The Last Post of 2010.

I did promise a post, and here it is, at the last second.

I spent the day with Ryan. We went around town, shopping, planning dinner. Then we came home and made cake and lasagna together, then ate it together, and have been watching Fantasia together until a few minutes ago.

I know of no better way to end the week, let alone the year.

2010 was good to me. I'll try to be good to 2011.

Happy New Year to all, and to all, all my love.

Freedom!

Today was a very short day, only 5 1/2 hours, and yet it felt like it lasted FOREVER. Fortunately, Ryan and I were still able to go out after I got home. His father sent me a gift card to Eddie Bauer for Christmas, and I got myself a wonderful sweater and very nice pair of corduroy pants, both of which I am extremely happy with. As a matter of fact, I'm wearing the sweater as I type. It's red, wool, and extremely warm!

I have tomorrow and the next day off, which I am ridiculously pleased about. Asking Boss Lady to give me two days off in a row was one of the best thing I've ever done, it's going to feel like a freaking vacation! Also, since I got out at 6 tonight and don't go in until 5:30 Sunday night, it's almost like three days off in a row, all with Ryan. Squee!

I am extremely tired and ready to curl into bed with a good read, so it's going to be a short entry tonight. I will certainly post one last time in 2010, though, I promise :)

This Should Get...Interesting.

Today's plans:

[o] finish breakfast
[o] do the dishes from last night's baking & supper making
[o] maybe watch this video again because it is just so. good.
[o] read more of Thud! so I can move on to the next reading project
[o] if I do finish (unlikely for this morning), the next reading project is Found, which is bound up with a red pen in the coil waiting to be edited
[o] go to work at 1 and wait for the coming train wreck

See, today is the first time that Shift A will have an overlap with Shift B. Shift A has returned after being transferred out, and Shift B arrived after that happened, so they have never worked together before, or even met. Their styles, personalities, senses of humor, and views of work responsibilities are complete opposites, and I already know that the phrase "getting along like a house on fire*" may just be literal in this case. I am both terrified and excited in a slightly morbid way, and at least one co-worker who knows both of them (and, incidentally, had to work as a shift with A before and is also completely different from them) has asked me to text them with updates.

After I get out of work, I get to do laundry and hang out with the roommates and the boyfriend and three other friends, one of which I haven't actually met in person! Should be fun :)

*Why is this phrase supposed to mean "get along well?" I mean, yes, a fire gets along through a house pretty well, but nobody is ever happy about it, are they?

The Assassin Arrives!

Today was longer and busier than I was prepared for, so this will be on the short side, BUT here is a rundown:

[o] got to the Main St Starbucks to get my tips ($18 for 6 hours; not bad, but not the Legendary Holiday Tips I'd heard about)
[o] got to the bank and deposited checks and cash and got laundry quarters
[o] went to the store to get necessities
[o] editing a good number of photos
[o] posted a few photos
[o] went in to work 45 minutes early to help with the unexpected busy-ness combined with the order FINALLY arriving today

But...the best part of the day...

The mixer arrived! :D

Ryan got it in Blue Willow, which is lighter than it looked online, but is nontheless bee-yoo-tiful. Ryan got home, unpacked it, went to the store, read through a good chunk of Alton Brown's baking book, then made a pound cake, which came out of the oven when I got home. It is delicious.

Ryan is extremely pleased with the mixer. I am extremely pleased that my boyfriend now wants to bake up a storm.

I am going to eat dinner now, and take a shower, and go to bed, and sleeeeeep....until 8:30, when Ryan gets up and I get up as well so I can do laundry before work. Yay.

Really? REALLY?!

Today was dumb.

It's Christmas vacation. Shopping is over. The first available day to redeem gift cards or return gifts has passed. Why were we swamped?!

And everyone was just dumb and rude for no reason and petty! AUGH.

One customer--a regular who doesn't seem to like anybody--came through in the middle of a particularly bad rush. She was rung up wrong by accident, then I hit the wrong button when showing the register person how to refund. The regular and her boyfriend screamed at me in outrage. I apologized and refunded them correctly, then returned to the fray.

...they then called another barista, one who has no power over us whatsoever, on her personal phone, to bitch about us. Not to try and get us in trouble, not to actually resolve anything or make sure a higher-up knows we done wrong, but just to complain about an honest mistake that was completely fixed.

...what.

I don't currently have a photo link to share because I don't have a photo yet. I took some this morning of the awesome clock Mom gave me for Christmas, but I'm not even sure how they turned out yet, let alone if I want to put one online. We'll see.

Tomorrow I close. The next day is six hours, followed by a 5 1/2 hour day, followed by both New Years days off. Also, our mixer should be arriving in the mail tomorrow. Glee!

Now, to SLEEP!

The Important Minute Details In Life.

I would love to show the picture I took today, but Tumblr is in the middle of a tizzy and won't upload or post anything, so...grr.

My day was both lazy and very accomplished. I cleaned up the bedroom and the living room of Christmas scraps, put the presents in their new homes, did every dirty dish in the house, washed all the new clothes, and took out the garbage. I also made a new Excel money document for 2011, all nice and neat and ready to go.

Ryan and I went grocery shopping when we got home. We left with a small list: dish soap, giant binder clips (for my novel), travel packs of tissues, granola bars, and a 12-pack of Brisk. We first went to Target so we could also return some small items, then made the mistake of going to the movie section, where we not only found Beauty & The Beast but the Fantasia pair of movies...all on Blue Ray, all on sale. Ker-snag. After striking out in the office supplies, we made the second mistake of going to the cooking section, and walked away from there with a knife block, electronic food scale, and silicone spatula. Got the dish soap and tissues and other small items, checked out...

...and went straight to Meijer with the remaining three items on the list: giant binder clips, flour sifter (they didn't have any at Target?!), and Brisk. We left with Brisk.

We have spent most of the day and night debating on colors for a KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which we've decided will be the bulk of our Christmas-money present to ourselves. Ryan has been wanting one for months now, more and more as he gets deeper into his cooking hobby, and he keeps running into the problem of No Stand Mixer when looking at recipes to play with. At the moment we're torn between a lovely orange (Persimmon!) and a beautiful blue (Blue Willow! Ryan says it sounds like a ninja assassin!), with stray thoughts toward a very retro green apple and a gorgeous purple (Boysenberry!). Even the roommates are torn on it.

We finally came to desperate measures.
Sameh: Horace, do you like the blue?
Horace, in Ryan's arms: [silence]
Sameh: Horace, do you like the orange?
Horace: Meow!
Ruth: Oh-ho-ho! We have our answer!
BJ: Horace, do you care at all?
Horace: ...[wriggles his way out of Ryan's arms]

Sooo yeah. That's where we are now.

Tomorrow is back to work until New Year's Eve, then I have that day AND New Year's Day off, which will be very nice. :)

And, since Tumblr has decided to be nice while I wrote this up, here is my picture of the day Christmas cookie!

Good night :)

Normal Day (Almost).

Merry Christmas! :D

Now that that's out of the way...today was a normal day (almost). I got up and went to work (at a different location), I made a lot of drinks and served a lot of people and chatted with my co-workers (all but one of which I have never worked with before), and then I went home and spent time and had dinner with my boyfriend (after we opened wonderful presents from our wonderful families, and each other).

Yup. Normal. :D

Pictures were taken of all the presents, and they will be posted, but not tonight. I have been exhausted just about the entire time I've been home, and Ryan has spent most of the evening with a horrible migraine, which has thankfully finally retreated. I'll post the pictures as soon as they're uploaded, and I'll talk more of Christmas tomorrow. Tonight, I will leave you with my Photo Of The Day.

I spent a lot of time thinking today, and at one point in the evening I turned to Ryan and said, mostly randomly, "I think I want to be a writer."

"Cool," he said. "I was thinking the same thing."
"I'm going to go print out my novel for editing right now."
"Go!"
*fistbump*

Half an hour later: ta da!

(Yes, half an hour. Printer had to wake up after not being awake for two months, had to replace the black ink, and had to refill the paper several times seeing as it is 102 pages.)

That's what I'm starting on tomorrow. Woohoo!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good sleep!

Ergh. Again.

To start off, here is today's picture.

I haven't been pleased with the past two pictures, including today's. My problem is really lighting. The first picture I posted, I happened to have good lighting, and I tweaked it just the tiniest bit in Photoshop. The second picture, lighting honestly didn't matter. Third one, I had to put a filter on it to counteract the massive yellow from the lamp in the corner. Today's picture was the same, plus the feathered background that was half practical, half artsy, and mostly whim, and I was so tired when I did it (five minutes ago) that I didn't have a dainty hand and the feathering went over the tree AND the presents. Yesterday's was a little blurry (which I didn't notice until I'd posted it online), and today's is...I don't know. I have the urge to edit the caption to be an apology to the viewer.

I know I am most definitely in the Amateur category of photography, but I'm still trying to show work that doesn't look like someone just wanted to get a picture to show that we had a tree this year. I'm not just trying to show that x happened in y place on z occasion. I'm trying to...to...to make ART, for gods' sake! Not a photo album!

I think I'm just frustrated because, while I do love Indiana and will not say that there is no nature here or that it's an ugly place, I am just completely uninspired here. Or, rather, I'm inspired by things that I can only capture in the worst freaking lighting possible, and I as of yet do not possess the knowledge on how to fix it or work with it, with the camera or Photoshop.

Ergh.

In other Ergh news, I'm wishing I hadn't volunteered to work tomorrow. I also wish I hadn't ended up working at 8:30 in the morning. At least it's only a six hour shift (paying like 9 hours, thank you time and a half), and I'll be home by 3 to spend some time with Ryan and have the rest of the day with him. Also, I have Sunday off, so that's a yay.

I shall be posting tomorrow evening, but nevertheless I'll say it now: Merry Christmas. :)

Another Day Off, Another Chore Done...

Today's List:

[o] laundry (already halfway done!)
[o] cleaning of room (also halfway done)
[o] wrap Ryan's present
[o] organize rest of presents with boxes they'll be sent in*
[o] run to store to get replacement bulb for desk lamp (and other stuff we missed on the grocery run last night)
[o] edit last "photo shoot"
[o] shower
[o] talk to parents!
[o] clean up desk
[o] balance money stuff
[o] run to bank?
[o] editing? writing? something along those lines
[o] take a picture for today, of course

*We have been completely awful about sending out the packages on time, and, well, no one is getting their presents in time. Or their Holiday cards. I feel like a jerk for it--we both do--but there it is. They'll be out next week, though! Aheheh...

