Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 45

My Hockey Crush / Boyfriend

Look at this face!


This is my favorite Stars player Roman Polak... No, he's not the hottest or the most skilled player on the team, but last year he came in when several players were out due to injury and post-traumatic headaches. And he played. He was physical for us and he stuck up for his teammates, letting others know they couldn't push the Stars around and he just really endeared himself to me.

So much so, I spent money on a custom jersey with his name and number. :0)

Anyway, he went down in the first game of the season with what ended up being a cracked sternum. But he's back now and I couldn't be more thrilled and THANKFUL that he's healed and of course that he's back on the ice.

Anyway--happy hump day! See you Friday.

Feeling Motivated

After way too many hours sitting and sorting spreadsheets and numbers this weekend, I was feeling antsy on Sunday. I really wanted to read, but my eyes were bothering me and I needed something that didn't require glasses. So I finally got down and dirty in the garage.

Sonshine left behind about a dozen boxes full of stuff and they've been stacked in a corner gathering dust and cobwebs for five years now.

DH and I want a little more space in the garage for some elbow room as well as one more piece of exercise equipment, which means Sonshine and DD's boxes need to be relocated. Well, Sonshine is not here to go through his stuff, so the job falls to good ol' mom.

I threw away all the clothes. Bugs had gotten into one box and they were icky. I also figured if he'd needed them, he would have dug them out in the half dozen visits he's made home since he left. The boxes that will be heading his way, some way somehow, got relocated to an empty cabinet--may as well not clog up twice the floor space, right?

There are still a few boxes to rummage through and there's some cleanup to be done, but it felt good to be physically active (aside from the twice-daily bike ride) and I felt like I accomplished something.

Most of the Christmas decorations are in a pile and I was half tempted to start decorating...but I wasn't quite ready for that project just yet.

I gotta say, it feels really good see that funk in the rear-view mirror. :0)

Hope you had an enjoyable or productive weekend as well.

Where has the year gone...?

I've lamented the passing of the year before. I thought I'd have more time to relax and breathe, but that hasn't been the case and 2020 is looking to be just as busy.

It seems that now that the kids are gone, there's less ebb and flow to the year. No summer without the school-year-routine to look forward to as a time to do less.

Now it's just one thing after another after another and how did this happen?

Well, mostly it's my fault because I say yes to things that maybe I shouldn't, but part of it seems to be the reality of various aspects of life and the things I've chosen to do with it.

For example...I'm a hockey fan. I've chosen to be a season ticket holder which means attending up to 41 games each year. Which is too many and I've mentioned that before, so I've opted to sell my tickets to many of the weekend games. But I like the perks of being a full season ticket holder, so I'm on the fence about going with a smaller package. And there are other things that go along with it and it's a way to spend time with and bond with DD.

As a writer, my goal is to write and publish books. Now I'm not aiming to be a USA Today Bestseller but I would still like to publish at least two books a year. That means writing and planning and all that good stuff.

As a writer, I'm also a member of a writer's organization...which means monthly meetings and being involved. I might be a little over committed this year, but after August when I pass the torch, I'll have one job and the following year...I'm taking the year off. I deserve a break.

As a writer, there's also writer's conferences. I've limited it to just the one unless the national organization of my writers groups has one in Texas, but that's not happening again for a few years, so I'm safe. I know a lot of authors do several each year, but I don't make enough money from my writing to support that, so no.

As a person, I have friends and family...

So life gets busy and if you're not paying attention, another year whooshes by.

I'd like to be a little less busy, so I think I'm going to work towards that.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Whew...

I'm still stuck on book seven of the Ten Rigs series. I have no idea why I'm stuck yet again or still-- I haven't decided which it truly is. But as I mentioned last Wednesday, there are plenty of other projects that need my attention and so...

I turned my attention to planning/plotting a new book. There's a possibility of a hockey anthology with some other authors from the conference, so I'm planning the book and writing the book. Even if the anthology itself doesn't come to fruition--I'll still have a new book to publish.

It feels good to be (slightly) more energetic and productive on the writing front.

Of course, this cold front is somewhat of a mood killer, but it's sunny today, so there's that.

The exercising twice a day continues on as well even though I was very bad last Sunday and again yesterday... But I've been holding steady weight-wise. As long as it's not going up, I'm fine for now.

I'm crossing things off my to-do list regularly and not too many new things are getting added, so the load is lightening just a little. WHEW!

So...back to work for me, crossing stuff off. Have a great rest of your week.

Don't tell my Darling Daughter...

But her cat keeps snuggling with me in the early mornings. I don't know if Karma snuggles with DD that much, but she does with me. Not any time anyone is around to see, but every weekday morning around 3:30 when she realizes I have woken up, she creeps over and lays down for some lovin'.

