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 |  My American Notebooks |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** When Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing, he kept a series of journals, The American Notebooks. They were part daily journal, part diary, but mostly a place for him to jot down and try out bits of writing he hadn't a full venue for yet. He kept character sketches, odd bits of conversation, and observances he wanted to remember for future writings in his notebooks. This, then, is my place for odd bits I want to remember. When you read this, keep in mind, you are rummaging through my mental storehouse. Check out:
And don't forget to vote for your favorite blogger each month. 
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| Happy Samhain to those Wiccan friends out there. Halloween wasn't always the commercial holiday that it is today. Many years ago it was one of the most sacred holy days on the calendar for several cultures. The Catholic Church took it's All Saint's Day of November 1st directly from the pagan calendar, as it did so many other of its holy days. All Hallow's Eve was still celebrated by believers, though. Although the Wiccan religion is reletively new, its tenets and beliefs are based on ancient pagan practices. Many of the holy dates were celebrated centuries before Christ was born. Samhain is a Gaelic word that means "Summer's End." It was celebrated by the Celts as the end of the Celtic agricultural cycle. Herds were thinned through ritualized slaughter. Herdsmen believed that by slaughtering the weak and feeble, they were saving them from the cruel upcoming winter. Farmers would also be sure to collect the last of their crops before Samhain, maintaining that anything left in the fields after that night was unfit for consumption as it had been touched by fairies and other beings that had slipped through the veil between the worlds. It was a night of endings, a night of death. The night the sun God died only to be reborn to the moon Goddess on Yule in December. The costumes we now wear came about because people started wearing them so as to confuse the wandering spirits. They didn't want the spirits to follow them home or know them. And now? Now we give out buckets of candy to children in hopes that they won't egg our car.  |
| Tonight is date night with Monilad. That means Metal Mania and tonight our snack is pomegranites. Yum! I was never an Iron Maiden fan back in the day, but the more I watch/listen to their music the more of a fan I am. As far as I can tell, most of their lyrics are narrative poems about historical events. My personal favorite is "Charge of the Light Brigade." I've also decided that there is a reason Ozzy is the King of Rock. He's incredible. I love his haunting lyrics. He has evocative melodies, too. They catch in your head and just rattle around, reaching every corner of your mind. He doesn't have the smoothest of voices, but somehow that makes him more real, more gritty. I've been a fan of his for years. Monilad has discovered Jon Bon Jovi, the early years.  She likes his current music, but LOVES his old stuff. I myself am a lover of Bon Jovi music, new and old. But my all time favorite band then and now is still the Scorpions. I'm not sure what it is about those Aussies, but I love their music. Monilad laughed at me tonight when I told her that I used to listen to them really loud when I was pregnant with her and she would kick when the bass would thump loudly. She's been a Metal Head since before she was born. It's funny. They other day at my work, one of my coworkers cursed in front of several of us after closing as we were counting our tills. My manager got on to her, telling her not to use language like that, especially in front of me. (The other two girls were 23-25 like she was.) I started laughing. "Will, I've heard and said much worse than that. She didn't offend me." "But you seem kind of...middle class, church going mom." I just laughed at him. The truth is I'm a crazy, alcoholic, middle age metalhead who cusses like a sailor. I haven't been in a church in almost four years. I guess all of us present different faces to the world. I suppose I should be glad I'm out there passing for normal. ~shrug~ But if I'm concealing things so well, it makes me wonder about some of the skeletons my co-workers might be hiding.  |
| I met with two local gals at my library today. It was possibly one of the coolest, weirdest things I've ever done. I'm an introvert and don't get out much. I tend toward hiding in my basement writing. Tonight, I jumped out of my comfort zone and met two total strangers from the internet. Neither one is from WDC, they are just fellow NaNo'ers. The one girl has been in touch with someone official, because we got official handouts! It was so awesome!!  The even cooler part was sitting in an actual room taking about writing with two strangers who GOT it. We talked about plot devices, cardboard characters, realistic villians, authors who rely on deux ex machina to resolve impossible plot holes. It was incredible and wonderful and I'm hooked. We weren't in a class, no one was getting a grade, no one argued hatefully, there was just a wonderful exchange of information and ideas. I  it. Can you tell?  I guess I need to climb out of my basement more often. My plot is coming along nicely. I think I may have spackled the larger holes in it. If I could just do something about the tricky ending. The tricky bit being that I haven't got an ending. I'm writing this entry from bedside Large Print Fiction section F-K. After meeting my new friends, I stayed at the library to get some uninterrupted writing time. Some time with no, "Mom, do you know where my...?" And, "Honey, were you gonna watch ____ with me?" Our library is fabulous. There is a coffee shop attached, so I got a decaf Raspberry Vanilla Latte, came in, found a nice comfy wingback chair next to a nice table and an outlet and I'm off and running. I had to swipe Hubby's comp for the night, but I have permission to do that for the forseeable future. He has big visions of me writing the next bestseller and him not working anymore. So he's very supportive. LOLI brought earphones and I'm plugged in listening to XM radio, too. So it's like I'm in my own world. FABulous! Well, since I'm here supposed to be writing, I'd better get to writing. Hugs all round. Be sure to stop by and give Nanette love. She's under the weather. PastVoices  |
