Work has been slow for the last couple weeks so I’ve had some time to check out
Google Plus. I’m still getting used to the site but so far, I’m impressed with its potential. I especially like its ability to classify your contacts in to different “Circles” and then share information with some or all of those groups of people – or with only one (or more) individuals. The site is still in Beta so there are definitely quite a few issues that still need to be worked out but because of the potential for greater flexibility than what is currently offered by other social networks, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of Google Plus. If you decide to join, feel free to look me up: +Courtnay Stout Brown
Archive Page 2
31
Jul
11
Google Plus anyone?
03
Jun
11
Dreaming of Andalucia
Image via Wikipedia
Just a few days after my high school graduation, my mother and I left our home in southern California to reunite with my father in Spain, where he had been stationed on a joint US/Spanish Naval base in the small Andalucian town of Rota for nearly a year. The first day that I stepped off the plane on to the sizzling tarmac on a sweaty June day and got my first look at the unimpressive base, I was more than a little disappointed. I had been so excited to come to Spain, dreaming of all the things I would do and see but so far this didn’t look much different than any number of crappy little towns in California. We were hot and exhausted from the long trip so my dad took us to his quarters so we could rest – sightseeing would have to wait until tomorrow. I don’t know that I’ve ever appreciated air conditioning and fresh, clean sheets as much as I did that night. I showered and tucked my exhausted and over-heated body in to bed and slept for what seemed like 18 hours. When I woke up, I was ready to check out my surroundings. My dad piled us in to his little Seat sedan (a Spanish made car) and took us first on a tour of the base, which didn’t look nearly as scrappy as I had first imagined. Then we drove through the small town of Rota, which consisted mainly of shops that catered to the base clientele but redeemed itself with a couple of nice plazas. Next we drove through El Puerto de Santo Maria, a small fishing village that looked much more like what I had imagined a little Spanish village to look like: whitewashed homes with tiled roofs, lovely little shops, young people on mopeds. My dad told us that until we could get housing on base, he had rented a house for us in “El Puerto” – it was a 4 bedroom townhouse within walking distance of the beach. From the first time I saw it, I was in love. We had our own small gated courtyard in both the front and back of the house and tile everywhere. That first summer, I’d leave the windows open on the balcony of my second story bedroom and the scent from the flowering vines was intoxicating. I remember thinking that I felt at home: a profound thought for a Navy brat who has spent her life on the move, never really putting down roots anywhere.
We lived in Spain for three years, although for part of that time I left my parents’ home to attend college at an American university in Germany. While I was away at school, Spain was home and I returned there for holidays. During these trips home, I took the train from Germany to Spain, which gave me the opportunity to see more of the countryside. I love each of Spain’s larger cities: Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Granada, Cadiz…but Sevilla holds a special place in my heart. I spent many happy hours wandering through cathedrals and plazas there, the scent of orange blossoms filling the air, and although it has now been nearly 20 years since I was last there, the memories are as fresh today as they were then. In fact, every year when the orange trees in my backyard are in bloom, I am reminded once again of my time in Sevilla.
I have been thinking recently that when my son goes off to college, I would like to return to Spain. For years, I have wanted to live abroad but it is so complicated to do when you have a young child to worry about. If I had it all to do over again, I might have just gone ahead and moved overseas and homeschooled him the whole time through a virtual charter school – traveling the world probably would have provided the better education. But I thought providing him with stability in his education was the best thing and now he is entering his junior year in high school so it’s too late to change course. So anyway…I’d like to travel so I’m thinking of completing a certification for teaching English as a foreign language so that I’d have that skill to offer. Between that and travel writing, I should be able to support myself and fund my travels. Now all I have to do is just do it.
