Christmas has come and gone; in a whirlwind of paper, ribbons, and bows. Everyone seemed thrilled with their gifts and spent the day playing and constructing. I especially loved mine. I’d been wanting a record player for some time, and my wonderful hubby got me one!

Music has been a love of mine since I was a child, and, lets face it, record players are just cool. My grandpa loved music, and never did anything without it. Which is probably where my love for music came from. It has always been in my life. It also helps me focus on my work, my mind wanders. When I am left to work in the quiet (If it’s more than a menial task) it is hard to stay with it. I always think of something else, and end up starting several projects at once, without finishing any of them. Which leads to, you guessed it, stress and anxiety. Woo Hoo!

You know what’s even better than a record player? My son!

My boy Nathan has different opinion than I do about music, and working in silence. He prefers quiet, and expresses little to no interest in music. I have tried on multiple occasions to figure out what kind of he likes, and have gotten nothing more than an indifferent shrug, followed by a “meh”. It’s not that he dislikes it, he just doesn’t really listen to it unless someone else is playing it. But lets face it, it’s always playing in this house. He is just indifferent. Lol.

Nathan is analytically and literal minded. He lives to tinker and build things. He has wanted to get into to a mechanical field, possibly mechanical engineering, for as long as he can remember. Now he wants to build cars, to do crazy things with them and see how many bones he can break. Before that, it was building robots that blew stuff up. Because explosions.

Either choice requires similar knowledge, and it impresses me he has stuck to his interest for so many years. (I was a flighty child jumping from one passion to the next, so he doesn’t get it from me.) His commitment to his goals makes my mommy heart thump proudly, exclaiming “Yes, I made this boy, isn’t he magnificent!” Even with my own short comings.

When I was sitting at my computer yesterday, my sweet boy finally looked at my record player. It was playing We are the Champions by Queen. He asked me what song it was. Then started looking closely as the needle ran along the vinyl. “What is that doing? How does that work? Is the needle cutting the record?” I kid you not, my heart was doing somersaults as I answered his questions. I’d been trying for years to get this kid into music and all it took was a damn record player. Now he wants to go to the record store and pick out records so he can play them, because its “satisfying to watch the record spin” as he listens to the music. He is asking questions about songs, and bands. Telling me what he likes, wanting to explore different types of sound.

My word, my giddy heart is going to explode just writing this! This record player has gone from awesome, to greatest gift of all time.

Managing home and work.

I have still been trying to work through the holiday, though it has been difficult with all the kids home on Christmas break. Geeking out with them tends to distract me. I have primarily been working on Becoming the Weaver. I still want to make my deadline. That is my main goal after all. Everything else is filler, and preparation.

Between rounds of writing; while I let my creative side relax and wait for that spark, I have been reading up on blogging methods. Mostly through blogs I have found here on WordPress. (Crazy right? Lol.) I have been looking at peoples’ pages, trying to learn a thing or two about them, and how they utilize their platform. I am a socially awkward person, so I am most comfortable behind a computer screen. Being the creeper that stalks the people that sync with my way of thinking. Always be the best version of yourself. Right?

How I present myself is important to me. It was something that was instilled in me as a kid. Being goofy and socially weird, and making inappropriate jokes with dreadful timing is the impression I usually make. I am also skilled at managing to be far too blunt, and having absolutely no filter. Regret usually follows the words I utter, and I have made an absurd amount of bad first impressions in my life. Now, with the invention of computers and the inter-webs, I get to be weird with the world. (Evil laugh and foreboding music ensues.)

(Disclaimer: I’m big on boundaries. Don’t get any funny ideas folks. Looking at you dark web users. I still need my organs, and panties thanks. Not looking for that particular level of weird and creepy.)

All joking aside, I like having the ability to edit and refine the weird in a more palatable way. I am an introvert who wishes to be more social, not frighten away prospects. But only in small increments mind you. Boundaries.

I would say I am not alone in my way of thinking, judging from what I am reading from others who are trying to do exactly what I am doing. But in their twisted and perverse way.

It makes me hopeful and excited to join a community of folks who just want to tell story’s. Both true, and fictional, that make people feel things. It is exciting to be in a frame of mind where achieving my dream is possible. My first manuscript is so close to being done, I can actually see it. It makes me more excited than I ever thought possible! Come what may from it, I will know I actually did what I wanted. I can actually achieve a dream.

The future is bright folks!