This New Year, Keep On Dreaming

I'm not a big New Years Eve person. Growing up, I spent most of them with family friends playing cards into the early hours of the morning, only pausing for a few minutes to acknowledge the clock striking midnight.

And I don't believe much in New Year's resolutions, because I believe that if someone wants to change something enough, the turning of a calendar page isn't going to matter. All the power to everyone who makes resolutions and keeps them -- they're just not for me.

So I'm excited about 2012, but only because I'm excited about life in general and not because I'll write a new year at the end of dates.

I'll always remember 2011 as the year I graduated from college and started life in the real world. The year my Rangers came within a strike of winning the World Series -- twice -- and broke my sports-heart instead. They had me sliding down a couch to the floor with my hands on my head shouting with my dad in disbelief, and I couldn't forget that even if I wanted to. Even if I tried. Because it was one of the greatest games in the history of baseball and they'll talk about it for decades to come.

It is the year I read more books than any other. A year I learned important things about my writing and took some major strides.

But there's one thing I like to learn anew every year. Something Stephen Colbert reminded me of in his commencement speech (which I talked about here). And that's the importance of dreams. To always dream about something, always strive for something. To take every failure, put it in your back pocket, and declare that you'll never give up.

So on that note, I want to share this song by one of my favorite bands:

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart.

The book that healed my sports-heart AND my writing

In light of my sports-heart being broken during an incredible World Series, I wanted to lose myself in a book. But the book I was reading that week, while good, wasn't sucking me in. It wasn't enveloping me like I needed a book to at that moment.

So I decided to reread one of my favorite books that I'd only read once before, probably six or seven years ago. It was exactly what I needed and every bit as awesome as I remembered.

from Amazon.com

The funny thing is, it's not the sort of book I normally liked when I first read it in high school. And the further into it I got, the more the writing style reminded me of my own. Six years ago, though, I was writing poems, maybe some short stories. And it intrigues me now, as I try to figure out if I loved it then because of a style that was already some inherent part of me, or if it influenced my writing style, just in one reading.

I'm revising a manuscript right now, and it was actually very helpful to read this book while I revised. One's in first person past, one in first person present. The subject matters are entirely different. But it has this heartbreaking lyrical flow and does all the little parts of writing so well. It reminded me how a book feels when there aren't any extraneous, useless words, which the manuscript I'm revising is full of.

Oh, and this book I love so much? It's A Year and a Day, by Leslie Pietrzyk. I highly recommend it! And if you've read it, please let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Getting Out of Bed

I have a mantra. Okay, I have quite a few mantras, but I'm talking more specifically about one of my overarching life mantras. It's this:

Don't let anyone convince you that something which gets you out of bed in the morning isn't worth your time.


I seem to have been blessed with loves for things that are not widely considered acceptable hobbies. Even at a fairly nerdy college, I got teased for the amount of time I spent reading for fun. Even among avid sports fans, the fact that I watch about 150 out of my baseball team's 162 games each year is considered lame. I was essentially told by a friend that my dream to have a book published was stupid, because books don't matter. But, well, that's a grander issue to be tackled another time.


Sometimes the hardest part of attacking a day is just the first part. Just the decision to sit up, get dressed, and face it. And each one of those things I love so dearly makes me want to get out of bed. They make me excited to go about my day, and they get me through required tasks I don't enjoy as much. So who's to say they aren't worth my time? They keep me going.


Shortly after I started reciting this mantra to myself, I realized it doesn't universally hold true. For example, even if stealing cars makes you want to wake up each morning, I definitely don't condone stealing cars. But you get my point, I'm sure. 


It doesn't matter if someone else understands why something makes you happy. What matters is sticking with it. Every night as I fall asleep I think about the next day, about what I'm looking forward to. And when my alarm goes off on a morning I really want some more sleep, I just think to myself, "I get to work on my WIP tonight," or whatever the case may be for that day, and I'm out of the bed in seconds. I'm smiling. I'm ready.


So what makes you want to get out of bed each morning? Has anyone ever told you it's a waste of time?

Enjoy the Journey

Success is a journey, not a destination - Fortune Cookie

Last fall I watched an unbelievable journey by my beloved Texas Rangers, who I stuck with even when they had last place finish after last place finish. I watched them make the playoffs for the first time in eleven years, win their first playoff series in franchise history, and eventually make the World Series. They didn't win it all, but the season was far from a failure. In fact, the moment that will probably stick with me the most was when the San Francisco Giants streamed onto the field and jumped around in celebration. The crowd, which I was lucky enough to be part of, was quiet for a minute. Then a chant started: "Let's go Rangers!" It was our thank you to the players for the best season in franchise history. For defying the odds and playing with all they had.

