My friend, Charlene Ross, has been blogging at skirt!.com since August 2008.  Charlene’s Blog is listed here in the sidebar.  If you haven’t added it to your “must reads,” I suggest you do it now.  She is hysterical, talented and psychic.  Well, I’m not totally sure if she’s psychic, but she KNEW that skirt! was where she’d  first be published.  Her essay, “A Smaller Version of Our Lives,” was published in the December print edition of skirt!.  She has invited me to join her and the other amazing skirt!setters.  You can now catch my blog on skirt!.com (Ventura).

Charlene was kind enough to introduce me in a flattering post to her blog.  I am grateful for our friendship and am honored to join the skirt!setter community.

Charlene Ross, a friend and writer from my writers’ group, who was featured as a “Guest Blogger,” is the Muse of the Month on skirt!.com.  She is a skirt setter, who blogs regularly on the site.  If you want to smile, follow her postings.  Most of the time, not only am I smiling after I read them, I’m wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard.  She’s continues to be an inspiration to me. 

My fifth guest blogger, Ms. Angela Moore, has two blogs of her own and assists her clients in keeping theirs going strong.  She owns and operates Starfish P.R, where she gets to do what she loves, marketing, writing and brain-storming.  Her clients have been seen on ABC Eyewitness News,  Ellen, and KTLA Morning News.  I’m sure one day we’ll be seeing her on TV too.  She’s creative, intelligent, a go-getter and the reason I started a website and blog to feature my writing.  Find her blogs in my blogroll, Life on the Ledge and NFElle.  And besides all that professional stuff, she’s one of my oldest friends, who manages to crack me up every time I talk to her.

Hey, don’t you remember me? I’m the woman who buys WAY TOO MANY bikinis on your site!  I always succumb to your FREE SHIPPING emails immediately…ring any bells?  Continue Reading »

Finally, someone in North Dakota visited this blog.  Thanks to Google Analytics, I can see that every state in the U.S.A. and 35 countries have viewed this site.   Thank you for your continued support.

I love Yogi Green Tea from Trader Joe’s. The first time I tasted it was at a writers’ group meeting. It was so yummy, I stopped buying Lipton’s Green Tea immediately and switched to this organic blend. I enjoy having green tea in the morning but especially love having it at night. It’s a cozy routine for me after I put my son to bed. The warm treat accompanies me while I’m write, read or watch TV.

 Each tea bag carries a quote and I’ve filled a corner of a kitchen drawer with little tags that have been especially inspiring. Hopefully, my photography skills will allow you to read the profound message on one that screamed, “Blog Me.” It read, “Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.” (Yogi Bhajan) Not only are these “Simple words of wisdom conveyed over a cup of tea,” they’re incentives. However, another wise teacher told me more important than “doing” is “being,” so the last verb in the sentence is really important “‘BE the light!”

I received some interesting feedback. A friend of mine said he tends to steer away from the entries on my blog that have the word God in them. He’s not an atheist. He believes in God, yet steers away from the word. With so much controversy over banning the word God from public use, it’s interesting how we’ve come up with less “offensive” terms. Recently I opened a book that used “God-force,” reminiscent of Higher Power. It seems people are more comfortable using terms like that. The challenges begin when we worship people and things of “Lower Power,” like rock stars, drugs, the body, Yogi Green Tea from Trader’s Joe’s. If you’ve tasted it, you know what I’m talking about. Continue Reading »

I have a habit of writing notes to myself on little pieces of paper, Post-it notes, napkins, back of envelopes basically whatever I can get my hands on. It’s one of those habits I never particularly liked of my mother’s (sorry, Mom) yet I inherited or learned. I gathered all of the loose paperwork today and decided to get organized once and for all. Even though I’ve been clearing and purging over the last several years, I still feel there’s room for improvement, especially when it comes to ideas for writing. Some ideas make it to a notebook, either as a quick note such as “dream about checkers,” or as handwritten, partially fleshed out essays or the beginnings of short stories. Other ideas land on my answering machine. I call myself to leave reminders. Two ideas from the answering machine actually made it onto my website (“So You Think You Can Dance…”) and blog (“Can’t You Read the Sign?”). An idea for a reality show is jotted on a piece of paper torn from a friend’s notebook, while most everything else is on shreds of loose paper, along with other bits of information. Continue Reading »