My proof copy of my book arrived in the mail yesterday. I found it on my kitchen island when I returned home from work around 8:30 last night, in a most undignified place (at the bottom pf the pile of mail). I picked it up and said to my husband (who was standing at the sink with his back to me):
Me: Do you know what this is?
Bill: A book?
Me: Not a book…the book.
Bill: {Blank stare}
Me: My book.
Bill: OooooooooooOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh; your book.
Then he turned his attention back to whatever he was doing in the sink.
I started to tear open the cardboard encasing it when a thought stopped me mid-tear.
I worked on this book for about 2 years. It was now about 9pm, I was tired, my husband was distracted…I was not giving my book the respect that it deserved. I stopped.
I’m going to wait until I have an uninterrupted block of time. I’m going to open the package slowly and savor the moment, fully aware that I am about to hold the first book that I wrote myself in my hands.
Jennifer, owner of Somethin' Sweet Bakery in Sanford
Maybe it’s Sunday afternoon and 86 degrees and the last thing in the world you want to do is hang around the house with your cranky kids, since you yourself are very cranky. Here’s an idea: throw…er, put the kids in the car and drive over to Somethin’ Sweet Bakery, 883 Main Street Suite 1 in Sanford, next to Get Fired Up.
Jen opens for business Thursday through Saturday from 11:00am to 7:00pm and Sundays from 11:00am to 4:00pm. She may open other days as well; for example last Monday Jen opened for the 4th of July to provide excellent edible support for hungry (for Somethin’ Sweet!) parade go-ers.
Jen has always loved baking and that fact comes through loud and clear to anyone who has been lucky enough to enjoy any of the Whoopie Pies (try the Coffee-filled Chocolate Whoopies! They are amazing!), cookies, brownies, and other treats that you can find at her bakery. She changes up the flavors and items daily but of course, like the ice cream parlors always have vanilla and chocolate on hand, you can always find the old standbys (vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for instance) represented at Somethin’ Sweet! Jen is working on the new website for her business (somethinsweetmaine.com), but if you need a focal point for your (sweet) meditation today, check out the picture up there now. . . you will have no trouble sitting for 20 minutes if you are focusing on that.
Speaking of Somethin’ Sweet, the decor of the store, as well as the lovely store owner, are exactly that. Jen mentioned that she is working on some new offerings (this week she made caramel blondies..now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!), so keep coming back and check out what’s in the display case. You can also check out the daily flavors which she posts on Facebook. You may find that, despite the variety of options, your tween will always want the Cookie Dough Cupcake. Let her have it, as long as she stays away from your Chocolate Whoopie Pie with Coffee Filling…
🙂
Jen is taking Somethin’ Sweet on the road tomorrow (Monday, July 11) night. She will be at the Sanford Mainers baseball game at 6:30pm at Goodall Park, Roberts Street in Sanford. Why not eat a light supper then pile the fam in the car for an evening of baseball and baked treats?
We got the call that the desk had arrived at the furniture warehouse and was ready to be picked up. They offered one more time to deliver it and assemble it in our home for the low, low price of $75. We had already turned this down once, but on this particular day my husband (who also happened to be the picker upper and assembler) was busy in the garden.
“When can you do it?” he asked the guy. The answer was “Today,” so he said, “Okay, see you soon.”
Well, “soon” turned out to be an hour and a half later, a small truck bearing two men and the two parts of my desk arrived. This in itself was kind of confusing, since the warehouse was only 20 minutes away, but it soon became clear what had taken them so long, After coming in the house to announce their arrival and to see where the desk was going, they went back out to the truck and reappeared carrying the already assembled first half of the desk. Hmmm, recalling that the man had said it would cost $75 (first) to deliver the desk and (then) to assemble it, I naturally assumed he meant assemble it in my home. When the first piece was pushed up against the wall, I decided to just wait and see what happened next.
They disappeared again, then after a loud crash and much whispering, came back with the second half of the desk It soon became evident that something wasn’t right. My husband finally figured out that because they put the desk together elsewhere, they didn’t realize that it was supposed to be a “left return” and not (the more common) “right return” and they put it together backwards.
Long story short, we got a replacement (they fortunately had a correct version in the warehouse) the same day and we didn’t pay the $75 delivery/set up charge (okay, so this last part was my idea~comp for pain and suffering). What was that about anyway? I mean. Sears only charges, what, $30 or $35 dollars to deliver a major appliance and will even take the old one with them when they leave ! Just sayin’.
P.S. I didn’t mean to make them cry!
P.P.S. The loud crash? That was our wreathe that was hanging intact on the front door when they arrived, and was lying in pieces on the coffee table in the living room after they left. They never said a word of apology (or anything else) to either me or my husband about breaking the wreathe…true professionals? Not!
