Julie Unplugged

Remembering Back in the Day to My Best First Date...What was Your Best First Date?

Wow. Today's prompt for August Blog Challenge  requires I dig back into my archives.

Subject? Best or worst first date.

I am grateful I haven’t had many worst dates because I tend to be openly fascinated with each person I encounter.  Some first dates have been… ummm… more interesting than others and some of my break-ups have been hysterical… but this, for now, that I can come up with….

It is interesting because when I am not feeling well I tend to drudge up characters from my past. So I searched for him on facebook yesterday and read what I could. I don’t want to be his friend or anything, I am just curious about him.

Our first date was supposed to be an open mic followed by dinner. What a way to win my heart: agreeing to listen to poetry with me.

The open mic turned out to be another night so instead we went to dinner.

He didn’t know it, but the week leading up to that Friday night was extremely stressful. I needed a nice dinner and a friendly conversation companion. He chatted up a storm and I mostly smiled and nodded, but this was just right for that moment.

I was disappointed when I didn’t get a goodbye kiss. That came on date number two. 

But I have to say, this date stands out as the best because #1) it was a first date after a long time without dating #2) its shape was based on what I love the most #3) even though we didn’t know each other well, the conversation flowed.

This isn't a photo from those days... it was long before digital photography - but it shows the way I felt before I went on this long ago date.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot 

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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

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5 Short Term Personal Goals: Quite Different from My Norm but for my Temporary Norm, here they are....

I am finally off my butt and writing some long overdue Autumn Blog Challenges. I want to start where I am and work backwards or just keep going forward.

Here is the question for September 19: September 19 - List 5 short-term personal goals.

1. Get through my surgery for melanoma and quietly restore my rhythms with my new face.
2. Since I will not go out much while my face is still badly scarred, use that time to do stuff I normally procrastinate about: First priority, weave random writings into a less random book format.
3. Finish the Living Room (Sew curtains, hang photos and art.)
4. Work on Women’s Sphere art: specifically, more bowls and more hangable art.
5. For relaxation, dye paper, make flowers.

  All my short term goals are all me. They mostly revolve around how to thrive post melanoma surgery. There are a lot of unknowns. What I do know is my face will have lots of stitches for who knows how long and I won’t feel very comfortable going out for a while.

 Naturally my Mommying goals and my house goals are intact.

 I should put a #6. Contemplate what comes next… and take what actions I can while at home.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot

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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield.

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© 2012 by Julie JordanScott

My Favorite "Go To" Recipe - Warning - this is NOT a paint by number creation.

Now, for all of you out there – one of the best features of this GO TO recipe  is - uniqueness and  creativity.

I use some consistent “materials” and otherwise, I improvise. No matter what I use, though, it gets raves.

If I am having friends to a casual dinner or want to feed my family something healthy and cool on a warm summer evening or having folks for lunch, this is my biggest hit. If you are having a lunch with friends, you could actually make it seasonal. (I am thinking adding craisins for the Fall, for example).

Chicken breast, marinated in either Balsalmic Vinaigrette or what you have on hand that leaves it tasting spicy in your favorite flavors.

Raw broccoli, stirred in Italian dressing or regular old Oil and Vinegar

Spring Salad Mix or any sort of DARK lettuces as the foundation

Add other raw veggies to taste

Optionals: pine nuts or almonds, seasonal fruit

You can treat this sort of like a crock pot meal: get the main stuff prepped and then just throw it all together right before you serve, like ten minutes before your  guests arrive (or your family comes shrieking in yelling for dinner).

Phase One: Slice chicken breast into small chunks and marinate at least three hours. You may stir a couple times if you like but if you don’t it isn’t a big deal. It might sound weird, but I enjoy doing this as I make my children’s lunches in the morning.

Phase  Two: Perhaps just after lunch or again, whenever as long as it is between eight and four hours before serving:

Pour Olive Oil into medium skillet on medium heat

Add chicken and marinate into the skillet and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Wait until thoroughly cooked, usually 15 minutes or so. Put in a bowl in the fridge so it can cool before serving.

Chop broccoli and put them in a bowl. Drizzle with Italian dressing – drizzle, not drown. Stir. Set aside.