Buh?

Dude, I am so freaking tired, I can't even tell you. I got close to enough sleep, I only had a six hour shift, I've barely been up 12 hours, it's not even 11...I should not be as tired as I am.

Of course, the fact that a good part of the shift was a mildly stupid rush, the grocery shopping trip at Target on the second-to-last full shopping day before Christmas, and the carb-heavy dinner may have something to do with all of that.

That said...I tried to get a picture for today. I really did.

I blame Horace.

I'm actually pretty fond of the picture, actually. Wish I could say I set it up to look that way, or made it look kinda cool in Photoshop...but no. I just tried to get a nice, cozy picture of the cat while he was napping on the bed, and he decided to yawn instead. The bugger.

Tomorrow is a DAY OFF!!!!! XD I keep forgetting this fact, and then re-remembering it, and feeling all giddy that I can sleep in and wrap Ryan's present and spend hours trying to edit the pictures I took last night and getting a GOOD picture for the blog tomorrow and WHEE!

But first....SLEEP.

*thunk*

...

zzzz...

Changing Hours?, First Photopost, Stuff.

I won't be getting home until around midnight tonight, and with probably nothing really new to talk about, so I figured I'd post now.

....not that I really have anything to post about now.

I did talk to Boss Lady about schedule switching, and she made noises that made it seem pretty doable. Well, actually, her first reaction to my missing mids was "ARE YOU INSANE?!" However, upon hearing both my personal reasoning and the part where I'm volunteering for the shift every single other person hates, she seemed happy. Also, I pointed out that, since she's only allowed to be morning/mid, we might actually work together on occasion. That also made her happy. We get along very well, Boss Lady and I. :)

Tonight, I close. Whee. I'm bringing my iPad with the hope of being able to watching stuff on Netflix between rare customers.

What else is new, what else is new...oh yeah, I started that photoblog I was talking about. :D Here's the "official" first picture. I shared this on Facebook and got a few positive responses, and my stepmother even shared it with her friends, which made me go all doofy and blush and stuff.

Although I posted this on what felt like yesterday, it was past midnight and therefore technically today, the 21st. I know that the official Solstice day can vary from the 19th to the 21st, but I only really count it on the 21st. Yes, I'm biased, what with my birthday being May 21st, but oh well.

That's it for now. Hoping to be able to call and chat with people tomorrow night (I only work until 8:30 unless I get cut) or Thursday sometime (day off!).

Have a good one! :D

I Guess It's A Neutral Day, Then?

This day has been all over the place. Starting out pretty rotten, as I got myself into a walloping guilt trip right before going to sleep last night that continued to hang over my when I woke up, Ryan and I were both just off and out of it, and we both left for work with Money Worry Clouds over our heads.

Work helped a lot. My co-workers are awesome. Tonight was Secret Santa, and I was correct that my pick--L, by the way--would like her present. She was very please :D H picked me, and she gave me a beautiful necklace and earring set AND a shower set that included a wire rack, pumice stone, and cherry blossom-scented gels and such. So pretty! So yummy smelling! K said "Oh good, now you can be a girl!" XD

I'm even starting to build a better relationship with the co-worker that always drives me insane. I actually blew up at him a little bit both yesterday and tonight, yesterday about his behavior towards me, tonight about discrimination and such. Oddly enough, both of these things have us in a better place. I don't hate him. I don't even dislike him. I still think he has a lot to learn and needs to be taken down a peg or two, but he's really a good kid.

Then got home tonight and had mixed mail. Cards from loved ones: yay! Credit card offers: Meh. More mail from the hospital that defies something else they said: RAGE.

Aaand that's where I am. Had a festive night at work, want to punch the hospital in the face, am very hungry and tired.

Whee?

...Yeah.

Kinda the same as yesterday: Slept, got up, played WoW, worked, here I am.

Tomorrow is the Secret Santa meeting at work, and I can't wait to see how my pick likes her gift! I feel pretty confident about it :) About my wrapping job, less so. I am not good at wrapping. Pity her.

...yeah.

Yeah I Know I Said But Then I And Then This

I slept, I woke up, I poked around the internet, I went to work, I was there for about a bajillion years, I came home, I am now eating dinner.

....whee.

I'm thinking of talking to Boss Lady about my schedule. First, I might ask for Thursdays and Fridays off instead of Tuesdays and Fridays, as I'm starting to notice that I end my days off with "but it feels like it just started and now I have to go back and bawww." I've been told that having two days off in a row sucks because then you work five days in a row, and that can get pretty tiring. But I'm not sure it'd be so bad, while the soul-killing feeling of time so easily gone is pretty, well, soul-killing.

Next, despite putting my preferred hours as pretty much "the end of the day," I'm rethinking this and pondering asking for mids. Usually starting between 10 or 11 and going until 6 or 7, they're hated because you have to get up sorta-kinda-early, spend the meat of the day at work, then go home just in time for it to be dark and the day to feel over. Not to mention that, while mornings can be busyish, evenings can draaaag, especially if you've been there since 10 or 11.

However, again, I had a few weeks of these in November, and they weren't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The worst part about them was that they were in November, so I couldn't get up too early and have extra time in the mornings, and I was pretty much cooked by the time I got out and had the evening, and I could feel my writing time just slipping away. Beyond that, it wasn't too bad. Plus, after discussing it with him briefly, I've found that Ryan prefers me working mids, so we can have the evening together, and, as he put it, "it makes dinner easier."

I'm hoping that, despite my pretty recent stated preferences for almost the opposite of what I'm asking for now, the fact that I'm asking for things that no one else really wants (and, in the case of going Thursday-Friday instead of Friday-Saturday, not asking for the thing everyone wants), that I'll be appealing to Boss Lady's logic (she has it! it's great!) and get past the whole I-know-I-just-said-but thorn.

...that was a bad sentence. I blame it on the tired.

Tomorrow is closing. A six-hour shift, so no lunch. With the more irritating of my co-workers. JOY.

Then it's Christmas week, la-de-da, we'll see how it goes...

Why Did I Do It? WHY?!

Here's the list again:
[x] put check in the mail
[x] pick up packages from post office (hopefully avoid surly lady who was rude to me last time >.<)
[o] buy printer paper and ink
[o] print off at least one copy of Found and see if I'm up for editing it
[/] balance all the money records, which includes moving the messy pile of receipts and things from the right side of my desk to the folders they belong in
[o] discuss the last few presents with Ryan once he arrives home
[o] call Dad while rest of house is raiding, because it has been TOO DAMNED LONG since we had a successful phone call
[o] attempt to wrap some of the presents we already have...may need Ryan's help for this >.<

The first one was easy, of course--open mail box, place envelope inside, move "Outgoing" post-it from inside to outside of box, close and lock it. The second was...harder. The third didn't happen for much the same reason the second was difficult.

I'm a dumb today. I thought I could just run out to the Post Office and Best Buy on the first day of the last weekend before Christmas.

The Post Office. And Best Buy.

WHERE WAS MY BRAIN.

I hit the PO right around noon-thirty, and left without even parking...because there was nowhere to park. The tiny station nearest my house, where our packages live if we miss them being delivered, has maybe fifteen spots. And every single one was taken, with a line of cars waiting for the next available one. I missed my chance for one, circled around to maybe get back in line, and realized there was no way anyone was going to let me in.

So I left to go to Best Buy. I figured it might not be so bad, I wasn't shopping for fancy items like phones or iPods or games or even movies, I just wanted some paper and ink.

The place was packed, and the line...just thinking about it now makes me shudder. I walked in, looked at the line, turned and walked out. Just...it wasn't going to happen.

By this time it was past one, so I tried the Post Office again and was elated to see that it was back to normal...well, more or less, it is still the holiday season. But there was a spot--more than one, even!--and the line wasn't out the door, so I'm glad for that. I'm also glad that, although Madame Postal Worker was indeed working, I was lucky enough to not have to go to her line to pick up my packages. I can't promise that I would have been able to not remind her of our last interaction and point out that I in no way deserved the attitude she gave me and rant rant rant okay I'm done.

Two packages! From mothers! Woo!

I opened the one from mine since I knew Mom had also stuck in a book I had asked her to send along. Three prettily wrapped presents now sit on a side table, waiting patiently. I can't wait! Eee!

Anyway...because the paper and printer ink were not procured today, I won't be printing or pondering my...novel. If the traffic remains as bad as it was today (I didn't even mention the driving, did I? That's because the entire entry would be nothing but cuss words and all-caps and there might be a broken keyboard at the end of it), the whole thing may have to wait until after the holidays. And, if that's the case, I may just have to start on the next story, because it is ITCHING to get out of my fingers at this point.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have to put my papers in order, and then I may spend the rest of the afternoon until Ryan gets home either starting on the new story or playing WoW or reading or...oh, I'll find something.

Well, I'm Awake, That's A Start...

Days off have become catch-up days for me. I either catch up on relaxing, sleeping in and never getting dressed and spending the whole day playing WoW or dithering about online, or I make a nice list of errands and chores and do my best to check them all off by the end of the day.

Today is the latter. My list:
[o] put check in the mail
[o] pick up packages from post office (hopefully avoid surly lady who was rude to me last time >.<)
[o] buy printer paper and ink
[o] print off at least one copy of Found and see if I'm up for editing it
[o] balance all the money records, which includes moving the messy pile of receipts and things from the right side of my desk to the folders they belong in
[o] discuss the last few presents with Ryan once he arrives home
[o] call Dad while rest of house is raiding, because it has been TOO DAMNED LONG since we had a successful phone call
[o] attempt to wrap some of the presents we already have...may need Ryan's help for this >.<

Also included in the day will be coffee drinking, fruit and veggie eating, and room organizing. Chatting online with friends may also happen, depending on timing. Catsy and Chris and I ended up chatting online last night, and it was...pretty awesome. Made me miss Pub Night hardcore, but it was worth it to catch up and be silly with my friends :)

So far the winning photo blog suggestion is RuPic, although I'm still torn between a Tumblr just for it, or just a page add-on from RuLaReJo. 4 days until I begin! Can't wait!

