Musings

I wonder how big the sweater would be that I would knit from all the hair you leave on my floor.

The Quest

As an under-employed resident of high-quality-career-lacking Prince Edward Island, I have tried my hand at a variety of contract work over the past year.  I've written before of the number of different things I'm doing, but what strikes me as most interesting is thus:   the things I like to do best, I am not getting paid to do.

"They" say (them, those people) that for a happy career you should find something you love and then figure out a way to get paid for it.  Well, "they" (them, those people) must be much smarter then I am, because I for the life of me cannot find a way to get paid to:

Read - I love to read.  Current readings include the archives of a completely inappropriate, but hilariously funny website whose url I am not going to post here for fear my mother or aunts may actually look it up and realize the kind of not so nice, potty-mouth stuff I read in a day.   But it's a really good website, honest.  The author was profiled recently on Oprah so it has to be good, right?  Actually it is very good, and very well written if you can overlook the potty-mouth trash talking.  The website started in 2001 and in the last week I've read daily archives through to August 2004.  Three years down and five more to go!  

I once read about a job that was posted by the producer Brian Glazer (Ron Howard's producing partner)  that would pay someone $100,000 annually to read on-line and off-line about current events, pop culture AND also to watch television and listen to radio!  Said job posting required the consumption of these materials so that the successful job applicant could then summarize a report to Brian Glazer on a daily basis all that is going on in the world so that he could "keep current".  Now there's a job I could do!  I love to read and I'm a fairly good writer (in my mind anyway).  And who could turn down a job at $100,000 annually to do this??  Alas, no such producer lives on PEI and no such job exists here - but a gal can always dream, can't she?

Publish - Since I purchased my new MacBook 45 days ago I have lost countless days to the evil thing known as I-Photo.  This wonderful, beautiful software application gives you tools to edit your photos and make extraordinary creations.  Creations like my own portfolio book of black and white winter photography.  Creations like a "complete with maps" photo album of our Trip of a Lifetime.  Creations like cards and calendars that I have populated with my photos of PEI - who wants a 2010 calendar full of island shots entitled 12 months, 4 seasons, 1 island?  I'm taking orders now people!  

Since I discovered the joys of on-line publishing where you edit your photos, upload onto a series of templates and then press the "send" button to order a printed copy of your work I have discovered I have a knack for photo publishing.  At least I think I do.  Of course I know just enough to be dangerous and am of no real value to anyone that might hire a photo editor, but again I say, a gal can always dream, can't she?

Cook -   Again with the countless hours lost.  Overall, I'm a very good cook.  I can follow a recipe with the best of them.  But where my creativity really shines is in the making of soups, sauces, stews and one-pot meals.  I make a mean soup.  You need a soup, a stew, a one pot meal - I am DEFINITELY for hire.  It is amazing to me the variety of ways you can take the same first 4 ingredients (onion, carrots, celery & garlic) and transform them into savoury soups and scarily delicious sauces.    They're really good - honestly - my husband says so.  

I don't think I'd want to be a cook every day, but certainly there are many days when the hours fly by while I play around in the pantry, figuring out which flavours will combine to make a simple pot of vegetables into an extraordinary dish of goodness.  

Write - Ah writing...Since starting this blog I have written almost every day (except for the days when those college students suck the life out of me).  I do not lack for material.  In fact, while doing other things in my day I often think "oh that would make a good blog subject" and I think about writing it down, but somehow I can't find a pen when I'm flying 80 km/hour down Rustico Road and then before I can find a pen - whoosh - the big idea is gone.  So every day I sit down at this computer and think, think, think "what do I write about today?"  It's not as easy as it looks people!  But the Gemini in me is silently screaming "yes it is!  it's easy to write!  it just flows from your fingertips with nary a stop in your brain for processing".  So occasionally you'll see ramblings on this blog and that's when the fingers have taken over and the brain has become disinterested (like now).

But I digress.  The whole reason I started this blog in the first place was to have an outlet with which to write about something every day.  I have long dreamed of being a writer.  And for much of my career I did a lot of writing (being a marketing type person and all).  But I've never figured out how to take the first step in becoming a writer full time.  Well, maybe this little blog is that first step.  "They" say (them, those people) that the best writers write everyday.  They don't necessarily like what they write, but they sit down and have the discipline everyday to write something (I imagine those writers do not have college kids sucking the life out of them 4 or 5 days a week).  

So that's what I'm doing.  Writing every day.  Often about nothing.  Sometimes about something.  I hope you find it interesting enough to keep checking back here.   Maybe someday I'll figure out my next career and maybe it will involve being a writer.  A gal can always dream, can't she?

I Stand Corrected

Alert - for anyone (besides me) who cares:

1)  My one comment yesterday was not in fact from One Who Should Know (his father) but rather One Who Thought They Knew (my mother).  So apologies to the One Who Should Know - you were not the first in what I hope will be a long line of interactive readers to my blog.  That title goes to my mother.

2)  Joyce is BACK!  Okay, she never really left, although her "follow this blog" icon did.  But only for a day.  Her icon has now found its way back home and she is once again following this blog.

3)  The never ending snow storm continues to kick the shit out of PEI.  Sorry for the language Mom, but for crying out loud, it's April 13th already and it's been snowing none-stop all day.

