Wonky Me

So I am over at Burrowers, Books and Balderdash today talking about how I'm taking over the world, so that is my REAL blog, but I thought I'd share a few random quirks here...

Breaking the Ice

While I want it to warm up more than ANYTHING, I sort of love the days that are half melty, half below freezing. Know why? I walk along the sidewalk or edge of the street SMASHING the ice that has nothing under it anymore. It's this weird power trip (and I love the sound when it's thin ice). It's like I am personally conquering winter and bringing spring on.

Sometimes I will get on a sidewalk where I will notice that out there SOMEWHERE, I have kindred spirits in this domain.

Eating Grapes

I'm totally laid back, right? Very few things I'm picky about. I'm married to Mr. Pickypants (and YES, he wears pants—grrrrrr!) But when it comes to eating grapes, we swap roles. I think a person should take off the part of the stem and eat ALL those, then take a new one. He just picks one grape at a time from the total stalk. MAKES ME NUTS! (Son has picked up my habit, the daughter his)

Real Life

So I may have to go under soon. You heard me... my boss wants to write a GRANT. As early as yesterday I had to work ALL DAY at work... *cough* But if I get crabby in the next few weeks, this might be why, and you have been warned. On the POSITIVE side, though, I have a conference in Austin in May. I get to meet up with my FABULOUS writing buddy Stacy (who got her second novella contract within weeks of her first... she has fired out into the writing world fast, after years of perfecting craft...) you'll hear more about her... provided Austin survives the two of us in the same city... (anyone else in the Austin area, give a shout—maybe we can coordinate)

And 19 days to the next ABNA cut... anyone who wants to swim in pudding while we wait, head on over to the BB&;B link at the top...

And it's Thursday. You know what THAT means!

Giving In To Winter

I shoveled three times yesterday. I don't mind it, honestly. Doing it several times when it is only two or three inches a shot isn't so bad (though I could use a shoulder rub). But isn't it gorgeous? This is the tree in front of our house. The people we bought from called it a Chinese Apricot though I don't know if they knew anything... whatever the case, I love the tree. The leaves are small and blow away, so we never have to rake, but it gives nice shade and is pretty... and I love how it looks coated in snow.

If we look across the street, the woods, likewise, are coated. Those trees are oaks... It's fun to have wildlife central so close—the inner-city woods have mostly benign wildlife—racoons, skunks, woodchucks... though at times there are bigger things (deer) or more worrisome (foxes or coyotes). Those woods have made two of my books now... they sit between us and the high school and it is just a nice set-up... woods next to a high school...

Inside we are getting Christmassy, too. I made the Christmas stockings the year I had maternity leave after my son was born... my last great hurrah as a crafty person... I've never had the inclination to do a LOT of that, but I made that pattern myself... the satin lined, velvet outside... they didn't turn out too badly.

So why am I REALLY rambling?

Snow Days

As I write this I am crossing my fingers that they will declare it 'too lousy to leave home'. Why? Who would want lousy weather?

Only every KID on the planet!

As a grown up (by technical definition), I don't actually get a snow day very often, but I can still dream about it... So...


If I had a snow day today I would:


1)  Bundle up and tromp around in it for a bit to pretend I'd gotten some exercise.
2)  Take a long hot bath with my book to get my body temperature back to normal.
3)  Check on my bloggie friends (I do that rain, shine OR snow storm).
4)  Get out LEGACY and spend a little time editing.
5)  Drink cocoa and complain about being out of marshmallows
6)  Consider baking Christmas cookies but pass it up.
7)  Watch a Harry Potter movie or two with my kids

All in all, it would be a VERY good day.

So here is crossing my fingers that by 5 am they've declared it too lousy to leave home!

Hope you are all keeping warm enough, or at least having fun!

****************

TWO UPDATES

1) Kids get a snow day. I don't. POO! It is 12 degrees (F) but 'feels like -6) (BOO!) but hubby is giving me a ride to work, thereby assisting in my slug transformation process, so that's something. I didn't want to by a slug-cicle.