Uno Dos Tres: The Sequel.

Today was a DAY.

Crap sleep, not enough food, cranky co-worker spent half the shift giving me the silent treatment, other co-worker instigating minor bullshit because he thinks it's funny, dumb or rude customers, I had a whopping case of The Dumbs...and it was only a six hour shift!

AAAA.

*cough*

Anyway. Talked with Ryan about the story a little bit last night, and I'm very glad I did. He has this habit of asking the right questions, seeing the things I missed, stepping out of the story to point out problems. One suggestion he made was a perfect knock upside the head that put it all in perspective, and makes the story much easier to write now. Yay!

As for the photo project, I'm taking the advice of my stepmother Dorita and starting it on the Winter Solstice, December 21st. My friend Rene also pointed out that it's not the day that's special, it's the person, and that helped me put it in perspective a bit. :) That combined with the e-mail I got today from my mother reporting two people who miss me...I feel very loved! :D

The tumblr I post it on will either be a separate url (whateverthenamewillbe.tumblr.com) or a page off my main one (rularejo.tumblr.com/nameofphotothinghere). I'm currently taking suggestions for which it should be, plus names for it. Ryan offered RuClick, but...I don't know. I like it and don't at the same time. RuSnap doesn't work very well, RuPic maybe...

Tomorrow is the Blessed Day off, then what looks to be a particularly frustrating weekend of work. Le sigh.

Uno, Dos, Tres...

I woke up this morning, and it WASN'T SNOWING. True story.

Topic The First: I'm thinking of starting a photo-a-day thing. I've seen them done before, but a friend here in Indiana talked about starting one recently, and it got the idea actively circulating in my head. I think it'd be a good way for me to keep up with the hobby I love, even as I struggle to find ways to be active with it. It would also be fun, and a new way for those of you playing along at home to see the bits and pieces of my life I don't show here on the blog (either because I forget about them or because they're not "blog worthy").

Here's my problem: I'm neurotic. I get hung up on days to start things. I have this hang-up where I feel I should start Important Things on Important Days. Not just any random day; that would disrespect the Important Thing I'm Starting. On the other hand, days I might choose--say, New Years Day, since that's coming right up--seem too easy, too cliche. So I get stuck in this loop of trying to find The Right Day when it's really Not That Friggin' Important.

Anyway. I'll figure it out soon enough, and I plan on adding a page to my tumblr account just for it. I may try and stick it in the entries over here, too, but we'll see.

Topic The Second: The novel is still untouched, despite being past my No Touchy due date. The problems are three-fold: it's 103 pages, we're low on paper, and we're low on ink. The latter two can be solved by a (painful) trip to the store, but the third makes me wince. My original idea was to print out three copies at the very least: one each for Ryan, BJ, and me. But that means 309 pages! All for the sake of editing! My inner hippie can't take it! Even if I spent the time doing both sides, that's still 155 pieces of paper. Ouch!

I'm tinkering with the idea of having one copy with three ink colors, or two copies with the boys sharing and picking red or blue or whatever, but I'm not fond of the idea. For one thing, it'd take forever for the three of us to get through one copy, or the two of them, especially with schedules. For another, I really want completely fresh perspectives, and seeing someone else's notes could be distracting, or start an argument in the columns, and basically isn't constructive.

Then there's the people who have offered to read it who aren't in handing-off distance, such as my friend Chris or my cousin Sarah. Do I print out more copies for them? Is it fair to send them a 103-page behemoth for them to spend paper and ink on? Oy!

This is the time the ever-talked-about Web 2.0 cloud would be handy, where I just stick it up online somewhere and everyone can pick at it in their own views--I'm sure this exists somewhere. But that requires the lovely editors to stare a computer screen forever, and seeing as one of them is having headaches from old glasses, and another is a nursing mother of two small children, and everyone also has these dang-blasted LIVES and all, it again seems like too much to ask.

Again I say: Oy!

Meanwhile, in a tiny Topic The Third, I'm sketching out the next story idea. It's the one that showed up in the middle of the night the second or third week of November, and I get more excited about it the more I think about it. It's also giving me a minor dilemma: do I let Ryan in the loop, getting all the psychological help I can get (and boy howdy will I need a lot of it), or do I keep him in the dark, so I can have his genuine response to the twist? I'll probably cave and tell him the whole thing, partly to get his help and partly because I HATE not talking to him about...well, anything. Shopping for him is kinda hell.

Speaking of which, I have just enough time to go and finally order his presents before I get ready for work. Have a good day, loyal readers! Any suggestions to any of the problems (day to start new hobbies, ways to share & edit, etc) would be MOST loved and appreciated!

*Pant Pant*

Yesterday (Monday):
[o] sleep in
[o] go out with Ryan with the plans of shopping for Christmas presents, with a quick stop at the eye place next to BJ's Starbucks to see about an appointment and prices
[o] find that the optometrist is available and ready, spend a couple hours there getting Ryan an eye exam and new glasses. Yay! He hasn't had either for THREE YEARS! Also got suggestions for eye drops to help his dry eyes, and turns out our insurance is AWESOME, and the whole thing came to under $200. Eye Site Optical is also the prettiest and coolest optical place I've ever been to and had the neatest, trendiest glasses ever! Highly recommend!
[o] stopped at BJ's Starbucks to get some drinks and a snack :D
[o] got Secret Santa present at mall (muahaha)
[o] did some quick shopping but didn't buy anything else
[o] got gas, got dinner, went home
[o] WoWed for a little bit, but moved to TV when Ryan's poor dilated eyes couldn't take the computer anymore. The TV, at least, doesn't need to be focused on to be enjoyed
[o] watched an awesome episode of Top Gear, went to bed without a single thought to my blogging audience. Sorry!

Today!
[o] Ryan got up at 8:30 and went off to work
[o] I slept until 11 and opened the curtains only to shriek "REALLY?!?!" at MORE SNOW coming out of the sky. Seriously?!
[o] did laundry
[o] laundry was stupid. Went back and forth between apartment and laundry room several times due to forgetting quarters, not having enough clothes to fill machine, forgetting keys, etc.
[o] took very quick shower
[o] ran to grocery store and was stupid there as well, going back and forth across the store to get things I'd forgotten
[o] came home, put groceries away, sorted through laundry and combined two half loads of Not Quite Dry laundry into one dryer

I am now waiting for that last load, which will really only be taken out and thrown onto the bed, as I will have to immediately leave for work afterwards. Between then and now, however, I wanted to get this entry up so no one thought I was dead (don't ask me why Sunday's entry appeared as a Saturday one, it shouldn't have, my apologies for any confusion), and now I'll be giving some new tiny tupperwares a quick wash and filling them with nuts and grapes before throwing them into my bag and throwing work clothes on.

I'm closing tonight, and, as I mentioned previously, it's snowing fairly heavily* outside, so I'm guessing it's going to be pretty slow. I'm hoping to be able to relax for the first time since I last worked!

*I will say this for Indiana snow: it's light and powdery, so it's not caving in roofs, turning car-cleaning into an immensely sweaty chore, or really doing anything but being pretty and making it cold and making everyone drive a bit slower, which isn't too bad a thing as it is, eh?

WHEE!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...*Puke*

It snowed some more. Cuz we needed it.

Took me forty minutes to get to work, but only twenty to get home, so I guess my commute today averaged out to normal?

Tomorrow is a glorious day off. The plan is Christmas shopping, but we'll see how the weather is! Yayyyy.

I'm tired, I had a 7 1/2 hour day that was mostly just sitting on my butt because it was SO FREAKING SLOW, and I haven't eaten in four hours, soooo....night!

First I Was All D: But Then There Was :) And Now I'm All \^.^/

Hoo boy. This day has...it's been a day.

I got to work to find it stupid busy, with my partner in drive-thru in a very bad mood having a very bad day. It's been dark and rainy and gross all day. Customers were mean and rude and stupid and just...bleh.

Then K brought in cupcakes...store manager brought in tacos...and I got home to not only find a whole pile of love on my Facebook, but a Christmas card from Jenna, and a package from Jess. The package included a mongo glow stick, a "dessert deck" of 50 recipe cards, and a big ol' organizer notebook, complete with large notepad, sticky notes, envelope for holding notes, sticky tabs, and a pen. Also an awesomely silly card with a note that made me laugh and cry.

With the way this week started, it's certainly ending on a good note. :)

Now, for dinner...

It's Addictive, I Tells Ya.

Sleep is wonderful. After three nights of absolutely CRAP sleep, Wednesday night felt glorious despite still being pretty crap, only six hours at the most and frequently interrupted.

Last night, I got nine almost-entirely-uninterrupted sleep. The only interruption was when I woke up briefly at 9, but then I fell back asleep for just over an hour.

Bliss.

Things are looking up after a perfectly shitty beginning to the week. I can't get into a lot of it, but the point is that life isn't quite as hopeless as it was beginning to feel, and that's really nice to have.

Tomorrow is a short day (five hours, wouldn't be surprised if those got cut), Sunday is closing, Monday is FREEDOM! I have reserved Ryan for the day (he also has it off), and I have no idea what we're going to do, but he's already agreed to not even look at the computer if I ask it of him. We may end up spending the day leveling on WoW, I'm not sure, all I care about is having the choice, having the whooooole day with my Ryan. :D

For now: more sleep! Cuz dang that shit is GOOD.

Post #216. Woo.

Work, sleep, blah blah blah. Really nothing new.

Tomorrow I close, Saturday is a 5 hour shift in the afternoon/evening, Sunday I close. Monday is off, next week is closing and pre-closing.

Whee!

Mooooooose.

Not a whole lot happened today. I did laundry. I went to work. It was slow. I did some schedule hopping. Whee.

I have a new nickname at work! I was making myself a drink with eggnog, my second in the day. L saw it and said "Eggnog again? Gross." I thought she said something about "moose," so I turned and said "Did you just call me a moose?!" She and D cracked up, and spent the rest of the night calling me Moose. I even found that my name on the schedules for the rest of the week had been replaced with Moose.

