Category: Work from Home

There’s nothing for lunch!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Work from Home, writing

Okay, I am home and supposed to be writing, but I need to eat. I want something that I have here already so here’s what I’ve got:

Egg salad (Here’s my recipe)

  • 2 eggs, hardboiled  (I like to cut my eggs up with a slicer. It looks purty that way)
  • Mayonnaise (I am currently using Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise *subject to change without notice*)–just enough to  hold it together (unless I am making it for my husband, then it’s “Hey, have a little egg with your mayonnaise!)
  • Salt and Pepper
  • SECRET INGREDIENT: Celery salt.

Mix it all up.

Eat it with some chips (I am currently eating Cape Cod Salt and Pepper Kettle Chips *subject to change without notice*).

Back to writing.

BOOK REVIEW: LIVING AND WRITING ON THE COAST OF MAINE by Lea Wait

by Karen, posted in author, books, Work from Home, writing

I have read a couple of Lea Wait’s fiction books, so when I saw her latest book was  memoir-y, I was so excited wait writing cover! I am always interested in how other writers pull it together, how they structure their lives around their craft.

Lea’s book follows the seasons, and is a series of essays describing daily life at home with her husband, her writing, his painting, and their cats.

What comes through very clearly is her love for all of these things. Her four daughters and her grandchildren are also front in center in her heart and in her book.

There are some stories in the book that echo my own life, and I was happy to be reminded of my own memories about my tea-loving grandmother, walking in the beautiful Mt Auburn Cemetery in Watertown, MA, and adopting a kitten.  Like Lea, I have also experienced the gut-wrenching occasion of seeing a completed written piece somehow get deleted from my computer–however, unlike Lea, I no longer have a cat to hold responsible. I only had myself to blame!

That’s the first part. The second part of the book tells us a lot about her writing process. I loved reading about the ‘how to sign a book’ quandary, as she grappled with the same issues I did prior to my first book signing last April for One Brave Thing. She generously shares with us the elements she includes when writing her own (very successful!) books. I will be starting my own character journal immediately!

But the best thing I learned from this book is that Lea was 53 when she published her first book…just like me!  And she has written many, many books since then.

Hope (her favorite word!), people! It’s a beautiful thing!

This is a fast read that will appeal to anyone who loves Maine and anyone who loves their own family and town, as well as any writers. So buy Living and Writing on the Coast of Maine by Lea Wait and put it up on the shelf next to your copy of On Writing by Stephen King (whom she has met!).

**If you like my reviews, please like my author page on FB: K.M Creamer

 

Dear Coffee, I love you

by Karen, posted in Angels, family, friends, Life in the cube, Work from Home

coffee“Before coffee, I’m up, I’m moving around, but I’m not awake,” said some wise soul somewhere. Until I typed the words, I actually couldn’t remember where I’d heard it but I just did. Peter Falk uttered this truism in one of his Columbo episodes.

Truer words (about me) were never spoken.

How did I get here?
College.

My other favorite coffee quote is from a Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail: 

“I love Patricia. Patricia’s amazing. Patricia makes coffee nervous.”

🙂

I have surrounded my coffee drinking with cool stuff. (Why should the tea drinkers have all the fun rituals?)

  1. A Keurig, so that I never have to wait more than 30 seconds for my coffee.
  2. Coffee straws (see picture), just because I like them.
  3. Cute mugs, like the Dunkin Donuts one pictured here. I have several of these because they remind me of my Dad (who was a doughnut maker once) and my friend Sheri (who bought me one I really wanted one year for my cubicle at work when I really didn’t need another coffee mug).
  4. My little coffee warmer. Okay, so I have two of these: one in my home office and one next to my bed. They make me happy.

My current favorite coffee is Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, about which I often wax rhapsodic. Alas, it is a seasonal flavor.

So, I buy it by the case.  My friend Traci told me about Big Cat Coffees and the pricing there is FAB.U.LOUS.

Please participate in the poll below:

 

 

Comment below with your favorite coffee flavor!

