the juggling act crashes and burns ....

don't you hate to admit defeat?!  i know i do.  i struggle along trying to balance everything even when i know i've scripted myself for failure.  in my last post i talked about all the online classes i had enrolled in suddenly coming together in a sort of cosmic convergence designed specifically to make me question my sanity.  which has been hanging by a thread of late, but that's another story for another day.   if i remember.  at my age, there's no guarantee.

so, here it is, two weeks after my last post and i finally have had to give up any pretense that i could actually do it all.  do YOU ever feel that way, like you CAN do it all, juggle all those balls in the air and manage your time so effectively that you get it all done and still have time at the end of the day to go out for drinks with your friends?  and then reality steps in and takes control and knocks you back to your senses?  kind of like life having a bit of a chuckle at your expense.

one of my classmates in my current blogging class recently wrote a post about spinning plates and multi-tasking.  she referred to that guy on the old Ed Sullivan show who would spin a bunch of plates and bowls on sticks. all at the same time.   he was a fan favorite, as i recall.  he was right up there with Topo Gigio for entertainment value on a Sunday night, right? 

her post struck a real chord with me, because i've been struggling with so many class commitments.  but i finally realized that i couldn't possibly do justice to them all, and so i narrowed my attention and energy to the two where i had actually kept up with the reading and some level of participation with the other members of the classes: blogging and journaling.  i feel good about this decision; it's created a more manageable project for me, and as a result i'm enjoying the classes more.

i'll pick up the photography class at a later date, probably in May when the other classes have completed.  the art projects workshop is one of those "work at your own pace" classes that will last through December, perfect for focusing on later.  and the research i did for this year's IFJM will be saved on my computer for April 2014 so that i can do justice to that project without all the other distractions.



i guess those words of wisdom from the White Rabbit were prophetic:  "You made it! Oh dear, it looks like you didn't make it after all, haha he-hoo!"

all together now ... haha he-hoo!!!!

i'm late / i'm late / for a very important date!

am i the only one that feels that way?!  never mind that i'm retired and have plenty of time on my hands.  but i always feel this time pressure when i go through a long spell of no activity and then suddenly find that i've over-committed myself.  it makes me want to grab clumps of my hair and run around like a crazed person, screaming "i can't do it, i can't do it, what have i done?!" ... at least i have the good sense to only do that in my head so that i at least maintain some semblance of normality to the untrained eye.

this sense of impending doom started this past weekend when i suddenly realized that all the fabulous online classes i signed up for back in February start this week.  yikes!  so the classes in journaling, blogging, photography, and art projects will all be competing for my time and energy. 

as everyone who knows me knows, i have a very limited supply of energy and stamina.  not to mention a short attention span when it comes to doing things i "should" be doing.  i'm easily distracted.  *grin*

add to the mix the fact that April is IFJM, which i've mentioned before.  i'm determined to participate this year, by hook or by crook.  i decided on a theme (more on that later) and have  already done most of the research, so i'm ready to make some journal pages, thank goodness.

when i take a deep breath, i actually realize that i can handle these online commitments.  but i do feel overwhelmed if i let myself dwell on what i'll need to do for each class.  i'll just have to remember these words of wisdom from the White Rabbit: "You made it! Oh dear, it looks like you didn't make it after all, haha he-hoo!" 

the alternative is to
go back to my bed
throw bedclothes over my head

--------------------------
apropos of nothing in particular: here's a little trivia gem i stumbled across when i was looking up the Alice in Wonderland quote i used for the title:

The English novelist Aldous Huxley worked with Walt Disney on early scripts for this project in late 1945. The original idea was for a cartoon version of Alice embedded in a flesh-and-blood episode from Lewis Carroll's life. Huxley's mother, Julia Arnold, was one of the little girls that Carroll used to enjoy photographing, and to whom he told the Alice stories. The project was close to Huxley's heart, but Disney found his work too intellectual, and it was not used. Huxley received no credit on the finished picture.

if it's March ....

it must be almost time for International Fake Journal Month!

holy cow, that creeps up on me every year.  last year, as it turns out, i did NOT participate.  see here for my thoughts on the 2012 IFJM.

Roz just posted a reminder about this year's IFJM so i need to get my thinking cap on NOW to formulate a plan for this year's fake journal.  two years ago it was a trip to Ireland, which was great fun.  last year i had in mind doing a sort of time travel/historical journal, a kind of "what if" exercise.  but that didn't really fit the IFJM parameters for creating journal entries in current time. 

i might do another travel journal, not sure where i'd visit though.  lots of choices, that's for sure.  or maybe i'll just "travel" right here in River City and fake write some fake journal entries.  ha!

the game is on.  i'll spend the next 3 weeks procrastinating thinking about topics, avoiding researching/googling, napping outlining my project.  the one thing i've learned from the previous years is that the pre-planning pretty much has to be done be early April in order to hit the ground running and create at least 6 entries to actively participate in the competition.  you'll know how successful i've been IF when you see my entries posted here on the blog.

cross your fingers and toes for me!!

