Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: aging

Tis The Season

So obviously keeping a blog with everything else I’m doing isn’t working. I’m rethinking what I’m going to do with all my social media and blog. I’m thinking of turning this into more of a personal journal than official writing blog. Apparently that will suit my style.

For those who met or followed me on Facebook. I don’t do that any more. Ever since Facebook updated their system to track you even when you sign out, I stopped using them. I considered that an invasion of privacy and apparently so did the FTC. You can now find me on Google+ because it’s a system that turns off when you log out. They already had their brush with the FTC with Google Buzz and cleaned up their act. I’m me over there too, Mary Louise Eklund feel free to circle me any time. Also say hi in the comments.

I’m also on Twitter. Love it as I can shout out to the world from my phone when a thought is worth sharing. I’m marylouiseklund over there. Note one e for the end of Louise and the start of Eklund in that handle. Also over to the right my tweets run so you’ll see links I think are interesting shared there.

Now to tell you what I’ve been doing since August.

Three Gems – Jewelry Booth

Hmm, I’ve been doing craft shows selling my jewelry. I’ve had a booth with two of my friends Paula Lawlor and Jean Rabe. We’ve had great shows and really bad shows but in the end I just want to support my craft addiction. After the first of the year we plan to open an esty store. I’ll let you know about that when it happens.

Jean is moving at the end of January, her husband has taken a new job a bit south of here. He’s already moved there. I sure will miss them. Jean was a bit part of our writer’s group. She brought years of experience in writing and editing to our group of newbies. Now we’re on our own after January.

As for our little jewelry/craft group. We’ll go on with lessons learned from this year. There are some other crafters interested in joining us. After the holidays we’ll meet, choose what craft fairs we want to do starting in the Spring and start the application process for them.

Mike a the Emporer’s palace Tokyo

Mike had active duty in Japan. This was months after the big earthquake in northern Japan. He did get to go sight see once before the work started. We got to chat regularly over the internet. No we didn’t use Skype but instead Yahoo IM but the voice chat. I think he enjoyed Poland more last year because with that group he got to see more of the host country. Here he was on base most of the time working the night shift. Never know what you’ll get but the Navy still lives up to its promise of seeing the world.

Aaron in his first dorm room

Aaron moved out into a dorm at University of Wisconsin in Madison. He’s doing so well. He comes home regularly to see his girlfriend Sara. As a result we get to see him regularly. As you can see he’s having a great time a college discovering odd things like an old gas mask without the filter and public transportation.

Having a great time at college!

I rediscovered the fun of having ideas, doodles, plans, notes, and such all in one nice book. My new journal book of choice is a large moleskine with grid paper. The great thing about gridpaper is I can draw out floor plans of settings I create in my stories. I can do calendars, and such. Also when I take a notion to sketch it helps having a grid. I’m not a good sketcher but at times it makes me happy.

Yes we were THAT close to him

We didn’t just sit around all the time but did do a few things without going to a single theme park. We took an airboat ride out on a local lake. That was lots of fun. We got to see alligators and other wild life. I told Mike it felt like I was riding a couch across the water. I loved it and would like to go do it again sometime.

Leu Garden Roses

We toured the Leu House and Gardens. There they have a wonderfully historic house with beautiful gardens. Mrs. Leu loved roses and her rose garden was unbelievable! The roses were in bloom and I did enjoy making pictures of them until the mosquitoes came out at dusk! Didn’t see the rest of the gardens as we ran to our car to avoid the blood thirsty swarms! Next time going more toward mid day when the sun is high and mosquitoes are low.

Early Stages of the clean up from the plumbing disaster

Life’s not all been crafting, moving and vacation. We did deal with a huge plumbing issue that happened when the sewage pipe from the second floor cracked and drained through our walls and into our basement. The whole basement had to be redone. That took a while to get in order but our insurance covered most of the cost. THANK GOODNESS!

Grandpa Mac holding Baby Aaron

We lost Grandpa Mac this fall. He was Mike’s maternal grandfather, Dale McAllister. It was sad but a blessing Grandpa was freed from his body. He’d not been in good health and had to be in a nursing homes. We’ll miss him. The funeral service was excellent the minister recounted many of his funny tales make all of us smile remembering the man we knew.