Summer of Love is the current show at the Ogunquit Playhouse. May I just say this: save your money. Skip this show and buy tickets to Legally Blonde instead, which stars Sally Struthers (among others) and runs from 8/24-9/17. I have seen Sally Struthers in two other Playhouse Productions and (both my husband and I agree on this) each one was excellent.
Summer of Love would have been better entitled Evening of Boredom. I liked some of the songs that the cast performed in this show so I tolerated it a bit better than did my husband, who was not a big fan (neither of most of the songs nor of this production). The actors were okay, but no one really stood out except for the singer who performed a cover of Janis Joplin’s Piece of My Heart. She did an excellent job; it was the highlight of the show.
Consider going to The Blue Elephant if you are going out for dinner before seeing a Playhouse. It’s close enough so that you don’t have to rush to get there and the service and food are excellent. I don’t have pictures of the dishes that we ordered for once because I decided to give my husband a break from having to wait to start eating (while the food cools) so that I can take pictures. We were out to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary that night so priorities came into play. We ordered the Appetizers for Two, Drunken Noodles (which came with beef and chicken), and Hot Basil Stir Fry with beef (which came with way too many onions~and I like onions). Note to self: beware ordering menu items which mention onions in the future.
This picture is of me and Bill taken shortly before we got married…we really haven’t changed a bit.
I’m still thinking about my New Year’s Resolution: my one word that morphed into two words: Edit and Focus. After beginning the process of setting up a home office and the necessary decluttering that has come along with that, I am thinking it makes sense to continue the momentum that I’ve got built up and “take it on the road”…er, to the other rooms in the house. (Was that an original thought or did my husband plant it in my subconscious mind? Hmmmmm…..).
At the moment, the clutter that spilled over into my bedroom is reduced but still remains. What I have left to go through includes, but (unfortunately) is not limited to:
Knitting supplies: Patterns, yarn stash, needles and other sundries
A filing cabinet with warranties, extra office supplies, vital records, and infinite other minutiae
DVD’s, and (OMG!) video cassette tapes
All of my writing files, notebooks, journals, project ideas
I’m reading a book that mentions a resource that I was following about five years ago but forgot about: The FlyLady. Ready to get real and get rid of clutter but don’t know where to start? The FlyLady is your gal. Her BabySteps will take you right from square one to the finish line, presumably eradicating your clutter along the way.
My other decluttering activities this month: still parting with some books (one at a time, gifting them to friends), still unsubscribing from automatic emails (this month mostly from foodie ones…yes, it hurts). I’m also trying to bring less clutter into the house in the first place (yes, that’s Bill’s idea). I’m also looking at the clutter surrounding finances (mostly paper files that I’m afraid to part with).
P.S. Yes, I admit it: After I went through the house and retrieved every single book I owned…I found more books. 😦 Sad but true.
It took several days and lots of cold hard decision-making, but the purge is (almost) complete. It was interesting (and sad) for me to note that I had no less than 5 books about Simplifying My Life.
We don’t know when we’ll be transitioned to working at home but we’ve pretty much been told to be on standby for a couple of weeks already. This is stressful because I”m still waiting for the desk to be delivered! It would be really helpful if the desk arrives before person who is installing the ergonomic keyboard tray does! Hopefully that will come next week.
First I had the thought that I had to get honest about the books. How many are there, really? I got all the books from all the hiding places…I thought. When I was done I remembered a few more places that I was keeping books in the house and ferreted them out and added them to the (rapidly increasing) pile.
The next thought I had was this: I almost never reread a book (I definitely won’t re-read a novel). This thought was followed by an epiphany: why, then, was I keeping any book I was sure I would never read again?
I didn’t know.
Next I thought, wouldn’t having at least one bookshelf containing only books that I haven’t yet read be wonderful? As would having empty space on the shelf to receive new books. Heaven.
Anyway, back to the book purge. Here’s what I did with them:
I put a box out at the end of my driveway with a sign: “free to a good home”.
I brought some to the library for their annual book sale.
I made a gift of some of them to several friends.
I brought some to Annie’s Book Stop, where they give you store credits in exchange for your used books.
Then I took the what was left, organized and shelved them. When I was done, I felt fabulous. Every time I’m missing one of the books I gave away, I remember the shelf on the book case that contains a little empty space now.
We haven’t had a babysitter in a while so we decided to watch a movie at home. Next up in the Netflix Queue was The Company Men. We found out about this movie from the preview of another movie (don’t ask me which one). I was surprised to know that it was a relatively recent movie starring Ben Affleck (and several other famous, well-liked actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner). I hadn’t heard a thing about it before seeing the preview.
