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[09 Nov 2009|08:49am] |
As regular readers of this blog know, I watch a lot of Sesame Street since I had my daughter. Before that, not so much, at least, not since my own childhood. But I am part of the original Sesame Street generation: it turns 40 this year---this week is the beginning of the new season---and I turn 40 (gulp) this coming summer. I was pretty much raised on Big Bird and Snuffy and Oscar, learning letters and numbers with them, and I love that my own kid is doing the same, now. (Although right NOW she is watching Barney, which I hate. I know, I know, that's mean. But I can't help it.) Personally, I will be THRILLED for the new season to begin, if only because we have watched all the ones from last year multiple times. As much as I love Neil Patrick Harris as the Fairy Shoeperson, and Sandra Oh as the Cookie Fairy, I'm ready for some new material. Although I never really get tired of Prairie Dawn. I just love that girl.
In other news, how much did I love Taylor Swift on SNL this weekend? I thought she was beyond fab, especially her monologue. If you missed it, it's here:
There was also a great send-up of the Twilight movie, although I kind of missed a lot of the joke because I, um, haven't seen it. I know, I know. I really should, especially with the second one about to come out, for professional research reasons if nothing else. I mean, it's a great thing when a YA book does this well. But honestly, I'm kind of suffering from Twilight burnout even WITHOUT seeing the movie. I mean, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are everywhere these days, and I feel like every time I turn around there's another series about vampires on TV or in the new releases on the bookshelf. And I am just not a vampire/werewolf kind of person. It probably makes me seem wholly unimaginative, but I like stories about real people and real life. This is why I never got into Harry Potter, either (and why my husband maintains I am a Muggle. But whatever).
Finally, on a more serious note, I'm sitting here watching a segment on domestic violence on GMA, and it's breaking my heart. They're talking specifically about teenage girls, and what they are calling the "Rhianna effect," i.e. that since she came forward and talked about being beaten by Chris Brown on Friday night, calls to domestic violence lines---and specifically teen targeted ones---went up considerably. This is an issue close to my own heart, because I wrote a book about a girl in a similar relationship, and since then I have literally gotten hundreds of emails and letters from girls telling me about their own stories with abusive boyfriends. It's a terrible, terrible thing, that this happens, and I so respect Rhianna for coming forward and shedding some bright, needed light on the subject. I was never in an abusive relationship. But several of my close friends, in high school and since, were, and they were not weak women. They were strong and smart and just got overwhelmed. It happens. But it doesn't HAVE to. There are resources and help out there. So if you need it, speak up. Tell a friend, a parent, a clergyperson, a teacher. Tell SOMEONE. Please. The number for National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline is 1-866-331-9474. Their website is here.
I hope you all have a great day.
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| The Friday Five! |
[06 Nov 2009|08:54am] |
1. This was the first week of what I'm calling TOFFT: Time Off From Facebook and Twitter. I won't say I've been able to avoid them altogether. At least once a day, I check in and see what's going on, and maybe update. But I USED to be on multiple times a day, updating and checking, and since I've stopped I actually feel better. I think that for me, all that updating and stuff drains the same energy I need to write, and I really need that for writing these days. So if you've been trying to contact me via Facebook or Twitter, I apologize. I'll be back sometime. Maybe in the new year?
2. Someone left a comment the other day, worried about Coco and wanting an update. You ask, I give. (Unless it's on Facebook or Twitter.) So Coco is doing really well. She's basically back to normal, which means following my daughter around vigilantly, waiting for dropped bunny crackers, attacking Monkey for no good reason, and bringing me her chicken to throw whenever I sit down. (In fact, just as I wrote this, she instigated a wild play session with Monkey has them racing back and forth across the house. I wish you could see it.) Anyway, we go back to the vet next week to get another set of x-rays, and that's when we'll see if her spleen is still really enlarged. I am thinking good thoughts. If her outer behavior is any indication, though, she's fine.
