Just for Fun: 10 Random Facts About Me

It's been a long time since I wrote a post like this, but Michelle I. Mason wrote a fun one and (sort of) challenged her readers to do the same, so here I am, following her example! I tried really hard to dig deep and list the most interesting things. Judge for yourself on whether I succeeded!

1. My hubby and I have been married for a quarter of a century.

2. My teenage son thinks I'm a little weird because I enjoy playing Minecraft. But he can't tease me too much because he plays along with me!

3. One time I dressed up as Bilbo Baggins for my church's Trunk-or-Treat event. I made the costume myself out of repurposed clothing I found at a thrift store.

4. One of my favorite hobbies is making handmade journals. Some are made with repurposed chipboard covers and pages made of card stock or drawing paper. Others are made out food boxes (such as cake mix or cereal) and other repurposed papers. It's a fun creative exercise, and I sometimes give the finished products away as gifts.

5. My daughter Samantha sometimes calls me Mo, after the father in the book Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, because of the book-repairing skills I acquired during my years working in a school library. Many damaged books have gotten a new lease on life thanks to that handy skill! I've repaired Bibles and other books for family members and friends, and have even rescued a few from the church pews when I've noticed them in need of a good gluing. I brought them back as good as new, of course.

6. Another title I've earned from my children is that of The Finder of Things because of my knack for finding missing things when everyone else's efforts have failed.

7. When I was a little girl I went through a long list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. A doctor, a policewoman, a zoologist. At the top of the list was always "wife and mother," though. Artist and poet were there too, but they always seemed to be a part of me that I had to develop rather than something I wanted to become some day.

8. I have a weakness for science fiction movies, especially those involving alien invasions or space exploration. In fact, one of my favorite movies ever is Independence Day. But the sequel? Let's all just pretend it doesn't exist. Are you with me?

9. Besides English, I have studied three languages at some point in my life. German, Japanese, and Spanish. I studied German while I lived in Germany as a kid, and for six years in school after that. I took one year of Japanese in high school. And I've been slowly learning Spanish over the past 25 years of being married to a native speaker. It's a shame that I'm not fluent yet, but I can get by when I must, and I've made it my goal to be proficient (and comfortable) in conversational Spanish by the end of this year.

10. I have never broken a bone, but I have: gotten whiplash in a freak swimming pool accident, torn the ligaments in my left foot while dancing, chipped my right elbow on a skating rink floor, and bruised my coccyx (tailbone) when the swing I was on broke.

Do you have any of these things in common with me? I'd love to hear about it!

The Case of the Missing Milk Jug

The grocery cart was bursting with bags of food. I followed my teenage son as he pushed the cart out the automatic doors and into the bright sunshine of a July afternoon.

Past dozens of cars we trekked, until we came to the place at the back of the lot, where the kid had carefully parked our minivan about an hour earlier.

I opened the back hatch.

The kid leaned over and reached for the milk jugs at the bottom of the cart.

"What the...? Where the fudge is the other gallon of milk?" he exclaimed.

I looked. There on the bottom of the cart lay a milk jug that had clearly tipped over on the trip across the parking lot. But the other jug had vanished!

"It must have fallen off," I told the kid. "Go see if it's on the ground somewhere."

I loaded the groceries into the back of the van, looking up every few seconds to check on the kid's progress. He walked with purpose, glancing between vehicles, until he reached the front of the store.

He went inside.

He came back out.

He raised his arms in a clear "WTH?" motion.

It was obvious to me that someone had discovered our carelessly abandoned jug of milk and either made off with it or returned it to the store. So I joined my son and we ventured inside to inquire of the employees.

First, I checked with our cashier on the chance that we had simply left the jug of milk behind. But no. So we made our way to customer service to inquire further.

"Can I help you with something?" said a voice from behind me.

I turned to the short, smiling clerk and asked, "Did someone bring in a gallon of milk that they found in the parking lot?"

She looked at me with a curious expression that I interpreted to mean: "I have no idea what the heck you are talking about." So I explained in detail.

"Oh," she said apologetically, "I just got here. Let me check with someone else." I waited patiently as she flagged down a tall, older man in a bright yellow vest. "Did you find a gallon of milk outside?"

"Yeah," he said matter-of-factly. "It was still cold, so I put it back."

The clerk smiled and told me to go ahead and grab a new milk. I was slightly stunned that a grocery store employee would discover a gallon of milk on the ground only to nonchalantly return it to the cooler at the back of the store. But, happy that the mystery was solved, the kid and I made our way to the dairy department, where we were reunited with our lost jug of milk.

When we arrived home and all the groceries were put away, and after I relayed this story to daughter no. 1, I realized that this is one of countless ordinary little stories that make up the chapter book of life. And they're worth telling, even if those who hear them may not hold them long in their memory.

I Knocked, but No One Answered

A little photo and poetry just for fun!

I Knocked, But No One Answered

I came upon this charming house
while out the other day.
I stopped to knock upon the door,
but no one came to say,
"Come in, come in! Please have some tea
and chat with me a while."
It was a disappointment,
but I couldn't help but smile.

