Nicci Carrera

November 27, 2015 Nicci Art school, Photography, Uncategorized

28 more shopping days!

Just kidding. Although, it is true; there are 28 more shopping days before Christmas. I’m not sure about the other holidays.

I have had an evolving relationship with Christmas presents. I won’t start at childhood. Okay, I will, because these are really good memories. My dad was a high school teacher and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. We lived in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. In those days we had a lot of snow and Christmas was very joyful.

When we first moved to our house, I was three. We had a long hallway lined with cabinets and windows. My dad strung Christmas lights along the roof line outside the windows, and the snow curved over the roof creating a tunnel. Blue, red, and green flashed and danced in the glassy wall of icicles.

I climbed up on the shelf above the cabinets and marveled at the snow and ice tunnel and the lights, all the while knowing that each day brought me closer to Christmas. On Christmas morning our stockings, which hung on the huge mantelpiece over the fireplace, were filled with walnuts and tangerines and small gifts, like socks. We opened those first, then moved to the tree. I was the youngest, and hence the most excited about the gifts. Mom and Dad would select a gift from under the tree and give it to the recipient, and then we would all watch while he or she opened it. The morning was wonderful. Later I would call my best friend on our AT&T rotary telephone…yep!…and we would talk about what we had received.

I have a drawing I did from a photo that was taken of my older siblings on Christmas morning when they were coming out to go to the tree and open gifts. This was taken in Berkeley before we moved to the mountains.

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The middle period were all the years as a single adult when I felt that buying Christmas gifts was weird and forced. I couldn’t really figure out having to buy presents for people. I always did, but at the last minute. Resistance is futile! There were nieces and nephews, and that part made sense and was fun.

Then I married my husband, and he had two kids. Christmas turned to holidays as my growing family spanned many philosophies and religions. There were more nephews. My new “kids” were teens, and they brought joy with their sweet selves. We bought them gifts, put up a tree, and they bought us gifts. Christmas was a little like my childhood again. We also had a dog, and she was a lot of fun. Blaze truly understood that she was getting a gift. Of course the kids bought her gifts too. I have some great photos from those days. Here are some drawings of Blaze. (I still miss her. She was a rescue golden retriever, if you can believe anyone would let go of a dog like this.)

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I have close friends and extended family and now I have a grandchild too. Through my family and friends I have re-learned the joy of exchanging gifts. Yes it means going shopping, taking the time to bake and to make, write, and mail greeting cards, and those activities are a lot of work, but they all add up to a season of connection, a special time to express our appreciation, and, where children and pets are involved, joy.

Do you enjoy the holidays? If so, what is your favorite part? If not, how do you take care of yourself and your feelings during this period of time in our culture? Or perhaps you are in a different culture than mine and these are not holiday times yet.

Here is a little gallery of photos I’ve taken in San Diego.

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November 23, 2015 Nicci Photography, Travel

Mystical shots from the treasure trove (Yellowstone)

Brrrr…it’s starting to get cold! But we will be warmer for Thanksgiving not only from eating too much hot food but also from being in San Diego. I hope to get out Friday morning for a photo shoot in La Jolla before my critique group meeting.

My writing pace has fallen off and my NaNo goal of 100,000 words is history. Even getting to 50,000 is highly at risk. But it’s not over ’til it’s over, you know?

I have been organizing my photos, getting them off my computer because my disk space is maxing out. In the process I have been feeling for what of past photos most excites me today. Well the answer for today, November 23 2015, is Yellowstone.

The mystical quality of Yellowstone National Park still amazes me. I have some shots I developed before and some ones I developed today.

This first batch is from my earlier work.

The softness in the colors and mist belies the volcanic action creating those effects!

Here is the batch I developed today using Lightroom to emphasize the mysterious quality of Yellowstone.

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This week I am looking forward to seeing friends and family and taking photos in La Jolla. What are you looking forward to this week?

November 20, 2015November 20, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

Sunny days and writing with passion

I really can’t get over how pretty the weather was at Lake Tahoe this week. I’ve never gone all the way to Sand Harbor, which is a long drive from where we stay, in the winter time. It’s worth the drive.

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I missed talking to you on Wednesday, but I did make more progress on my new book. I read one time that at a bookstore author book signing a long time ago, when Stephen King was still a fairly new author so not well-known, the line in front of his table was really long, much longer than at the other author’s table, and the person who wrote the article had the theory that it’s because Stephen King is excited about what he’s writing. That excitement shines through.

