So we got some sad news this week.  The biggest indi bookstore in the DFW area is closing down.  They opened when the recession was just hitting and have held out for eighteen glorious months.  It's a super cool place and I wish I could share it with everyone.  I'm going to miss them.  Hopefully all of the authors who supported the bookstore find other boolalicious homes for their signings and events and stuff.

As usual I'm staying plenty busy!

This last weekend I went to my best friends, little sisters wedding in Oklahoma - I just wished someone would have told me where in Oklahoma it was before we started driving.  We assumed the wedding was in Oklahoma City - but in actuality it was in Ada, Oklahoma.  Yeah.  Making that U-Turn was not fun.  The wedding was very pretty and the couple were very happy.  I also got to see the fore mentioned best friend and her family and that's always special.  I road-tripped it with an old college friend, lots of fun talking about school, our lives now - and books!

Sunday was the official Book Addicts kick off, so several of us went over to Suz's house and camped out to write all day.  I learned something very important about myself.  Sitting at a kitchen table I will stare at the cursor mocking me and maybe dredge out 500 or 1,000 words.  If I move to the couch - BAM - thousands of words!  Yeah, after learning that I parked it across the room on the couch and pounded out words; lots of words.  It's a little disheartening because the weekends are turning into my writing time; I'm getting so busy on the weekdays it's almost impossible.

Like Monday - I did do revisions, but I also had to balance cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, and everything else I missed out on doing this weekend because I just wasn't at home!  Tuesday was the book club up at Legacy and that's always a full evening of shopping and talking.  Wednesday I had an accident and didn't go to dance class, but I still had stuff to do for people! 

Tonight is supposed to be Harem Night; I'm thinking I'm not going to go because my weekend is already full and I need time at home to clean and knit and wash clothes and do stuff for meeeeeeee.

Friday we're going up to Legacy probably to say our goodbye to the store and attend the Rachel Caine book signing.  Saturday is dance class and I got roped into going to my friend's cooking demonstration class, and I might possibly have a movie outing if we get out early enough.  Sunday we're discussing another possible writing day... And then it starts over again!  @__@  I need a vacation from my life, lol.

Okay, so I was chatty, then silent, then chatty - dramatic! - and then silent again.  I'm sorry, very sorry - last week was just a lot to handle.  No, my father's health isn't great - and I'm not supposed to know anything so I'm not going to talk publicly about what I'm not supposed to know.  There has been Other Family Drama, resulting in me turning rather anti-social.  I think after a few crazy weeks I need some down time, without the crazies or the distractions to sort of recharge.

But wait! This is me we're talking about - I hardly know how to do nothing, ya know?  Last week was almost an experiment in just that.  Oh wait - no it wasn't! 

Monday I did spend solo, warding off the world, cleaning, doing grocery shopping, etc.

Tuesday was Cover Girls, a monthly book club up in Plano my friends and I trek up to attend because it's just awesome.  I made cake-pops, which there are pictures of them in my Flickr.  I also made some book-pops with Dakota Cassidy's new book My Way To Hell done as a flag.  Super cute.  Check out my bakery success, fer serials.  Somehow, I'm not quite sure, but I wound up as the Teachers Pet at this event, lol.  The organizer, who turns to my friends and says, "I don't remember names, I'm sorry," proceeds to call me out of around 60 women for opinions and things.  It was funny and Certain People poked and prodded at me all night, but we were all laughing about it and really I didn't care.  Hey, it's flattering to get noticed!  You're lying if you disagree!

Wednesday was dance - but sort of a big night.  My dance school was featured by Groupon.com and Wednesday was the first night people could redeem their class voucher.  400 people signed up for the class!  400 people!  There are now two beginner classes on Wednesday.  I'm getting kicked up to the Intermediate Class that meets afterwards.  Sunday instead of just having Aliki's class, there will be two additional beginner classes taught by Neenah.  That's a lot of additional classes!  That's a lot of people!!

Thursday - Writers Date Night - and Cid forgetting the power supply.  It was a very beneficial night as I plotted out a new WIP and worked on some additional writing stuff I'm doing.

Friday - I think, don't quote me on this because I cannot for the life of me remember - I spent alone!  ALONE! HURRAY FOR ALONE TIME!