As for writing, I’m working on a Steampunk novel. I’m using the characters from my two published stories. It picks up just after the Steampunk’d story. All of it takes place on the Plebeman estate. It’s been fun and soon the first draft will be done and sit on the hard drive to cool before my editing/rewrites. Then it’ll be out to betas.

Next big project will be an urban (but really rural setting) fantasy set in town I grew up in and my parents still live, Greeneville, Tennessee. I’ve been working on that story concept and plot for months. It should be fun to revisit the area but with a fictional twist of course.

As for genealogy, I’m still plugging away at it. I’ve come to terms that I will always have a filing cabinet of information awaiting input into my family tree program. I’ll always be collecting more documentation and always be behind. All this despite I only deal with dead ancestors and relatives. Such is the life of an amateur genealogist.

We haven’t had any snow that stuck to the ground until today. I’d been counting my blessings and hoping for a snow-less winter but that’s too much to ask for in Wisconsin. I count my blessings that it is late starting this year and hope for an early spring, say oh in March!

Hope the holidays are treating you well. Now that you know what I’m up to give me a shout out to tell me what you’ve been up to. You can reach me here, Google+, Twitter, Flickr (where you’ll find this photos in large sizes and many more from these events & other things), or at either of my e-mail addresses marylouiseeklund at yahoo.com or gmail.com. I try to make it easy to be found.

December 17, 2011
No, no, I didn’t forget I’m here!

Yes this post is late. I know, I know, teach but I have an excuse from the doctor. Can I make it up?

I do apologize for being late but I’ve been battling strep throat that turned into scarlet fever. Yes, in the summer. Yes, at my age. No, I’ve not a clue as to why or how I got it. I blame Australia as it is winter there. I only know I want out of it! I’m on a second antibiotic and making progress.

During this whole process I’ve not had the energy to do much writing. At times thinking coherent thoughts and composing sentences has been a challenge. Yet, I needed a creative outlet. To fill this and add to my daily-to-do list (gosh knows I ignore enough on that now) I accepted the 365 challenge. That is- make a picture each day for 365 consecutive days. I was all serious in my fevered desire for an outlet that didn’t need words I even joined Project 365 over on Flickr and made my own Personal 365 set in my account. To my now non-fevered brain’s surprise I’ve kept this up for the last 10 days.

I know that you over there squirming in your chair is thinking, “Gee, that’s great Mary Louise but what does that have to do with this blog post I came over here to read?” My answer is everything. I’m still on drugs, but not fun good ones rather icky good ones. I’m still struggling to express ideas in word form but visual, that medium is working full bore. So I shall give you my 365 and why I took each picture.

Day 1

This was recall election Tuesday in my district. We were the second round of recall elections in Wisconsin. I am not going to get political on you. (I’ve vowed not to do that or religion here.) I did feel my duty to vote and since I’d been on the first antibiotic for three days thought I wasn’t contagious. It took all my effort to get up, shower and get to the polls. I did it. I brought back proof I’d done it. I stuck it on my keyboard. Once I decided that I was doing Project 365 I made a picture of it. It represented what was the core of my day for that day.

Day 2

Meet Russell, this is his evil side. Aaron bought this silly deer cut out somewhere and named it Russell. Wanting Russell to have a face on both sides he drew this on the blank side. Being sick I was asleep in bed when Aaron got home. He put Russell on my desk for me find when I dragged myself to work the next day. It so happened the next morning Rappy, my greyhound, was leading the way into my office with me following. She yelped, jumped back, and cowered against me. Wondering what had spooked her (no I wasn’t afraid, let’s just say Rappy isn’t the sharpest tool in the doggie shed. She’s so dull you’d give her to at toddler as a play thing.) I flipped on the light. I cackled in laughter finding Evil Russell on my desk. So he became the photo of the day.

Psst here’s his nice side –

Day 3

I was feeling better or determined to feel better, not sure which looking back on it. Any way I wanted to go outside in the SUN! Our backyard beckoned. The black-eyed Susans were in bloom. So using my new camera on macro I sat on the warm walk and tried to get a good shot. I think I succeeded.

Black-eyed Susans always remind me of my Aunt Susan. She never liked the name of that flower. I can’t say I’d particularly like a flower named “Domestic Violence Mary Louise” either. Summers when I was young and would stay with my Granny Winnie, Susan and I would take walks up the lane. Sometimes with Granny other times just us. I remember one time Susan was picking black-eyed Susans and calling each one a different family name – we had black-eyed Mary Louise, black-eyed Winnie, black-eyed Dwight, black-eyed Gary, black-eyed Alan, black-eyed Sidney, and so on until she had big bouquet that included all her brothers, sister-in-laws, parents, aunts, uncles, and me. So my apologies to Aunt Susan, this one is a different Susan with a black eye.

