A Twist of Things to Come

My smart phone has a brain. I know this because it apparently has epilepsy. Most of the time it's fine, and then it has a seizure and is just all over the place. One of its fits interrupted a call with hominysnark this evening.

A nice reboot or battery-removal/shutdown/restart every so often seems to put it to rights, but heaven only knows how long that will last.

***

I keep feeling like I've forgotten or misplaced something, but what it is that my Beloved is not here. I miss him quite intensely. It's almost comical.

We will have been married 20 years this year, and I still get twitchy if I can't touch him. Just to be able to walk into the next room and hug him would be fabulous. But, he will come home for a visit in the next few weeks, I hope. *sigh*

***

The boys encouraged me to have people over, so Sunday night I had my friend W. over, while her beau (my BIL) played video games with my progeny. I finally got her to watch "The Great Game" and was gratified when she said it was much better than the other two episodes (which she liked okay), and made her want to watch more. So I've infected another one. :D

Also, some of you may know that splix (a BNF from TPM fandom as well as various Viggo Mortensen and Sean Bean centered fandoms) is now a well and truly converted fan of The Bandersnatch, but did you know she started a community called cumberbatch_fic?

Well, she has. :)

***

I'm trying rally hard not to be too political, but this Jezebel headline was just too funny:

Rush Limbaugh Continues to Insatiably Screw Self as 12th Sponsor Flees

Heh.

Not that I think this will succeed in shutting his flap, but it is kind of funny to watch him dig the hole he's in even deeper. With his tongue. And then have the nerve to look surprised about it.

I don't know. The world may be changing. I hope that the high level of guano-crazy that has infiltrated what passes for national discourse in America lately may be enough for the sane and reasonable among us to stand up and hit the brakes. If it doesn't happen soon, we may be in need of an American Spring.

Last night, I had some! All I remember is that there was a kitten, and it was important. People were out to get me, but I had to save the kitten. Woke up achy and hot/cold.

Still met Mer at Joey K's for lunch. OMG, such good food! I still don't feel right, but it was cool to see Mer again, because she's so much fun. She has the best tattoo artist, right here in town. I've wanted a tat for some time, but I want to do it to mark a milestone. I mean, lots of things have left their mark on my body just as a matter of course - learning to ride a bike, having kids, pulling things off high shelves without a step ladder - but I think it would be really cool to have a mark that is meaningful to me, and not just as a consequence living life. Still have not decided yet.

I'm a very lucky woman. Despite being admittedly kind of dull on the outside, I have the most interesting, fascinating and wonderful people in my life. I'm like a magpie, with a whole collection of cool, shiny friends tucked away in my secret heart. I am blessed.

Oh, and just down teh street from Joey-K's was a T-shirt shop that had this:

http://www.wearyourstory.com/atticus-finch.html

I'm almost embarrassed by how much I wanted it. :D There was also a baby onesie that said, "Mom and Dad found me in a King Cake." Only in NOLA, baby.

It's still so *hot.* I mean, highs in the low 90s isn't that bad, but I'm ready for mid-80s

First off, BoingBoing is crowdsourcing The Funny. That is awesome, and very amusing.

Jezebel reviews a book that makes me happy. Turns out all that 'women's brains are better/worse at X' is not supported by science.

Crazy video that my youngest is totally infatuated with but sounds a lot like conversations at our house sometimes. *snrk*

***

I've been reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, and "Brief Lives" made me cry. My experience of comics is limited, I admit, but that never happened before.

***

Big Boy had a better day today. Yesterday he was monosyllabic and grumpy. Today he's just grumpy.

***

I'm losing weight. I started paying attention to what I eat... maybe a month ago or longer, and I've lost six or seven pounds. The first three or so came off quickly, but I think I'm averaging about a pound every ten days or so now. I think that is slow enough that my hair shouldn't fall out. (When Big Boy was weaned, back in the day, I dieted and worked out to lose my baby weight, and lost 40lbs in two months. Three months later, my hair was so thin it couldn't hold a clasp at the nape of my neck, and I had to cut it all off while the brand-new baby hair came in. Aside from being kind of dumb and unhealthy, it was darned inconvenient.)

I have not noticed a difference, but my Beloved says he has. *shrug* I just want to get back in my sexy clothes. ;) The good news is that it does not appear to be coming off my bust. *snork*

***

I had a great idea today, but it may be next week before I can make my idea a reality. I have to develop a process, see. ;) It may not have great results, but it will be fun. :)

The writing circle went really well. Of the pieces we discussed, all were competent (at the very least) and two were well-written (but not so stunning that they seemed to have no need of a group). In other words, we were there to learn, all of us -- to get reactions and see how we were doing. (Well, except for one guy, fresh from Afghanistan with a hard mil scifi epic under his arm, which he described as an AK47 while telling me my story was more about feelings (from the three paragraphs I read aloud as a refresher, since he had *just* joined and had not received any of our work in advance).

