Today I went to the Gulf Shores Annual Shrimp Festival with some friends. It was great. I don't eat seafood, but it was still fun to go to the festival and walk around on the beach. It's always fun to just spend a day relaxing. I really needed a nice day at the beach.
Tomorrow, I'm going go to church, work hard on my outline for NaNo, create a signature banner for a fellow WriMo who asked for my help, attend a baby shower for my cousin, and watch Desperate Housewives. So the whole day is planned for me. But that's okay, it should be a good day. Next week is going to be fairly challenging at work, I think. We'll see what happens.
I've been feeling an intense need to take pictures lately. I need to schedule a day for photography. Maybe I can do that next weekend. And of course, I'll post the pictures here.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
I want ice cream
There is nothing else to say. I want ice cream. It's been that kind of day. Unfortunately, there is no ice cream in my freezer and even if there was, I wouldn't be able to eat it because of my (stupid) diet. So I'm going to bed early. Hopefully I will actually be able to go to sleep tonight.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Long day
So I just got home from work. At 8:30 p.m. It was a looooong day. I know, I know, some of you have much longer days than that. But it's a very long day for me and I'm just not used to it. I have to be at work early tomorrow too, but I already asked if I could leave early and have been told I can. Actually, the timing for that couldn't be better because season 4 of Scrubs is out on DVD today, so I can pick it up on the way home from work tomorrow afternoon and just lie on the couch watching episodes of Scrubs until I can't laugh anymore.
Speaking of laughing until you can't, I bought "Thank You for Smoking" the other day. I hadn't seen it, but I loved the book and the cast was great, plus it was on sale at Best Buy, so I picked it up. It was a good risk, because I loved it. So funny! I really identified in some parts because the main character is a lobbyist and spokesperson, which is basically what I do (part of what I do anyway) and even though our organizations are very, very different (he worked for big tobacco and I work for a hunger relief organization) there were still moments when I chuckled because I knew how he felt.
So let's see... I know I missed a few days, so let's catch up a bit. This weekend was a total blur. Friday I was exhausted after work so I just went home. Saturday I woke up with a massive migraine and didn't really want to do anything at all. I was supposed to go to Bayfest, which is Mobile's music festival. I had arranged to meet three different groups of friends (gosh, I sound popular, lol) there at different times during the day and I hated to disappoint them, but there was no way I was going to go to a music festival with a migraine. Luckily, they all understood. Sunday I was feeling better, which is lucky because my sister had a party for my nephew's 3rd birthday. (she wouldn't have understood if I missed it because of a migraine!) The kids really had a great time, and it was such a simple, nice party. They had it in a neighborhood park and the kids just played with each other on the playground equipment and the adults sat around and talked. Of course, I played with the kids... grown up talk is so boring! My sister usually invites several single men to her parties because she's always trying to fix me up with someone. This time was no exception. I don't really have the same taste as she does, so it's hard to be (as she calls it) "socially single" around the guys she picks for me. I mean seriously, it takes more than a nice car and a few slurred compliments to make me want to get to know a guy better. A lot more, thank you very much! So anyway, that was my weekend. I know, it's very exciting.
Monday was a fairly normal day at work and today, of course, was a late day. We had some visitors. A couple of people from our parent organization and someone from an company that funds projects for us came into town for a visit. We've been planning very carefully and it couldn't have gone any better. It was great. They were the nicest people, and really seemed interested in hearing what we have been doing and what our plans were for the future of our organization. It was one of those moments when I sort of stepped back and looked at myself and thought, "wow, I'm really a professional now." I love those moments. I guess I'll be having more of those next year if they decide to send me to DC to lobby for the farm bill. (I really want to do that!) Anyway, I love those moments because they are also the moments when I realize I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life right now. I mean, writing is my passion and my dream, and I hope that one day I can write full time and I think I'm working up to that now, but this job is also extremely important to me and I think it's vital to my development as a person and as a professional. Plus, it's nice to be doing what I went to school to do. Not everyone can say that. So anyway, today was great.
