The fam is headed over to Birdrunner‘s for a little New Year’s gathering tonight. (If I can pull them away from Guitar Hero. They finally kicked me off)
Any bets on whether I’ll make it to midnight or not?
Hey Lee, I’ll have a drink in your honor. We’ll miss you. 🙂
Ugh.
Obviously, I couldn’t sleep last night. Couldn’t seem to get comfy. I was going to write but, of course, now I’m sleepy.
I’m sure if I go back to bed, I’ll lay there and stare straight ahead.
I hate waking up predawn. It is one of my least favorite things of all time.
I cannot tell you what a sucker I am for this song or this commercial. And I absolutely cannot tell you how sexy I think the guy in this commercial is. Words. Fail. Me.
Go ahead. Mark the date. That may never happen again…
Okay, I’m fully recovered. No more headaches. No more snot-filled sneezes. No more sleeping 20 out of 24 hours. I spent 2 hours and Sam’s Club yesterday buying the shit out of some bulk items and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also took the boys shopping and that lasted about an hour. As Ian said, “Mom, we’re boys. Boys and shopping don’t mix.”
Whatever.
Ian had a $100 gift cert at Hollister and he spent $60. He’s totally right, boys and shopping don’t mix. Sigh. I would’ve spent $150 and assumed Mom would catch my overage. But hey, I’m a girl. That’s what we do.
Ruby has just found her place as Supreme Ruler of the Francis Household. Well, almost. The cats pity her because she believes she is the Supreme Ruler, but they know they are far superior. Poor misguided Pug.
I’m getting to know my MacBook and I like it for the most part. It has a couple of annoying little things to it, like it just stops connecting to the internet whenever it feels like it and I can’t just ‘reconnect’ it, I have to restart it. I’m sure there’s a setting somewhere that we haven’t found yet. But the good news is, the restart time is so much quicker than my PC. I never wanted to turn that damn thing off because it would be a good ten minutes before I could do anything. And that was a huge frustration.
Oh, I bought Fishdog the hardcover (I was 286 out of the 300 sold!) version of Wil Wheaton’s latest book, The Happiest Days of our Lives. I am trying to let Fishdog read it first, but I finally caved and read a story. Now I know my husband is going to totally dig this book. But I’m afraid he’s going to have to conquer Legends of Rock III before he’ll sit down and read it. Sigh. I’m beginning to think getting Rock Band might not be such a great idea…we’re all way too addicted already.
Happy Sunday, y’all. I’m about to grab my 2nd cuppa and pull up Love Sux and write a little. Gotta get the first chapter to editor by 1/15 (along with my acknowledgments, which I’m afraid might be a chapter by itself) Then I think I’m going to start plotting out (I use “plotting” in the loosest way possible)Back to Blue which is going to be a lot of fun.
I feel almost normal again! I actually went to the store this morning so I could get some creamer for my coffee…yes, I am going to have coffee this morning! Now I know I’m on the road to recovery!
It was a brisk 28 degrees when I took my jaunt to Kroger, but the sun was out and the skies were blue. I love clear, blue, cold days. They make the temperature seem bearable. I think I’ll take the dogs for a walk in a little bit.
Yesterday, when the fog began to lift, I sat down and wrote three pages to the first chapter of Love Sux. That felt great. I love starting a new book. Of course, I’m not really starting a new story with Love Sux, but it is a new beginning.
Okay, I’m off to enjoy my coffee and danish, then I think I’ll see if I can finish chapter one. We’ll see…
I’m getting there. Not 100% yet, but I’m getting better. My head hurts when I sneeze and cough (which, incidentally, is a whole damn lot) and it hurts when I move too fast (which thankfully, I am not doing much of at all right now).
But it’s better.
I actually ate something today and I TASTED it. Whoot! I didn’t really eat because I was hungry, I ate because I was so lightheaded and dizzy. I’ve been living on medication and water alone. Not. Good.
I literally slept the majority of yesterday away. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was vegging out to soaps, Law and Order reruns, and reading Twilight.
I finished Twilight this morning. Wow. Someone, somewhere called this book ‘seductive’ and you know what, she was right. It is technically a YA but I was totally drawn into the world Stephenie Meyer built. Very engaging…and seductive. I highly recommend this read–even if you think you’re ‘so over’ the vampire thing. You’re not over this.
Y’all got any big plans for the weekend? I’m going to start working on chapter one of Love Sux! (the sequel to Bite Me!) I also have a new women’s fiction story that has been brewing non-stop lately that I need to jot down. I’m tentatively calling it Back to Blue but I’m not sure if that’s the real title. We’ll see.
Why do I bark?
Because I’m sick as a dog.
