This year Christmas was a little different for my family.  My dad had surgery a few weeks ago and wasn't up to making the trek up to my Grandmothers house for the traditional Christmas Eve celebrations.  So, the circus of Christmas 2010 started with due apprehension.

Cue Friday morning.

The plan was that my mom would come to my place, we would then take my Jeep up to my Grandmother's to exchange presents and have lunch with her; just the three of us.  Then we wold turn around and scurry home to spend Christmas Eve with my dad, Mamaw, sister and niece - the latter two were driving in and slated to arrive mid-afternoon.

This is what happened:

I sort of knew my mother was going to arrive between 10 & 11 am.  I wanted to get up earlyish and do some revisions; time is seriously running out on me people!  I woke up around 9:30, and called my mom to see where she was and how long I had to get ready.  Writing was out of the question.  She told me I had an hour; plenty of time to laze about for another ten minutes, luxuriate in a long shower, and then get down to the business of getting ready for the day and loading up presents.

Thirty minutes later I'm in the shower, I've just turned the water off and I hear my phone in the bedroom going off and someone knocking on my door.  I have this sinking feeling my mother has just played me.  I do not run to the door and throw it open - I'm more practical than that.  I check the phone - yes, 5 missed calls from my mother, and only then do I open the door.  By this point I know she's played me but I'm playing dumb because playing dumb is fun.  She claims she didn't realize how close she was - yeah right.  I get dressed and she says I need to come out and look at something on dad's truck.  Right.  Now I know I've been played.

So barefoot, and holding my makeup I go out to look at my dad's truck - and find the #1 present on my list this year.  It's a boxspring - excuse me - foundation for my bed.  I've been sleeping on just a mattress, which considering my Ikea bed means I'm sleeping about twelve inches off the floor. It's not a big deal, but I'd still like a boxspring, ya know?  So there is appropriate squealing and then figuring out how to get it into my room and situating my bed so now it has this awesome foundation on it.  I'm very happy with this.

Then once everything was loaded it was off to Grandma's in McKinney!  We spent about an hour up there, and then motored back to my place.  By this time it was raining cats and dogs; we passed about four or six wrecks on the way to my apartment alone.  It was crazy!

We made it back to my parent's place around 4, I barely beat my mom which was good since my dad had finally managed to find a dog that fit what my mom wanted and had it delivered.  His name is Matt and he's a Australian Sheppard.  My mom's old dog was a Boarder Collie/Australian Sheppard mix with a half black half white face - Matt has that same half and half face, but he's much smaller.

Christmas Eve was spent with the family, or at least most of it was.  My sister and niece haven't been to a Christmas with us in ages and my niece is now 16 after we had dinner - neither of us was very interested in hanging around and watching bad tv.  So I kidnapped my niece and we went to go see Prince Caspian!  That was cool.

Christmas Day started at 8am for me.  I hate 8am.  I'm still a little bitter that I had to get up at 8am.  But getting up at 8am was what happened!  The morning was pretty typical; breakfast, presents, everyone going their own way with their presents.  During this time Meka (my niece) and I stole the tv remote and turned on The Nightmare Before Christmas; I knitted and she crocheted.  It was nice. 

There was a big lunch, during which I ate hardly anything at all.  I'm not a big fan of traditional Christmas foods.  But I do love turkey legs!

The afternoon was spent playing Chickenfoot (a domino game) and then Monopoly.  I hate Monopoly, can I just say that?  It's a measure of how much I love my family that I played at all.  I did get an exit strategy plotted out when my best friend, Zibby, proposed a trip to the theater to see Tangled.  It was salvation.  Except - when I got home they wanted to pick back up where we left off.  Ug.  We played until I was really done - and then I drove home to sleep on my comfy new bed in peace and quiet.  I love my family, but I'm glad Christmas is over.  Next holiday please!

