Pacific City

A lot has happened since I last posted on this blog, but nothing that I felt like posting on this blog.  I suppose anything I had to say was either too personal, or too business.

My online business has been expanding and experiencing all varieties of twists and turns.  Living arrangements and long term plans have fluctuated accordingly.  At times it looked like we would be living in Portland, at other times it appeared we were moving to LA, and there were moments when Arizona, Texas, or even the mid-West were possibilities.  Where are we now?  Right back where we started.  Beautiful Pacific City on the Central Oregon Coast.  While situations somewhat beyond my immediate control are the reason for my current residence in the coastal forest near here, yet it stands that at the moment I am not complaining.  Not about my geographical location, in any case.

If you’ve ever read an advertisement concerning Internet Marketing you might have noticed that “Work from Home” is a big button for many people.  “Work online, so that you can work from home.”  “Work from Home.  Be Your Own Boss.”  Etc, etc, etc.

All I can say is, do these people have cats?

Nutmeg the Innocent

There are endless distractions at home.  Whether they be familial distractions, or the kitten who attaches to your arm and kneads mercilessly while you try to type.  (I’m not mentioning any names, just look at the picture -> ).

Well, I work online.  Granted.  I earn a sufficient income on my laptop to rely on no offline source of income.  Check.  Got that part of the picture all worked out.  Still working on the “millionaire” aspect of the equation.  Give me time.

But … work from home?  No.  There is no decent internet connection at home, and no chance of getting one.  And besides, Home is Where the Distraction Is.

Today is an important day for me, because today is the day I move into my new office, downtown in the great metropolis of Pacific City.  (Fishing village turned weekend getaway).  I would have moved earlier if my router had arrived … but we won’t go there right now.  The view from my second-story window is not as good as the view from the internet cafe by the beach, but that’s okay.  I can still see the top of Haystack Rock over the rooftops, as well as the Giant Sand Dune, the tip of Cape Kiwanda, and the mist.  (I believe the ocean would be visible, if not for the mist.)  Even better is the sound of seagulls.  I love seagulls.

It’s quiet in here right now.  There’s nothing but me, a few items of temporary furniture, and a couple of boxes.  The only sound is the seagulls, and my keyboard.  I’ve had a hard time writing over the last months, but sitting here, it suddenly seems so much easier.  I like it here.

Not only that, my internet connection here is fast.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Finally Something to Write About.

I am experimenting with integrating Twitter with this blog.  Since I sometimes do have 30 seconds to update my Twitter status even if I don’t have time to write a full post.  (Which is, after all, why people love Twitter so much.)  However I think I will turn of the Twitter comment integration, it doesn’t seem to really work.  If you would like to follow me at Twitter, you can find me @annavwilliams.

In any case, since I last posted on this blog, I have:

• Added several photos to my new photoblog, Anna Vera’s Photos.
• Begun to exhume old photos from my hard drive and post them, and am gradually chipping away at the backlog.
• Put up my poetry blog, Anna Vera’s Poems.
• Attended the Reach the Beach event in Pacific City and watched the bikers come into the finish line.
• Hiked to Cascade Head and then to Hart’s Cove, where I photographed the forest and the coast, but also underestimated the length of the walk to Hart’s Cove, was hours late getting back, considered spending the night in the forest, and could barely walk for two days.
• Got my shoes drenched twice, once in mud-water, once in the sea.
• Fed the rabbits behind the Internet Cafe.
• Visited beaches at Bob Straub State Park, Cape Kiwanda, and Neskowin, and worked on my photograph collection.
• Coined a new acronym – YAHRP, which means “Yet another Haystack Rock Picture.”
• Realized that it is nearly impossible to get a photograph anywhere along the coast, between Cascade Head and Cape Lookout, without Haystack Rock appearing somewhere in that photo.
• Started sorting through YAHRPs and choosing my favorites so that I could stash the rest away, out of sight.
• Attended my niece’s theatre performance in Portland.
• Found an amazing “secret beach” which has a very climbable rock and its own sea cave, near my home but relatively hidden.
• Attended the June 6 Blessing of the Fleet in Pacific City, and paid tribute to 14 fishermen of the dory fleet who lost their lives at sea this year, amidst songs and prayers for better safety of the fishermen in the months to come.
• Worked on dozens of other websites and Internet Marketing projects (the details would bore you).
• Completed three lessons of the New York Institute of Photography Course.
• Drank a lot of coffee and tea.
• Extended my running habits past the mailbox and down the street.
• Found a long and virtually car-less road up the hill and into the forest, very near home.
• Have found the increased sitings of coyotes and their tracks near the house to be disturbing.
• Practiced the portrait photography I am reading about.
• Contributed photos of my local area to the Chamber of Commerce website (you can see them there at Pacific City Chamber of Commerce – but you sometimes have to refresh the page as a different photo loads every time).
• Oh – walked down the cliff beside my bedroom, to visit the waterfall, twice.  The second time I got completely lost and stuck between river and cliff, and almost could not get home, surrounded by grasses taller than me, stinging nettles, spider webs, unstable ground, brambles, branches (rotting and otherwise), bees, and lost trails.
• Journeyed to the other side of this property, via the land of two neighbors (now that our Bridge was washed away), and would have photographed the waterfall from that side, except that I forgot my camera (though not my camera bag).
• Played with my sisters cat.

There.  I could tell you a lot more but I think this should suffice.  I hope you feel somewhat updated.  I will try to increase the frequency of my posting.  In the meanwhile, thank you for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: My Monthly Post.

If you would like to see it, you can find it at http://annavera.com/photos/

If you wish you be informed when new photos are added to that blog, you can subscribe to the photoblog itself. This is a different subscription than this blog – if you are subscribed to this blog you will not necessarily receive updates of new photos.

You will have to subscribe to that blog as well.

To subscribe to my photoblog, please use the following:

Subscribe to Anna Vera’s Photos in a Reader

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I hope you like my pictures. I have a lot more on my hard drive and I will add them as soon as possible.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: My Photoblog is Up.

Someone Else’s Crime

I will grow tomatoes
When you’ve set me free.
I will live at home in peace
Where all will let me be.

I will wake up cheerful
In the morning to the sun.
I will feel at peace at last,
Once my Freedom’s won.

I have been imprisoned here
For someone else’s crime.
I have lived my life in fear,
And I have done my time.

All I want, is to feel safe -
Relaxed and calm and free.
I have been good, to fellow men.
Why aren’t they good to me?

I try to keep my head up high,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to fly,
When I will go away,

And wrap myself in someone’s arms
Who knows me as I am.
I try to think about that day,
As hard as try I can …

I will wake up smiling,
In the morning sun.
I will kiss the one I love, and
Once this battle’s done …

I will grow tomatoes in
My garden in the grass,
And tie my hair behind my head …
And when this storm has passed,

I will sit up late at night
With cats and cups of tea,
I will live no more in fright
Once I have been set free.

I only want this misery
And fear and pain to end.
I only want a life at peace
Surrounded by my friends.

But that will be another day.
Today I must remain
Within the madness of this place
In fear, and hope, and pain.

But always, I hold up my head,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to go,
When I will fly away …

Not now. It isn’t over yet
I must sit out my time,
As I have done, for all these years,
For someone else’s crime.

- by Anna Vera Williams

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Someone Else’s Crime in a Song.