3. I was at the mall the other day, on November 2nd, when it happened. The clerk wished me a Merry Christmas. I couldn't help it: like a reflex, I said, "It's too early!" I mean, honestly. In the clerk's defense, though, I WAS buying a Christmas book, Olivia Helps with Christmas, which, incidentally, I now know by heart a mere three days later. I'm sorry but November 2nd is just too early to be wishing anyone anything but Happy Thanksgiving. Am I wrong? Oh, probably. Yet more proof that I am a cranky old woman.
4. In other news, my daughter continues her obsession with her little plastic Jesus Christ action figure. I can't figure it out, as she has TONS of other toys, but she insists on taking J.C. (as we call him) everywhere with us. Now, I am not a religious person. I was not raised in the church, nor was my husband. But we do live in the Bible Belt, so I am very aware that faith is a thing people take seriously, and I do not want J.C. being dragged to Whole Foods or our playgroup to offend anyone. So I went out the other day looking for another action figure that maybe wouldn't be so, um, sacred. I found a Cleopatra, which I thought was great. But Sasha was less than impressed. I mean, she LIKES Cleo okay, but really just as a buddy for J.C. to hang with while we build him block houses. I guess I need to keep looking. Meanwhile, I'll just do my best to make sure J.C. is properly treated. The other day Sasha left him on a table at this clothing boutique, where he was surrounded by lingerie. Not good. I'll work on it.
5. Finally, I'm excited to report that my office is really starting to come together. The bathroom is almost painted, this really nice blue, and the main room is a kind of apricot, the ceilings a bright white. We've ordered cabinets so people don't have to see all my clutter the minute they walk in, and I've pruned down my book collection a bunch so I don't have to haul boxes and boxes of stuff over there and fill it up the second it's done. There are still a few things I need, though. Like I'm thinking I really want to buy a time clock, the kind we used to have at the restaurant, and put it up right by the door. Then I can fill out a time card with my name (and maybe a little heart next to it, like I used to at the Burrito) and clock in whenever I sit down to write, then clock out when I leave. I'm thinking this might help me feel more professional, which I have not been feeling at ALL lately. Mostly because I'm in this weird no-man's land (no woman's?) where i don't have a full time job, but am not a full time stay at home parent either. It's a great thing to be able to hang with my daughter so much, and I wouldn't change it for the world. But it's hard to do all this--writing, blogging, updating, answering emails, just keeping up in general---in only twenty hours a week. I mean, I CAN do it. But I get kind of crabby, and that's not good for everyone. Maybe if I'm clocking in and out, it'll feel more like a real job and I won't feel so guilty about everything I'm not getting done. We'll see.
Have a great day, everyone!
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[04 Nov 2009|08:39am] |
One thing that totally bums me out about fall and winter is the days being so short. When it starts getting dark at, like, 4:45, I just want to crawl back into bed and put my head under the covers. (That's sort of my default setting in fall and winter. I know, it's not healthy, but whatever.) Anyway, since I'm all about looking on the positive side these days---or trying to---here's a bonus to the time change: it's not QUITE so dark at 6am now. You can sort of see the sun coming up. A little light in the distance is always a nice thing.
In other news, I know the LAST thing I needed was another show to watch, but I've been totally sucked into The Big Bang Theory. We've been watching it on DVD from the beginning of the series, and it's just become another thing that makes these early dark nights that much better. I've been trying to figure out why, exactly, I like it so much, and I think it's that the premise is not like anything else on TV. The characters are unique, and so well drawn. I think in this time of reality TV (and believe me, I watch more than my share) you can forget how good a well-written, well-created show can be. I guess as viewers we've come to see people like Santino from Project Runway and the girls from The Hills as "characters," but they're not. A real character is someone like Sheldon on the Big Bang, so well drawn and distinct that there's no one else like them. Although, honestly, I kind of have a thing for Howard as well. I think it's those belts and mock turtlenecks. Who can resist?