I think I like it. :)

I actually have quite a few nicknames now--the ones just at work are Ruthus, Ruthless, Toofless Ruthless, and Moose. Others I've collected include Ruthiebug, Ruchen, RuthAnn (or is it Ruth-Ann? Ruth Ann?), and Ruthiekins (thanks, Mom). Oh, and Gatita and Torto-Gatita. If there others I've collected and don't mention, please remind me in the comments! I love my collection...*heart*

I spent the morning stressing out and violently regretting taking the Friday shift over at Main & Douglas, so I'm glad I was able to switch around with someone at my own store. I've slept extremely crappily the past three nights, which has put me on all kinds of edge. Main is the busiest store in the district, even at night, and the idea of not just losing my second day off, but spending it closing (I hate closing) at the busiest store? Twitch. I'm still closing, and at a later hour, but it's with some of my faves at my own, slower-paced store. So, yay. I was also able to help W out by switching around with her on Sunday, so she can study for her Monday & Tuesday finals instead of closing. Always enjoy helping out a friend, and W is super. :D

Time for dinner and SLEEEEEEEEP and yeah. Night!

As A Friend Said, It's Like Living In A Snow Globe...

I have done...nothing today.

Well, okay, that's not quite true.

I slept, ate, played some WoW, and puts lots of music into my computer. I even figured out how to properly sort it all when WMP decided to be dumb about it.

I didn't do laundry, I didn't go buy the snacks I forgot to get yesterday...in short, I didn't leave the house.

If you're wondering why not, here are some pictures in answer:










As you can see, the roads are actually in pretty good shape. However, there are still plenty of morons out there, and it's really cold, and it's my day off, and I wanted to just have a relaxing day and just LAY OFF, WOULD YA?!

...

*cough*

Tomorrow is back to work until Monday! Woulda been Tuesday, but L was nice enough to switch shifts with me, so I only work six days in a row instead of seven. :D Also, without realizing it, I got an extra two hours, since my original shift was only 6 hours and hers is 8. Yay more monies!...although that only brings me up to 38 hours, aaaand I'm sure to have plenty of cut hours as has been the norm for the past month and a half. Ah well. *crosses fingers*

It's funny, I hate having my hours cut because, y'know, I like money, but at the time it happens, I'm a little happy about it. They get cut for a reason: we're slow, and who wants to sit around with nothing to do, not allowed to do anything but clean the same thing over and over again or stare at the wall until a customer comes in? Also, work vs. home isn't a tough decision. So it's a love-hate thing, I guess.

This coming Sunday I will finally be able to start poking at Found again, and showing it to people to get feedback. I've been eager to get to it, or to get to a new story, or something. NaNo certainly re-awoke the writer in me...I know I can do it, in both ability and discipline, and undoubtedly with a TON less stress, what with the deadline gone. Although I do plan on giving myself deadlines, just not 50K-in-30-days-with-full-time-job deadlines. Not literal deadlines.

Anyway. Back to relaxing. :)

Snowing and Gaming and...uh...Something. Oh My!

The internet decided to not work last night, so I was unable to blog. Funnily enough, we didn't realize it until fairly late, since we spent the night watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on TV.

There's not a whole lot to talk about. It's been snowing quite a lot over the weekend, making the world white and pretty and not nearly as bad to navigate as one would think. Boy howdy, though, how it's slowed down business!

The weekend also saw us out of peppermint syrup...then out of caramel brulee...then out of white mocha. Peppermint is stupid because we have it all year 'round but are running out of it because peppermint mochas are a "holiday beverage;" caramel brulee is the next drink all the disappointed peppermint mochas get; but it's running out of white mocha that really scared me because, I swear, white mocha customers are the highest maintenance of all of them. Most white mocha customers are rich girls or women used to getting what they want, and at least 75% (but probably closer to 90%) of the white mochas are nonfat and no whip. The screaming customer from months ago? White mocha!

Fortunately, today's order delivery had six boxes of peppermint, three boxes of caramel brulee, and four boxes of white mocha. Also a huge box of stir sticks, which we've been out of for almost a month. Huzzah!

Tonight is the launch of Cataclysm, the next expansion for the game World of Warcraft. For those who don't know (somehow), the entire apartment plays WoW. Three of them obsessively. I'm...only a little obsessive, but I'm still excited. The new expansion changed the entire planet the game is based on, and made one of my favorite races playable as a class I've always been interested in!

...okay, so it's nerd talk, and I'll keep it to a minimum. But, as I said, all four of us are big fans of the game, and all four of us have tomorrow off, and we're all going on a large grocery run tonight for gaming fuel, and...well, it's all nerdy up in here, what can I say.

As I said, tomorrow is my day off, so I'll be sleeping and playing and doing lots of laundry (snow + long pants + not changing into snow boots before leaving work = holy crap cold wet pant hems). The rest of the week should be...interesting. I took a shift at another store to help out on my second day off, so I'm working straight from Wednesday to next Monday. However, they're all afternoon and evening shifts, which means they're with my favorite people at the slowest time. More work, but less stress. Hopefully a winning combination.

Still Walking Those Coals.

First and foremost, a birthday shout out to my stepmother, Dorita. HI DORITA! *waves frantically and sillilililily*

I gave her a call tonight on the way home from work, and...it made me realize how much I miss them. I mean, I always miss them, and my parents and my friends in Connecticut and other parts of the world. Still, there are times when it smacks me on the nose, how long it's been since I've seen these people that I love so much.

Talking with her also reminded me of the firewalk I did back in April, and how much that's still with me. Though time has faded it a little--as time is wont to do--I can still think back to the moment before I walked, standing before the hot coals and knowing that I was too scared and couldn't do it. Knowing it with complete certainty...and doing it anyway.

That was also around the same time that Ryan and I decided to move to Indiana with only the promise of jobs and an apartment with people we had never met in person.

Anyway, the phone call, combined with a morning text revealing that someone thought I was coming back to visit for Christmas, has me feeling a little guilty for the length of time since I've seen...everyone.

To family and friends in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, California, etc etc...do know that we miss and love you very much. It kills us to miss the Christmas parties and weekly get-togethers, the dinners and breakfasts and weekends and...everything.

Okay. Time to go eat dinner and watch something silly on Netflix and get my mind back to positive things.

Scheduling Is FUN.

Originally I was scheduled to work 1-9:30 on Thursday, with Wednesday and Friday off. This kinda bugged me, so I asked around, and K was willing to switch her Friday for my Thursday, so I took her 1-9:30 on Friday and had Wednesday and Thursday off.

W called me last night to ask if I'd switch with her so she wouldn't have to close. I accepted, and my schedule was changed from 1-9:30 to 4-12:30.

This morning, I get multiple calls: first, my manager calls to ask if I can cover a shift next week for a worker at another store who was in a car accident.

First off, this is...kind of really sad and scary. The worker in question is a good kid, 16 years old, was t-boned by a truck a couple of nights ago. I've heard both pick-up truck and semi, not sure which one. His organs are fine, he's reacting to pain, but his brain has swelling and they've put him in a coma to avoid the pain from it. He'll probably live, but they don't know the full extent of the brain damage. :(

Also, another worker from the same store who was due to give birth in January went into labor on the same night. Both mama and baby are fine.

So, anyway...manager calls me, I take 5:30-11:30 next Friday, which I originally had off. Not long after that, D calls and asks if I can take her 7-3 shift on Monday and she'll take my 11-7 shift, since she has something going on Sunday night and didn't want to work really early. I grudgingly took it because she's awesome and was desperate.

After I hung up, I told Ryan what was up, and he said "Wait, don't you close Sunday night?" I check, and I was...except E had asked me earlier this week if I could switch her, so I took her 11-7:30. Dodged a bullet there.

My manager called again around 1, asking if I'd be willing to come in at 3:30 instead of 4, because R was leaving then and it would just be two people for the after-school rush (which can get pretty intense).

During my shift tonight, I tried to see if someone else would be able to take the early Monday shift, without screwing D or myself over for hours since everyone's kinda suffering in that department right now. It looks like L could do it, then D texts me to say that her Sunday thing fell through and never mind about Monday.

So, since the beginning of this week, I have had my hours for five different days change eight times. And I worked nine hours today. And, even with the extra 6.5 hours over these two weeks, I'll only be getting a grand total of 1.5 hours of overtime on my next paycheck, my hours are that low.

I...go sleep now.

Ah, Horace, I Know Him...More Than I'd Like.

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day. Ryan and I slept in, lazed about the house, went grocery shopping, made dinner, played WoW. La de dah.

Today, I have the house allll to myself until Ryan gets home at 1:30. We both got up at 7--he had work at 8, and I wanted to help him by scraping ice off his car, although there wasn't any to clean off. Then I finished off Watership Down by 10:30, made myself a breakfast of leftovers, checked my feed, and...here I am.

It snowed yesterday! And it's still around today. Not nearly as bad as I was expecting my next Indiana snowfall to be (did I mention that weather here means it?), but it's still plenty cold. At least the roads aren't bad (*knocks on wood*).

So, as I said, house all to myself...except for the cat. >.< Horace isn't a bad cat per se, but dang he can be an annoying little shit. Meows constantly, even when he's had food and water and attention. Insists on curling up behind my desk chair without realizing that I'm bound to roll over his tail or even his legs one of these days. Attacks anything hanging from a wall or table such as purse straps, apron strings, robe ties, etc. Likes to wait around corners and leap out, splayed and ready to take out your leg. Ergh.

I could handle it all if he was maybe more affectionate. And he can be with Sameh or Ryan--and if BJ's co-worker Ali comes over Horace turns into a complete slut--but he doesn't seem to like me at all. Not in an aggressive way, just a shunning way. He'll curl up on anyone else but me, and seems to not like it when I try to pick him up and pet him, and I swear he attacks my legs more often than anyone else. I just don't get this cat!

Currently, he is under Ryan's desk, eating at crumbs and things Ryan has dropped from past snacks. Soon he'll no doubt curl up on the bed, or behind my chair. Sigh.

*Pats Self On Back*

Today--well, tomorrow, really, although it's technically 1 am on December 1st and I'm back-dating this entry--marks the end of National Novel Writing Month.

I didn't win. I didn't even crack 40,000 words.

I am so very proud of myself.

