Today’s prompt is one liner Wednesday, but since this is my 500 word challenge, it will be more than one line today!  (https://lindaghill.com/2018/01/10/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan-daily-prompt-january-10th-2018/)  These Jots are not only my 500-words a day challenge, but also part of my  Ultimate Blogging Challenge challenge (http://ultimateblogchallenge.com).

So, for the 500 word challenge today, I have been asked to write about writing.  What do I love, what do I hate, what am I struggling with.  Ok then!

What do I love about writing?  Interesting question.  I don’t know how to put it.  I really like putting my random thoughts down “on paper”, so to speak.  I’m not usually at a loss for words.  Well, some days are harder than others to get started, but once I start, it’s often hard to stop me.  Not that I think I am coherent or interested all, or most, of the time.  I mostly write rambling thoughts that come to me on whatever theme is placed before me.  Of course, I haven’t done a lot of free writing in the past.  That’s what this challenge is about.  To get me into a regular habit of writing something, anything, to start to figure out what it is I actually want to write about.  Free writing.  Kind of nice in some ways, freeing so to speak, but at the same time a little daunting as I am putting it all out there on my blog.  Of course, that’s my accountability piece.  It’s one thing to work on your writing on your own, and another thing to present it to the world. Of course, you can stop reading any time you like!  I, on the other hand, will just keep writing until I reach 500 words.

Now, that didn’t really answer the question of what I love about writing, so now let’s see if I can not answer the next question: what do I hate about writing?  Now, I don’t know that I really hate anything about writing.  I mean, “hate” is a pretty strong word.  I get frustrated sometimes when I can’t seem to decide what to write about – but if I just start, I can usually get something going.  Let’s see.  What is there to hate about writing?  I suppose if I was trying to sell my writing and wasn’t able to, that might be something to hate.  Like being a musician, being a writer has to be hard to make a living at.  You really need to love what you do, be persistent, and tenacious.  Can’t be easy.  I am sure some people have a love-hate relationship with their writing.  Maybe that’s part of the passion.  If I can’t say I really love or hate writing, does that mean I can never be a writer?  It’s like when I wrote about passion.  Who is to say what passion looks like?  Does it have to be love or hate?  I don’t know.  I already wrote about that, so I won’t start again now.

Now, for the final question: What am I struggling with.  Well, I’m not really struggling right now, but I think my biggest struggle with writing is just sitting down and doing it.  Which is why I am going through this challenge.  Another thing I struggle with is choosing the right words.  Which is why I need to take some actual classes to help me think about what I am writing so I can convey mood, atmosphere, movement – all of those good things that make you want to keep reading books.  Someday soon, I will be ready to come out of the shadow of my blog and share my writing with people sitting right in front of me!  Feels like it will be a steep climb, but I am sure I can do it!

Today’s prompt is “brought to you by the lovely Barbara, is “Coffee.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Barbara at her blog, “teleportingweena” to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://teleportingweena.wordpress.com/” (https://lindaghill.com/2018/01/09/jusjojan-daily-prompt-january-9th-2018/)  These Jots are not only my 500-words a day challenge, but also part of my  Ultimate Blogging Challenge challenge (http://ultimateblogchallenge.com).

Thanks Barbara – an inspired theme for me today!!

Cofveve….I mean, Coffee!

I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t drink coffee anymore.  I should start stockpiling it now for then the zombie apocalypse comes (I repeat, cofveve!).  My day with coffee generally goes something like this.  I get up in the morning, and make a coffee while I am feeding the kitties (the only kind of multitasking I believe in).  I don’t make a latte, or a cappuccino, although we do have a fancy machine that can do all of those things.  Black coffee.  I savour my coffee while I read blogs and do some blogging of my own.  Then, if I am not heading to workout, I have a second cup of delicious coffee and eat my breakfast.  That’s right.  2 cups of coffee before I even think about getting ready for work.  I should also mention that we get our beans from a small shop that roasts their own beans (a couple who “retired” to Victoria several years ago from the hustle and bustle of Vancouver).  We go through about a pound of coffee every week.  I do drink more when I am not at work, although I do drink coffee at work to.  In the form of lattes though.

