tarotgal

This year's resolutions look somewhat similar to last year's but with some additions.

• Lose more weight
  
• Make more progress on my 'fandoms I want to get into' list (Horatio Hornblower, Farscape, Firefly, Band of Brothers, Starsky & Hutch...)
  
• Finish a draft of a possibly publishable novel
  
• Release more than 25 books into the wild for Bookcrossing
  
• Try to do at least one thing on my "things to do before I die" list (or at least write a bigger/better list- it's only got 7 things on it right now- how pathetic!)
  
• Write letters to my two high school friends I've lost touch with
  
• Teach an adult education course or become a part-time tutor
  
• Practice reading people better and get better at giving them what they want from me
  
• Tell people more often how much I love/appreciate them
  
• Finish all my Strokes works-in-progress (prior to New Year's storyline)
  
• Give more feedback (and do so promptly)
  

Recap of some of last year's progress:
I lost a net total of 10 pounds since last Feb... I lost a ton more and then I slacked around May and gained them back since... so I need to start working out again, seriously. I made NO effort to write a novel... okay, I've got a good idea and half a page, but that's it. As far as getting into new fandoms: I did manage to finish Angel and see all of Buffy. I taped Firefly off Sci-Fi to watch as soon as I have time and I've taped Stargate: Atlantis (but missed a few episodes so I'm going to rent S1 on DVD). I started watching Horatio Hornblower (through Volume IV now) and I've seen four episodes of Farscape so far but I saw the very first episode this past Sat so I'm officially starting that now as well. I definitely released more BookCrossing books this past year (20+ in 2005 and only 3 all together in previous years) and I participated in the Christmas Ornament Exchange so that was good. I still don't know what to do with my life but getting a sort of new job in addition to my current job has been good so far.

For anyone out there who has NOT signed the letter to President Bush regarding the G8, this is the time to do it (and to sign up at ONE.org if you haven't done that either). Only 24 hours left!




Since I might not be on again tonight (waiting for phone call so I can go pick my dad up at the airport, and then packing and doing tons of last minute stuff) and I won't have e-mail in Santa Barbara, I hope everyone: has a good July 4th, has a good wait for HP:HPB, and a good next two weeks. Congrats to those of you who've graduated or just finished another year of classes. Those of you going on vacations of your own- be safe and I hope you have fun. Stay cool and take care! See y'all in mid-July! *many hugs*

Worked from 3-9:15 tonight. Called my dad from work to wish him a happy father's day :-) We ordered Thai food for dinner and I managed to eat a bit, despite the fact that my stomach's worse than it's been in days. I might be able to justify going to the doctor sometime this week. Because it's getting really annoying now. I've felt like doubling over a dozen times today. And my back's been killing me, too, though I don't think that's related.

Anyway, my fortune cookie didn't have a fortune AND it violated the "in bed" rule. But I still adore it:
Writing is thinking on paper.
How perfect is that for me? :-)

I'm probably going to go in early tomorrow and watch QAF. I'm hoping it's taping just fine right now. *crossing fingers* And if it doesn't, I'll just nap for an hour until work starts or something. Mmmm. Napping...

I'm watching 'Cool Money'. I taped it last night (this morning at 4am) off USA. So very weird. Not nearly as strange as I would have thought... but I sort of keep hearing an English accent in James' voice when he speaks anyway. LOL And I love the hair. *G*

Two things from dinner yesterday that stuck out in my head and that I thought I'd share/document before I forgot them... as I am so prone to doing nowadays.

First off, my boss' mother came up from FL and is now staying with the family. She's a really nice lady and I've gotten to know a lot about her in the last few weeks since her arrival. But she said something very wise and very reminiscent of Debbie from QAF (last episode of S3). It was something close to: "My husband and I used to make up songs all the time. We believed in celebrating every happy moment, because there's so much pain in life and it's important to cherish the happy ones." And then she went on to sing us part of their made-up song about a friend's mother who liked to make chicken and noddles or something, but that's not the point. It was just... I don't know... nice to hear wisdom like that. Reminds me of my grandparents... and reminds me to acknowledge my happy moments more.


And second (and much less thought-provoking but much more sneeze-related) my boss' daughter (who's 12) needed to sneeze at one point during dinner, but the feeling went away. She was sitting at my end of the table, nearly right across from me and talking to her cousin (the expecting daddy). She was saying how she really needed to sneeze and the feeling went away. He told her to look at a light but she said she did and it already went away. Then she started explaining about how depressing it was when she couldn't sneeze because she absolutely LOVED sneezing. How it filled her with a rush of excitement and how she could practically consider it a hobby, just sitting around and sneezing.
Anyway, all ickiness aside (being that she's 12 and an absolutely adorable kid) I thought it was amusing and actually rather interesting. I mean, I know a lot of kids find it funny and enjoyable, but she's a very smart and mature chica. And it's comments like that which make me want to pick up my stories involving characters with the fetish :-) Anyhoo... thought I'd share for the mindset of it all... if that's the right term. I don't know. I found it interesting. Oh, and cousin was doing the laughing and nodding bit in reply but didn't say much on the subject.

Watched 'Jake in Progress' tonight. Cute :-) In the first episode that was on, he sneezes... or fakes a sneeze, perhaps, from an allergy to cats. Just something to look out for if and when this episode repeats when the series actually officially starts.

Fic progress:

• Obviously, I wrote a short Wolfcrawler ficlet and posted that. It just struck me today as I was eating lunch/breakfast and had to go and write it. *snuggles them*
  
• Just now finished my annual Oliver/Percy St. Patty's Day fic. I'll post it on St. Patty's Day, as usual. It's short & sweet and certainly less angsty than last year's.
  
