Silver James

Thoughts. I has thoughts. Mainly because I haven’t been doing much of anything besides laying in bed watching mindless TV and musing. Thus, when I came across the meme, it #MadeMeLaugh while also being far too true! 🤣

I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t cracked a book (real, digital or audio) since I went to the ER. I mean, I go through like 250 books a year in normal times. I’m way behind and really need to find something to spark my imagination because if I’m not reading, I’m usually not writing. 😟.

Weight. I think about this too because wow. I haven’t weighed this little since before Only was barely a twinkle in the eye. At this rate, I might could fit in that size 3 wedding dress–if I still had it. (That’s a long story and not worth the angst to repeat.) Anyway, who knew that I–who have fought weight all my life–would have trouble putting weight ON?!!?! Not that I’m actually complaining. I do think I’m a little too thin because bony is not a good look.

Writing. Nope. I haven’t typed a word of fiction since December. I have hopes to change that today. It’s Thursday, which means the #ThursdayThreads flash fiction challenge. The words might not be for the Moonstruck Mafia book but hey, words! My goal is to answer the challenge today. Baby steps, just like rebuilding my physical strength and energy levels.

Blogging. Which is a form of writing. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought too because, while lying there watching mindless TV, it occurred to me that I might have fallen into a bit of a rut. I marked my days off–and kept track of the days of the week–by my blog. Monday was the weekend follow-up and look forward. Tuesday meant food and books. Wednesday was snippet day. Thursday dealt with deep thoughts about life and writing lessons. Friday was…whatever caught my eye from videos to music to off-the-wall thoughts. While I took the weekend off from here, I continued over on my FB page with #ShirtsOff Saturday (sexy dudes) and #SundayMorningCofee with funny coffee memes and “deep” thoughts (of which many were pretty shallow! LOL) Anyway, I started to wonder. If I feel like I’m in a rut, how do my readers feel? Would you like to see something different? If so, what? I’m open to suggestions because I need all the help I can get! Or are you “old skool” and happy with things the way they are? If my brain was working right, I’d figure out how to insert an interactive poll and let y’all vote. Please speak up either by leaving a comment here or on my FB page. I really do value what you think.

I’m going to finish on a sad note but with an anecdote that will hopefully leave you with a smile. We lost a legend this week when Toby Keith died from stomach cancer. He fought the good fight with grace and dignity for 18 months. He was a fixture here and a truly wonderful man. The things he’s done for charity–especialy children’s cancer and veterans, for OU sports, and just people is amazing and largely unknown by the world at large. I had the honor of meeting him once and he was as real and nice and authentic as everyone says. His passing has left a huge hole in the heart of Oklahoma and country music. Now, here’s the smiley part–I hope. His first big hit was “Shoulda Been a Cowboy.” There’s a story behind it. Toby and some friends (one of whom was an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper) were up in Kansas on a hunting trip. After being out in the field all day, they came back to town and stopped at the local watering hole, still weathing their camo. Folks were dancing to the juke box and a young lady caught the trooper’s eye. He announced that he was going to ask her to dance. Toby said, “Dude, you’re in hunting clothes and stink. She’s gonna turn you down.” “Nope,” said our trooper. “She’ll dance with me.” Yeah…no. She turned him down. A bit later, they noticed her on the dance floor with a man in jeans, boots, and big belt buckle. Toby says, “You shoulda been a cowboy.” And in his words, “My brain went DING DING DING!” They soon went back to their motel. Toby grabbed a pad and pencil and sitting on the edge of the bathtub, he wrote “Shoulda Been a Cowboy” in TWENTY MINUTES! And since tomorrow is Friday, here’s the video–early–just for fun!