This morning, she was also overseeing my workout.
Speaking of workouts...I've made a concerted effort to get back to working out--for all that sitting on my recumbent bike and burning 100 calories or so could be called a workout--twice a day. That twice-daily burning of energy has helped me feel a bit more energetic. I have a ways to go, but I'm headed in the right direction at least.

I still have quite a few things on my plate and just got another, but I'm working at getting some things off it too.

About a decade ago, I was juggling two presidencies--band booster and writers group. I made it through the six-month overlap and I can do it again. It was a matter of taking care of the tasks that were next up on the schedule, which ever organization it was. Now band booster was a weekly cycle, luckily writers group was only monthly.

Anyway, I just need to keep my lists handy and updated. I need to plan ahead and stay on task. two things I'm pretty good at.

Hope you had a enjoyable and/or productive weekend.

TGIF

I'm not feeling quite this out of gas, but I can't deny I'm pretty run down. As I mentioned Wednesday, I've been feeling meh and I have a lot of stuff on my plate.

This weekend, I'll be able to make some progress on writers group things without having to stuff them in around the day job or be interrupted by the phone or pulled into a meeting as I find a groove on something.

And after a way-too-long passage of time, I'm having lunch with my dear friend N tomorrow. Can't wait to see you!!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Hello again...

Yeah, I've been AWOL. There's not much going on and a lot going on and I've been feeling really meh about life in general.

I suppose I could have published some fun memes, but that would have required effort and, quite frankly, gumption was in short supply.

I'm dragging myself out of the doldrums, slowly but surely. The weather is helping, as is the win streak that my hockey team is on for the moment.


As of this writing, they've won four in a row and the last seven of eight.. After being touted as a serious playoff contender this season, their first nine games were nothing to write home about. They won only one of them.

If they hadn't turned things around when they did, a few heads might have rolled and their playoff chances would have been severely dashed. They still have a tough road to the playoffs to traverse, but their chances are still pretty decent.

I'm finally making some progress on some projects, except actual writing. It's the same book I struggled with previously and then left alone for eighteen months. So I might need some help with that plot line. In the meantime, there are plenty of other books and series and characters I could and need to focus on.

So I hope you're all well and doing what you gotta do to take care of yourself.

STARS WIN AGAIN FINALLY

It was a much needed win--rumblings of firings have been rumbling around the fan base and those were staved off for now.

Our goal scorers minus one:  (images courtesy Dallas Stars)

 ROOPE HINTZ
ALEXANDER RADULOVscored a hat trick(three goals in a game)



TYLER SEGUIN
Joe Pavelski also scored a goal...

DD and I thought about leaving after the second period, but Rads scored a goal in the last few minutes, so we stuck around and thank goodness we did.

Hope you're having a great week... Catch you on Friday.

STARS WIN!

What better way to end the week with a third win in a row!






For maybe the first time ever, I attended a Stars game without my daughter--although she was there with other friends. I was there with an author friend from the conference I just attended. While she lives in Pittsburgh, her family is here in the DFW Metroplex and she's a Stars fan.

My friend got a puck from one of our star players, Tyler Seguin, probably for wearing a jersey of his from way back when he played in Europe during one of the NHL's lockouts. That was super cool to see. And now I want to try to solicit a puck from my man, Roman Polak, once he's back on the ice. His sternum was cracked in game one during a collision with the boards, so I've been missing him a lot. And, to be honest, so has the team...

So happy Friday friends. Have a great weekend.

The things I did in Albuquerque...

Aside from attend the conference of course.

As I mentioned last week or the week before, I wanted to go on the Sandia Peak Tramway and so I did.

The top of the tramway sits at 10,378 ft. above sea level. I'm not one for heights--I mean being on the solid ground of the mountain was fine, but the dangling from a few inches of cable to get there part was a little nerve racking. But you're reading this, so that means I survived the trip. :0)

Here are some pictures.

Going up...


See that little brown dot in the low center? That's the shadow of the tram car!




The view to the east of the Sandia Mountains...


The view to the west of the Sandia Mountains, basically Albuquerque and surrounding communities down there.



The view going down...


Sandia Peak was Thursday afternoon after the book signing. On Saturday morning, I went to see some petroglyphs. It was a gorgeous morning with a gorgeous blue sky, a fresh breeze, and good friends.

And just FYI--my camera's phone does none of these places justice.



You can't really tell in the photo, but the contrast of the yellow flowers and the green foliage against the dark rocks was spectacular.


 Gorgeous blue sky!

Various critter tracks...

And those were my two adventures into the surrounds of Albuquerque.

One thing I found amusing during my drive into and out of New Mexico were the signs along the highway (where there were no cities and therefor no bars) that continually asked people to report drunk driving. (Not that drunk driving is amusing of course.)

Hope your week is going well. Catch you on Friday.