Natasha Fondren

Other than work and write? Hobby sort of things? I’m looking for more to do—more social things, that is. Now that the last snowbird is about to leave, I have to make friends who are here year-round.

Thanks to Groupon and their awesome specials, (OMG, if you don’t know what it is, GO. Now. So not kidding. Really cheap events and restaurants and classes at 50%+ off.) I’ve got a full schedule this month:

• Yoga Hula Hooping (CAN’T WAIT!!!)
• Belly Dancing
• Taekwondo
• Flow Yoga
• Taiko Drumming
• Ashtanga Yoga
• Volunteering

I’m so excited for the Taekwondo. I hope my foot holds up. Most of you were around when I did Taekwondo and know that it was my favorite activity EVER in my whole life. Seriously. LOVE it. I miss it like crazy. I know it’ll be different in a new town, new studio, but I’m still looking forward to it.

Although, I’m a little nervous, because I’m going to be majorly HEARTBROKEN if my foot goes nuts.

(Please send it healthy energy? Or prayers?)

It’ll be nice to do some working out that isn’t walking. I love my walks, but 7 miles a day is getting old. I’d like to mix it up some.

I’ve also found a lovely new cafe to work/write in. Problem is, I feel terribly guilty for abandoning Borders. Borders and I have been writing together for over ten years. And they’re in danger of going out of business! How can I even think of going somewhere else?! I need to support them!

Probably there will be plenty of time to go to a new cafe when Borders goes out of business.

Besides, you guys have heard me wax poetic on Borders for years. (Google has 69 search results from my old blog… I didn’t even try my new blog.)

Maybe I’ll just sneak away once or twice a week.

So… what do you do? Classes? Fun? Working out?

*dies*

Sometimes boring is fun. All I do is work and workout, lately, and I’m so happy. Almost every day, I wake up and think how lucky I am.

It could be the lizards. Reptiles are SO cool. I lived thirty-some years of my life without seeing these cute little critters dart around the ground, and they’re SUCH a kick.

I mean, LOOK AT THAT BELLY! Doesn’t it just BEG to be tickled?! Don’t you want to just take your finger and go, “Coochi-coochi-cooooooooo!” Hah!

It sort of blows my mind when I look around. I guess when you live in one environment for so long, to suddenly live in a new, completely different environment is a bit surreal. I mean… cacti?! How weird is that? There’s this one cactus in the RV Resort’s garden called an “Old Man Cactus,” and it has all this white, furry hair. It’s fascinating.

Doesn’t just looking at it make you want to laugh? It DOES look like an old man!!! Or wasn’t there a TV character, with a bunch of hair, called “It”? Or something like that? This cactus is an Old-Man-It!

Maybe it’s the sun. After living in a place that only gets sun ninety-odd days a year, getting sun over three hundred days a year is pretty fantastic.

My one neighbor wanted to stick a little solar light in the ground, and he had to use a DRILL. In the ground! ROFL! I wish I’d seen that!

My life has changed so much in the last year and a half. I’ve changed careers, built a new business… I never would’ve imagined in a million years that I’d be where I am today, doing what I’m doing today.

I just had to thank my lucky stars.

What about you? What are your lucky stars?

Did I show you this pic? Yes, if you’re on Facebook. If not, look how CUTE! Do you SEE HOW CUTE?!!!!

Here’s another view:

And here’s a view next to a nickel, for some size perspective. I cut out the middle (he wouldn’t stay next to the nickel), but it still gives you an accurate idea of the size.

In other words, his torso is only a little bigger than a nickel.

Such cuteness!!!!

I knew something was missing in my new RV! I was sitting here trying to work, when Melanie shared Britney’s video, “Hold It Against Me.”

I. Can’t. Stop. Listening.

I know. It’s embarrassing. Britney Spears. Love the chorus, but hate all the weird, scratchy, conversation stuff between. Anyway, it’s good Dancing Desk music to work to.

I knew it’d been awhile since I put on the Cher!

So here’s my new desk:

Clever, eh?

