Anita Ojeda 
Crazy Things I Learned in September
1. The Milbert’s Tortoiseshell is a crazy-beautiful butterful (and it posed so nicely on a yellow flower). I had no idea that such a butterfly existed. But, you know me. I see something beautiful and I want to take a photo. Once I load the photo into Lightroom, I have to label it (ok, I don’t HAVE to, but I can find it easier if I assign labels), which means I have to figure out what I’ve photographed. I started my journey down the slippery slope to birding this way. Does this mean I will turn into a “butterflyer” once I purchase an app that identifies butterflies?
2. Call me crazy, but I learn from birds all the time, especially hummingbirds. I call this little gal “Scruffy.” I don’t know if she got in a fight, has mites or has started to molt. Whatever the case, she showed up at my feeders in September and stuck around for a few days before heading off to warmer climates. Her beauty and grace remain, despite her outward appearance. I want to strive for that, too. Bad hair days don’t define me. 
3. Despite the chiggars, I’d move to Tulsa, OK just so I could see my grandson every day. Of course, moving to Tulsa would mean leaving my husband, and I don’t want to do that, either. Tinybeans has saved our marriage (ok, our marriage is not at risk, I suffer from hyperbole at times). Our daughter posts photos and videos to an app called Tinybeans on a daily basis. Pedro and I sit around and ohh and ahh over our grandson every night. Tinybeans serves as a surrogate for Facebook for those who don’t do Facebook. They even send you daily updates in case you forget to check the app for new photos.
4. Vacation and staying in shape don’t go well together. Especially when one vacations at a lower elevation. My first week of running in September about killed me. Alaska’s elevation and northern Arizona’s elevation differs by about 4900 feet. Last summer when we visited Colorado, we found tundra at 13,000 feet. In Alaska, you can find tundra at 4000 feet. Wrap your mind around that.
5. I decided to do the #write31days challenge again. After surviving two years of intense writing, I had grandiose plans of having my series written by August so that I could enjoy everyone elses’s series. In mid-September I had nothing written. And then I decided to start a new blog AND write two series.
Q4U: What kinds of crazy things have you learned this month?
I learned that keeping a calendar and reading it each morning really does help me stay focused and get more done. Too bad I didn’t learn this sooner.
Looking forward to your two series. Besides learning a few things, I hope you also have fun with the October #Write31Days.
Yes! Calendars are vital tools! Just mapping out my week each weekend helps me (now I need to take a page from your book and actually review my calendar each morning!).