My story is shaping up in my head, and I plan to use this coming weekend to work through some of the Snowflake Method so I can get some ideas down on paper. One thing I had planned is not going to work, so I'm going back to the drawing board with it. I think my alternate plan will work better in the end, it's just that now I have to rearrange some things I was thinking of doing. But I think it'll be okay. I'm also trying to decide if I want to post short bits of the novel here on my blog as I'm writing it. I've never done that before and I'm afraid it might affect publication if I do that, so I'll have to check on it first. I will do what I did last year, though, and have a daily wordcount update as well as a short description of how the day went in terms of writing. I remember commenting on odd things that popped into the story without warning and interesting adventures in writing (or at least I thought they were interesting at the time, lol) so I'll probably do that again.
I'm already spending way too much time on the NaNoWriMo forums. That's a bad sign...
Speaking of laughing until you can't, I bought "Thank You for Smoking" the other day. I hadn't seen it, but I loved the book and the cast was great, plus it was on sale at Best Buy, so I picked it up. It was a good risk, because I loved it. So funny! I really identified in some parts because the main character is a lobbyist and spokesperson, which is basically what I do (part of what I do anyway) and even though our organizations are very, very different (he worked for big tobacco and I work for a hunger relief organization) there were still moments when I chuckled because I knew how he felt.
So let's see... I know I missed a few days, so let's catch up a bit. This weekend was a total blur. Friday I was exhausted after work so I just went home. Saturday I woke up with a massive migraine and didn't really want to do anything at all. I was supposed to go to Bayfest, which is Mobile's music festival. I had arranged to meet three different groups of friends (gosh, I sound popular, lol) there at different times during the day and I hated to disappoint them, but there was no way I was going to go to a music festival with a migraine. Luckily, they all understood. Sunday I was feeling better, which is lucky because my sister had a party for my nephew's 3rd birthday. (she wouldn't have understood if I missed it because of a migraine!) The kids really had a great time, and it was such a simple, nice party. They had it in a neighborhood park and the kids just played with each other on the playground equipment and the adults sat around and talked. Of course, I played with the kids... grown up talk is so boring! My sister usually invites several single men to her parties because she's always trying to fix me up with someone. This time was no exception. I don't really have the same taste as she does, so it's hard to be (as she calls it) "socially single" around the guys she picks for me. I mean seriously, it takes more than a nice car and a few slurred compliments to make me want to get to know a guy better. A lot more, thank you very much! So anyway, that was my weekend. I know, it's very exciting.
Monday was a fairly normal day at work and today, of course, was a late day. We had some visitors. A couple of people from our parent organization and someone from an company that funds projects for us came into town for a visit. We've been planning very carefully and it couldn't have gone any better. It was great. They were the nicest people, and really seemed interested in hearing what we have been doing and what our plans were for the future of our organization. It was one of those moments when I sort of stepped back and looked at myself and thought, "wow, I'm really a professional now." I love those moments. I guess I'll be having more of those next year if they decide to send me to DC to lobby for the farm bill. (I really want to do that!) Anyway, I love those moments because they are also the moments when I realize I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life right now. I mean, writing is my passion and my dream, and I hope that one day I can write full time and I think I'm working up to that now, but this job is also extremely important to me and I think it's vital to my development as a person and as a professional. Plus, it's nice to be doing what I went to school to do. Not everyone can say that. So anyway, today was great.
My story is shaping up in my head, and I plan to use this coming weekend to work through some of the Snowflake Method so I can get some ideas down on paper. One thing I had planned is not going to work, so I'm going back to the drawing board with it. I think my alternate plan will work better in the end, it's just that now I have to rearrange some things I was thinking of doing. But I think it'll be okay. I'm also trying to decide if I want to post short bits of the novel here on my blog as I'm writing it. I've never done that before and I'm afraid it might affect publication if I do that, so I'll have to check on it first. I will do what I did last year, though, and have a daily wordcount update as well as a short description of how the day went in terms of writing. I remember commenting on odd things that popped into the story without warning and interesting adventures in writing (or at least I thought they were interesting at the time, lol) so I'll probably do that again.
I'm already spending way too much time on the NaNoWriMo forums. That's a bad sign...
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
furious
My GPS came in and it doesn't work! I'm so frustrated I could scream. I mean, you expect quality and you get crap. I paid for quality. I'm sending it back, but unfortunately I won't get all my money back. The company I ordered the unit from charges a 5% restocking fee when an item is returned. ARGH! So frustrating! So I'm not having a great evening.
On the bright side of things, I did talk to Chris this afternoon. I always spend the entire conversation with a big smile on my face when I talk to Chris. (hi Chris!)
