Archive for the 'WriterMentor' Category

April 26, 2010 | Book Three,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Family Jewels,Weekend Wrap-Up,WriterMentor

Friday night, Babendude and I went on a date. We’ve been trying to incorporate date nights either Friday or Saturday nights. The goal has been dinner and a movie, but it seems that we get thru the dinner portion and don’t really feel like doing the movie thing after. LOL We’re too full and a bit tired, I guess. So, it’s just been dinner. Sushi at Kabuki. Hey, that rhymes! I think if maybe we tried date nights on Saturdays, went to the movie first–an earlier showing–and then dinner afterwards, we’d be good.

Saturday, we ate breakfast at our usual place. And at this point, let me just say that we eat at Ron’s nearly every weekend. Unless I have a hair appt or he’s hanging out with his BF, we eat there nearly every weekend. And it’s worth the wait, lemme tell you. On our way up there, we kept passing signs for a model home furniture sale, so we decided to check it out after breakfast: 5,328 sq ft, 3 beds, 3.5 baths, garage with loft, a play room for the kids (apparently the kids were aspiring actors because the room had a little theater stage. Complete with velvet curtain and an area to change. Too cute), the master bedroom had a serious walk-in closet and the use of skylights was fabulous. It was just an absolutely beautiful home. And they want $2.3 for it. Yikes! Looks like it might’ve been worth it. “This would be too much for us,” Babendude says. “I’d like something like this, but on a more townhouse-condo scale.” LOL. Indeed.

In checking this place out, I got better ideas for Book 3. The people that Draven are investigating needed an understated-yet-expensive-looking house to live in. Done. And the Mom needed a better job than the one I’d originally created for her (antique store owner): luxury home staging. Done. I love it when this idea shit happens.

Later that afternoon, (more…)

Technorati Tags: Kabuki

April 4, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again",2nd Semester,Life in General,Nonprofit Explorations,Prescott College,School Daze,Spring 2010,Sunday Scribblings,The 4-1-1 on Me,WriterMentor,WriterVolunteer

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Mentor

Last year, I had the immense pleasure of being a mentor. From Sept to Dec I was a mentor through Free Arts AZ. For 14 weeks, another girl and I were placed at an all-girls group home. Every Saturday morning, for an hour, we drew, painted, wrote, cut and pasted, made bracelets…whatever. Basically, we played. These girls started to get used to us being there every week and couldn’t believe we were taking the time out of our lives to spend time with them. For free.

It was the best, most life-changing experience of my life.

I’ve been wanting to volunteer for a youth-based organization for a long time, but I was looking for a specific organization. And I found it with Free Arts AZ. They fit with the business I plan to open and I was able to utilize my writing skills there. I still volunteer for them when they have events on the weekends. If you ever get a chance to be a mentor for youth, do it. It will so change your life. I promise.

Currently, as I’ve mentioned numerous times before, I’m attending Prescott College to get my degree in Nonprofit Management. That business I mentioned above? I want to open a nonprofit writing center for teens. Actually, when starting out, it’ll probably just be different writing workshops, and not so much a building to conduct them in. I want to focus on putting these programs into public schools and youth-based nonprofit organizations.

But I digress.

The students who attend Prescott College create their own degree plan and then find mentors within their community—or nationally—to “mentor” the courses. They offer some online courses, but the majority of your degree plan is created by you. I’m actually looking for mentors for my classes right now, so if you’re interested, read all about it here. Since I know nothing about the nonprofit sector, I’m learning from the ground up and I created courses that, I hope, will prepare me for opening my own nonprofit. The Spring semester is almost over and the mentor for my Nonprofit Explorations course, Kristi, has been amazing. She’s also going to be the mentor for my Fundraising course. The difference between this college and other 4 yr colleges is that you’re learning by doing. You’re working side by side with a professional in the field and you’re getting hands-on experience. I think I learn best this way because I’m applying it as I learn it. And I’ll have all this knowledge for later.

The only thing that sucks for an introvert like me is going out and asking complete strangers to be my mentor. There’s a lot of stepping-outside-my-comfort-zone goin’ on, but I’m meeting some great people. And hopefully, I’ll be working with them in the future. On a professional level.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

December 19, 2009 | The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House,WriterMentor

This week at The Gurl House: PAINTING AND CHOCOLATE

We started out making homemade tootsie rolls. And BOY did that get messy. LOL. Trying to mold that stickiness into some shape or form was a tad challenging. I felt like I was making mudpies. Ones that you could actually eat.

Or a mud mask. One that could be licked off your face.

I’ve never been a fan of the popular candy. My Mom, on the other hand…I was able to roll my portion of the chocolatey goodness into a few balls and left them for the girls to eat. They tried to make another batch, but I think it came out too watery. The recipe didn’t call for water, but they were trying to go for a more maleable product and it didn’t quite work out.

Thank God for paints.

After the second batch went south, we pulled out the paints. Our intention was to finish the patiques activity from a few weeks ago, but we didn’t have the same girls from that activity join us today. That’s all right, though. The results were a little abstract with a little lesson in a foreign language thrown in.

December 13, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House,WriterMentor

This week at The Gurl House: WHERE I’M FROM

I did this activity with the PA a few weeks ago with fun results. This time was no different. We only had 3 girls this time and getting to know more about them was a treat. It’s hard trying to remember all the stuff that interested you when you were 12 yrs old. They had to remember what grade they were in first, but it was interesting to hear what sports they played, the toys they played with, the candy they bought, the T.V. shows they watched. I momentarily forgot how old these girls were, but was quickly reminded, when they mentioned certain musical groups or people they crushed on.

They may have been 12, but I was in high school.

Boy, do I feel old.

We see these girls in the present tense. They talk about what their interests are now, what life is like for them now. With this activity, we got a glimpse into their past—when they were 12—which for the 3 we had today, probably was only 5-6 yrs ago.
I kind of got the impression that back then was better than now.

November 23, 2009 | Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,WriterMentor

No session this week at The Gurl House