Ladies Who…Dare to Inspire

Posted on May 31, 2010 by MAL

As part of my monthly promise from April (click here to read about it), I am going to pick another lady who has inspired me this month to represent the ongoing award.

Kat from 3bedroombungalow.

Not only has she moved to a completely new country (she’s American and she now lives in England) with her two children, but she faces on her own it while her husband is deployed to war. It takes a heck of a lot of courage to face every day, to blog about it, to have such a wicked sense of humor about it and to watch as her children morph into tiny British people calling her “mum.” Readers are attracted to her blog, in my opinion, because she consistently writes really funny, real stories, she’s honest about her fears and giggles, and she has a unique point of view….that and her heart is humongous. I’ve never met her, but you can just tell that she has a whole lot to give.

Enjoy the award, lovely Kat! I look forward to meeting you this summer, I hope!

Ladies Who…Dare to Inspire

Posted on April 30, 2010 by MAL

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On a lighter note from my previous post, I’m getting on the band wagon, and creating my own award.

To kickstart the award ceremonies off, I’m going to announce a few people who have been on my mind.

There have been a few people who have truly made a difference in my life since I started this blog, and I would like to recognize them. They may not know they have; they may not have reached out personally, but in some way, these people have made me re-think my opinions, helped me to succeed in my own quests or just written such brilliant entries that it inspires me to better myself.

Every last Friday of the month from now on, I will be acknowledging one female blogger who I feel dares to inspire. She doesn’t have to just inspire me, she can inspire the world, one little girl or a dog. It’s up for debate.

Without any further ado, in no particular order, I’d like to pass on my award to the following people:

Mid-Atlantic English – Michelle reached out to me last month, and asked if I would join her on the journey that is Script Frenzy. Without her introduction, I wouldn’t have done it, or even known about it. Plus, she is so generous with her comments and feedback.

Smitten by Britain – Melissa is one of those women who I feel took me under wings when I was just starting out. Her love for Great Britain inspires others and her continual effort to put out great blog posts inspires me to keep my blog up to standard.

Bristolian Moments – Sabrina, don’t worry, you don’t have to share this if you don’t want to! She is just getting started, but I applaud her for starting her blog and sharing her incredible anecdotes, to emailing me when she first moved to this country to see if we could meet up and for being courageous in her attempts at making friends. She’s more ballsy than I!

A Literal Girl – Her grasp of the English language is only something I can aspire to one day. Her entries are always filled with such specific insights into everyday life, you wonder how she notices such seemingly mundane moments and turns them into …well, magic. She showed me around her town of Oxford and took us under her wings. And, at the age of 23, I know she’ll do alright for herself!

Erika Lopez – A monster girl. She is gutsy, ballsy and has opened her heart to the me and the world like no woman I have ever met. She has just started her own publishing house, and has so much in the hearth right now, you just have to go look for yourself. Incredibly talented writer, artist and woman. The way she manipulates words leaves me breathless.

Seattlite Imagery – Only just getting to know Alisha, but she and her husband have made the plunge and are official world travelers. Since that is where Jock and I are headed, I look to her blog for beautiful stories, insights and plain old ideas for my own life. She is also writing a book (I guess that’s what we unemployed gypsies tend to do!), and she exudes light and love.

RULES:

There are none!

If you’d like to pass this award forward, feel free. Otherwise, just go on and gloat.

(Also, if you do post it, it would be fantastic if you could give me a link back!)

Consistency

Posted on January 30, 2010 by MAL

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The thing with consistently outlaying anything – be it this blog, a lady’s night, running, tweets, whatever – is that there will be times where it goes stronger than ever, and other times where it teeters on non-existent. I imagine marriage to be similar, but that’s another whole blog entry. Sometimes I will have ten to twenty comments on a blog post, and other times, none. But it all comes back to the fact that I love having an outlet for expression.

Same with the lady’s group I started back in July with the other girls.

