A Twist of Things to Come

I'm also my own worst enemy, apparently.

Thursday night I packed up my manuscript, notes and note cards about the revisions. All in a nice handy box, so I could take it with me on my trip and not have it jumbled or on the way. So organized! I go to bed and sleep the sleep of the righteous, congratulating myself on being smart, organized and ahead of the game. (Yes, I failed to use the Oxford comma. BITE ME.)

Of course, I then proceeded to drive to Georgia the next day without putting the box in my vehicle. *repeated headdesk*

Before you ask, yes. The hubby could mail it to me, BUT this trip (even with my papa paying for the gas) is going to have us close enough to over-budget for the month that shipping a box that size overnight (or even two-day) is probably useless. It would get to me in time to drive back with it, anyway.

I am a very clever enemy -- always one step ahead of myself. Heh.

I probably have enough of my plan in my memory (the one in my head, not on the computer where the draft lives) to make some progress anyway. Also it may be better for me having forgotten my notes. You never know.

But still. *head smack*

Well, I DID!

He read the last two chapters I've revised so far, and had a nightmare in which "someone with metal fingers was pulling [his] guts out."

O_O

At first was horrified and felt really bad about it. Then, a creeping happy stole over me. My hubby is a big guy, fairly tough-minded, and something I wrote pwned his subconscious!

Heh.

***

In other news, my Papa (stepdad) offered to pay our expenses to come visit him, as a birthday gift to me. I've missed him so much, and it's been since last August that we got to see him. I'm going to take him up on it, but I'm not sure when we'll leave.

That really is the best present ever. :)

In GC news, so far this week we've had Pearce's ....okay, Predators?, in which she comes to the whole Predator thing fresh and contemplates a ripped Adrian Brody.

AND! Nightsky's exciting breakdown of Comic-Con! which was evidently Femme-Geek rich in content, so much so that there are hopes of more next year. WOOT!

****

I'm finally back from der hinterland, and boy, was that a trip. It was great to see friends and family, but in my absence the hubby, who had insisted that he would 'cherish the silence' got all weird and grumpy and isolated. I came home earlier than planned.

Then Big Boy got homesick, and the in-laws brought him back earlier than planned, and spent the weekend. It was fun. We got to go to the WWII Museum, which was great. It was also very traumatic for me, because going through the part of the place and the film that dealt with the Pacific, I couldn't help but think of my Grampa Robert, who was on Iwo Jima and other places, and traumatized to the point that we were forbidden to ever ask him about the war. Once he got lost in Atlanta, and forgotten who and where he was. In his mind, he was back in the war. I don't know what happened, whether a mugging or something set it off.

The only time he ever mentioned the war was in the 80s, when the famine in Ethiopia was all the news. He said there were children starving, everywhere they went in the Pacific, and he got in trouble for giving them his food.

So, yeah. I was affected by what I saw at the museum, but I could not help but think about how the same media that helped me understand what he went through could have been very destructive to him had he seen it.

***

In other news, I got nothing accomplished on my novel while traveling -- too many people to see and too much to do. I did not escape several calls from writing group people wanting to talk about stuff. Seems they have staged a sort of revolution to set up new rules and not listen so much to the organizer. At least I was out of town for the fireworks.

I like the group, but I suspect they are all too kind to me when it comes to critiques. I suppose I have some decisions to make.

***

Soon my oldest will be going to school, and I'm all tense about it. He's not. I know he'll be fine, it's just... being a parent is tough. I mean, we all have our defenses - people strike out at us, and we can take it. Our kids can take it, too.

What they don't tell you (or maybe they try, and you just don't get it) is that having a child is like having your tender bits hanging out there, defenseless. When Big Boy was six weeks old, I realized that I would be capable of killing to defend him, and not even think about it until afterward.

He's a teen now, and I'm trying to keep the Mother Bear on a short leash, but it isn't easy.

***

So now I'm back and I'm feeling behind on everything, like nothing is getting done. But that's not true. I have stuff going forward. My novel is still almost complete, though no closer than when I left. I'm in a better place to tackle it.

I have now crossed the Mississippi River more this week than in my whole life before. *sigh* But hanging out on the West Bank has helped me focus, as it has a dearth of things to distract me. Unlike my New Orleans neighborhood.