Tranquilize your (winter) writing

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo2014, Work from Home, writing

IMG_9996We need to take care of ourselves while we are spending endless hours writing at our computers. Just because the NaNoWriMo has officially ended, if you’re like me, you have much writing still to do to get your project ready to see the light of day. We need to do things to keep our thoughts tranquil (OMG! My shoulder is killing me! I don’t have enough time! I’m frikkin’ starving!!) and our anxieties (OMG! I’ll never finish! This is garbage! I have to start over again!!)  at bay.

Here are some ideas for tranquilizing winter writing:

  1. 1. Get an swesome flannel sweater vest at Old Navy  that is as comforting as a BLANKIE.  🙂
  2. 2. Have you seen those microwaveable body blankets? Grampa’s Garden sells them. They are pricey but worth it. Zap for 7 minutes in the microwave and cover your desk chair with it (or slip it under you or over you if you are writing on the couch). You will LOVE it.
  3. 3. Get a Himalayan Salt Lamp. They create a nice atmosphere and ambiance when you are writing, reportedly purify the air around you (to counteract all the curse words you may be saying or writing!) and make a handy little night light if you need nap. 🙂

Every bit of heat and comfort helps, don’t you think? Does anyone have something to add to my list?

 

 

Minions!!

by Karen, posted in friends, Life in the cube, movies, Party for one, Work from Home

photoIf you love the minions and are trolling for minion products to surround yourself with happiness, I am here to lend you a hand.

Walmart has small packages of minion stickers in the card/party section and boxes of minion bandaids in the (you guessed it) the bandaid section. Both are inexpensive, under $3. The Women’s section has one-piece pajamas that are covered in minions, and it has a hood that consists of a minion head with glasses for $20.  (HINT: Makes a great Halloween costume!).

The Dollar Store has these cups (look to your left) for (you guessed it) only $1.

Target has some very cute T shirts for about $8-$9. I found one in the Women’s section, several Boys’ section (even a Halloween-themed one), and a couple in the Girls’ section. They also had some very cool knit hats and little stretchy gloves for boys, but alas, they only came in size 4-7 which was too small for my head and hands.

Pay attention when you cut the tags off of any minion clothing you buy; some of them have cool cardboard minion TAGS. I have used them for book marks, and I also have one taped to my computer monitor at work.

Why not? It’s the little things, right?

 

 

 

 

 

Mentoring: top ten tips

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, Midlife Crisis, quest for the best, Work from Home

officeIn my first career, I managed a restaurant. Over the years I trained a lot of waitresses, ice cream scoopers, grill cooks,  supervisors, and even managers. We had a three step process that worked really well.  First, she watched me do it. Next, I watched her do it. Finally, she did it by herself, but I was nearby; present but not hovering, taking more and more steps back until she was efficiently operating on her own.

That was it.

Now I am in a different profession.  I have been a trainer/mentor for many colleagues over the past several years. I recently have been on the trainee side of the equation again (hel-lo) and it’s helped me remember what is helpful and what is not so helpful from this side of the table.

  1. Listen to your trainee
  2. Choose your verbs carefully: “Struggling” is unkind. “Learning” is another word that expresses the same phenomenon but doesn’t leave your trainee feeling crushed.
  3. Rookies make rookie mistakes. Let them.
  4. Tell your newbie that she is doing a great job. Tell her frequently, every day, even it if’ it’s overstating things a bit. It’s very motivating.
  5. Adult learners process information differently (read: more slowly) than they did in their earlier decades of life, and they might be coming face to face with this difficult truth in a new and uncomfortable way. Give them frequent little breaks to absorb what is coming her way.
  6. Allow a little time to debrief at the end of the day.
  7. Chocolate helps. A lot. In large amounts.
  8. Introduce some fun; fun is good.
  9. Remind your newbie that you were sitting in the same seat that she is now when you first started, and look at you now!
  10. Never forget rule #9 yourself.

Betrayed

by Karen, posted in fitness, health, Midlife Crisis, Turning 50, Work from Home

So, my 3 mile, 30 minute morning walking route? It’s really only 2.14 miles and takes me 34 minutes to walk it. How do I know this? I downloaded an app to my iPhone called RunKeeper (and NO, I NEVER run but it tracks lots of activities in the free version) and walked my usual route.

