Really.  I'm not kidding.

I willingly went to this movie.  Even though I don't like Michael Cera; he's sort of like Reeves, who just plays himself in a movie.  But - I was hopeful.  What I'd heard from the geek crew sounded like fun; fighting the league of evil x's for the girl of his dreams?  Sounds dreamy, right?

Except that Scott Pilgrim is just another rather spineless jerk.  He cheats on his girlfriend.  He doesn't have the nerve to just break up with the fore mentioned girlfriend even though he's making progress with the girl from his dreams (hereafter referred to as gfhd).  The fights with the evil x's were awesome, though at one point I swear I was watching an episode of Double Dragon.  Come on, you remember that right?  The evil fighting karate twins with the power of the dragon?  Yeah. 

Gthd wasn't without her own issues, but at least she was upfront and all - "I have issues."  "I'm leaving you for that dude."  "Okay, so I'm a bitch."

The supporting characters were what rocked.  The gay roommate and the drummer girl were my favorites.

Rent it.  Unless you're a fan of the comics or something, but don't go expecting it to be *jazz hands* Awesome!  *end jazz hands*  It had potential - had he not been so spineless.  The premise was cool, but the execution just... sucked.

I keep three calendars.  One is a moleskin monthly calendar that I carry with me.  Snapshop of the whole month, it gets pretty crowded and technicolor what with all of the highlighter and colored ink.  I have two on my desk at work.  One is a month view that I scribble work stuff down on and will notate personal stuff that's going on.  Why?  Because if something happens to me there's a physical copy of what my plans are lying around somewhere that's not my home.  The last calendar is a new addition and I keep it at work because it's just easy.  It's a week view calendar that I rip the top sheet off every Monday and figure out my week.

This morning before work I realized that I have only one 'social engagement' that is not writing related this coming week.  This is good.  I'm coming down to three weeks before Armadillo*Con, this writing convention in Austin.  I'm accepting that I probably will not be able to go to the DFW Writer's Convention this year because they raised the cost.  I don't really understand the hike to $300.  It's a rough economy and asking more money from people who probably won't break even on what they spend to write any time soon seems like a silly idea.  Publishing is hard right now.  The Convention sold out last year - probably because it was so affordable.  Anyways, since the DFW Con is pretty much out, I need Armadillo*Con to count.  Means, I need to have as much on the table as possible.

What I have yet to say is that I'm going to be very unsocial in the coming weeks so that I can recoup on the writing time I've lost from spending so much hanging out with people.  Yes, I adore my friends and I like doing stuff with them but I want to do well in Austin since it's just that much more important for me.

DFW Con isn't 100% out, but with it costing that much more, and earlier in the year it's harder to make happen.  Last year it was late Spring so you had time after Christmas to take a breath and then pinch for the con cost.  This year it's more expensive and in February.  I think I paid $185 last year.  It's almost $300 this year.  That really sucks because there were a lot of agents and authors scheduled to be there I wanted to meet, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  Maybe the next year, huh?

The big point is that I'm going to be less social, more writerly.  At least until the end of August!

So once upon a time someone told me that if you talk about the dark things in your life it makes it easier to deal with them.  Not sure if that's true, but I'm going to blog about my silly, irrational fears.

Ready to laugh at me?  Good.  Because don't you dare do it to my face!  Okay, you probably could but I'd feel silly and probably say something dumb.

The thing that's always been hard for me to do is going to sleep.  Why?  Because growing up traveling I shared a bed with my mother.  That was security.  I knew that if anything happened she was right there and could protect me.  When she stopped performing and we had a 'normal' life we lived in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.  Do you have any idea how freaky that is when your imagination runs wild?  I have always needed an hour to talk myself into sleeping.  It's gotten worse living alone because I lay in bed and watch the way the shadows play on the windows for a while until I'm satisfied they're normal.  I'll lay a certain way for a while and make sure the light from my laptop screen isn't messed up - as in, no one's come out of the washer closet and is creeping around my apartment.  Then there's the really irrational things that my mind processes before I go to sleep; like things that could be in my closet or have been crammed under my very low bed.

