Carey Burns

Sometimes if I eat weird combinations of foods for dinner, I have really strange, sometimes terrifying dreams. Dinner last night was an odd combination (my shame prohibits me from admitting what I ate here) and the dreams didn't disappoint. First, I dreamed that I was an event planner and for table decorations for a spring wedding...I made little bride and groom Peeps. I used white chocolate to paint a dress on the Bride Peep and tinted the Groom Peep's chocolate tux a dark gray. There was a lot of edible glitter on the little candy plates I made and small edible flowers for the Bride Peep's bouquet. I never got to her veil. Oh, and the bride initially wanted a squirrel skin be at each table because she wanted to honor spring and nature. And she flopped a squirrel skin onto the table just so . I gave her an option of maybe a pine cone hedgehog bride and groom, the Peeps, or stuffed animal bride and grooms. Really had to talk up the Peeps to get her to give up the squirrel...

I have quite a few stories that don't seem to fit in anywhere. They're kind of like me: dark, but sweet...gorey, but funny...punk, but classic country... Never fitting in with one group of people. Anyway, there has to be somewhere that my misfits can call home so I subbed one this morning. With the subbing comes the waiting and well, we know how well I am with that part. (cue the GERD) Now that the story is out in the world, it is time to finish another piece. I'll need to channel the spirit of NaNoWriMo and just write this sucker without taking time to over-think each word and character. That's the only way I'll be able to get any farther.

Sunday was to have been a day of local junking but the hubby surprised me by suggesting we head over to an antique shop in Michigan City. We hit the road and arrived well before the shop's noon opening time so we ventured farther up into Michigan itself through a time zone and stopped at my favorite winery for a quick sample (for me) of their ice wine. With more time to kill, we went to St. Joseph. I have been in Lake Michigan during the summer with its waves hushing and roaring (on windy days) and felt the electric coolness of the air. It is one of my favorite places to be. Sunday was quiet. The lake was frozen still and huge sand dunes blocked most of the water from our view. The only sounds to be heard were the laughter of the gulls, the crinkling of the ice along the shore, and the babble of a hidden stream of melt water. It made me want to never leave. In a few months time when we return there will be no ice and the dunes will have receded back into the lake or be blown ...

Today is the anniversary of my dad's death. It felt like the scars of that loss were finally starting to heal over with a new, pinkish skin, but I was wrong. A friend's mom died last week as did a  beloved coworker and I can't seem to get the last image of my dad out of my head now. So many thoughts are going through my mind lately and I'm reevaluating a lot of things. Life is short. Time just keeps taking what it wants when it wants it. I want to enjoy the time I get. That's pretty much it.

The last few months, my arthritic toe, aka "The Witch's Toe" has been groaning to me about weather changes. From the moment I slither out of bed in the morning to the time I burrow in for the night, it zings and screams and throbs. I've got a pretty high pain tolerance, but this winter I've just become a real Whiny Whinerson. I haven't been to the gym in months and even walking the lower level at work has been a chore. That combination coupled with poor eating habits equals Bad News. Today I woke pain-free. I've gone half a day with no pain, no throbbing, and no zinging. Maybe this means the weather is changing yet again. Perhaps...Spring will be here soon? If only The Witch's Toe could give me the winning lottery numbers. I'd deck it out in gold as a thank you and treat it to weekly massages and pedicures and ensure it never got stubbed again. Alas, I'll just dust off my walking shoes and maybe buy a nice toe ring

I was asked by two author friends to be a beta reader for their respective books and after many months, I am finally done reading! At first, I was hesitant to do it because there's always that nagging voice in my head saying "You're a sham, not a real writer and you have nothing to contribute." So I stuffed that voice in a gunny sack and dropped it into a deep well and just read. I'm glad I did. Reading someone else's work allowed me to see some of the things (good and bad) in my own writing that I had been blind to before. Passive voice...telling instead of showing...over-used plot devices...different uses of flashbacks...all of these things in their work helped me reconsider my own. Their words also rekindled the word furnace in my own mind and I'm itching to get to work on the projects I've abandoned recently. I owe these two writers a big debt of gratitude for the inspiration and competitive itch their books gave me again. I also got to have ...

I started this blog off staring out at a gray day at a decaying pile of gray snow and wishing I was someplace warm. Someplace not here. Now it is the next morning and I'm cold and tired and still wishing for that someplace else. I've been stalled on a writing project project for too long with nothing new to switch over to, so I've been crafting things. These are alcohol ink dreamscapes that I've completed and I've been searching for something in their faint stars and rippled skies to inspire me. Nothing so far. I've also been working on a necklace for an upcoming raffle. Perhaps the repetitive action of making wrapped loops will put me in a zen enough state where I can see what this character of mine wants. If anything, maybe the creative outlet will just get me out of this funk. Spring is soon, right?