That’s how I feel with my next book/series. Excited. Hopefully that will shine through!

Here’s the other photo…I remembered I have some nice ones from Roosevelt Island from my trip there in September. I developed this one for you. Another beautiful day to enjoy.

How was your week?

November 16, 2015 Nicci California Drought

Chronicles of the #CaliforniaDrought 8 and Sand Harbor

So I tried drinking less water, and it really didn’t work out that well! My lips dried out, which is a sign of dehydration, as is fatigue. *pauses to drink water* Here is the article that debunks the need for 8 glasses of water a day: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?emc=edit_au_20150824&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=18605385&abt=0002&abg=0&_r=0

I do think this bears some thought. Anyway, I tried it, and I do feel remarkably better if I have eight gulps of water right after I wake up. Then if I have a couple more big glasses throughout the day. How about you?

I made it out to Sand Harbor today to take some photos with the dusting of snow we received. It was very cold, but pretty. Enjoy.

Bench overlooking Sand Harbor — Waiting for summer

Staircase at Sand Harbor Lake Tahoe — Waiting for little feet running down to the sandy beach

I am changing my blog schedule to two times a week. I love blogging and seeing all of you, but also feel that I need to create a bit more time for writing and reading, including other blogs. So I’m going to try twice a week. I think once a week will be my minimum, but I don’t want to drop to that yet. We shall see how it goes.

Thanks so much for visiting, and have a great week.

November 13, 2015 Nicci Paris, Thematic photography

Peace II

Reposting the peace sculpture in Paris from my May 2013 post.

For Peace I, see Peace.

Paris, the Champs de Mars park. “Peace” in many languages.

November 11, 2015November 10, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

Overcoming resistance to a task

Happy hump day! Once you are through today, it’s an easy two days before another weekend.

I need to finish up my edits by tomorrow and send them back. They’ve been hard for me to do I think because I took such a long vacation.

Yesterday morning was beautiful, so I went out to take photos for an hour. I think this was my favorite.

I did some exploring, just looking for good shots. Clouds hung over the hills so I went that way. I drove into the hills a bit and tried to capture them, but it wasn’t until I was back in the downtown area that I managed to get a bit.

I then spent all morning processing and looking at the photos, then took a nap. Yikes, I was really fighting getting to my desk and working. I reminded myself that when I worked, I often had days that weren’t that productive, especially after vacation, and it all worked out okay. I ended up getting several hours of work done, I just did it in the evening instead of during the day. Saratoga fire station

I think part of the resistance is that I’m writing a new book, and I’m really excited about it. That’s what I want to work on. But like a job, there are things you have to do that you may not feel like doing at the moment. I’m glad I did finally get rolling today. I realized I was dealing with a patch that I thought really needed to be better, and it took a lot of thinking. After all, this is going to be published, so I have to think about every word that’s on that page. Getting published is exciting but also…well, you want every word to please the reader. You can’t guarantee that of course, but the words better please you.

Saratoga fires tation and a Pepsi truck — Saratoga fire station and a Pepsi truck

I’m through that and things are going pretty smoothly. I have about thirteen pages left to edit and a couple paragraphs I need to add.

Do you find it hard to be self-disciplined sometimes? I think some people are a lot better at it than others. I can be very good at it, then I can be terrible. What I did this time was work on something else that was a lower priority. I knew my deadline project wasn’t at risk, so even though it is the most important, I went ahead and completed another smaller project yesterday. That felt great.

Do you have tricks for getting yourself productive again if you don’t feel like working on something specific?

Well, I hope you have a productive day and have plans for a nice weekend.

I will be writing. 🙂

November 9, 2015November 9, 2015 Nicci Writing Life

Writing versus retirement

When I was 32, I bought a book called Cashing in on the American Dream, How to Retire at 36. Loved it. Finally a goal that motivated me to be a lot better about money. I was BAD in my 20s. There wasn’t really anything I wanted more than clothes. I lived in San Francisco and I used to say, “I don’t live for clothes…exactly…” LOL! I couldn’t retire at 36 even if I moved to a very inexpensive country, but early retirement was a dream that fostered good savings habits.

