Archive for December, 2005

It’s not my novel, but an essay instead. Maybe not as thrilling, but it makes me happy just the same. Maybe not exactly the same, but I can’t stop smiling. It’s the essay that was recently bagged at one paper when they changed editors. Then I submitted it to someone else who must have passed [...]

What are your favorite or most hated cliche’s? The ones that make you cringe to hear them used or see them written? The ones you use yourself?

….offers a day of beauty for men. Or something like that. For $38 bucks a man can get a mini-facial, scalp massage, shampoo, conditioner, haircut, and style. I guess it’s just the mini-facial that makes this different than what’s included in a regular haircut for a woman. But the business itself offers pedi’s and mani’s [...]

There’s a specialty store up in Cranberry, PA that I go to sometimes when I’m up there. It sells obscenely expensive clothing and toys you can’t usually find in Toys R Us. Now, I don’t dress up to shop. I don’t look like the perfectly made-up and styled housewife, though that’d be neat. I guess. [...]

Don’t watch them anymore. Haven’t for over a decade. But upstairs, the TV was on from morning and there on the screen was a bunch of soapy stars partying in that Christmas way that only soapy stars can do. The lighting is warm and fuzzy. All the beautiful people are in buttery cashmere. And there’s [...]

I’m in one and it makes me all antsy. During the month of December, I abstain from writing. I wander mentally and physically to whatever. When I’m exercising instead of forcing myself to focus on the current story lines I’m spinning, I let my mind decide what it wants to think about. And by January, [...]

Beth and I saw my niece in the Nutcracker this weekend. It was wonderful, she was tremendous as a bon-bon. What a great Christmas tradition! We also went to a breakfast with Santa where there was a little dance troupe putting on a play about toys that come to life. There’s a ballerina, cowboy, dancing [...]

….that’s my big question of the day. Coming from a family chock full of neat little neroses, I am never short on something to obsess about. In comes this car in water thing. I learned about this when I took lifeguarding courses as a teenager, but I can’t for the life of me remember at [...]

That’s right, a small miracle in the Shoop home. I actually wrapped presents, decided I bought too many for my Jake and returned some! This is not normal behavior for me. Usually I rationalize how I could give him the extra gifts sometime during the year. Why go through the trouble? Because it was nothing [...]

Well, I’m channel surfing and I stumbled on Survivor. A show I loved until about four years ago. I always try to watch, but can’t. Even with all the Pittsburgher’s in it and even though they tend to win, a lot, I can’t do more than take a peek. So, I did tonight and the [...]