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!

So for this week's GTT we're going on a shopping spree.  With only $100. I think I could sneeze and spend that.  Yes, I am aware of the fact that I like to spend money - and that's not really a good thing.  Right now, for an internet shopping spree, I think I would have to start off with a few purchases for my current extra curricular activity: dancing.  For those of you who don't know, I started taking bellydance classes a little over a month ago.  It's lots of fun, and accessorizing with fun hip scarves is super fun.

Unfortunately it's not so easy to find different styles of hip scarves.  I have a beautiful light blue with silver coin scarf my amazing friend bought for me because I couldn't go to the fair with them.  Ebay has become my favorite place for trolling for scarves.  So lets see how much I'd rack up if I did a little accessorizing....

First up is this hipscarf from Australia.  I'm so close to clicking the Buy Now button it's not even funny!

It's different from what I see a lot of girls wearing - which means I sort of want it for that reason.  But if no one else is wearing it.... Does that mean it's not a good buy?  I'm torn.  I also really like the white - but it's WHITE!  There are other colors, but I thought that the beading and detail work showed up best on white.

I'm rounding up, but it's about $10 to purchase it and then about $7 to ship it, for a total of $17.

I still have $83 to spend on my online shopping adventure... More scarves!

Okay, so this one comes in lots of different colors.  Some versions have sequins up on the top of the belt, but I'm not totally in love with that.  The other versions also have pearl detailing that I like better - but this black version looks like it has more coins - which means more jangle - which means more movement...

My hips will shake louder than your hips!

Again, rounding up - the scarf costs about $5 and shipping is $10. $10 shipping!  For a total of $15.

I still have $68 to spend on my online shopping adventure. I think I need one more hipscarf.

Yes, red.  I like red.

I'm also really digging the different ways the coins hang.  I think that's pretty cool.  I'm really into all of the scarves having a different look, can you tell?

Currently bids on this start at $.98, and the shipping is about $17 - which until I realized this was in China, seemed a bit much.  However, I could go to their store and do a Buy Now option for $23.  The person inside of me that wants instant gratification would do that.

I still have $45 to spend on my online shopping adventure. I think four scarves is plenty - so what else would I want to shop for online?  I don't buy clothes online.  I don't really like shopping online anymore.  But I do like books.  And I like shopping for books.  I have a B & N card, so I get free shipping on things delivered to the store.  I also get like 10% off my purchases so I'm dropping change unless it's an online special.  So, were I to preorder books today, I would purchase the following titles:

Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle ~ $13
Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi ~ $3.99 (online special!)
Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie ~ $7
Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn ~ $7
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming ~ $10

Leaving me with $4...

Well, now I really want to go shopping!

Okay, so things went from, totally not busy at all, to wow.my.god.too.much.to.do!

I'm currently at that state where I'm so busy I don't want to look at email, twitter or facebook because I'll remember yet again something else I'm supposed to do, have done, be doing - that I'm not.  And won't happen.  It's frustrating and makes me easily bummed.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of really good stuff happening in my life - which a good chunk of it I can't/won't blog about/yet.  And that stuff takes time, accordingly, and I know this, but I like to pretend I'm Super Woman!  I can do anything!

This last weekend saw little to no writing done.  I did, however, get most of my bedroom, you know that Epic Closet Cull 2010 thing?  It's practically done, I just need to haul off the clothes I don't want.  I discovered that I'm not a big skirt person. Or I just don't own many?

As much as I'm trying to make this week productive, I feel like I'm already failing.  Last night I marathoned Tremors 2-4, which resulted in me staying up far too late with my company over and now facing today practically main-lining Dr Pepper to stay awake.  Not that great, right?  I'm hoping to go home and take a quick nap after work and then get up and proceed to be super amazing.  I want to do things like, dishes, tidying up a bit, and writing.

As for the rest of the week, it's something like this:

• Wednesday - Strattos for Greek Night
• Thursday - Writers Date Night
• Friday - .....I don't think I'm doing anything......
• Saturday - possibly the RA meeting, but we're fer serials going to see Beauty and the Beast
• Sunday - Crafty Day

Well, at least I can't say I'm bored!

Okay, so yes, I'm doing my GTT post on Friday because Thursday was a blur of work activity and it didn't occur to me to do this post earlier in the week when I had more time, so oh well!

Do I friend my exes on social media sites?  Hmm, well, lets define 'exes'.  I'm thinking of this as two categories, friends and boyfriends.

First and foremost, I'm totally guilty of not turning down anyone I remotely know.  Why?  Well because if we don't click or if I really don't want them to see my stuff anymore, I can and will delete them at will.  Granted, I think it's stupid that I have like 300 facebook friends.  Myspace I went through ages ago and only kept about 50 of 700 people that I really knew - but it's not like I actually use Myspace anymore; my twitter updates it and that's fine for me.  My facebook I used to keep to just super close friends, but I don't really care anymore.  Maybe I should?