• Started a page for my gay nightclub series which I am unoficially calling 'Strokes'. Counting "Escape", which is now called "Sweetie's Story" I have 3 finished fics and 2 WIPs in the "introductory" series, though there may be more depending on the characters. I have another 2 started starring Jamie, Sweetie's love interest in "Escape" who is right now my favorite character by far. Though Coyote's kind of growing on me, too. There are a couple characters I'm having trouble with, but that's mostly because I've never written anyone quite like them before.
  
• Came up with a fantastic Obi/Qui non-sneezefic I really want to work on. It's an AU, which is strange, coming from me. But it'll be a lot of fun and probably much less cliche than the Mindwiped-Slave!Obi fic I've been working on. Yummy as the angst in that one is :-)
  
• Played a little with another Oliver/Percy fic that's sitting open in my taskbar at the moment. It's close to getting done. I need to remember to put in the part where they talk about Percy's brothers, but otherwise I just need to get through fortune cookie scene without sounding too cheesy and it's good to go :-)
  

My back's been hurting all day again. Completely different spot, though. Think I pulled a muscle or slept on it wrong or something. Growl.

And then I got all excited about buying a pack of jellybeans only to find there's Gelatin in them. GROWL! Stupid me. The last few times I bought jelly beans there wasn't any, but I switched brands because of a sale and forgot to check. Stupid me.

Need to go get a load of clothes out of the dryer now. Then I'm off to bed. Must go to work early in the morning *grumble*

Have been having trouble getting online for the last few days, since our snowstorm over the weekend. Grrr. So I'm writing this from work.

Happy Imbolc/Groundhog Day! It's also my boss' bday today. I bought cookies on the way to work this morning.

I gave blood yesterday. Twas a day off from work. My Monday sucked (car got stuck on the ice, I fell on the ice and scraped up my knee, my mouth was killing me from dental work last week, worked until 7pm, etc.) but I got home to find they were in a critical blood shortage in my area and were begging people to come donate. So I did. They gave me a t-shirt and one of those in-style "support" wristbands. So that's cool. I've been donating for years and never got anything (they're always out of t-shirts on the t-shirt days and such)- I even had to ask 3 times just to get my donar card so I could find out my blood type! But up here in northern VA they throw goodies at you- they sent me a pin in the mail a week ago for donating back in Nov. Very nice people, they are, too. And they have a drive within walking distance of my house.
I must be the only person in the world thrilled to give blood just so she can get her iron levels checked. LOL! The little monitor kept going off while I was donating and so the chica let me donate a full unit which is what she called it when it was full enough to be used but not completely full. I warned her before that I was a slow bleeder *shrug* While I was there the woman in the chair across from me had to stop halfway through and almost passed out. And then a woman over by the snack table got up to leave and bent over. They sat her down in a chair and then she completely lost consciousness and they had to lie her down on the floor. She kept apologizing afterwards and saying she'd been donating for twenty years and this had never happened to her before. It was all very exciting. Luckily, everyone was just fine after a few minutes. And I was fine, apart from a big bruise on my arm because the woman didn't believe me AGAIN when I said she'd have to go in deeper with the needle than it looked. Apparently bruising makes your blood clot and thus flow more slowly- so there's another reason I'm such a slow giver. That's good to know. I did ask whether it was worth it or not because I'm so slow and they said they REALLY needed my blood type as it's rare and they had 6 chairs going so it was definitely worth it. I'm glad I did. The guy behind me in line was terrified of needles and was jumpy through the wait and the whole thing but donated anyway- what a nice guy!

Watched the Chronicles of Riddick last night. Oohhh I love that character. I liked this movie far more than the first... though I cracked up during the intro (wow, a whole FIFTEEN minutes of new footage! Oohhhh! *snort* Apparently they haven't seen the LotR EEs)

My mother proposed something the other day that I'm seriously considering. She wants to move- badly. They've been living in the same house for nearly 17 years now and she would really like me to get a high paying job and live in it after they move out. My sister (who hopefully will be in college nearby then) and I could split the rent and other bills and all. It would be a fantastic opportunity, I think. I adore this area and I can't imagine losing this house to complete strangers having grown up in it and all. Plus it's an excellent location and all nice and perfect and fixed up. So that's good incentive for me to find an actual, better job.

Add to my list of new year's resolutions: saving money, and getting organized. I bought a nice acordian file organizer back in early Jan and I'm LOVING it. I found a credit card I thought they never sent me, and lots of papers I haven't been able to find in a long while. It's great. I love being organized financially and paperwork-y (LOL) even if the rest of my life is hectic :-) And I've started adding money every month to my savings account. So that's good. I don't really have a savings any more (a year of unemployment contributed to that) so I definitely need to focus on that again. I also REALLY need to get paid. Must find a nice way to hint to boss about that today. I haven't been paid since mid-December and I'm not going to be able to cover my Feb bills at this rate.

Finished my strange non-writer's-block fic last night. Anyone know what the Bronte/Austen genre/time period is called? I have found a lot of sites and sources calling it a number of different things. It's not really Victorian... guh, I don't know. Help would be VERY appreciated. I'm going to check the book of knowledge tonight when I get home as it's good at categorizing things. Otherwise, I'm rather lost. I'm also going to watch Emma tonight (singing Ewan baby!!!) to be sure I've gone tone and dialogue right. I've been reading bits of P&P and Wuthering Heights as well but having Emma while I do a final edit will be helpful. ANyway... yes, anyone know a good term for the genre?

I was stalking casirafics's LJ this morning and she posted Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate recipe. So I couldn't resist sharing the yumminess as well. *wishes she could make things in the kitchen that actually turn out the way they're supposed to* This dessert is really one of the most delicious things in the world.

Okay... think I'll go back to sleep now.