Not even going to lie.  Yesterday was a display in failure.  I decided against going grocery shopping on Sunday because someone gave me an unreleased book I just had to read the instant it hit my in-box (oh how I love my ereader!).  So that left me sans food for lunch and breakfast and pretty much dinner too.  So yesterday I had triscuits and a granola bar for lunch, the appetizer to the dinner I had to go buy at the grocery store was a sausage biscuit, but dinner was my prescribed plan fitting sandwich and my late night snack I shouldn't have had was apples.  Today I will be better!  Why?  Um, because I went grocery shopping, that's why.

Last night I *started* wrapping presents.  I hate wrapping.  I've decided that next year, everyone will be getting either one HUGE box with everything tossed in it, or I'm going to spend a small fortune on bags.  Wrapping is a pain in the butt when you have to sit on the floor and do it!  The things I wish I would have known before I bought a fashionably different dining set.  Ah well. 

Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• cinnamon roll oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• Total: 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1640

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1229

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• Yogurt - 100 calories - unknown fat content
• daily calories remaining: 1079

Dinner

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining:668

Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• cinnamon roll oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• Total: 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1640

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1229

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• Apples - lots of them - 240 calories
• daily calories remaining:839

Dinner

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 428

I have a radio alarm clock that goes off in the morning.  I don't usually really listen to it, it's just background noise but over the last week there's been this bit that has caught my attention, and not in a good way.  One of the DJs has gone to some length to propagate the rumor that he was involved in a rather high profile divorce.  I was shocked that the DJ was proud of this rumor he's encouraged.  Why would you want to be the source of someone's divorce?  I don't understand why this would be cool or encouraging or whatever.  I just don't get why this person would want to exploit someone elses pain.

The other thing that has happened on this particular radio show was a segment done about missed love connections, when you knew there was someone you should be with but aren't.  Everyone they talked to was married or in an established, long term relationship with feelings for someone else.  They discussed how to cheat, or if they person on the phone should break up their relationship or the one that the other person was in.

Why is it okay to break apart someone else's relationship?  I know right now I'm sensitive about this because someone who is like family is going through a tougher than shit kind of time.  I take stuff personally, I know but oh well. 

Okay, that's it.  I'm ticked about stupid stuff and yeah.  I'm off to go do Christmas stuff.

Today is going to be a sucktascular day for watching those calories/fat grams.  First, I'm out of appropriate breakfasty items - but I'm not really hungry anyways and it's almost lunch time.  Second, I'm going shopping for more presents and then there's a party tonight so I very much doubt I'll be in the know of everything I eat or drink.  But you know what?  Days like this are okay.  No one can keep to a strict regime every single day of their lives; it would get uber boring!  I'm going to try to keep track of at least how much I eat, make smart choices, and eat things in moderation.  I can always be good tomorrow.  :D

What I'm finding really helpful are the number of places that have their nutritional information up on websites.  I've been able to rule out going to Pot Belly's for my skinny Italian sandwich because 32 grams of fat?  Um, no! But! My favorite sandwich at Quiznoes is exactly in my plan.

Okay, the only thing that went 'right' Saturday as far as my eating habits went was Quiznos. 

Saturday
Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• Nothing
• daily calories remaining: 1800

Lunch

• Quiznoes Chicken Carbonara regular on wheat - 350 calories - 12 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1450

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• Pomegranate drink - 130 calories
• daily calories remaining:1170

Dinner

• snack foods @ Dakota's place - God only knows how many calories!
• 2 Dr Peppers - 300 calories
• Total: who knows? calories - who knows? grams of fat
• daily calories remaining:

 Sunday
Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• Nothing
• daily calories remaining: 1800

Lunch

• Frozen pizza -  calories - 20 grams of fat
  
• daily calories remaining:

Snacks

• Reeses Mini Peanut Butter Cups - 220 calories - 13 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining:1170
  

Dinner

• Frozen pizza - calories - 20 grams of fat
• Total: who knows? calories - who knows? grams of fat
• daily calories remaining:

OMG! Who else watches Dr Who?