So anyway, with the exception of the GPS problem, it was a pretty uneventful day. Tonight I'm going to do a little outlining before I go to bed.
Oh, and I made a nifty signature banner for my NaNo this year. Here it is!
On the bright side of things, I did talk to Chris this afternoon. I always spend the entire conversation with a big smile on my face when I talk to Chris. (hi Chris!)
So anyway, with the exception of the GPS problem, it was a pretty uneventful day. Tonight I'm going to do a little outlining before I go to bed.
Oh, and I made a nifty signature banner for my NaNo this year. Here it is!
Will people ever learn?
Warning: Rant to follow.
This is making me crazy. A mom in Georgia is trying to get the Harry Potter books banned from her child's school. Read the article here or check out other news stories about the banning of Harry Potter books here. Banning books is not the answer.
In fact, it's the problem. It's ironic that this news comes only a short time after Banned Books Week. Remember that the American Library Association is available to help you if someone is challenging a book in your community. Go here for more info. So to do my part in speaking out against censorship, I offer these two images, from the American Library Association. I may eventually put them on my sidebar with all the other things I think are important, because fighting censorship is an extremely important battle.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
NaNoWriMo and life
If you look under the photo on my blog, you will see a new addition to the sidebar. It's a fabulous participant icon that is supposed to update my NaNoWriMo wordcount as I update it on the NaNoWriMo site. I hope it works, because that means updating one place rather than two. And in November, you save time wherever you can!
I finally decided which story to write and it isn't one of the two. An idea I had a few months ago sounds very appealing to me for this year's NaNo. It's called "Under the Magnolia Tree" and the tagline is "Southern families have secrets too" Basically the plot I have so far involves a young woman inheriting a Southern homestead from relatives she didn't know she had. Within the walls of the house and the grounds, she discovers secrets her family kept for hundreds of years. These secrets cause her life to intertwine with many residents of the town, including a mysterious man who seems to know more about her family than she does.
That's pretty much all I have at the moment, but I do know some of the ways I will reveal some of the secrets, and I know that something will be buried underneath the magnolia tree that stands in the front yard of the stately home. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I'm sure the story will tell me when it's time. (at least I hope it does!)
So anyway, planning the novel will take the rest of this month. While working on that, I'm also researching some new markets for Summer's Blossom. There are several publishers out there looking for inspirational romances, especially those that have series potential, so I will be sending query letters to them. After the Storm is on the shelf for now. I just can't do it right now. Writing the story was actually starting to depress me, and that's not good for anyone!
On another front, I started the Couch to 5K running program today. I found a podcast that takes you through the entire 12-week program, so I've downloaded it and am using it to help me get in shape for the 5K that Col, Katie, Sonny, Sheila and I are going to run in March. Well, I know for a fact that Col is going to do it and she said the other girls are in. I hope they all do it, because everything is more fun with a group. The diet is still going well. I didn't actually lose any weight last week, but I did lose a couple of inches, so I'm not going to complain.
Tomorrow I'm going to call some out of town friends. I feel an intense need to connect with people I've known for a long time. Chris, if you're reading this, I will probably call you on my way home from work tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow, my GPS is scheduled for delivery sometime tomorrow, which means I'll have it when I get home. That's exciting! I'll plan my first geocaching trip for Saturday morning. That afternoon and evening, I'll be at Bayfest (Mobile's music festival) but I don't currently have plans for that morning. Maybe I'll hunt for some simple caches with Noah. I really hope he likes it, because I want to use this activity to help get him out of the house some. He spends too much time in front of his computer (of course, so do I!) So anyway, it looks like another busy weekend for me!
I finally decided which story to write and it isn't one of the two. An idea I had a few months ago sounds very appealing to me for this year's NaNo. It's called "Under the Magnolia Tree" and the tagline is "Southern families have secrets too" Basically the plot I have so far involves a young woman inheriting a Southern homestead from relatives she didn't know she had. Within the walls of the house and the grounds, she discovers secrets her family kept for hundreds of years. These secrets cause her life to intertwine with many residents of the town, including a mysterious man who seems to know more about her family than she does.
That's pretty much all I have at the moment, but I do know some of the ways I will reveal some of the secrets, and I know that something will be buried underneath the magnolia tree that stands in the front yard of the stately home. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I'm sure the story will tell me when it's time. (at least I hope it does!)
