June 30, 2014

After asking form writing prompts from Ms. A, she gave me the instructions for a cinquain and then to free write about the experience of the process of writing the cinquain.  I have never heard of this before and it sounded quite easy so i thought I would give it a try.  Here goes.



A Cinquain 

Baking
Fun, Easy
Gives people joy
Makes me feel peaceful
Create

Writing the cinquain was easy and it made me think about how I really feel about baking.  Creating something with your own two hands that people love to eat and actually enjoy eating.  After just writing the 5 short lines my mind is flooded with the images of creating brownies and cookies and cakes and the joy it gives people to recieive fresh baked goods.  My youngest daughter makes the best banana bread that I have ever had.  She did this at eleven.  She is quite a good cook and can make very good homemade pot stickers.  She makes the wrappers from scratch, they are really good.  My last baking adventure was a new sugar cookie recipe and I made cookies for Easter shaped like chicks and eggs and bunnies.  I took them all to work and they were gone by the end of the day.  I made four dozen.  I am still amazed about how the cinquain could create such a vast amount of thought from just five lines.  I will definitely be trying this again.  THANK YOU MS. A!!!!! for the idea.  If anybody else reads this blog you have to try this it really is awesome!  i am still thinking about my baking escapades and how they gave me such joy and peace.  While your baking your mind is only on the process and getting it right.  The measurements have to be exact or the whole recipe is a wash.  But when it turns out right, you have created a thing of beauty.   A 300 word blog in seconds,  AMAZING!!

June 29, 2014

The world we live in cannot exist without typists.  Yes folks, typists, and I am one of them.  I have been a secretary for over 20 years and the need for typists has grown every year, especially now in the age of web sites and internet advertising and the increasing use of electronics everywhere.   Someone has to type all that you read on news websites, magazine websites, as a matter of fact all websites. 

Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a secretary.  That's right, a secretary.  I know this does not seem like a lofty goal, like a doctor or lawyer but to me it was all I could think about being.  I have no explanation for this desire, I just know that it has always been there.  When I was little my mom would bring home office supplies from her job and would give them to me.  I loved them all.  There were accounting journals and file folders and empty log books.  I thought they were the best and I played secretary with them all the time.  Then one day my dad told me about my older sister, that lived in Indianapolis at the time, had gotten her first job as as a secretary in a lawyer's office and was so excited about it.  I was so envious and could only imagine what that would be like.

My first experience with a real electric typewriter was in 7th grade at Lincoln Junior High and I couldn't wait to get started.  From the first click of the old electric typewriter I was fascinated.  From there I took Office Technology classes in High School and went on to an Office Technology program through Winnebago County and they got me my first job at Blue Cross Blue Shield filing EOB's.  The rest they say is history, I have been a secretary ever since.  Now I am a secretary in the surgery department and love what I do, but I know that a degree could really help my chances for advancement at the hospital. Secretarial positions may not be glamorous but the are needed in almost every business.  I've helped my family financially for many years with my secretary jobs and I am very proud of that.

June 28, 2014

 Day 3 of blogging and I am sitting here thinking about the first years of my husband and I's marriage. We were dirt poor and both of our jobs paid five dollars an hour and that was not easy to live on.  We both had car payments and insurance so adding rent, utilities and groceries created some budgeting problems at times.  One of our first rentals was a trailer with very bad floors.  I don't know how we kept from going through them they were so bad.  We had roaches and every time the field across the road was bush hogged the mice would run into our trailer.  Every time one of the mouse traps snapped I would just cringe.  When you live in a place like that you have one motivation and this is to get out. 

When we had our first daughter, I did not want to bring her home to that trailer, it gave me nightmares to think about it.  I kept her bassinet right next to my bed every night and woke up every 10 minutes checking on her.  I was never so glad as to leave a place as I was when we moved out of there.

The next rental was a little better, it was a house and there weren't any roaches.  It had a wall unit for the furnace and it would build up gas inside and sporadically explode causing the vents to pop out and hit the floor.  The first time that it happened we were sleeping and we jolted out of bed ran for our daughter's room, she never heard it and was sound asleep and we had no idea what to do because we had no idea what had just happened.  The owner assured us that it he would take care of this, he never fixed it right.

