Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Writing lessons with Miles, part 5

Last week's writing class homework was to develop both a plot and characters. When Miles got to class today we reviewed his homework, discovered plot holes and got to work addressing the problems. While we were addressing problems we talked about the difference appropriate character development can make for a story — including things like name choice, delving into psyche of characters and why they do what they do, etc. We also talked a lot about tone and how tone affects how the reader interprets the plot and characters.

A part of Miles' character sketch...complete with an illustration!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Salon de Cruz


My dear friend Kathleen came down from Tulsa for the day to have a "hair party." We sat around talking, ate lots and lots of fruit and pretzels with hummus and did hair — well, Kathleen did hair! It was good to have her down and I had a blast being girly and visiting with her.

Always,

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Writing lessons with Miles, part 4

We had our fourth writing class today after Miles had been away on vacation for a while. During vacation, Miles' homework was to observe and write at least three times during his trip — like what we had done during the last class. When Miles got to class today he told me he had done the homework. The only problem was his 5-year-old sister threw a tantrum and tore up his homework. He said he did attempt to redo his homework but I couldn't help but laugh. It sounded like a dog had eaten his homework.

During our lesson today, we talked about keeping a journal. I told him to write about whatever — his observations, what he did, what girl he thought was cute. When I said that last part he wrinkled his nose.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Lake House

We had the pleasure of spending the weekend with our friends in Tulsa at their family's lake house. We drove up Friday night to meet Kathleen, Brandon and their family. We stayed up until 2 a.m. just visiting with them and their family. I felt so satisfied just from our visit we could have turned right around and come home and I would have been content.

All day Saturday we spent the day off and on the lake. We cruised around in the boat. Tubed. Swam. It was simple and perfect. The whole family invited us back...we took it as a good sign. Definitely grateful to have wonderful people in our lives!

Always,

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Hard Hat Society

I went to lunch today at Molly's house for my first ever Hard Hat Society meeting. They swapped stories, told dirty jokes and even cried about painful memories and family drama. I told them about Grandma Valli's lucky coin and that my dad told me it was my "destiny" to be in Oklahoma. They all agreed and said it was my destiny to have them as my mentors. What a fabulous group of gals!

It was also Molly's birthday. She made us smoothies and we ate cupcakes -- I'll pretend like mine wasn't stale! Molly said she tells people it's going to be her birthday for months and months, then when they celebrate it she feigns surprise. She said it's like having a surprise birthday party every year. 

Always,

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Toby Keith Twister Relief Concert

One of the perks about my job is getting to do fun things like cover concerts. When Toby Keith announced he would be putting on a relief concert for the May Oklahoma tornadoes I was excited to get to cover it, even though I'm not a country music fan. The day was long and mostly boring — we spent most of the day in a media room watching the concert from a TV — with little bursts of excitement of getting to talk to someone interesting (briefly) or watch a concert right in the pit (for, seconds, literally.) But mostly it was a good experience and my sweet, hilarious friend, Benita, came along to take photographs for me — and she made the whole thing an absolute blast!

You can read my day-of coverage here, my advance news story here and my "N-town" article here.

Official media pass

Friday, July 5, 2013

July N-town

Another one done and in the books. We bumped this one up a week to cover the Toby Keith relief concert...it was a headache but well worth the effort! Read it here and here.


Always,

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