Writer's Workshop: What's in a Name?

Mama Kats writers workshop

3.) What’s in YOUR name? What does it mean? Why was it given to you? etc..

LYNN

From an English surname which was derived from Welsh llyn "lake". Before the start of the 20th century it was primarily used for boys, but it has since come to be more common for girls. In some cases it may be thought of as a short form of LINDA or names which end in lyn or line.


Interesting that is was originally primarily a boys name. I've always thought of it more of a girl's name. I guess cuz I'm a girl! The only male I've ever heard of with the name is Lynn Swann, the former football player.

And as a far as it being short for LINDA........nope, uh-uh, don't you dare call me Linda! Don't like it. Also, I remember I once worked with someone named Linda and she wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyway, one night another coworker called me Linda rather than Lynn and I just gave him a dirty look and said "My name is Lynn......no duh!" He laughed and never did it again.

My mom had really wanted to name me Karyn and spell it with the "y" to be different but my dad didn't like that idea. She tried to convince him but he wouldn't go for it so he suggested Lynn and my mom gave in and agreed to that.

It's warped into all sorts of nicknames over the years too. Lynnie, Lynnie-rie, Ninnie-rie, La-lu, Lar, (many of these because of my younger brother and cousins who couldn't quite pronounce it when they were little). I know weird hey?

There was Lenn (that one drove me nuts, my cousin for some reason developed and accent when she said my name!), Lyndsay.........Lyndsay Wagner (my dad used to call me that because of the bionic woman) and Lentil (given to me by my brother).

I guess I like my name. Never really given it much thought so I guess I don't hate it. Because if you hate it then you give it thought! The only thing that bothered me for a while as a kid was that it wasn't a longer name that you could shorten for a nickname......hence the longer or weird formations above.

Writer's Workshop: Paranoia

I'm playing along with Mama Kat this week.

5.) What are you paranoid about?

What am I paranoid about? The question should really be what am I NOT paranoid about. Give me a situation and I'll find something to paranoid about. It just comes so naturally!

Hubby or kids a few minutes late and no phone call? They're laying dead in a ditch somewhere.

Driving somewhere new? I'm gonna get lost. What if there's construction?

What if they don't like me?....................What if they do?................What if someone is watching?.................What if they make fun of me?...............What if the kids get sick?...............or kidnapped?.............What if Skowt forgets to take her medication?.............or takes too much?...............What if the kids don't have any friends?....................What if they get picked on?.....................What if they start drinking?................or doing drugs?...................I could go on and on...........but I won't!

My paranoia annoys the heck out of my brother. Everytime I see him at least once I'll hear the words "You're so paranoid! How do you live like that?"

And I tell him if what I'm paranoid might happen that day never does...........then it's a good day! lol

Tonight we're going to see these guys:

The Jonas Brothers, 1 year and 3 days after this photo was taken when we saw them last year. And yes, there's a whole bunch of paranoia running around in my head about driving downtown with my girls!!

I'll be singing right along with these words tonight:

It’s like a poison in my brain
It’s like a fog that blurs the sane
It’s like a vine you can’t untangle
I’m freaking out

Everytime I turn around
Something don’t feel right
Just might be paranoid
I’m avoidin the lines cause they just might split
Can someone stop the noise?
I don’t know what it is but it just don’t fit
I’m paranoid
Yeah

Writer's Workshop: Current Read

I'm playing along again with Mama Kat's workshop. I can't think today so I'm picking the easy one!

1.) Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page and share two “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

I had my daughter randomly open my book and pick a page. Since I just started this book and am only one chapter in this will be a little teaser for me too.

"I like to shower," he said, pointing to the clear shower stall in the corner. It was big enough for two grownups and maybe a dwarf or two.

Hmm. That sounds like it could be....um...interesting! lol
It's from the book Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris which is now the HBO series True Blood. Yup, another vampire story. A friend was talking about the series on facebook a few months ago and I had to go find me a copy.

Writer's Workshop: Career path

First I want to say thanks for the suggestions for blog topics on my last post! They are much appreciated.

Amy suggested I head over to Mama' Losin' It and choose one of her weekly prompts to write about. I had been considering it because I've seen Amy do them before so I decided to give it a shot this week.

4.) If you could change career paths now and be anything you wanted to be...what would you be and why?

This one is a no brainer for me. I thought I'd start with an easy one!
My current job is so far from being a "career". I work part time in a convenience store/gas station. Not glamorous at all. But most of the time it works for us. They have always been very flexible about my schedule and working around my kids. So for now, this is where I am.

But what I have always really wanted to be is a photographer. I used to tell my mom I was going to be famous some day. I think the being famous part is out! Right now I think I'd just like do some portraits, I'd love to get involved in doing high school seniors.

Around my junior/senior year in high school when they start talking with you about your future I had told my parents I didn't want to go right to college. I was undecided and wanted to take a year, decide if photography was what I really wanted and look into where I could go to school for it.

Well, my dad would not hear of it! He insisted that if I did not attend college right after high school I'd most likely never go back and insisted I go. If I remember correctly he even said they would not help financially if I did not go right away. I had no clue what to go for. All the those career path tests they have you take suggested I go for engineering. Not interested. So he said I should go for business because it was a broad choice and I could get any number of jobs.

So I picked a school close to home and majored in Business Administration. When the end started nearing my advisor suggested I go on for my master's in finance........he was the finance professor so of course he would suggest that. This time I held my ground and said no. I didn't even want to go to college (at least for this) why would I go for a master's degree.

I graduated, had a service create a resume for me and started sending them out. Nothing. I quickly learned that Business Administration was too broad of a major and I did not have enough experience or knowledge in any aspect of it to get a decent job. Great. So I eventually gave up and just took on a full time, higher paying position at Kmart where I worked at the time.

I eventually got fed up with that job and decided it was time to go take some photography classes. I quit and got a part time job at a bank and enrolled in a couple classes at a technical college. I loved it. I took a 35mm film course and developed and printed my own photos. I also took a view camera course. You know those big ones with the drape over the back that you stand under. The kind that Ansel Adams used. That was fun too. I was all set to take another the next semester when I found out I was pregnant with Skowt. Since those things weigh a ton I decided to hold off for a bit because I didn't want to be lugging them around while pregnant.

Well, you know how that goes. Life gets in the way, a second baby and I never went back. Now all these years later and I'm about to turn 40 this year and I am wishing I would have done things differently. Regretting decisions I made and the fact that I took my father's "advice" about going to school.

My hubby has been encouraging me to stop looking back at the past and look forward toward what could be. What's done is done and it's time to forget it, start a new plan, set some goals and start over.

As much as I'd love to listen to him, it is super tough for me. I had some issues growing up during my teen years and I have always been a "glass is half empty" kind of gal. No matter how great something is I can find the negative in it or think of what it could have been.

I really want to get past that, but when you've been doing it your whole life it's kind of who you are. You can't just flip a switch and things will be different. So I promised him I'd work on it and take some classes. Try to improve my skills and gain a little more confidence in myself and hopefully within a few years I'll be that photographer I've always wanted to be.

BTW, if you'd like to see some of the photos I've taken recently check out my photoblog here.