The time when I actually wrote again.

It's been quite a while, and for that, everyone can blame me.

There's been a lot going on at home here, which isn't a complete excuse but it is definitely some. When you have to vacuum up around 40 gallons of water from your flooded basement, you know there's a lot going on.

The main thing that's been going on is that I've just been flat-out unmotivated to do much. This includes writing, which I'm very surprised I'm even doing right now. However, I take this current activity to be a good sign that things may be improving in my psyche, or at least there's some small part of my brain that is still telling me I don't really want to suck.

I doubt I'll write much more tonight. I just wanted to get something out on "paper" to clear my thoughts. I hope at some point, I can start writing blogs again regularly. I am also debating about starting another blog, one that's a bit more upbeat and interesting than this one. But we'll see. My first goal really should just be to write more.

If anyone is still reading this, keep track of me this next month. If, by August 31, I have not posted at least two more times, you can all contact me however you so desire (a comment on an old blog, a message on Facebook, a personal e-mail, etc.), and rip me a new one.

Yes, you will all be my accountability readers.

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The thirtieth post.

This is my thirtieth post. That's right, thirtieth. The big 30th.

Not that that's a big number. I just want to give myself a small pat on the back for actually blogging more than I ever have in the past, even if it is rather sparse and unphilosophical.

I also want to post this blog to give myself not just a pat on the back but a kick in the pants, a reminder to get off my lazy ass sometimes and actually write. Write like I used to, free and without concern as to what other people might think of my thoughts, ideas, stories, and other literary endeavours.

And my ridiculously Anglophilic obsession with British spelling.

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The time I realized I wasn't writing.

So I have not written in a very long time. And for that, I probably should apologize to you all for failing to provide interesting updates in relation to my life. However, the person I should really be apologizing to is myself.

I tried to write on this blog every day when I started that, and unfortunately that only lasted two weeks. There were reasons for not writing after those two weeks, such as my best friends' wedding week where I was involved in helping prepare the wedding as a bridesmaid, but now that not much has happened in my life other than starting my job and getting used to that schedule, I have no excuse for not writing more often.

I hope to stick to writing more often now.

Unfortunately, I do not have much else to say right now. My main goal in this post was forgiving myself and others for not writing as much as I should.

I have ideas for future blog posts, though. Like how I solved my make-up situation, and how I find the character development in Battlestar Galactica fascinating.

Goodness gracious, aren't you looking forward to updates on my life?

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The catching-up.

It's been a while, and that's definitely my fault.

But it's not all a bad fault. I started a new job this past week, and that always excites and drains you at the same time. At least, it usually does me.

I also happened to have a few serious discussions with the husband about our future, and so far he has changed his mind and is up for moving to South Korea to teach English, but he'd still prefer a Central or South American country so we can improve our Spanish at the same time, which I actually tend to agree with.

In addition, I've been getting lots of wife-y duties done, like cleaning the house, organizing paperwork, and trying to train myself to make regular meals. I also found a makeup routine that works for me. Huzzah.

See? Not all my fault.

What is my fault is not figuring out what I can for Katie and my tutoring business. Despite all the time I've had to myself this past month being unemployed, I still haven't touched our business plan or anything like that. And Katie is back from her honeymoon on Tuesday. My bad.

That makes me wonder: how dedicated to the idea of tutoring am I, or am I just in it for the money it will rake in?

At least I'm writing again. I have been reading a lot these past few nights, but not writing, and it definitely feels good to get back into the swing of things. What I should really do tomorrow night before work again on Tuesday is take the eLance "test" you have to pass before you can be an "approved" eLancer. Then I may actually be able to get writing jobs.

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The reason I won't write for a few days.

I will not be posting for the next several days, probably not until Monday. The reason is because I'm going on vacation to a lake house that doesn't yet have wireless Internet installed.

This is not an excuse not to write, because I plan to blog each night and save my blogs and then upload them here later, or at least write a very long blog on Monday. I will divulge all the crazy, fun, exciting, wish-you-were-here-at-the-lake-house-for-Fourth-of-July-fireworks experiences that happen to Nick and I.

So, until then, cheers.

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The time where I didn't write.

I made it two weeks. And then I forgot.

