Their Outlander Match

June 7, 2025July 26, 2025 Amy6 Comments

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston – this is my all-time favorite book. I needed three credits in English so I took a summer course at my university and was introduced to the Harlem Renaissance. It’s not an exaggeration to say it changed my life. There was something magical about Ms. Hurston’s use of language. It envelopes and evokes. I still have the copy of the book for that class tucked away safely on my bookshelf. I do not let anyone borrow it.

2. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – this is my second all-time favorite book. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book and series. I sent an email to the author when I finished this book and she replied. I printed it out and tucked it into the paperback, which has been read so many times it’s earmarked with love. Yes, I have the rest of the books too. Yes, I waited for what felt like 65 years for the show to be created. Yes, I’m waiting on season eight during the usual Droughtlander. But, I should say upfront the books are nothing like the series because the books are typically 1000 pages of genius storytelling, and though the series is based on the books, it in no way comes close to the original. This book is impactful due to its ability for the reader to step through the stones, as it were. It’s a place to get lost in if you’re looking to get lost.

This isn’t my copy – mine is old and well loved and also I do not think it states on the cover that it is a New York Times best seller

3. Love Match by yours truly

Yes, it might sound a little strange to say this book impacted me a great deal, but if you’ve written a book, you know what I’m talking about. It doesn’t matter if your book was published or not, if you have written a book and it is yours, it has changed your life. If you tell other people, and they read your book, it changes you even more. When people start to have opinions about your words, that is probably the greatest impact. It takes a lot of courage to write and have other people read what you’ve written. One could even call a blog a type of book. It’s a book that keeps writing itself each day. It’s something that means something to the writer, but also it’s something that the reader takes part in. And it takes courage from the author to post their words. Words on a blog can be equally if not more impactful than an entire bound book. But that’s a different subject for a different day.

Incidentally, when I was looking for an image of my own book to post here, I found out my book is being sold on eBay for $29.08. Just a suggestion: my book isn’t that expensive brand new. I’m not sure that the seller is going to make any profit after shipping – unless of course, they found a brand new copy of my book. But another question then begs to be asked: where is my royalty check?

animals · blogging · Nature · Nature photography · non-fiction · Photography · spring · squirrels · Writing

Ma’am the Squirrel

Featured Amy9 Comments

What was the last live performance you saw?

This is Ma’am. She frequently does performative art. I’ve been feeding this squirrel for at least four years. Around Thanksgiving, she showed up with two huge masses on her face. She couldn’t eat, but she tried. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew she would die if I didn’t try to help her. I searched the internet for help and found a wildlife rehab nearby. The woman there told me to get the squirrel into a cat carrier and bring her over to her house via car.

I had the cat carrier, but I didn’t have much conviction that this would work. But I didn’t have time to think about how it would fail. I got the carrier out, put it on the porch and loaded it up with peanuts and blueberries. By this time, the squirrel had gone home and I waited on the porch to see if she would return. It was a matter of life or death. I’m not being dramatic – it really was. She came back, and got close enough to the carrier that I was able to push her in and shut the door. I called the woman and informed her that I was successful with the capture and I would be at her house within 20 minutes.

I expected the squirrel to get loose in my car and envisioned a horrific scene of torn upholstery, and a screaming driver with a squirrel on top of her head, but the squirrel was so good. She didn’t let out a peep and enjoyed the ride.

We got to the woman’s house, which is where she runs the rehab for wild animals, and I gave her my friend Ma’am.

I called the next day and inquired about my squirrel‘s face. Apparently, she had two pockets of infection. One had popped with some antibiotic treatment, but the other one needed more time. Ma’am was there nearly a month. I called every day, wanting to know how she was and if she could come home yet.

The woman was astonished that I would want to bring her home because usually people drop off wildlife and the woman releases them into the woods behind her house. But that’s not how I work. The squirrel lives here. She has a nest and a family and friends and a life here.

Remarkably, she got better. She never stopped growling at the woman who was helping her, but she became well enough to be released back to me. I was thrilled. I drove over to pick her up sometime around Christmas. She was quiet all the way home. I let her out of the box on the porch, where she usually eats, and she needed a few days to familiarize herself with her homebase. She came back in a few days, hungry and looking for snacks. I was worried she wouldn’t be as tame with me or as friendly, but I was worried for nothing. But I also didn’t want her to be as tame with me, I wanted her to have natural instincts to stay away from humans and to keep her wits about her out in the wild.

As I compose this, it is May 9th, and I haven’t seen Ma’am in a few days, but that doesn’t really mean anything. A few times I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks and she shows up unannounced. But once she’s here, everyone else must leave. She won’t have it any other way. (I have never seen an animal – besides my own cat, Susie – with such a will to live. I’m not sure what power charges that squirrel to keep living, but for Susie, I know it is love.)

Her face has healed up quite a bit since she got home, and although it may never be perfect, I tried my best to help an animal who badly needed it. I don’t regret anything, and I would do it all over again, even if the squirrel didn’t live.