4)  Contrary to what one would believe, Walmart does not put their excess Easter chocolate on sale the day after Easter.  No, they strip the 6 aisles of Easter candy down to the bare racks and fill them with seasonal summer products (like that's appropriate when there's 4 inches of snow on the ground and more coming down).   So no, my dear hubby, there will be no super sale on chocolate bunnies for you this year.  

Blah-blah-blogging

Imagine my surprise this morning when I signed on to my blog to discover that I had a comment!   Which by using my vast skills of deduction must, therefore, mean  I have readers.  Imagine - READERS.  Readers aside from my mother who is obligated by the very fact that she's my mother to read my musings, meanderings, ramblings and vents.

Imagine my further surprise that said comment was about the content I had posted yesterday - a sweet story about a little boy and the Easter Bunny.  Apparently, I might have named the wrong little boy.  My apologies - I would have sworn on my dog's life it was the boy profiled...but according to One Who Should Know (his father) it wasn't this little boy at all, but his younger brother Danny.  Apologies to Danny for misplacing credit to his older brother.  I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened to Danny, but I wanted to make it right if I got it wrong.  We're awaiting Rosie's verdict on this by the way - which kid was heartbroken by the Easter Bunny?

Now, on the subject of blogging - by virtue of the fact that I had a comment, and therefore a reader, it begs the question:  how to get more comments?  One could easily make the assumption that more comments might equal more readers.  So the REAL question today is how to increase the readership of this blog?  Anyone?  Anyone?  

I don't have a large following, but along with my pleasant surprise today of having a comment I also noticed that sadly, I had lost a reader.  I know some people read my blog the old fashioned way - by logging on to kimberlycameron.blogspot.com.  And I thank you for that!  But, my meager Facebook following has shrunk from 8 to 7 readers.  I assumed it was the nice man from Kentucky who for some reason is following my blog (how did he find it??).  But NO, it was my Aunt Joyce.  Joyce has dropped me!  And I thought FOR SURE she was a fan of my blog.  Why, oh why would Joyce drop me?   

I can only assume Joyce didn't find the content meaningful and if that's the case I'm sorry.  But, I'm still figuring out this whole blog thing and what to write about and what to keep to myself.  I'm striving to write everyday, although on days when those college kids suck the very life out of me, I have been known to miss a day or two.  I'm trying to include interesting stories about life here on this quirky little island as well as anecdotes from my travels.  I also like to include small stories about the amazing man I married, because frankly when you wait until you're more than half way through your lifespan to get married for the first and only time, it must be to someone FREAKING FANTASTIC.  

So that's my intent.   I hope the rest of you readers like it.  If you don't, well, you can always exercise the same option Joyce did and hit the "drop her blog now" button.  But I hope you don't.  I hope you keep reading.  I promise this will get better - or maybe it won't.  But you won't know unless you sign on daily!  

Oh and by the way, I'm sure Joyce dropped me TOTALLY by accident.  Right?

How to Annoy Me

Stand at the kitchen door asking to go out, then doing NOTHING.  Over and over again.  I'm wise to your game buddy.

What do you mean there's no Tooth Fairy?

Where oh where does the Easter tradition of hiding eggs and giving chocolate rabbits come from?  Who knows...not even the gurus at Yahoo.com, who are attributing the centuries old custom to some spring celebration invoking the goddess of the dawn, "Eoster," who did something or other with rabbits and eggs - both a sign of fertility.

All I know is that this morning, as I quietly sipped tea and read Facebook, all the while Dwayne was making the BEST BREAKFAST EVER, the Easter Bunny was busy laying eggs and abandoning chocolate replicas of himself made of fine European Chocolate.  Who needs the Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause when you've got fine European Chocolate, compliments of the Easter Bunny?

Many years ago, when my friend Brad was just a little boy, someone told him that there was no such thing as the Tooth Fairy.  Upon consultation with his mother, who confirmed this to be true, Brad looked up at his mom, and said with a quiver in his voice "Oh no, does that mean there's no Easter Bunny either?".  It was enough to make you cry. 

Come Saturday Morning

I love a quiet Saturday morning (or Sunday morning for that matter).  With one dog piked out on the floor at my feet and the other snugged in hard on the couch beside me, the only sound is the morning birds as they flit and fly about our property looking for breakfast.   We have lots of birds today - makes me wonder if our little piece of PEI is the avian equivalent of a Tim Horton's - a busy place to grab a "to go" worm or a cool, refreshing grub or two.

I woke up to an amazing sunrise this morning.   I even woke my slumbering hubby to witness the dawn of the day.  I'm not sure he appreciated being woken up out of a dead sleep to look at the morning sky, but that's one of the hazards of sleeping beside me.  I cannot stay asleep one minute beyond the crack of dawn.  

Today's sky was scarlet red, tinged with hints of purple and blue as the sun slowly crawled its way over the eastern horizon...slowly...slowly.   Too bad I didn't take my camera upstairs with me, because it was picture perfect.  It reminded me of the sunrises on Maui where, on mornings when the fields were burned, the sky was filled with the acrid smell of burnt sugar cane.  The great plumes of smoke created by the burnings  would act as nature's crayola box, colouring the rising sun  shades of red, orange, purple.  

Today's sunrise was no crayola box, however.  It was just plain red, red, red.  My first thought:  red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning.  I wonder what the day will hold today?