me to Japan, home of the legendary and awesome radioactive monster, Gojira (Godzilla), I thought it would be the perfect day for a Godzilla movie marathon! That didn’t happen either, my husband can’t sit through them. Although to be fair, that might have something to do with the fact that I own the boxed set of the original Toho Productions movies, in Japanese with subtitles! (I could bore you with those details, too.)

Nevertheless, sometimes marriage is about compromise and in order to satisfy my desire for giant alien monsters, he agreed to watch Pacific Rim, which I found on TV. It really doesn’t take much to make me happy!

Anyway, sorry to fail on week 4. I am slightly more optimistic about next week, however. The drink of choice is from China. Philadelphia does have a Chinatown … Anyone up for a night on the town?

(Header image courtesy gizmodo.)

Is she really that untidy?

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 ~ Meg ~ 47 Comments

Have you wondered what the deal is with the tagline for my blog: “She tried to look picturesque but only succeeded in being untidy?” It’s a quote from Oscar Wilde’s “A Picture of Dorian Grey” and refers to Victoria, Lord Henry Wotton’s wife. In the scene from which the quote was taken, Dorian is lounging around at Lord Henry’s house waiting for him when Victoria comes in. This is how the narrator describes her:

“She was a curious woman whose dresses always looked as if they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest. She was usually in love with somebody, and, as her passion was never returned, she had kept all her illusions. She tried to look picturesque, but only succeeded in being untidy.” There’s more of it, but that’s the bit I like.

I imagine you all read the blog title and the tagline and think to yourself, “that Meg must be a mess.” Well, not true, mostly. For one thing, I rarely wear dresses. Skirts, yes, because I can match them with a black t-shirt. My friends and family do roll their eyes at me though, because I tend to wear the same or similar things all the time. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look nice, I do. Those fitted black t-shirts from H&M are very flattering. And no, I’m not too old to be shopping at H&M. Not for t-shirts, anyway. Besides, I am also cheap.

I guess I don’t easily tire of wearing the same things. I’ve always said I’d do well in an environment where someone told me what to wear. Like the army. Or prison, maybe. Frankly, it sure makes getting dressed in the morning easier and faster. I will not be the reason you are late getting out the door. Nevertheless, I assure you I am not untidy. I just really find those lines from ‘Dorian Grey’ amusing.

When you think of a writer, what image pops into your head? The disheveled man or woman, still in their bathrobe, sitting at the computer with coffee stains all over their notebooks and crumpled bits of paper strewn across the desk and overflowing the wastebasket?

If you write full time, work from home and don’t actually have to see people face to face, would it be easy to slip into that habit? I think it could be. My office is in my home but seeing patients prevents me from sliding down that slippery slope of not bothering.

Imagine what that would do to one’s self esteem after a while. Not getting dressed, not fixing your hair or putting on makeup. Who cares? No one’s going to see you… That’s just one step away from: “I’m not worth it.”

I wrote a post in December about treating your writing like a job. Making time for it, being disciplined so that it doesn’t get shoved onto the pile of unfulfilled dreams. Let this advice be another aspect of that discipline: Take care of yourself. Get up and stretch, get some exercise. Come home and shower and put on the kind of clothes you’d wear for ‘casual Friday’. It doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, just presentable. Ditch the sweatpants and at least put on jeans! I don’t know about you, but if I don’t get out of my pajamas, it feels like I’m home on a sick day. Then I end up binge watching Netflix and no writing gets done anyway.

Don’t let your writing space turn into a dump, either. Granted, when you’re in the middle of a project, a certain amount of clutter is inevitable but don’t let it get out of hand! Wipe up the coffee stains, empty the wastebasket and whisk the crumbs off the keyboard. Wait till you see how much better that feels.

Will these habits help you find inspiration? Cure writer’s block? Help you edit more clearly? I say yes. Don’t believe me? Give it a try!