Day 4

We were getting low on food. I HAD to go out shopping. This was my Walter Mitty moment as I was leaving the grocery. I was chilling though it was hot. So I sat in the warm truck and opened my cold diet cola. As I sipped I watched a grocery store employee ride up on this thing with a chain of carts in front of him. He stopped at the cart corral just across from me and began sorting carts to get them ready to add to his string. I had a brief fantasy of running out there, jumping on that thing, revving it up and riding off like a stagecoach driver running from bandits! YeeeeeeHIIIII! I saw in my mind’s eye the bewildered employee standing there in his dark blue apron watching me go with his mouth open and brow furrowed. Then the moment was over. I was tired and wanted to go home. I put the soda in the holder, started the truck, and drove home.

Day 5

That was a blarggggghhhh day. I was wiped out and running a high fever again. I did nothing. Rappy’s bored sighs from her bed summed it up. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! So she stood in for my feelings. I was paying for all that imagined cart riding excitement from the day before.

Day 6

During all this time, Mike has been on active duty in Japan. Every night I’d wait on Yahoo IM for him to log in so we could voice chat. I didn’t feel like writing, picture surfing, reading, or any thing with the computer that night. I straightened out my jewelry stock for the Three Gem jewelry sales I do. Here are two bookmarks I made with a dolphin theme. Not bad. I think I’ll be selling some stuff on e-bay eventually and have to work out how to get good pictures of it. This was a start on that idea.

Day 7

Woot! I’d made it a week in photos. However with over a week in treatment I wasn’t feeling well or even much better. So I started beading. Since that’s what I was doing I made several photos of it (hop over to my flickr **points to right side there for link** to see more cool macro jewelry shots). I know I really don’t need more jewelry to sell but I have the material and I like making it. Finally, I realized my inventory on bracelets was low and started making those instead of necklaces or earrings.

Day 8

Woke up feeling undead. So undead I called the doctor’s office. Did you know the undead are hot? Yeah run about 101F unlike us cool living people. This was my mug that morning for my coffee. I thought it appropriate. Doc put me on a new antibiotic that makes me feel icky in a different way. Sometimes I ponder is the cure better than being a zombie with a sore throat and rash.

Day 9

OMG! I’m ALIVE!!! I’m human NOT an an-ah-mule! Yes, on the second dose of the icky antibiotic I started feeling better, except for the warned side effects. I made myself dinner that night! It was a big bowl of veggie fried rice and it was wonderful! I ate at my desk waiting on Mike. I got to chat with him & went to bed feeling like the world was improving.

Day 10 – Today!

This morning I woke to find my daily picture waiting in the bay window. No it doesn’t have much to do with my day’s activities as I worked with the insurance company to try to get my house reassembled. (see this blog post to understand why my house needs reassembly). It wasn’t the best day as far as that goes.

Still he’s a handsome furry fellow and made a wonderful photo for today. He’s the trouble maker of my clowder. If there’s a crash he’ll walk out of the room nonchalantly and swear he heard nothing unusual in there. He had no idea what I’m talking about despite say dust from the broken vase clinging to his black fur.

So there you go – my last 10 day in photos. I’m not sure when I’ll do this again. Let me know what you think in the comments (points down below) if you want this to be a regular thing, if so how often. If you’d rather we never speak of this again and if so when we meet we’ll act like it never happened. Maybe you’d prefer this be just a one shot deal and for those really into it they can go to my flickr set… Just let me know. Maybe, just maybe we can make this a conversation rather than just me shouting into the dark of the internet.

Oh, I forgot to say if you are interested in the photos or the ones made those days but didn’t get chosen just click on the photos here and they will take you my photo feed where you can stroll around and enjoy seeing the sights.

