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Mixed Feelings
November 30th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

It’s been a good Thanksgiving Weekend. 

Thursday morning, I made up three batches of Rum Balls for a Christmas Party Scott and I are having next month.  I think I was beginning to get drunk just from inhaling the fumes!  I finished with just enough time to shower then head over to Dad’s to pick him up for the family Thanksgiving at my cousin’s home.  On the way we stopped to see a friend who had borrowed our air compressor and nailers.

The dinner itself was fun, Missy, Jim, Uncle Lyle, David & Sylvia, along with Andrew & Scott & Becka (Andrew & Scott are Lyle’s grandsons, Beck is Scott’s wife) and Scott & I… oh, and Scott & Becka’s three children.  It’s so funny to gather with the Stroms… every single one of them looks cut from the same mold… the Kelly side of that family has pretty strong genes.  One look at one of the great grand kids, the grand kids, or any of the Strom kids and you just KNOW they came from the Kellys!

Friday & Saturday, Scott and I knuckled down to finish some long standing projects around the house, and to putting up the exterior Christmas decorations… good thing, as Sunday it started getting cold!

Sunday we put in our normal 5 hour stint at church, then stopped on our way home for our traditional breakfast at Village Inn.  And it is from that meal that the title of this entry hails.  As we were walking toward the cash register I glanced at the bill… OH MY GOODNESS!  Our waitress gave us BOTH a senior citizens discount!!!!!!  Village Inn’s “Senior Citizen’s discount” is for those aged 60 and older!

So, for all you out there who read my blog… go buy stock in Nivea!  Because I intend to sleep in a pool of Nivea skin moisturizer starting tonight!

60.  Ha!  I’ll show her!

(And our waitress, just so you know, wasn’t a high schooler, either, she was at least our age!!!!)  Maybe I should just credit to her as an attempt to be nice?

Category: Ramblings  | One Comment
Rambling
November 04th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

An Idea, an idea… my kingdom for an idea!

That’s what these past two months of silence have been like.  I mean, sure I’ve been doing lots of stuff… but none of it has seemed to be something I want to write about.  This past week, I’ve opened my “Live Writer” every day.  And every night I close it, nothing written.

It just seems that nothing has been weighing on me, or inspiring me to write about it. 

Over the past two months, since I blogged last, I’ve been on the run.  Of course, I’ve been to interviews… no luck.  I’ve been to Scottsdale for a wonderful family reunion.  I’ve developed a system for actually keeping the Hays-Strom household clean… something rather remarkable in and of itself!

But none of that says to me “Sit down and write about this.”  In deed, what’s being written right now is an attempt to jump-start my creative juices.  And I’m going to be NEEDING those creative juices! 

After a recent email to my family filling them in on my life, my job search, and Dad’s health, my aunt wrote me to tell me that she felt I wrote the most wonderful letters.  And she suggested I take a writing course.  And I jumped at the idea.  I start next Wednesday.  (And here’s a public THANK YOU Aunt Jeanie, for not only complimenting my writing, but making the suggestion AND then, topping it all off by paying for it!  You’re a very special lady, and I really really hope you know that.)

“A Writer’s Guide to Descriptive Settings” is the class I’ll be taking.  If it goes well, I may very well invest in another class.

My writing has taken me in some rather exciting directions.  Elsewhere out there in the “blogosphere”, a wonderful lady, a published author, whom I met online through conversations with a mutual friend, picked up an article I wrote some months ago and published it.  Another blogger in England picked up the piece from her and posted it with commentary.  A very lively conversation ensued between the 3 of us and several  other people.  One of those has even suggested I write a book!  Right now, that seems a bit unlikely to me.  But who knows?

I’m reticent to post that article here, or even tell my readers (all those thousands and thousands of you out there) where to find it elsewhere.  I’ll have to think about that.

Category: Eric's Life, Ramblings  | One Comment