Desert Rose, Arizona
I give up. OK, I don’t really give up. But I’m cutting myself a little slack. I had all these great plans for May, but we’re already over 2/3 done with May, and I haven’t accomplished the writing I had planned. It just wasn’t possible. I let slip so much other stuff in April to work on #NaPoWriMo, that I had to catch up–or at least try. I’m so excited that Kin Types is a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. I didn’t dream it would do so well in a prestigious national award like that. But it did take up more time as I had to take it to social media. That’s the way of today.
And then I watched the price of the book slide back up on Amazon to its original price. Funny how that happens.
BUT I haven’t been doing nutten. Today Longridge Review published a short memoir piece, “The Secret Kotex Club.” Their focus is on memoir about the childhood experience–with adult reflection to give it some heft. I hope you enjoy it!
May. I have used it in many blog titles, but I’ve also used it in several poem titles. It’s such a beautiful month to write about. Spring is here. I don’t want to miss it entirely. The gardener noticed that the hummingbird eggs have hatched because he saw the mother feeding them. She has tucked the nest into the leaves of the oleander so well that we can’t really see the nest, but he saw her hovering above and dipping her beak down as if she were feeding. I just watched her defending her nest against three wren-type birds. She chased them away. Pretty amazing to see that tiny fierce mama take on a whole gang to protect her babies.
Every saguaro in the valley is still in bloom. I caught this one in front of someone’s house. I thought they might call the cops on me . . . .
We have flowers blooming on the ground, the outdoor tables, the bushes, and the trees. Perry watched a roadrunner behind our house, content to be inside, safe and well fed.
This one is not at my house, but I liked it!
And it’s not too hot out yet. Hot, but not too hot.
Pretty darn beautiful.
To go with the new season, the gardener has allowed me to throw away his old gardening shoes, and he will wear the new Rainbows that the kids gave him.
Wonderful essay, Luanne. Congratulations. I don’t remember being fixated on the feminine products so much, but I can imagine it. Those belts though, and the bad sliding around when you walked–THAT, I remember!
You may not have accomplished all you wanted to in May, but a nomination for a national award–and taking time to enjoy May is important, too. May in Arizona is so different from May in NJ. 🙂
Thanks, Merril! Good grief, those pads were horrific! Felt like walking around with a bath towel stuck between your legs! Do you have lilacs in NJ? That is what I miss so much–the lilacs and peonies!!!!
Yes, they were! And yes, there are lilacs in NJ. and peonies.
Jealous . . . .
😉
Thank you for the lovely pictures! I’ve not had the privilege to see the desert in spring bloom; I should add that to my bucket list. 🙂
I’m happy to hear that you are cutting yourself some slack — after all, being a finalist for a national award really *is* a lot of work. Just because it’s not the work you thought you’d be doing doesn’t mean it’s not work.
And: baby hummers!! <3
I just got a pic of the nest by telephotoing in, but they are really too small to see yet. I might post it on Instagram today. Did you ever see my videos and photos of the baby hummingbirds 3 years ago on this blog? I even got to watch the mom teaching one of the babies to fly! Hummingbird moms are GREAT mothers!
Yes, I remember the video and the photos — they were delightful! We have robins (MUCH larger than hummers) and greatly enjoy watching them. Hummers are so amazing and tiny as it is, the idea of *baby* hummers sends me off the Squeal-O-Meter!
Hahaha, that’s a good way to put it! Oh, robins are the state bird of Michigan where I grew up! I remember drawing and coloring a robin in first grade. Such beautiful birds!
Seeing that tiny hummer mom flying after those bigger birds was so cool. I tend to think of hummers as in a class by themselves, not so much birds like other birds, and yet here she was acting as if she was a big old jay or something ;)!
Hummers are kind of like penguins that way — birds-but-not-birds, somehow something more than birds. Here’s to baby birds and the mamas (and papas) who work their tails off to raise them! [I raise my cup of tea]
Let me go grab my Mountain Dew ;)! Yes, parenting is a TON of work! And, yes, like penguins, exactly!
Oh girl, don’t get me started on parenting – our youngest is ten days away from graduating high school and we are SO ready for that empty nest! We plan spend the first six months just sleeping. 😉
I feel for you. My kids were the biggest JERKS senior year. Good luck!
Congratulations again on the nomination, Luanne…yay! Aw…baby hummies. So far, our hummie action has been disappointing. 🙁
They are going somewhere else to next then. Don’t you live close to the golf course? If so, maybe they are going somewhere more private? These hummer moms are FIERCE mama bear moms, so maybe they go a long distance to find a nesting place?
Someone took a bite out of those shoes! 🙂 Getting my husband to throw out old shoes is very difficult. It’s as if they have relationships with them that can’t be severed.