38

Today I am officially in my late thirties. And I feel great about that! So I decided to celebrate with a list of all the cool things that have happened in my life over the past twelve months. Here goes!

• My friend Angie and her kids visited from Bolivia 
• I sold my first book!
• My poem "Sleet" was published in Highlights
• Daughter #1 graduated from high school
• and went to college
• I quit my day job (bittersweet, but cool because I now have time to write during the DAY)
• Daughter #2 and I built an enormous (not exaggerating) castle out of Legos
• Family vacation to the North Shore
• Visiting my parents
• Two new nephews 
• Art journaling
• The Hobbit movie
• Shopping at Ikea
• and Lego Land
• WriteOnCon
• My hubby's SURPRISE 40th birthday party
• Daughter #2's surprise birthday breakfast  
• Family Christmas party (big, loud, and way fun)
• Daughter #2 learned to play the guitar
• I finished a crochet project I started years ago
• My son read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
• I started writing a YA fantasy novel
• I saw a spider catch a fly (How often does a human being get to witness that?)

Yeah, 37 was awesome. I wonder what 38 has in store for me?

The Ugly (but way cool) Maze I Drew for My Son

The other day I said to my son, "Hey! Do you want me to draw you a maze?"

"Sure," he said. "And make it complicated."

So I sat down and began drawing. I figured I would draw something really boyish, so I drew a wrinkly old cyclops. I finished it this morning. And when I showed it to my son, he exclaimed, "That's legit!"

Yeah. I done good.

Can you help the worm get to the cyclops' other ear? Feel free to print this out for your kids (or yourself) and give it a try!

My Desk: A Poem

My Desk

My desk is filled with lots of things

like scissors, glue, and spools of string,

paper scraps and pens and cups,

matches, pet rocks, pick-me-ups,

origami cranes and frogs,

notes for yet unwritten blogs,

CDs, pins, a cardboard box,

a telephone, some Lego blocks,

post-it notes and paper clips,

headphones, camera, power strips,

candle holders, pictures, tape,

drips of paint, some dings and scrapes,

and room to spare for still more stuff

in case this mess is not enough.

(c) 2013 Rebecca J. Gomez 

Unanswered Questions

1. Why does my dog eat poop?
2. Why do I manage to make my bed on work days, but not on my days off?
3. Why is it so hard to write an excellent rhyming picture book?
4. Why are so many published picture books far from excellent?
5. Is the answer to question number 4 related to question number 3?
6. Why can't I get to sleep when my body feels like it is on the verge of shutting down completely?
7. Are unanswered questions one of the reasons for so much poetry in the world?
8. Are unanswered questions such a bad thing?
9. Why does someone always spill sticky liquid on the floor right after I mop?
10. Why do so many people type your when they really mean to type you're?
11. Does anybody know the answer to this question?
12. Why are you still reading these questions?

Avast, me hearties!

*updated 9-22-12*

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

If ye don't know what I be ravin' about, inspect this here web site.

What'r ye waitin' fer, ye scurvy land lubbers? Grab a cup o' grog and join in the fun! Here be some pirate-themed booty fer ye t' enjoy:

Fer those who like t' read:

How I Became a Pirate and Pirates Don't Change Diapers, by Melinda Long, fer the little land lubbers.

Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC, by June Sobel, for those hopin' fer a simple but fun alphabet book.

Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, fer those wantin t' test their sea legs.

Captain Hook poem, by Shel Silverstein.



Fer ye movie lubbers:

The Goonies

Hook

Pirates of the Caribbean, parrrticularrrly the first 'un.

Muppet Treasure Island

Treasure Planet

The Princess Bride







And here be somethin just fer laughs:

Answers

Here are the answers to the quiz I posted last week. Only two brave souls attempted it, and neither of them got them all right. So I won't be posting a picture of me and hubby (at least not yet).

Here are the correct answers:

1. I had my first "real boyfriend" when I was 13. His name was Adam. I consider him my first real boyfriend because of the time we spent with each other's families.

2. My first kiss was when I was 16. It was about one month before my 17th birthday.

3. My first heartbreak was when I was 15. I had been "going out" with Ryan for about 5 months when he broke up with me rather suddenly. I wrote a lot of poems in the months that followed...

4. ...until I met my true love when I was 16.

5. Engaged at 17.

6. Married at 18.

(bonus: My true love and I have been married 17 years)

What about you? When did you have your first kiss? Meet your true love?

My First Romance...and a quiz!

My NaNoWriMo novel has turned out to be a YA romance, written in verse. My other novel in verse, SHARRA'S WAR, has some romance in it, but the romance is not at the heart of the story. This newest book, tentatively titled HOUSE OF BONES, is my first attempt at writing a true teen romance.

In writing this book, I have taken several mental journeys back in time, back to the days of my own teen crushes, romances, and heartbreaks. And eventually, to finding my true love.

So in honor of teen romances and true loves, I decided to post a little quiz about my own past romances. If you think you might know the answers, or if you want to guess, put your answers in the comments. I'll post the answers in next Monday's post. I'm not offering a prize, but you might have a chance to earn some bragging rights!

So, without further ado, how old was I when...

