Music Monday: Solstice Music 2025

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, and since my 2023-2025 have been consumed with things I can't do because...I decided to start 2026 as I mean to go on (since, in some traditions, the solstice is the new year celebration). I cranked up my playlist called "Music Therapy" and deep cleaned the kitchen. In the end, that cleaning meant scrubbing the counter tops, cleaning the stove on top and oven door, tidying the windowsill in the kitchen, and vacuuming up the bits that were flung to the floor in the process. By last night I was bone tired and moving slowly--but it was due to the cleaning and not sitting in the recliner all day watching telly and doom scrolling. SCORE! Anyway, today's song is on all my playlists because I love love love Punjabi music/dance and I love Ed Sheeran. Enjoy--this one works well with any sort of cleaning or just moving. Bonus points for the Punjabi lyrics being included here.

Merry Happy Holidays Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa, y'all! 

My 2023 was a blur...

From one Annus Horribilis into another...?

So as I was looking for something in my blog, I came across my New Year's Eve wrap up from 2010 and I thought I'd just share this bit before launching into the same for today:

June wasn't hot, but it wasn't freezing anymore either, which was quite nice. I'm going to include July here as well, because there was one event that absolutely stole focus for all of us for the entire month. I found a lump in one of my breasts. I survived having what turned out to be a cyst drained, as well as a needle-core biopsy (google that if you want to be scared out of your mind) that showed absolutely nothing. Mind you, I'd planned my funeral in the six weeks from finding the pitch invader to the results of the biopsy, and I've never been so glad to hear a doctor say he recommended that I not come back to him again.

Yeah, so I think that was the bit of tissue that became Eugene, my breast cancer tumor. I have the gene mutation that won't stop cells from growing out of control, which is how Eugene came to be. But I think it is interesting that I thought THAT was awful. I've done so much more awful since then. 

So, January - June were pretty much status quo around here. I sold books and met wonderful people at the Atlanta Steampunk Expo and the Georgia Renaissance Festival and put in applications/made plans for many other events in the months to follow.

In June, I decided to be a grown up and finally get signed on with a new GYN since my insurance had changed who was in my providers list and I'd passed the 50 years old mark. I also attended ConCarolinas for the fourth time including the virtual weirdness that was 2020.

In July, I was diagnosed with Stage III-B breast cancer that had not spread beyond the tumor itself and some lymph nodes just behind it. I named it Eugene and started a long line of medical appointments as well as attended ConGregate 9 - which was far and away more fun. I started chemo on 31 July.

In August I continued chemo, started awful shots that jacked up my immune system, and waved goodbye to my hair. I will say, though, that experience wasn't as bad as others have experienced and I was expecting...but I'm glad it's over. 

In September, I continued chemo and changed from The Red Devil cocktail every two weeks to a lighter weight poison called Taxol that was administered weekly. I waved a one-fingered salute at those immune system shots with the switch. I also attended the Upstate Renaissance Faire as a vendor for the first time, since the 2022 faire was a monsoon and my tent tried to pull a Poppins so we had to pack up and head home. I met some really great folks and sold more books than I had at any event to date so...good times, if not a little hot.

In October, I continued chemo and attended Multiverse for the first time with two magnificent human sherpas and one canine salesman extraordinaire. A new show is always nerve wracking, and after a rough start (I showed up THIRTY MINUTES late for a panel that I was on...), it was an amazing time.

In November, I attended the Geekery Market in Concord, NC, for the first time. That one was so much fun - again with two amazing sherpas to help me - and I am so excited for the next one. I should have been selling/signing/meeting/greeting at CRF again, but that event has changed to something that doesn't work for out-of-town authors. I also continued chemo and got to have it ON MY BIRTHDAY, but that wasn't so bad - does everyone have an oncologist who lip-syncs to Stevie Wonder and dances in the middle of the infusion suite? No? 

In December, I finished chemo and rang the life out of that bell...for me and for our Ciaragh, who lost her fight with lymphoma. I celebrated Christmas, sort of, and watched SO MUCH AMERICAN FOOTBALL. 

So... what's next? Surgery in late January, possible radiation in February, and hopefully the grand return of my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Then the reconstruction process continues, per "plastics" as the cancer center calls my reconstruction surgeon, in late summer/early fall and I am DONE. Dunne and Done. I promise there won't be too many posts like this because it's all kinds of TMI but fingers crossed that a year from now I have loads more fun stuff to report!