There are friends I was once close with that I am facebook friends with.  I can't think of anyone I've unfriended or not accepted - unless I just didn't know them at all.  I won't lie, there are some people I would like to delete because we aren't friends, I'm not sure if we were ever real friends, and they still rub a raw spot on me.  Why don't I delete them?  Well on facebook it's much easier to hide their updates than unfriend them, and I seriously doubt they pay a whole lot of attention to me anyways.

Ex-boyfriends.  I don't have a lot of these.  While my breakups have never been anything short of catastrophic, I have, in each and every situation, found it in myself to forgive and get over what happened.  That doesn't mean I want to be chummy friends with them, but 'unfriending' them seems childish to me.  In a few years we everything could turn around and we could be friends again (I can't think of anyone I've dated that I would give a second chance at dating again.)  I think I am still friends with two exes, but that would mean I would have to actually go and extend the effort to find them and - that's too much work.

I think the biggest reason I never unfriended them was that in each circumstance I moved on.  I picked up with my life, and didn't linger over the sad, pathetic leavings of what had been a one sided relationship.  I stuck a bandaid on my booboo and went on with life.  Time heals all wounds, right?  And I love living life.  Maybe some super mean, horrible part of me wanted to let those people know that they didn't keep me down.  They might have fooled me for a long time, but I wasn't about to hole up at home and be miserable because of them.  I was still going to go to shows, hang out with friends, see movies, do everything I wanted to do - regardless of the lack of their presence.

I tend to be very open about a lot of things; my Twitter is a public feed and updates my Facebook, Myspace and blogs so it's not like I hide a whole lot.  Okay, I am very private about my feelings but that's about it; other than my feelings I'm very open and public about the rest of my life - because why try to hide stuff?  Again, too much effort.  So if those people who have kicked me to the curb want to keep tabs on me, go ahead - bring it - you'll see that you'll never keep me down.

It's another uber busy day!

I know I can't really talk about the Seekrit Project that we met about last night, but lets just suffice to say that the morale is high and we're all hopeful and excited.  We also had lots of fun just hanging out and talking; we're girls.  We're into that sort of thing.

Tonight is dance; which is code for not gonna get a whole lot done today.  I'm hoping to get the dishes and a load of laundry going before I head out with a friend to go do some girly stuff.  aka - waxing our eyebrows.  It's a necessary evil because I hate using tweezers; they're like specialized instruments of torchure.  Oh yes, you could have all the pain at once, in one quick burst, or in smaller incriminates a hundred times over in five minutes.  Hmm, I'll go with the wax thank you very much.

I'm also in a world of trouble.  I haven't practiced the harem routine anywhere near enough.  If there's time between waxing and dance I should really practice so learning the last half of the dance doesn't fry my brain.  This means I'll more than likely be eating Chickfila tonight.... Yummy chicken!

All of this is me talking about everything except what I want to talk about - because I refuse to blog about what's really on my mind right now but suffice it to say that something is annoying me but I can't talk about it because when I started blogging I decided there were some subjects I just wasn't going to touch.  *sigh*  I should just drink a Dr Pepper and stick a smile on my face and everything will be uber good again.  :D

I probably shouldn't blog - because I'm uber tired, but it's my lunch break and I'm too tired to write or revise credibly and my eyeballs feel like falling out of my face so reading is out *gasp* so OMG I'm going to blog!

This week sees me as being uber busy - which isn't really that unusual, just not really at a point that I wanted to be busy.  I have things that I've promised people I would do and because stuff happens I'm sort of a flake.  I hate flakes.  I'm pissed at myself for being flaky.  Flakyness is a sore subject right now; because of flake behavior my bestfriend and I haven't seen or really spoken to each other in months.  I just got tired to being flaked on and just decided there was no point in getting upset about stuff and said something polite and all - well, when you want to hang out, call me.  We haven't spoken.  I'm not upset at her, but I'm upset that everything has unraveled like it has.  I try very hard to be dependable and come through on stuff, because I know how much it sucks to not be able to depend on people - and I've been a wonderful flake recently.

Goal for the next week: improve on the flaky behavior.

So what am I busy with this week?

Well, last night I went to see Iron Man 2 with guy-friend (I have to come up with a better way to name people for privacy's sake).  I have to say, I think Pepper is a freaking bimbo; she should have left that job 5 minutes into the first movie.  She's stupid for sticking around.  That's my opinion!  The movie was entertaining - and guy-friend and I are um, we're movie-talkers.  If you're familiar with Mystery Science Theater, that's kinda what it's like sitting through a movie with us.  We talk, laugh uber loud, and follow tangents.  This is why he's currently my fav movie buddy.  It's a rare person who doesn't mind my endless chatter.  The really funny thing was after the movie we decided it was a GREAT idea to go back to my place and watch Inglorious Bastards, which I've had from netflix for like two weeks, maybe more.  Yeah, I had no idea it was full of subtitles.  My contacts were trying to peel themselves off of my eyeballs by the end of the movie. 