Saturday was dance class again - this one seriously kicked my butt.  We worked on floor work, and how to gracefully get onto the floor while dancing.  It's freaking Wednesday and my whole body still hurts.  The worst move we did was getting down on the floor, sitting on your legs.  Raise your butt up off of your legs just enough to clear your heels, and then move hips in a circular fashion while making your arms look pretty.  There are all sorts of directional changes and other things to do.  It also hurts like hell after not using those muscles seriously for a year!  We also did fifteen minutes of arm drills.  I didn't think this would be that bad.  Arms? Pshaw!  O. M. G.  The rest of the day I spent groaning every time I got in and out of my friend's car.  We went shopping in the pm for clothes.  I lurv shopping, and I lurv making people be my personal barbie dolls - because I never really played with them as a kid I guess I just like reliving that portion of my life now, right?  Did lots of great shopping, had dinner with some other friends and hung out for ages talking and whatnot so I got home uber late.  Now, I cannot just get home and go to bed, I have to like, unwinde and stuff, so I check my email and - So a few months ago I wrote lots of short stories and submitted them.  Haven't heard anything so I just accepted the silent rejections and moved on with my life.  Waiting in my inbox was a contract for a short story I'd written and submitted.  A contract to be published - and paid!!!!  I text'd tons of people, heck, you probably already know yourself but it's still fun to blog about!

Sunday was all about being at home and writing and reading and knitting and watching movies.  Really productive in some areas, I will say.  Started a new knitting project I'm excited about and will probably share pictures of later.

And this brings us to Monday - which was a random celebration of my impending published status and going out with the belly dancers to support Aliki dancing at Stratos.  Stratos is probably becoming my new, favorite restaurant, sorry McAllisters!  It's just a fun place.  Dance floor where the dancers dance every so often.  Amazing Greek food; I ate flaming cheese!  The waiters are almost all super cute.  And you get to dance!  Even on the tables!  Aliki got a bunch of us up to do a Shakira routine with her that we pretty much improved.  We did Greek dancing and some other line dancing - the only thing we didn't do this time - dance on the tables, lol.

So now we're at today - and today is another shutting the world out day, but only because there are books coming in on order today I'm crazy about and Must. Read.  The rest of the week is dance, writers date night and RA, so my live moves on in an ever persistent pendulum of crazy!

Okay, breaking a little rule here.

I'm going to talk about work, but mostly so I can explain my soon-to-be craziness.  This week, and Tuesday of next week, I will be filling in for a co-worker; I'm her back-up when she takes vacation.  She's never taken a whole week off before and her job is very large within the company.  I will be filling in for her.  For a week.  I expect my normally relaxed lunches to be me huddled in a corner staring out of the window willing my mind to do nothing more than contemplate the shapes of clouds.

Apart from work, I have three days to go until my personal deadline for finishing a novel.  Three days.  Lots of plot.  OMG!  If only I hadn't hit this wonky slump that took me so long to get out of.  If only I were doing regular 5K days.  If only so many other things had fallen into place I'd probably already be done with it.  As it stands - I'm not and I'm so far behind on things I said I'd do for others I'm also shoveling the guilt on top of my own shortcomings.

In short - I don't expect a whole lot of blogging/socializing to be happening.  I have my harem night this week and I'll probably post something about that and GTT, but not a whole lot else.  I think that the 4th of July weekend will be a nice recovery time for me.  So here's hoping that in seven days I'll be a much happier person!

Well, like I said, this was bound to be an interesting week!  Thankfully the low point of the week was dealing with my exhaustion post-Tremors marathon.  The rest of the week has been a lot of fun, stuff is going on, I'm happy, blahblahblah.

I think I've read like - four books this week.  Highway to Hell, Mage in Black, Stormwalker, and Over My Dead Body.... wow, yeah, I've read four books this week!  I looked it up on Goodreads and thus far this year I've read about 59 books.  The one I'm reading now will be the 60th.  I took Kori's challenge to read 100 in a year and even if I cake walk the rest of the year I'll still make that - but I bet I blow 100 books out of the water - easy peasy.  I can't talk about why I say this with confidence, just rest assured you'll know when the time's right and everything is a well oiled machine!

Other than reading, I had a bit of a writing slump, which I discussed in todays WIP update.  I'll refrain from double posting about it, but suffice it to say - I felt uber dumb.