Last night, I watched the Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA Championship - a team that did not have one single player who had ever won a championship before. Many of them had been in the league for over ten years. In 2006, the Mavs came so close to their first championship but lost. And last night, finally, they celebrated. A city that has had a terrific year of sports celebrated its first championship in over a decade.

I, just by luck, ended up watching more Mavs games this season than in all the years before (good timing on my part!), and I won't belittle the diehard Mavs fans by claiming to be a true fan myself. I do not love the Mavs like I love the Rangers, largely because I love baseball much more than basketball. But I love my city. I love hard work, perseverance, determination. 

And watching these two teams has made me realize something - something that a fortune cookie I got two weeks ago touched on. If it were easy - easy to be the best in a sport, easy to win a championship, easy to reach the highest level of your career, easy to get straight As, easy to write a bestseller - well, it just wouldn't mean nearly as much. Part of the reason the Rangers magical run meant so much to me was how long I had waited for it, how many just plain awful seasons of baseball I had watched, waiting for the moment they were a good team again.

Success comes as part of a journey. It is not some clearly defined moment, and it cannot be the end all be all, or you may never get there. Every day I sit down to write, I have to enjoy it. Because that is going to be what keeps me writing. That is going to be what keeps me moving along in my journey. Giving up is easy. Staying the course on a journey undefined in length, that's the part that takes faith, trust. And after every failure is a moment of success just by choosing to keep going. Keep believing. 

There may never be a moment when the pinnacle of success has been reached and is clear. The Mavericks are Champions today, and they will celebrate it in the weeks to come. But then they will go back to the gym, back to practices, start a new season. Success fluctuates. It comes in different forms and is ever-changing. I think I, as much as anyone, need to remember to stay in the moment, enjoy the journey. Let the future take care of itself.

To all of you who don't enjoy sports, sorry for my sports analogies!! The love I have for sports, reading, and writing somehow always manages to intertwine in ways that make most people look at me sideways. So if you're doing the same, you're not alone! But I do love and appreciate you anyway :)

Fun Fact Friday!

Today is Friday. Perhaps the greatest Friday thus far in my life. (Okay okay, at the very least the greatest Friday in the Rangers' loving aspect of my life.) So, of course I have some fun facts for you!

Ballpark nachos were invented at Arlington Stadium.

If Apple were a country, it would be 33rd in the world in economic ranking.

from ceoworld.biz

Now, maybe this was common knowledge and I'm just behind, but The Lion King is based off of Hamlet. Whoa, go Disney!

from tcnj.edu

And with that, I wish you the best of Fridays, perhaps filled with Disney movies or what look to be some great baseball games!

Fun Fact Friday!

It's Friday, and this Friday is really one like no other. For the first time in the history of the Texas Rangers, they are up two games to zero in a playoff series. For the first time EVER, in any lifetime. Before this week, they had only won a single playoff game, ever. It hasn't been easy being a Ranger fan, but it's a lot of fun right now (so I apologize for talking about it a lot, I will reassure you like I have my roommates that no matter what happens I will only be in this single minded baseball daze for a few more weeks).

Also, if you're curious, this post explains my love for baseball, and how in some ways it's not so different from my love for books.


Now, on to those fun facts!

The quantity of coffee that is consumed per year in the U.S., drips in the form of water from leaky faucets each day. To make this even more mind boggling, 31 olympic sized pools worth of coffee is consumed each DAY, so multiply that out over a year, and that's what drips from faucets in one day.

from Planet-coffee.net

Anyone watch Modern Family? (If not, I highly highly recommend you do.) (And if you haven't seen this week's episode, watch this clip before reading on.)

Recognize Pepper's voice?

I texted my sister during the show, asking if he was from Mouse Hunt (that movie with the mouse and the cheese and the traps and that single piece of string...you know... that one). She thought he was, then commented that I remember the weirdest things.

But after doing some research on IMDB, all I had to say to my roommate was Ernie from Mouse Hunt, and she knew that his name was Nathan Lane. Also? He's the voice of Timon.

From lionking.org

And I can't resisting having one fun fact in my Texas Rangers' honor...

There were 5,116 days between their first playoff victory and their second.

Just think about everything that happened in your life over that time... That's a lot of days.