OMG.

I had originally tracked the route I walk on my car’s odometer, but there was an error in there somewhere, apparently.

Shoot.

So, I had to keep going past my usual ending point to get a 3 mile walk in. The thing is, I signed up for a walking challenge at work and have committed to walking 10 miles per week.  I thought it would be easy enough to manage, if i just resumed my now long abandoned morning routine of

  1. Putting child on school bus
  2. Walking

but hey, guess what?  My half hour morning walk morphed into a 51.47 minute walk.

May I just take a moment to say “UGH”.

Expensive (disposable?) electronics

by Karen, posted in quest for the best, Work from Home, writing
The two most recent offenders

I had a Compaq Presario Desktop computer for more than 15 years, and it never stopped working. Well, except for that one time, when it caught a virus, but it recovered and never failed me again. Its only shortcoming? It was (a phenomenon with which so many of us who are aging are intimately familiar) getting slow, or slower, to be more precise (you know, in comparison to the younger–I mean newer–models).

In our household we’ve had 4 laptops (all different brands) live and die in under 4 years. What’s up with that?? Two of them have been repaired (for a few hundred dollars total) but the trust is now gone, you know what I mean? Like when your car doesn’t start for the first time…it’s hard to rely on it fully after that. You’re always on edge, waiting for it to let you down again.

Do any of you writers and bloggers out there have a computer (either a desktop or a laptop) that: 

  1. has everything you need on it to do everything you want to do
  2. didn’t cost you your first-born child
  3. is reliable and
  4. that you love? or at least like most of the time?

If yes, then please, for the love of God, tell me the name of it!

Thoughts on writing

by Karen, posted in books, family, friends, my one word, no fear, Work from Home, writing
My first book written during NaNoWriMo 2010

Okay, I was going to entitle this post “On Writing” but didn’t want to piss Stephen King off. This is my second year participating in the NaNoWriMo challenge. For those of you that wonder what that alphabet soup of letters stands for, it’s National Novel Writing Month and it takes place annually in November. Basically, we commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

Seriously.

Why did I participate this year when the book I wrote last year is still languishing on the shelf, so to speak? When I asked not only my husband but my Angels (at the Clay Hill Farm Angel Reading in October) if I should do it and they said, in a word, “No”?

I don’t know. But here’s something that I do know: as I sat here on November 27, and I typed my 50,000th word….it felt freakin’ fantastic!!!

So now I’m going to borrow one of  Oprah’s favorite sayings: “What I know for sure” on the evening that I finished my second NaNoWriMo and my second book (draft):

  1. Writing flourishes when you have deadlines.
  2. Writing is prolific when you stop editing yourself and just write.
  3. Writing gets done when you commit to doing it publicly (to me, NaNoWriMo is sort of the writer’s equivalent of Weight Watchers).
  4. Writing begets writing. The more I write, the more I write.

I also wonder if the fact that thousands of other writers are taking part in their own personal NaNoWriMo Vision Quest somehow results in a metaphysical momentum (you know, being part of something larger than yourself?)  that carries us all forward to reach the finish line.

Clearing clutter (continued)

by Karen, posted in Life in the cube, my one word, Work from Home, writing

I decided to take two days off from the computer and surprise! When I logged into my email today there were 97 messages.

Ninety. Seven. Messages.

I blame myself. I have subscribed to so many food blogs (for recipe purposes) and department stores and restaurants (for coupon and discount purposes) and writers and agents blogs (for writing tips and hey, maybe someone will publish my book!) that I have no time to actually read, and thereby potentially benefit from, them.

I have created a monster. With 97 legs. Now what?

Here’s my plan: If I receive an email and don’t have the time or the desire to read it at first glance, I shall just delete it. If I notice this happens more than once or twice, I shall unsubscribe.

That’s my story and I”m (hopefully going to) stick to it.

Addendum: The email count morphed up further to 102 in the time it took to write this post. Heavy sigh.