I entered. I committed. I planned. I worked. I wrote.

End result: over 35,000 accumulated words and what I hope will be a good story.

The last time I touched Found was Sunday. I'm not going to touch it or look at it again until the thirteenth. Then I'm going to print out at least two copies--one for myself and one for Ryan--possibly more if BJ or anyone else wants to help me edit--and go at it with a red pen. Right now, I'm too close to the story. I can't read it, I get impatient and start skimming because I know what's going on here and I want to get to the next bit, and before I know it I've skimmed the entire thing.

We'll see what happens once I see it with fresher eyes, and once someone else sees it. Ryan may love me and want me to love him back, but he is still honest when he knows it will help me. BJ is my roommate and one of my dearest friends, but he is always, always honest, and he's a reader and a former English major, so I know that he will give me qualified and unabashed criticism.

I want to offer up copies for other people to read through and edit, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. I want the help, and I want the opinion, but I also want a fresh audience for when it's done (even if "done" means "I would send this off to an agent if I thought it would sell" and not necessarily "sellable").

I also want to offer my up my appreciation and heartfelt thanks to my friends and family who supported me and gave unabashed admiration and encouragement. I had not one single person tell me I shouldn't do it, or that I couldn't do it. This may say a lot about my choice of people, but I think it also says a lot about what wonderful people they are. Thank you. Every one. There will be more thanks to come!

The next two weeks will mostly be reading and, you know, living and working. I may start tapping at the other story that infested my head in the second week, but I'm not sure yet if that's a wise idea. Either way, after those two weeks, I will be diving back in, and I'm not surfacing again for a long time. I'm not done writing.

I may not have won NaNoWriMo this year (this year), but I still think I've proven one thing to myself: I'm a writer.

I'm a writer.

I Can Has Sleep Nao?

Today...was a day.

Dead at work, then stupid-busy, hours got cut, next week's schedule is all over the place and not even 35 hours, my schedule for this week is still nuts...oy.

At least I sold 2 pounds of Christmas Blend, even if it cost me twenty frustrating minutes of my life I'll never get back to two women who just...ARGH.

Tomorrow is a little sleeping in, trip to the bank so we can pay bills, work that may or may not be a full shift, then....TWO DAYS OFF! WOO! Maybe three, depending on a co-worker and whether more time off means more to me than a full day's pay...

Tonight: leftover Thanksgiving noodle soup and quality time with the man. :)

On a side note: Why has no one heard of Watership Down? My roommates, my co-workers, my boyfriend...this has been a classic for forty years, it's full of exquisite writing and intricate characters and a fanTAStic story...my mind, it boggles.

I Can Work Well, Or I Can Work Early, You Can't Get Both.

Today, I had a case of the dumbs. First I had my mind set on leaving at 8:30, when I actually started at 8:30. Fortunately, I realized my mistake in time to only be 2 minutes later, without speeding!...too badly!

Next, when a customer ordered a full French press of Guatemala Antigua, my brain once again focused on the wrong part. It went "Hey, customers usually only order a French press to have one cup, but they want the whole one! I should grind the entire bag!"

Note to non-Starbucks workers: we make a French press with just over a tenth of a pound of beans. Not an entire pound.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. We picked Secret Santa, and I'm very happy with the person I got :D

Tomorrow is 11 to 7:30, Tuesday is 1:30 to 9, and then I have a day off! Then a day on, and another day off! ARGH. W asked if I'd be willing to give her my Thursday shift, she's been wanting more hours...three day weekend is mighty tempting...we shall see!

Aiming For The Moon Totally Worked! These Stars ROCK!

I have to say, while I'm not 100% healthy again, it is so great to be able to breathe and to no longer sound like a prepubescent Kermit the Frog. :D

I'm starting to accept the fact that, excluding a miracle, I'm not going to win NaNoWriMo. Accepting is made possible by the realization that, holy crap, I wrote a 35,000-word book. Dude. That's AWESOME.

And I'm not done-done, either. I'm still going back through, finding parts that need expanding or detailing, so 35K isn't the final number. I'm just fairly certain that, even if I do hit 50K with this book, it ain't going to be in the next three days. Not unless there's another gas leak on Cleveland and my store is closed until Wednesday.

If I had any of the next three days off, maybe. But, I don't. Tomorrow is 8:30 to 2:30, Monday is 11 to 7:30, and Tuesday is 1:30 to 9. Honestly, tomorrow afternoon and Tuesday morning are my best/last chances to make the goal, and that's assuming I don't get waylaid by errands, fatigue, cold relapse, etc.

In other news: ...well, I guess there isn't any other news. Work was work. I'm feeling (and sounding!) much better. Life goes on. La de da. :D

Turkey Day 2010

I would have loved to update yesterday with a great Thanksgiving post, but Google went all wonky on my computer, and I was unable. Oh well.

Worked from a little before 11 (I arrived to a crazy rush) to 4, barring and doing lots of dishes as I basically couldn't serve customers directly with my voice. We joked that I could answer the drive-thru with "Hi, welcome to Starbucks, would you like some plague?" I did have to answer twice, and the second time it was a girl who sounded just like me ordering a cider. We had a commiserating smile at the window as I croaked her total and "Happy Thanksgiving" and she croaked "Happy Thanksgiving" in return.

Food-wise...this was a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Ryan made apple and pumpkin pies in advance on Wednesday, and BJ made a cranberry salad and deviled eggs. The day of, Ryan roasted the turkey and made mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, two small chocolate pudding pies (just for me!), and gravy. BJ and Sameh made corn pudding and noodles. I helped here and there and did the cooking dishes and took pictures of delicious food and cleared the fridge for leftovers.

It. Was. SO GOOD.

If I had to pick a favorite...I don't know if I can, actually. And considering there was a HUGE put of mashed potatoes, and this is me we're talking about, understand just how good everything was for me to not immediately name the spuds as the winner. The corn pudding was fantastic, the gravy was amazing (Sameh and I are conspiring to keep Ryan in a constant flow of roastable birds just so he can keep us in good gravy), the bird was juicy and flavorful, etc etc. I even had a small amount of BJ's cranberry salad, even though I don't like most of the ingredients (cherries, pineapple, almonds), and it was very sweet and tasty. NOM!

And if you don't want to read about it...

Clockwise from the upper left: Turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, deviled eggs, cranberry salad, corn pudding, apple pie, pumpkin pie, two miniature chocolate pudding pies, seasoning that no one touched.


*drool*

I'm currently waiting for Ryan to arrive home, as it is currently a quarter past noon, the exact time he gets off work. I hope he's survived his 8-hour Black Friday shift intact. I also hope that he found those mixers he's been eying at a good price and bought himself one! :D

And now, off to spend my day off writing and WoWing and eating leftovers and comforting the tired Ryan...

Gas Leaks And Frog Voice And Cooking, Oh My!

Got woken up at 5:30 in the morning by BJ banging on our door, saying he'd just had a talk with my store manager online, there was a gas leak on the road my store is on, and the entire road was closed, so no work until further notice.

...k. *Zzzz*

I later learned that some of my co-workers had been loaned out to other stores for the day, but my manager let me stay home since I'm sick. Aw. Also, when the road was cleared and the store reopened at 5 this evening, she didn't call me in for the rest of my shift, again, to give me time to get better. Double aw.

I love my manager.

This sore throat, on the other hand, is completely uncooperative. I had an extra day off! I slept in! I drank cup after cup after cup of hot, honeyed tea! I took my cough medicine like a good girl!

I feel worse than I did this morning!

Well, wait, let's qualify that: am I worse in the sneezing, sniffling, dripping, sinus-related categories? No, actually, in those I am very improved. Am I worse in the throat category? Oh hell yeah. My voice is all but gone, and after a painless day, this evening sees mild pain when swallowing and swollen glands.

What the eff, man. What the eff.

Tomorrow is a short day (11 to 5) AND there's a good chance of hours being cut if it's slow, so I'm hoping I won't be too miserable. As it is, everything aside from my throat feels fine, and I am thankful for that. I am also thankful for my awesome boss, and my gift of a day off, which I used to drink gallons of tea and edit.

Sadly, the editing only garnered me an extra 600 words. Well, probably more than that, except I also took off some words, soo...yeah. I realized that I'm editing myself out of the NaNo win, BUT! I kept the original file untouched and am editing in a save-as file I created the second I wrote "the end," so I might borrow what I deleted and then tack on the 1,061 words I lost two weeks ago when I go to officially calculate. Might not help me make it, but it can't hurt. After all, I wrote all that! For the one story! IT COUNTS!

On the Ryan front, he came home with even more groceries, and is baking up a storm in the kitchen. The apple pie is almost done, the graham cracker crust for the pumpkin pie is next, and he's specially making a tiny little chocolate pudding pie just for me. *heart*

Last night saw BJ preparing his contributions: corn pudding, cranberry salad, and deviled eggs (there might have been more, I can't remember). The turkey is thawing away. Tomorrow, Ryan's getting up early and doing all of the main cooking himself while the three of us are at work. He plans to have it all warm and ready to eat by the time we all get home.

As if I didn't already have an overwhelming stack of evidence that I'm with Mr. Perfect.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's chicken noodle soup calling my name.

Ended, Yes. Finished, No.

Hi. Yup. Still sick. Today I've been losing my voice on and off. According to Ryan, I sound like a squirrel.

In other news, I hit the end of my story. No balloons or confetti please: notice that I didn't say that I finished. For one thing, I'm almost 20,000 words behind the NaNo goal. For another, the story is in great need of, well, finishing. Tiny plot knots got written and rewritten constantly during the process, so I need to go back and fix several things. Plus I left out a great deal of character and setting exposition, sooo...yeah. I'm hoping adding clarification and depth and texture will plump up the word count to the hoped-for 50K.

Now, time to go get dinner!

Happy Birthday to Ry!

First, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ryan, who turned 24 today! :D

Second, an apology for not updating for almost three days. Sick + work = too damned tired to be of any use to anybody.

The synopsis of the weekend: long, phlegmy, exhausting.

