My Life With Seashells

When I first started this blog the main purpose was to use the medium of writing for a creative outlet.  I could put my thoughts out there for all the world to see, wear my heart on my sleeve, be as real a possible - of course, all the while working on those creative thoughts and processes that are always going through my mind.  


Why would anyone really want to ready about me - a forty something chick who lives in Florida, collects seashells, has a bum ankle and likes to read?  What do I have to offer?  So, I trudged along like I always do, and when the transition from an old year to a new year came around I decided that I actually DO have something to offer.  I'm a forty something chick that lives in Florida who loves to read, who has a bum ankle, and I collect seashells.  Wait?  What?  Didn't I just say that not three sentences ago?  Yes, yes I did.  


I sat around for almost a month and wrung my hands and clutched my pearls with worry that I wouldn't be able to pull it off.  I thought that I would just let this blog fade away and swirl down the toilet bowl of where blogs go when they die.  I second guessed myself, then third guessed myself, then asked myself "what do I have to lose"?  Nothing really.  Either I go for it and succeed or fail or never go for it and that in and of itself is a failure without even trying.  Then I would kick myself in the tush for not giving it go.  More hand wringing, more pearl clutching, then a eerie sense of calm.  Nike said it best - "Just do it"


I've often thought of going to all the blogs I stalk follow and stumble across and asking in the comments section, what motivated you to start blogging?  What was your creative inspiration and desired outcome for having a blog?  Did it change part way through?  


Here it is:


I read.  I read a lot, probably a lot more than many people.  Besides searching for the end of the Internet,  reading is my main source of entertainment.  I don't have cable television, so the day-to-day drama of reality television and commercials escapes me.  While the books that I read aren't profound, and most of them are picked up in an extremely economic way - they are entertaining for me and give me a way to escape daily stress.  I actually do read a lot of Indie books that I pick up as freebies on Amazon, and what better way to give back and say thank you to the author of that book than to give them a true and honest review of their labor of love?  The Internet is powerful and through the mediums of blogging and Twitter and Goodreads and other social media I could possibly help these authors out by reviewing their work and letting the communities that I follow know.


I have a bum ankle.  For my entire adult life I have dealt with the worsening progression and disability of my right ankle.  I have belonged to a couple of communities of other people who share a similar plight in their lives, but as someone who craves information, I know that the more information there is out there, the more calming effect it has.  I believe that I can provide that information as a historical summation of how my ankle problems started and how I have been able to maintain a pretty active and normal lifestyle while losing a part of myself in the process and not going [totally] insane.


I collect seashells.  I've always had an affinity for rocks and the little things that the earth leaves us I see as gifts.  I am not really sure why, but I keep my eyes to the ground when I am walking, because I never know what I might stumble upon and be able to pick up as a treasure.  I've collected a lot of rocks and seashells and sea glass and shark's teeth along the way, and I would like to share those trips of finding such treasures with everyone.  They are special and have meaning to me.




So, that's the 2012 "Attainable Goal" for My Life With Seashells.  I hope that you will enjoy some part of it, give me honest and truthful feedback, and come back again and again.

Bookworm

I’ve had my nose in a book as long as I can remember.  I love to read, and find the pastime very relaxing and rewarding.  I can travel to places that I’ve always dreamed up or I can peek through the window of how other people live.  I can lose myself for hours in books and forget about my own problems and worries.  It’s the perfect escape.

Now, don’t read anything more into this though.  I pretty much read trash.  Not bodice ripper trash, though those are fun, but generally I read things where I don’t have to think much and can get lost in a story.  I have tried to read the classics, but I just can’t get into them like I do murder mysteries, chick lit, true crime, romance, and the plethora of genres out there.

I have a Kindle.  I have never been one to jump into the hype of the latest and greatest gadget.  I mean, the only cell phone I have is a cheap flip phone provided by my company.  I think I’ve sent one text message in my life, and while I am contemplating succumbing to an Android in the near future, I’m pretty technologically dumb.  I knew about the Kindle when they first came out a few years ago, but last summer when Amazon announced that the third generation Kindle was coming out, I knew this was something I just had to have.  I did my research, I waited for it to be released and to see if there were horrible stories about it, and I saved all my Discover points to get this wonderful creation (on the cheap, of course). 

The day I bought Vinny reading changed for me.  I am started to get older, and I’ve always had bad eyesight (thanks Mom AND Dad).  The E-Ink was actually gentler on my eyes than a paperback or a library book, even large print editions.  I found that I was reading more and I was reading faster.  I loved the fact that I could “carry” a ton of books with me in my purse.  I loved that I could order a book and its right there on the device within seconds.  I loved my Kindle from the very start, and I still do!

When I was off work for my ankle surgery, the only thing I found that I was able to concentrate fully on was reading.  I didn’t keep an exact count, but I believe I read close to 20 books that month.  I could only sleep for one or two hours at a time, and it was really boring in the middle of the night with no one to talk to.  My Kindle had so many options available for me, and I was able to escape and read for a few hours until I was able to sleep again.

I have joined a few sites and have read a few blogs, and I have found that there are a lot of people who read much of the same things that I do.  Often this is how I find my next book to read.  I am going to try really hard to start reviewing some of the books that I read here on this blog.  I think it will be a good exercise for myself to be true to the author of the book and to myself if I really liked it or if I did not like it so much.  On the books that I do review, I will also post those reviews on the book sites that I belong to; Goodreads, Amazon, and Lendle.  I will be open and honest, and I will not write any spoilers into my reviews.

Let's try this, shall we?