Also, I plumbed today, fixed a tiny part in the bathtub valve, and put on a new 1.6 gallon per minute showerhead. I really wanted the 0.5 gallon per minute showerhead, but it was pricey.

Got any good suggestions for Dancing Desk music?

I have a new home! I had no idea how much I was roughing it until I moved into the new camper. I feel like I’m living in luxury! I mean, wow! Hot water from the faucet! Three sinks! A super shower!

It’s SO cozy and comfy. I’m totally loving it! Here’s pics:

(No! I don’t sleep with my teddy bear. I’m way too old for that. Really. Never.)

An inside bathroom!!! With plumbing! And hot water!

Proof that this RV has been to Burning Man. (Previous owners.)

My visitor’s lounge/sitting room. *grins*

My living room/office.

My kitchen! Stove! Double sink!

My refrigerator! A freezer! A closet!

The outside view. Needs a bit of polish and detailing and wax, but we’ll get there.

I’m excited to do some traveling in it, but at 7 mpg, I don’t expect to be doing a whole lot. (It was $50 in gas just to drive it home. Yikes!)

How’s your week going?

It’s strange what you adapt to. We’re thinking of upgrading our camper. Until we started shopping, I didn’t realize how I’d grown accustomed to a life without “luxuries” that I’d taken for granted for years.

See, as we drove across the country, I sorta did something stupid and broke the countertop. (It folds over, and I stored pans in its upside-down position, and the jostling and weight of the pans broke the countertop.) So the plumbing to the sink, which wasn’t awesome to start with, got worse.

And, um, I waited for someone to fix it. And I never figured out how to fix it myself.

So I got accustomed to going outside and turning off the water to the camper any time I wasn’t using the water. Since that was such an inconvenience, I got accustomed to only turning on the water about once a week.

But when I think of that, of only turning on the water once a week, isn’t that odd? When I lived in a house, I must have turned on the water ten thousand times a day!

Granted, I go to the clubhouse to use the restroom and take a shower. Also, I have a big water jug for the cat’s water and my water.

Other things I’ve adapted to?

Life without a frig. Okay, that only lasted for two months. But strange. I never would’ve thought it. We used a cooler with ice!

Also, no stove. The propane clogged. After a month or two, we bought a grill that has a sideburner, and it functions well as an oven and stove, but I’ll admit it’s a bit of a pain to do all one’s cooking outside.

Looking at it now, it seems a little surreal. But it all happened so gradually. I find it fascinating that I’m happily living without those luxuries I would have taken for granted even a year ago.

It’s so freeing to know one can live without. Really. I wouldn’t trade that lesson for the world.

I voluntarily chose this lifestyle because I seem to love my freedoms (Constitution Day is only three days away! Oh yes, it’s another post on our five freedoms. My mission in life is that every citizen knows all five of their freedoms off the top of their heads, backwards and forwards.) and because I wanted to live cheaply so I could focus on writing.

In shopping for a new RV, I’ve realized how luxurious a stove, a working sink, indoor toilet and CUPBOARDS! are to me. Odd. But seriously, I’m happy with my computer and Kindle at my side. Pretty much the rest are optional.

Which is nice, as I seem to still be stuck seeing all things as burdens. Yes, I still hate stuff.

Glenn, unfortunately, doesn’t see things that way. He wants stuff and he wants big and he wants room. I find the price too high.

OH! There is ONE luxury that I miss desperately and daily: the dishwasher.

What about you? What luxury have you done without and were surprised it was an unneeded luxury? What luxuries would you trade to work less or work a different job? Or your dream job?

OMG, I love this book: The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time, by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. As I already mentioned in my last post, punctuation turns me on. I’m crazy about grammar and copyediting and proofreading and the like. LOVE it.

Also, I love travel.

So this book about two guys who set out on a road trip to fix typos across the country is my kind of book. And it’s told in a hilarious way, so even if you aren’t a copyediting freak like me, you’ll laugh.

One thing I liked about the book was when Jeff realized that most people are unaware there are different styles. Most people think rules are rules, that the God of English wrote them in stone hundreds of years ago and we must all be obedient.