Because June is a five-Wednesday month, we skip one Wednesday and go without dance class.  Yes, very sad, very nervous about the upcoming harem night - but whatev, right?  I can't change it - oh well.  On the up side, girls from my class decided to pop over to Strato's where the harem night is taking place next week, and hang out for Greek Night.  I hauled a friend with me because that's the kind of person I am; if I'm going down I'm taking you with me!  I had no idea my Saturday instructor was performing; that was loads of fun!

It was kinda a bummer cuz the restaurant was mostly empty, but our table was loud and cheered a lot.  At one point we got involved in one of her routines - and in short - I wound up on tables with two of my class mates - dancing.  Yes, I was dancing on a table, stone cold sober.  There are pictures, and I trust those that have them to use discretion - because I had this pained look on my face.  The three of us had no idea what was going on, so we mostly floundered around and had fun. 

The biggest kicker was that our sub instructor decided we would do our routine - sans the two girls that didn't come with us - right then and there.  I learned a few very important things: I don't know the ending as well as I thought (and neither does anyone else!).  My jeans are really too big.  And I step on my own jeans.  I need to just not dance in jeans - so I will be finding appropriate dancing pants this weekend most likely.  All in all, Wednesday was a load of fun, I'm sure pictures will be forthcoming eventually.

This weekend should be an interesting juggling of events.  I'm trying to finish my novel by the 30th, but I'm still going to a theater event on Saturday night, Sunday is Crafty Day, and next week is it's own beast.

Now if I could only convince myself to not stay up all night reading a book - I think I could tackle the day a bit better!

I don't have a lot to say but i feel bad about neglecting this blog, my other blog, and reading hardly any blogs.  I gave up reading blogs about a month ago to get myself to be more productive ~ and had the most productive month evah as far as writing goes.  which means there's not a lot else that I've really been doing.

And I get to finish season 3 of Dexter tonight, which is awesome.  I haven't watched much tv or many movies.  In fact, I think the last movie I went to see was How to Train Your Dragon...  And that was a while ago.

Some friends and I are working on an uber seekrit book related project we can't talk about ~ but really excited about what's in store.

My parents are doing well.  Mom's cycling, dad's hanging out, so nothing big or life changing there.

Dance class is going awesome.  I have a recital at the end of the month ~ yes, that means I'm performing. Dancing.  In front of people.  It's fun and something interesting to throw into my week.

Oh, and I've decided I should grow my hair out longer, something niceish looking.

I'm also going to own up to the harsh reality that I hate housework.  I need to take a whole day and just clean.  My bedroom.  The kitchen.  Floors.  Carpets.  The whole nine yards.  But have I?  No.  Do I plan to anytime soon?  Not really.  But do I need to?  Yes.

Okay, that's me rambling about nothing at all to ease my conscience about my lack of blogging.  There.

I won stuff! I won a companion to the Dexter tv show from Grasping for the Wind.  Super excited.

I've read several books.  Still needing to write outstanding book reviews on my other blog.

Writing - a lot.

Having friends over at various points for movies.

And oh yeah! Belly dance!

So I'll talk about my belly dance class I went to.  It was super fun, and I felt kind of silly, but that's expected when your body isn't used to moving in certain ways.  I think I'm really going to like it.  I mean, by the end of the class my arms hurt, I could feel the burn in my thighs and I felt the workout through my upper body and abs.  I need to practice at home, which I've been bad about because of my fanatical writing, but I will get better.  I even bought belly dance music and one of my writer-friends-who-shares-my-brain bought me a hip scarf at the ren fair this weekend.  I'll now have jangly hips.  I may or may not post a picture of me wearing said hip scarf.  There will be no video of me dancing.  None.

Got to see The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus this weekend which was sort of sad to see Heath Ledger's last film.  There's a really ominous moment early on in the movie where it kind of hits you: he's dead.  The movie was really nifty.  I'm supposed to watch it tonight again.

Also saw two movies I didn't care for: Nine (the musical) and Defendor.  Both were very disappointing.  Nine I knew was the story of a filmmaker, but it was just downright depressing at times.  I re-watched it yesterday and became even less impressed with the music.  Defendor was just all round depressing, though I love Woody Harrelson after Zombieland, I wish I would have passed on this movie.  It wasn't funny, it was depressing and sad.

Yup.  This week should be lots of writing because I'm wanting to finish one novel this week and I have a lot to accomplish.  Though next week should be more interesting as far as social interaction goes.

Thanks to those who have contacted me willing to help with research. I appreciate it!

