Gwen's blog

Current Events

May 3, Houston: The big one -- the Inprint reading -- occurs at the Alley Theatre on Monday, May 3. Do not miss it or you'll be sorry. I'm not kidding -- I'm going to say the craziest, most intellectual yet hilarious stuff I can think of, and I'll be sharing the stage with the ultra sexy Oscar Casares, too.

June 24, Houston: I'm one of the peeps scheduled to read at Poison Pen, at Houston's famous Poison Girl bar. Besides me, everyone there will be ultra, *super* sexy. Come see me and drink!

June 26, Washington, DC: I'll be reading at the American Library Association conference. Come on down.

My other blog: Go read my the Houston Chronicle parenting blog (or my ChronMomBlog, as I like to call it) and make sure my kids won't resent me more than other kids resent their own parents.

Buy my new novel, Lone Star Legend. Already did? Well, buy a few more for your friends, then. :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
obligatory Thanksgiving gratefulness list paragraphs

The other day I was thinking about writing a "thankful for" list for this blog, and immediately got whiny and self-pitying, in my mind, over all the little things for which I'm not grateful this year. Then, right after that, I had a Thanksgiving Miracle Revelation: All my worries are first world worries. (I learned that phrase from Jackie.) That means all my problems are trite things that 98% of the people in the world wish were the only things they had to worry about. Things that the me of ten, five, or even two years ago would have been happy to trade for my worries of the moment. Things like "zomg, when am I gonna be able to fix the shower in one of the bathrooms in the house that I can still totally afford because I got a prime loan and not an adjustable rate mortgage?" And like, "I'm so sad I barely have time to write these things that people are paying me to write after I get home from the job where I'm well paid and respected for my skills!" And things like "Oh noes, I have to consult with my traffic court lawyer on this BS ticket scam that East Chickenfoot, TX is trying to run before my license comes up for renewal a year from now."

And, I mean, we have plenty to eat and plenty of air conditioning and/or heat as we need it, and more clothes and toys than we can use in a year, and our cats are fat. And we're healthy, knock on wood. So... thank God, right? Thank God for everything we have, and for the Indians feeding the pilgrims that day and giving us yet another excuse to chill out with our family and friends and eat more than usual. Life is good. Thank y'all for existing, so that your silent existence would force me to think of a list of things that would reveal to me how very, very lucky I am.

/cheese

A lot of crazy stuff is going on with my day-job company, just like it is for all of yours, I'm sure. Here's hoping every one of us ends up where we need to be. A couple of our friends have been laid off recently, and we're crossing our fingers for them.

One of my friends has been sick as hell, and my fingers are crossed for her, too. Most of my friends are doing well, and I'm glad.

I'm super, super busy til December 1, polishing my second novel. After/amongst that, I'm gearing up to promote the first novel and the second kids' book. Between those, I'm hosting Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve at my house. My cousin is hosting Christmas this year, and she just told me that we might have to break down and form a Super Family Style Tamale Assembly Line, Just Like Back in the Day. I like to think that my first kids' book (see Tamale book, linked at right) was part of the inspiration for that scheme. :) The part you don't see in the kids' book is one of the cousins saying "And, while we make the tamales, we'll drink wine." But it might have been implied. Hard to say -- hard to interpret one's own work, to be objective about one's subconcious literary intent. You'll have to read the book and read between the lines. Are Ana's cousins drinking wine while they spread the masa? You will have to be the judge on that one. Then you'll have to let me know. This year I want to try to make my friend Letty's mom's "drunken tamales," which are filled with beans and cabbage. Sounds weird, but tastes freaking awesome. Believe.

Okay, no more stream of conscience blogging.

It's time to get back to work. Everybody pray for me, that I can work super hard and get everything done. I'm sending good wishes to everyone out there who has art they want/need to complete, whether they read my blog or not. Because I'm starting to believe that's one of the best things people can do to stay happy while navigating our vale of tears: make art when you feel the need. Despite time constraints. Despite the negativity of others. Despite the nagging feeling that you're supposed to be doing something else.

