Archive for December, 2006
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
Sleeping through the night…
Oh my goodness.
Figuring out how to get babies to go to sleep is in the news again. Dan Hurley, writing in the New York Times today, reports that researchers have what he calls “soothing news” for parents. After years of pediatricians and sleep experts yelling at us to let infants cry it out in their cribs, now they’re [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in kids, real life by sandi
Monday, December 11th, 2006
No more complaining!
I’ve made a momentous life decision: I’m not going to complain anymore.
I know, I know. This is HUGE. Like most people, I’m sort of a fun, recreational complainer much of the time. It’s not unlike me to notice all the ways that things could be so much better, and then–in the most fun-loving, helpful way possible, of [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in real life by sandi
Friday, December 8th, 2006
The best thing about writing a novel
I hate to say this, but this was one of those days when I felt sorry for anybody who wasn’t right now writing a novel–anybody, for instance, who was out doing Productive Things, like holiday shopping, or Healthful Things, like exercising or walking their dogs.
One of my favorite sayings is on my bulletin board over my [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in writing by sandi
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
Aging mama
Well, I’ve been trying to reach my mother for days now, and haven’t gotten an answer to my phone calls.
When you have a 75-year-old parent 1,800 miles away from you, this is not a good thing. Especially when you have the kind of 75-year old parent who recently smote an entire grocery store by [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in real life by sandi
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
Maira Kalman’s beautiful blog
Today brought much news, hardly any of it good. The Iraq Study Group finally got around to pointing out that the war isn’t going well, but we’re still probably going to stay there. Taco Bell blamed the lowly scallion for making people sick. Christmas shoppers apparently aren’t buying as much as they need to for the economy to stay [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Meta by sandi
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
Teenage angst in diary form
I hadn’t thought about my teenage diary for years…but today there was a show on Talk of the Nation about a book called Mortified.
According to the book jacket, “Mortified (which is also a stage show) takes real childhood journals and documents and edits the entries into captivating, comedic, and cathartic stories, introduced by their now older (and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in kids, real life, writing by sandi
Monday, December 4th, 2006
How do you find a blog?
I’ll be honest here. I am new to this world of blogging, and just about every aspect of it seems strange to me. When I first started writing this, I asked everybody I knew who knew about blogs, “But how will people find my blog?”
Everybody had the same answer, delivered with complete confidence. ”Oh, you’ll see. [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Meta by sandi
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
Saturday in the empty nest
Okay, I have to admit it: ever since the nest emptied out (last kid going off to college and all), I’ve been sleeping late. Gloriously, happily late.
There are some bad parts of not having kids at home–for instance, if you make cookies, you have to lick all the beaters yourself, and that can make you gain [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in real life by sandi
Friday, December 1st, 2006
You know you’re a writer if…
Hey, it’s always good to hear from other people who are still in their pajamas at six in the afternoon, like I am today.
The house today is a wreck with papers stacked up everywhere as I’ve appropriated the dining room for moving scenes of my novel around…also, I’m super-caffeinated on a whole pot of tea…haven’t [...]