Friends are like water

We all need water and water comes in varying forms. Rushing rivers, meandering streams, the ocean waves, and calm lying lakes.  I liken my different friends with this analogy. 

I've been fortunate enough in the last few weeks to celebrate my birthday with a number of friends and family.  What I have noticed is the difference in each of my relationships.

Some friends are inspirational......I hope to be that kind of friend one day.

Some are just for fun and that is as important as any other.

Others make you feel loved more than anything, while others need your love more than anything.

I have friends that are like sisters: older and younger sisters.  There is certainly a difference between the two and friends that are mother figures in my life. Others that I liken to a lawyers scale of justice.....one day they lift me up and another I lift them. In the end we balance each other well.

As I compile my next interview for a 2nd inspirational essay I just wanted to share that all of them are special, intriguing and important in their own special way. My friends feed my soul and fill me with joy.

Love's Philosophy by:  Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever 

With a sweet emotion:

Nothing in the world is single:

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle......

Amazing Friend #1

Have you ever noticed who you surround yourself with?  This is suppose to be an important key as to the person you are.  I guess that means you can exclude family because your stuck with them one way or another. I notice that the friends I choose or that choose me.......not sure how that works....all come from very interesting backgrounds. This makes me wonder if I have an innate affection for peoples background stories.  Knowing how people have grown up and what their lives were like before they became the person they are now probably has something to do with the fact that I love a good story.

Here's just a sample of what I mean:
One of my oldest friends that happens to be 84 years old grew up in Wisconsin during the depression and like most young woman she married at 21 and had 3 children.  During her marriage she was mainly a homemaker but upon request of the school principal she did some teaching during a severe shortage of teachers.  Her marriage ended in divorce......so what did she do?  She went back to college to become a psychologist at the ripe age of  50. Her internship took her to Tucson Arizona where she says,  "That  year was one of the best I have ever had, from the standpoint of learning, exploring a new area of the country, and fun."

When we met she was already in her early 60's and she told my daughter and I of a trip she was planning to take biking through Holland during tulip season.  As you can imagine we were amazed.  Not only was she the first person we knew to do this.  She was the first 63 year old we knew that was training herself to bike 15-30 miles a day on vacation!

From there she amazed us with continuing with her education on her many vacations she took through Backroads and Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel that specializes in vacations abroad that include classes in everything from cooking to history and of course biking thru far away countries.

Her career as a clinical psychologist spanned from 1986-1999. Once she retired she found herself bored (decorating her garage one day) and decided to push herself out of her comfort zone and do something new.  She became a certified Pilates Instructor at age of 72 and still teaches several classes a week.
After mastering that, she started taking ballroom dancing classes at age 75, which she now competes in regularly.

Joan is currently publishing a book she wrote titled, Keep on Dancing and other Attitudes, Platitudes, and Latitudes from the Ballroom Floor....to be released this fall.

I know your all dropping your jaw and maybe like me want to be just like Joan.  I'm wondering how I'm going to top this story and feel sorry for the person that has to follow her.  It's like a comedian you don't want to follow the best one of the night.
But, I have someone in mind.......

Oscar Time

Oh no! Here's a draft of last years Oscar nominees that never got posted)
Last years list is quite different from this years. Here's my take on the two (in case your that far behind)The list is long and some of the choices are very obscure like Life of Pi....Beast of The Southern Beast and Silver Lining Playbook but like years past this should not be a surprise.  The rest portray pivotal times in the history of the USA.

2013....I have see the following:
Zero Dark Thirty was a great movie of a big point in our own history.  The director puts you right in the movie where you feel a part of the action.  I enjoyed the movies point of view very much.  The intelligence community is as big a part of this movie as the brave Navy Seals and for a non-military person to be able to see what our armed forces risk for our sake was powerful.  Jessica Chastain performed a very convincing character.  I would give her an Oscar for this role.
Lincoln was another great history movie that obviously took place well before any of us watching it could have known the details this movie showed us.  As laden with history and politics as this was, it doesn't lose your interest.  Daniel Day-Lewis deserves an Oscar for this portrayal in my opinion.
Argo  was interesting enough to watch and amazing that the Americans pulled-off such a feat and didn't get to take credit for it!  It certainly reminds us of the recent attack in Benghazi, Libya which did not end well for our people. Again showing the great bravery of American people serving the USA in foreign countries.

2014 nominees:
Americans Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

My winner: #Philomena  By far of all the movies had the best acting and content. 12 Years a Slave was equally as compelling but certainly darker than even the Nuns that stole and sold babies in Ireland.

Well in retrospect 12 Years a Slave ran away with the awards and deservedly so.  I do wish #JudiDench had gotten more pub on this movie and urge you to rent this movie!

Indie Author Publishing Conference & #Pitchapalooza

This all day conference offered a completely different point-of-view than what you will hear at any number of publishing conferences due to the single idea of SELF PUBLISHING.  A big no-no in most authors eyes.  But in this day in age of e-books, social media & digital devices running amuck……it's time to talk about this option and know: what, how and why.

The information was well presented and the guest speakers were all very informative and passionate for  blazing your own trail.  With the conundrum of not being able to get a publisher if your not already published or have an agent makes this do-it-yourself option look very appealing for some genre more than others.  As a picture book author I know that the e-book market is very small. This is not to say that traditional publishing on my own is out of the question.  I know that it can and is done with success.  The trade off is spending your own time (lots of time) and money to get this done well.  I've seen self published books that were done well and some done terribly.  Thus, this type of conference is the place for a helping hand and bit of advice.

I enjoyed it very much and am now making the move to get a larger following or audience in the event that I publish or get published!