Later I bought a book called 101 Ways to Simplify Your Life. I liked all those things too. Or at least, a lot of them. Then later I bought a book called Your Money or Your Life (which I reviewed, just click on the title to find it.) That was awesome for translating time, money, and work into the minutes one has left in one’s life. I doubled-down on my early retirement dream and started tracking my spending with a spreadsheet. Uh huh, bean counter. I know. Actually a manager I had in my first job after college said I was a rare thing, a bean counter and a cheerleader. That’s how we classified the people at the nonprofit where I worked. Cheerleaders were great at fundraising and bean counters were great at administration. I did like both, and still do, but I digress.

The point is, we achieved early retirement. Not at 36! I’m not really good at moving somewhere else. I’m very emotionally bonded and attached to places, not to mention people. So it took longer because I wanted to stay here. But we did finally achieve our goal, and it was pretty early. (Some time between Cashing in on the American Dream, and 101 Ways to Simplify Your Life, I met my husband and retirement became a “we” goal.)

So three days after I achieved that dream, I took up writing again. (I had stopped writing for more than a year after a family tragedy), but three days of no work and I’m back working, this time on writing. And I sold that short story (under the name Nia Simone. It’s called The Last Straw.) Now three years later I have realized I can’t work seven days a week any more or I experience major internal conflict because I’m not enjoying the thing I worked for so hard and longed for and dreamed of…retirement! And I’m not one of those people who thinks retirement is a bad word. I don’t think being lazy is bad. I think they are both great! I want to revel in, roll in, and embrace the joy of not working, or else I start to resent writing.

Yesterday I remembered something from the work model: weekends.

I wrote a lot on Saturday, but on Sunday, I didn’t write. I had a lot of fun. I baked a cake,

Pumpkin bundt cake results, little wedge missing

made soup, cleaned the house, read a book, and did some writing related stuff but for friends, not my stuff, and it was so fun.

What do you do on the weekends? If you are retired, do you have a routine that is a little like the work week?

Here is the proof that I had fun yesterday, and a photo of the sky to show you why I didn’t go outside much.

Storm clouds — Californians are very very grateful to Alaska for sending us a storm

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

Fun Friday

A friend of mine did something awesome for me yesterday. Thursday is a regular get-together for some of us who retired from or just left our former company. One of the folks, in celebration of the International Digital Awards fourth place in Contemporary Novels category earned by Love Caters All.

Celebration cake for Love Caters All’s final in the International Digital Awards

The cake is so funny, and so sweet, I am really blown away by his thoughtfulness.

Another funny thing that happened is that he sent me a photo of the cake and I thought it was a quote/image…you know how people put words on images and post them in Facebook and Twitter? That’s what I thought it was! I thought, how clever! But it was a REAL cake! It is odd how welded to the Internet I’ve become that the idea of getting together in person and having a real cake to celebrate has become foreign whereas doctoring photos and interacting online is now the norm.

Have you ever had a friend do something totally thoughtful for you, or have you done something really nice for a friend that brought them a big smile?

Speaking of doctoring images, I did, with these. I’ve been going through photos on my desktop, deleting unwanted ones, and moving the others off to an external hard drive. In the process, I’ve found some old favorites to play with. Here are your Brides of Europe photos.

I really thank my lucky stars for my friends and family who support me and love me even if I don’t do anything, but I really want to make everyone happy by writing a super entertaining book. My new work in progress has the potential to be that, I think, so I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month, which is one giant permission slip to write a book in a month. (First draft.) On Saturday I’m going to a “write-in,” a gathering of writers in a friend’s home where we will do sprints, report our word count, and cheer each other on.

What are your plans this weekend?

November 4, 2015November 4, 2015 Nicci Photography

A mountain lion takes over a segment of the park

Yesterday was a bit odd. We kept trying to leave for a hike in our favorite park but kept encountering problems, including a flat tire. We finally made it about 2 hours after our initial attempt only to find that part of our usual route was blocked due to a mountain-lion sighting.

We spent a good deal of time at the warning sign, studying our own map, to see where we could go instead. Finally we sorted that out and off we went.

On the way a pair of joggers passed us, then a single female jogger. Later, she turned back and asked to hike with us. Turns out she knew what happened because on Sunday she overheard a ranger talking on a radio saying the mountain lion had finished eating the deer and was looking at people. LOL! I don’t know, that just struck me as funny. I figured his eyes registered movement, and he was probably looking out for who might come and steal his prey. But can you imagine overhearing that conversation? “Well, he’s finished the deer and is now looking at people.”

Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would hike alone here. There are posted warnings about mountain lions. I was seriously paying attention to the trees today. They like to pounce from above.

All three of us went up a new path together. Well, since I was looking at all the trees for lions, I saw these and had to stop to take a photo:

Oak trees on the hill, photographer ceases to be a useful lookout as she takes a photo

Another hiker passed us, so our friend ditched us and went with her. She caught on quickly that once I took out that camera, we were going to move even more slowly. I kept my camera out and continued snapping…and looking for lions. We caught up to the two hikers at a fork in the path, which was very fortunate because the other hiker was familiar with the route and saved us taking the wrong path.

We followed the switchbacks down the side of the ridge, spotting this beautiful deer. Really, deer were everywhere. Why would a lion bother with a person? Sometimes they do, though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America Don’t hike, bike, or even cross-country ski alone, and don’t let your kids play alone in the yard, walk alone on the road, or ride his or her trike alone, even in the burbs.

Oh, but these deer…so sweet.

Doe eating, close up of her face — Doe eating

I wanted to take the doe home and keep her as a pet and keep her safe from the mountain lion. I realized this was a ridiculous thought, but it did cross my mind when she looked at me with those huge sweet eyes and then went back to nibbling leaves with her black velvety muzzle.

As we descended through the trees we found our views out to the bay were better on this side of the park.

My husband told me to use my 28 – 200 mm lens outdoors instead of the smaller one. I’m so glad because I wouldn’t have had access to all these shots, and it was beautiful out in the forest.

A bit of water in a creek in Rancho San Antonio Park, Cupertino — A bit of water in a creek from recent rain

Our delays let us meet up with that woman who was very afraid of the lion but who wanted to get in her whole workout. She was able to tell us exactly what had happened with the lion, and her connection with the other hiker helped us avoid going the wrong way and having too long of a hike. It’s lovely when we go with the flow and cooperate with each other, don’t you think?

Have you ever had a delay that you felt protected you or served you or someone else?

November 2, 2015 Nicci California Drought, Writing Life

Chronicles of the #CaliforniaDrought 7 and National Novel Writing Month

Great news! We don’t have to drink eight glasses of water a day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/upshot/no-you-do-not-have-to-drink-8-glasses-of-water-a-day.html?emc=edit_au_20150824&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=18605385&abt=0002&abg=0

That should help with the drought, not to mention that water-logged feeling that drinking way more water than we really want causes, at least for me! Plus, our water is tasting like, for lack of a better word, mud.

Even better news, it poured rain for five and a half hours here this morning. Poured. And it’s snowing in the Sierras. I hope the lake level starts to rise.

Here is the photo I sent in for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness challenge this week. The subject is clouds. This is a cloudy day in Squaw Valley, which is near Lake Tahoe. I took this photo in August 2014, and just made it monochrome for the challenge.

Mountains in cloud — Squaw Valley California

The National Weather Service had a long video about the effects of El Nino, and the conclusion was inconclusive. Apparently, the warm waters off the US western coast do not guarantee a lot of precipitation, BUT, things are looking very positive with this storm. Maybe the “storm door” has opened? We received about .75 inch of rain. I think 17 is California’s normal average. With the drought it has been down around 5, so that gives you some perspective.

I can’t complain about the rain stopping right when I had to venture outside today to meet writing friends for a birthday lunch and writing session. Lucky me!

It’s National Novel Writing Month. If you are a writer, sign up. It’s awesome. For example, here’s something from the Inspiration tab:

Writing stories is hard work. Don’t let your friends or family tell you any different. From the outside, it looks like sporadic tapping on the keyboard, distracted sips of coffee, and long stares out the window. But inside, you’re wrestling demons.

Gene Luen Yang, an author and artist whose graphic novels include American Born Chinese, Boxers & Saints, and The Shadow Hero.

This is the first time I’ve officially done NaNo, signed up and everything, yet two times I’ve written 50k in November with my co-author, John Holland. (We have written a middle-grade fantasy novel and a sci-fi novel together.) So why not just sign up already? This year I did it. It’s not hard at all to sign up and figure it out, and you can have buddies. It’s fun.

Do you have any major goals that you are working on this month?