more later

if it's April, it must be International Fake Journal Month

funny how that rolls around again each year and manages to catch me off guard!

i had an idea for this year, but after exchanging some emails with Roz to clarify the ground rules, i realized that my idea was not really suited to the concept of a fake journal.  Roz suggested i tackle my concept during NaNoWriMo in November, so i may very well do that.

as of now, six days in, i'm still undecided if i'll actually participate this year.  last year i "armchair traveled" to Ireland, and that was great fun.  this year i'm low-energy and behind already on my writing classes, so i hesitate to take on another writing project.  but you never know.  stay tuned ;)

of paper and pens and such

so, we all know how addicted i am to blank notebooks, journals, pens, colored markers, Washi paper tapes, stickers, ephemera, and .... well, it's an endless list.  i'm nothing if not obsessive-compulsive anal-retentive, or as i fondly refer to myself ... OCAR.

today, i'm going to share some sites i particular enjoy.  let's call it Link Love, if you will.  my goal is to enable share with other addicts paper/pen lovers like myself.  i want to spread the addiction love ;)

here are the links, in no particular order of importance ....

(1)  penchant for paper's notebook system -- i just discovered this today thanks to a post over on another favorite, notebook stories.  i love the way Heather has organized her notebooks, although my personal philosophy is that consolidation is the best way to go because it presents a snapshot of your life in one place.

(2) it's almost April 1 and time for another round of International Fake Journal Month (IFJM), which is one of the reasons i check Roz Stendahl's blog regularly.  today she had a fun video about creating a journal with paper scraps.  check it out.

(3) speaking of IJFM, in my "journaling for memoir" class i'm taking, i wrote a list of things that i have nurtured me, including the fabulous new idea for this year's fake journal (last year was my fake trip to Ireland, or as my instructor Amber described it, my armchair travel).  Amber was intrigued, so i sent her links to Roz's IFJM site.  she found the concept really exciting and wrote her own posting about it.  check out Amber's IFJM post.

(4) always looking for the latest and greatest from Moleskine (let's all say it together now .... mol-a-skeen-a).  imagine my delight at discovering the latest new thing from Moleskine: postal notes.  think of it, little moleskine notebook thingies that you can write or draw or collage in and then send to someone else.  wouldn't you love to get one of those in the mail?  i know i would!  

(5) and just yesterday Rice Freeman-Zachery posted a link to her interview with Mark B Hill at Create Mixed Media.  check out his envelope project ... how fabulous is that?!  and yes, i sent my address to him in the hopes that one day, one of his fabulous envelopes will magically appear in my mailbox.  *grin*

i have hordes scads an endless supply of links to share, but i'll save those for another day.  maybe a rainy day, but there are so few of those here in the desert that it'll more than likely be a sunny day when next i post Link Love.

IFJM 2011 - Day 5

IFJM 2011 - Day 4

IFJM 2011 - Day 3

IFJM 2011 - Day 2

IFJM 2011 - Day 1

{ iClick on image to enlarge }

International Fake Journal Month (IFJM)

well, ok, i'm late to the game on this one. but after postponing my participation in IFJM for 2 years already, i decided to just dive in for the last 8 days and see what i can do. i completely rejigged my whole approach and my new idea seemed like such fun that i couldn't resist doing at least a few pages! the fake journal is my fake trip to the very real Ireland.

more shortly, when the first page is completed.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

yup, that's right, it's almost November again and time for another month of attempting to write a novel or some semblance therein. every year i aim for 50k words so i can "win" the event. so far i've managed to only win once, in 2008. and that's only because i did a massive word dump, lol.

this year my intention was to continue with a wee project i started early last year, a travel journal for a fake trip to Ireland. the concept for that started back in the spring of 2009 when i ran across International Fake Journal Month (IFJM) over on Roz Stendahl's blog. but i happened across it too late in the month (April) to fully participate. i decided then that i would flesh out the story in November for NaNo, stocking up on a plethora of Irish tour guides and miscellaneous travel books. and i did make a feeble attempt at writing the travel journal, mapping out the itinerary, making notes of places to see and things to do. i did dump a lot of words into the book but the project felt overwhelming, and i didn't get very far with it.

i did think, however, that i had enough to work with to participate in the 2010 IFJM project. well, April 2010 came and went without any activity related to Ireland. le sigh.

ramping up for this year's NaNo, i thought for sure i'd write my Irish travel journal. and that's been my intention for weeks. but creeping into the back of my mind was the idea of capturing family memories. i had started writing family stories for my OASIS writing class a few years ago, and continued in the same vein when i took an online memoir writing class through Writer's Digest. and what has really brought it to the forefront is the flurry of family emails in the last week surrounding the birth of my first great-nephew, Jack.

i finally realized late in the day yesterday that the urge to write family stories is too strong to ignore. trying to focus on the Irish project felt forced, while the memoir kept poking through my awareness, demanding my attention. and because the memoir feels more natural, i think it will help keep my focus and my enthusiasm for the month of writing. i may even reach 50k again!!

there will be many more posts on this subject, so it's fair to say "to be continued."