| I have a terribly short memory. If something is not immediately on my plate, then it hasn't happened to me. I suspect we are all a bit like this. Consequently I have forgotten many of the things about writing a novel that I thought I'd never forget after last year. I forgot that: 1) Your story never leaves you. You think about it constantly. You think about it in the shower, while you clean the kitchen, while you are driving to work, when you are trying to get to sleep, when you are supposed to be working, when you are supposed to be making out with your husband. (I jumped up and grabbed my notebook and jotted some notes down. Yeah, kinda killed the mood. )2) Your characters have more depth and you want them to have more life and backstory than just some plain old character in a short story you are dashing off for the Writer's Cramp. You give them religious backgrounds and resumes. You give them older brothers in North Dakota and Aunt Edna's in Fresno. They take on a life of their own. They become like people you know and could call up on the telephone. 3) You start counting down to the first day of NaNo like it's the freaking moon landing. I've started cramming outlining and character sketches like there's a final exam being given November 1st and I am afraid I won't have studied hard enough. 4) My family is already tired of the excuse, "Not tonight, I need to write." 5) I've started planning the week's meals based on what nights I'll be writing. Hmmm, how many nights can I serve casserole before the family boycotts me? Maybe I can start bribing Monilad into cooking more often. Thursday I go meet with other Bozemanites who are also NaNoing. I'm kind of excited, but kind of freaked out. I've only ever written with you guys. I'll have to step out of the bubble.  I also discovered a WDC'er who is from Bozeman. We are planning to meet. She's NaNoing. So that will be cool and not as weird as meeting other writers. I'm such a freak. |
| Since I'm gearing up for NaNo, I decided to watch my favorite two writing movies. Stranger than Fiction and Finding Forester to get into the writing mood. If you haven't seen them, Fiction stars Will Ferrell as the main character, Harold Crick, an unhappy IRS agent. Emma Thompson plays a frustrated author who is inadvertantly narrating Harold's life as he lives it as a voice in his mind. He is the hero in her book, but she is experiencing writer's block. Queen Latifah plays Thompson's assistant. Through various twists and turns and with the help of a college professor played by Dustin Hoffman, Crick finally figures out who the voice in his head is and what it means. I love the movie for several reasons. It's quite a departure from Ferrell's usual slapstick roles. It's a semi-serious part that he pulls off very endearingly. But I especially love the character Thompson plays. She is a blocked, obsessed writer and in each scene you feel her wretchedness. I also love Queen Latifah's attempts to get her back on track, it's like they are out of some manual entitled "On How to Unblock a Writer." Forrester stars Sean Connery and is a touching drama about friendship. Connery plays a reclusive Pulizer winning author who never wrote a second book. Rob Brown plays a 16 year old New York streetwise kid who meets Connery accidentally. They form a strange friendship and Connery helps Brown with his writing. This is one of those movies you just have to see. I promise you will like it. What about you? Do you have any favorite movies, songs or other things you do to help pump you up if you need to write but can't seem to get inspired? I do other things, too, like watch my favorite primetime TV shows and dissect the writing in my head and sometimes on paper. It helps unstick me if I get blocked. Helps me see ways around my problem. If you watch TV series, you can see the basic structure of their hour. The main episode plot line, the episode subplots and the underlying season plot line. It works the same way for a genre book series, too. (I read a lot of genre series. Mystery, scifi, fantasy.) Writing is writing. Depending upon how good the author is, you see the seams or you don't. It's harder to hide the seams on series, I think. At any rate, I find it easier to see the seams. Am I the only weirdo who does this? |
| I've mentioned before that every morning when Monilad leaves for school, Sofie runs up and gets in bed with me. She burrows down under the covers and snuggles in with me, Midnight and Bear. It's one of my favorite times of the day. I love snuggling with the animals every morning. I mentioned, also, that it's cold and has been raining and snowing here. Every year I look forward to this time of year because it means that it's time to pull out one of my personal indulgences. Flannel sheets. I LOVE flannel sheets. I have two sets. One is tan and has little cowboys on them. The other set is blue with white snowflakes on them. The cowboy sheets are my favorite. I also have a heating pad on my bed. It's instead of a heating blanket, but the same concept; it goes on the bed under your fitted sheet. Ours has dual controls so if I'm colder than Hubby, I can crank my side up to warm and toasty while he stays cooler. The thing about the pad, though, is that it only gets warm where there's pressure on it. So the whole bed isn't warm, just where you are laying. The animals love when I turn it on during the day. They spend the whole day laying on my side of the bed soaking up the heat. (Yeah, yeah, I KNOW I'm allergic to them....but really have you not learned yet that I indulge my pets?!) Sofie has learned that when she leaves Monilad's bed, it's warm in Mom's bed. This morning, even though Monilad had the day off from school and just went back to bed after letting Sofie out for the morning, Sofie came and got in bed with me! She knew where the warm spot in the house was. I was glad she did, too. I was sad I was going to miss my morning snuggle with her. I guess she likes snuggling with me, too. Possibly she just likes snuggling with Midnight, but....I'll take it. |
