50/50 Challenge Update: Two Months to Go!

Fall is my favorite season. Wish I had taken this photo, but alas, it's from Pinterest.

Hey-o! Less than 60 days to prove that I can read 50 books and watch 50 movies in one year. OK, I'm not really trying to prove anything, but I would enjoy the accomplishment. I'll keep this update short and sweet.

Movies

41. Gone Doggy Gone 

This screened at San Diego Film Festival and it's a fun, twisted movie that pokes fun at just how much people loooove their dogs.

42. St. Vincent

Bill Murray. Highly recommend. I laughed and cried and laughed some more.

43. The Good Lie

I also highly recommend. I was pretty much teary-eyed throughout the whole movie.

44. The Best of Me

Eh. Nicholas Sparks enthusiasts will dig it.

45. Nightcrawler

One of the most original films I've seen in awhile. Not usually a huge Jake Gyllenhaal fan, but he is fantastic in this.

Books (a measly ONE since my last update)

35. Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult

Psychics. Paranormal. Mystery. It's like Jodi Picoult surveyed me and asked, "Courtney, what is it that you want?" This was one of my favorites of hers in a long time and is reminiscent of her earlier work. She has changed publishing houses and editors, which may or may not be one of the reasons. 

35 1/2. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

I read most of the beginning and then started to read from the back, so there's a whole middle section I skipped because I couldn't get into this book, but I really wanted to. 

I know I'll reach my movie goal, but can I make it through 15 more books?

A Swaller and a Holler for Nashville

Earlier this month I had the chance to visit Nashville! I am going to go ahead and admit something knowing full well that I may be labeled an idiot, but...I didn't know that Tennessee was so far south. As in, it touches Georgia. I imagined it to be where Northern Kentucky is. Geography has never been my strong suit.

Anyway, they do love their sweet tea (the best!) and man do they every enjoy their fried pickles, which is a good thing because so do I!

Fried pickles became an addiction.

I drank a lot of beer. My friend and I were there as part of Yelp Elite Spring Break, so there were events already scheduled included the Nashville Brew Bus which was oh-so fun, and highly recommended. They seem to love their craft beer in Nashville almost as much as they do in San Diego.

Just one tray of the many beers I consumed.

And then there was honky tonk a.k.a country music...

 

There is an ease about Nashville that makes you feel welcome, but the heat and humidity will definitely kick your ass. If you're planning a weekend getaway, it's always best do some research first.

Use that thing called Google and get advice from friends so that when you get to where you're going, you at least have an idea of things you want to see. That's not to say make every hour appear on your itinerary; you always have to leave room for fun surprises, but if you don't plan a little bit you could end up wasting money and a lot of energy.

When I started thinking about my travel plans this year, I didn't anticipate that I would already have been to San Antonio, Chicago, and now Nashville even before the year was half over. 

It makes me think, do I simply work so I can afford to travel?

The pictures and blogs don't do enough to capture the actual adventure of travel. It makes my heart and soul happy to experience as much as I can as often as I can. 

My next travel adventure is this week back to Kansas to meet my new baby niece. Then, plans for a summer trip to NYC is already in the works.

Working my way across the U.S. and hope to include some international travel soon.

For a more in-depth guide of where I went, what I saw, and the things I ate (and drank) visit my Nashville City Guide here. 

Thought of the day: "Niche-less" is not a bad word

So, technically, "niche-less" isn't a word at all, let alone a bad word. Nonetheless, it feels taboo. 

Being without a niche in my writing is something I've been struggling with recently. When you first meet someone, one of the first questions is, "What do you do?" Now that my answer is, "I'm a writer," the follow-up is immediately, "What do you write about?"

Ummm, do I start listing subjects? 

Just when I thought I would no longer stumble over answering the question that is most commonly asked to define someone, I begin rambling a mix of what I write in no particular order that really does not provide a clear depiction of the kind of writer I am. 

When I was a secretary, I always asterisked my answer of what I did by adding, but I want to be a writer. Like I had to be paid to write to be able to call myself a writer. That's what I thought. Otherwise, I felt like a fraud. I felt at any moment someone would say, you're not a writer, you're a secretary. And, they'd be right.

It's not that being a secretary is shameful. Lord knows I worked my ass off as one. It's the idea that I wasn't what I wanted to be.

And now I feel I need a parenthetical answer for being a writer without a niche. It's like without being able to provide a clear answer, I am aimless and not where I want to be all over again. 

Luckily, I am starting to understand that I'm still exploring. I write about nearly everything. Or, if I don't currently, I don't want to cancel out the possibility that I might in the future. I want to have a voice that is not limited. That's what kind of writer I want to be. 

I'm niche-less and I need to accept it.

And not just accept it, embrace it. It's not my style in writing or in life to fit into a mold. I hope people read what I write. Even more, I hope they like it and value it. But the truth is that I will continue to write no matter how many people read it, like it, comment on it, tweet it, or ignore it.

I don't like saying that I'm a writer because it is what I do for a living. I like saying it because it's something that feeds my soul and has for the greater part of my life. I rely on it in the same way I do prayer. That's not to be irreverent, the opposite, in fact. It is something I cherish and it defines the kind of faith I choose to live by.

I was talking with a friend who recently started her own blog and told her, you have to do it for YOU first. You can't write something for someone else's opinion. There will be tons of those for you to deal with. But your mind will become cluttered with what other people think you should do, and you won't be able to put down your unique thoughts, which is one of the many joys that comes from writing. 

Even if you never get paid for it, even if no one reads a damn thing you put down, for a moment you took the time to record something and make it count. 

No need for a niche; that's pretty awesome all by itself.