Are these things irrational?  Yes.  I know they are.  It makes no sense for someone to break into my apartment.  I live surrounded by people, there's not much of a reason to break into my apartment unless you want at my books.

Also, I think part of the reason I have the irrational fear of someone being outside of my bedroom window is that it's happened before.  When I was in high school, a person who will not be named (if you knew me in high school he was a plague on us all and I'm soooo sorry), wrote me lots of dark poetry.  He was one of those types that no one wants to be friends with, he made the choice to be a sort of pained soul.  I took pity on him and tried to be a friend because people didn't want anything to do with him.  He told me he loved me,  but I wouldn't date him because while part of him was dark and mysterious high school boy sexy, he was also 100% bad news and part of me knew it.  One morning I woke up and somehow he'd gotten hold of a car and drove out to my house.  On the outside of my bedroom window were like 100 yellow sticky notes with "I Love You" written on everyone.  I remember running outside in shorts and barefoot to rip them off before my parents saw.  There was also a poem involved but I forget where it was. 

This is a caviate, but I think that all my worst stories with guys involve one I tried to help because they were that stereotype loner.  The one no one wanted to be friends with because they were too weird or too this or too that.  The guy above, the guy who beat me up... yeah, that whole thing where people tell you to be friends with the loners because they need friends too?  Total lies.  They could have friends if they wanted to! (Note: I don't mean that whole don't-be-friends-with-them-thing.  There are people who are just shy or need to be understood, just be careful.  Broken noses are not fun.)

And no, I am not afraid of guys.  Am I slow to trust?  Yes.

So now it's time for my latest, really irrational fear.  Cockroaches.  Cockroaches everywhere.  It's a recent thing, like one year ago when I moved into this apartment and there was that one on my pillow.  I've never had an issue with bugs.  Heck, I ate crickets in Thailand!  But every time there is another one in my apartment the more my skin crawls at the sight of them.  First thing I do when I wake up and shamble out of my bedroom?  I flip on the lights for my kitchen and dining area and take a good, long hard look around to see if there's a culprit.  I have this image of cockroaches crawling in the cups I drink out of.  It freaks me out.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now.  If I can think of any other self-deprecating stories I'll share later!

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.

i wanted to blog tonight - but nothing went according to plan tonight.

I know, I'm supposed to do a Girl Talk Thursday blog today, but I haven't blogged about me in over a week so I might as well.  I've been busy, I have a lot to say.  Like - how I need to really keep my camera on me.  I really should take more pictures.  I'm bummed because we had a baby shower on Saturday - and did I think to take any pictures?  Nope.  I really would have liked to.

So, my sort of goal now is to take more pictures.  More memories.  I want new pictures to hang on my walls at home and fill those gaping places.  I should get the chance this weekend; I'm going to my best friends, little sisters wedding - in Oklahoma.  It's love to go to Oklahoma, let me tell you.

And what have I been up to the last two weeks since I haven't really been blogging?  I've been catching up with my friends.  Doing things.  Watching movies mostly.  Knitting.  Ooooh!  I knitted a book cozy.  It's going to go with my first Book-Addicts.com giveaway and it's super nifty.  I need to make one for me so that I protect the books I thoughtlessly toss into my purse all the time.  I also need to take a picture and update my Ravelry and just show it off.  The next one I make will have a few changes, like a ribbed edge instead of just a k&p every other row kind of plan. 

I've been knitting a lot more.  I think it has something to do with that whole wanting to make Christmas presents thing going on in the back of my brain.  I'm working on an adorable pink and blue stripped scarf.  It rolls in on its self, so it would be a really good accessory, but not very functional.  I'm thinking I'll give it to one of my younger nieces and do scarves for the whole brood.  That's five kids.  Just so you know.  That's a lot of knitting - but I wanna do it!