So, when I get to work, my work friend, Sue, and I (and anyone else who wants to join us) head to the coffee place (it’s in our building, so we don’t even have to go outside!) and get our lattes.  They know us now, so we don’t even have to say anything.  It’s a sad day when the coffee place is closed.  It closes over Christmas (we are a post-secondary institution, after all), and it closes for the summer (there are fewer students around then – although I do think this is completely unfair to all us staff!).  Luckily there is another coffee place just down the hill, so on sad days like these, we take a quick trek in the fresh air to make sure we get our fix.

Now, I don’t always drink more coffee while I’m at work.  But sometimes (like tonight) I will have a coffee when I get home.  Keeps me from snacking before supper (and from having that extra glass of wine before dinner 😊 )  If I’m working at home, I will often make a lot of coffee.  It just keeps me going.  But it never keeps me awake, even if I have a cup at night, which doesn’t usually happen at home, but might happen if we’re out for dinner.  Nothing like a good latte with dessert!

One more thing I want to mention.  Starbucks.  We have a lot of them here, but I don’t go to Starbucks very often because we have some pretty kick-ass coffee places here that are more local.  Café Fantastico, Habit – those are two that come to mind.  There are three or four coffee places within 3 blocks of our house, not that I need to go to them given our fancy machine at home.  But if I do pick something close to home, I don’t go to Starbucks, but to Serious Coffee.  I just like it better.

So, that’s the story of my day with coffee.  Don’t take my coffee away, ok?

Today’s prompt “brought to you by the many layered pensitivity, is “Pants.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit pensitivity at her blog, “pensitivity101” to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/” (https://lindaghill.com/2018/01/08/jusjojan-daily-prompt-january-8th-2018/)  These Jots are not only my 500-words a day challenge, but also part of my  Ultimate Blogging Challenge challenge (http://ultimateblogchallenge.com).

Pants

So, the 500 word challenge is to write a list.  And the Just Jot prompt is “Pants”.  I am advised just to write, and not edit.  But let’s see if I can write a list, of sorts, about Pants.

Pants.  I don’t wear pants, per se.  I’m more of a jeans person.  So, no skirts, no pant, just jeans.  All the time.  Well, I wore a dress to my brother’s wedding, and a skirt to some banquet Kevin and I went to last summer.  But, it takes a lot for me to not wear jeans.  Good thing I like where I do.  Things are pretty casual here.  Even in the summer, I am generally wearing jean capris.  I don’t do shorts.  Except when I run.  Or exercise.  Then it’s exercise shorts.  Oh, and when I exercise and do a lot of heavy cardio, I pant.  Because it’s, you know, cardio.  Dogs pant.  Cats don’t generally pant.  They purr.  Or sometimes Elliot snores.  Jasper doesn’t snore.  Jasper purrs better than Elliot.  Elliot does purr, but it’s kind of funny sounding.  Nicholas purrs when he is scratched.  He’s shy, but he does like being scratched.  But none of them pant.  Sometimes people are said to “pant” when they are really wanting something badly.  Men pant at pretty women – that’s part of the problem (did you see the Grammys?)  Speaking of this, what’s with the idiom “wearing the pants in the family”?  How sexist is that?  Or confusing now, seeing as I always wear pants (well, jeans), so I guess we both wear the pants in our household.  You can also beat the pants off of someone, which seems to mean to win by a large margin.  I don’t know where this idiom came from. Did someone once lose a race and their pants at the same time?  You can ants on your pants, which means you can’t sit still, which I guess would probably happen if you actually did have ants crawling around in your pants.  Yuck!  You can be caught with your pants down, which seems to mean to be caught in an embarrassing or guilty state.  Which, I guess would happen for most people if they were literally caught with their pants down.  But you aren’t caught with your skirt down.  So maybe this expression only applies to me (applying the double standard as needed!)  You can kick someone in the pants (as in a sudden kick in the ass…oh wait, another idiom…how about something that gets you in gear to do or finish something, like getting an F on a midterm might be a kick in the pants to study for the final?  Sorry – just the nature of where I work), and you can fly by the seat of your pants and just wait to see what will happen (you know, kind of like a US president we all know).

You know, this isn’t much of a list.  Well, I guess it is a list, but it’s kind of hard to tell it’s a list because there aren’t any numbers or bullets.

I’m tired now…