Nah. The fun is in the differing styles, in the interpretation of the rules against the author’s own style, voice, and meaning. Copyediting can be quite a creative pursuit!

They have a blog about the Typo Hunt, and if you’re into this stuff, the Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks is hilarious.

Since we’re on the subject of funny misconceptions, last weekend I met some people at a potluck dinner at the RV Resort. I told someone I wrote erotica, and the person next to me said, “You must make a ton of money, writing!”

The person across from me said, “I’ve never known an erotica writer. I would love to know an erotica writer. That would be fun.”

And the best was the woman who said: “Oh! So romance authors hire you to write their sex scenes? How does that work?”

Hah! Love it.

Have you found any funny typos lately? Any amusing misconceptions about the writing business?

A year ago, I completely changed my life. This year has somehow managed to be the happiest, most relaxing, tumultuous, and terrifying year of my adult life. If I had known how hard the changes were going to be, I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to make them. I changed my life, and not in a shy way.

Leaving Music

In becoming a writer, I lost a lot of self-confidence. Giving up something you’re good at, something you’ve rooted your identity and self-worth and self-confidence in, is incredibly difficult. Since grade school, I was a pianist. For nearly thirty years I actively improved my musical skills every day, and a whole lot of my confidence was built on that foundation of skill and knowledge and training. And fifteen years of teaching piano: I knew exactly what to do and exactly how to teach certain things. It makes one feel good, to do something well, day after day.

Leaving all that was HARD, and I was totally unprepared for what a drastic blow it would be to my self-esteem.

I’m in a good place now, so I can admit that there were periods in this last year when I was depressed and felt like a complete failure and utterly worthless. I was terrified. I felt like I was drowning, like I was trying grab the buoy of music and teaching that had once been my confidence, but I’d thrown it away.

And there was nothing there.

Oh yes, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I was freaked.

Becoming a Writer

Part of me will always be a musician. I miss it. When I watch my music friends in their careers, my fingers itch to get at the piano. I mourn it often, and it’s still a sore spot that aches, even though I am certain that writing is where my heart truly is.

With writing, I never have to manufacture motivation. Whether I’m motivated or not, I find myself writing. It just happens. I don’t want a life; I never want to “escape” writing or even take a break, unless it’s to go to a movie. Even then, try to get me to a matinee—it won’t happen. I can’t go to a movie until I’ve written.

I love volunteering and hiking the desert once a week, but as much as I love it, I have to “force” myself away from writing. In theory, I want to travel and I want to explore Arizona more, but in reality, I can’t bear to give up the writing days.

Even when I swear-to-God really don’t want to write, I don’t want to do anything else.

No Half-Measures

Up until this last year, I had an absolute, no-idea-where-it-came-from confidence in the fact that I “should” write, that the “universe wants me to write.” This certainty did not come from any belief in my writing abilities; it was just there. And I am not given to faith; I’m really not. But there it was.

That confidence was shaken and tried this year.

(Yay! I finally get to join the club!)

I knew, going into this writing thing, that I wanted to be a very good writer. And I’ve seen what it takes for musicians to be very good musicians. I put zero stock in talent, so I’ve never wondered if I had writing talent. I do, however, know how to learn. I know how to make a living in the arts. I know how to become good at something, and I particularly know how to become good at something creative.

Line up all the best musicians, and I bet not one of them ever had a fall-back career. I knew if I gave myself the luxury of one, I’d never be as good as I want to be. Believe it or not, I’m a security freak, and if I gave myself the option, I’d get comfortable.

I maneuvered myself into the position of having nothing to fall back on; I do realize that. And for me, it was the right decision.

But damn, it was frightening as hell.

It Was a Very Good Year

Yes. Yes, it was. It doesn’t sound it so far, does it? In spite of it all, I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t regret my regrets for a second.

And now look, I’ve written a whole blog post and I haven’t even gotten to the good bits! And there were more good bits than scary bits, I promise. So I suppose I’m going to have to finish this up in a day or two… after I finish my writing.

Ever have regrets? Or regrets you don’t regret? Ever choose one thing above another, and mourn the loss of it, even while you know you’d make the exact same decision a thousand times over?