blog — Page 14

Cue Maurice Chevalier

November 29, 2017 at 9:31 am by Claudia

I posted this photo on Instagram yesterday because the sun flooding into the kitchen was amazing.

I hear that we’re not supposed to post the same photos on Instagram that we post on our blogs. And then I roll my eyes because who made up that rule and how did he/she become an “expert?” I am reminded of one of my favorite movies, Gigi, and one of my favorite songs in that movie, sung by Maurice Chevalier: I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore.

And I am. By ‘young’ I mean my chronological age and also my blogging age. I’m coming up on 10 years as a blogger and I’ve reached that happy place where I simply don’t care what should and shouldn’t be done. I don’t care about followers and numbers and my brand, because I don’t have a brand and don’t want one. I will leave all of that to the younger and more energetic, bless them.

I’ve really been thinking about this a lot lately, both in terms of blogging and my professional work as a coach. And I’ve had talks about it with my best friend, Laural, and my husband. We’ve all reached that point in our professional lives where we’ve accomplished a great deal and are proud of our work. We no longer feel competitive. We don’t need to grab another rung on the ladder. We’re not retired, we’re all still working, so this isn’t about that. But we are accepting of who and what we are and, boy, is that a peaceful and wonderful feeling.

It took a while to get here but it was worth the wait.

Look! My parents’ sansevieria is going to flower again! There’s another budding stalk on the other side of the plant. Hello Mom and Dad. I know you’re here.

And I have a succulent baby. This one will take a while, but I’m cultivating patience.

The kitchen table has morphed from being a mail catch-all (still is) to a conservatory for some of my plants. I posted this on IG so that Don would see it and therefore have some warning before he arrives home on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. He thought he had shows on Sunday and was coming home on Monday until he learned differently yesterday.

His second recording session went well and he felt better about his voice. There will be some overdubbing done on all the vocals this week, but other than that, the cast album has been recorded. Everyone is now packing up their trunks (which will be picked up on Friday) and sending boxes home.

I, on the other hand, am dealing with the mundane: recycling and taking things to the dump. And running to the grocery store.

Happy Wednesday.

Paring Down

October 4, 2017 at 9:29 am by Claudia

What did Don and I do before FaceTime? Well, we talked on the phone like everyone else, but since this has been a year of a lot of time spent apart, though late to the game, we have enthusiastically embraced FaceTime. Seeing his face grounds me, as does hearing his voice. He has a great voice. I just finished a session with him before he headed to rehearsal.

On Sunday, the cast flies to New Orleans. They will be teching the show there. Not a bad place to put on a show, right?

Blogging update: Yesterday, after having given it a lot of thought, I deleted the book blog, Just Let Me Finish This Page.

Yes, I did. I hadn’t posted there for 6 months. 6 months! I found I was feeling guilty about it, but not really wanting to maintain the blog. I haven’t been writing as many reviews – just a few lately through TLC Book Tours, and I post those on this blog. There are many books I could review as I get offered advanced copies and I still might review them, but if I do, I’ll do it here.

The fact is, maintaining more than one blog is a lot of work. And I find that I am less and less inclined to do that. Maybe it is related to the fact that I no longer feel any ambition in that arena. (Thank goodness!) I love my blog, and I love posting every day. I am happy with what it now is, and feel no need to get more readers or have it be anything other than my little journal here on the Web. I found myself feeling tremendous pressure to read for the sake of reviewing and then feeling guilty because I wasn’t doing that.

I want to read because I love to read. At my own pace. For myself.

And the blog was linked to this blog on my host and I no longer wanted to worry about spam and hacking attempts or worry that someone would hack into this blog via JLMFTP. It takes too much energy and dealing with that kind of thing on this blog is more than enough.

So, it’s gone. I feel a twinge of sadness, but only a twinge. Since I haven’t posted in so long, you would probably not even notice its absence, but I wanted you to know, nevertheless. And if you do have it on your blog list, you can remove it.

The only reason my other blog, Through a Lens Daily, is still up is because it’s on Blogger and I can just leave it there. I also use it to catch up on other blogs through the blog list on the sidebar. I haven’t posted there in years!

One girl. One blog. And there you have it.

Happy Wednesday.

On Tuesday

October 3, 2017 at 9:44 am by Claudia

It takes a bit longer each morning for the light to sneak its way into the kitchen and living room. It’s colder, too, and I grab my shawl when I come downstairs. It’s that time in the fall when the mornings are cold (yes, I caved and turned on the heat) and the afternoons are warm and sunny. The seasonal change has definitely made its presence known here.

I deliberately stayed away from the TV news yesterday until the evening news came on. One must be informed, of course, but I also have to find moments and pockets of peace in my day. But, oh, my heart breaks for those who are suffering in this senseless tragedy, those who have lost loved ones, those whose lives will never be the same.

And, I don’t want to hear another politician who gets money from the NRA issue a statement about ‘love and prayers.’ If you ‘love,’ then show us that love by taking action.

I spent a lot of time working on the blog yesterday. Some plugins weren’t performing well – still aren’t, but I’m trying to remedy that. Because of a php update (don’t ask me to explain – I can’t) some of the plugins I use stopped working correctly. One of those was the plugin I use for Comment Replies. Many of you were trying to leave a comment and getting a message that it wasn’t working. It was, but who wants to go through that every time? I was getting the same message when I tried to reply to your comments. Plugins are the way in which WordPress sites can be modified and enhanced. The problem with them is that some developers stop updating them and they no longer work as they should. For some reason, comment reply plugins seem to suffer from this more than others. I finally found a new one that works, but if you’re use to seeing your name and email already there when you go to make a comment, you’ll have to re-enter it. More work being done today and I then I hope that’s it for a while.

Sometimes maintaining this blog is a pain in the tush.

Impressionistic early morning morning glory.

Happy Tuesday.

Cue Maurice Chevalier

Paring Down

On Tuesday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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