Sit And Write For Fifteen Minutes.

16. November 2015 Gina DeNicola 1
Sit And Write For Fifteen Minutes.
Write every day, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. So at 1:58 I started to write. I was in a slump since I came back from Toronto and had written a lot, just not a lot of good stuff. I’m struggling with my life these days. I’m bored, and I don’t know what to ...

I Will Not Let Fear Drive The Minivan.

09. November 2015 Gina DeNicola 2
I Will Not Let Fear Drive The Minivan.
Like I’ve said before, I idolize the Author, Elizabeth Gilbert. I have learned so many things from her latest book Big Magic, but probably the biggest was that you needed fear to be creative, you just can’t let it drive the minivan.  It has to come along, but it has to sit in the back seat, with ...

It All Started With A Pie

02. November 2015 Gina DeNicola 3
It All Started With A Pie
We were watching Public Morals on television last week, and one of the characters was sitting on the tub in her teeny tiny apartment, crying because she felt trapped. She was genuinely sad. The Gina of the past could 100% relate. The present day Gina isn’t sad anymore. Even though I am constantly in search ...

You’re Doing Just Fine.

You’re Doing Just Fine.
I look for inspiration everywhere, and often I get it from Facebook. Sometimes all it takes is a quote from Gandhi or Julia Child, but it will usually set the wheels in motion. Yesterday it was from the Author Elizabeth Gilbert; I have become slightly obsessed with her these last few weeks and for good ...

The Zombie Induced Writer’s Block

The Zombie Induced Writer’s Block
  Writer’s block I’m sure for the experienced writer is hard, but for the inexperienced writer like me, it’s terrifying. I have written 62 posts and never once have I had a hard time putting the words down on paper. I usually have 3 or 4 posts written and stacked just waiting for their turn ...

Ideas Knocking On Your Mind’s Door

Ideas Knocking On Your Mind’s Door
As I sat in the back of the theater watching life-sized chipmunks run around on stage, in a different country I started to yawn. I was tired because I woke up out of a sound sleep at 1:40 am with an idea. I tried to tell that idea it was a ridiculous time to be ...

Kindness and Hatchets

Kindness and Hatchets
  As I sat in my apartment the Monday morning after my son’s wedding, I practiced “Just Being.” Rob, my husband, was out of town; my parents were still at their hotel, and I was 100% completely alone. I sat there on my couch, no television, no radio, nothing to distract me but my thoughts ...

Blank Page

28. September 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Blank Page
    A blank page can be the scariest thing out there for a writer, but it can also be the most exciting. As I sat staring at the empty page, I wondered, wondered if I had anything new to say. I felt like I had written all that was in my head. The bakery ...

Finding Your Purpose Is Hard

21. September 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Finding Your Purpose Is Hard
So here’s the thing.  Rob and I recently found out that our jobs have changed, and there will be less traveling and more of being home.  That had sent us into a tailspin the last couple of weeks. The best way to describe it is this, I was going a 1,000 miles an hour with ...

Friends, They’re Not Just A TV Show.

14. September 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Friends, They’re Not Just A TV Show.
Anyone who knows me, knows there are days when I would trade my iEverything for a plain ole’ flip phone, however, because of this technology I can talk to my friends almost every day. The problem is that I rarely get to see their faces in person, and it is even more rare that I ...

The Perfect Life

07. September 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
The Perfect Life
As I sat in a new coffee shop on a comfy couch.  Next to me there was a life-sized.  As I sat there, I thought of something an old friend said to me after reading one of my blogs. He said, “Do you think you’d be so happy with getting older if your life wasn’t ...

Further Down The Road.

Further Down The Road.
I miss those babies so much, but more now since we received some somber news a few weeks ago that one of their childhood friends died. She was only 22; the same age as my sweet Alison and she died trying to save someone else’s life doing CPR. I can’t even imagine what the family ...

Empty Nests And Building New Ones

Empty Nests And Building New Ones
As I stood in the middle of the older, but cute, tiny apartment, drenched in light and beautiful hardwood floors I was a bawling mess. All I could hear was “Mom, why are you crying?” You see Raymond moved into his new apartment over the weekend, and it will be the apartment he and Alyssa ...

Volunteering, It Does A Heart Good

Volunteering, It Does A Heart Good
I have a friend who has decided to take 2015 and volunteer her way through the United States. Stopping in each state and making sure she volunteers in each one. She works jobs in the towns she is volunteering to help support her quest. She inspired me every day that I worked with her with ...

Love Without Abandon

Love Without Abandon
  It was a Sunday Morning. I was sitting in bed drinking coffee and looking out the window while listening to my husband; Rob read a food review from a critic that once came to my bakery.  As usual, there were a million things going on out that window and this morning did not disappoint. ...

Fresh Bread Or Acupunture

Fresh Bread Or Acupunture
I walked past two bakeries on my way into my first acupuncture appointment; I stopped and took a deep breath.  The deep breath was for several reasons: First, the smell of freshly baked bread coming from the bakeries stopped me in my tracks.  It was comforting and familiar.  Second, I was apprehensive and wanted to ...

Why Did The Cockroach Cross The Road?

Why Did The Cockroach Cross The Road?
As I sit by the pool in sunny Nashville, my mind wanders back to Philadelphia.  Today my sister-in-law and brother are packing up their house in downtown Philadelphia and moving to Phoenix.  I’ve been texting with her all morning, convincing her it’s the right thing to do, it’s a new adventure, and she should be ...

I Need a Haircut

I Need a Haircut
  As I sit alone in the Press and Guest Locker room of the Philadelphia Eagles stadium, I am bored and tired.  The excitement of going back to work has long since faded, and I find myself, once again, homesick.  I need a haircut, and that is always the very first thing that triggers my ...

I Just Want To Color

I Just Want To Color
As I sit in the back of the production office listening to words like “Teamsters”, “House Guys”, “Carpenter Unions”, “IA”, Decorator’s Unions; I was very glad that I was in the back of the room writing articles for my little blog.  The conversation made my head literally hurt. Any hanging that was one Union and ...

Getting Old.

Getting Old.
  Standing on the stairs waiting to get into my apartment building, two young twenty-something girls walked past me. They smelled like Coppertone and future with their flip-flops and cute bathing suit cover-ups. Their hair was long, and undoubtedly they used a product that made it look like perfectly effortless beach hair. I stood there ...

Amends.

Amends.
This morning as I sit on my balcony with my hot coffee and cool breeze in complete and utter comfort, the word “amends” was floating around my head. Not because I was on the 8th or 9th step of the 12-step program, but because Rob was having breakfast with someone who was, and Rob was ...

See A Penny, Pick It Up.

See A Penny, Pick It Up.
I will always pick a penny up when I see it because let’s face it, who doesn’t want good luck.  This act has, however, has resulted in pennies randomly scattered in pockets, the washing machine and all over my house.  I would pick pennies up even when I was a little girl.  I taught my kids ...