Happy Mother's Day

She will always look to me for guidance.

She will always follow my lead.

She will always give me a reason to be absolutely silly.

She will always be this picture perfect genetic extension of me that I can never live without.

I feel very blessed and privileged to be her mother, or a mother at all. 

Happy Mother's Day Everyone. ♥


All photos taken by Courtney McManaway Photography

Breathing and Rebooting

I don't know about you, but I am currently having a lot of trouble staying motivated to finish things. I'm over two years into my WiP and I'm frustrated by how long it's taking me to complete it. At this point I feel like I'm fighting for every single sentence. I'm also dragging on the health and fitness front, and my general life at home. I'm feeling tired, lazy, and would much prefer to sit on my couch and clean out my DVR than move forward with any of the goals I set for myself back in January. 

I told myself that I wouldn't give up on things this year. So I'm giving myself a kick in the butt and reminding my lazy bones that life is supposed to be hard, because that's what makes it worth it. I'm not giving up if that's what you're thinking. I'm reassessing, restructuring, and persevering.

Any advice or encouragement is always welcome. Here's to continued progress.

All images courtesy of Pinterest

  

May Day Update

Happy May!

I cannot apologize enough, but really it had to be done.

Isn't May an awesome month? It's still spring, not quite summer, and there always seems to be something fun to look forward to! I decided I'd celebrate the first day of this glorious by updating you on a few things.

I got a new (to me) Macbook Pro! It is literally the best thing EVER! I love my pretty pink HP but I'm obsessed with this Macbook and I hope I keep it forever and ever! It's motivated me to write, blog, and Facebook stalk a lot more often!

Cheesin' so hard!

I got a raise at work! (Completely unrelated to the above mentioned new to me Macbook!) Now the princess and I can move to a bigger, nicer, (quieter) apartment!

I only read ONE book for the entire month of April (shameful)! Thankfully it was an awesome book by Gayle Forman called Just One Day and it ruined my entire life because it was so flipping amazing. Luckily, Gayle understood the trouble she caused and apologized accordingly when she signed my book.

The princess and I took a day trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano last weekend. The curriculum for most California fourth graders requires a mission project towards the end of the year. The princess has to build a replica of a mission and write a report, then give an oral presentation.  I'm helping her write the report and prepare the oral presentation, but since I'm horrible at anything crafty or mechanical, the mission building is all on her dad. (Snaps for co-parenting teamwork!)

I had never been to the mission before, so it was fun to get away for the day and experience something new with the princess.

Indulging Mom's Annie Leibowitz fantasies

I'm really looking forward to all the things I have coming up this month like get togethers with friends and family, doing a huge clutter purge of my entire apartment, and even a book signing here and there.

Oh and also, there's this anticipatory bit of deliciousness:

So what are you looking forward to this month?

Festival of Booooks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to once again go to the LA Times Festival of Books. It was at the USC campus again this year and I had such a blast! I went both Saturday and Sunday and despite near heat stroke and chafed (tmi) thighs from all of the walking, it was so much fun!

The one bummer about this year's festival is that it was the first time I was sans my book nerd bestie Jessica. Luckily, one of my favorite friends Ashley was happy to hang with me, so Saturday morning after a quick trip to Starbucks to fuel up, we hit the freeway to USC and managed to make it to the first panel of the day with Kiersten White, Tahereh Mafi, Rachel Cohn, and Michelle Gagnon. Ashley and I managed to grab a small slice of shade under a tiny tree and listen to the authors read from their books and answer various questions.

(Sadly, there's no photo of the panel. I was off to the left and a big speaker cut off two of the authors. Boo.)

When it came time for the signing, I was super excited to finally meet Kiersten White and get my books signed. After standing in line for a bit, I was able to regale Kiersten with the story of my minor emotional breakdown when I couldn't find her book Endlessly at Barnes & Noble. Luckily I was able to buy it at the Mrs. Nelson's booth at the festival and get it signed with no worries and I made Kiersten laugh with my crazy. 

After lunch and people watching (FYI- people included a quick celebrity gawk at the legendary Carol Burnett as she was nearing the end of her book signing!), we headed to an afternoon panel with Veronica Roth, Lauren Oliver, Victoria Schwab, and Lissa Price. Thankfully, this panel took place inside with air conditioning and cushy auditorium seats as the good Lord intended, so I was comfy and excited to participate. There was such great discussion in this panel about the writing process in general and great insight into what makes each of these incredible authors tick. I really enjoyed it.

As Ashley and I trudged out to the USC Track field for the signing, I felt a bit trepidatious looking at the epically long line for Veronica Roth. We stood in Lauren Oliver's line which was only slightly shorter and after 45 minutes, I was able to get my copy of Requiem signed and take a pic with her.

Once I got through Lauren's line, I was devastated to see that Veronica's line had not gotten any smaller, if anything it had increased by at least half!  As much I would have loved to wait and get the chance to meet Veronica, I had to leave. (sadface) I'm hoping that she'll make her way to LA when Allegiant is released and I'll be able to rectify this situation.

On Sunday, I got a bit of a late start and just barely made it to the Call Me Maybe panel with Robin Benway, Gayle Forman, Morgan Matson, and Sarah Dessen (!!!). I have to say this was my favorite panel of the whole festival. Not only are Gayle Forman and Robin Benway two of my favorite authors and imaginary best friends, but I was super stoked to meet Sarah Dessen, who is the author of one of my favorite books ever, This Lullaby (Hate Spinnerbait)!!!

