Short Stories….

For the last month or so I have taken a break from my novel. I learned about a magazine looking for short sci-fi stories and decided to take up the challenge. It hasn’t been easy and I am not sure if it will pass the muster as being sci-fi because it doesn’t really deal with space or lasers. I wanted to make it feel like an regular moment in life today it just happens to take place in a future location.

I am enjoying this. I have a hard time with short stories – I want to put so much detail into what I write that to do this I have had to hold myself back from my normal writing style. It is weird writing the words “my normal writing style” – especially since I have a hard time saying I am a writer. I have never published anything beyond a few poems for anthologies in school. I have never won an award. And all those fun things. Hell, I have never finished anything large. Maybe short stories will help with this? I have written and finished several short stories in the recent months. Two for school and this one. I am glad though that I have a bit more freedom with this one. The school ones were limited to 3-5 pages. This time its 3k-5k words (about 13-18 pages).

When I submit this short story (which I hope it does, I really do) and it gets accepted, I will post information on the anthology here. And then, then, I will call myself a writer (even with my horrible spelling and grammar errors) as I promised a friend I would do when I finally finished something outside of school. Weird to think that I may actually get to call myself a writer instead of trying to be. Now, I just need to write more after this is done… and not give up, stay strong… blah blah blah…

Wish me luck!

 

 

OH! And I am still going to finish that danged novel!

this is new…

… if you have been here before you may be asking yourself: wth varza! What have you done to your blog!??!?!?! Well, basically, like many things in my life lately – it was time for a change. Time to clean up a bit and actually make this a more focused blog then something that is just a bunch of general spouting off of crap that it was when I started.

This is kind of something that has happened by accident. It seems that for the last few months, my blogs are becoming more and more about the changes going on with my life. Be those changes mind, body or soul… and I thought it would be nice to actually make it about that. Hence the line on my banner: …to rise from the ashes… and be born anew. This is actually the title of my workout journal at the 300DC website and it really has become part of my attitude with my working out and with much of what is going on with my life.

Last year was a “Trial by Fire” (my last workout journal title) and now I am starting to “rise from the ashes” and hopefully will be born anew sometime in the near future, just like the Phoenix. I am stealing Dumbledore’s animagus and I don’t care! I am a Slytherin, he can deal with it. lol…

I am going to be continuing to blog about my workouts, school, the things that come into my mind as I finally start to grow up into a big girl. Am I done working on myself? Nope, not in a long run… right now I am JUST getting started. And this is now the official home of the Journey of Varza into take womanhood… being done at the age of 33 years young. Its about time, I guess… 😀

I hope you continue to stay with me as I go and smack me if I do something stupid… I do that a lot – more often then not. lol! Does this mean that some random weird blogs won’t show up? No, but more often then not they may actually make some sense to someone other then myself.

As for the colour change – I figured something lighter, but not too light was in order for this change. Plus the orange didn’t really go with the new banner and supposedly, the black was hard to read on… lol!

Toodles for now! More later!

the right guy?

My mom and I have been having some interesting conversations lately mainly about my non-existent love life. While there are times that she still says I should become a nun there are times we have some deeper discussions about my failures in this particular field (ignoring my many failures in the other fields) and they have been particularly enlightening. In truth, I asked her why she never told me this like 10 – 20 years ago… she said, I wouldn’t of been receptive and my response when in such a state of mind doesn’t make me able to listen very well and usually end up brushing off what people say to me.

It has been a difficult week, heck it has not been an easy few weeks. There are a lot of things that are going on that are forcing me to take a very serious look at myself. Not just look but really see me and not turn away in shame but see the strengths that lie beneath the fears that overwhelm me at times. It defiantly is not a pretty picture but one I have to learn to live with. I may not like myself at times but I do not hate myself. I am proud I have come as far as I have. I could be dead or a stripper or living on the streets – so it could defiantly be a lot worse. Instead I am alive, have a stable job, am going to school and own my own home.  Defiantly, not the girl I was 12 years ago when I was dragged out of Atlanta to San Jose.

Pretty soon, I am coming up to my 1 year anniversary of starting on my workout and diet regiment. In total I have lost around 55lbs and counting. It does not seem like a lot when you look at it but each pound was a struggle. A struggle against my desire to walk away and give up (like I have so often before), the desire to ruin it all by binging every single night while watching tv, the desire to make this not about me but someone or something else. I am very happy with how this year has progressed and who I am becoming. Yes, I still have massive amounts of negatives on my side but the positive aspects are outweighing those more and more. The biggest is becoming my own person and loving myself. I am finally, after 33 years of existance, loving me for me. Even the disappoints that I still have, I know I learn and grow from them. Not let them hold me back anymore.

Back to the conversations I have been having with my mom, we had a semi-deep one this week that unfortunately got cut short due to people coming into work but my mom yanked one of those final nails in my coffin back out when it comes to how I deal with men. I yanked a big one out of a few months ago but that is too private for me to talk about in a blog. She basically pointed out my biggest weakness when it comes to the opposite sex; one she and my dad have noticed over the years and wished I would finally notice it myself… I had started to but it took my mom saying it to realize how blatant it was to the rest of the world.

