The Unadventures of Tracie

I interrupt this message (and everything else I need to do right now, including finishing other very long, important posts and a book-long reply to an email) to post this . This is a link to a short story on Glass of Random , written by ME. This is the first piece of fiction I have written in 7 years. It's not polished or anything, but it's done for now. I wrote it in one night (not that impressive considering it's two pages long). This is a HUGE DEAL to me. Why? Because I have always loved to write, as soon as I could put pen to paper and form words. I spent much of my childhood writing silly stories, plays, and poems, loving every minute of it. But I have been afraid to write for years, ever since after having a disastrous creative writing class at BYU. Since then I have been so afraid of failure that I haven't even tried to write for a long time, too long. So this was scary and wonderful and frightening and exhilarating for me to do. I didn't realize h...

As I mentioned before, I'm starting new blogs. The one I most want to start working on is a birth blog. But I still can't think of a title. So help me come up with a title! I need to start working on this before I drive everyone crazy talking about birth. Once I can start blogging about it, I can finally let my mind clear. Here are some that I've thought up: A Womb with a View (there's an ultrasound .com site with this title) A Pregnant Pause (I really like this one but looks like there's already a .net site with this title) Not Another Birth Blog Mind over Labor (no blogs with this title, though there is a book with this title) Unadventures in Laborland or Adventures in Laborland (I think I'm leaning toward one of these two.) HayLee suggested Out of the Womb, which I like but I'm not sure quite fits. I want this to be a blog about pregnancy, fertility, trying to conceive, labor, delivery, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, and taking care of a b...

The gulf between us grows day by day. The distance between us loams larger. I see you on your side and me on mine. I wonder how things are going over there. I can only guess. I don't have a direct line anymore, only binoculars. How I so desperately miss, mourn, and grieve being on the same side. I know I'll never be able to live on the same side again. Too much has changed. There will always be a divide.  But I want to build a bridge, connect our two halves. We may live on different sides, different worlds with different experiences, different terrains but does that mean we can't have a connecting path? There just needs to be one strong connection, built from one side to the other. How I long for that bridge to be built. But how? Can it be done? I haven't done a proper job of starting my side. I don't know what materials to use. I keep searching for them, picking some up and discarding them.  I'm "in construction"  though the bridge shows no signs of ...

Hi all. I'm looking for your help. I want to start a new blog (separate from this one) and I need help coming up with a blog title and a cool name. I've been wanting to blog about so many things for a while now that I didn't feel fit with "The Unadventures of Tracie." The new blog will focus on the following issues: critiques (literature, film, TV) advocacy language/writing/editing feminism/women's rights equality/sexism pregnancy/childbirth culture women/mothers parenting/raising children and politics (as it pertains to the above categories)  I know this sounds like a lot of different topics but they are causes/topics/issues that I am deeply passionate about. I would like this blog to be a place to distribute information, facilitate discussion, and critique pertinent issues. I need a name that would be catchy, memorable, and relevant. I also would like to create an identity for myself that may or may not be the same as the name of the blog. I...

For those who haven't been following the news or the viral video, Susan Boyle is a 47-year-old woman from a teeny town in Scotland. She is one of this year's contestants on Britain's Got Talent. I discovered the viral video via a news article online. I watched it and discovered why, only a few days later, the video has reached 21 million views. The video introduces us to Susan, a plump, unattractive, poorly dressed woman who admits she sings to her cat and has never been kissed. She walks out on stage and within seconds the audience, and the judges, have already made up their mind about her. They cynically wait for her to make a fool of herself. But Susan refuses to be shaken. With her witty remarks and refusal to let others get to her, Susan displays great self-confidence and what can only be called moxie. They may judge her, but she believes in herself. And then Susan begins to sing....and out comes one of the most beautiful voices I've heard in a long time. A...

At long last Austin and I have finished the first draft of The Pirates of Madera , a one-act play we wrote for Troy. Many a time was spent procrastinating writing this thing but we still put a lot of work into it. Writing this we experienced bickerings, giggles, frustration, and long hours to finally get this done. We hope everyone, especially Troy and his activity group, enjoys it. It is currently up on Glass of Random for those that want to read it. If you don't have an invitation, let us know, and we'll email you an invite to be able to view our private fiction blog.

It seems that I will be posting a day late for things. I'm finding this goal really hard. Austin and I don't do enough to have anything to write about. Let's see..yesterday I drove up to work, which was really difficult as I got less than four hours sleep the night before. I'm feeling MUCH better today as one, yesterday I took a 2-hour nap and two,I went to bed and got to sleep in as I'm working from home today. I've been having a really difficult time sleeping lately. Must be all the stress. Am I the only one who really can't function on small amounts of sleep? I used to be able to pull all-nighters every once in a while and get by fine on four hours of sleep when I was a teenager. And then when I was 19 I pushed my body much too hard by staying up too late, waking up too early, and working 8-hour days exerting physical energy in a warehouse. After a few months of this, my body collapsed from pure exhaustion and fatigue. Ever since then I haven't been a...