Have Yourself a Merry Music Monday

I hope that all of you that read the Lettuce have a wonderful holiday. I will be back with more Music Mondays and other ramblings after New Year. Please be safe, keep your loved ones close, and if you pray, pray for peace. Our world needs it...a million dreams worth.

See You Next Year

The Intrepid Author in the Wild, CRF Time Traveling Authors 2022

So, it's a Dad Joke. See you next year - which is tomorrow. But today I wanted to talk about why that is all I will say, going forward. I hope that this may reach others with the same anxiety related unrest when this time rolls around every year.

I like to pretend that I like New Year's Eve. I mean, what's not to like? Excuse to party. Excuse to be very loud. Excuse to snog. What's not to like? 

Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on CNN. Yes please. Jool Holland's Hootenanny. The top of my bucket list, Hogmany in Edinburgh. But those aren't all the things floating like Times Square confetti in my mind.

In all honesty, I really hate New Years Eve/Day.

I have a lot of trouble with change. I'm sure I have told the story already that my mother remembered about me (because she remembered everything about me) of how I would burst into tears at the end of TV shows and be done with my tears by the start of the next show. I didn't like the ending. I didn't like the change over to a new show.

Make that 30 minute sit-com into the end of 365 whole days and it is almost more than I can take. In looking back at my memories of past posts on social media, it isn't a coincidence how many times I've gotten sick on or just before New Year's Eve. Throw in two full years of uncertainty that came along with the pandemic and my anxiety has just moved in and started picking curtains.

But I'm aware of it, and I'm working on it...and, predictably I have a slight sore throat and even more slight fever today. Because of course I do.

So, if you have this same issue that I do...if you are more nervous than excited about the upcoming year...iI you'd rather the ball get stuck on it's way down just because you aren't sure you can handle what will happen when it hits the bottom, I'm here to remind you that it always has. It always will, and we are still here. Rather than looking ahead with resolutions that we all know will not stand, look back at 2022. Think about everything that happened, good and bad. Celebrate the good things and make a promise to do better with the bad things when they rear their heads...because you know they will. If you have to make a resolution, make one to be a better friend to yourself.

See you next year.

Happy New Year! Allons-y!

Where/When am I headed? SPOILERS, SWEETIE.
In the meantime, though, would you like a jelly baby? 

 

Music Monday: Yep, I'm THAT Supernatural Fan...

 So...2021 feels a bit like a repeat of 2020 so far, right? At least we didn't wake up to THIS on January 1st.  #IYKYK

Heat of the Moment

by Asia

I never meant to be so bad to you
One thing I said that I would never do
A look from you and I would fall from grace
And that would wipe the smile right from my face

Do you remember when we used to dance
And incidents arose from circumstance
One thing led to another we were young
And we would scream together songs unsung

It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what my heart meant
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

And now you find yourself in '82
The disco hot spots hold no charm for you
You can concern yourself with bigger things
You catch a pearl and ride the dragon's wings

'Cause it's the heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

And when your looks are gone and you're alone
How many nights you sit beside the phone
What were the things you wanted for yourself
Teenage ambitions you remember well

It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what your heart meant
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

It was the heat of the moment
The heat of the moment
The heat of the moment showed in your eyes

Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment
Heat of the moment...

Music Monday: Start as you mean to go on, right?

Well, Happy New Year! I'm just going to leave this video here, for now, because as I was sitting here pretending to be a writer the other morning, I heard this line from the below song by Elbow and was...struck? Shook? Anyway, it is a yes from me.

"We protect our little fictions/Like it's all we are..."

Start as we mean to go on is much better than a ridiculous list of resolutions that will be left behind before you can hit submit on the post. Let's try that this year, and if they are little fictions or hard truths, we can take them as they come. Who's with me?