Doesn’t it look as if a dog got hold of those shoes? Do you have the some problem that the cats like hubby’s stinky old shoes? My cats won’t let go of the gardener’s flip-flops. I have to separate the shoes so that two cats get a shot at them because otherwise they get mad at each other.
Only Gracie is fascinated with shoes here. I once had a cat that like dirty laundry, the stinkier the better!
Hah, crawling into the laundry basket?! Cats are so funny!
It’s funny how the months can slip away so fast. Your post was a reminder for me to slow down and enjoy these last couple of weeks of May, before it too passes. But what a wonderful gift, being a finalist for that prestigious award. Allow yourself to bask in that as much as possible too. After all the hard work you’ve done, you’ve earned it.
Thank you so much, Deborah. I feel really blessed that Kin Types did so well. And for enjoying this lovely May! (Although I am SO tired right now. The early sun wakes me far too early. This will go on all summer).
THANKS, Luanne, for reminding is to savor what’s left of May. Sounds as if you are. And why not bask? As it’s been pointed out, you’ve earned the award. I’m leaving for Ukraine – Odessa and Kiev – in a few days. For two weeks, as I sail up the Dneiper River, a Viking River Cruise, only writing I’ll be doing is in my travel journal. Sigh…I’ll resume work on the novel in June.
Loved your photos, even the “shoes” on death row!
I hope you share lots of photos of Odessa and Kiev. I can’t wait to see them! You are going to have such a blast. I’m so glad you are able to go. Re the shoes: I found them in the garage. He “rescued” them from the trash! And that’s after he said I could throw them away. Have a wonderful time and safe travels and good health, Elaine!
Great memoir piece Luanne, I was holding my breath through it, you captured so well that sense of secrecy and the forbidden. Congratulations on the Eric Hoffer award, I hope it helps many more people discover Kin Types.
Thank you so much, Andrea. That means a lot to me. Happy week to you!!!
Sounds like a good time for new beginnings, new projects, new shoes, new blooms, new ideas. Exciting times.
Or a nap. I feel like it’s a good time for a nap. Now that the sun is so bright so early it wakes me up FAR too early. So by noon I’m exhausted. Now that it’s 4PM I feel as if the day must be over.
Hah, spring is a lovely time. Thanks for stopping in, Anneli!
I’m up early with the dogs and I’m feeling the same way – ready for a nap by 2 p.m.
It’s nap time so I think I’ll try to go on the stationery bike instead.
Making me feel guilty!
I did it! OK, that one time will make up for the naps ;). Your turn hahaha.
Congrats on your publication, Luanne! Love the desert lansdcape photos.
Thanks so much, Rudri. You were such a great help. I always enjoy your desert landscape photos on Instagram!
The Secret Kotex Club is hilarious! Because. Just because. Cheers all around on your successes.
Hah, I’m glad you saw the humor! Because. Yeah, isn’t that just the dumbest? Look what we women have gone through. My grandmother told my daughter and me (years ago; she’s been gone 18 years now) that when she was a teen, they had to wrap newspaper in rags. Then they had to wash and reuse the rags. To do so, they had to be boiled on the stove. And there was the mom and three daughters! They must have always been cooking period rags!
Have you seen the new Anne of Green Gables on NetFlix? There’s an episode in which Anne starts her period and Marilla explains to her how to wash the rags she used. Its quite the eye-opener!
Get outta here! How amazing is that! The world has changed so much. I have not seen Anne. We still can’t work Netflix on our TV. Way too complicated. We have a complicated but very antiquated system . . . .
Too bad. It takes some liberties with the LM Montgomery story but I like it because it presents a truer picture of how a 12 year old orphan placed in multiple foster homes would have behaved and reacted. It has a darker edge than the syrupy Anne many are accustomed to.
Oh, I am sure I would love it. So frustrating. my daughter is telling me to get a “smart TV,” whatever that is. So that I can watch Netflix.
I have a body that would prefer to live in 1818, so I too have to do washables. It is not a good time. It’s less wasteful and more comfy, but it’s absolutely the furthest thing from convenient and tidy.
Also, Gardener’s shoes, man… Whoa.
Congratulations! I’m off to read 🙂
Hahaha, thanks. He pulled the shoes out of the garbage and they sit in my garage now. Yay! 🙁
Congratulations again on being a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. That’s so wonderful! And I agree–it’s hard to believe May is already 2/3 over. What a lovely month indeed.
Thanks, carrie! May is probably not the best month to plan to get too much writing done ;). (excuses, excuses)
Sometimes life interferes with our plans – never mind there’s always next month! I think you have done pretty well anyway and am waiting, expecting to hear that you win the Eric Hoffer!
Well, this is one of those awards where you find out if you’re a finalist at the same time you find out the big winner. But being a finalist is a big deal, and after all, I get the little stickers for my books ;). hahaha I am not going to beat myself up over writing this month. I think I have a selection of poems from last month’s marathon. I just don’t want to wait so long before I do another writing marathon!
