Author: the outside lane

He’s wearing Yogi Berra’s number on his little Yankees uniform, and at 6, he is more athletic than I ever was.  He’s something else, y’all.  That kid got out there on that field and he played his heart out.  It wasn’t like me running myself into the ground to be as good as the worst kid on the team.  It was entirely different. 

Thor appears to be middle of the pack for his team.  He hits well, he throws well, and he’ll figure out the catching.  He’s better at catching this week, than he was last week.  But he hits really well.  And he hustles. 

He was a little foggy on the rules, so when he started off playing 3rd base, he kept running to 1st, trying to field the balls that were headed that way.  In the second inning, they moved him to 1st base, and he did better.  He understood that concept a little more.  When they moved him to Shortstop in the 3rd (and final) inning, he made a spectacular play that would have resulted in an out, if there were outs in T-ball.  Uhm…there are no outs in T-ball.  There are also no scores.  I guess this is great for the kids, and I’m not saying a word to Thor about it, but I like having Winners and Losers.  Ha!

It was fun to watch how into the game Thor was.  He was just a jumping bean of focused energy the entire time.  Never took his eyes off that ball, but was working so hard to make a play.  Focus.  You could see it in his face, and you could see he felt like a big, big man.  He was DOING something.  And he followed the coach around like a shadow before the game started.

What I liked best was this:  When the coaches worked with him on where he should be when playing his positions, he didn’t seem to mind.  He just agreed (then forgot immediately, and had to be reminded) to follow their instructions and got right back down into his crouch, waiting on that ball.  You guys, I told Bryan that we’d done something right.

See, if I had been wearing that number 8 at age 6 (or even 16), and the coach had had to tell me I wasn’t playing my position properly, I’d have been so upset and mortified that I had done something wrong, that I wouldn’t have been able to play anymore.  I would have been physically sick to my stomach at having made a mistake in front of so many people, and I probably would have cried right there.  I had no self-confidence–I faked self-confidence very well, but I had zero confidence in my ability to correct mid-play and move on.  My son has that!  I’ve met a parenting goal!  I could have Snoopy danced right there in the bleachers realizing that he didn’t give a rip about who was watching, or what he’d done incorrectly, only on improving and playing better, and winning that game.

He was focused, confident, and determined to do everything in his power to bring home a win.  That meant two things to him:  1.  Keep the other team from scoring, 2.  Make a home run.

I’m wondering when he’s going to figure out and realize that everyone scores, and everyone gets to run all the bases at some point?  Until then, I’m just enjoying this.

Last month, I took a screenwriting workshop from Pilar Alessandra of On The Page, at the suggestion of high school chum, Laura House.  Laura is a great writer and has great taste in people, so I felt good about my chances of learning something interesting.  Remembering that frequent WWK contributor, and script guru Elspeth Grafton had also mentioned Pilar’s name made it that much more intriguing.  So, I ended up in a classroom with mostly members of the local Screenwriter’s Association, hoping no one would sniff me out for the n00b phony I was. 

 

We had been asked to come to class with an idea to build upon, and since Nicole and I have a bazillion finished manuscripts, I just picked one of those to play with.  I think Pilar was a little horrified when I said “werewolves”, but at least I didn’t say “vampires,” right?  Using her Coffee Break Screenwriter method, we spent the next couple of hours building a screenplay. 

 

Listen, I learned more about crafting a tight, well-rounded story in that workshop, than I have ever learned in any other class.  Afterward, I was talking with another author friend, Emily Reese, and told her I thought my whole process was revolutionized.  I am decidedly not good at organized writing, and even worse at outlining, but what I learned in Pilar’s workshop really showed me a new way of doing things.  I was impressed enough by it that I will point you back to Pilar’s website to buy the book or DVD, or sign up for a seminar yourself, rather than trying tell you what we did.  If you are at all interested in writing screenplays or anything else, you will want to study Pilar’s methods.

 

I was thinking about all this when I ran across Inspire and Imagine, a blog decorated with some stunning photography.  The particular article that caught my eye was about the author’s trip outside his comfort zone to attend a screenwriting workshop.  I hope he finds Pilar!

I used to work for a man, whose wife would call and share information with me.  One of her more amusing bon mots was that a lady should never use the words boobs, buck, or butt.  Up until then, I don’t think I used the words boobs or butt at all.  Now?  Now, I am practically Carlinesque with my desire to say all three of those words.

 

Why am I thinking about boobs?  I joined a blog networking community called SeededBuzz and have been reading all sorts of interesting articles.  Well, I have been bookmarking all sorts of articles that looked interesting to read later.  This morning I read one of my tagged titles regarding bra fitting.

 

Over on 32AA Bra, Amanda talks about how she fits clients for their lingere.  My sizing is a bit more generous than her speciality covers, but I always appreciate an expert’s opinion on sizing and fit.  I know I’ve been sized in more places than I care to admit, and done all the at-home math to end up with some hilariously ill-fitting results.  The worst is always when I try to talk to a Fitter about my build and make specific requests, and the Fitter looks at me like I’ve just blown her circuit board with my talk about having a high rib cage, broad shoulders, and wanting either a balconette or a demi-bra in either a stretch lace or a satin cup with minimal padding and absolutely no molding.  That usually ends with the Fitter just sort of wagging her measuring tape at me and saying words about numbers.