Hello, my name is Varza, and I am a relationship chameleon. Please do not think, after reading this explanation of what that is, that I am a weak willed or weak person. I am not, I am a strong woman with her own mind – which is probably why I ended so many of my relationships quickly because of my struggles with this. A relationship chameleon is a person who slowly morphs who they are to fit into what they feel the other person wants or what they expect that person wants, instead of showing their true form. Constantly changing from one guy to the next – hiding behind their desires so that no one will truly SEE them. At least this is my explanation for this.

I do, do this. I really fear people seeing me for me and more importantly, seeing me for me and seeing that I am worth loving. I give men, boys, guys what I think they want. I will walk into a relationship an equal partner and then lose myself into their desires and wishes. This goes hand in hand with my troubles with saying no to guys. Its hard but I am learning to say it and stand by it without fearing that they will hate me or be disappointed in me.

Thirty-three years old and I am finally not afraid to show the world who I really am… kinda sad ain’t it?

The title of this blog is called “the right guy?” and I am sure you may be wondering why I am talking all about my and my relationships with men and not “the right guy”. There is a method to my madness, I promise! Part of this chameleon part of my personality is that I have been thinking about wanting to settle down (not that I have a love life at all, single for most of my life because I’d rather not date then lose me again) and trying to see myself with someone but I fear settling on what it is I want. What if I put it out there and I am wrong and I pull the wrong person towards me? What if I meet someone and settle then the real right one comes along? What if I make a mistake? What if I do try and I fail? All those fears that eat away at my mind in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep making me wish that there were a bottle of whiskey in my house and a Cherry Pepsi to chase it with (there isn’t thankfully).

Part of the realizations and the opening up of the coffin that is my soul is letting go of these fears and realizing I do know what I want and I should NOT be afraid to want the best for myself or that I should NOT be afraid that I will make a mistake or fail. I won’t. In truth, I am not scared as I once was… I am still scared at times and I have to fight against it often. Like people seeing me… the losing the weight – I know it means men will look at me again like they used to and I have to realize I am not the scared drunk chick I used to be. I won’t make the mistakes I once made.

So, the right guy? Who is he? Where is he? So many questions and I am sure I have answers in spades for who I think he should be *cough*christian bale*cough* but I do know there are things I desearve:

a man who loves me for me

a man who is not ashamed of me

a man who is not afraid to love me

a man who makes me a priority in their life

a man who wants to be around me

a man cherishes me

a man who can see themselves growing old with me

a man who wants to have children with me

a man who has the same ideals and morals as I do

a man who is athletic and fit

a man who is tall

a man who has a job and can support me if I need to take time off of working

a man who loves to travel

a man who wants to live in different places around the world (I do not want to live in NM forever)

a man who will not treat me as though I am not good enough

a man who will not hurt me

a man…. (I have no idea what else)

I am sure I could go into more detail but I won’t. In truth, this is just the basis of the right guy for me. Is it dumb? Maybe… I don’t know. I mean I am not going to put out there, I want a man with a specific eye colour or hair colour. The athletic and tall is mainly because that is what I am comfortable with. The rest is just dressing… its in my head and not sure if I want to share it just yet. My brother says I may be being too picky. Who knows… but don’t I deserve to be? Maybe I don’t, but I think I do.   😀

(btw – I did figure out my major finally… actually writing the last blog I wrote it in there and realized it was the right thing: English Major, Business Minor… )

Goals and whatnot…

So, things have gotten a bit better since I last posted. I did not walk away, in truth, I have too much going on in my life that is 100x’s more important then people bitching about stupid crap. Now back to my real life, where I pretty much happy. I say pretty much because we all have bad days… right?

Things are going well on my diet/lifestyle change. I think I am still loosing weight and I know I am shrinking. How, you ask? Well, my workout pants that I have been using were a XXL but the other day I went and picked up another pair. But, accidently I picked up an XL instead of an XXL, they fit really well. As well as my XXL did when I picked them up over a month ago. I am very happy with that. How can I not be? I went to the movies last night and noticed that my hips didn’t hit the sides of the seat. I realized they hadn’t in the past few weeks but I didn’t think about it then. Last night, having gotten up several times for the bathroom and snacks, before the movie started, I did. Even after I treated myself to a scoop of Double Fudge Chocolate Ice Cream, hey we have to treat ourselves from time to time. Right? Or we go crazy!!!

But, I have been thinking of my end goals, when I hit my final weight goal – which is 150lbs, if my body will do it. What will I give myself. Well, after thinking about it I think I will do what I have been wanting to do for the last 5 – 8 years but haven’t because of my weight. A beautiful tattoo on my right back shoulder. I have the design in mind but it will be a bit more original then walking into the store and saying – hey, I want that. And it is possible I will cover up a really bad tat I have on my inner hip. With what? I haven’t a clue. Maybe a spartan sheild from 300 since it has a special place in my heart for my weight loss.

My other goal – to make a costume I have been wanting to do for the past few years but there was no way in hell I would ever be able to pull it off unless I was in shape. More on that when it gets time to start on it.

Today has been a good day so far… about 3 hours left in work and then I can go home and workout then work on some projects I have been pushing off for the past few weeks while I go to the gym.