I was very interested to see this movie because it deals with a topic that is all too familiar to many of us: being “downsized” from a job by a company that is “reorganizing”. I’m not a big fan of Ben Affleck but because the topic interested me (and the Q was getting a little lean) we got it.
Around the same time I was also reading Caitlin Shetterly’s memoir: Made for You and Me. Both the movie and the book are very honest (even raw at times) accounts of what it’s like when life as you know it does a 180 degree turn. The movie follows three men who lose their jobs and the effects (for better, for worse) that it has on them, their families, their friendships. The book also talks about how much having, or not having, a job influences all aspects of life.
Both remind you what is important in life, and what is not, and ultimately, what really matters to you may not be what you think.
I’ve been reading Mary Carlomango’s book Live More, Want Lessslowly over a period of months. It’s organized into 52 chapters and my initial intent was to read a chapter a week (as the author suggested), then implement the “action items” listed at the end of each chapter to help pare down my belongings, hopefully simplifying my life in the process. I started off okay, but then lost track of which week I was ‘supposed’ to be on, so now I’m picking it up occasionally and reading at random.
The chapter about books came at exactly the moment that I most needed it. Currently I have books in many locations throughout the house. Now I am emptying out the room to use as an office that contained the bookcase and about half of our (okay, mostly my) books. In our first home, we added on a room (not just for the books!) and my husband had a bookcase built to fit on a wall that was very tall and very wide and accommodated all of my books: past, present, and future. When we moved the big bookcase wouldn’t fit anywhere in the new house, so we found a smaller one at a yard sale which I am still using.
At first I thought I”d be able to reduce my collection and make it fit the space I had available, and I did that. Unfortunately, over the years I have amassed books. I’ve been sort of stuck for the past few days as I tried to decide about what to do with not only the bookcase (where to put it in the now empty room) but also the books on it, on top of it, and in the basket along side it (full disclosure: there are more in my closet, under my bed, and in the built-in bookcase in the bedroom…oh, and in the kitchen!). When I posed this question to my husband, he said, “Maybe you don’t put the bookcase back in at all…”
That brought me up short.
Maybe I was asking the wrong question! What if I don’t put the bookcase back at all? In that case I would have (at least)one different question: What to do with the books?
Avenue Q opened up the season at the Ogunquit Playhouse this year. The show is sort of a perversion of Sesame Street that is funny as hell and certainly worth seeing. The night we went was during one of the Bruins’ Playoff games (season ticket holders have only limited say over what night the tickets are for) and was the first show in years that my husband and I could remember that wasn’t sold out. It was still impressively full, though, considering (reference: Bruins’ Playoff game).
This show’s ticket has the warning not to bring children under 17 due to the explicit language and, um, live (puppet) sex onstage (two darn good reasons, don’t you think?) but then I read an interview with Brad Kenney this month in the York Independent and became confused. He is quoted in the article as qualifying the aforementioned good advice by saying:
“Well, we recommend parental discretion for anyone under 17–but, if you do bring them, you will be considered VERY cool! And they probably know all the songs anyway!”
Huh?
I attended a Playhouse show a couple of years ago (The Full Monty) which was a show (obviously) intended for adult audiences. Parents in the front row somehow thought it would be okay to bring their kids to see it too, one of which looked to be about tween-aged. Not only was the poor boy uncomfortable, but the actors on the stage were uncomfortable as well! How do I know this? Because one of them gestured to the boy in the front row and made a comment about having a child in the audience cramping his style, or words to that effect.
Parents? Leave your kids at home for adult-themed live shows.
Brad? My 12-year-old does not already know any of the words to any of the songs in Avenue Q!
We had a Berber carpet down in the room. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing except that it wasn’t a wood floor and that’s what we both really wanted. After we bought the house we planned to replace that floor at some point, and had been talking about it for about 5 years or so. We decided to view my “work from home” event as an opportunity to finally take the leap and replace the floor in the new office.
We went to Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Ben’s Flooring in Biddeford. We discussed the pros and cons of dark versus light wood, bamboo versus cork, hardwood versus Pergo. After several trips to evaluate the options. we both agreed to go with a darker wood, Maple? No… Hickory! Hickory it is.
But, Hickory it (ultimately) wasn’t. In the end, the most important factor wasn’t how well my husband and I could compromise on what we each liked best. In the end, the most important factor turned out to be this: What was available, could be installed in a timely manner, and was within the budget we’d set.
Red Oak it is. Hey, at least we got the hard wood!
My proof copy of my book arrived in the mail yesterday. I found it on my kitchen island when I returned home from work around 8:30 last night, in a most undignified place (at the bottom pf the pile of mail). I picked it up and said to my husband (who was standing at the sink with his back to me):
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
You must be logged in to post a comment.