Tonight is uber seekrit project meeting.  I'm thinking it'll include lots of tangents, talking, and possibly some productivity.  I can't say any more or else the other co-conspirators might ambush me for my snack money.  (Not really. I could tak'em.)

Practicing for harem night hasn't happened a whole lot.  I have hardly any room to practice in my apartment.  I think that I'm just going to take my hip scarf with me tonight and make everyone learn the routine so I can practice in an open space.  I have got to figure out what to do with my hands.  They're totally out of control, lol.  So yes, dance class is tomorrow night, it'll be lots of fun and I'm really liking it.

Friday is yet up in the air as far as what's going on, as well as Saturday - though there was discussion of going to the derby game - I should probably poke people about that, shouldn't I?

And Sunday is Father's Day!  I need to do something special for him.  I think he's hit a streak of blue days.  His health is good, but he's getting older and I think that's hard on him right now, and with my mom always gone on her bike he's left alone and lonely a lot.  I need to be a better daughter and call him more often.  I suck at phone calls.  If my dad would only learn how to text.... Well, then we'd never STOP talking and he'd probably know far more about my life than he wants to - because anyone who text's with me generally ends up that way.

So I had someone ask me: Don't you ever regret your tattoos?

Honestly?  Nope.  I mean, there have been times that I've stopped and realized that life would be easier were I not a tattoo'd person.  I've realized that a guy didn't like me because of my ink.  I've realized some girls are scared of me/won't talk to me because of my skin color.  But you know what?  It's like a litmus test for people; the ones who really are cool enough to be in my life pass it with the physical.  So if you think for an instant I regret or wish I would have done something differently, please stop.  I'm happy with who I am.  Okay, I'd like to loose like 50 pounds and I'd like it if my hair were longer, but really - those aren't that big.  So I'm happy with me, so you should be happy for me.

And really cold Dr Pepper burns going down and is a great way to really wake yourself up!  Back to work I go.

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.

As a kid I didn't get as much of an opportunity to read as other kids.  What I do remember vividly reading when I was a kid was a graphic novel/bound comic book of Scheherazade and the 101 Nights.  It came with a tape and I swear I listened/read that thing over and over and over again sitting on the bed in the motor home as a kid.  I got $.50 comics at truck stops and read those, but mostly I wrote my own stuff.  Occasionally I would come across a book or someone would give me one they didn't want anymore but these were few and far between.  When I mean I wrote my own stories as a kid, I mean I did it out of sheer boredom.  I do recall that the first chapter book I read was about a pig, though other than that I'm not altogether certain.

When we stopped traveling and I could read actual books, I read anything and everything horse related.  I recall having a very deep need to identify with my parents livelihoods, horses, and if I was obsessed with horses then it was a connection to them.  I read all of the Black Stallion books, Brumby books, Black Beauty, anything that featured people and horses, though I wasn't always keen on westerns.

I honestly can't recall ever reading that many children's books that were kid-geared, probably because it was a fruitless endeavor to keep me in books since we traveled so much.  I don't have a reason to read kid's books now, the closest I get are some middle grade and YA books - like the Percy Jackson books.

Yup, probably not all that enlightening this time.

I live in a one bedroom apartment so there's not a whole lot I can do as far as remodeling or renovating.  I do, however, like to be crafty and creative about my space.  I'm nowhere near as imaginative about my current apartment, which is kind of a bummer.  The issue is that my living room space is taken up by overstuffed, large, leather furniture.  I adore my leather couches, got them off of Craigs List for like $150 for both of them.  They're great!  But, they fill everything up to the point that I don't have space for a desk.  My second problem with my living room: no light.  Seriously.  There is no lighting besides an accent light above the entertainment set.  Ikea was my savior here.  I took two lampshades and bought two hanging light fixtures and created my own ambient lighting.  It works and it's bright and solves all my problems!

I'm currently struggling for desk space and trying to figure out a solution to my problems.  My grandmother bought me a rolling desk from WalMart for Christmas, something I could sit in say, a normal table chair and use - except I don't have any normal chairs.  I have two couches and then pub type chairs for my pub style dining room set.  The table's turned into a roving side table.  I'd really like to be able to figure out something that maybe.  There's one option I found at Ikea that looks interesting.  It's a wall unit that supports the laptop and provides some cubby space, but I question how well it would hold up on drywall in an apartment. 

Other than that, I'm really happy with my living space, considering I live in an apartment and can't change anything really!  LoL.