Through the years we worked hard, saved money and bought the house we have now.  After living in all of the first rentals we appreciate what we have now every time we walk in the house and there are no mice, no bad floors, no roaches, and no bad furnace, in fact we have electric everything, no gas anything. 

Assignment 4.4 - Know Your Audience Analysis Blog Post

I found it surprising that I really had a hard time coming up with an answer for some of the questions like the, “if you could only keep one memory” question that was tough.  All of my family’s moments together hit my mind at once and I could not focus on just one.  Also I was surprised by the flood of emotions that some of the questions evoked, like the “being stranded on a desert island question, that one caused panic and helplessness at first, then determination that I would find a way to survive.  

Since this was week three, I had somewhat of an idea of the class as an audience, so I expected that the questions would be creative and interesting and imaginative.  I was not disappointed, they all had different elements of fiction and non-fiction, so I looked forward to a new one every day.  The superhero questions created that if only I could feeling, knowing all along that the power of having more than one of me would never be possible.  

Out of 33 questions, 7 of them related to TV, books, movies and superheroes, those were fun and really challenged my imagination.  Imagining being in “Third Rock from the Sun” made me laugh out loud.  Those characters were outrageous.   Several of them were what if questions that I would not of thought about if not for this assignment.  I will have to say that I never thought about my attitude having a color, or if I had the choice where would I have chosen to be born.    

After reading all of the responses to the questions, I realized that my writing needs to be more descriptive to capture the audience’s attention, so I think that this will impact my writing in a positive way.  I am constantly looking for ways to step up my game and so having this insight into everyone’s responses gave me an understanding of what my writing needs to be interesting.  I found myself looking for the most unique answers, knowing that we all have the same goals and values is good, but I was looking for that WOW factor in the answers.  My answers did not have that Wow factor but I will always look back at what I wrote and think I could have done better.

June 27 2014

My dad had 5 girls and he would take all of his girls to demolition derbies and the Indianapolis 500 every year.  I know that man wanted boys so bad, but he did the best he could with the girls that he had.  We also went to rodeos and on lots and lots of car trips.  His favorite places to take us all was to small towns with old restaurants that still had the soda fountains and old town squares. We would get out of the car and walk around and explore every inch of those squares.  His favorite’s streets were the brick roads that you could drive on and the tires would make that thump thump sound when you drove across them.

He loved cars and would take us girls to old car shows.  These cars were beautiful with their shiny paint jobs and the hoods were always up exposing their shiny silver engines.  I always wondered how they kept them so clean; our engine in our car didn’t look like that. 

When we would go to the demolition derby at the Ogle County Fair each of us girls would pick a car at the beginning of the derby that we thought would make it to the end.  They would start the derby with all of the cars revving their engines and they would all enter the ring slamming and banging in to each other and all the engines would be smoking and spitting oil. Between the roar of the engines and sounds of crunching metal it was so loud that you couldn't hear each other talk. The smell of burning oil and smoke would fill the air and it was awful. The drivers would all try their hardest to see who could fling mud the farthest in to the crowd by spinning their tires towards the stands, it was Awesome!  It was even better when one of the engines would catch on fire, you could hear the collective gasp when the flames would shoot out of the front of the car and the driver would jump out and run from the burning engine. When the driver broke the stick tied to the driver’s side door of their car you knew they were done.  We would watch them bow out one by one and we would sit there hoping that the one that we picked would make it the end.  My dad grinned ear to ear from start to finish, he loved them and now I do.  I haven’t been to one in years so if anyone knows where they are at around here in Missouri please let me know.