Tuesday, the day I should have posted to keep up my streak, contained so much that I forgot to blog. I went shopping with girl friends, went to Sioux Falls with my husband, picked up my sister from the airport, and watched Transformers at the midnight showing.

Wednesday, which at this point was yesterday, the business continued as I helped set up for Katie's bachelorette party, as well as the karaoke party. Those events occurred about six hours and 40 minutes ago. Which means that it is now 3:40 a.m. on Thursday, June 25.

I really should go to bed, but I happen to not be at my house, and I happen to want to stay up just a little bit longer yet as I am not the one getting married and the one without the job (just yet). However, that's incredibly selfish of me as Katie needs lots of help in the morning. I know that I have been railing on those who have not helped Katie enough for this wedding, so I shouldn't become a hypocrite at this point.

But at this point, maybe I should go home and sleep. I can barely think anymore. I can barely type correctly. And for an English major that means that I either need sleep or a serious slap on the head.

I vote for sleep.

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The two-week mark.

It's been two weeks since I started blogging. This, my friends, is an accomplishment.

To this day, I still have not sent some English papers I wrote to the English department, and they requested them two months ago. I have not copied down recipes onto recipe cards, a little task I've been meaning to finish for the past several months. In addition, I also still have not written half of my wedding thank-you notes, and I got married a year ago.

Odd how most of those delayed to-do's have to do with writing.

I guess I shouldn't, as the old saying goes, "count my chickens before they hatch." I may not end up sticking to my plan, especially this week considering it is Katie's wedding week and things may get a little busy.

But I'm so determined to stick to this goal of mine, because I know it could improve my chances of becoming a successful writer, and I know for sure it will improve me as a writer. Maybe that's all I need to worry about right now. Just becoming a better writer.

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The nothing post.

Here's one of the most worthless posts I will ever make, merely for the reason that my friends and I are about to watch a movie and I still promised myself I'd post every day.

Hope you enjoyed.

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The impressions change.

I've only been watching The Legend of Bagger Vance for about 15 minutes now, and I used to have other thoughts about Charlize Theron.

Sadly, I shouldn't have judged Charlize Theron from the singular movie I'd seen her in before this movie, which was Italian Job. I'd heard she was a good actress, but I'd also heard a lot of people don't like her, and maybe something about her being a slut was mixed in there with all the opinions. Whatever it was, I had this odd feeling about her, like she wasn't real. I thought her acting was sort of forced after watching her in Italian Job.

However, my thoughts about Charlize Theron did a quick 360 within the first 15 minutes of Vance. In fact, I am currently sitting here watching her "seduction" scene of Junuh and I am quite impressed with her facial expressions, her tone and inflection, her delivery of lines, her ability to do the Southern accent, and her presentation of a Southern Belle. I've wanted to watch Monster and Aeon Flux for a while, but now I'm rather determined to watch both.

Wow. I just imdbeed Charlize Theron and totally forgot I she was in Mighty Joe Young. I adored that movie when I was younger. Now I remember her; she wasn't bad in that movie, but it was indeed a rather Disney-esque story.

The reason I'm posting about Charlize Theron is not only because I'm watching Bagger Vance, but because my mind is again not creative at this point and time of the night to write a substantial blog post. I've come to a realization about this, though, something I've already shared with some of my friends: I'm pretty sure my "inspirational" and "flowing" writing moments only happen very late at night/early morning (such as 3 a.m.), or in the late afternoon (from 2-5 p.m.).

Unfortunately, it is currently neither of these two peak times, so I am just writing what I can before this day is over, which will be in three minutes, according to my clock. I wouldn't worry about it now except I'm forcing myself to blog every day to try to improve my writing. Maybe tomorrow, I will indeed write during one of my two peak times. Wish me luck.

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The waiting period.

Supposedly, I was to help my friends Trish and Sean move some stuff from their old apartment to their new one... two hours ago. I sort of feel useless right now, but at this point, I can't do anything, and it wasn't really my fault. They disappeared to the merry old land of Wal-Mart and the longer they are away the less I feel motivated to help them move, especially since it's quickly approaching 10:00 p.m. and I still have a few things left yet to do myself.

Right now I'm sitting here watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, giggling at Gollum/Smeagol's dialogue with himself. And not more than 10 seconds ago I squished a spider.

Yep. My life is pretty exciting.