Do a brief inventory for lettuce or lettuce mixes. Note any additions you want to throw in for extra texture or flavor. (Carrots, celery, nuts, tomatoes that sort of thing.)

Phase Three:  Ten minutes before serving - Assemble the salad. Start with salad mixes and lettuce, add chicken and then throw in your extras. Toss with great exuberance. Do a taste test and see if more dressing is necessary. I usually DON’T add dressing, but I am not one who likes salads to be served like “having some salad with your dressing.” You may serve as is and have dressing on the side so people may add as much as they like.

I can’t believe I don’t have any photos of this, but trust me, its YUMMILICIOUS! I got the inspiration from a local restaurant and even people who don’t believe a salad can be a meal are convinced after eating this.

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot 

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

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Autumn Blog Challenge Day 7: I Remember When....

I sort of miswrote to the ABC Challenge prompt. I focused on what I wanted to remember from where I was and for whatever reason, I dipped into a memory from childhood that wouldn't let go. So it isn't September 11 or John Lennon's death or the start of Desert Storm.

It was when a stormy period of my life happened, long before I had a grip on my place here in life.

I remember when I was dumped by my friends when I was in the seventh grade. For unknown reasons to me, the majority of my closest friends started to shun me. They didn’t walk to school with me, they ignored me, they acted as if I was a social pariah.

This happened once before, when we started fifth grade and middle school, all my best friends from fourth grade dumped me.

Both times I had no idea what I did wrong, so I figured the dumping was core deep: something was inherently wrong and unlikeable about me.

How many of us go through this at some time or another?

How many times does this happen, when we seem to vaporize from the memory of those we once believed were our closest friends?

The years between fifth and eighth grade were by far the most difficult for me. There was a time in eighth grade when I hid in my closet for four days straight in order to miss school. My parents didn’t know I wasn’t going to school until the attendance office called to check on me.

I got a talking to and I remember Mom visited the school psychologist. She was scared for me.

Nothing changed, though. I was being bullied by cooler kids, I was being bugged about my appearance. I was compared to my thinner, prettier sister and scoffed at, “Why aren’t you more like her?”

I remember when my daughter Katherine was dumped in fourth grade as well. I was horrified for her and grateful when in fifth grade she was suddenly, inexplicably popular again. Emma had so many problems socially it made her sick to attend school. I talked to the principle about her anxiety, to see if the school culture could be, somehow, improved.

She gave me nothing except, “Take her to the shrink”. She does go to group therapy now and loves it and she is in high school now and whenever I visit her, kids are all over here with greetings. “Hi Emma!” or “EMMA!” or “Hey, Emma….” Or whatever expression they might have.

I remember the pain of being dumped by friends.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot 

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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

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My Reading List for 2013: No Time Like the Present to Get Started!

Today the Autumn Blog Challenge asks....

What books would I like to read in 2013? 

I would like to focus on reading feminist novels. I poked around the internet and got some suggestions, some of which I have read in the past. It is the philosophy in the top book on my list to re-read those books. Makes sense, since I have grown a LOT, I think reading again would do me well.

I want to finish:

1. Rereading Women by Sandra M. Gilbert
2. The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert

 

I want to read:

 

1. Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman 
2.  Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy 
3. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
4. Woman at Point Zero, Nawal El Saadawi
5. The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
7. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit

10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

11. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

12. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

13. The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

14. The Seven Ages by Eva Figes

15. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

16. The Group by Mary McCarthy

17. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

18. Bachelor Girl by Betty Israel

19. Last two books in the

20. Hunger Games trilogy

 

 

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot 

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

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Guess Who Walked into 7/11 in Hollywood with a Trench Coat & Sunglasses to get a Big Gulp?

Today - from the Autumn Blog Challenge comes the question "Have I ever met a celebrity?"

Well, that depends on what you mean by a celebrity and if you mean did I actually carry on a conversation or just… see from a distance.

I worked in the rental car business when I was fresh out of college and among my customers were Morgan Fairchild who was one of the bombshell actresses from some show not Dallas but like it. I didn’t recognize her because I didn’t watch shows like that but what I remember is she was totally blank. Her skin looked like chalk and had not a single distinctive characteristic. Made me think that was so they could paint her face however they wanted to paint her face.