That really amused me. I was less amused by the nice organizer, who came dubiously to my defense saying that we all have different styles, from Hemingway to Joan Collins. (I got the impression she preferred Hemingway, whom I only read when I could not avoid it for coursework, and whose stories tended to bore me until we got to the "thematic dissection" phase of lit class on them. I confess I really enjoyed Freudian criticism of his work, and not because I thought it had much validity.) I have never read Joan Collins, but I suspect she uses adjectives and adverbs. I try to avoid adverbs, but have no issue with adjectives, as long as they are not overused. (I mean, really? Adjectives are bad, now?) I probably have a higher tolerance for adjectives than the group's leader.

In any case, not having read any Collins, I wasn't sure how to take the comparison. Except I'm very glad not to be like Hemingway. SRSLY.

***

Had a long talk with hominysnark afterward. She asked incisive questions. Considering my past writing group experiences (crazy stalker men, sulky teens, early stage ESOL folks, and one guy who shoved a shotgun full of commas and shot his manuscript with it repeatedly), I was glad that the subs didn't suck and that no one was mean or creepy to me or anyone else.

So, when she said, "But will this group help you do what you want to do?" I had to think about it.
( Details below the cut to spare the disinterested. )

It was good to realize, yet again, that I can take criticism, and even better to realize that I can distinguish what is useful and incisive from what is personal taste, even when the critter cannot. So, baby steps.

***

Also, I am about to turn 41, and have finally reached the place in my life where I really don't give a flying fig whether everyone 'likes' me. Not everyone is going to like me, and it's not my job to make them. Life is too short for that crap.

***

My Beloved brought me a homemade waffle plate with blueberry compote in bed. (All of it he made from scratch, using fresh blueberries a co-worker picked and gave him.) Then he let me go back to sleep. When I woke up, he took me shopping for new summer dresses (my choice, since my birthday is this week). Hooray for Macy's One Day Sale. Once again I ended up with dark colors, but they are comfy like pajamas and look nice.

I am the luckiest beeyotch in Christendom.

But, I still got my words in. I think they were even very good words, full of lovely things going on and only one really lovely thing I didn't expect. So that's pretty good.



and overall:



***

We had a good visit with the in-laws. We ate out a lot more than I would have liked, and did lots of fun, touristy things. I couldn't get them to Big Boy's school's Crawfish Boil, but we went to Middendorf's. There are shrimp boats that dock right next to the place, so I ordered the peal and eat boiled shrimp, which was incredible. So, I still got to rip the head off something and eat it. ;)

This is shaping up to be a busy week for all of us, but I'm going to do my best to get everything done, for everyone. Oy.

The weekend was mostly lovely, though I wished I could have been in Georgia for darlingviolenta's birthday party, and there were a few crossed wires on the social front around here. Still, it was a red-letter weekend in a lot of ways. That makes it kind of weird that I'm in such a terrible mood today. *sigh* Go figger.

At least things are bouncy at GC, starting off the week with Pearce's timely article on Google vs. Italy. This will be an interesting thing to watch, just to see how things develop.

***

I wrote jack squat over the weekend, mostly because I got myself stuck in a plot hole on Friday. I'm torn between trying to plug ahead with something I know I'll have to re-write anyway, and straightening it out before I move ahead. I think if I'm not clear on what happens here, the whole last half of the novel will be off in a major way (not the little details but the whole thrust of the thing).

And whenever I start thinking about it, or trying NOT to think about it, scenes from Boyhouse that I have yet to write start banging on the back door of my brain.

Desk. Apply directly to the forehead.

Still, I did get a lot of revision done - mostly little things and some scene Tetris. Not altogether bad. I tried talking out the plot situation with the hubby, because he really wanted to help, but that didn't work very well.

Nothing for it but to keep plugging ahead, I guess.

I'll start with the fandom bit. Up at GC we have Nightsky's lovely con report from Gallifrey One, G1 Means Big Fun.

I followed her tweets during the con and was most jealous, even for a relative Who Newbie like myself (only familiar with the re-boot and Tom Baker). She talks about the male/female mix of fandom in different countries, which is fascinating, and the proliferation of femme Doctor costumes, which is even moreso.

***

As far as death goes, two of the hubby's employees lost their dad this week (they are sisters) and he's going to the funeral, which kind of scraps our plans for Saturday (which is really fine by me). Sometimes it's really hard to juggle social obligations, but I'm not hiding under the sink yet, so I must be doing okay.

***

Life. Today I have to get Big Boy to submit his letter to the editor to his online "teacher" after a bit of a scare yesterday. Seems we couldn't find the Word file of it anywhere. We thought he was going to have to start all over today, but tragedy has been averted. It turned up. Oy.

Then, they have been invited to play laser tag this evening, and Ron has agreed to hang out with them after work so I can go have a girls' movie night with yourprecious. The only problem with that is that he rode his bike to work, so if I take the car, he'll be at the laser tag place with two boys and a bicycle. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Writing stats:


It went really well today. I'm almost to the bit I'd been imagining, and it is shaping up differently than I imagined, but still.