 

But as Amanda discusses, bodies aren’t all alike, so boobs won’t all fit into the same bras equally as well.  It is all about finding the style or brand that fits you best in a style, and very little to do with the alphabet.  In fact, of my 3 favorite bras, I have 3 different sizes.  Each one fits a little differently.  In one, I need a smaller band.  In one, I need a smaller cup.  In one, I wear a larger cup AND a smaller band.

 

So my advice is get your fitting, but remember that you are the one who knows best.

 

Some of my favorites:

the Heavently Wonder Push-up Balconette by Wonderbra

the Level 2 Naked Glamour Convertible Plunge by Calvin Klein

the Pure Bliss Microfiber Underwire by Hanes (that you can get in 3-packs at Sam’s!)

Last month I bought a Groupon for a steal on the already ridiculously affordable and awesome ELF cosmetics line.  My products arrived a few days ago, and this is my review.

 

Normally, I don’t buy mineral makeup.  I haven’t ever been happy with mineral foundations, I really dislike loose eyeshadows, and I had no idea that lipstick or lipgloss came in mineral styles.  When I bought the Groupon, I didn’t realize it was only for the mineral line, or I probably would have let it pass, but this way I got to try something new.

 

I bought 3 lipsticks (Rosy Raisin, Ripe Rose, and Rich Raspberry), 2 lipglosses (Wild, and Daring), a mineral blush (Bliss), a lipliner (Peachy), and a Kabuki face brush.

 

Honestly, I was really disappointed with the lipstick.  They are thick and heavy, and go on like pancake.  I feel like I am wearing my Granny’s Avon lipstick paste from 1973.  The colors are not true to the photos online (or to the flash photo I took), and look very similar on.  I’m going to give them further tries and see if they grow on me, but right now…enh.

 

Reserving judgment on the brush, which is a stiffer bristle than I had expected, but seems like I could like it.

 

The lipliner seems like great quality, but I chose poorly with the color.  Again, it wasn’t really true to what was shown.

 

However, the blush and the lipglosses are the usal ELF sort of fantastic!  I love these lipglosses!  I love them so much!  And the blush was the perfect shade for me.  It doesn’t take much to brighten up your whole face.

 

Buying makeup online is tricky anyway.  I’m glad I had the Groupon, or I would be very sad about the wasted money.  As it was, I ended up paying just what I would have spent on the products I like so well, so it’s a wash.

 

 

Outside of the clearly obvious benefits of motherhood, for me the most interesting thing about being a parent is watching a human being develop.  Thor’s growth and maturation process are fascinating to me, and I love when I get some insight as to what is actually going on inside his head.

 

We discussed and decided to have him tested for the Gifted & Talented program.  If he is GT, that should help alleviate the boredom issues we’re already seeing.  If he isn’t, eh, less homework.  I talked to him about it briefly, just to let him know that a test was coming up.  Apparently, they started the test yesterday.

 

I was talking to him before bed, last night, and he volunteered, “I got to go take a really cool test today.”  And from there, our conversation went something like this:

 

Me:  Oh, yeah?

T:  Yeah!  And it was really easy, but had a couple of hard questions.  I didn’t know how to do the hard questions, but I just thought about them and figured it out, and I got the right answers.  I did it.

Me:  Wow!  Tell me about the test.

T:  *hands a’flapping*  You know, it was…it was WAY more awesome than 1st Grade.  It had all kinds of cool questions about what belongs where, or what goes into what, or families and groups, and patterns.  I had to look at a picture, then fill in a circle with the right answer, and I got them all right.

Me:  Sounds like a good test.  How do you know you got all the answers right?

T:  Well, Mama, there was only one right answer for the questions, and that’s the one I picked. 

Me:  Did the teacher tell you they were the right answers?

T:  Mama.  I just know.  There was only one answer that was right for every one, and I just picked the right answer every time.  It was easy.

 

(So you know what I’m thinking, right?  “Oh, God, please don’t let this be overconfidence talking.  Because if this kid is 100% sure he got every answer right, and he thinks the right answers were clear as day and he is wrong?  That’s a whole other problem!”)

 

Me:  Okay.  Well, can you tell me more about it?

T:  It was awesome!  It was like a motorcycle and a car crashed into each other, only they both had shields up so they just bumped into each other and blew backwards and no one got hurt, but there was an awesome crash.  Like that!

Me:  Indeed!

 

I guess we’ll know results sometime in the nebulous future.  Meanwhile, I believe Thor is an above average thinker.  I am very pleased with his ability to reason, his level of curiousity about the universe (“Mama, can you tell me everything there is to know about particles?”  “Daddy, can you tell me everything there is to know about engines?”  “Grandma, can you tell me everything there is to know about fielding [in baseball.]” –All recent questions.) and the way he puts the diverse information together to make sense of it all. 

 

It does nag at me to think that a standardized test is about to categorize him as “gifted & talented” or “exceedingly average”, and will sort him through the system and base his future opportunities on how well he sorted dolphins from dogs in various swimming situations.  But at least he thought the test was fun.  As I recall, I walked out of my first GT test (at his age, even) thinking, “Well that was a big waste of my time.”