I felt it coming on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day I felt kinda lousy but it was manageable. Yesterday I thought was the worst. But I was wrong. The worst so far, is today.
Ruby and I finally got out of bed at 11:00 after going to bed around 10:00 last night. We’re watching soaps today. I started reading Twilight (the ONLY book I got for Christmas, can you believe that?) but it was too difficult for me to focus. So, I’m watching mind-numbing soap operas instead.
I should hear from fabulous editor today or tomorrow about my revisions. I hope I nailed them. I have decided that if I can do revisions during the two weeks prior to Christmas while I unpacking and with a sick kid (yes, his Christmas present to me), then I can do anything. I just hope I did them right. LOL
Before I get to my story, let me first say that I am constantly surprised at the irony of Christmas. We spend days, weeks, months (okay, days) preparing for a holiday that is over in a matter of moments. No. Not moments. Milliseconds. Nanoseconds. Real Damn Quick.
This Christmas morning was no different. The boys were very happy with this morning’s haul of gadgets, games, books and clothes. Oh. And candy. Lots of candy.
My favorite gift of theirs was Guitar Hero, Legends of Rock. Oh yeah. I am the goddess of suck, but it sure is fun. (pictures may or may not follow, we’ll see)
Now onto the important part of this blog. My touching holiday story.
As you all may have read the other day, my momma was burglarized just one week before Christmas. It sucked…mainly because the assholes took only jewelry and most of what they took was irreplaceable in the sentiment department. Such as the pearl necklace that my daddy gave my momma the day my brother was born. Yeah, can’t really replace that.
But we tried.
The next day, I called a couple of jewelers and I managed to get a hold of Pat Baker of Baker’s Fine Jewelry in Bryant, AR. I told her what happened to Mom and said that I’d like to purchase a pearl necklace if they had the right size/length in the store. They did. It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it was for my momma, and honestly, I didn’t care. I’ll find the money somewhere.
I rushed to the store, purchased the beautiful strand, they wrapped it and I immediately took it to Momma’s and placed it under her tree. It was there for a whole week…thank God she didn’t see it. LOL
So today, after the kids had shredded all their presents and Mom was busy cleaning up, I made her sit down and open her special present.
I could cry right now, thinking about her reaction.
See the thing about my momma is, she doesn’t show emotion (other than anger, she shows that one really, really well.) Funny how opposite we are in that manner. I cry when I’m mad, I cry when I’m happy…I’m an indiscriminate crier.
I can now say I’ve seen my momma tear up twice in her life. Once when her momma died–and today.
It was the most special moment ever.
Thank you to the assholes who burglarized my mom’s house…because if you hadn’t taken that necklace, my family wouldn’t have been able to make this the most special Christmas ever for my momma.
She really liked the necklace.
Revisions have been emailed to editor.
I am tired but I think the story is stronger.
Now, I’m off to take a shower…cuz I’m a little funky.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
Well, I did it. I took the plunge and switched from my laptop to a MacBook.
I have always considered myself to be “bicomputeral.” I have always enjoyed different aspects of both Macs and PCs. Fishdog is a Mac guy all the way. I’ve always purchased PC laptops for myself because I was most familiar with them since that’s what I’d always worked on when I worked 8-5.
So last year when my old Dell gave me the blue screen of death, I decided to buy a new Dell. I mean, why shouldn’t I? My old one last me 5 years and I never had a problem. Actually, we had it rebuilt and it’s still going strong. (Okay, it’s a little janky, being held together with duct tape, but it is the little PC that could…)
I thought I loved my new Dell. It was pretty. And Vista had it’s pretty little moments…(it really was trying very hard to be a Mac) but I just couldn’t get it to work for me. After a few months, I was ready to chuck it. Seriously. I contemplated going back to XP but honestly, I wasn’t even sure it was worth it because I loathed my computer so much. It would freeze up when I closed it. It would just restart when it felt like it. The 4 hour battery lasted 4 hours ONCE. Then it went to 1 and a half hours. I hated that computer. I can say one thing about the “Mac vs PC” commercials…they are dead on. Apple’s marketing dept deserves a big fat raise. This sums it up perfectly for me:
Today I am typing to you from my brand new refurbed MacBook. It’s a cute little thing. It will take me a little time to learn the ins and outs of it but thankfully I have a Mac Guy in the house with me who has offered personal tutoring sessions.
On a happier note, my momma bought me a new desk for Christmas so now I have a place to work. It’s been pretty damn difficult doing revisions while not having a workspace. (please take note of who has made herself at home in the lower part of the desk)
Oh, and Happy Birthday Party, Feisty! I hope tonight rocks!
Bitchin' Fiction: Musings by author Melissa McKenzie / Melissa Francis 