| Hmmm. I got "tagged". That smacks of chain letters or one of those form questionnaire things you fill out in an email and then send along to 40 of your closest, dearest friends and nodding aquaintances. I am not as a rule someone who does that. But, in the interest of playing along, I will meet in the middle. I'll provide eight random factoids about me. 1) I don't fill out random questionnaires and send them on. I also don't pass along email jokes. 2) I must use a green toothbrush. (I have since I was a child.) 3) I collect teapots and teacups. 4) I carry an embroideried hankerchief with me everyday. I buy them in antique stores. Most have little flowers and some have lace on them. 5) I also carry a pocketknife. My dad gave it to me. 6) I used to work for Larry McMurtry. (The author of Lonesome Dove.) I'm from his hometown. I worked in his bookstore when I was in high school and college. 7) I don't like tomatoes, but I love ketchup and spaghetti sauce. I also don't mind them in recipes. (Like I don't pick them out or anything.) But I don't want them on my burger or salad. 8) My Southern Baptist family named me for Mother Teresa. My sister was named for Amelia Earhart. |
| I work with "the public." You know who you are. Sometimes I'm "the public." I try not to be, but sometimes you can't help it, you just stumble into being "the public." Today while I was working, I ran across some of my favorite members of "the public" and I knew when I got home I was going to HAVE to blog about these folks. Here's a quick list some of my favorites:  Guy comes in and says, "I think I need some help." My mental response? "Starting with your wardrobe. You look like a refuge from Jimmy Buffet's closet." He had on a Hawaiian shirt with colorful matchbooks all over it. It almost made my eyes bleed. Dude. It's October. In Montana. For God's sake it's SNOWING outside. Buy a clue. He also had on sandals with socks. ~shudder~ What makes people think that's a good look to go out in public in? He had longish hair and a full beard. He'd just given up, I think. He was probably down from Big Sky and was probably richer than God. I didn't ask. I just found him a sales person and smiled politely at him. A lot of times that's the best response for "the public." Smile and don't ask questions.Fellow came in with the mother of all combovers. I think he had some back hair in it.  It was pure silver and pulled straight forward to a little swirl at the middle top of his forehead. He looked like a soft swirl cone from Dairy Queen. It ended in a little point that bobbed when he talked. It was so shellacked with hairspray a 40 knot wind wouldn't have moved it a bit. I couldn't look away. I just stared in agast horror the whole time I waited on him. I know my distaste and sick fascination showed in my curled lip and wide eyes. It was a train wreck of a hairdo. Who the hell was he fooling with it? Besides himself? I couldn't pull off the smile on this one. Some days you can't.Younger woman, 18-22, came in to ask if we had something, I can't even remember now what it was. She was wearing a gold lamme spaghetti strap top strained beyond its limits. This was the most well endowed woman I've ever seen in my life. She had cleavage approching Grand Canyon size-proportions just hanging out in the world, on display like it was nothing. I was afraid for her to come near me. I didn't want them pointed toward me in case the tensile strength on that top lost its battle and they broke free and slammed into me. It was monstrous. I'm not a cleavage starer as a rule, but she had it out there to be stared at. I wanted to take her aside and get her a t shirt. She was frightening small children. She didn't get a smile either. Two of our salesmen came over to me after she left, wide eyed and astonished. "Were those real?" Yup. From my point of view, they looked pretty real.Guy comes today and brings $500 worth of purchases up to the counter. I ring it up. He trys to hand me a AmEx. I say, "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't take American Express." He looks at me blankly for a few seconds then says, "Well, you'll have to, it's all I've got." "I'm sorry, sir, we don't have a contract with them. I'm not set up to accept the card. Do you have a Visa or a Mastercard? Perhaps a checkbook in the car?" "NO. You HAVE to take my AmEx." My manager walks by and says, "Is there a problem?" "She won't take my credit card." "It's American Express." So my manager goes through the speech. Not set up, no agreement, simply can't take it. Sound familiar? The guy gets huffy and says, "Well, I'll just take my business over to Home Depot. They are happy to take my AmEx." My manager hits him with the parting shot. "Yes, but they don't have any of these tools you just picked out. Good luck with that, though. Have a nice day!" Then we smiled and waved him out the door. Ah, I love "the public." |