For Ryan's birthday, we:
[o] slept until noon
[o] opened packages (my NaNo prize arrived, he got a package of birthday awesomes from his mother and several cards)
[o] got drinks and pastries at my Starbucks
[o] exchanged not-very-comfy New Balance shoes for much-comfier New Balance
[o] shopped for Thanksgiving (Ryan has the day off, and was originally going to make something small for the two of us, since BJ and Sameh were going to BJ's parents' house for dinner. On a whim, he got a whole turkey instead of just a breast, and we learned, upon returning home, that it will be an apartment dinner after all! :D)
[o] watched Toy Story 2, Bender's Big Score, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. All three were really, really good.
[o] got pizza and mac n cheese wedges from Polito's. Everything was yummy.

Overall, a pretty good day. :)

On the NaNoWriMo front: ...I'm...not sure I'm going to make it. At the moment I have 29,412 words. If I had followed the daily goal, I'd be at 36,374. Over 7K words behind, with only one day off between me and December 1st (and that day is Black Friday, and HELL if I'm venturing out to write elsewhere on THAT day). Almost all of my working days are all just a little too early to go in before hand and get an hour or two in (11 every day except Saturday, which is 8).

In just over one week, I have to crank out 20,000 words. I'm not feeling optimistic. I'm not upset about it, and I'm not giving up, but...there it is. Oy.

I don't feel nearly as snotty or miserable as I did this past weekend, but my throat is scratchy, I sound like a frog, and I'm still drippy. So...we'll see?

Wish me luck!...in everything!

Still Here.

Still here. Still sick. Still writing.

And by sick I mean, I spent all night alternately sweating or freezing and tossing and turning, but now all that's left is a mildly sore throat that hurts when I laugh, yawn, or swallow.

And by writing I mean adding a dozen or so words before reading another chapter of Almost Paradise. It's inspiration. Really.

The truth is, I've come to the most important part of the story, and I'm stuck. The main character hasn't had any contact with her grandmother in 10 years even though she was her favorite person and the only one who ever encouraged her, and although Ryan insists that this can, indeed, happen with people, it just doesn't feel right. Why wouldn't have Molly contacted Charlotte? Even better a question is, why wouldn't have Charlotte contacted Molly? She reached adult age, her mother wouldn't have been in the way anymore, what was stopping either one of them? More importantly, how do I keep going with this problem unanswered?

Ergh.

This has been a theme all month: I get a day off, an entire day to devote to writing, and I barely get anything done. On the days I work, I spend all of it gazing wistfully at the cafe, wishing I could be at my favorite table, typing away at the keyboard.

Ergh.

Next day off is Monday, which is Ryan's birthday. We have the food planned (dinnerfrom Polito's (the only restaurant in the area with thin crust pizza), cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory), but not the rest of the day, although it's safe to say we won't be spending it writing. After that is Black Friday, where I'll be spending half the day tending to my poor Ryan. You see, Ryan is working on Black Friday. From 3:45 in the morning until 12:15. I'll be spending the rest of the day comforting him from his trauma.

On the plus side of Ryan world, he spent today being trained in Customer Service! Something beyond cashiering! Other things to do, other people to talk to! A show that they plan on keeping him! Woo!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my book. And I'm not saying which one, either.

200 Nonsensical Posts! Woo!

This is my 200th post! I'm going to spend it talking about how I feel like crap, and show you a shiny!

...Thankfully, only half of that is a reflection of the real me.

...Yes, it's the shiny stuff, shut up.

My amazing co-worker has been sick for a very, very long time--cold morphed into sinus infection morphed into Godzilla--and today, she felt especially sick. Almost immediately after she left, I started feel sick. It's almost all in my head--sore throat, congestion, aching head, exhausted--except for my muscles, which feel just the tiniest bit more sore than normal.

I'm going to bed very soon, then spending tomorrow (day off!) drinking lots of juice, taking lots of vitamins, moving very little, and writing up a storm.

Speaking of which! Last night, after posting to this blog, I managed to get my word count up past 26K. The current number is 27,482. :D

At the first (and, sadly, only) write-in I've been to for the area WriMos, a fellow writer mentioned that every November, she buys herself a little something--a book she'd been wanting, a new journal, a new blouse--something small and non-essential and distinctively trinket-like. She then wraps it up in pretty paper, attaches a Congratulations card, and puts it where she can see it from her desk every day. She can't open it until she hits 50,000 words.

I liked this idea the moment I heard it. I wasn't sure what to get at first, although I had more or less settled on something from Vera Bradley (purse CRACK).

Then...then I found this:
.

Bought and paid for. When it arrives, I'll get to see it (or maybe even pet it) just once, and then Ryan is hiding it away until I hit the magic number.

...squee!

25,718!

Yesterday day wasn't too bad. Yesterday night kinda sucked.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Today was much better. Today had great co-workers (working with my boss is always Super Awesome), today had getting out of work early, today had getting over 700 words out before even going to work in the first place.

Best of all, today has a current word count of 25,718.

That's right. Just over 25K. I've hit the midpoint.

This is made a bit more interesting by the fact that I'm 3/4 to 4/5 down with the story. There's a blowout about to happen--the climax--and then it's down-winding and loose-thread-tying. Unless a boll weevil jumps out when least expected, it's pretty easy from here on out. *crosses fingers*

The hard parts were the scenes I just finished today...and they aren't really finished. They're...well, they have some saran wrap thrown on to make sure they don't rot or fall apart, and that's really about it until I finish the story and go back to fix things.

Finishing is the real goal, after all.

Tomorrow promises to be interesting--2 to 5 pm is Buy One Holiday Beverage, Get The Other One Free!--and then I have Friday off, and I will be spending it catching up as fast as possible. I've finally hit the halfway point, yes, but I "should" have 28,339 words, if I had kept up the minimum daily goal of 1,667. I'm halfway through the word count, just past the halfway point of the month. I need to up the output, and how!

Tonight may be a bust, however, as I am losing energy at a rapid pace. Sleeping is starting to sound very nifty right about now...

Rushes and Writing and Hormones, Oh My!

So, remember on Saturday when I said work was hellish?

Yeah....yesterday was worse.

I got there 20 minutes early, and they were slammed. Technically I can't clock in until five minutes before my shift it scheduled to start, but H told me to go ahead, so I ended up clocking in at 10:42 instead of 11. I then took A's headset immediately so she could take her meal--her first break she or anyone had since she and H arrived at 5:30 that morning.

Read that again. Five hours. No breaks.

M was only scheduled for 3 1/2 hours, but stayed for 4 so H could get her meal before noon, and she barred the entire time. Literally, the only time she wasn't at the bar making drinks was when she and I took four trips out to the dumpster for the trash run.

In the middle of the chaos, our store manager called and told me to leave a note on the day's schedule saying that hours could be cut today if needed. I told H about this, and we had a nice laugh.

We ran out of breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and basically just most of our pastry case. Most of the people were actually quite nice when they heard this, but there were a couple that were just so pissy about it. To get it out of my system, this is what I wanted to say:

You have to hear the one time that we're out, and then you get to drive away and find food elsewhere. I have to tell fifty bajillion people that we're out, take their abuse, and then stay. You? Get to leave. I? Have to stay and keep doing this. Quit yer bitchin'!

Ahem.

It slowed down a bit by the time I left, but....dang. It was scary.

Best customer of the day:
Her: Do your lattes come with coffee flavoring?
Me: Uhm...not really, but they do come with espresso.
Her: Does that taste like coffee?
Me: ....Yes.

I then went home and spent what felt like an eternity trying to write one scene. Just under 1,500 words, but holy shit. It was painful, it took several attempts, and it only really worked after brainstorming with Ryan at the beginning, and then turning to him halfway through every attempt and wailing "This feels stupid!"

Somebody, please send him a medal. Seriously. He deserves it for putting up with me.

And with that, I'll move on quickly to the slightly-TMI section of this post:
I've been on birth control for over ten years now. When I switched insurance a few months ago, I had to go find another gynecologist so I could make an appointment, get an exam, and get a new prescription. However, I underestimated the time between making an appointment and the appointment itself, and I ran out about two and a half ago weeks*.

Birth control for ten years, then nothing for two and a half weeks.
To say that I've been moody would be putting it mildly.

So yeah. I wasn't kidding. This boy deserves something. A medal, a trophy, maybe some flowers...

Anyway.

Today is a day off! Today is for sleeping in, writing a scene that I didn't originally plan for, and finally going to the aforementioned lady-doc appointment**!

What a fun day!

*Please, no lectures on better planning. I gave myself a big one after hanging up the phone. And I promise that I'm not stupid where it counts.

**Which isn't actually with a lady! Joy!

I've Said It Before, I'll Say It Again: Game Days Should Get Hazard Pay.

Today...was kinda hellish.

Firstly, I slept like crap last night. Straight up. Took forever to fall asleep, tossed and turned, the whole nine.

Second, it was a game day. A home game day. A cold and rainy home game day that was just begging for a cup of coffee. Ugh.

Third, we had a surprise health inspection! During a rush! When we were supposed to go down to two people but H had to go hunt for paperwork that she couldn't find because our store manager didn't call back in time so D had to stay half an hour past her shift end or else I would have been all alone to deal with eleventybillion cars!

May I just add--WHO DOES A SURPRISE INSPECTION ON A GAME DAY. WHO. COME ON NOW.

Ahem.

By 5, I was an hour late for my meal, and H was waiting for D to arrive so they could discuss my leaving early, and THANK GOD THE DECISION WAS YES. Only a six hour day, but WORTH IT.

...please excuse the all-caps, it's been a long day.

Upshot for the day: I cracked 20K! According to MS Word, I am currently at 20,763 words. I want to keep going tonight, get past today's benchmark (21,671), but I'm just...stuck. I am really just pulling a blank on what the next scene should be, the next plot point is just gumming up the whole works, so I'm stuck here alternately reading Almost Paradise and staring at the screen while eating Peanut Brittle ice cream.

Quick note on Peanut Brittle ice cream:
Holy mother of yum.
That is all.

Tomorrow is only a six hour day, so maybe I can cram some more words in there. I almost wish I worked later in the day instead of 11 to 5...I won't say that I write better in the morning, or early afternoon, or whatever. I will say that I write better when I haven't spent 6 to 8 hours pouring my brain into pitchers and steaming it to serve to customers.

...wow that sounds gross. I do apologize.

And yet I'm not deleting it...