But TODAY is FRIDAY, so please, do go and enjoy it!

(Also,  I am doing my best to reconcile this whole playoffs and school and midterms problem and actually put together a fully coherent blog post...please hang with me.)

Fun Fact Friday - It's a Small World

So these past couple of weeks I have fallen in love with this song, Breathe, which I actually discovered because it was iTune's free song of the week once upon a time.

The trivia part of this? Ryan Star actually sings the theme song for the TV show, Lie To Me. I have seen one episode of that show, during which this scene happened. Go watch. I'll wait!

A. SO CUTE. Especially in the context of the episode (which had something to do with a bomb threat and the need to distract the kids from what was really happening to them through songs and lying).

B. SO CATCHY. I was singing the "white lies" part of this days after I first saw it back in December.

I discovered he sang the theme song when I was trying to find the aforementioned song Breathe on YouTube, which led me to the discovery of the White Lies scene. It was like it was meant to be.

I think this proves that the world is small. Or at least the YouTube world.

But just in case that wasn't trivia enough for you on this Friday, I leave you with this...

In Major League baseball, once the ball leaves the pitcher's hand, there are 2.6 million different things that can happen, taking into account, of course, every possible situation in which a pitch could be thrown. WOW.

And this:

The caffeine that is removed from coffee to make it decaf often winds up in soda. See? Small world. I bet you thought your soda caffeine was special.


HAPPY FRIDAY!

Books and Baseball - and why they matter

There are three things I love in the hobby/passion category. Writing, reading, and baseball. And I mean LOVE.

Now, the first two you could probably guess, seeing as they are the focus of this blog. The third I assume you don't care much about, so I try not to talk about it. But I'm going to today, so bear with me, please, because I will bring it back to the first two.

I am obsessed with baseball, and more specifically the Texas Rangers. For those not in the baseball know, the Rangers are traditionally awful. As in, in their entire existence, they have won one single playoff game. That's bad.

But I still love them, and I love the game. I won't bore you with why I love it, and why I think it is better than any other sport. What you need to know is that there are 162 games in the season, and I watch most or all of about 90% of them, if not more. I even regularly watch games that the Rangers aren't playing in (such as right now...).

I get into the games. Even when I'm watching one alone, I talk to the TV and the players and I pump my fist in the air. I have gotten goosebumps when reading articles about the Rangers, found myself unable to breathe over the excitement of an important win, and screamed in frustration.

Yea, I kinda love Texas...

But every now and then, when I'm watching a game, I think, what's the point? Why are thousands of people watching a group of guys getting paid millions of dollars to play a game.

Plain and simple, it might just be a game in the literal sense, but it is so much more than that. Major League Baseball has a series of ads with the slogan, "This is Beyond Baseball." And so much of it is. It's about a team working together, persevering, defying the odds. It's about thousands of people coming together to cheer for the same outcome. It's about a pitcher going out every day with a chance at a perfect game - no matter what happened in the past - in a game where perfection isn't the goal. No team will ever win 162 games. Even the best teams lose at least 60 games each season.

Baseball (and any pro sport, I'm just using the one closest to my heart), at its basic level, is an escape. Whatever is going on in your life or in the world, you have three hours where your team winning is, for the moment, all that matters. You can find joy in their success and sadness in another losing season.

And really, at the end of the day, how is this so different from books? I once had a roommate who believed that books were pointless and their existence did nothing to better the world. I was furious, not to mention hurt. This thing that I loved, devoured in my spare time, and endeavored to create myself could not be useless - that much I knew.

So why aren't they? I can see how, to someone who finds no pleasure in reading, all the books in the world can seem like wasted space. Except you and I know that books are quite the opposite. So why?

From www.freedomlab.org

Books are magical worlds that take us somewhere outside of our own. They introduce to us people we may never have the chance to meet, and sometimes people who remind us of someone in our life - or even ourselves.

Books make us think about life and the world we exist in. They make us ache and cry and laugh. They keep us company when we're lonely and become our friends, which we then want to share with our real life friends. Books can unite us and inspire us.

And, like baseball, they are an escape. They give us an opportunity to stop thinking about our own lives and immerse ourselves in someone else's. They enrich our lives, yet still give us an opportunity to get away from our life.

Which brings me to writing, and why writers (and baseball players) aren't wasting their time, even if the world as a whole may not always agree on that.

Someone has to write the book. Someone has to write the words that uplift and challenge and entertain. All it takes is
one
word
at
a
time.