| I've had a wonderfullly lazy Sunday morning. Don't you just love those? I got up late and came downstairs to find Hubby asleep on the couch. Last night our daughter spent the night with a girlfriend, so we babysat Sofie. Or as Hubby calls her, Weinerhead. When she sleeps with us, she starts off the night plastered to my left hip hunkered down under the covers snuggled up in little ball between Hubby and I. As the night goes on, she starts sprawling out and I worry about her because Hubby rolls around quite a bit. So when he rolls toward me, I catch him and roll him back to his side, telling him, "You're laying on Sofie, roll over."So this morning when I came downstairs Sofie came down with me, ran up to Hubby and started licking him on the nose. He woke up grumpy. "Get away from me you damn little dog, I didn't get a minute's sleep because of you!"Seems she and Bear and Midnight finally drove him out of the bed at around 6 this morning. He's still napping. I woke up refreshed but cocooned. Sofie was asleep next to my leg under the covers. Midnight was asleep right next to Sofie, but on top of the covers. Bear was sprawled across Hubby's side of the bed. Between them they had me trapped in the bed. I had to wake everyone up to get out of bed. I had a leisurely breakfast and some yummy doctored coffee while I robbed Peter and paid Paul and played in our finances. I also made the unhappy discovery that we didn't, in fact, win the Powerball, so I have to go in to work tomorrow morning. Yuck. I also talked to Amelia. Her move to New Mexico went well, but she's without an internet connection for awhile. They are in a temporary apartment and don't want to hook up internet for the little bit they are gonna be there. It's too hard to go to the library during the day and wrangle Trot, so for now she's just suffering withdrawls. She said to say, "Hi!" She's getting really big with the twins. At seven months, she's bigger now than she was at nine with Trot. She says there's NO WAY she's making it the full nine at this rate. Then I sampled from the blog buffet. I love having time to really linger over entries and catch up on blogs without having to gulp them down. I giggled pretty hard over in Dave Gordon 's blog. And I got my Tara fix at PastVoices 's place. I got some wonderful homespun advice from PlannerDan . All good stuff.Monilad has a date later today and the boy has to brave Hubby when he picks her up. I feel for the poor kid. He has no idea what he's in for. The Spanish Inquisition has nothing on Hubby. I'm just glad the kid doesn't drive. Step-mom is driving them to the movies.I guess I'll finish this ramble up and head upstairs for a long soaking shower and then make our weekly grocery list. We have to go do that later. I also have to finish catching up on my DVR'd TV programs so I'll have room next week. A full but lazy day in all. I wish you all the same. |
| While researching my for my novel, I came across this website espousing the tenets of modern chivalry. There are several really good points here. http://watson-wilson.ca/ndnd/chivalry.html Administer justice. Always keep one's word of honour. Always maintain one's principles. Avenge the wronged. Avoid cheating. Avoid deception. Avoid lying to your fellow man. Avoid torture. Be polite and attentive. Be respectful of host, women, and honour. Crush the monsters that steal our land and rob our people. Defend the weak and innocent. Destroy evil in all of its monstrous forms. Die with honour. Die with valour. Exhibit Courage in word and deed. Exhibit manners. Exhibit self-control. Fight for the ideals of king, country, and chivalry. Fight with honour. Live for freedom, justice and all that is good. Live one's life so that it is worthy of respect and honour. Live to defend Crown and Country and all it holds dear. Live to serve King and Country. Loyalty to country, King, honour, freedom, and the code of chivalry. Loyalty to one's friends and those who lay their trust in thee. Never abandon a friend, ally, or noble cause. Never attack an unarmed foe. Never attack from behind. Never betray a confidence or comrade. Never use a weapon on an opponent not equal to the attack. Obey the law of king, country, and chivalry. Protect the innocent. Respect life and freedom. Respect those of the opposite sex. Show respect to authority. (Sorry it's not a list of five, Scarlett.) In reading through these, I'll have to admit, I had a few moments of embarassment. How about you? I wonder, what kind of knight would I have made? Never attack an unarmed foe. I will admit to having verbally dressed down people I know were incapable of defending themselves. Either because they were simply the rank and file in an establishment where I was angry with the service or because they were otherwise hindered from attacking me back. And I knew it when I administered the tongue lashing. Have you ever done that? Just so that you could get your say in? I try not to do it, but I slip. I admit it. Frustration is no real excuse. What about Show respect to authority.? I've flaunted that one on many occasions. Ever bashed the boss? Me, too. There are more I've had problems with, but think about what a nice society we'd live in if everyone (me included ) lived by these principles. And for the most part they are things we are taught as children. Things we all learned in nursery school. Don't lie, don't cheat, take up for the little guy, play well with others. I guess fewer and fewer people are teaching these things to their children, though. I've tried to teach them to my daughter, but what has she learned from watching me? What have I taught her by example? I hope good things, but I'm sad that I couldn't have been better.  |
| I jumped off the dock into the deep end. I just left from signing up for NaNoWriMo for November. Yea Me! I didn't have an idea, but then zwisis kindly reviewed an old manky flash piece that I've had lying about for some time. It was a piece I dashed off for "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  . The prompt was to write a piece with the theme or title "Falling Rain." So I quick-wrote "Invalid Item" . It's an intro. There's more story there, I can feel it. So, I'm using it as a spring board, since Sarah so kindly wandered into my port and dusted it off for me. Thank you again, Sarah!How about all of you? Any takers? Having done it once already, I can honestly say, it's a bit like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Everyone needs to experience it at least once. Just call me Mr. Toad.If you decide you want to give it a whirl, go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. There's also a group here on site offering helping hands. "Invalid Item" I've already submitted an app with them. They seem nice enough.At any rate it will get me out of my writing rut. Cheers! |