But on the bright side, I got my laptop back today! I am indeed sitting and squishing spiders in the comfort of my own technology.

I suppose I could post a longer blog later tonight, but as of right now, I have no creative inspiration to write anything humorous or philosophical. So stay tuned...

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The history of this blog's title.

Welcome, one and all, first-time readers and returning admirers. For some reason or another, you've stumbled upon the blog of Bree Brouwer, a blog that used to be titled "Princess Bree." Obviously, my title has changed for the better.

Why? One: my junior high/high school nickname was Princess, and that's just ridiculously in the past at this point. Two: I'm married now, and several of my friends have pointed out that I'm technically a queen rather than a princes ("Queen Bree" was been recommended to me as a possible blog title, which I have to admit I seriously considered for a while...). Three: I've changed; I am no longer the exact same person I was when Princess Bree was all the rage.

This all crossed my mind not five months after I had created my Princess Bree blogs at blogger.com and wordpress.com. And after I had already posted a few blogs here and there over those five months. Go figure.

So what to do, my mind wondered. I wanted a new blog, something that encompassed every aspect of my life and described my entire being. That was the one thing I was certain of. However, I was not certain of a title. "Princess Bree" was certainly not a creative title, but it had suited my purpose at the time of its use. I needed something for now, to suit my purpose at this time in my life and hopefully for the next several years of my life, so I wouldn't have to go through this re-thinking and re-blogging process all over again.

Next came a lengthy, intense analysis of several blog title ideas and a final evaluation of a few favorites. And by lengthy I mean about an hour or two's worth of sitting on a couch in the coffee house with my laptop on my knees, picking apart every single title option and narrowing down why it would or would not work because of its possible connotations, denotations, and eventually inevitable descriptions of myself. Oh, the joy (or curse) of being an English major.

Suddenly, I remembered something my boss had once told me a few summers ago, when I was a secretary and receptionist at a reading clinic in Arizona. I had just finished several projects she'd given me, and apparently that impressed her, as she mentioned that I was "just a little Girl Friday" getting all this work done. (If you don't know what a Girl Friday is, you should look up a definition now, or the rest of this may not make much sense.) After this memory, I then realized my favorite character off the TV show Smallville, Chloe Sullivan, was often referred to by fans as a Girl Friday, as well, and a few fan websites of Miss Sullivan (or of the actress who plays her, Allison Mack) were even titled "Girl Friday." Chloe Sullivan kicks ass, and she is a reporter just like I am/was, and she has awesome short hair I tend to copy, and my husband thought she was the hottest woman on that show, and when my husband met me he thought, "She is as kick-ass as Chloe, and she even looks like her!"

Well, that finalized it. I just had to have my blog title be Girl Friday, or something of that nature.

So I try signing up on blogger.com as "girlfriday." I should've known it was oh-so-generic that of course someone had taken it already. I searched for a definition of "girl friday" through Google, to see if any of the results would lead me to a more creative version of the idiom. Thank goodness for Wikipedia; whatever would we do without it? That continually questioned source of information for scholarly papers and academic work pulled through in this situation, which was thankfully neither scholarly nor academic. The site explained that some people in this day and age tend to see the idiom "Girl Friday" as sexually demeaning, and so they have changed it to "Woman Friday" (although "Girl Friday" is still apparently an accepted idiom in Britain).

I'm not a raging feminist, but I could see these protestors' point. And I realized that I am indeed no longer a girl; I have in many aspects matured to a point far beyond girl-hood. I don't mind being called a girl on occasion, in a group of friends, or as an affectionate term from loved ones, but in reality, I have become a woman. I have become a woman who loves her husband, who leads, who volunteers, who does the job, who helps others, who does so much that sometimes she stresses out so terribly that it's probably cut a year or two off her life expectancy.

"Woman Friday" sounded wonderful to me. It described me. It was me. My friend Jess sitting next to me on the couch in the coffee shop happened to agree. I suppose that was the added and final blessing on my decision.

Blogger.com had the name "womanfriday" available, so I signed up with it, and here I am. I do not know if I will import my few posts from my old blog, and I'm not necessarily sure I want to. I am trying to start over, trying to write more and develop myself as an observer and producer of language. I'm usually pretty humble, and this first post may be a bit ridiculous, but I do believe that I am off to a good start with my goal.

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