What Do I Have to Write About?

It's pretty obvious that I enjoy writing. It's also pretty obvious that I have been ignoring my blog.

I have been writing. Writing for pay and for the business. Just not writing what I want to write. Which leads to the question: What do I have to write about?

I have a lot to say, but what do I want to say? What do I want to put out into the digital abyss in the hopes that it resonates with someone, anyone? And what do I want to safeguard? I mean, really...how much does the world need to know about me?

I've been pondering this for about year now. And I guess I've come up with the conclusion that it doesn't matter. I'm just going to write for the sake of writing. Life is a big enough adventure with lots of writing foder.

Not a mirror reflecting
But a woman projecting
I'm defending endangered pleasures
Mine

© 2013 by Tammy Newman. All rights reserved.

Wheel Experience Abroad

I highly recommend renting a car when you travel abroad. Not only do you get to see the country-side from non-guided excursions, you have the adventure of following their roads and…their rules. Traversing down narrow lanes, navigating through a heard of mountain goats, gliding the open spaces, and bending along the sharp cliff-edged turns.

On my second visit to Greece, Jaclyn and I decided we would do just that: rent a car and tour the Peloponnese for a week before skipping off to the ever popular islands. I would wheel the cities relying on her navigation and she the country-side. Trusting a travel agent I had used before, our hotels and car were booked. Great prices and great itinerary; we really couldn’t complain. Anxious to get there and start our adventure, days moved at a snail’s pace.

The day we finally arrived in Athens I was astounded by my memory and walked us straight through the Plaka to the travel agent. The ancient city stayed true. Nothing changed. Why should it? 1000s of years or 7? What’s the difference there?

Sitting there, excited to get our vouchers and itinerary we were all a glow…until: “Did you say the car is a standard?” Blanched faces, fluttering tummies, eyes as big and white as the moon.  “We don’t know how to drive a standard!”

Images of trying to learn how to drive a standard in downtown Athens raced through our minds. “What do you mean we’ll be ok? Isn’t the Peloponnese mountainous?!”

We spent our first night pleading with God for an automatic.

Answered prayers the next day, the last automatic in the entire city became available at the last minute. Not car girls, that Matrix was a well hugged car!

Beaming we drove off. Praising our blessings. That car took us wherever we steered it. We learned fast is good and stop is just a suggestion.

Days later our dear Matrix had a flat. Stereotypical girls, we couldn’t figure out the jack. So Jaclyn ran back to the hotel where we suspected we would find help. I can imagine the scene even now: A 6’2”, slender woman with chocolate hair and eyes, and a brilliant smile running into the hotel lobby past the dining men on the patio. She’s wearing short shorts and a tank top and has tourist written all over her. Who could resist her cry for help?

Shortly after I see her running back with not one, not two, but five (YES FIVE) members of a local soccer team to change the tire of one wheel. Cheers to Jaclyn.

We like to tell ourselves it was their National team. Giggle.

Thanks boys!

This memory was inspired by Theme Thursday's: Wheel. Oh and they had trouble with the jack as well. ;)

Bicycle

I’m proud to say that I want to be like my mother when I grow up. Ha; when I grow up. My mother has always been the youngest person I know: so full of life and ready for the next adventure. She taught me that life is truly what you make it. It can be about the picket fences and the nine to five or it can be about doing what you really want to. Don’t get me wrong, I think picket fences are cute and I’ve done my time but I wanted and still want more.

My friend Anna had moved to Japan, after living in England and Lithuania for some time. Working in youth hostels and mission fields she’s a gypsy I admire. I traveled during my time off, while she lived the travel and has the mud stains to prove it.

She was teaching English to a small school in Osaka and invited me to visit for the nth time. “I don’t know. It’s so far, costs a fortune, and honestly Japan has never been on my list.”

Never been on my list? What was wrong with me? I decided I needed to go, to be reckless, to do something frivolous because quitting my job to go on a six week trip to the Philippines wasn’t reckless enough. I needed to get out of my not-so-comfortable cubical and mundane every day.

So, I bought a ticket and found myself on a 13 hour flight to Japan. Hour six is the hardest. It’s when you realize that you no longer want to be in that can and know there is nowhere to go. Burdened with many forms of entertainment, forced sleep is what got me through it.

Anna met me at the airport, chauffeured by Maki, a now dear to me friend and Geisha. Excited to see someone from home, Anna was anxious to show me her Osaka, which of course meant playing Russian roulette with Octopus.

We hopped on her wicker basket adorned bicycle and started to pedal up the street. Wind in my hair, ass falling asleep from the metal bag holder over the rear wheel. I was on top of the world and thought I was Rose in that iconic scene from Titanic. Swerving here and there, off balance, the air tasted like frivolity, recklessness, and pollution.

I was grinning from ear to ear in my bliss.

Anna turned to me after we veered into traffic a second time and said, “Um, can you put your feet in? I’m trying to pedal here.”

An excerpt from my novel in progress, in response to this week's Theme Thursday's prompt.

Let the fun begin

My books have arrived!! Yay!!!!

The Sewing Bible: a modern manual of practical and decorative sewing techniques

and

Design-It-Yourself clothes: Pattern Making Simplified

Now to get my work day done so I can look through them!

Wanted: More Gumption

Today is one of those days where I just feel restless. I feel stuck and cautious. There are so many more adventures I want to experience and multiple excuses as to why I haven't yet. Don't get me wrong, I feel blessed by the ones I have had so far. I'm just feeling like in this moment, I'm standing still.

Lately, my excuse has been time, the lack of. It's true: I do need more hours. But it is just an excuse.

I want to write a fiction novel, a book of poetry (lyrics). I want to continue to see the world; every nook and cranny. I once dreamed of living on a catamaran or on a tropical island....

This week I've stumbled across two really interesting blogs. Two women. Both youthful although there is a large age difference between the two (16 and 88). Both adventurous and taking their lives by storm.

Abby is attempting to be the youngest solo circumnavigator. This January, at 16, she began sailing solo around the world. At first I was shocked; she's so young to be traveling on a sailboat around the world solo! But then admiration set in. Good for her! Life is too short to sit still.

Granny Smith shares her travel and adventure stories on her blog. I recently read captivating posts about some extreme folk art she stumbled upon while on a walk and one about some of her time spent in Kenya.

I want to be more like these ladies. I want more of this in my life!

As I said in an earlier post: "I'm not slowing down". I'm looking forward, moving ahead. Gumption is on my horizon again.