While we were in Cape May over the weekend, being rained on while a few inches of snow coated our staircase back home, I happened to notice Boneshaker by Cherie Priest in the bookstore there. The local library does not have it, but I can probably request it through the NJ Library CAT system, or use my library card's Open Borrowing option (which allows me to borrow at participating libraries). It has zombies (win!) and steampunk (moar win!) and sounds like something I'd enjoy.

I am also trying to find snippets of time to read a friend's novel draft but due to the epically adult nature I cannot really read it at work. Plus I need to do a little edit on mine so I can finally print it up. And try not to barf at my horrendous writing this year.

Also, I need to find a supplier of Mexican Coke up here. Real sugar makes such a huge difference, and Pepsi Throwback does satisfy the cola need, but cane sugar Coke in the glass bottle? Heavenly. I also indulge in a Virgil's Cream Soda every once in a while. I'm really trying to avoid HFCS, although I had to give in with the ornament bottles of Coke (they're too cute - I want to put a bunch on my mom's x-mas tree!). Out to eat, similarly, the beverage choices are limited.

I really want to start reading again, not just to kill time at work when I have a few minutes but to actually discover and enjoy new books again. Reading before bed was something we used to do a lot (back when we watched less television and got home earlier, so quite some time ago) and it would be really nice to set aside time to read without distraction.

NaNo was crazy... I still have some tweaking to do so I can print and give it to my writing buddies for some critique (yikes! scary)...

This month is already slipping away... need to get started on Christmas...

( I'm babbling a little... )

Word is that we're gonna get some interesting weathers over the next few days (snow/ice/rain, depending)... so I cleaned off the previous snow/ice buildup from the stairs, hopefully it won't ice over in the morning to potentially kill us. Feeling like there is something else I need to do online that I can't do online at work, but don't know what, so gonna go sleep now (something I definitely cannot do at work!).

Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully everyone has had a lovely day of gorging themselves on the foods of their choice and relaxing with the people of their choice.

Currently trying to finish my NaNo, I have until midnight on Monday to finish, need another 20k words. We'll see how this one ends.

May have to take a sabbatical from the interwebs in Dec.

NaNo is going surprisingly well. Not only am I pretty much keeping up with the daily amount of writing I need to do, but my region is rocking and I've got friends writing too!

NaNo is all encompassing. I think maybe December or January will need to be NaWoOutMo - 30 days of going to the gym, to get my fat ass back in shape. I will admit that I am not an unhealthy weight for my height, but it is more the physical shape that bothers me. I'm not huge, most people would consider me to be nicely proportioned, but I can see the body that I could have if I put the time and effort into it. And I want that body. I want to look awesome, but I also want to be fit enough to do everything I want to try. I know I've said this before, but I *dream* about running. I want to be able to run like I do in my dreams.

Oh well. Back to writing!

I managed to leave a container of Wendy's barbecue sauce where the cat could knock it on the floor, forgot that I had left it there, and was sitting on the couch checking the interwebs when I realized that I had barbecue sauce on my foot, namely because I put my foot on something and smelled barbecue. Then I discovered it was on both my feet. It took me way too long to realize that.

Halloween was - okay. I was a little sad because I didn't really have the time, money, or inspiration to do a costume, so I pretty much went as me, the way I would dress if I didn't have to go to work or at least didn't work in a school. Short skirt, corset, false piercing (which will someday be real), makeup (which I look nice in, and could wear to work, if it weren't for the fact that I have no time to do it in the morning and no time to wash it off at night). It was more of a "use Halloween as an excuse to dress the way you'd like" then a costume.

I did enjoy spending time with our friends at the parties we went to. Was a little moody Saturday because I had a shitty day beforehand and we were late partially because of my shitty day and partially because I waited too long to take my shower.

Today is the start of NaNoWriMo and I am throwing a Kick-Off party at Panera - and there's like 12-15 people who are supposed to show up! I'm like, whoa! Wasn't expecting that. I'll have to get there a little bit early and see if I can a) pull together enough seating and b) maybe ask the manager if our larger group is going to be a problem. I was going to try to go there on a Sunday night before NaNo to talk to a manager but all my Sundays were booked up and I was getting lukewarm responses on the forum as far as RSVPs, so I didn't. Now I'm wondering if I should. Although really, we're bringing in bodies who are likely going to buy stuff, so hopefully we can finagle the tables and be okay. I don't even know how busy the Panera is on Sunday... ah nerves...