I've gone from being an every-day blogger to a, you-might-think-I've-fallen-off-the-edge-of-the-world blogger.  *sigh*  I'm sorry!  There's either nothing going on or I can't possibly think of anything interesting to say that's not something like, 'I'm writing.' or 'I just wrote this really cool scene where so-and-so does THIS and whats-his-face does THAT! It's awesome!'  Because as much as I know it excites me, I don't even pretend to think that anyone wants to hear a minute by minute replay of my writing.

What is new is that tonight I start dance classes.  Yes, dance classes.  I'm taking a belly-dance class this month, well, for the next four weeks.  After tonight I'll know if I'm a once-a-weeker or a twice-a-weeker; I'm thinking twice a week, honestly.  I'm already looking at hip scarves.  I'm not too excited about the whole belly-dance costume, but the hip scarves are super nifty.  I'm sure I'll have all sorts of interesting bits to say tomorrow about my dancing experience; heck, I might even surprise you and double blog!

Besides the dance class, I've been thinking heavily about tattoos.  For several years now I've had standing plans for a full sleeve on my left arm.  I love the memory-tree idea and in my head it looks uber cool.  However, now that I'm in a professional environment - I have learned how much I hate wearing longed sleeves.  Plus, it's Texas and Texas is freaking HOT in case you don't already know.  I'm toying with the idea of cutting the tattoo down to a half sleeve, get it designed to look like a stained glass window and just have multicolored stars hanging from it so it mirrors the stained glass window on my right arm.  I'm not sold on the idea at all, which is why I must now begin the stewing process.  This probably also means I most likely will not get a tattoo in 2010.

I'm also still in limbo about my two submissions for press; I have 12 days left until no response means no acceptance.  I'd really prefer a rejection letter, personally, but understand that not everyone has time for those types of things.

My family is doing well.  Dad is of course experiencing some changes to the way he does things but he's coping and things are good.

Hmmm ~ Oh! I finished Avatar: The Last Airbender and recently came to understand that the movie will really be three movies.  I sort of died a little on the inside when I heard that.  I don't have much faith in Shammy, can you tell?  I could stomach one movie, but three is trying my patience.  I should be open minded, I know, but I like the series.

And I got a new phone. I think that's the end of my exciting news.

I'm having a wonderfully boring weekend.  Well, except with these pictures not printing out well, but other than that I've gone shopping and written and watching Burn Notice.  I'll probably finish season 2 tomorrow and then pick up season 3 of Dexter.  I need to poke people to see if they want to watch season 3.... but that goes on the to-do list.

On of my fav authors, Robin McKinley, is doing a giveaway of arcs for her new book. I'm uber excited, but also uber tired so I'll have to work on my entries tomorrow.

I'm drinking far more Dr Pepper than is probably healthy

Wrote a very promising short story.

And this is turning into a list of items.

I'm reading a book about pirates. It's pretty neat.

I know I'm feeling like butter spread over too much bread.  I think it has to do with just everything that's happened the last few weeks.  I've surrounded myself with awesome people who I really do love - yes, I love you guys - but I think it's all making me go crazy.  I'm having a writing dilemma, where I pull my hair out and scream, "This is utter crap!" at my laptop.  In fact, I know that when I prop the situations and plots in the novel to people, they think it's great, and I know my writing isn't that bad.  No, I'm not amazing, but I'm a far cry from bad.

However, with loads of Stuff flying around my head these last few weeks, I think what I really need to do is shut people out for a few days.  Oh, email and twitter and all that don't count, but I think I need to spend some alone time.  Maybe go hang out somewhere, get away and write or veg or something.

I wrote the above several days ago.  I was going to scrap it but decided against it because they were and probably to some extent are my genuine feelings. I sort of boomerang around at times with emotions.  I'm crazy like that.  I probably do need to step back from actively trying to be so social and focus on writing a bit more, but I'm enjoying myself.  And you know what?  I'm happy.  This time last year I was so very depressed.  I couldn't fool myself but I fooled everyone around me and the truth was: I was miserable.  But I'm not anymore.  Yes, I'm occasionally cranky, and poor Alicia has to handle my sometimes severe mood swings and the occasional very serious need to clean.... I think I will forever pity anyone who thinks they want to room with me. 

Yes, the last few weeks have gone from one extreme to the other, but ya know what? I'm okay.  I can handle myself.  I wonder if I could handle everything going on right now as well as I'm doing - were I still in high school?

So in completely other news, here's something so funny you might pee your pants.