She did tell me her Jaguar got wrecked as she was chased on Sunset Boulevard by enthusiastic fans.

I also rented a car and even made a phone call or two to David Byrne. Again, this meant little to me but I understand he is the lead of the band The Talking Heads. People were VERY excited about this meet up and what I can tell you is he was a very quiet, understated guy who wasn’t bothered that the only car we had left for him was a little compact thing.

I bumped into the woman who played the housemother on Facts of Life at the movies.

I am acquaintances with Joey Travolta, brother of John, who had his own acting career but now has a production company called Inclusion Films. The company teaches filmmaking to people with special needs. I was one of the actors in Zombie High – an interesting comedy about a Zombie Queen in disguise who terrorizes the students of a local high school. I played the Zombie Queen. Tee hee hee hee. The photo is of Joey, my daughters and a friend at the premiere. It was a great time!

And as far as six degrees goes, my brother is very close friends with Patrick Dempsey, Dr. McDreamy. I don’t watch that show, either.

I am not impressed enough by celebrities, I suppose, but the ones I have gotten to know are delightfully normal people. The B celebrities, though, tend to think they are high above everyone else. John Laroquette was my favorite. He lived near me in Hollywood and I would see him at the 7-11, the convenience store, the movies, and he would have a trench coat on with the collar up and sunglasses practically screaming, “Look at me, I’m famous!” Bah!

There are other mini-stories, but I will leave it at these.

Tell me, have you met a celebrity?

 

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

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What I Love Most About Autumn: Life Returning to the Earth

What do I love the most about Autumn?

I love the fruit of autumn.

I love cooking with the fruit of autumn.

I love the first fire I build in autumn.

I love putting on the first sweater in Autumn.

What I love is primarily intangible.

I love the smell of autumn, the returning of the leaves to the ground to be rained upon and returned to soil, naturally.

I love the light of autumn – the slant of dawn and dusk, gentler than Summer, less sleepy than Winter.

I love the energy of autumn, the quiet stepping into a new year, not to all the pizzazz of January 1, but instead the quiet choice to make it a new year, untainted by calendar’s and hype.

# # ^^ # # ^^

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

Did you enjoy this essay? Receive emails directly to your inbox for Free from Julie Jordan Scott via the Daily Passion Activator. One inspirational essay and poem (almost) every week day. Subscribe here now -

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A New Month, A New Season of Writing Challenges, A New Approach Overall for Me

Day 1: Autumn Blog Challenge: Why Do The Autumn Blog Challenge?

I have a confession which isn’t much of a confession because most people know this about me!

I love writing challenges. They get my words blossoming faster than the crocuses and daffodils push out of the snow in late Winter, early Spring. I love the camaraderie that grows!

I also love conversation around words and writing.

Blog writing challenges combine all that yumminess of writing with others, getting nearly immediate feedback by way of comments & friendship, and usually I have several unexpected a-ha’s along the way.

I realized just this week I haven’t created or lived any long term goals in the five years since my brother died. Because of this awareness, my Fall will take on a different tenor: I am going to be my long term goal oriented and I am guessing this will show up in what I write, how I respond to the prompts.

Since Autumn is a more grounded time (with less travel) I imagine I will also stay right on task. Once August hit, my Summer Blog Challenge well had nearly run dry. I tried but never felt like I got back in the groove.

Maybe I should call the Autumn the Season Julie Got Her Groove Back although it won’t include me being a cougar of a muscular much younger man. That I promise you.

Instead, I will simply get the best version of me back here, behind the keyboard, and out there, in the world, doing what I do best. Communicating, Caring, Creating and Consciously Conceiving of life in a way where everyone feels love and knows love, and then being a bit of Julie Appleseed and planting that Conscious Conception that life is inherently good, right and beautiful… it is up to (I’ll stay with the metaphor) continue to tend life, to give it the chance to bear the fruit it was meant to bear.

THAT, my loves, is why I am participating in the Autumn Blog Challenge. There is plenty of room for you amongst us as well. Come along!

 

Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot 

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook (THANK YOU!)

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. 

Did you enjoy this essay? Receive emails directly to your inbox for Free from Julie Jordan Scott via the Daily Passion Activator. One inspirational essay and poem (almost) every week day. Subscribe here now -

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