I also finally decided what to write about for NaNo - I'll post about it on paige_of_words.livejournal.com.

Briefly-

• got hairs did again - yay fresh color!


• no idea still what i'm writing for nano


• not prepared for halloween at all (;_;) one of my fav holidays but i just didn't have the time/money/energy to do anything this year = shitty last minute costuming = sad


• haven't been back to the gym since that one day like months ago (T_T) so not happy with my body right now


• getting over a cold now, but was all hacky/coughy/ick for over a week


• still fatigued from said cold and not sleeping well


• haven't been sleeping well


• finally got a pair of jeans - thank you converse for a reasonable mid-waist and straight legs that aren't unflattering


• contemplating looking for a different job (hopefully better paying and nowhere near as annoying to get to) so that i don't have to do aftercare anymore, i hate it that much


• no time to do anything it seems but complain and i feel like a whiny bitch

in short, i have been avoiding paying bills because i don't want to look at the money situation or figure out how to pay them/which bills to not pay until nov 15.

why nov 15? because that is when we finally get our pay for sept 9-30 aftercare. b/c they changed where the timesheets go and we work until 6pm, when where the timesheets go is no longer accessible. so no moneys til then. then sept and oct aftercare pay will come. in the meantime, avoidance. (not completely true as i do actually have to pay the bills soon... i just don't want to. so likely tomorrow when i am home from work i will pay some bills and curse the stupid school system and life.)

i am also avoiding going to bed on time because i don't feel well (huh? that doesn't make sense...) and don't want to lie in bed awake and miserable (ahh... that makes a mote of sense... not a whole lot, but enough).

http://paige-of-words.livejournal.com/

writing blog.

So yeah, it's snowing? It's mid-October in NJ...

My motorcycle has been sitting outside for a while since the basement is so damp during the months when the heat isn't on. The weather hasn't been too bad. I didn't think it was going to snow. I don't have a cover. I don't think getting covered in up to a few inches of snow is good for the motorcycle.

Solution?
White trash motorcycle cover. AKA, large black garbage bags.

I don't know whether to feel proud of my "ingenuity" or embarrassed because I'm that much closer to white trash.

I have started a NaNo blog for November, where I plan ('plan' being the active word) to post every day of writing that I do for NaNo (which, if you don't know, is this crazy thing where participants try to write a 50,000 word novel{la} in 30 days). Which means I should be posting blurbs of approximately 1,667 words a day, but it'll probably be more like 500 one day and 2000 another. I haven't quite decided what I'm writing, but it is one of three ideas I'm toying with now. It will be friends-only, at least most of it, just cause I like sharing but I'm still feeling a little trepidation about sharing with the whole world.

In related news, I need a new laptop battery, as this one went from full to empty in 5 minutes. It was 97% when I turned it on, got to like maybe 92%, then put itself to sleep, at which point it wouldn't wake up until I plugged it in, when it then said I had like no battery. It has been 3ish years since I got the computer, and I don't know how long these things are supposed to last, and I have tried recalibrating it before, but it seems to lose battery all the time. So it's prolly time for a new one. Because November is going to be hard constantly finding outlets, therefore defeating the purpose of a laptop.

makes me wish I was still involved with theater or dance in some way. And that I was a better singer.

If you haven't seen it you need to watch.

So, we're driving down to spend time with a friend. Getting off the parkway at Rt 9, two lanes merge down to one wide lane which puts out onto Rt 9. Behind us, some douche in a BMW SUV on his cell phone races around three cars behind us because obviously, the merge into one lane does not apply to him. Those painted lines on the roadway that indicate that, no, you are not supposed to operate your vehicle on this particular couple of feet of pavement for safety reasons, not to personally inconvenience you... those lines are not visible to Mr. BMW. As he gets uncomfortably close to where the on ramp actually meets Rt. 9 he realizes he will not be able to pass us as well and just gets stupid close behind. I am mostly unaware of this as it is happening, but as my husband exclaims about the jackass behind him I am brought up to speed in time.

In time for what, you might ask? Well, we're obviously traveling at a rate of speed that is consistent with traffic and therefore way to slow for the idiot on his cell. A small amount of space possibly resembling half of a safe passing distance opens up to our left, and within seconds the douche is roaring into the next lane. As my husband watches in dismay, a large pickup is already in that lane, accelerating in accordance to the traffic in front of him. The BMW makes it halfway into the lane, and my husband thinks he's gonna make it. And he does - and proceeds to be hit by the pickup, which can not slow down in time for the sudden incursion of this BMW into his lane. I hear a crunching sound mingled with the sound of tires on pavement, and turn my head to see the BMW moving at a suddenly high rate of speed past us in the lane to our left. As he does, an object moving with him veers off into our lane of traffic. It is the entirety of his rear bumper, which lands in front of us as if dropped purposefully to block the entire lane.