2)  I AM A FINALIST IN MICHAEL'S HARRY POTTER BLOG FEST!!!  The WINNER will be selected by voting on the five finalists. All stories are 500ish words, so it isn't much to read. I'd love it if you'd go read and VOTE!!!!

Fuzzy Lines

I will get to my Sunday Status NaNo Stuff last paragraph, but mostly this is a parenting blog, so feel free to skip ahead if my insecurities aren't a cheerful way to end your weekend.

How many of us had parents we felt were TOTALLY CLUELESS? A fair few, yes? If you didn't, chances are you had a friend or two who had them... Oh, not all were clueless—some were permissive and just let you (and them) get away with stuff. My mom had a weird radar and if she figured anything out was far LESS permissive. Oh, she could be generous in letting me bring a friend of vacation or something—but that was where we could (sort of) be watched. My friend Tam and I had a couple adventures out of town that might have gotten us into a little trouble (in fact one did—her phone number ended up in a stolen car that ended up in a river). But mostly I had to have legitimate arrangements elsewhere to get in much trouble (at least until I got my job that kept me home weekends when my parents went to their lake cabin.)

My point? I think I might be clueless.

A Pushover

I don't lie. I've been known to omit facts, but if somebody flat-out asks me something, I am a really bad liar—red-faced, shaky voiced—dead giveaways. My daughter on the other hand... has a convenient memory. I honestly think she remembers things the way she would have LIKED them to have happened. She's a revisionist, and it can be VERY hard to sort out what is what—especially quite a while later. But STILL, when she swears to me... I believe her.

A few years ago she had some trouble with some friends. I won't get into details, as it's her story, but they did 'an intervention of sorts' and she swears she reformed (and I believe her). Recently however, she was accused of doing some of the same... we've gone over all the evidence, and it looks to me like she is just an easy scapegoat. I went round and round with another mom who swears I'm being snowed, but it's something I can check a lot of the facts on, and they support my daughter. In other words, I believe me kid.

(Not my kid, just a google image to illustrate)---->

Well now some girls have been harassing her about this thing she supposedly did. It looks like bullying to me (cyber and text), and I keep wanting to take the evidence to the high school and have these girls get in trouble. My daughter just wants it to go away. She's blocked them on Facebook and we called to have their phone numbers blocked so they can't call her. She goes to a DIFFERENT high school, though she is at theirs a fair amount because that is where she does sports and her boyfriend also goes there (and it is where she catches the bus to her high school).

How do I DO this? Do I let her fight the fight when what I WANT to do is squash these girls like bugs? I know letting it 'blow over' will actually have less repercussions in the long run—but there is a part of me that really likes social justice... however, I think at least a COUPLE of these girls really BELIEVE my daughter did what she is being accused of. Still, the ganging up is lousy. And there are a couple girls involved who have NO BUSINESS. In fact one really caused a lot of it because she ACTED, when the girl who felt wronged would normally have TALKED and it probably would have been sorted quickly.

And a Related Issue

When she started getting these calls, she called and asked for me, but I was in the tub. Her dad wouldn't bring me the phone until she explained... then he asked me for more...

The trouble? He overreacts. In fact overreacting is almost always his first response. He usually eventually calms down, but my daughter often asks me not to tell him stuff. I told him... having been asked, but he was mad I HADN'T talked to him earlier.

Okay, how the hell do I draw THAT line? If I tell him, she will no longer tell ME and then nobody knows. But if I don't tell him he's mad he's out of the loop. He doesn't seem to grasp the importance of there being a parent that will take the secrets and keep them... help, but quietly... or that's how I've seen it... *sigh * It causes some trouble now and again... that I believe in keeping quiet most of the time and he thinks I should always share.


Okay, so enough of my parenting insecurities... Yesterday was a good day, Badger Bashing aside. Hit my 40K mark for NaNoWriMo, so I am down to needing an average of 974 words a day to finish—a relatively normal pace for me. When I am writing, as opposed to editing or querying, I typically write 750-1500 words a day. I DO however, want to finish the book, and 2000 words a day is possibly not quite enough, BUT if I finish with a few holes (leaving notes for the rewrite) I should manage...