When the panel was over and it was time for the signing I was grateful I remembered that Sarah Dessen would be having an additional signing later that afternoon, so I could get my books signed by Gayle Forman and Robin Benway and still make my next panel. Can I just to take a minute to say that both Gayle and Robin are completely awesome? Because seriously, they are. /gushing

For my last panel,  it was back to the YA Stage with Elizabeth Eulberg, DC Pierson, Sean Beaudoin, and Amy Spalding. I was so glad to wrap up my day with this panel because it was all about comedy and humor in YA. It had some weird title about giggles and guffaws but really, each author was obviously hilarious and I enjoyed hearing snippets from each of their books.

I was happy to find that Elizabeth Eulberg remembered me from the Decatur Book Festival and from when I won her blog contest for a signed copy of her book, Take a Bow and a Twitter contest for her other novel The Lonely Hearts Club. I was happy to complete my collection of her books with a signed copy of her latest, The Girl With the Great Personality. Now confession....I actually bought my copy at Barnes & Noble prior to the festival, but while I was sitting in the audience, I noticed that I left my previously bought copy in the car. I was not about to Jesus walk in the blazing hot sun back to my car to get it, so I just bought another copy at the Mrs. Nelson booth and had her personalize it for me. (You cannot judge me harder than I judge myself. ) Oh and now I have two!

My final stop of the festival was getting in line to get my books signed by Sarah Dessen. Luckily after my previous signing, I was right around the corner and jetted right over to get in line. Before I knew it, Sarah was in place and I was talking to her while she signed my books. I think the entire thing took less than a minute but Sarah was SO nice. In my excitement, of course I forgot to take a picture with her. (sadface again)

I absolutely love going to the Festival of Books. Despite the heat and epic amount of walking it is still one of the biggest highlights of my year.

Happy Birthday Billy Shakes!

Today marks the 449th birthday of the most famous writer in the history of writing, William Shakespeare!

I don't think you'll be surprised to know that I'm a bit of a Shakespeare fangirl, in fact I even have a tattoo of a quote from Hamlet which is one of my favorite plays of his. I won't show it to you, because I actually hate the tattoo, even though I love the quote. (Let that be a lesson to all you kids out there, tattoo in haste, repent in leisure...or whatever)

Shakespeare is probably the most quotable person in history. Most of our cultural references both pop and non pop, stem from his plays in some fashion. Since I am incredibly deep and profound, I plan to celebrate his birthday intermittently staring (and swooning) at these:

I think William Shakespeare might be able to add his inadvertent responsibility for my heterosexuality to his list of accomplishments.

For the Soul

Sometimes, I really just need to believe. 

Hugs and love to all.

Color Me Chartreuse

When I was a Teen Tameka, just about to start my sophomore year of high school, all I wanted was a pair of black suede platform Skechers with white grips on the sole. Now before you judge, please remember my advanced age and that I was a teenager in the mid-1990s, and these people were my fashion role models:

Anyway, my mother thought the previously mentioned shoes were ugly and ridiculously expensive and refused to buy them. I was of course heartbroken and resigned myself to the idea of starting school in the sensible coughcheapcough shoes my mother would undoubtedly purchase on my behalf.  Imagine my dismay when I arrived at my best friend's house only to see her sporting a brand new pair of the exact same black suede platform Skechers that I coveted. 

My last Clueless reference I promise.*

Now to my bff's credit, she didn't get the shoes just to ruin my entire life, but because they were trendy at the time and when you're a teenage girl, you jump on board the trends as they're happening. She didn't rub her new shoes in my face at all, but oh how I hated her in that moment. (And several days moments afterward) 

It didn't even matter that my mother surprised me a few weeks later with the coveted Skechers, because at that point they'd been tainted because she had them FIRST and wearing them while hanging out with her meant we looked like twins (or like every other 14 year old girl at the time) and that meant I was only second best. 

I think we can all agree that Teen Tameka was suffering from the unfortunate effects of the green eyed monster known as jealousy. The symptoms of said affliction caused her to behave like an entitled, selfish brat. She made her best friend uncomfortable and hurt the feelings of her very hard working single mother who rarely had the chance to surprise her with anything. 

The Dowager Countess is judging Teen Tameka SO hard.

Thankfully now I'm older and wiser, and realize that just because something great is happening for someone else, it doesn't mean that the same something great won't also happen for me. 

So when amazing things happen for the people I love, outwardly I rejoice:

I think we all know that I'm totally Ross in this scenario.

Even when on the inside, part of me feels like this:

I take my sip of haterade and then move quickly on to the part where I'm genuinely happy for my peeps. By choosing to be happy instead of insanely jealous, I find that I always win. Good things will happen for me too and when I'm ready to celebrate my own good fortune, there will be a veritable Who's Who of people who will want to let the bon temps roll right along with me. 

All around me lately there seem to be engagements, new babies, amazing vacations, new homes, graduations, or incredible book deals. Nearly everyone I know has some sort of achievement to share. Nothing like that is really happening for me now, but I get to share in everyone else's joy which means I get to go to weddings, cuddle babies, sip champagne, and eat cake with the people that I love. What could be better than that?

Oh Titanic Leo, you are so wise.

 I think it's perfectly okay to be jealous. It’s okay to wish for the good stuff that’s happening to someone else to be happening to you. My best advice is to accept your feelings, wallow for predesignated amount of time and then let it go. Enjoy the special times to be shared with those you love and then wait for it...eventually, it will be your turn.

You're welcome.

*Ok, so I lied.