A Thespian into her Eighties
"A woman past forty should make up her mind to be young, not her face."

~Billie Burke, a thespian into her eighties.

Labels: Billie Burke, daily quote, eighties, thespian, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women, woman past forty, young

  posted by Matildakay at 4:52 PM 0 comments

Screed Scribbler
"Femininity appears to be one of those pivotal qualities that is so important no one can define it."

~Caroline Bird, screed scribbler.

Labels: Caroline Bird, daily quote, femininity, pivotal qualities, scribbler, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women

  posted by Matildakay at 9:16 PM 0 comments

How do you handle stress?
My co-workers and I sat around the conference table wide-eyed and searching for a response to the loaded question my boss had just asked.

“How do you handle stress?”

It was a loaded question because just a week ago my boss dropped an economic bomb on us and we had spent the last seven days more stressed out than we’ve ever been in our entire careers.

Career? Did ten years at a job turn it into a career? It didn’t feel like a career when my dreams went in an entirely different direction.

It was also a loaded question because my boss wasn’t asking it to alleviate our stress; it was his icebreaker.

So there we sat, three managers and my boss, searching for politically correct words to answer his loaded question while he waited.

“I shut myself up in my garage and build things.” One of my co-workers responded.

My boss nodded his head and looked at me.

“I shut the world out, watch DVD’s, read books and eat ice cream.” I replied.

He nodded again and turned to my other co-worker who just shrugged his shoulders and remained silent.

Avoidance! Apparently that’s how we handled stress.

Avoidance wasn’t a new revelation for me. I’d been handling stress through avoidance for years. During my divorce I was practically a hermit and read five books a week; the used bookstore knew me by name. I always reverted to avoidance or escapism when under extreme stress.

I had been practicing my stress avoidance regime for the last several months while buying my first home. I was a pro at it. You see I was buying a house from a bank that wouldn’t respond while loan documents, interest rates, and commitment letters expired over and over again. Every time I turned around, I was being charged another five hundred dollars because the seller’s bank wasn’t responding. I had given notice on my rental because my home was supposed to close in April. I had to be out by the 31st and I didn’t know where I was going to live. Estimates to move and store my belongings were outrageous, and my boss’ economic bomb, that just upped the stress ante. Every day was a ‘bucket day’!



It had gotten to the point that I was having a hard time functioning; writing would have been impossible, so my blog suffered. All I wanted to do was crawl into the darkness and escape my problems until by some miracle everything worked out.


Darkness by Darren Hayes

I still believed deep down inside that everything would eventually work out. I was still fighting for my dreams. But right now… I was just handling the stress.

Labels: avoid truth, avoidance, Blogging, career, economy, ice cream, money, stress, Writing

  posted by Matildakay at 2:28 PM 0 comments

Real Royal
"When I appear in public, people expect me to neigh, grind my teeth, paw the ground, and swish my tail--none of which is easy."

~Princess Anne, real royal.

Labels: daily quote, Princess Anne, real royal, what people expect, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women

  posted by Matildakay at 9:13 PM 0 comments

Modern Novelist
"I feel successful when the writing goes well. This lasts five minutes. Once, when I was on the bestseller list, I also felt successful. That lasted three minutes."

~Jacqueline Briskin, modern novelist.

Labels: bestseller, daily quote, Jacqueline Briskin, modern, novelist, successful, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women, Writing

  posted by Matildakay at 9:09 PM 0 comments

So Beautiful...
I love this song by Darren Hayes and just wanted to send some beauty out into the world... Hope it brightens someone's day!

So Beautiful by Darren Hayes

Labels: beautiful, Beauty, Darren Hayes, Love, Music, music video, pop music, So Beautiful, song

  posted by Matildakay at 1:13 PM 0 comments

Franklin's maverick Mrs.
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"

~Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin's maverick Mrs.

Labels: avenge, consciences, daily quote, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, human misery, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women

  posted by Matildakay at 9:05 PM 0 comments

Do you Twitter?
The verb twitter means: to talk lightly and rapidly, especially of trivial matters; chatter.

Some ingenious person took that meaning to heart and created a great social networking sight which links to cell phones via text messaging allowing the world to communicate rapidly of trivial matters; to twitter.

I always thought twitter meant: to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter. Turns out it means that too.

When my cell phone vibrates with a twitter message, I tremble with excitement for I’m connected to my friends and woven into their lives in a whole new fashion. Not only that, I’m connected to new friends across the world.

As with any new social networking site, Twitter took a while for me to figure out. What was appropriate twitter material? How did you reply to one person only and not the whole group? Then I began to think of Twitter as an open chat forum connected to the Internet and my cell phone at the same time and things began to click. I realized the trick to Twitter was to make your 140 character messages interesting and generic at the same time. The collective Twitter group didn’t need to be involved in private conversations, but witty repartee worked. Twitter became a place to discuss chocolate cravings with old and new friends as well as rising gas prices or any other trivial matter. The operative word here being trivial.

Surprisingly my Twitter audience grew rapidly; soon there were lots of Twitter-ites hanging on my every word. Yikes! And some become Twitter obsessed! There are a couple Twitter friends in my group that send so many twitter messages I finally had to quit following them via my cell phone and only follow them online. I couldn’t handle my cell phone vibrating non-stop all day with no orgasm. I mean with all that vibrating going on, one expects a climax eventually. Right?

But that’s one of the nice features of Twitter. You have the option of following people online only or online and via your cell phone. My Twitter friends whom I want to be more deeply woven into their lives, them I follow online and via my cell phone so that our Twitter conversations can be instantaneous and continuous.

Literature has also found a place on Twitter. Novelist N.L. Belardes is writing a novel called Small Places on Twitter 140 characters at a time. I enjoy following the story and receiving little bits of literature throughout the day, it feeds my literary soul during the daily grind.

I’m also following Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice on Twitter. Although unlike Small Places which is sent out one twitter message at a time, Pride and Prejudice’s twitter message is a daily link to the next installment of the novel online. I’m enjoying reading Pride and Prejudice again. The DailyLit has other novels to choose from if Jane Austin is not your cup of tea.

Needless to say, Twitter has become one of my new favorite things…

Do you Twitter? If so, please follow me on Twitter and join in the conversations.

Labels: a twitter novel, chatting, groups, Internet, Jane Austin, N.L. Belardes, novelists, online, Pride and Prejudice, Small Places, social networking, text messaging, Twitter, twitter.com, Writing

  posted by Matildakay at 10:59 AM 0 comments

New-Age Non-Fiction Writer
"A chuckle a day may not keep the doctor away, but it sure does make those times in life's waiting room a little more bearable."

~Anne Wilson Schaef, new-age non-fiction writer.

Labels: Anne Wilson Schaef, daily quote, new-age, non-fiction, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women, writers

  posted by Matildakay at 9:02 PM 0 comments

Chronicler of Domestic Comedy
"A child develops individuality long before he develops taste. I have seen my kid straggle into the kitchen in the morning with outfits that need only one accessory: an empty gin bottle."

~Erma Bombeck, chronicler of domestic comedy.

Labels: children, comedy, daily quote, Erma Bombeck, individuality, style, taste, wild women, wild words, Wild words from wild women

  posted by Matildakay at 10:57 AM 0 comments