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Blogging 101 Task #1 — (re) Introduce Myself

June 11, 2015 by carol anne Leave a Comment

do something that scares you every day …  (really? do i have to? do the 7 surgeries and 32 radiation treatments count for a lifetime of doing something that scares me every day?)

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step … (and about a thousand bucks, i don’t have a thousand bucks, my single step leads out to the mailbox or to the couch to watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix.)

go big, or go home … (define big. can’t i go home and sit on the couch without having first gone big? my big is finally washing those four loads of laundry i’ve ignored all week.)

Have you ever noticed that the big bloggers have big personalities and big lives?

Yeah, I’m not that woman, and I’m definitely not that blogger. Nope. Not me. I’m an average woman leading a thoroughly average life. I’m a wife to a very understanding hubby, I’m a mom to two beautiful, albeit very uncooperative, cats; I’m a former resources editor, and I’m a (so far) three-year cancer survivor.

I’ve been working on a non-bucket list bucket list alternately titled, “Shit I Ain’t Never Gonna Do.” On it are things like skydiving, wrestling crocodiles, walking on hot coals, and/or snake handling. I’m afraid of fire, heights, spiders, elevators, and drowning, so if you’re looking for danger girl she definitely doesn’t live here.

I’m sarcastic, snarky, curious, wordy, and occasionally articulate and insightful. So if you’re looking for a really clumsy sarcastic blogger with strong opinions on just about everything, and who finds herself wondering what became of everyone’s common sense then I’m probably your new blog reader addition.

Here at Soapboxville 2.0 you’ll find lots of photo posts, lots of disjointed rambling posts about the world going to hell in a hand basket, and the occasional well-thought-out essay on topics near and dear to my heart like politics and the new fall season on TV.

Posted in: Blogging Tagged: #Blogging 101, life, opinion, Photography, Politics, pop culture, television, Writing

After the Darkness, Before the Light (Deep Thoughts on Toy Test & the Meaning of Life)

March 17, 2013 by carol anne 4 Comments

I took the above photo earlier this morning during the blue hour; it’s my favorite time of day. It’s the only time of day or night where the earth is neither fully light nor fully dark. It’s the time in between when anything is possible.

The title  —After the Darkness, Before the Light— shook loose a few things that have been rambling around my head for the past few months, which gave birth to today’s thoughts on where I’ve been and where to go from here.

Once upon a time I was the resources editor for our local parenting magazine. I spent eight years compiling the calendars and writing features about holiday and seasonal happenings, but my real love was the annual toy test feature, an 11-month labor of love. Starting in January and working straight through November I researched toys and the companies who made them, read trade publications, magazines and press releases, searched the web for the newest and coolest toys. In February I made my annual visit to Toy Fair in New York City, where I met with toy companies and wandered the floors of the Javits Center visiting booth after booth watching amazing toy demonstrations. The rest of year was spent researching and requesting and cataloging the toys we received for testing. You haven’t lived until your job includes opening endless boxes of new toys for the holiday season. The UPS man hated me, but I suspect a few of my coworkers enjoyed the endless toy deliveries. October brought about toy testing and the writing of the toy test feature.

One year we held the toy test at a local mall. This just might have been the most fun I’ve ever had while at work. We had local sports mascots and Disney Karaoke, goody bags full of neat little toys and CDs and books and assorted trinkets. We had lots and lots of toys to test and lots of little toy testers and their parents; mall patrons could test even more toys. I was so proud to have put together and pulled off such an amazing event. The publisher even had lunch brought in that next week because she was so happy with the event’s success.

I left my job in 2008 for any number of reasons but mostly because I was feeling burnt out. It’s been a little more than four years now and in that time I’ve survived six surgeries, three of them major, 32 radiation treatments, and countless medical tests.

I recently completed a journalism class and am currently taking a digital photography class at my local community college, both of which have helped to reignite my creativity.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about what I want to be when I grow up and what it is that I want to do with my life and I keep coming back to my beloved toy test and a feature I created shortly before I left, Hot! Hot! Hot! It was part of the news and notes section of the magazine, it asked local children’s shop owners what was selling well and what products parents were loving and what they thought would be the big trends for the coming season. It was a tough feature to put together because print magazines have such a long lead-time and some of the information would be out of date or speculative. I always thought this would make for a fantastic web feature.

So where do I go from here? Honestly, I don’t know.

  • Is there a job out there for someone who loves to write about fun stuff like events and Halloween happenings and new products and what’s hot in stores right now?
  • Can a blog make money?
  • Can a website?
  • Do I want to work for someone else?
  • Do I want to go my own way?

I don’t know the answers to any of the above questions. I have a lot to think about.

A few weeks ago a girl I graduated high school with died after being hit by a car while out jogging. The only way I can even begin to make sense of this tragedy is to believe that her story was meant to end here, that it was somehow already completed. I don’t know. I can’t get the thought out of my head that it could very well have been my story that ended and if my story wasn’t meant to end almost three years ago, what’s my next chapter? Where do I pick up the story line? I don’t honestly know, but I can’t help feeling that I need to literally and figuratively pick up the pen and start writing my story again in order to be worthy of my story not ending on that October day.

Posted in: Soul Baring Ramblings Tagged: death, deep thoughts, life, toy fair

Happy Easter! (hope is risen alleluia)

April 7, 2012 by carol anne Leave a Comment

The great gift of Easter is hope – Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.

Basil Hume

It’s a quiet Saturday night at Casa de Soapboxville and my thoughts have turned philosophical. For years I didn’t celebrate Easter. My dad had his first heart attack on Easter 2003. My grandmother died the Saturday before Holy Week in 2005. I foolishly decided to just ignore the day from then on. Sitting here now it occurs to me that Easter is a celebration of rebirth and resurrection and of second chances.

I’m so grateful for all my healing (rebirth & resurrection). I’m also very grateful for all my friends who’ve come back into my life (second chances). I love you all (friends & family) so very much. Thank you for your prayers and your love and your support. I needed it and it was and is very much appreciated.

If you have a dream you’ve let slide now is the time to again breathe life into it. If you’ve let a difference linger now is the time to either say you’re sorry or to forgive or maybe both. It’s time to let go of the past and all its sorrows. It’s spring, a time when all is new and green and anything is possible.

Happy Easter my lovelies!

~ Carol Anne

Posted in: Spiritual Ramblings Tagged: Easter, life, rebirth, resurrection, second chances, spring

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