Speaking of which, two of our nearest home school friends are moving this month. One is not going that far, but out of easy walking distance. The other will soon be on the far side of the French Quarter, just barely within the non-dodgy confines of Bywater. The latter is my older son's best friend in town, so this kind of sucks.

Still, it's New Orleans, which means *no part of it* is all that far away. *sigh*

I still love my neighborhood, though, and intend to stay put until the path to other lodgings is made clear and unavoidable.

***

Up at GC today, we have our first article by new addition Peta Jinnath Andersen, Geek up your kids with this Superhero A-Z. Let's hear it for the next generation of geekdom!

***

In somewhat less uplifting news, CBS has apparently decided to severely reduce the female characters of their hit show, Criminal Minds. One of the best things about the ensemble cast, for me, has always been the presence of competent women getting the job done. Now, they are planning to cut the character of JJ, a wonderful exemplar of a working mother who is competent, focused and successfully juggling motherhood and her career. Wonder how they'll write her out. (Yes, that's sarcasm.) The other female character looking at a drastically reduced role is Prentiss, which pisses me off even more because she's my hero. She's tough without being played mannish, smart and accomplished. Oy.

agirlnamedluna probably says it best in this post, which also has a list of places to make our ire known.

In addition to those listed by Luna, there is a campaign to send CBS lipstick as a means of protest. Since I have a bunch of old lipstick that I hate with a passion, I'm all over it. The address is listed in the link.

I'm genuinely annoyed that they think only men -- or even mostly men -- watch this show. Or maybe they just don't care, because the advertisers are not as interested in the female viewers. Whatever. F*ck you CBS. In the nostrils. With a baseball bat. Wrapped in rusty barbed wire.

Okay, maybe I'm more than annoyed.

Earlier this week, Nightsky posted about the Comic Con Documentary: Casting Call over at GC, and I totally spaced on promoting it. My bad.

***

School is essentially over. I guess I'll be putting attendance and stuff, but that is pretty much it. It's done.

I still haven't decided on camps and things for teh boys, yet. I may just let them do whatever and not do the camp thing unless there is one they really want to go to. It might be more fun to travel with them, honestly. I'm considering going places by train. As expensive as gas is and as cheap as some train tickets are, it might be the thing.

***

As soon as I whined about the writing group not being rescheduled, it was rescheduled. Like, I posted the whinge here on LJ, and *ping* came the email notice that we're back on for next week. This one is just a get-to-know-you type of thing, so I can save my writing sample for later. Still considering just starting my own group, but we'll see.

Speaking of writing, I'm making progress on the novel. It feels slow, but progress is progress, I guess. I feel good about it, and I guess I just need to get it through my head that everything I want to do does not have to be done *immediately* or I've failed. Some things take time, as hard as it is for me to admit that.

***

Just finished IWGP, sent to me by the lovable and insidious micehell. Weird and squicky and pretty and cool. *sigh*

First off, I apparently missed cristalia's birthday. :( So here's a belated Angry Cat:



Hope it was great!

***

I'm also a bazillion articles behind on My GC pimping, and the usual amount behind on my GC writing.

But here I am back in New Orleans, and today is another field trip (this one to a glass blowing studio! Woot!) So, basically, I'm going to stay behind on all that stuff, for now.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Testing is over. It amazes me how open the Wee Boy is to new friends. Several days running he was greeted like a rock star by teh kids he was testing with. One even texted him, like, eight times. Even the proctor stopped me in the atrium to tell me a story of something he said.

That boy has charisma, I tell you. My guess is he got it from my mother. It must skip a generation. *smirk*

In any case, I was a frequent visitor to a nifty coffee shop called "My Corner Office" though it was mostly to guide the kids through their online schooling for the week (so we can take next week off with a clear conscience). Long enough to get a frequent customer card and purchase enough drinks to get a free one. I tell you, they make the best mango smoothie I've ever tasted (and Wee Boy was fond of the strawberry one, too). They called me by name and chatted with me a lot, as did the other moms and dads. Even knowing I would probably never see any of them again, I allowed myself to become inquisitive and interested in them, and it helped me realize how cool people are. Some of them were quite friendly with me, too, even knowing there would likely be no pay-off for them, ever, since we're living New Orleans now.

So, anyway. People are cool. They're like big fleshy boxes full of interesting thoughts, ideas and ambitions. I could have been reserved and stand-offish, but I chose to be natural (for me) and realized that every day has its little treasures, its gifts and insights.