Oh, there is a slight debate going on about whether the squirrel is a male or a female, although I’m almost 100% positive she’s a girl. I do know the squirrel growls at everyone and anything except me. She will fight off three other squirrels while she is eating walnuts (this is how a squirrel ends up with two pockets of infection on her face…). And I could swear I’ve seen her in previous summers with babies, but just in case, her name is Ma’am/Mr. Ma’am. It’s not important to me if the squirrel is a boy or a girl. What is important to me is that I help the helpless. I had to do it. She sought me out for help, and I couldn’t say no. I wouldn’t say no. So I said yes, and now I frequently have performative art on my front porch, which does include a sploot or two. May we all find kindness when we desperately need it. May we all be kindness when others need it. May we take refuge in the solace of nature when everything feels heavy and impossible. The animals are worth it. And the trees are worth it too, but that’s another post.

©️2025, itsamyisaid.com

blogging · daily prompt · Humor · non-fiction · prose · Writing

A Prompt I Can Answer!

April 11, 2025June 4, 2025 Amy20 Comments

Describe something you learned in high school.

I’ll get to the prompt in a minute. I’m hoping this is the start of me being able to answer the prompts again. Truth be told, weeks ago I got a survey from WordPress and I really let them have it about the prompt problem. They didn’t exactly promptly fix the problem, and I don’t know if they did fix the prompt problem, but I can answer this one.

While I have your attention, I no longer get email notifications when everyone/anyone posts. I did not change my settings. Is anyone else having this issue, or has everyone left the site and no one is publishing anything anymore? Please let me know in the comments.

What did I learn in high school? I learned that sarcasm is my gift to the world and my gift isn’t always well received.

I took algebra two for my senior year. I should’ve been more advanced than that, but I am not a math person. We weren’t allowed to take our math books home because there weren’t enough books, so we ended up using them during class. I don’t recall much homework. If you can’t bring a book home, what could your homework possibly be? I didn’t like my teacher, but I did like talking to my friends during class. I didn’t pay attention in this class. It was my senior year, and I had three study halls because I didn’t need any more classes. At the start of school year I set myself on auto pilot and cruised through like the main character in Office Space sans gutting a fish on my desk and wearing flip-flops.

I don’t know how other schools were, but in each of my subjects, there was a midterm and a final exam. There were also tests in between. As I mentioned, we did not take our books home and I don’t recall homework. I also mentioned I liked to talk to my friends during class. It would’ve been fine if my whispering didn’t cause laughter among my friends, but it did. On more than one occasion, the teacher shouted at me to stop mumbling under my breath to my friends.

Not gonna lie, I didn’t stop talking under my breath. I distinctly remember being sent out to sit in the hallway in a sort of hallway detention for the remainder of class. I didn’t see this as a punishment. I still don’t. I rather enjoyed chatting with people who walked by. I touched up my make up and I didn’t have to do any math. This hallway detention happened twice. I think it was the second time when I saw my Bestie in the hallway. She had the hall pass to go to the bathroom and just happened to find me sitting in the hall. We chatted for a few minutes. The teacher came out from time to time to check on me to make sure I was still there. Where would I go? Why would I get up? Silly man.

Can confirm this eye roll is similar to what landed me in the hallway – plus the mumbling under my breath thing

When it came time for the midterm test, I did my best, but without a book to take home, and not really giving it my all, I winged it. I made up formulas to solve fraction problems. After the teacher graded our tests, he announced – in a strained, pained voice – I had gotten the highest score. We were all in shock. I remember everyone turning to look at me with white eyes and I shrugged.

Let’s fast forward to the final exam. It’s late May, I’m graduating in June and I have totally checked out from all subject matter that didn’t involve graduation. I did not study for my final exam in algebra two. I probably didn’t even crack the book open. I continued to talk to my friends and my teacher continued to turn 10 shades of red when he yelled at me to be quiet. I was unbothered. We took our exams, and I guessed at almost every question. I did show my work, because in math you don’t get any credit if you don’t show your work. Imagine my surprise when the teacher announced I had gotten the highest grade yet again. (No, I did not cheat. There was no way to cheat and I would never. My grades were earned. From A all the way to F. And yes, I passed this class. I did very well, in fact, because I got the highest grades in the class for the most heavily weighted tests.) Everyone in class turned to look at me and I smiled. Then I laughed. And then my long suffering teacher almost suffered apoplexy.

I found out the following school year that my math teacher had retired. I like to think he had a long, enjoyable career and just decided to retire, but I truly feel I pushed him over the edge.

So what did I learn in high school? A couple of things. I learned how to put my sweatpants over my clothes so I didn’t have to change for gym. I learned that if you’re going to cut class, you should not cut the class where the teacher has a view of the parking lot and can see you leaving. I learned that I had a gift for writing. I learned my mouth could get me into a lot of trouble. And by trouble I mean hallway detention, which was actually fun. I learned that lunchtime detention was the absolute best. It was quiet and people brought your lunch to you from the cafeteria. I learned very little algebra, and to be honest, I haven’t needed it. I’ve needed the chemistry I learned at university, which was incredibly difficult for me to learn, but I did, and without any mumbling under my breath.

I learned that making people laugh was something I was good at and something that gave me joy. If it got me hallway detention, cool. If it got me lunchtime detention, even better.

Gratuitous James Spader gif from Pretty in
Pink because HELLO, IT’S JAMES SPADER #teamsteff

animals · blogging · Nature · non-fiction · squirrels

Sneak Peak (and snacks)

March 6, 2025June 4, 2025 Amy8 Comments

I mentioned in a post kind of recently – recently being relative – that I have a story I want to post about an ongoing project/adventure. This photo is a sneak peek (or should I say peak snack?) of that story,

Stay tuned and stay snacked.