ANYWAY. I'm tired. And spazzy. And not even drinking! Wish me luck tomorrow! Ciao!

19,320! WOO!

Not only did I get my word count back to Wednesday night's count, but I went right past it. I am currently at 19,320. I "should" be at 20,004, but hey, I managed almost 3,000 words today, so I ain't complainin'!

...that's really all I got. The rest of the day was alternately lazing and running errands, so...yeah.

The next two days are work, and then another day off. Hopefully I won't be speeding to make up 4,000 words...

.....Ergh.

If you look at my word count at nanowrimo.org, you will see a number. 17,896. It's a nice number. It's a large number.

Unfortunately, it's a lie.

When I opened my laptop today, I did not have 17,896 words in my novel file. I had, and have, 16,880.

The other 1,016?
Eaten be evil elves.
Swallowed by sinister spies.
Deleted by diabolical devils.
Gone.

I discovered this on my first ten minute break of my six hour shift--shorter because of the two-hour Holiday Meeting about the new holiday merchandise, how to create World Class Service that means Just Saying Yes when the customer starts making a fuss, and how We The Partners are so Very Important and that's why we move you around like pawns without Those Inconvenient Emotions--and almost broke into tears. I had to hold my breath and concentrate for much longer than I'd like to admit. I also had to resist throwing my cell phone at the wall.

It's not a hard scene to rewrite. The part I liked best about it, I remember quite well. Hell, the rest of it will probably come out better this time around.

It's the time lost. It's the elation gone. It's the bubble busted.

My mother commented a few posts back, suggesting that I abandon the word count if it was causing me grief. I'll be honest, the word count is important to me--but it's not what my aim is. It's just a way of measuring my novel so I can participate with the community of other writers who are attempting this challenge. My aim is to finish a book, whether it's 50K, 80K, or 30K.

But finishing it isn't just about finishing a book. It's about finishing a book. It's about knowing that I did it, knowing that I Worked Hard and Finished Something.

It's the finished product, and the finishing.

Both of which are made that much harder when a thousand words are consumed by conniving....connivers.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have quite a bit of this day left to drown in this glass of wine...

17,896!

Day off! Woo!

I planned today to be a Writing Day, a Catching Up Day, a Stop Being Freaking Lazy Day. Instead, I got half an hour of writing done at home before Ryan and I headed out to do errands.

We fetched my schedule and tips, got groceries, replaced Ryan's dead headlight, and--the highlight of the day--renewed Ryan's license.

Ryan is now an official Indiana resident. He has the awful picture to prove it.

We then returned home, had dinner, watched some Good Eats...and then I wrote several thousand words, catching up and then some.

Woo!

I am now at 17,896 words. Ryan gave me the goal of 18,000 today, and I was fine with that...and then I finished a scene with 104 words left. At midnight. My choices were: stop writing and go to bed, or keep writing and be up for however long that scene took.

And seeing as there's a Holiday Meeting tomorrow at 11 in the morning, I chose the option that lets me get more sleep.

While the day didn't go as planned in terms of dedicated writing time, I'm still very pleased with both the day and the word count. So. Yay. :)

Money Would Have Been More Useful...

Downsides for the day:
[o] Shift cut by two hours (after last paycheck, two hours feels like a lot!)
[o] Surprise Holiday order completely filled back room and made us all cranky
[o] So tired from work--even with the shorter shift--that trying to write afterwards was just futile
[o] Winter skin is KILLING my hands, lots of bloody knuckles...
[o] Ryan stayed home sick :( Poor baby

Upsides!:
[o] Weather was pretty gorgeous
[o] Able to switch with K--she wanted Saturday off, so she's taking my Wednesday shift
[o] Got just over an hour of writing in before work, bringing me past the 14K word count!
[o] Did I mention that I have tomorrow off?

Tomorrow may not have that much writing actually. I still have to return something to Target, and Ryan's taking his day off to get his license renewed, so I'll probably tag along for that. Also, I'm exhausted, so getting up early sounds like a miserable idea, and that seems to be the best time I write, soooo....we'll see.

The new story idea is still haunting me. I keep wanting to write that when I open up my laptop, but I don't let myself. I'm not against the idea of letting my NaNo story take itself in a direction I didn't expect, or even the idea of starting late in the game...I just don't want to abandon Found. And I don't like the risk of investing precious writing time into a story that may abandon me a week later.

I want to write it, and I will. But Found comes first.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up in my warm bed and poke at catalogs until dinner. Night!

Less Flowing, More Pushing.

Yesterday and today's word counts...well, they suck. Straight up. Less than 200 yesterday, barely over that today. Both days, I only got writing time in on my 30-minute meal break and for a little bit before bed. Tonight, I had to get myself psyched up with good music in order to figure out how to fix a plot point that was just feeling stupid. Even with pump-up music, my energy and frustration levels are such that writing this story is a struggle.

It doesn't help that a new story idea popped into my head as I fell asleep last night. It's almost perfect in its completeness, its potential for scenes that demand my exact style, the hook rating. Today's breaks were mostly spent working on the Fail Abstract for that instead of the story in front of me, the one I've committed myself to finishing.

And I will finish it. I need to fully realize that the past two days have shown me not that I'm bad at this, not that this story is bad or badly done, but that I need to commit even further. I need to get up earlier, get to Starbucks hours before I'm supposed to start, and focus myself on writing instead of checking Facebook or catching up on comics or...anything else.

I can do this. I am good at this. I just need to get the hell out of my own way and do it already.

...ugh.

This Is Us, Part 2.

Two snippets of life with Ruth & Ryan:

Ruth: I don't want to do laundry.
Ryan: Then don't. I have some days off soon. You did the dishes last week, I've been waiting for you to manipulate something from that.
Ruth: No, that's too passive-agressive. I'm more...aggressive-aggressive.
Ryan: So what you're telling me is that you're less manipulative and more ornery.
Ruth: I...guess.
Ryan: I can live with that.

(Talking about muscle cars in winter)
Ryan: You can fix anything with kitty litter and duct tape.
Ruth: But, can it fix a broken heart, Ryan? Can it?!
Ryan: I don't know. Maybe. Have you tried?

Flying Through.

I am currently at 12,044 words. That's right, I not only hit the 10k mark, I swiftly kicked it in the butt and kept right on going. Today's word count was my best so far at 3,488.

However, I'm feeling frustrated with my writing. I'm getting the words out, better than I had ever hoped...but I'm not sure of the quality. I feel like I'm rushing scenes when I should be drawing them out, giving vague sketches when I should be painting in the details, and generally just mucking up a perfectly good story with my mediocre writing.

When I voiced this to Ryan, he pointed at the post-it on my laptop, and made me look him in the eye and say it out loud:

I am good at this.*

The hardest part of this, it turns out, is not getting it out, but being okay with just getting it out. Not rewriting as I go, not pausing to hem and haw over every scene, but simply churning out the words--and the story--as fast as my fingers can go.

Ryan is counseling me on my frustrations, saying that my only goal for right now is to finish the story. Fifty thousand, seventy thousand, twenty thousand, whatever: Finish the story. Then go through it, with multiple colored pens and multiple sets of eyes, and give it a good combing, finding the places to flesh it out, the places that need more of this or less of that.

He is of the opinion that, since I'm already a quarter of the way through the word count goal and a third of the way through my story, I should hit the end of the story before the end of the month. At that point I'll have the extra time to go back and fill in the parts I think I rushed through or skimmed over.

I'm just hoping he's right.

Tomorrow is back to work for the next five days. I know this was only the first week, but I've come to the conclusion that I do my best work on my days off. I don't have the fact that I have work later hanging over my head, or the exhaustion of an 8-hour shift slowing me down. I still plan to try and get in early and stay up late, pounding at it until I have to go home and eat dinner, but, in all honesty, Friday is what I'm really craving right now.

Wish me luck!

*I now have this sentiment on a post-it stuck to my laptop keyboard, on a scrap of paper by my desktop monitor, and a "sticky" on my laptop's background. I've had multiple people inquire about it, praise it, and say that they want one for themselves. I should sell t-shirts...

Indiana Weather: It Means It.

I couldn't tell you how much sleep I got last night. I tossed and turned, dreams melded with being wide awake in the dark. I felt hyper enough to be up and at 'em at 6, then my alarm was going off for 7 only 2 seconds later.

It was a rough night.

I went in to Starbucks, found my boss, and asked "Is it too late to say 'no, I don't want to work at 8 in the morning?'" She said yes, and I said oh, and the day went on.

The day included snow! First it was the saddest, most pathetic Charlie-Brown snow you'd ever seen. Sad little flakes that didn't add up to anything.

I left a little after 6 because the sky had turned white, visibility was beginning to look hazy, and I was afraid of it getting cold enough to freeze.

It's still snowing. Big ol' wet snowflakes. Ick.

I got some writing done, although not nearly as much as I would have liked. I think I just work better when I don't have work-work. My current word count is 8,112; ideally it would be 8,335. I'm not that far off, but I just had a hard time concentrating.

In case the rambling nature of this post wasn't enough proof for you.

Tonight is a raid night, although I'm not participating. I may spend the evening poking at other photography projects, or I may try to plug in my ears and unplug my internet and bang out those last 223 words. Meh. We'll see.

Tomorrow is another day off. Ryan has work at 9:30, meaning we'll be getting up at 8:30. There's an area write-in at Indulgences, a pastry shop a few minutes away that has caught my eye before. It's only from 8 to noon, so I'd get 2 1/2-3 hours at best, but still. An excuse for a pastry shop and a write-in with, at the very least, my super-cool municipal liaison? Sounds good to me!

Wish me luck!

7,729!

Despite having missed an entry yesterday, I have to make this a fast post, as dinner will be ready minutarily. It's a word now.

Yesterday was a bust for writing, but today netted me over 3,000 words, bringing me grand total as of tonight to 7,729. I'm pretty pleased with that number, and with how it's going, although I am always fearful of running headlong into a brick wall of writer's block.

Having today off was really the key. That and caffeine. I went to my Starbucks and settled down for 7 hours, downing an iced grande eggnog chai, grande no water 5-pump Earl Grey tea latte, and a grande no water 5-pump Awake tea latte. All nummy, all incredibly helpful.