Little Fictions
Elbow

A muffled battle cry across the kitchen table
A baffling contretemps that shakes the day unstable
Confessions from the cab, a habit that I got from dad
The flurry of departure in a cyclone of cologne
Would often devastate the gate and hedge
And set our tiny teeth on edge
I see it in me now and pledge
To knock it on the head, that's what I'll do

A muffled battle cry across the kitchen table
Bridges up, portcullis down and round the Tower of Babel
I'm babbling in my dreams of blue berserkers coming at me
Eyes and tongues and rusty knives
And God almighty laughing at me
From a fat boy fishing chair
I wake to find you laughing there
It's nice to know how much you care
Decided I should spend my life with you

We protect our little fictions
Like it's all we are
Little wilderness mementos
But there's only you and me here

Fire breathing

Hold tight
Waiting for the original miracle

I'm trying to focus on the issues of the day please
Your paper's upside down, the radio's in Chinese
These little tremors that are ripping through our rituals
That friction up the interaction
Emanate from quite the greatest
Thing that ever happened to
A pair of boozy bowerbirds like me and you
In other words
The alligator pear inside of you

We protect our little fictions
When we bow to fear
Little wilderness mementos
But there's only you and me here
Fire breathing
Hold tight
Waiting for the original miracle

Fire breathing
Hold tight
Life is the original miracle

Let's get old
Dare you now
Mix blood with me
All in
Love is the original miracle

Let's get old
Dare you now
Mix blood with me
All in
Life is the original miracle

Love is the original miracle

Navigating the Post Holiday

Written on the back of this is "33 or 34" - meaning 1933 or 1934. My mom, as a toddler.

Well, I'm back at the DayJob and so far, no one has died, exploded, or been left (for too long) without the accommodations they are supposed to have in class. So far. I mean, it's been less than a week, so fingers are still crossed.

I'm getting back into the WritingJob slowly but surely. I'm in-between works in progress at the moment, so I'm back to investigating marketing, working on the Other Stuff involved in being a writer, and making sure all my ducks are actually ducks and are heading toward a row, at least. Ads on Facebook, Amazon, and elsewhere. Keeping up a daily appearance on Twitter keeps me grounded and writing at least 140 characters a day, if not more.

I would be lying if I said it was easy, though, navigating this new normal without my mom. When my dad died in 2018, that year's holiday season was tough. The last Christmas we tried to have at their house in 2014, when he caught the flu and was in bed, asking me if I knew his daughter Susan and if I could find her for him was awful. But after he died it was more tough for me because I could see how much my mom missed him. 

I didn't have the same relationship that my sister had with our parents. She was much closer to them in many ways - she and Daddy shared a profession, a passion, and a calling to ministry that I didn't and still don't understand. She was there for Mom, doing all the heavy lifting after Daddy was forced to stop doing it by his illnesses. But Mom was my confidante, my "ride or die," my go-to when I didn't know where else to go, and her absence is heavy - her silence is deafening.

But these three little pictures of her as a little girl - out in her Sunday best for a photo - remind me to keep moving forward. There is always another bonnet that needs putting on - metaphorically speaking. They also remind me that I'm not really as alone as I feel right now. If you look at the picture on the right, there is the slightest image of a man in a flat cap, probably tying little Martha's shoe - I have no way of knowing, but I like to think that is my grandfather because it gives me hope. Mom was a little girl with a daddy that tied her shoes, just like I was, and she weathered so many more storms than I ever will. 

Not really a New Year's Resolution - more of a reminder. It's never as bad as it seems, and if so, it can only get better.

Thanks, Mom. 

Scorched and Clobbered on my way into 2019

Yeah, that's what I look like in my head - but less blonde.

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, so I'm a little behind, but no blog of mine would be worth its collective weight without a farewell to the old and promises I plan to keep break for the new around this time of year, right? Like here, two years and change ago, when I made the decision to go to grad school...again... Or here, where I acted like a big-time fancy pants writer and announced a book cover on the blog, promising to keep to a deadline. Y'all have met me, so stop laughing and keep reading.

This past year has been a different beast. I lost my dad in April. I lost my mind, more or less, in the summer. I lost my office around November. I lost the regular and pain-free use of my right elbow somewhere during the fall semester. For once, as I said in a very maudlin post on Facebook, I was not desperately clinging to the previous year on New Year's Eve and was ready to kick that biz to the curb. Roll on, 2019!

For the however long New Year's Eve took, I was standing between two realities, in a way. New year, new me, right? Sort of. I'm not making specific resolutions, save the generic ones like, "Enjoy life more and read more and so forth." I'm going to live my best life (so far) in 2019 because really, that's all we can do, right? That's all I have been doing, trying to live my best life - perhaps the resolution is to let less of the stuff of life get in my way.

Oh, and to the writerly stuff:  I will have a Clobberpaws book coming out in the spring/summer of this year and at least one Orana Chronicles novel out by May, if the scorching and clobbering process (that is writing and editing) doesn't kill me first, that is.

Let auld...what was it again?

