Robbie Cox's Blog, page 9

Vacation Hangover

Anyone who has been out for a night on the town with friends and cohorts knows what a hangover is because at one time or another almost everyone has had one. We don’t think about it at the time when it is possible to slow our drinking down and avoid the day after feeling of welcoming death. No, we can handle our alcohol at that moment and our sense of self-assuredness, as misguided as it is, keeps us ordering round after round until we know it’s too late, but don’t really care. We’re tough. W...

The Squares of Savannah

This past weekend, the girls and I joined six of our closest friends and headed to Savannah, Georgia for four days and three nights. Teri found us a house to stay in while we were there and early Thursday morning, we loaded up our van and made the four and a half hour trek north to the south. While Florida resides south of everything else, it is hardly a Southern state due to being made up mostly of retired Northerners and the rest of us born here who refused to move anywhere else. The house w...

Enhance the Experience

We are always in a rush. Not us exactly as in my family, but the human race as a whole. We want to hurry up and get things done, find the quickest route, the easiest solution. We want microwaveable popcorn and coffee that brews in 8 seconds. We want instant grits–well, some people do for some reason (yuck)–and shorter books. We are in a hurry to finish the mundane so we can quickly get on with the monotonous. Yet, faster does not always equal better. It’s just faster.
Life should never be live...

The Melbourne Art Festival

This weekend our Messing took us to the Melbourne Art Festival in Downtown Melbourne. The event lasted all weekend and had score upon score of artists sharing their work with potential buyers. There was everything from the traditional art work to fancy photography, jewelry, painted dishes, fishes with giant lips, and even some pretty cool digital artwork with no photos being used. Sculptures and statues, metal work, and floral arrangements, all lined the streets and perched under giant white...

The Balance of Contentment

Last time we visited, I spoke about being content with your lot in life, with your possessions that surround you. Being satisfied is a way to find peace within oneself. Yet, that is also harder said–or typed–than done. Sometimes, we just aren’t satisfied with our lot. We want more. Well, not necessarily more, but better. We want better things and a better position in life. It’s hard to be content when you simply want something better with your life. So, how do you find that contentment?
There...

Contentment Leads to Peace

“I love my life.” It became a mantra there for a while. Not that I was trying to convince myself, but because it just bubbled up and had to be spoken out loud. I know. It sounds corny. Joel thought so as well when we worked together and he had to suffer my random outbursts of joy. Yet, it is true. Very true. Even more so now than it was back then a few years ago.
I truly do love my life.
And what is not to love? I am surrounded by the people I love and who love me and doing the thing I love to...

Don’t Stand in the Doorway

Greeted by shouts as she opened the doorDoorways are exciting things. Sometimes, you have absolutely no idea what rests on the other side. Even if you’ve walked through it a thousand times and are 95% sure you know what to expect, there can still be a surprise on the other side. We did it to Char a few years ago. I had taken her out for her birthday and while I did, Teri and Sarah put together a surprise birthday party with about thirty-plus of our friends. We approached the door and Char exp...

When Receiving a Bad Review

Do you read reviews before you purchase a book? I’ll be honest and say I usually don’t. Quite often when judging a product or a movie I have often felt the opposite of the critics. If they hate it, I love it and vice versa.
I also don’t want to have my reading of something skewed and quite often reviewers tend to give small spoilers during their reviews. I would rather be surprised as to what is coming next. Anything more than a back-of-the-book blurb and I feel the reading experience is slig...

Lights Out, Lips Shut

[image error] Last week, the 9-year-old participated in her school’s Earth Day Concert, a performance put on by third graders involving songs and recorders.  A recorder, for those of you who do not know, is a flute-like instrument given to young kids to attempt to interest them in band. That is what it is to me, at least. I’m not sure if I have ever seen one in an adult orchestra, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The songs were written to assist the children and the parents to be more aware of...

My Writing Process

Last week I was tagged by friend, blogger, and soon-to-be author, Stephanie Neighbour, to participate in a blog hop where writers share their process for creating the projects they write. Stephanie and I have known each other, thanks to Twitter and Facebook, for a couple of years now, at least, and together have pulled our hair out over the injustices of Twitter Jail and the crazy writing programs we attempt to learn in order to make our lives easier. Eventually, they do, but not until after...