| Did your mom ever make you Tapioca pudding when you were a kid? Do you ever fix it for your kids? My husband loves it. My mom never made it, but my mother-in-law did. My daughter loves it, too. Even with the jeering of her peers. They call it old people food. Monilad said she doesn't care, though, they can laugh all they want, because, "Tapioca rocks!" It's so simple to make and so much better homemade. Creamier and richer. Monilad is making a batch now. We always serve it in a set of fancy Margarita glasses I have. (Monilad gets a kick out of using them, and hey, what the heck else am I gonna use the damn things for? )We had a discussion about what exactly Tapioca IS when we were deciding who was going to make it and I made the MAJOR faux-pas of suggesting adding some Chai to it to flavor it differently. So, while she makes it "the right way" , I came down to research it. Here are some of the nifty things I learned:-Tapioca pearls are made from grinding up and boiling down the large (some as large as 30 lbs) roots of the cassava plants. -Cassava plants, also known as mantioc and yucca plants, grow in South America and Southeast Asia. -The roots don't actually taste like anything. They are just a starch like potatoes. They taste like whatever you flavor them with. (That's why Tapioca pudding tastes like vanilla, milk and sugar.) -The Mayans were probably the first to discover the uses for the roots. -Some forms of the roots are actually sources of cyanide and must be prepared properly for safe consumption. The Mayans knew this and used blow darts tipped in the cyanide. Cool!Here are some cool sites I found while doing the research. I especially liked the one on Snopes. http://kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=contact_us&m=contact_us/faqview&faq_question_i... http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/tapioca.asp http://www.bubbleteasupply.com/index.php?page=what.html |
| It starts out innocently enough. You go a weekend without writing. And then come Monday, new TV shows (or season finales) are on, so you don't write. Then it turns out it's Premiere week, so really, you can't possibly be writing this week. Or maybe the high school football game is this week, or the volleyball games. The sun is setting earlier and you seem to be tired and ready for bed earlier. Going down and sitting by yourself in the basement just doesn't hold much appeal. Then, before you know it, a week, then two, then a whole month has gone by and you've stopped even visiting the site because life seems to have got you. The ideas for stories have long since dried up and even sitting in your writing chair for longer than 20 minutes is uncomfortable. I hate that. Unfortunately it happens to me all the time. I'm very good at making excuses why NOT to go write. It's easy for me to tell myself, "Oh, what I'm doing is more important. I'll write some other time." And I just disappear for days, weeks at a time. Poof. Gone. But, if you've ever done it, gone a long time without writing, I mean, and then tried to start again, you know that it's like trying to start an exercise program up from scratch. You have to stretch unused flabby muscles. Your brain is dull and the ideas are sluggish. Your fingers seem awkward and unwieldy on the keyboard. You do a lot of staring at white pages. Once you get the words down, they seem like trite and childish attemps at writing, not like what you are really capable of when you are in your stride. In shape, if you will. But, like excercise, you have to work up to the good stuff. So...here I am. Stretching my brain. Stretching my fingers. Trying to find my groove. I won't promise I won't go away again. That's what I do. But, for now, here I am. Stretching. |
| Tonight Hubby and I took a walk on the Weird side and went to a Weird Al Yankovic concert here in town. It was a lot of fun. The last concert we went to was a Dixie Chicks concert that we attended with friends. We went under protest and finally wound up walking out of it about halfway through. They were really good box seats at the Pepsi Center in Denver, too. ~sigh~ Too bad the music was crap. Anyhoo....that was five years ago, back to tonight. Tonight the surroundings weren't nearly as opulent. He played the local fairground. We were in one of the barns. It was just a bunch of folding chairs in the middle and some risers along the back wall. He and the band were set up on a small stage on one of the short ends of the barn and the crowd stretched back along the length of the building. We stood (most everyone stood for the duration of the concert - 2 hours) near the stage (about 20 ft from it) and off to the right. Right in front of a REALLY big speaker. He sang songs from his new album, "Straight out of Lynwood" but he also sang some of the old songs - much to the evident excitement of the crowd. There was tons of singing along to old favorites like, "Yoda," "Smells Like Nirvana," and "Eat It." But the crowd went crazy for the relatively newer tunes, too. "Amish Paradise," "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi", and from his new album, "White & Nerdy" and "Canadian Idiot." The real crowd pleaser was his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" titled "You're Pitiful." He performed a complicated strip to it, taking off layer after hysterical layer of clothing. One shirt was gold and glittery, another was a skeleton t-shirt. One was a pink shirt with "Atlantic Records Sucks" on it. The final t-shirt was SpongeBob Squarepants. Then he proceeded to start stripping off his pants! Underneath he was wearing white boxer shorts with red hearts on them, he also had on a pink tutu. It was hysterical, because the whole time, he was soulfully belting out, "You're Pitifulllll!" Many of his songs required somewhat elaborate costume changes between numbers, even the band changed. While they would change, little snippets of "Al TV" would play on large screens behind the stage. Many times it was Al conducting "interviews" with other singing artists. You could tell they were heavily edited actual interviews that these people had given that someone had cut to fit his hilarious questions. Most of them were roasts and some outright cruel. He trashed Kevin Federline. I thought Hubby and I were going to bust something laughing. Hubby and I both agree that his band is incredible. They have to be to be able to cover such a variety of music. And while not big fans of polka or accordian music per se, we have to admit, Weird Al wields a mean accordian, a very talented man. He also plays a passable harmonica. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The tickets were relatively cheap, so that was nice, too. There was no stupid local intro band to sit through, either. We got there a couple of minutes early, listened to some recorded music and then the band came right on and played straight through. It made a nice change in our concert going experience. If he comes to your area, I recommend the show. They put on some good entertainment. It's PG13, but your older kids could attend. We certainly would have let Monilad come. (She was supposed to get an invite from a boy, but he took his mom with him at the last minute. Ouch. Ah, the vagaries of 14 year old boys. I'm sure mom had something to do with it.) I'm including his official website, you can go there for the full story behind the "Atlantic Records Sucks" tshirt. It's actually pretty funny. There's a free music download there, too. You can also see if the Lynwood tour will be in your area should you feel so inclined as to attend. http://www.weirdal.com/ |
| Coworkers are kind of like family. You spend half of your day with them and in most cases you don't get to pick them. You are simply stuck with them. Sometimes you get lucky; sometimes you get Sarah. I have a coworker that is really trying my patience. Personally she is a very charming young (emphasis on the young) woman. Very charming and witty to boot. Apparently her charm and wit make her think she can get away with being simply the most bone-lazy person I have EVER come across. She's young, as I said, about 21 or 22, I think. And if a task is going to be "un-fun" or require an expenditure of actual effort on her part, it's flat out not getting done. If you can make the task engaging or make a game of it, she'll participate. But if it smacks of work or cleaning, she will tell you to your face, "No, I don't want to do that, someone else can do it."  Um....it's your job, honey. She goes out of her way to do other people's jobs JUST so she doesn't have to do HERS! I kid you not. I have never seen anyone put so much damn effort into avoiding work. Every day, the cashiers are required to do a few simple housekeeping chores at the front of the store to keep it looking tidy. They really are no big deal. I break a bigger sweat making my bed every day. We have to clean the glass on the front doors, sweep around the register areas, and vacuum the rugs. We are supposed to take turns doing it. Sarah hasn't cleaned the windows in several months. I haven't seen her touch a broom in nearly as long. Two weeks ago I got a little shirty with her and made her vacuum. You'd have thought I asked her to repaint the Sistine Chapel. None of the jobs takes more than five or ten minutes, tops. I actually enjoy doing them, because it's a nice change of pace. Today when I asked her which she would like to do, (because I ALWAYS give her first choice so she can't say she was stuck with something  ) she claimed that one of our floor associates had already vacuumed the rugs. So I went and looked. I came back and said, " Um, no they didn't." "Fine, whatever." She looked annoyed I'd checked up on her. "Why can't we just leave them for whoever does it tomorrow. They don't need it every day." "Sarah, I am the person who would do it tomorrow. Why would I leave extra work for myself?" (She only works every other day-she's a college student.) "And it does need doing daily. We clean the store each night so that it looks nice every morning for the customers. It's not a question of to what degree it looks bad, it's a question of how nice we can make it look. Would you like to vacuum or sweep, Mel has chosen the windows while you argued with me." She walked off in a snit and I swept AND vacuumed. I just get tired of dealing with her. I've thought of turning her in, but technically she has seniority over me. She's been there a year longer. But the other new cashiers all come to me with questions. (They call me Mom. )I think I've decided to just adopt a policy of non-agression with her. I know she's not going to do the work. SHE knows she's not going to do the work. Going to management is just going to stir up trouble. She's a charming little darling in all of their eyes who can do no wrong. If I say anything, I'm the bad guy. I don't really mind doing the work, in fact it's kind of Zen. If I could just get her to stay at the registers instead of roaming around the damn store doing other people's work and playing around while I took care of it, I think we could reach a solution. Maybe if I approached her with it..... |
| We went shopping with the money today. There were some interesting choices made. Maybe not choices I would have made, but no disastrous ones. (Our household is a democrocy. Everybody gets a vote, but Hubby is the President and does have line item veto powers. Those powers are exercisable by me when Monilad and I are shopping together. ) Today we let her get her ears pierced a second time. I also let her get the stuff to dye her hair green. If you will recall last year (or was it the year before?) she got to dye it blue for a while. Hair isn't permanent. It grows out and back. Things you do to it are reversable. I had a 6 inch rat tail when I was in high school and her father had a mohawk. ~shrug~ Who are we to cast stones? Hubby and I are now both responsible, respectible, upright citizens. We pay our taxes on time and everything. Neither of us does drugs or has done jail time. I figure green hair and extra earrings aren't going to kill the kid. Right?I have second holes in my ears and even a third piercing