Here's my quickie recap of the year, now that the ball has dropped and there are fireworks waking up my Daisy Mei Mei...

This was the first year since 2005 that saw me remaining in the US all year. This was the year that Clowny died.  This was the year that Bryn arrived, only just. Throughout this year Daisy remained and remains now, happy and healthy and still the most perfect greyhound girly ever.

I attended three greyhound events and sold my books at all three. I finished three 50k+ word manuscripts at three separate Nanowrimo events. I'm staring down the beginning of my third year at Clemson. In a way, I've settled into my life here.

But at the same time the wanderlust that is such an integral part of who I am screams from that deep and dark place in the back of my mind, next to Algebra and the conjugation of Spanish verbs, urging me to leave what is comfortable and move on to the next adventure.  That part of me is at war with the shy and awkward part that occupies the prime real estate in the forefront and begs me to retreat further, spend more time pounding out useless manuscripts and hold up where I am. Draw the curtains is met with unfurl the sail, and the battle wages on.

I won't make plans for this year.  I will take what comes and hope for trips to the UK, more furry babies to join our family (and maybe a human one?), and upward motion in my career and Simon's.

Happy New Year to all of you. Make it a good one.  As for the Dunnes, we are off to bed.

What a long strange...year...it's about to be.

Starry, Starry Blackberry Wallpaper

I'm not going to do my standard "Year in Review" post today.  I'm also not going to list resolutions for the new year that I will certainly break.  What I am going to do is tell you my plans for the year, so that this time 2014 I can look at this post again and see how close I got to getting it all right.

A short disclaimer:  This optimism is destined not to last, so enjoy it while it is here.  I'm sure I'll be back to my regular emo ray of sunshine self very, very soon.

This year is going to be very lucky for me and mine.  We have a house.  We will have a fence and a deck soon.  Our basement floor will return to normal.  We will get all our boxes from the overseas move unpacked before summer.  We will have guests from the UK and the US and Canada and wherever else we have friends to come stay with us. I will be having a Eurovision finals party at my house in May. Daisy and Clown will maintain, healthy and happy, as they are today.

Our family will grow.  We've gotten downright scientific about this whole process, and while we will definitely increase the canine population of the house with a larger and fuzzier newcomer, I am confident that we will also add to our family of humans.

I will get something published.  In the past, I have resolved to "make part of my living with my writing" and I've done that. Daisy's book and my others are still available on Lulu.com. This year, however, is when that takes a step up.  This is the year that all my nano-noveling and other pecking at my keyboard will be shared with the world, as well as the year that I truly start to believe that I have a story to tell that people want to read.

I will be doing more things in the name of self-care.  There will be yoga and meditation to quiet my mind as well as a dedicated effort to start running again while my knees will still allow me to do so.

There will be travel.  Watch this space, as I will be filling all five or six of you in on my travels in a more timely manner than I have in the past.  Along those lines, and in combination with the above publishing work, there will be a photo book in the works of our honeymoon trip.  We are fairly decent photogs, me and my Mister, and I want to share the incredible experience we had with others.

I am going to be a better listener and friend, and will spend more time doing and less time talking about doing.  Of course, this blog doesn't count...

Finally, I'm going to look back on this post on 1 Jan 2014 and smile at all I've accomplished this year.  Happy New Year, Lettuce Readers.  Live long and prosper, and all that jazz.

Lurve

Lurve, a photo by Nancy Dunne on Flickr.

Well, my bags are packed (not really), it's early morn (in the US), the taxi's waiting (he's here for a neighbor I guess), he's blowin' his horn (not really, that's just someone jaywalking)...

I don't leave till tomorrow, but I am trying to go on and process it today so that tomorrow isn't so awful. Flying days SUCK, but at least there are some bright spots this time:

I start a new job on Tuesday. More details on that later, as I'm not sure they've told everyone else that applied for the position.

We are an interview (and possibly a piece of documentation or two) away from Simon having his green card.

I will be living with my ClownA at least M-F and hopefully more if I can find a place to live that I can afford.

But still, something is tugging at me. This tiny island grabs hold of you with all it has when you let it, and it is so very hard to let go. One day I'll be back for good, but for now we are ready to start a new chapter living in America. I've been ready to start that chapter since May!

See you guys on the other side of a big ocean and a tin bird.

So Long, Twenty Elebben!