August 25, 2011
A PEN WARMED IN HELL

Boogerman Devil Figure 1992 by Ernest Patton figure in the Folk Art collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum

I can’t remember the essay’s contents but I do remember being intrigued by the tone of it. Here was lovable Mark Twain author of Ransom of Red Chief, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and many other beloved humorous stories being, well harsh, almost mean-spirited but for a good cause. Yes, there was humor in the essay as my high school English teacher Ms. Tunstall read it. Yet, it was a bitter humor one that made you laugh and smart from the sting at the same time. This wasn’t the Mark Twain I knew while appreciating the biting sarcasm (what teenager wouldn’t like that!) I was stunned the warm Southern grandfather figure with the bushy white mustache was so caustic. The anthology of essays was A Pen Warmed Up In Hell. At the time I wanted a copy to read it all. It was out of print and I couldn’t find a used copy. Apparently people weren’t clamoring to be stung by a beloved author.

Years went on and I didn’t pay much mind to it. The phrase “a pen warmed in hell” would scoot across my mind from time to time. When it did I would think, oh yeah there was more to that Mark Twain fella than just warm fuzzy laughs and good dialect writing (oh I wish that would come back in style I love it). Other than that I went on living my the rest of my teens, 20s, 30s, and half my 40s without giving it much more thought. Until a few days ago, this time it didn’t just scoot but instead it walked in and sat down in my mind. “Okay you’re old enough to get now.” It seemed to say and the thoughts started brewing.

Yes, I do get it. I’m aging into a crotchety old koot. I know as I watched people attempt to board my plane with more than two carry ons. I contemplated are they stupid and can’t count or just selfish bastards. Either way I felt some need to tell them, but I didn’t instead I tweeted it to the world. Yeah I said it aloud in a humorous way. Why? Because I’m tired of keeping my mouth shut. I no longer tolerate fools, rudeness, or rude fools as well as I once did. I wish I was aging into a happy smiling Buddha-faced elder woman who looks at such things with loving tolerance. I don’t. I’m not aging into that. I’m aging into hardened hopefully wizened old crone.

I get sick of modern displays of fools. You know those who buy internet scams hook, line and sinker. Okay if it’s not well written, doesn’t make sense, or says a computer will do something that either it can’t do or would take a fortune to program it to do – it’s a scam. If you are unable to reason this on your own a quick search will bring answers of all kinds of reliable authorities to your fingertips. I’m giving you a HUGE benefit of a doubt that you know how to screen sources for reliability and this may be my fallacy.

You know if I have to display my spiritual faith in some on-line community for it to be valid then I don’t want it. Nope, that’s shallow and demeaning of what I see as the most intimate and important aspect of the human – their soul. I can’t see it matters a rat’s ass to any divine being that my status on Facebook says anything in particular. If that’s the litmus test I want to fail. I want my spiritual experience to be deeper and more personal than that. I don’t care to “show it” because what you or anyone else thinks is irrelevant to me.

Also businesses that don’t seem to consider the customer. Yeah you ,Continental Airlines I’m looking RIGHT at you on this one. When you have a gate with 24 seats, that’s not enough. NOW add three more gates waiting at the same door, well those 24 seats are ridiculous. Then to add to the foolishness I don’t tolerate well have security come by and chastise us for standing in the walkway. To make it even worse have young people wallowing around in the chairs lost on electronic devices while the elderly lady next to me struggles to wait standing. Whatever happened to manners? Oh and thanks kid for flipping me the bird when I suggested you wallow in the floor and let her sit down.

Now don’t get me wrong I don’t think youth is going to hell in a hand basket any more than we were or our parents were in the 50’s or their parents in the 20’s. We all did something daring that shocked the prudes of the older generation be it sagging, heavy metal, ducktail hair cuts, or bobbed hair with rolled stockings. That’s fine. I don’t mind rap, don’t like it but I’m not supposed to like it. I don’t mind sagging and think they’ll laugh at it like I do big 80’s hair and 70’s roller disco. Youth is youth and even the ancient Egyptians were sure the next generation were spoiled, uneducated, had it too easy, and were going to hell in a hand basket.

The manners I’m talking about are simple consideration of others. That’s all. Thinking beyond yourself to the rest of the world. Like maybe 2 carry ons means 2 for me too. AND even if I put wheels on it a foot locker still won’t fit under a seat or in the overhead bin even though it’s one of two things I have. Or that maybe since there’s 4 gates here and we don’t want people waiting blocking the hall we should extend our waiting area and add some more chairs. Like maybe being the kid in line in front of me today who saw the old man struggling to find enough change in his car to pay the last bit on his groceries and handed the woman a dollar to cover it. (The old man cried and I just about did).