In unrelated news, I have to get up early tomorrow, and thus go to bed early tonight. Whee!

Tomorrow is 8 to 2, with writing to follow. Saturday is my second day off this week, and will be spent in a similar fashion to today, without the having to go to bed early as I don't have work until noon on Sunday. Again: whee!

And now, I have a bacon-wrapped, brown sugar and garlic powder seasoned, dee-licious chicken breast to get to. Night!

(More Recommended Than Previous)

How to write a novel (NO, REALLY):

1) Get enough sleep.
2) Get the hell out of bed.
3) Get the hell out of the house.
4) Get yourself some caffeine.*
5) Unplug from the world.
6) Motherfuckin' write.**

*This step is optional. Unless you skipped step 1. In which case, double step 4.

**In some cases, such as writing or poisonous-snake-wrangling, harsh language is not only allowable, but necessary for mental survival.

I am feeling good about this.

The daily word "requirement" to hit 50,000 by the end of November is 1,667. Today I wrote 1,877. Go me!

It really feels good to finally be allowed to sit down and write. It feels fantastic, even when I'm thinking that what I just wrote needs a complete rewrite. In fact, not rewriting is the second hardest part (the first hardest being the parts of the day when I can't write). I even have a sticky note on the background of my laptop that states, in big letters: "Remember: It's Novel Writing month, not Novel REwriting Month."

It's hard to remember.

In other news, my legs and back are...better? Two days ago it hurt to walk, yesterday it only hurt when I used my thigh muscles for "hard" work (sitting, standing, crouching), today it only really ached when it got busier and I was running around the store. However, the base of my spine was twinging on and off, and at one point I stretched so hard that I made myself dizzy. So, yeah, need to get around to calling that chiropractor!

I'll end this entry on a disgusting note: my second-to-last customer of the day was two (2!) venti 15-pump 6-shot white mochas. TWO. Between the syrup, espresso, and whipped cream on top, there was maybe a half-inch of steamed milk in each cup. The shots alone cost almost $3 per drink.

And with that teeth-rotting thought, I bid you good night! Wish me luck tomorrow!

(Not Recommended)

How to write a novel:

1) Get up as early as you can stand it in order to get to your Starbucks early and get some hours of writing in before work.
2) Take a hella long time to shower, prep your bag, dress in normal clothes, and altogether get ready because you're still exhausted.
3) Leave late, guaranteeing yourself not even an hour of time between arrival at your Starbucks and your start time.
4) Arrive at your Starbucks and immediately remember that you left your work shirt at home.
5) Pull out of the parking spot you just pulled in to, drive home, change, drive back, and arrive with only 5 minutes to spare before work.
6) Cry.

Actually, today was pretty much okay. I'm hormonal, exhausted, and frustrated with how my kick-off went last night, but I had great co-workers and a fairly good work flow going. I promise, I didn't actually cry.

Now I'm home, and I'm planning on getting more sleep tonight, and I know I can get to work hours early tomorrow, and I have over a thousand words already, and I'm feeling pretty optimistic. Tired, hungry, and cranky, but still...optimistic.

Tomorrow is another day.

Last Post of the Old Year...

Today is Halloween. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.

I had to do some fast-and-dirty research on Samhain, what with a full time job and gearing up for NaNo and catching up on sleep. What I took away from the research was that it's about two things: endings, and beginnings. Honoring the ones who have gone before, reaping and taking stock; starting new things, looking forward. Finding the beginning in the ending.

Tonight I'm putting a bowl of olives, a glass of wine, and something colorful for my beloved dead, and say a little prayer. Then I start writing my novel, for National Novel Writing Month and for myself. If I can find the dedication for this, I can keep going and be the writer that I want to be. Call myself a writer and not feel like a fraud.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life.

Wish me luck!

Zip!

I'm writing this one kind of late, so here are the highlights:

[o] legs still hurt, especially right one. Both feel like I've done hundreds of lunges, which, I assure you, is not the case.
[o] got Ryan some new shoes and insoles...although the shoes had to be ordered and won't be in until Thursday or Friday. Still! Non-feet-hurty shoes! Yay!
[o] I got a watch that doesn't make my wrist feel like it's being stung by bees! Yay!
[o] got some Christmas shopping done! WAY early! Woo!
[o] watched a few episodes of Dexter, I'm almost caught up with Ryan on season one. Great show on writing, story, and psychology.

Tomorrow is Halloween, Samhain, and my last day of freedom before the official start of NaNoWriMo. I am excited for all three of these things. Sadly, I wasn't able to find the exact candy I wanted to hand out to my customers, but I still found a good variety pack, so I'm looking forward to being the candy fairy! Whee!

Night all!

Nothing You Can Sing That Can't Be Sung.

Day off! Woo hoo!

A lot of my plans for today just all-out failed. Going for a walk was scratched due to my right leg still feeling shaky and untrustworthy. I agree with Ryan that it's probably due to the limp I had from the back ache, leading to heavy leaning and such. I promised Mom that I would see a chiropractor. That's on the to do list for next week.

Going to the bank with Ryan's paycheck panned because I forgot to have him sign it before I left Target, and he worked until past closing time. D'oh. He's signing it tonight, and I'm making a special early trip to deposit it and get out rent money before the bank closes tomorrow.

Laundry and cleaning didn't happen because...well...I didn't feel like it.

Still, it's been a good day.

Fantastic light flooded through the window and onto my desk this morning, inspiring me to break out the camera and the marbles that David sent me. I got some good pictures out of the "session," which I spent parts of the afternoon and evening playing with. Not all the pictures were great or even usable--I'm still very hinky with indoor light settings--but I was still so pleased with the good shots, and with making them look good with Photoshop, that I made myself a little sign that says "I AM GOOD AT THIS" and have it propped up by my monitor.

Ryan likes it.

I also watched a movie tonight--Across The Universe, a musical/historical/romantic movie about an American girl and British boy that fall in love during the Vietnam war, with music from The Beatles used to highlight, frame, and otherwise awesome-ize the story. The last scene was my favorite (although Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite was fanfreakingtastic), leaving me to wonder how I haven't claimed All You Need Is Love as my theme song before now.

By the way. It's mine now. You can't have it. Nyah.

Tomorrow is not only another day off, but it's a day off with Ryan. Happy dance! We're getting him new shoes (as his old ones are breaking and causing him immense foot pain), and hopefully fixing my watch issue...that issue being that I bought one today, and I really like it, but the band drives me nuts.

It should be another good day. Then it's Halloween, then I can finally WRITE! :D

...whee!

Ugh/Mmm.

Uuuuugggghhhh.

I'm just home from work. I have tomorrow off. And Saturday. Two. Days. Off.

I love my job, and I love my co-workers, but I think we could all stand this little break from each other before stabbing happens.

Today was gloomy, gray, wet, cold, and ugh. Drive-thru was a monster for the first half of my shift, and then...dead. Just dead. Five partners, nothing to do. The floors and counters were clean, the fridges and cases were stocked, the dishes were done, everything that could be done before closing was. And no customers.

But because of the earlier rush, we were over our "customer count" or whatever, so cutting labor wasn't an option.

UGH.

I have my vanilla steamer, and I'm ready to climb into pajamas, boil myself some frozen pasta, and wait to leap about like a happy sprite when Ryan arrives home. Then we'll settle down on the couch to watch some recorded Alton Brown, and I can slowly drift into Day Off land, and all will be right with the world.

Mmm.

Ergh.

Well...today was...

...


...long.

Got a call a little after 7 in the morning. It's M calling from my store. I'm not scheduled until noon, but K called in sick, when can I get there. o.O

I agree to 10:30, when A leaves, M is pleased, I go back to bed around a quarter after 7...forgetting that Ryan's alarm is set for 7:30 so he can be at work by 8:30.

Finally get back to sleep around 8:45...my alarm goes off at 9.

Go into work. Work is...work. Ergh.

Around 1:30, my back starts hurting. I mentioned a random pain a few days ago? That, except changed. Instead of shooting up from my shin to my butt every step, it's just a constant pain in my lower back that walking and standing aggravates. Except it keeps changing--first weight helps, then it hurts, then it helps, then it huts, ERGH.

J finally convinces me to go home at 4, so labor hours won't be too bad, plus the fact I'm limping around the store.

It's been better since I got home. I spent some time on the living room floor, flat on my back with an "ice pack" (popsicles wrapped in paper towels) on the painful spot, and it seems to be all better. I can feel it wanting to twinge again, but it's behaving itself, so...yay.

Especially yay since we have to spend money on at least two doctor visits in the next month, plus new glasses for Ryan. WOO!

I am extremely tired, and thankful that I don't have work until 1 tomorrow. Hopefully I don't get another call asking to come in early. If I do...I'm not sure what my response will be. Hopefully not a growl.

Not A Pretty Process, But Hopefully A Pretty Product.

My horoscope for this week, courtesy of Free Will Astrology:


Have you ever seen the edible fungi known as truffles? They are bulbous, warty clumps. Because they grow underground near trees, specially trained pigs and dogs are needed to sniff out their location. In parts of Europe their taste is so highly prized that they can sell for up to $6,000 per pound. In my opinion, the truffle should be your metaphor of the month this November. I expect that you will be in the hunt for an ugly but delectable treasure, or a homely but valuable resource, or some kind of lovable monster. Halloween costume suggestion: a Frankensteinian beauty queen or underwear model, a rhino in a prom dress, a birthday cake made of lunchmeat.


So, November will be spent in search of something both desirable and undesirable. All I can think about, in response to this, is NaNoWriMo.

What I love about NaNo is that it's basically a challenge to anyone who keeps saying that they want to write a book...someday. It's a combination of a calling out and an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. Writing a book, from what I've seen and heard, is ugly and hard and frustrating and painful...but if you're really meant for it, it's unavoidable, it's an addiction, it's a release.

One of my favorite quotes about writing (apparently said by Walter Wellesly "Red" Smith, whoever he may be) puts it better I can:

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."

And that's what I'm looking forward to in just one week. Opening a vein, letting loose the flood that's been building up over the past month of heavy-duty story planning. This week will be lots of psyching up, stoking my excitement until I'm up at 3 AM Sunday night, typing away like a madwoman.

*grin*