***

Oh, and I'm back on the novel wagon again, making with the words. Roughly 66,000 or so now, with probably 40,000 more to go. Maybe less, maybe more. I'm still terrible at guessing how many words it will take to get a story out. I usually grossly underestimate.

In any case, progress was made on Form and Void and on HMOWK, so I feel pretty decent.

***
Also, my friends who have put us up (and put up with us) this week are the best ever. So cool about letting the kids have their old friends over and stuff. I've made dinner several nights and a pie to kind of make it up to them. :)

They are yet another example of the "I have the coolest friends EVER" phenomenon.

***
I have a bunch of GC links to catch up on, too, but I'm leaving them for another post. OI!

Steph and the boys just left. *sniffle* She'll be here until Wednesday, but I'm leaving tomorrow, and when we get back she'll be long gone.

I really nearly cried, and so did she. I giggled like a fool when I met her, on account of her last name is Moriarty, and I'm a Holmes geek of old. It figures that the one mom in the home school group I was most comfortable around would be the one visiting from England for three or four months and then leaving for goodness only knows how long. Her last visit was 8 years ago.

But, she has invited me to come with teh fellas and bunk in her spare room. She has a house in London, and claims that she'll throw a party to introduce me to all her geeky friends. ;)

But right this minute, I'm blue. Tomorrow I have a huge drive ahead of me, and will be leaving my honey behind for two weeks. *sigh* I am looking forward to visiting darlingviolenta and decon13, plus a whole slew of other fun Georgia folk.

I've just got to shake it off, eh?

Went to Belly Dance and did no dancing. I was the only one, and L. needed to talk. It's been a long time since I've been an in-person confidant/shoulder to cry on for anyone. I practically had a career of it back in college, so it wasn't weird. I may be getting back to being that easy person to talk to, and I think that's a good thing.

In any case, it's been a weird couple of days, getting ready to travel for a week or two on account of testing. The boys are testing at different times (one morning and one afternoon) so I guess I'll have to find the library and have the one do his school work while the other is testing.

Wee Boy got the next-to-highest score for entrance into Lusher, but is wait listed because there are no openings at all. His place on the wait list was determined by lottery, and he's second tier.

That just means he's probably going to be homeschooling again next year, which is, frankly, a relief to me. He's done so well this year, and learned so much. I almost want to keep Big Boy home, too, but he got into Lusher's upper school, and it's the best, so we have to give it a go. He's older and there is so much he can learn there that I would have trouble teaching him at home.

Oy.

It's all drama, really. Sometimes you've just got to have faith.

***

Worked out a snarl on the novel, so that should keep me busy for a bit. HMOWK continues apace. I have no complaints.

Just when I was beginning to think that Facebook was a bad idea (I was beginning to extricate myself from the insidious games on offer there, after getting a friend request that was game-related that went something like, "My rule is, if it has tits, attack, but let's join up and be game friends." Yeah, sure, as soon as kick your balls up your digestive tract, and hell freezes over, you ninny.) I got a friend request from a person I have tried to get in touch with, off and on, for YEARS.

My Beloved and I had an old college buddy, Tadashi Takahashi, who visited us a few times when he came to the US after his schooling, but we hadn't been able to connect with him after we left Chicago. We sent airmail letters through the forwarding address he had left at the college, which we believed to be his parents' address, and once I even begged an internet friend who speaks Japanese to call his place of work (which, we discovered through internet stalking, was the Kansai seminar house) when our second son was born. She left our email address, but later we found out that our ISP routinely blocked emails from Asia.

Anyway, I'm pleased to have found him again. I forwarded his info to my Beloved right away.

***

Great weekend! We went to the swamp, which was actually quite lovely -- full of flowers (and HUGE spiders, but we won't discuss them) and wildlife. We got out and walked around Uptown together, which was nice, if hot. I learned from my darling that women in Louisiana do not sweat-- they glisten. I told him I was glistening like a pig, which made him giggle. He was very complimentary of my appearance, though, ("Prettiest girl in the swamp!") which just goes to show that he's a smart cookie.

Yesterday, we had a lovely meal with yourprecious and her fella "Circus Boy" who was adorable-- my kids adored them both, and they were very kind and indulgent with them.

Then I got to talk to my BFF via Skype when we got home. :) It was a great weekend. :)

***

Now back to real life. *sigh*