Just when I get sparks flying from warm hellish pen, someone goes and does something like that. All the things that fire up my caustic tongue are doused by the simple act of paying a buck for someone else. Yeah it’s still out there and I thanked the kid for his kindness. He shrugged it off as the white wires to his ears danced with the lift of his shoulders. “It’s what you’re supposed to do.” He turned and left with chips and soda, pants sagging so I could see plaid boxers, head bobbing to some music I’m no longer the target audience for any way. I bet when he gets older he has a smiling Buddha face or maybe he’ll hold a hot pen tired of those who don’t know what you’re supposed to do. Either way he didn’t just help the old man but he help me, my fiery rant was quench by witnessing the kindness I longed to see.

Home now, my wrath doused I looked for that anthology of Mark Twain’s essays. I find it’s now available on Amazon. I’m awaiting my copy. I get it now, it’s not Mark Twain’s voice there but an aging Samuel Clemens. One who aches to see kindness to others, a bit help to the underdog, and is tired of keeping his mouth shut about it. Ya know, I bet that bushy white mustache would have covered a smile today at the grocery if Old Sam had been in line behind me.

July 5, 2011
The Characters I’ve been

I have found how to live more than one life in this life. Really. I’ve had many lives since I was born, even carrying into adulthood. I’ll admit I enjoyed some more than others. None do I want to do again. That’s going backwards and as I like to say “Been there, done that, got (or didn’t want) a tee-shirt.” Things that weren’t fun aren’t worth getting a tee-shirt to remember.

I guess my first change in life was when I was in pre-school. My parents moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee where I was born to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I LOVED it. We lived in an apartment building which I thought it was constant vacation living like a hotel. We had a winking burger sign out our kitchen window that lit up not only did he wink at night but he waved too! Dad had a yellow car that belonged to his company it was neat looking but I didn’t get to ride in it. We lived near where Flipper was filmed. The beach was grand and there was lots of sun. Once we found a police phone receiver in a parking lot. We went trick or treating without leaving the apartment building. I mean really how can you beat living in a place like that? On a visit back to Granny’s (my paternal grandmother) I informed her “I am a FLORIDA girl now.” Yes I remember saying it and holding out my brown dress with big yellow sunflowers print to prove the veracity of my statement. Little did I know I was on the odyssey of my second life in this one.

Apparently a winking waving burger sign out the kitchen window at night wasn’t what Mom and Dad were looking for in a place to raise a their daughter. We didn’t live there long before we moved back to Tennessee. I didn’t know it but Florida would be home at least two more of my lives later down the road.

I was a city kid that moved to the country. Then I was the country kid that went to the big college. I was a photographer in there for a bit. Then I was and still am a military wife. I worked for a nonprofit organizations as an office manager. Then I was an administrative assistant for one of the first in-house HMOs in upstate New York. Then I was a fine jewelry salesperson. Then I was a submariner officer’s wife who was looking for work. Then I was an insurance agent, followed by marketing researcher, followed by Health Club manager, followed by: a Weight Watcher’s lecturer, grad student, receptionist, office manager, real estate agent, temp worker, administrative assistant, Mary Kay Salesperson, Regulatory Compliance Specialist for management of hazardous and radioactive waste, stay at home mom, and now a

Those were just the job lives so far. We all go through changes and honestly if the order was shifted a bit I’d be a different person today. Each experience dovetailed into the previous and the next one to weave me. I look back at myself at any of those stages and the me of today would have handled them differently. That’s why they seem more like different lives than chapters of a life.

I always remember when writing that characters that are well done grow over chapters and aren’t the same person at the end of the tale as they were in the beginning or middle. That’s what makes a good story. I like to think the same thing applies to life. At the end of each chapter I’m not the same. That means I’m living a good life. I’m a great character because I change over the arc of my life story. Okay I’m not a literary character in that my growth isn’t mostly internal like say my ancestor that lived in the same house all her life. I’ve changed physically and moved to various settings. So I’m a dynamic character formed not just by internal dialogue (though I do talk to myself ALL the time so much so that sometimes I wish I’d shut up in my head) but by external challenges too.

In the end the thing that makes life interesting for me is trying new things. I guess some would say I’m a jack of all trades master of none. Maybe I am but at least I’m entertained by my life. I’ve always got an interesting story to tell from all of it be it mine or a person I met along the way. I guess that’s why I ended up a writer for now at least.

January 6, 2011