1. I had my first real boyfriend?
2. I experienced my first kiss?
3. I suffered my first heartbreak?
4. I met my true love?
5. I got engaged?
6. I got married?

If anyone gets all of these questions right, I'll post a picture of me and my hubby when we were first dating.

Misused, abused apostrophes

There seems to be an epidemic of misused apostrophes lately. Blog posts, church bulletins, signs--they're everywhere! So here is a little reminder, all in good fun:

Apostrophes are maddening

and frankly, it’s quite saddening

to see misuse and harsh abuse

before my very eyes!

Punctuation is oppressive—

Did you know “its” is possessive?—

and contractions are distractions

that elicit anguished cries.

This may be quite depressin’

but you just might need this lesson

on when you ought to use (or not)

that little curvy mark.

So in the interest of prevention

(I don’t mean to cause contention)

I now will show what you should know,

not leave you in the dark.

If you want to show possession

it would be an indiscretion

to cause distress for little “s”

with no apostrophe.

But when you’re showing many,

in most cases, don’t use any.

For more than one (butts, days or suns)

just let those fellas be.

I hope you don’t feel queasy,

but contractions can be easy

if you just recall to write them all

apostrophes included.

Don’t fall into deception.

There are very few exceptions.

With Strunk and White, you’ll get it right.

My lesson’s now concluded.

Fun with Legos and Books

My kids and I love to play with Legos. And we love to read. And we love the book Unwind by Neal Shusterman. So, one of the things we did over the summer was create this movie, inspired by Neal's incredible book.

Enjoy.

My life, elevator-pitch style

I thought it would be a fun exercise to write about my life (my real life) as an elevator pitch, and try to make it sound as exciting as possible.

Here goes:

While struggling to find her place in the publishing world, a married mother of three must overcome the challenges of everyday life in order to follow her dreams. Will chaos smother her passion for writing a future bestseller, or be the fuel she needs to make her dream a reality?

Ha. No wonder I write fantasy.

Anyone else wanna give it a try?

Random stuff found on my desk

What does a person's desk say about them? These are snapshots of random things found on my desk. I promise that none of these shots were staged in any way.

A bio of sorts

I recently discovered a site called Wordle, where you can create beautiful little (or not so little) word clouds. What fun! So, the other day I wasted way too much time playing around with that site, making wordles for myself and my three children. Here is the one I created for myself:

Boy+dead fish+stick=quality outdoor time

Ah, boys! They are delightful, aren't they? I love the way my boy, when I lean in to kiss him goodnight, latches onto me and cackles maniacally, saying, "I'm not going to let you go!"

And I love the way he manages to bring a little bit of grossness into my life. Like the other day when we were at the park. Beautiful day. Ducks on the water, birds in the trees, large dead catfish at the edge of the pond. Handy stick nearby. Score!

What better way for a boy to be a boy than to jab a dead catfish in the eye with a stick! I admit it. I treasured every moment of it.

Being creative for the fun of it

Over at Rebekah Joy Plett's blog, she talked in this post about how she wants to do something creative every day in 2011. And I have decided to join her.

It doesn't have to be my usual creative thing (writing), but can be anything creative. Anything that gets me exploring and using my imagination. Here are a few of the creative things I've done so far in 2011:

Our little snowman (supposed to be an alien)

Revising my new PB manuscript

Cupcakes!

A Lego RV

Fun with numbers

Today I turned 35.

I like to joke that 35 is half-way to 70. I can't decide if that makes me feel old or not. Thirty-five years seems like a long time, but when I try to imagine those years into the future, they seem even longer. I still feel young, so that's what really matters.

But enough talk of age. Instead, here are some more fun little numbers about me:

1 - men I've kissed, high school friends I'm still close to

2 - sisters, countries I've lived in

3 - children, novels completed

4 - brothers, poems accepted by Highlights

11 - queries/submissions currently outstanding

15 - picture book manuscripts I really believe in

16 - years married

18 - age when I got married

23 - years since I chose to follow Jesus

46 - SALES (possibly more)

169 - responses in my rejection file (not counting email rejections)

100,000 - more tries before I even consider throwing in the towel

New art project

Today the kids helped me take my creativity in another direction. You may know that I like to do art projects with my kids. Today we started a MEGA art project.

For the past few months we have been saving up this kind of stuff...

...so that we could do a big collage. We bought a 24x30 canvas and started this project:

It's a cityscape, and it is turning out great so far! If you look closely you might be able to see what we've used so far (besides a little paint and gel medium).

I'll post more photos as it is further along.

summertime rhyme

I has been one week since school got out, and what do I have to show for it?

I've basked in the sunshine,

sipped on iced tea,

stayed in bed late

(a huge treat for me),

entered some contests,

had lunch with a friend,

browsed an antique store

(did not reach its end),

went bicycle riding,

and played at the park,

sat on the deck until

well after dark,

munched watermelon,

made pudding-pop treats,

wrote a few poems,

soaked up the sun's heat,

gazed at the stars,

walked my two dogs,

researched some agents,

read some cool blogs,

played Legos and Mario,

Boggle and more,

chatted with good friends

who knocked on the door,

and now I'm just sitting here

spending my time

writing ANOTHER blog post in rhyme.