June 26, 2014

Garage Sales!!! I love garage sales.  I know to some people they are nothing but a nuisance, but I love them.  I have found some of the best stuff at garage sales.  I have had so many of them myself, I have lost count.  Garage sales, tag sales, yard sales, moving sales, it has many names and they have been around for a long time.  I like the word rummage sale, because that is exactly what you do, you rummage through other peoples stuff.  The bigger the sale, the better.  I love it when there are tables packed with stuff.  My youngest daughter and I love to go together and look at everything!  The history of garage sales goes something like this.  The word rummage comes from a nautical term "Romage", which means ship cargo.  The first  "Romage"sales were held on the docks where they would sell the cargo from the ship that was damaged or unclaimed, hence the word that we have now, "Rummage."  From there they evolved to people selling things to raise money for churches or charitable causes and then eventually to peoples homes where a lot of them are held now.  This is all very interesting to me, I never knew this until now and now I have something to tell the people running the garage sales, how they originated.  I don't know what I love more, looking at everything or talking to all of the people that you meet while out garage saling. Is that even a word, garage saling?  For my first day of blogging, it went pretty fast.  When your typing about something that you love, it goes pretty fast. 

Assignment 4.2 - Pre Writing- Credo

My approach to life is you already have everything you need to be the best you can be, it's up to you what you do with it..  We have the tools to be the best that we can be, how we utilize these tools is up to us.  You can waste your life doing nothing or you can live your life to the fullest using what God gave you.  I heard a saying once that really stuck with me, "The journey is your destination."  Every day you have the opportunity to be a blessing or not, it's up to you.  In making every day your best, you have to respect people and who they are.  Never stop trying, never give up.  The life that you live and how you treat people has a ripple effect, starting with your children and all of your family's generations. Knowledge is power, the more you know, the better the life that you will have. I value family and my faith in God, both of these things keep me going every day.  I value saying Thank You, mostly being appreciative of what others do for you, from the small stuff to the big stuff.  To validate another person's effort is very important to me.  Sometimes, I have really shocked people by going out of my way to say Thank You.  Giving your time to someone else by volunteering is one of the most important ways to enrich your life.  By volunteering you are showing appreciation for your own life by giving to others. 

Assignment 3.3 - This I Believe Pre-Writing - Freewrite.

I picked number 3 on my freewriting list.  I believer that I will have a better future with a degree.  I can't stop correcting my writing on these freewriting excercises.  I will have a better future with a degree because right now I only have a high school education and my job choices are limited.  I started to go to college right out of high school but I got married instead.  I married the boy that I was dating when I went to high school.  He inlisted in the army and moved to Colorado, and we split up for a little while.  Not long after he inlisted he called me and wanted to get back together, so I did and we married and that only lasted a year.  After that I was going to attend Rock Valley College in Rockford, IL but then I wasn't financially able to at the time, so I attended a vocational school and did a Office Technology course and they got me my first job at Blue Cross Blue Shield and in all of the years since then I desired to go to college but was too afraid.  I thought that I just couldnt do it.  I didn't think I was smart enough.  I barely made it through high school.  Since then I have realized how importand a college degree is and what it can mean when looking for a job.  I have a pretty good job rigjht now, but i have no chance of advancing without a degree.  I really want to go back and correct all of the mistakes in this post.  Anyway, two children and 23 years of marriage later here I am enrolled in college and making the best of it.  My husband is super supportive and so are myt children. Even my boss at work is supportive and that kinda surpised me.  i am seeking a Health Information Technologhy degree since I already have six years at Cox South.  Times up.

331 words.

Assignment 3.3 - This I Believe Pre-Writing - List

1. I believe in God.
2  I believe in family and love.
3. I believe that I have a better future with a degree.
4. I believe that most all people have a good heart.
5. I believe I could be a better mother.
6. I believe that my husband is my one and only true soul mate.
7. I believe that my youngest daughter is a great artist.
8. I believe in ghosts. (Don't judge).
9. I believe that everybody has a different energy that surrounds them and we can feel that energy whether we know it or not.
10. I believe that my oldest daughter will get a job one day.
11. I believe that I am not that good at freewriting.
12. I believe that I am very good at my job.
13. I believe this exercise is almost done.
14. I believe that I need to practice my freewriting skills.
15. I believe that my life is better when I have a church to go to.
16. I believe that we control our destiny.
17. I believe this is a long 10 minutes.
18. I believe times up.