The douchebag continues forward, to what end we know not. We stop, as to not hit the bumper, and the people behind us stop, as they were witness to the douchebaggery of the guy on the phone driving the BMW SUV and thus were prepared to not slam into us at a high rate of speed (actually, I believe they may have purposefully been avoiding that very result). There is a moment where we have no idea what to do, and then I unbuckle and say "I'm gonna go move that." I get out of the car, to the confusion of the drivers further back who cannot see that our lane is physically blocked by a large piece of vehicle, grab the bumper, and fling it onto the side of the road in front of the McDonalds (a gift from me to you, evil fast food restaurant). I get back in the car, and we resume our travels.

This whole experience put me into a state of shock, as this is the first time I have ever personally had to clean up part of a motor vehicle impact. As we're driving, we're wondering if the other cars stopped, but I don't notice them stopped on the side of the road (although the pickup may have stopped, as I never really saw it myself as I was too confused by the chunk of BMW flying into our lane). Further along in our travels, Dave notes that he thinks he sees the BMW ahead. A few more looks and yes, it does appear to be a BMW with no bumper far ahead of us on the road. The douchebag didn't even notice in the middle of his conversation that he was struck by another vehicle and lost his entire rear bumper! Either that or he really didn't care. Or there was another vehicle that looked a lot like his with no bumper driving down Rt 9. Your choice.

Needless to say, I'm just really happy the jackass didn't hit us.

Tomorrow is our "meeting" day at work... not excited.

( Wherein I whine about how much work and life suck. )

Yeah, I'm just real bitchy tonight. Now I'm off to make dinner at twenty after nine the night before we start work again for reals, because why would we try to eat at a normal time or go to sleep early when we know we have work in the morning? It's not like we eat or sleep at reasonable hours during the school year anyway.

So before we left for Fire Island I rode the bike down to my parents' house so my mom and sister could use it for the week, to practice riding and ride together (my mom has her own bike) and see the difference between the bikes.

Yesterday we went down to see my family and pick up the bike.

( A kinda gross story. )

Ah, the adventures of being on the motorcycle. On a happier note, my mom bought me awesome fingerless gloves for summer riding, that a) fit me, and b) have skulls on them. I am loved.

Soooooo....

Fire Island was awesome. We got there Monday and hit the beach almost right away. Monday night was karaoke @ the Casino, I sang a couple songs (my standards for karaoke) and Dave and I sang together (and I did a lot of supplemental backup singing for other singers), but my voice was shot because of too much to drink... so it was a good thing I was drunk enough to not care that I couldn't sing below a certain range (which is much higher than I sing usually, lol). Stuck around until the end, then headed back to the house to crash.

( Pictures and more. )

More pictures (if you're interested) here: My Photobucket.

So, to get over my moody *end-of-the-world* state brought on by stupid money related things, I went a-searching about the internets, and lo-and-behold - the awesome possibility to win something!

The Great Wunderkammer Giveaway - http://totusmelswunderkammer.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-friends-and-new-explorers-to.html - all sorts of neato pretty stuffs that they are going to be giving away... but there's an awesome twist. The more people who are entered into the giveaway, the more prizes they will be giving away. So, if you are a) reading this, and b) potentially into pretty, steampunky stuffs, go take a looksy. Enter. Maybe get something.

I think as of now they've unlocked up to the 4th prize and are close to unlocking the 5th... though I will say I think the 6th prize is my fav...




( Other prizes )

So yeh, check it out, if'n you want to maybe win something cool.

I need a second job.

Like, yesterday. Like, at the beginning of the summer.

I hate August.

Filed. Unfortunately the money isn't going to be here soon enough to help with the current financial situation, but it'll be nice to have for Christmastime.

I need a reboot.

I am finding, at this time, that I am not as satisfied with my life the way it is. Not to say that there are not elements of my life that I love, but that as a whole, it's not really working for me.

( Just a rant. Ignore if so desired. )

I don't even know where I started writing this. Things got interjected in the middle of thoughts, entire paragraphs sprung up to derail the flow of the post, and I don't know that I feel any better for typing it.