So anyway, planning the novel will take the rest of this month. While working on that, I'm also researching some new markets for Summer's Blossom. There are several publishers out there looking for inspirational romances, especially those that have series potential, so I will be sending query letters to them. After the Storm is on the shelf for now. I just can't do it right now. Writing the story was actually starting to depress me, and that's not good for anyone!
On another front, I started the Couch to 5K running program today. I found a podcast that takes you through the entire 12-week program, so I've downloaded it and am using it to help me get in shape for the 5K that Col, Katie, Sonny, Sheila and I are going to run in March. Well, I know for a fact that Col is going to do it and she said the other girls are in. I hope they all do it, because everything is more fun with a group. The diet is still going well. I didn't actually lose any weight last week, but I did lose a couple of inches, so I'm not going to complain.
Tomorrow I'm going to call some out of town friends. I feel an intense need to connect with people I've known for a long time. Chris, if you're reading this, I will probably call you on my way home from work tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow, my GPS is scheduled for delivery sometime tomorrow, which means I'll have it when I get home. That's exciting! I'll plan my first geocaching trip for Saturday morning. That afternoon and evening, I'll be at Bayfest (Mobile's music festival) but I don't currently have plans for that morning. Maybe I'll hunt for some simple caches with Noah. I really hope he likes it, because I want to use this activity to help get him out of the house some. He spends too much time in front of his computer (of course, so do I!) So anyway, it looks like another busy weekend for me!
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Weekend fun
First of all, I thought this was interesting. My horoscope pops up on my homepage and I always look at it, even though most of the time it has nothing really relevant to say about my life. But today it said this:
Try to make sure you get some quality time to yourself today, dear Scorpio. Your Scorpio nature is one that thrives on intensity of thought, creativity, sexuality, and emotion. Without adequate time alone in a space that is comfortable for you, you may begin to feel worn out. Such things as irritability or withdrawal can be strong indicators that it's high time you got some time to be alone with yourself. Make some plans for this today.
Regardless of how you feel about horoscopes, if you know me at all, you know this is so very true. In fact, if you know me, you know that the description of Scorpios actually applies to me quite a lot. Anyway, this is good advice for anyone with my personality type (which happens to be ENFJ) because even though we are very social people who enjoy being around people, we absolutely must have time alone too. The time alone is valuable, especially for creative reasons. Even before reading the above advice, I was planning to spend some time alone, and it was really good for me. I spent a lot of time playing around on my computer. I haven't had time to look at the podcasts on iTunes and have been wanting to see what they had to offer, so today I spent some time doing that. I was rewarded for that effort, because I found a podcast for a training program I have been planning to start called "couch to 5K." Some friends and I are going to run a 5K next March, so I'm going to start training now for it. So anyway, this podcast has music tailored for the program, which is interval training (walking for a certain number of minutes and then running for a certain number of minutes, etc.) I found several more that I'm downloading as well... it's taking a long time but I think it'll be great. (I decided to stay away from the news ones for now... I get enough of that on TV and the Internet, lol) So that was today...
But flash back to Thursday. The event was... interesting. Actually, it was kind of a bust. They scheduled the party for a night when one of the state's major college football teams had a game, so a lot of people stayed home to watch the game rather than coming to the party. There were about 200 people in and out of the party last year, but this year there couldn't have been more than 50 people there. We did collect a little money, so that's good. I taped Gray's Anatomy while I was at the event, so when I got home I watched it. It looks like this season is going to be much, much better than last season!
So Friday was actually really good. Work was nice. Everyone was very relaxed and it was a completely pressure-free day. I love days like that! My job can sometimes be stressful, so the occasional calm day helps. So anyway, it was nice. That evening, as I was getting ready to go home, Col asked me if I wanted to come to her house for dinner, so I did. Dinner with the girls was fun. Katie cooked and it was awesome! After dinner we hung out for awhile and then went to Soul Kitchen to see The Molly Ringwalds play. If you've never seen their show, you absolutely should! It was great. They played all the great 80's songs that you know and love, and their show is so much fun. It was hilarious because I was reminded of middle school dances, except the crowd was considerably older and danced a lot closer than we did in 7th grade!