on my left side. (Not high up, just in a row with the other two.) It was the fashion when I was a kid. A girlfriend gave it to me for my 21st birthday. Monilad asked me for a nose stud, but I exercised my veto power and explained that facial piercings, like ill placed tattoos are CAREER CHOICES. They count against you in the wide, wide world of making a living. Nobody wants their waitress to have cheek and lip piercings. It's creepy. They don't hire people with neck and hand tatoos that look like prison tats at respectible law firms. It's just not done. She and her little friend mulled that over for quite awhile. We went to Hot Topic and got new school t-shirts. For those of you who don't have one near you, Hot Topic is a trendy, rock oriented t-shirt shop. They have Jimmy Hendricks tees, they have Kurt Cobain tees. They also specialize in tees with funny sayings and trendy cartoons, like the Simpsons. They do movie tees, too. We came away with a Kurt Cobain, a Metallica, a My Chemical Romance (current punk band), an Iron Maiden, and a cream colored one with a stylized camoflage Chewbacca on it. Ah, youth.We also went and FINALLY watched the new Harry Potter movie. Overall, we gave it a 6 out of 10. For what it was, it was good, but they left out several key plot points and we are trying to figure out how they are going to get around them. The thestrals were cool, but the lack of Quiddich disappointing. Instead of highlighing the reasons Harry felt so alone, they made him seem moody and disturbed. The story seemed choppy in places, too. As though in trying to fit a time constraint for the movie length, they just kept randomly hacking important subplots out. Not cool. It would have been better to be a little longer and have the key bits in there, especially to set up for the last two movies. They didn't seem to be keeping that in mind. (Even though I realize that they were flying blind insofar as the 7th book is concerned.) There are two books left to film, this is an epic project. They needed to keep the overall picture firmly in mind while doing their piece of it. Well done, but not as well done as it could have been. |
| I got a check in the mail today from my mother in law. Or to be more accurate, my daughter got a check. My mother in law sent it to help buy school clothes. My husband has a really good job. I have a job, it pays decently. We do alright. I mean, we aren't what you would call well off or anything, but we do alright. We get by just fine. But every year since my daughter started school, my inlaws send money for school clothes. When she was little, I never had to buy her shoes because my mother in law kept her in shoes. My daughter is the only grandchild on my husband's side of the family. And from the looks of it, she will ALWAYS be the only grandchild. My brother in law and sister in law have already stated that they aren't interested in having children and my husband and I can't have anymore kids. So Monilad is it for my in laws. She's pretty freaking spoiled. Not in a bad way, just in a, "Wow have you got it good, kid." kind of way. When we lived in Colorado, my mother in law didn't send the money, she just took my daughter and I shopping. Now we feel kind of bad because they only see Monilad about twice a year. My MIL cries alot every time they talk on the phone because she misses Monilad so much. I just feel really bad about it. So, we'll call and thank them for the money and listen to my MIL cry because she isn't here to shop with us and then my daughter and I will go off on Sunday and shop and feel guilty until Christmas when we get to do it all over again. It's a vicious cycle. |
| Last May I had a migraine that at first the doctors thought was a stroke. It's called an atypical migraine because there isn't any head pain, instead, the entire left side of my body went numb. My face went numb, too. I got an overnight hospital stay, a CAT scan, and an MRI. I also got a visit from a neruologist and a new diet. And a hefty hospital bill to pay off. All they gave me for it was an asprin. One asprin. Gee, thanks. Anyhoo, I had one again Friday night. Same thing, numb left side. I gave myself the stroke test. Chicken--If you don't know how to stroke test someone you should. Here's how: If someone is experiencing unexplained numbness in one side of their body and the OPPOSITE side of their face, ask them to perform the following simple things. 1) Stick out their tongue. Someone having a stroke will be unable to stick it straight out. It will pull to one side. 2) Say a simple sentence like, "It is sunny outside today." If they have had a stroke their speech will be noticibly slurred. 3) Raise their arms above their head. If they can't raise both arms completely over their head, there is a problem. If they fail any part of this test GIVE THEM AN ASPRIN (provided they have no allergy) AND CALL AN AMBULANCE. OK, this chicken is over. So, I passed the test, gave myself an asprin anyway and woke my husband to tell him what was going on. I figured I'd cover my bases. I sucked up and went on with life. You can't just lay down, right? I went to work Saturday, but I felt bad (I was still numb. So numb I couldn't drive my stick shift car.). They other girls felt bad and sent me home early. The numbness finally wore off late Saturday night. Hubby wants me to take it easy, so he went grocery shopping without me today. Normally it's something we do together. He pushes the cart and asks me piercing questions like, "Do we really need that?" I shop.Usually if he has to go alone, he gets simple things like milk and bread. Easy peasy. Today was a complicated list filled with things like laundry detergent. Quick, right now. Men, what kind of detergent does your family use? Could you go buy it with out three phone calls to your wife/significant other/roommate? What about floor cleaner? What type of cleaner does your carpet shampooer use? Which brand of bratwurst does your family eat? What type of milk does your family drink? 1%? 2%? Full bodied? Do you know? With hormones or without? Shopping is harder than you think. There are thousands of decisions to make if the family is going to make it to the end of the week with food, not to mention deodorant and shampoo. And I didn't even give him the list of meds we needed. That brings a whole different level of complexity to the shopping. It's hard. Poor man. I sent him out there alone with nothing but a list he got read to him over the telephone. He's already called for help three times. It's good to be appreciated. |