I mean, of course I have a life, and not just within the parameters of clinical definition. I am living, and I have a family. I've done lots of stuff for my family, including moving to a new city where i pretty much didn't know anybody. I've had a great time exploring said city with the family, but I didn't have what I would call a social life. Due to the hubby's job, we got invited to a lot of parties, but that's not the same thing.

Then last night, the kids and I got invited on an outing that would conflict with out regularly scheduled Homeschooling group activities today. I consulted with the family, and we made our choice. Then I had to call three other families -- one to confirm our plans and two others to let them know that the boys would be missing the activity scheduled for today. I needed to let them know because I suspected one boy would be sorely disappointed and wanted to schedule a make-up activity, and another call because I had told another mom I would be there, and since her son (who gets on so well with Wee Boy) has Asperger's, I KNEW advanced notice for a no-show would make her life a LOT easier.

So, for the first time since I've been here, a change in my plans required more than one phone call and a chat with the Family Unit.

I... I think I have... friends? At the very least, a social circle. How did THAT happen?

***

Writing continues. I feel it beset with suck, but I'm getting close to the good part now.



Overall:

A few high points for the weekend so far:

~Pizza (I had a lovely chicken/spinach wrap) at Rotolo's, a pizzaria owned by Brazilians. The food is great and not too pricey, it is rarely crowded (excepting the live music nights), and last night the Wee Boy hit it off with one of the servers' kids. We're going to try to meet up with them again tomorrow.

~A comment I made on Facebook that had a little bit to do with religion (and I eventually regretted it, on account of not everyone was playing nice (and I managed to put my foot in it while trying to be nice). That was at least a week or two ago. Anyway, today the son-in-law of my former next-door-neighbor (who is nice, and I like her a lot despite our differing views on relatively inconsequential minutiae, like the age of Earth and whether or not meditation is 'praying to the devil') hijacked her Facebook login to post in the thread. He proceeded to go on and on about how important it is to know why you believe what you believe and all that. I don't think he offered to pray for my soul, but I am somewhat pleased to assume that he is probably doing so right now. :) In any case, it was kind of like being set upon by myself from 20 years ago, and kind of cute.

Note: I generally avoid talking about religion, not because I don't know what I believe, but because I do. The most important thing to me is to try to behave compassionately and lovingly to others, and part of that is me NOT making fun of their deeply-held beliefs. I do not trust myself not to mock certain ideas if I go there, and people -- people I love and think highly of as well as those I rather... don't -- are more important to me than me being right or clever or what have you. You've gotta stand somewhere, and that's the place I have chosen.

Pppptthhttt!

~ Went to Tulane's homecoming game against Marshall at the Superdome. Left after the half time show (the boys were curious about the show). Tulane kind of sucks at football.<---(polite understatement)

~They played a song from Phantom of the Opera. I kid you not. Perhaps musical theater doesn't translate that well for a marching band. They had one very enthusiastic (and unusually womanly) majorette. She was awesome. The honor guard (is that what you call the chicks with the fake rifles?) did a round with the rifles, a round with flags, and then they put down the flags and put on long black capes with red lining, and sort of ... danced ballet. It was the strangest freaking thing I'd seen in a while. Then they picked up the rifles again, and the wit seated behind us said, "Watch out! The vampires are armed!" I did not LOL, but it was a near thing.

~Then to Cafe du Monde. Our favorite waitress recognized us, and served us before she left for the evening. Then we went to the French Market just before it closed. The boys bought musical instruments (Big Boy a harmonica and instructional CD and Wee Boy a kazoo). Then we walked around and bought an Indonesian ape mask for Wee Boy to wear this year at Halloween, after which we will hang it on the wall as a decoration because it is really cool. Then we watched the dancers across from the park and drove back to Uptown.

We missed out on a party we'd been invited to in Mobile (thought it was next weekend) but it's just as well.

It was a good day.

I was stressing a bit over the social aspects of the whole company picnic/crawfish boil thing. (I like crawfish -- who knew big nasty mud bugs could taste so yummy?) Of course, being the boss's wife means no one is likely to be terribly honest about their first impressions, but...

A couple of people accused my Beloved of robbing the cradle. O_O I'm a little more than a year older than he is, but the consensus put me at about nine years younger than I am. They thought I'd started birthin' them babies right out of high school, I guess.

So when the sales lady teased my darling about robbing the cradle, he confessed that I am a tad older than he is. She started quizzing him on my beauty regimen. *snerfle*

So I may not have made a good impression on a personal level (and will likely never know, either way), but they thought I was younger. I'll take it. ;)

***

Spent yesterday putting together Big Boy's Zombie Movie. It's all done except for the credits sequence, which I'll be working on today. I know I've done that section in the book, but I'm a little fuzzy on the exact procedure. I'm sure I'll manage. If I get it completed as quickly as I hope to, maybe I'll post it here. :) He was so excited to work with me on it yesterday! I really need to give him a tutorial on the software.