Congrats again on your award. Loved your essay! What a hoot! Sadly for me, the movie and educational products came AFTER I started my period. I was 9 and nobody, including my mother and especially me, was ready for it. I should write an essay. Definitely one of those experiences I will never forget, no matter how much I want to 😉
Oh, my sympathies, Marie! My cousins, too, was nine. Neither of us had sisters, and yet I never thought of telling her because she was a tiny munchkin of a little kid (in my mind). And yet she got her period at 9. That must have been a trama, really, at that age.
Thanks, Marie!
Yes it was traumatic. First I thought I was going to die. Then I freaked out when I realized it meant I could have a baby. And I was playing with dolls 😬
Oh, you poor thing. I wonder what the statistics are of it happening so young. We were so surprised about my cousin. Did anybody really talk to you about it?
Nope. My mom picked me up from school and gave me pamphlets to read. Even though my mom had already had two daughters and a son, I often felt like she didn’t know what to do with me. My sisters were already in their early 20s by then. Meh. Don’t get me started 😏
Can you hear me screaming? Yikes!!! Do you mind if I ask how long before you found someone to talk to?
Eventually I saw one of those movies at school. No, it was pretty typical for me to be handed a book. It was still a few years or so before I knew about sexual intercourse … again, from a book. Maybe that’s why I’m a bookworm 😏
Hah, probably. My mom, too, and also my friend’s mom, gave us books to teach us things. My favorite was when my friend’s mom gave us a book to read about an African American girl who transfers to an all white high school. Jill and I were in 4th grade, so we loved it of course (being about high school). Pretty smart Mom she has. She’s well into her 90s, going strong, and one of my Facebook friends!
Congrats on your impressive award nomination! Good luck!
I just read “The Secret Kotex Club” and loved it! Reminds me in tone of my story, 32A, here: https://crossedeyesanddottedtees.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/32a-my-first-bra/ .
Too bad I can’t submit, since it’s been “published” on my blog, and they specify that that’s a no-no. Ah well.
Congrats again!!
May sounds like a successful month for you to me! Congrats on Kin Types being a finalist!! Loved this post full of fun wonderful things.
Thank you so much, Pam! Hope you’re making it a great week!
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Loving all those blooms, Luanne! Your post reminded me we are getting lovely full Rhododendron bloom-bushes these weeks, too. Maybe I’ll get some photos and put them in an “echo-post” to yours! – congrats on the honors and kudos!
Thanks, Theresa. Ooh, I hope you do write an “echo post”!!!! I’d love to see your Rhododendrons!
🙂
So much excitement and positivity here, Luanne!
Hurray for your receiving the Eric Hoffer award! The national level of this honor may be sinking in, which I am in awe of this! 🎑🥇
I love the different joys of May as seen in desert blooms and shoes being discarded due to their getting old and decrepit. 😉
I love your great news and you always have June to reach those goals! hugs xo 💗
He pulled the flip flops out of the garbage!!! Now they are sitting there in my garage, quite the eyesore haha! Hugs, Robin!!!
I wonder if you could spray paint them (green 💚) and “plant” them in the garden! Ha! 😀
Oh, I also wish to add very happy notice of the Gardener seeing the mama hummingbird dipping down to feed her babies and I love the indomitable spirit of such a tiny bird!
She is raising them well! 🙂
Good little mama hummingbird! 😙
I had a brother who asked why some napkins that they unloaded from the grocery store had “sanitary” in front of the word and these were stored in the bathroom? Well, it was summer and my parents were a teacher and an engineer. They knew what they told us (I was just 10) would be passed around and imparted in stretched out stories. The suburban neighborhood had their progressive meals from one house to the next, starting with cocktails and ending with desserts.
So, they called all the people in the group and asked if the parents wanted to send their girls to hear my Mom’s talk in the living room and my Dad’s talk in the family room. We really were not traumatized nor upset. I didn’t get my monthly periods until I was 14 and ended by age 41. It wasn’t too awful except the white pants episode in high school. . . Ugh!
I loved the Club details and it made me smile to think of our innocence once upon a time. ❤️
LOVE this story! Hah, you were raised by great parents! I think every girl had a white pants story. Mine was a white bathing suit story ;). Thanks for adding your story here, Robin!
You’re welcome, Luanne! I shared this with my best friend not too long ago, she is my 28 “years long” friend who did meet my Dad a few times and loves my Mom, sending her gifts and cards. She wasn’t surprised or shocked about the story either. 🤗
Bravo for being a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Best of luck!
I enjoyed your photos. Your story The Secret Kotex Club is very lovely, Luanne.
Ah, thanks so much, Carol! You are so kind!
Exciting about the award finalist, Luanne! Impressive!
Thank you. It’s SO exciting.
Yes indeed!