21
May
11
(Not so) Deep thoughts
Image via Wikipedia
So life has been hectic for the last few months and as I always do when that happens, I’ve been neglecting my own personal writing projects again. I have plenty of ideas rattling around in my head and some of them even see the light of day when I find time to scribble them down in one of the Moleskine notebooks that I keep with me at all times…but most of them stay confined to the deep recesses of my imagination, only allowed to come forward and show themselves on the rare occasions when I have the time and space to daydream. My current favorite venue for this activity is the bath tub. There are several reasons why this is the ideal spot for creative thinking. First of all, as any mother knows, once you have a child there really is no such thing as privacy anymore. Your children will follow you around the house without any regard for what activity you might be engaging in – if they “need” you, they don’t care what you’re doing. But now that my son is a teenager, he’s a little creeped out at the thought of seeing me naked so if I say that I’m going to be taking a bath before heading in to the bathroom, I can be assured that he won’t come in and bother me unless the house is on fire. Also, I’ve always been the kind of person who finds a hot bath extremely relaxing. I run the water as hot as I can stand it, add some epsom and sea salts to soothe my achy joints along with some lavender and bubble bath, light some candles, turn on some music, and soak until I get prune hands…pure bliss! Soaking in a deep, warm tub feels very safe and nurturing to me…so much so that I spent so long laboring in the bath tub at home that my son was almost born on the ferry to Seattle. I was scheduled to deliver at a hospital in Seattle that had only a couple birthing suites with hot tubs so the midwife had advised me that if it was important to me to use a hot tub during my labor, I should call ahead when I realized I was going to be coming in to request one of the suites. But when I called, I was told no suites were available…so I decided to stay at home in my own comfy tub as long as possible, which ended up causing a little bit of a panic in a deserted ferry restroom on the way to the hospital later that evening but since everything turned out just fine, I still love hot baths. I feel like I can think more clearly while soaking in the bath: outlines for screenplays, novels, short stories and more all fill my head, different ideas competing for attention in what is a suddenly crowded field. On a day to day basis, I feel like I get bogged down with the mundane: what medication to take and when, going to seemingly endless medical appointments, taking my son to school and his appointments, household errands, finding time for work, etc. It takes so much time and energy just to make it through the day (and sometimes I don’t make it through – sometimes I’m so exhausted by late afternoon or early evening that I collapse on my bed, absolutely spent) that there is usually simply nothing left over for creative pursuits. May is Lupus Awareness Month and someone from the LFA asked me to contribute something to a project that they were working on where lupus patients and family members were sharing stories about how lupus impacted their lives. I haven’t finished my contribution yet (of course!) but the main point of my piece was that lupus is an incredibly frustrating illness, not only because of the debilitating pain and fatigue and the unpredictable nature of the flares, but also because sometimes you can’t help but grieve for the life that you lost before you got sick or that you might have had if it had never happened. A systemic autoimmune disorder like this changes every aspect of your life and while I don’t want to live my life in bitterness and regret, I think it is important to recognize and acknowledge these feelings…I can’t deal with them and move on if I don’t. So anyway…in the warm embrace of a hot bath, I can ease away not only my physical aches and pains but my mental burdens as well. For an hour or so, I can let my mind wander not in the boring and constraining world of reality but in the expansive and exhilarating world of creative potential. Until I can move there permanently, at least I have a temporary refuge.
01
Jan
11
funny cat pic
My cat Maggie likes to stare at the laptop screen when I leave it on my bed but I like to imagine that she is hard at work on her own tell-all memoir, in which she dishes dirt on her family and lets us in on the secret dreams and aspirations of a common housecat. Come to think of it, I probably don’t really want to know what she’s thinking about…but it’s still a cute picture.
30
Dec
10
Post holiday rambling
So I’ve been spending the last few days in Washington state, enjoying the holiday festivities with family and friends. It’s been great – my husband and family didn’t get along so holidays were always difficult when my husband and I were together, and the end result of all that tension was that I wasn’t able to spend an actual Christmas with my parents for over 10 years. This year, after I filed for divorce, was the first Christmas that I was finally able to spend with my parents and, as an only child from a small close-knit family, it meant a lot to me to finally restore some sense of normalcy to my life. Of course, it hasn’t been without its own difficulties though. I’m still trying to work things out with my soon-to-be ex-husband but in the interim, there has been quite a bit of drama and ugliness that I’m not proud of. I want us both to get to a good place where we’re happy and can be good friends and co-parents to our teenage son but that’s proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. Even so, I am hopeful that things will be better in the New Year. I am still confident that I made the right decision in leaving, even if it is difficult and messy at times…it will get easier in time and I will be stronger for it.
From the AFL-CIO:
You need to watch this video. It made us furious, and it made us cry.
It’s a powerful reminder of the real faces behind unemployment statistics. It’s about three minutes and it’s worth every second—so I hope you’ll turn up your speakers and watch the whole thing.
The same senators who are fighting to charge $700 billion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to our national credit card say extending unemployment is “too expensive” and “must be paid for.” Meanwhile, more than one person a second is losing his or her lifeline.
If this video doesn’t fuel your outrage and give you a sense of the human cost of delay on emergency unemployment, nothing will.
Please watch and send a strong message to your members of Congress. Tell them to restore unemployment insurance benefits for jobless workers who are being cut off right now at the rate of more than one a second.
Then, share this video with your friends and ask them to take action, too.
Let’s fix this outrage.