Assignment 2.4 - Typology and Writing

My Jung Typology is ISTJ.    I agree with the strong preference of Introversion 100%.  As a student the online classes are perfect for me in that aspect.  My decision as to whether I would takes classes online or on campus was kind of made for me due to the fact that I need to be at home with my children after work and I work a full time job, classes at the campus would be rather difficult for me.  However, having the one on one with the teacher would be invaluable to me.  I prefer to be instructed one on one and step by step.  As a writer being by myself is absolutely the optimal way I like to work, surrounded by books and online instruction.  I am learning a lot about myself as writer, such as I tend to follow the instructions to the letter instead of adding a little bit of myself to the assignments. 

It stated that I have moderate preference of Sensing over Intuition 25%.  That is very true.  There have been many times that I have looked back at a situation and wished that I had went with my intuition, especially decisions as a parent.  I second guess myself so much that my intuition goes right out the window.  From what I can gather a definition of a person that leans more towards sensing prefers to make use of their senses to gather information as it provides data in a concrete form.   I like that word, concrete.  That is very true for me, what is in front of me that I can see, makes the most sense.  As a writer this could restrict me, because I tend to look at and rewrite again and again until I think it makes sense and there is not a lot of imagination to that type of writing. 

The T is for having a slight preference of thinking over feeling 12%.  Just the facts, that is all that I am pretty much interested in.  So far, this typology test is pretty accurate for me.  Emotions can get you in a lot of trouble.  When I let my emotions rule, nothing good can come of the situation.  Don't get me wrong, I don't feel that I am cold and calculated, on the contrary, I look at it as being careful, becoming a parent, just solidified that in me.  I am known to my children as way too serious. We have fun, just in a careful way.  

The J is for Judging over Perceiving 33%.  I looked this up as well and this means that I approach life in a structured way.  I like that word too, structured.   Absolutely, yes I agree with that.  How else could you get anything done without structure.  This makes me appear rigid, but it makes the most sense to me.

As a writer these typologies would be beneficial if I wrote biographies and dictionaries.  As a student, they will be beneficial in structured learning, maybe not so much for anything that requires creativity or imagination.  I tried writing a book with my oldest daughter.  I thought it would be fun to have her come up with a story and I would write it and she would draw the pictures.  She told me the beginning of her story and I wrote feverishly and told her we would continue later that week.  I wanted so badly for it to be just as she told it to me, but I was saying well how about if the princess did this or how about this scenario.  After 3 or 4 pages of this, she could tell that mommy was being a little too helpful.  I kept what we came up with, and we didn't finish it.  I did a lot better with telling stories from loads of library books, that we would bring home every week.  Those provided a lot more fun than the writing of her own story.  We laughed a lot more with those.  One of the best times that we had was reading, "The Monster at the End of This Book,"  We laughed at every page and it took forever for her to go to sleep.  Now that's what I call a fun time.

I am definitely learning that as a writer, I need structure, I need it to make sense.  As a student, I may not be much fun, but I want to learn more and more, everything that I can from every subject.  Weighing too many options could really keep a writer from being productive or creative. 

This test seemed to me to tell me what I already know about myself.  I thought it might give me more insight in to who I am.  There were no surprises, so that part I liked.  As far as assisting me writing in college, I don't think that taking the test would change or improve what I do.

In Ms. A's instructions for this assignment, she wrote, "Have fun."  I am trying Ms. A, I'm really trying.  I will publish this post after I have read it a few more times though, just to make sure.  

First blog ever.

Seems fitting that this is my first blog ever, since it is the assignment for my first college class ever.  I am a mother to two Awesome girls, I love to read, mostly news, I know, boring.  My dad loved to read also,  he read the newspaper everyday, and watched the news, a lot.  The funny thing was though, he did not talk much at all.  I am the same way, I am not much of a talker, so this blogging thing is quite a challenge.  I am passionate about so many things, but I keep them to myself.  Maybe this blogging assignment will bring me out of my shell more.