| Several of you have left me nice messages. Thank you. I know I've been a virtual no show all summer long. I guess I'm still sitting out here on the edge of sanity and not dealing wtih 2007 very well. I'm not sure what it is about this year that I can't seem to get a handle on, but for some reason, mine keeps falling off. My daughter has a new therapist and we really like her. She sometimes does sessions with both of us and one of the things she talked to us about recently was the fact that we are so close. Her basic opinion was, "Yea. Now both of you go out and get OTHER friends."Only she said it nicer. I guess I never really though about it much til she pointed it out, but I don't have any in person friends. I have my husband, my daughter, my mom (who lives 700 miles away) and my sister (who lives in Maine). And I have you guys. Who live all over the freaking globe. It's not like I can call any of you up and say, "Hey! Let's go catch the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow afternoon, what say?" Don't get me wrong. You guys basically kept me out of a sanitarium this winter. But the drive to your house for coffee is a bit much. I love you guys. Alot. But since we moved to Montana four years ago, I never went out and found girlfriends. I have totally isolated myself. And I don't know why. It's starting to catch up with me. My anniversary weekend, sitting all alone by myself, I realized that I was jealous of my daughter because she was out having a life and I was sitting at home alone with nobody to play with. Pretty sick, huh? So I went to work and asked some of the women I work with out for dinner next week. I've got to start somewhere. Work is a logical starting place. I guess we'll see if I can scrape together some normal and find some friends. Hell, at this point I think I'd settle for running buddies. My bipolar is running pretty rampant right now and I'm having trouble fitting in with the straights. I missed about a week and a half of work over my hip. (It sucks getting old. I've got bad bursitis in it and sciatica in my back.) I don't wanna lose this job. Yesterday my manager was telling me that they want me to get special training. I was all, "Oh yeah?", thinking the worst. But he's pretty jazzed and on the up and up. Seems they have a special line of high end door fixtures that they need me and two or three other "handpicked" employees to get the 411 on so that we can sell them to people. OK. At that moment I had one of those time stoppage, life flash in front of your eyes, episodes. I've led an interesting life. I really have. I've worked in a bookstore, been a waitress, been an office manager, a international accounting assistant, done payroll for a company of over 200 people. I've taken phone orders for offender ankle monitors; I've been a receptionist for a vet. I've got a checkered and colorful past. No, really. Those were just some of the highlights that leap to mind. I can drive a bulldozer, a backhoe, a concrete mixer and a front end loader and convert dollars to yen. But I'm about to get a certificate to hang on my wall that certifies me an authority on fancy doorknobs and drawer pulls. I'm talking $1500 doorknobs, here. As I stood there listening to Harry ask me about it, one little voice in my head told me, "No knowledge is ever wasted. Any day in which you learn a new thing is a good day." Another little voice asked me, "Exactly which decision in my life led me to this particular junction? And could or should it have been avoided?" I'm still struggling with those questions. In the meantime, can I interest you in new kitchen drawpulls? We have some nice nickle plated ones in a pretty brushed satin finish.  |
| Here it is August 5th. The summer is almost over. School starts in three weeks. My baby starts high school then. I'm really not ready for that. Two days ago was my eleventh wedding anniversary. It was pretty low key. Hubby and I went out to a nice dinner and then instead of the movie we had planned, we agreed that we were too old and tired to stay out that late. We went to the movie today instead. A strange little postponed date. Datus interruptus, if you will.Monilad left Friday night to go stay with a girlfriend, she's been gone since. We've been dogsitting Sofie since then. She gets upset at night when it's time for bed and Sissy (Monilad) isn't there in THEIR bed. Sofie doesn't want to sleep with the Momma and the Alpha Male. Midnight loves having her romping buddy in our room at night, though. Hubby has to get on to them in the middle of the night, telling them off about playing and crashing around on the covers instead of sleeping. Last night Hubby had to work late, so I was all alone with the animals. I made frozen pizza and then watched Ghost Rider on PPV. It was ok. Not my favorite new movie. I didn't feel like it was a total waste of time, but I'd have been mad if I'd spent the money at the real theater. Today's movie was The Bourne Ultimatum. We enjoyed it alot. Hubby is already talking about wanting another in the series. It definitely kept us on the edge of our seats. I've never read any Robert Ludlum, but I really enjoy the movies. I think I'm going to check out the books when I go to the library on Tuesday. Hubby has gone off to play golf and Monilad is still at her girlfriends. So I'm home alone with the pets again. I'm off now to watch the premire of The Company on TNT. It's a new series about the start of the CIA back in the day. I hope it will be good. Hope y'all's summer is more exciting than mine. |
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