We're in the UK again...I thought that Simon and I would be watching the ball drop this year rather than the London Fireworks...but alas...truth be told, we didn't even remember to watch these live because we were so caught up in watching Jools Holland.  I have to say, this is a display that, at the chiming of the hour, would make Guy Fawkes proud.  Happy New Year, Lettuce Readers.  Here's to the end of an awful 2011 and a brilliant 2012 to come!

See ya later, autumn...roll on January.

Gradient, a photo by Nancy Dunne on Flickr.

Well, that's one down, five to go in the 2011-2012 Anti-Holiday season. Thanksgiving 2011 is in the history books now.

Oh, sorry Lettuce readers, I guess you didn't get the memo because I've been trying to be a bit more positive around here...I suppose the end result is that I haven't been posting much at all and that's why you may not have known about the Anti Holiday Proclamation of 2011.

Let me recap: There will be no holidays recognized until I'm in the same country with my husband. I'm not out to tell anyone how to behave in their own homes, mind. If you want to celebrate then I hope you have all the blessings and happiness the season can bestow. But as for me and my house, we will pass, thanks.

I've been told on loads of occasions and by scores of people that I need to get over it. Simon will be here soon enough. We can celebrate everything that we've missed once Simon has moved. Um, no thanks. I'd rather just skip it and try again next year.

And no, for those who have hinted both subtly and otherwise, it has nothing to do with the fact that I'll be 40 years old in a day and half. Nothing at all. It has everything to do with the thing I love the most being four thousand miles away.

So that's what's up at the Lettuce...basically a whole lot of purposeful nothing, until our birthdays, Christmas, New Year and our 3rd wedding anniversary are over. If that's difficult for you to accept, and you feel the need to try to convince me otherwise, can I please invite you to focus on your own holiday season? I promise, I'll be just fine here when you get back in January. Just. Fine.

Happy New Year from London, England!

Do yourself a favor and turn the sound off first, then put on some music you like. Why the BBC thinks the Radio 1 drivel is a good soundtrack for fireworks is beyond me. But it's a pretty, pretty light show...

I'm TOTALLY stealing from Liz on this post.

She had a great idea, to put the first bits of the first and last posts from each month over the past year, so I'm gonna steal it. I don't think it's creeping if I admit it. Flattery and all...much love to you, Liz. Much love.

January 2006

First: ...So that ebeth will have something to read...just kidding.
Last: I think I got tagged by Amy...

February 2006

First: I think it's going to be a Bad Ear Day all around.
Last: Those with more widely read blogs probably wouldn't blink an eye at this, but lookee what I found on the internet today...

March 2006

First: The pups and I are taking off on our first real vacation together tomorrow morning.
Last: I still haven't managed to recover the pearls of wisdom that apparently washed down the drain with the food and the soap and the bubbles while washing dishes yesterday.

April 2006

First: I think I may be coming down with something, so my post today is going to be random stuff slung together...that's about the best my brain can do at the moment.
Last: My season with the Georgia Renaissance Festival has now come to a close.

May 2006

First: When toys attack...I'm glad Hunky loves me...
Last: Hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day...

June 2006

First: Amy and I started out today for Mountain Hounds, a weekend greyhound gathering for greyhounds and their humans, at 7am.
Last: ...and then there was the YELLING...Holy moly. I was raised in a very quiet household.

July 2006

First: Do I regret not putting her on a raw diet sooner? Yes. (Lizzard's birthday)
Last: In 19 days I will leave my precious hounds with my friends, then kiss my kitties on their furry noggins and beg them not to make craft projects out of my carpet and drapes.

August 2006

First: Shamelessly stolen from the sig line of a friend's email...
Last: Missed me? Probably not...I've been out of the country in the UK since 20 August, and have only just gotten home tonight.

September 2006

First: Hunky: Whine Whine Whine...pause and tilt head in cute manner...whine whine whine.
Last: Hunk: (lying on the floor in the guest room, making a moaning noise)

October 2006

First: I'm back online, finally! Here's the Reader's Digest version of the past two weeks of my life...
Last: Yesterday morning I was in Huntersville, NC for the Carolina Renaissance Festival.

November 2006

First: I'm still here, though I admit I'm finding few things to write about for Brave Lettuce these days.
Last: he looked the same tonight when I got home from work, tired from a long day of problems psychosis target languages and long training sessions

December 2006

First: Every Friday night my "Montgomery Family" gets together to watch Battlestar Galactica. I'll let the uber nerdiness of that statement sink in for a moment...done? Good.