If I don't talk to y'all before Thanksgiving, I hope you have a good one. If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, then I hope you have a bunch of really good days in November.

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6:42 PM #

Comments:

 I tagged you on http://skirt.com/node/23576


# posted by Blogger ShoeGirl : 11:23 PM  

 "Because I'm starting to believe that's one of the best things people can do to stay happy while navigating our vale of tears: make art when you feel the need. Despite time constraints. Despite the negativity of others. Despite the nagging feeling that you're supposed to be doing something else."

This almost made me cry. I'm currently so frustrated with my life and my finances and everything else and all I really want to do is sit down and make something sparkly but I feel guilty, like there are much more important things I should be focusing on. Thank you.


# posted by Blogger LL : 9:30 AM  

 You know, you're absolutely right about the "first world worries." I thought about all of the unimportant stuff I was worried about, and to compare that with a family that might be starving or who couldn't pay the light bill, makes my worries that much less.

Thanks for that entry.

- DVL


# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:51 PM  

 As people in 12-step meetings often say, "Today I have problems in areas where I never before had areas."


# posted by Anonymous jackie : 2:37 PM  

 I was at the grocery store tonight getting us some stuff and picking up stuff on the "dinner bag" list from our church - LOTS of canned goods tonight.

And as me and the youngster said our prayers before dinner, I looked over at the bag of food destined for church and I asked God to watch out for those who don't have as many blessings.

Because we have a lot. May not seem like it at times, but we do.

Moira


# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:52 PM  

 I want to try your friend Letty's mom's tamales. Your friend Letty is like my friend Vicki.

I posted about you on my shoegirl blog now too. I just felt better blogging about you there too, even though I absolutely LOVE skirt.com.

I will have some wonderful days in November and I will be thinking of you too!


# posted by Blogger ShoeGirl : 10:39 PM  

 Your thanksgiving sounds awesome. I decided to come over here and celebrate it from Twitter, that place where I don't follow anyone's feeds ;)

Anyways cool blog and you should check out mine so we can be smart-asses to each other and junk.

:) Jason


# posted by Anonymous Jason Sieckmann : 5:42 PM  

 I love your spunky voice! So fun.

Peep my blog:

http://muchbetterthanworking.blogspot.com


# posted by Blogger John Wolf : 9:51 PM  

 I haven't been by your blog in a long time, but I wanted see how you were doing. I hope you do well with your books, and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Janice~


# posted by Blogger Janice : 2:05 AM  

 What your friend calls "first world worries," I call "white people problems."


# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:59 AM  

 ShoeGirl: Thank you! Twice!

LL: I hope you make lots of stuff and are happy.

DVL: No, thank *you.*

Jackie: I laughed aloud, then repeated that to myself on the bus two days in a row.

Moira: Word up.

Jason: I already did, from Twitter. I was gonna follow you on Twitter, but then you told me to do it, and I don't like being told what to do. :)

John: Is your blog spunky?

Hi, Janice! Thank you!

Anon: Yeah, you're not the first person I've heard call them that.
But do you really think non-white people with money don't do that same stuff?

I used to have a niece-in-law who said she hated rich people and wanted to destroy all their Mercedes-es. I asked her how she'd feel if she got rich and got a Mercedes, and then some poor brat destroyed it.

She had no answer. I don't think she could imagine getting rich, at all, no matter what.


# posted by Blogger Gwen : 7:52 PM  

 This post has been removed by the author.


# posted by Blogger Gwen : 7:53 PM  

 Speaking of tamales, my girlfriend Jena, wrote a really great story about tofu tamales. Did you see it? I'm so curious to try them now. Have you? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6126572.html

Also, I started your book! Really good so far!


# posted by Blogger ShoeGirl : 7:26 PM  

 You aren't supposed to thank God on Thanksgiving. Thank Abe Lincoln!
As far sa the mercedes, I was next to a so fine, so fine kelly green convertible Jaguar today. It pulled by and had about ten of those 100 club stickers on, AND the license said CLASY1.
Uh YUCK. Not classy.
Tracey


# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 2:11 AM  

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