I definitely got the quiet, relaxing summer I hoped for back in May. I think I may have gotten a little too much of this particular type of summer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Here are some of the few things I accomplished in the last few months:

• Failed my self-assigned summer reading
  To be fair, it was a very ambitious summer reading list, especially as I don’t read as much as I’d like to anymore. I didn’t fail it altogether, though. I did reread all seven of the Harry Potter novels, read three quarters of the complete works of Sarah Dessen, and read two of the books in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. I just didn’t read any of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares or A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
• Did lots of crafting
  Those of you that followed my blog this summer will know about my various ventures into crafting. Sewing, knitting, cross stitching… I dabbled in lots of it this summer and have a lot of finished products to show for my work. It was definitely a way to increase my summer productivity!
• Actually began writing a novel
  Longtime readers of this blog will remember a few casual mentions of “my novel” here and there. This summer, I finally got around to actually writing it and even launching my online writing portfolio, amandaosborn.com.
• Failed to find a job
  I talked about how it sucked to be unemployed in May, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a job for the summer due to the increasingly poor job market. However, being unemployed this past summer wasn’t all bad. I made conscious efforts to not spend money unless absolutely necessary, and I was able to spend time doing things I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to, like crafting and writing.
• Experimented more with cooking
  I’ve always loved cooking, and for a portion of this summer, it was my job to do the cooking and making sure no one in my house starved to death. I had lots of successes, like my seafood paella, red velvet cake, and mac and cheese. I had one disaster where a carrot cake turned into a carrot souffle… but I’d rather not talk about that

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I’m postponing this week’s Crafting post until next Wednesday in order to announce that I have finally finished putting together an online writing portfolio, which can be found at amandaosborn.com.

Those of you who are longtime readers of this blog will know that I have a fair about of posts about writing and have mentioned working on my novel here and there. With my sudden increase of free time now that I am on vacation from school, I have been writing a lot more than I have in recent years and decided to publish some of my selected works to an online portfolio. I wanted to keep my writing separate from my blog, as I have always envisioned my blog being strictly a blog, and when I saw that my name was available as a .com domain, I decided to use that as the location for my writing.

There is more detail about my writing history as well as the published titles at amandaosborn.com, but I have password protected all of the titles for a number of personal reasons. Aside from the title and a short description of each title, you will need the password in order to read the actual pieces/excerpts. More about the passwords can be found at this post.

I hope you all enjoy what amandaosborn.com has to offer!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Last week, I posted four truths and a lie about myself, asking readers to guess which one out of the five was the lie. I’m going to explain the story behind each snippet I posted and elaborate on the story behind it, if there is any!

• I was once interviewed for a news segment that was broadcast on Iranian television.
  Guessed by: Rosier
  Truth: I did a studio tour of Voice of America, an American foreign broadcasting corporation. As I was leaving the building, I was approached by one of VOA’s Iranian reporters and asked if I was willing to be interviewed for an Iranian news segment about the American youth’s opinion on engagement rings and marriage. I agreed and was interviewed by the reporter, and the segment aired in Iran a few weeks ago.
• The one and only time I have vacationed in Singapore, I spent the entire time in my hotel room, positively sick to my stomach since I contracted a virus.
  Truth: I was about seven or eight at the time, and I had flown twenty hours from New York to Hong Kong, and then another three hours from Hong Kong to Singapore. Needless to say I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got to Singapore, and the first day I was there I contracted a bug and was thoroughly miserable during my time in Singapore. While the place itself was lovely, I am hesitant to visit there again!
• I love writing, and I have had some of my works published.
  Guessed by: Kaylee
  Truth: While I do not have a novel published or anything, I have been published before in my high school’s newspaper (I was one of the editors) and literary journal (I was the managing deputy editor), as well as my college’s student-run magazine. A byline is a byline, you need to get your foot in the door somehow!
• My very first pet was a hamster named Chocolate.
  Guessed by: Olga, Alice, and Roanne
  Lie: I did have a pet hamster named Chocolate, but he was not my first pet. Prior to Chocolate, I had two turtles, two hermit crabs, and a dog. Chocolate was the one and only hamster I ever had, I’m definitely not getting another one again. Chocolate was a lovely pet, but hamsters just aren’t for me.
• I staffed the election polls during the 2008 US presidential election.
  Truth: My college organized a student volunteer program for students to volunteer at the election polls for the 2008 presidential election, so I spent election day helping to run one of the voting precincts. It was a day well spent, exhausting as it was, and is definitely a very positive memory.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I applied to write for my college magazine in late February, and I had my first article published in the March/April 2009 issue. Here is the article I wrote!

In May 2008, I went to Moshi, Tanzania, with some members of my high school class, to volunteer at a nursery school that we raised money for. I have many fantastic memories from that trip, but one of the things that has stayed with me from my experience in Tanzania is the concept of having all the time in the world to enjoy day-to-day tasks. I have long since been accustomed to hurriedly rushing from place to place, not bothering to make eye contact with strangers and aiming for as little interaction as possible with those that I encountered as I went about my day to day business. No matter how productive I was, it never seemed as though I had enough time each day to finish everything I wanted to complete. 24 is not enough hours in a day, and I’ve always wished that somehow, more hours would magically appear in a day so that I would no longer feel stressed and pressured to finish everything in a certain timeframe.

There is a Kiswahili expression, “Pole-pole,” which translates to “Slowly, slowly,” or “Take it easy.” “Pole-pole” sums up my experience with time in Tanzania. Everything in Tanzania was so laid back, so relaxed, and there was never a shortage of time. It didn’t matter if things were running late, or if there was no set schedule for the day. Tanzania ran on its own time, and it was such a nice change to be in charge of time and conduct my day accordingly, rather than let time be in charge. I never had to check my watch and fret over running late, or skip lunch because I was too rushed to sit down and take the time to eat. Whenever something didn’t go according to plan, no one was running around, frantically trying to make arrangements so that all of our free time was put to use. Instead, everyone took their time in sorting out new arrangements, taking care to enjoy each moment of the day, even if part of the original plan had to be switched around. And even though it was as if everyone was utterly carefree, it wasn’t as if there was no regard for the concept of time at all. There just wasn’t the mentality of having to adjust things for time, but rather adjusting time to suit whatever needed to be done.

Since returning from Tanzania, I’ve tried to relax when it comes to the concept of time. I try not to rush whatever I have to do, and not panic whenever I run out of time or things go wrong. It’s hard, though, and more often than not I find myself stressing out whenever the smallest thing doesn’t go according to plan. Whenever that happens, I try to remember the calm feeling of serenity and assurance I felt in Tanzania that somehow, everything would be okay. Sometimes, letting go and allowing things to take care of themselves is the best thing you can do.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

There’s a lot you can convey with only one sentence, and One Sentence, a site where true stories are told in only one sentence, shows that. Similar to Six Word Stories, One Sentence is a site where visitors can submit a story summed up in only one sentence. There are some really interesting ones, some thoughtful ones, and some sad ones. Here are some of my favorites:

I suddenly felt more isolated than before when I realized that my husband and I were in the same house, communicating by Twitter. [source]

Promptly after arriving at college and trying to clean up after my roommates, I phoned my mom and apologized for 18 years of not helping tidy the kitchen more. [source]

As I watched my cousin get ready for the prom just three hours after her father’s funeral, I realized how much I love my parents. [source]

If I had to write my own story in simply a sentence, I would write this:

I hadn’t realized that there was still something there between us until you gave me a hug and neither of us wanted to let go.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.