Saturday was a special day for the kids. It was fair day! Every year, I take them to the little local county fair and we always have a great time. This year was no exception, although I think I might be too old for some of those rides! I swear I got whiplash on a few of them. But it was an absolute blast and I would do it all over again just to see that look of pure joy on Noah's face during the rides. He's just the most awesome kid in the world, and to see him smile just makes my day. He wanted to high-five after every ride. I'm so sore today, but it doesn't matter. It was totally worth it.
So I was supposed to decide which novel to write for NaNoWriMo by today so I could start outlining. I'm still working on that decision. If I haven't come up with anything by the time I go to bed this evening, I'm thinking about flipping a coin. I really need October to outline, so I have to make a decision very soon. Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm hoping it will be another fairly calm week at work. I need some time to organize my desk.
The NaNoWriMo site should be back up sometime tonight. I've been checking it every couple of hours, but it hasn't changed yet. I'm going to go check it again now....
Try to make sure you get some quality time to yourself today, dear Scorpio. Your Scorpio nature is one that thrives on intensity of thought, creativity, sexuality, and emotion. Without adequate time alone in a space that is comfortable for you, you may begin to feel worn out. Such things as irritability or withdrawal can be strong indicators that it's high time you got some time to be alone with yourself. Make some plans for this today.
Regardless of how you feel about horoscopes, if you know me at all, you know this is so very true. In fact, if you know me, you know that the description of Scorpios actually applies to me quite a lot. Anyway, this is good advice for anyone with my personality type (which happens to be ENFJ) because even though we are very social people who enjoy being around people, we absolutely must have time alone too. The time alone is valuable, especially for creative reasons. Even before reading the above advice, I was planning to spend some time alone, and it was really good for me. I spent a lot of time playing around on my computer. I haven't had time to look at the podcasts on iTunes and have been wanting to see what they had to offer, so today I spent some time doing that. I was rewarded for that effort, because I found a podcast for a training program I have been planning to start called "couch to 5K." Some friends and I are going to run a 5K next March, so I'm going to start training now for it. So anyway, this podcast has music tailored for the program, which is interval training (walking for a certain number of minutes and then running for a certain number of minutes, etc.) I found several more that I'm downloading as well... it's taking a long time but I think it'll be great. (I decided to stay away from the news ones for now... I get enough of that on TV and the Internet, lol) So that was today...
But flash back to Thursday. The event was... interesting. Actually, it was kind of a bust. They scheduled the party for a night when one of the state's major college football teams had a game, so a lot of people stayed home to watch the game rather than coming to the party. There were about 200 people in and out of the party last year, but this year there couldn't have been more than 50 people there. We did collect a little money, so that's good. I taped Gray's Anatomy while I was at the event, so when I got home I watched it. It looks like this season is going to be much, much better than last season!
So Friday was actually really good. Work was nice. Everyone was very relaxed and it was a completely pressure-free day. I love days like that! My job can sometimes be stressful, so the occasional calm day helps. So anyway, it was nice. That evening, as I was getting ready to go home, Col asked me if I wanted to come to her house for dinner, so I did. Dinner with the girls was fun. Katie cooked and it was awesome! After dinner we hung out for awhile and then went to Soul Kitchen to see The Molly Ringwalds play. If you've never seen their show, you absolutely should! It was great. They played all the great 80's songs that you know and love, and their show is so much fun. It was hilarious because I was reminded of middle school dances, except the crowd was considerably older and danced a lot closer than we did in 7th grade!
Saturday was a special day for the kids. It was fair day! Every year, I take them to the little local county fair and we always have a great time. This year was no exception, although I think I might be too old for some of those rides! I swear I got whiplash on a few of them. But it was an absolute blast and I would do it all over again just to see that look of pure joy on Noah's face during the rides. He's just the most awesome kid in the world, and to see him smile just makes my day. He wanted to high-five after every ride. I'm so sore today, but it doesn't matter. It was totally worth it.
So I was supposed to decide which novel to write for NaNoWriMo by today so I could start outlining. I'm still working on that decision. If I haven't come up with anything by the time I go to bed this evening, I'm thinking about flipping a coin. I really need October to outline, so I have to make a decision very soon. Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm hoping it will be another fairly calm week at work. I need some time to organize my desk.
The NaNoWriMo site should be back up sometime tonight. I've been checking it every couple of hours, but it hasn't changed yet. I'm going to go check it again now....
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