Speaking of reality TV, last night I caught a bit of the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, and I just felt...I don't know. Discouraged? We learned this season that NeNe is writing a book, and Kim has a hit single with "Tardy for the Party." But if you watched the show, you saw that Kim didn't really SING that much on her song. And you saw that NeNe's book is actually being written by someone else. So can you be a singer without singing much, or a writer without writing much? Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm at that point in my own novel where I'm kind of tearing my hair out a bit, and I get bothered by people who don't have so much trouble. But that's MY issue, not theirs. In fact, I should just delete this whole paragraph so I don't seem like some cranky old woman. But instead, I'll just lighten the mood with a picture of my new crush:
Ah, that's better. Now I'm going to go drink some coffee and work on my attitude.
Have a great day, everyone!
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[02 Nov 2009|06:59am] |
Somehow, it is November. NOVEMBER! That means Thanksgiving is, like, three weeks away. And don't even start about Christmas. I can't even begin to go there. Whoa.
We had a good weekend around here, mostly because my little Coco dog came home on Saturday after three days at the emergency vet. Whatever obstruction she had (we suspect it was an acorn, but will never know for sure) has passed, but the vets are kind of concerned because her spleen is very swollen. This can mean many things, some of them very scary, but we are hoping it's a reaction to the obstruction and will return to normal. Fingers crossed on that front. Meanwhile, we are spoiling Coco rotten, letting her sleep on the couch, and basically smothering her with attention to the point that she is running from us. (Okay, me.) Oh, and I also bought her a new bed and am sneaking her food from my plate. So sue me.
In other news, NaNoWriMo started yesterday, and I've gotten a bunch of messages asking if I am participating. I am not, but mostly because I'm already working on a novel and therefore can't start something else. But I DO love NanoWriMo, if only because I know for sure that for the entire month of November I am not the only one plodding along trying to write every day, climbing up that hill, sometimes on all fours. Some people run marathons. Some of us write novels. They are both crazy exhausting, soul-testing life-changing activities. Of course, some people write novels AND run marathons. But I don't even want to know about those people. At least not right now.
Finally, I've been doing a lot of thinking these last couple of weeks about my web presence and how I can better manage it all. I've written here recently about how I have been having a bit of trouble juggling the novel and the blog and updating all these various sites. I thought about giving up this blog and going solely to Facebook and Twitter, as a lot of folks have done....but people really seem to like the blog, so I think I'll zag instead and cut back on the other stuff. So if I'm not on Twitter or Facebook as much, you'll know it's because I'm trying to save my brain for that marathon I'm running. So to speak.
Have a great day, everyone!
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| Writer's Block: Who will you be? |
[31 Oct 2009|11:27pm] |
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I went out for Halloween last night and I was a bumble bee. So cute, I loved it =)
I bought the set from Claire's, but I put together some of it myself, too.
I wore one of my extremely bright yellow shirts, black leggings, and then my black boots w/ some yellow & black bee striped leg warmers from one of the girls in my sorority. So cute.
Then of course, from Claire's I got the antenna headband, the bee stinger, and wings.
I just LOVE Halloweeeeen!
....I'm not going out tonight because I've been sick all week and I have a ton of homework to catch up on from missing school and classes. It's okay though, since I had fun last night.
What are you all being?! =)
BE SAFE and Have fun!
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| The Friday Five! |
[30 Oct 2009|08:06am] |
1. I'll go ahead and apologize right now for any typos or nonsensical sentences that might follow in this entry. I am running on just a TAD too little sleep today. Last night, my dog Coco started acting weird, like her stomach was hurt and she couldn't get comfortable. We watched her for awhile, and she really didn't seem like herself, so I packed her up and took her to the emergency vet. (Our dogs ALWAYS get sick after hours or on weekends. It's, like, their thing.) Anyway, two hours later, it was decided that she MIGHT have an intestinal blockage and needed to stay overnight. I came home, worried, collapsed into bed....and then my daughter woke up about an hour later, for no reason I could tell. I finally got us all back to sleep, but I was worried about dog and child and so now feel like I have been hit by a bus. I can catch a few winks when babysitter comes in six and a half hours. Not that I am counting or anything. The good news is, Coco seems to be on the mend and will hopefully be home later today. I bet she is tired too.