Last night, we had “Ladies Who….Wii” night, and although the RSVP’s started strong – there were 12 people who were going to attend. By five o’clock yesterday afternoon, the numbers dwindled down to 3. Poor Jen who was hosting, she couldn’t help but feel it was indicative of how people felt towards her! Silly how we women think. It was just one of those days where people had other things come up in their lives…one’s moving this weekend and needed to finish moving boxes, another’s studying for a course, another one had a birthday party that was scheduled last minute, etc.

At first, I was disappointed because I had been working my ass off to get my novel finished by yesterday night. I worked until midnight every single evening this week, and stressed both Jock and myself out by running to the printer’s last minute yesterday. I found the cheapest guy in town, but with 225 pages and 7 copies – it still came to £47. I still have at least twenty pages left to write for the ending, but I figured I could email them those pages. At least the rest of the book was up to snuff to show off.

I handed out two copies, and the rest are still sitting in a box. But would I have worked as hard the last couple of weeks had I not had a due date? Probably not. Would I still be slowly peddling through the editing process, checking my email every five minutes? Yeah. Did this teach me how much I love getting lost in my work for hours at a time, and the biggest reward is when the time passes without you knowing? Definitely. Did I ever feel this way about acting? Nope. Do I regret giving up acting? Not right now. Will I go back to it? Yeah, probably. Performing is in me.

Nevertheless, the three of us who were there had a really amazing time chatting, playing Wii (Jen kicked my ass in bowling and tennis, but I literally punched her lights out in boxing. Yeh!). And my BMI is 22…I’m the least likely to get sick.

Having the time to consistently work towards a goal is the best gift that England and Jock have given me. And, if people don’t show up every once in a while, my knee decides to stop my running for a bit, or my readership dwindles on my blog, I’ll still make the best of it. I’ll still keep asking the universe for shit. And, as my wise sister says re: the universe and asking for stuff: “I ask for lots of things. We have an ongoing dialogue and it never ceases to make me laugh at the answers it gives. Trusting in that is the most rewarding and hardest life lesson.”

Ladies Who…Wii!

Posted on January 18, 2010 by MAL

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No, not that kind of wee.

This month, in hono(u)r of the New Year and all its resolution mumbo jumbo, The Ladies Who… have opted to do a bit of physical exertion to kickstart 2010 – that is if you consider being a rock star and bowling to be physical exertion.

And, yup, I’m bringing my book for everyone to read! Looking forward to the comments – good and bad.

Making Friends Abroad

Posted on January 6, 2010 by MAL

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As I have such close friends back home, being away from them is always hard. I did it once in Paris, but again, I was with other Americans who I didn’t have to try that hard with. Being in England, though seemingly easy, was quite tough at first to feel like I fit in. I do tend to blurt out random abrupt direct things at the most inopportune times, and that can be a turn off. Plus, if you’re in your home country, it can be weird to be friends with a foreigner, and honestly, I don’t blame people for not wanting to try to befriend me. We all remember the foreign kid at school. Well, that’s me!

Plus, I think I’m actually a natural loner.

Others might disagree, but I think, naturally, I am. I make a real effort to be outgoing. I think if I just let myself go, I could easily be in the corner most of the time watching others interact with others. Also, if I let myself think too long and hard about meeting new people, going out with big groups or being the center of attention, I get panicky. So, I make myself not think about it and push through…after all, that’s what you gotta do in life. Push through the things that scare you the most, right?

Mostly all the jobs I have ever had has meant me being alone for the better part of the day. And even as I get older, again, I’m straying away from acting and feeling more comfortable with being alone on my laptop writing about characters.

So, why am I writing about being a friendless old outcast?

Well, I was recently asked to guest blog on the illustrious Melissa’s Smitten by Britain blog, and we came up with a post about how I started a ladies group in England as a foreigner. I was a member of one in Los Angeles, and found it to be one of the most fulfilling things I did whilst I was there.

So, if you’re like me – a lonely miserable expat who is in dire need of friends (just kidding!), then start your own group! I swear there is nothing like getting together with a group of women to lift your spirits. These women have become true friends, and I’m so happy they agreed to come hang out every month. I didn’t even have to pay them!

READ MY GUEST BLOG POST HERE!