The writing and revising has been going very slowly.  I'm up to the third chapter on the new WIP called My Personal God.  I've cut about 7K from Sing Softly - and that hurts.  Like OUCH!  My goal with Sing Softly is to just get the plot in place and the manuscript readable and get someone to just read through it; probably the #writersdatenight girls because they're all bugging me about it.  After that I'm thinking I'll shelf it and n-e-v-e-r work on it again. 

I wound up dancing at Stratos for the oil spill fund raiser last week.  It was random and happened at like 4pm - and silly me - I thought there would be more than just one other person and myself doing it.  I'm so silly!  Over all dance has gotten much more challenging.  Myself and three others were bumped up to the intermediate class, which is also intro to zills.  Uh, I can't even move my body in all the ways they're telling me to, and now I'm supposed to zill?  For me it's the body moving that's harder.  Zilling?  Pft - I was in marching band, yeah my right hand is a little dysfunctional; I played French Horn.  But zills and moving and playing doesn't bother me.  Yes, I do get off rhythm easily, but I've always had issues with my internal metronome not functioning properly.

Oh, and I had my first ever experience at a gaming place with a friend for her hubby's birthday.  Yeah, I so don't have a nerd/geek card.  Race?  Class?  What?  *plays with Killer Bunnies*  Yeah, I have never felt so normal in my whole life.

What else?  This weekend is the wedding and the kick off for Book-Addicts.com - so go enter my friggen contest Saturday!  Fer serials people.  I'm going to be giving away a copy of Feed.  You don't know just how awesome this book is.  It's very much a rock-your-socks-off book.

And while we're talking about books, my awesome, funny, talented, mommy-amazing friend Erinn is celebrating her blogging success with a mystery box giveaway of books! G-o E-n-t-e-r N-o-w !-!-!-!

Right.  So that's all the interesting stuff I've been doing for now. 

So, people who talk to me, twitter with me, or read my blogs might have heard me mention the #SeekritProject I've been working on with some friends.  Well, in a week and some change on August 1st we, Alice, Linda, Suzan and myself are going to debut our book review website, Book-Addicts.com.

I just posted our very first post on the blog, so go by and leave comments, show us some love and all that jazz.  We're going to be doing a lot of giveaways and stuff these first two weeks, so watch twitter for updates and plugs for contests and reviews.  I'm really excited about this project; reading is something I really enjoy and I think it'll be fun to share this with other people.

Because what addict wants to be alone?

Hmm, I'm going to forgo the obvious answer of writer in favor of something - well - silly.

If I were going to be famous for anything - other than writing - I would want to be, are you ready for it?





I think that my unique experiences with a wide variety of cockroaches invading my personal space, makes me specially equipped to hunt them under extraordinary circumstances and in creative, new ways.  Now, my default fall back is always a full can of Raid - but do you know the athletic ability it takes to leap coffee tables and move furnature to get to your prey?  It's a lot of work!  I'd reason to believe that my Roach Hunting is as exciting as crab fishing in the artic.  Fer serials, it gets that real.

And when I'm without my trusty can'o'Raid, I'm not affraid to go a little old school.


I've used flipflops to stun my prey and dispose of them.

Not unheard of is the instance where I used a steak knife to defend myself against a flying cockroach that attempted to steal my dinner.  This is one lesson those roaches should learn and learn well; don't mess with my Dr Pepper - or my food.  Because I will cut you.


I'm not even against using house hold appliances.  When I was beset with the six inch hissing cockroaches I was involved in a high speed chase where the suspect took refuge in the drain of the kitchen sink.  Unfortunately the suspect didn't heed the garbage disposal sign.  Yeah.  And you just thought shot glasses were the only unfortunate mishaps involved with the dishwasher!

Also, there have been a few instances when the roaches decided to scale the wall or sneak attack me from the ceiling.  All of these have lead to me honing my skills and instincts to a fine point so that at any hour or day I am prepared to take up the great hunt for my prey.

So you see, I think that this skill has plenty of potential for pop entertainment.  Who wouldn't want to watch a little cockroach squishing action?