2. Halloween is tomorrow, and while I've had Sasha's costume planned for weeks, I just recently realized I might need one as well. Honestly, though, I'm not much of a Halloween person. I did it up in elementary, middle and high school, and some of college, but since then I've kind of sat the whole thing out. Now, though, I have a kid who is very aware of Halloween (thanks to Gabba Gabba, among other things) so we're doing a few more things to celebrate. We'll carve a pumpkin tonight, and head out to a more populated neighborhood to hit a few houses tomorrow. I figure I have a LOT of candy-filled Halloweens ahead of me. This might be my last year to keep things relatively simple. And I am all about simple these days.
3. So, Friday Night Lights was awesome on Wednesday night. But my joy in the return of Coach Taylor and Tim Riggins was tempered by knowing that so many of my FNL loving friends didn't get to watch, because they don't get DirectTV. Sure, the episodes will run on NBC later. But it still stinks. I mean, COME ON NBC! Can't you, like, run the eps a week behind, on Friday night, or someplace you have something totally crappy on right now? (I know you must have something crappy on, but I am not about to point fingers. That's bad karma.) This show needs all the support it can get, and better sooner than later. Just my two cents. Don't make me go off in more of a rant!
4. This week, I also finished my latest audio book, The Kids Are Alright, by the Welch family. I've been listening exclusively to nonfiction, but decided to take a shot at a novel next, so I downloaded The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. Honestly, I'm having a harder time with it on audio than I have with any of my memoirs or nonfiction stuff. And I don't know why. Maybe because in the car it's so stop and start, as I run errands, and nonfiction lends itself better to that? I have heard SUCH good things about this book that I don't want to ruin it by listening rather than reading. On the other hand, I have so little time to read lately that it could take me years to finish it. Sigh.
5. Finally, a confession: I started this entry back at about 6:15am. For the last hour, I keep coming back to this number five, trying to think of something to write. But I'll be honest. I have nothing. I am so tired and my brain is mushy and I think I need to crawl back in bed for a few minutes and reset. So can you do me a favor, and insert something witty, thoughtful and full of closure here? I appreciate it.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
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[28 Oct 2009|08:06am] |
I know I said I wouldn't bring up Friday Night Lights again. Or....did I?
Okay, I did. But the premiere is on DirecTV tonight (Channel 101, 9pm) and to celebrate (because you know i am celebrating) I wrote a little piece about my FNL fanaticism over on Adele's blog, Persnickety Snark, where she's doing a whole WEEK dedicated to the wonder that is Friday Night Lights. My entry is here, and the link to the main blog, which features pieces by Meg Cabot, Elizabeth Scott and others, is here. Reading all the entries and watching these videos has gotten me even MORE excited about tonight, which I honestly didn't think was possible. But there you go.
In other news, my husband and I had a date night last night, which we get to do about...well, once every two months, which is super lame, but whatever. Life is busy. Since we only get out rarely, though, we want to make it count (as Jack from Titanic would say) so we usually go to our favorite local restaurant, Lantern. One of the last times we were there, we saw Zooey Deschanel (I know, crazy, right?) and last night we heard from someone that Tom Colicchio from Top Chef was just there as well. How much would I have freaked out to see Tom Colicchio here in my hometown, eating a few tables over? Entirely too much. I mean, I'm excited enough just to get out to eat without needing a highchair and stickers and crayons. Not to mention the food was EXCELLENT as always. If you want your mouth to water, check out their menu online. Oh, man. Now I'm hungry again.
Have a great day, everyone!
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| Writer's Block: Seeing stars |
[27 Oct 2009|08:25pm] |
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Probably Chad Michael Murray's character in One Tree Hill -- Lucas Scott. Not only is he soooo cute, but his character is so sweet. I love sweet talkers, haha. Lucas Scott is a good guy and I would take him on a date in a heartbeat ;)
My answer would change if it was ANY celebrity, though. Then I'd definitely grab ahold of BRETT FAVRE and never let him go, hahaha. <3 ;)
p.s - i'm sick =( it sucks.
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