I Love Weekends

A post in which I mostly just ramble...

Sleeping In

My favorite feature is the sleeping in part. I sometimes wonder if I would be adept at life if I had no day job. I certainly would get more sleep, which I don't have time for. I do love those two days though, when I get to lay in bed until ten, not least because my husband gets up around eight and I can SPRAWL.

I don't like GOING to sleep in a sprawl. I don't go to sleep well when he's gone. That's what twenty years (when we first moved in together) will do to you, I suppose. And there is an association with fighting—maybe if one of us traveled a lot it wouldn't be that way, but as it is, even if we AREN'T fighting, if he isn't there, it seems like we are.


The Down Side of the Weekend


Laundry: Weekends are my laundry days. I don't really have feelings about washing and drying clothes one way or the other, except better me than them. My husband is inclined to wash three things at a time *rolls eyes* and my daughter mixes her things together irregardless of color (and dries her bras—something one cannot do and expect them to hold form--then she begs for new ones).

Folding laundry on the other hand, is the punishment from the third ring of hell... endless days of looking for the damn matching sock. It is a little better if I can convince the kids to scram, as I can put in a movie I want to watch while I do it (only one of our TVs has a DVD player, and they monopolize it if they are here.

Shopping: I hate to shop. I know... some of you girly-princess types ADORE it, but I'm a womanly-EMPRESS type and I'M NAKED. What on earth would a naked empress need to shop for? You got it... her SPAWN. Her spawnlings LIKE to take her shopping so that she can spend money she doesn't have on things they claim they need.

The daughter claims to need a second pair of Happy Bottom pants... no, that's not right... Hard Tails... These are pretty much high end yoga pants, and I remember being her age and hating jeans because I was bigger than my friends and felt like they looked lousy. Jeans give the painful reminder every time you grow a little... fail to exercise... and I didn't see that as a benefit until I was in my twenties and knew I NEEDED a reality check now and then or I would just misbehave... So I can see the appeal, but I have a VERY hard time not insisting she should just wear the Target brand (though she is right that they get holes pretty quickly--we will see if these last better)

Son wants expensive shoes for his ever-growing feet. They are a size thirteen... Age 11 and he has the biggest feet in my house. He seems to have had a growth spurt this summer too. I think he is five-eight—certainly as tall as my daughter (who is possibly done growing). My husband is about 6'2” if he stands up straight (which he rarely does) so the son will one day be tallest, too... Very strange, that...

Speaking of misbehaving...

I didn't even TRY this week on the diet. Not one stitch. And the scale has taken its revenge. I need to get back on track BADLY and am having a heck of time getting back on track. I know myself well enough to know it won't work to 'just do it'--I need a marker of sorts, so school starting is it. I am going to try not to be too BAD until then... try not to gain any more of it back... but acting in the positive... THAT is hard. Best to do it at a time that we are 'beginning' things anyway... so the Tuesday after Labor day.


Editing: Slow going. I am TYPING Chapter 17 (of 21, but 21 is very short). I am short on words—extrapolating, almost 15,000 short, though I have a list of things to get in there.... some of them ongoing plot points... I think though, one of the things I REALLY need to weave in better is Roanoke and the Gardening.

So a PLEA: Any of you garden avidly and lovingly in a zone 7? I need your help!  Just to chat a little about the things you love... get a feel for what you like to grow... email me!

And finally... it is my mother's 63rd birthday. She and I are still having a rough time, though we aren't 'not speaking' anymore. Her reality just still never touches real reality and it drives me crazy. But my KIDS are going out to see their nana and papa this week, so that will be good. Strange to put your children on a plane and send them across country without you, but they should be able to handle it—they flew one direction alone two years ago (though were young enough then for the airline escort between gates). My daughter is 15 and has flown quite a bit and my son is 11 and logical. I am VERY glad airports are closed to non-passengers, and am glad the airports they change planes in are Minneapolis and Salt Lake, as those are both clean, easily laid out and full of people happy to help if you just ask. It will be good for all of them to spend some time together though. 

So there we have it... my rambling life at a glance...