The Mysteries of Tyberius

     Ty is SO funny. From the moment we got him he has been ultra-bonded to Marshall, which makes each morning when Marshall leaves for work a little challenging for us and heart-breaking for Ty. For the first week he whined and peed. For the second week he mostly just whined. Now he has a new, interesting tactic.

642 Things To Write About

     Several weeks ago I decided I wanted to take up journaling again. I was wondering around Target when I happened upon a book that caught my eye. “642 Things to Write About”. A book filled with blank spaces and 642 prompts to spark my curiosity and spur on short spurts of gleeful creative writing. No pressure, no deadlines, no huge intimidating chapters. Just a writer’s opportunity for a creative snack. That seemed perfect for me, because I’ve been contemplating things a lot over this past year, struggling with the pain of endometriosis and major surgery. I’ve decided to dedicate my time to writing a novel. This book seemed like a great way to dive back into writing, building back up the habit and exercising those muscles once again, this time entirely on my own. No fan fiction involved.

     The first prompt that caught my attention was nothing more than a single word. “Honesty”. I spotted it right there in Target. My mind starting percolating as I drove off to a restaurant for dinner. As soon as I got a chance, I filled it right in, took a pic, and tweeted it. I even sent it off to the people who put the book together – the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto. They must have liked it, cause they even retweeted it! I’ll post the picture, as well as type it up here to make it a bit easier to read. Hope you like it!

Honesty

“Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. Be loyal. Be faithful. Be true. Each of these bring to mind an outward act, the behavior of one to another. Don’t lie to your friends. Don’t cheat on your spouse. Don’t steal from the store owner. Be loyal to your family. Be faithful to your word. Be true to those you love. A mountain of actions that seems insurmountable in a world that more greatly values what you can get away with. How did we get here? Why is the everest of honesty so impossible to climb? Because we skipped the very first step.
Be honest with yourself.”
– Heather • 03/25/16 • 4:59am

Last night, I looked through the book again when I couldn’t sleep. I was insanely exhausted after such a busy, fantastic week, but the pain was just too much to fall right asleep. Marshall and Tyberius were fast asleep, so with only the light of the TV I flipped through until I found something that made me smile. “You are the Grim Reaper. Write three different opening paragraphs for your autobiography, trying out very different styles.” I instantly saw Bruce Campbell as the Grim Reaper and started writing. Then I decided to play with duality. The third, well, I was half asleep at that point. Definitely not my best writing at that point. :) Either way, hope you like it! (And my apologies to Steve Martin.)

The Grim Reaper’s Autobiography Opening, Three Times Over

Autobiography Opening, Version 1.0: “I dress in all black and carry a scythe as long as an exasperated sigh. You might say I’m the original bad boy. You might say I’m the Father of all emo. Say the latter and you might just sigh your last. I’m death, baby. I call the shots.”

Autobiography Opening, Version 2.0: “Black and white. Yin and yang. Good and evil. Life and death. In a world of duality, I’m the extreme you don’t want to meet.”

Autobiography Opening, Version 3.0: “I was unborn a poor black child in Mississippi. Steve Martin, you’ll pay for making a joke out of my backstory. I charge one soul, expenses for river crossing (both ways), and accept all major credit cards. Ka-ching!”

– Heather • 04/01/2016 • 12:30AM

I’m going to have a lot of fun with this book! :) If you’re looking for some writing fun, definitely check out ‘642 Things to Write About’! I’ve only filled in two prompts and already I’ve had oodles of fun. Let the writing begin!

Meet Tyberius Sewell!

We got a DOG!! And not just any dog, an absolutely perfect pure-bred samoyed boy named Tyberius! We just got him yesterday and are already completely smitten. Not only is he stunningly beautiful, but he’s insanely patient, mellow, cuddly, soft, pleasant, obedient, and could not be more loving with my niece and nephews. He even kindly and lovingly tolerated giddy adoration from my three-year-old nephew, Milo. For a dog who hasn’t exactly been around a lot of kids, I think he did beautifully!

#NeverTrump Art-a-thon!

Late last night my dear friend Kate sent me this article on facebook, which asks the important question, “Where is Donald Trump’s artistic mauling?” Well it’s here, dammit! It no one else will do it, I will.

Thus I have declared it #NeverTrump Art-a-thon Weekend at my house!

Surgery Success!

Just a quick update to say that my surgery went fantastically well! It was by far the easiest surgery experience I’ve ever had. I credit that to the talent and preparation of my surgeon, the hard work and research of the anesthesiologist who never let the pain get ahead of me, the excellent nursing staff at Holy Cross Hospital that took great care of me, and most importantly of all, my amazingly loving husband who never hesitated to take care of whatever I needed or wanted. That’s the Marshall Effect – everything was tough before him, everything’s easier with him. :)

Best of all, the horrible shredding pain I had in my pelvis is entirely gone! The lower back pain still comes back occasionally, but it’s nowhere near as bad and doesn’t happen anywhere near as often. So far, so good!

I’m still being tested for a few other things, to try and figure out why I’m still having fevers and my lymph nodes are freakishly huge all the time. And I still need to have a small surgical procedure to remove my mediport. But hey, big operation is done and went super well! So all is good. :) Big thank you’s to my brilliantly perfect husband, my awesome Mom for cleaning our house and taking care of me when Marshall had to go back to work, my super nice Mother-in-law who picked up groceries and prescriptions for us, my Dad for driving us back and forth to the hospital, all of our friends and family who prayed and sent positive vibes, and my extra sweet brother for bringing me cute little surprises to cheer me up.

Surgery Tomorrow

I’m having surgery tomorrow. Bright and early, 7:30am, all the way in Maryland. Which means I need to be at the hospital at 5:30am, which means I have to leave my house at like 4:00am. Just my luck, my surgery is scheduled just after the worst record-breaking blizzard Northern Virginia has ever seen and our neighborhood hasn’t been plowed. Which means at 4:00 in the morning, my husband and I will be bundling up and literally walking all the way out of our neighborhood, up to the nearest plowed road, to get in my Father’s SUV to drive up to Maryland.

Yeah. Surgery sucks enough on its own, but that just makes it all the more sucky. Don’t even get me started on how worried I am about trying to get home again. But I’m trying my best to leave that worry for later, whenever it is I’m lucky enough to leave the hospital.

World of Warcraft

    With all the downtime I’ve spent this year thanks to my ill health, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. A few weeks ago my husband, Marshall, decided it might be fun if we played World of Warcraft – a MMORPG he used to play in college. Thanks to a Black Friday deal, we were able to get the game for $5! Not bad.
Only problem now is, we’re hooked! :) I absolutely LOVE it! Not only has been running around such a massively huge adventurous world so much fun, but I’ve met a lot of really fantastic, nice new friends. That’s in large part thanks to our new guild, Immortal Twilight.
Various guild friends have been exceptionally helpful, running us through dungeons, helping us find rare objects, and leveling us up. This blog post is to thank them, to help out a fellow guildie who’s having a hard time getting our voice chat app to work! So for most other people, this won’t be very interesting. But for members of WoW Immortal Twilight, I hope you find it useful! So without further ado, HeatherShow.com proudly presents…

Never Too Early for Picard

Yes, I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but I just could NOT resist! This had me laughing WAY too hard, especially one bit involving a petulant little boy in a dorky sweater… You’ll see. :)