((Note, if you haven't seen Dr Who or are not into season 5 right now, I'm not responsible for possible spoilers below.  <3  ))

Have you seen THE ANGEL episodes?  I'm just now watching season 5 and OMG!!  I made the mistake of watching Those Episodes right before I was planning on going to sleep.  Um, newp.  No sleeping happened.  I wound up watching like another hour of tv and knitting because it was too freaking creepy.  Who would ever have guessed that angel statues could be creeeeeeeepppppyyyyyyy?  It's amazing how something as innocent as statuary can now be defined as creepy.  I will never, ever look at an angel statue the same ever again.

I mean really, how could this pretty, poignant statue of a crying angel be scary?





When it looks at you like this!!



Okay. I'm done now.  Just wanted to say that ANGEL STATUES ARE CREEPY!!!!!

Okay, so today was a day about refusing temptation - and choosing wisely.  I could have had pizza for lunch.  PIZZA!  But I said no, I ate my sammitch for lunch.  I've taken to drinking my Dr Pepper in the middle of the afternoon, which has been working well.  Serves as kind of an afternoon pick-me-up. 

What I found mildly exciting this evening was that according to my scale I'm 4 pounds lighter than I was four days ago.  It's not something I'm going to hold onto.  I think that in a week if I'm still missing this 4 pounds then I'll accept it as fact.  Not until them really.

I did decide that since it's Friday night, and I've been such a 'good girl' I would indulge in some Chickfila.  The nuggets fit in fine with my plan, but it's the fries that just kill things.  I got the "small" combo and I'm drinking more water and tea than Dr Pepper.  It's all about making smart choices, right?

Next up - Dr Who and knitting!!!!!

Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• cinnamon roll oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• Total: 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1640

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1229

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• daily calories remaining: 1079

Dinner

• chickfila 
• nuggets - 270 calories - 12 grams of fat
• waffle fries (small) - 290 calories - 16 grams of fat
• Total: 560 calories - 28 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 519

Is it too early to say that I'm proud of myself for lasting three full days?

Calorie / Fat Journal 
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• maple brown sugar oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• Total: 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1640

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat 
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1229

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• daily calories remaining: 1079

Dinner

• sandwich
• chicken - 120 calories - 5 grams of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• Total: 340 calories - 12 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 739 calories

Okay, so I uber failed this morning on remembering to take supplements.  I completely forgot.  But, the food eating is okay.  I'm hungry, like wow hungry, but lunch is in an hour and a half so, here's hoping I last that long!  :)

So far my biggest want is Dr Pepper.  It's almost 9pm and OMG I WANT A FRIGGEN DR PEPPER!  I might cave.

The thing that I have problems remembering is to take my supplements.  It's almost 9pm and I have yet to take one.  Ug.  Maybe I'll remember better tomorrow?

Good news, I did go to bellydancing class tonight!

Calorie / Fat Journal
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• maple brown sugar oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• Total: 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1640

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1229

Snacks

• Triscuits - 65 calories - 3 grams of fat
• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• daily calories remaining:  1014

Dinner

• sandwich
• chicken - 120 calories - 5 grams of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• Total: 340 calories - 12 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 674 calories

First off, if me referring to this as my 'Fatty Journal' offends you, I apologize.  I don't mean to be offensive, but it helps me to handle difficult things by making light of them.  Thus, why this is my Fatty Journey.

This morning began with a well intentioned 6am alarm to get myself up and exercising for a bit before the day really began.  I failed.  Miserably.  I pressed snooze for an hour at least and then had to scramble to get ready and count out my calories.  Today I made the effort to dress 'cute'.  I've been feeling far from cute lately and I decided that I need to put the effort out there to dress up my appearance.  If I dress like I want to feel, it will make a difference, right?

So calorie counting.  I had a heartbreaking realization when I was figuring out my calorie/fat allowance.  My favorite winter breakfast item, the sausage biscuit, is way over my calorie/fat daily intake allowance.  By like, a lot!  I had a few moments to lament the loss.  Maybe on the weekends I'll do a little splurge and treat myself to one, but as a daily thing I have to drop it.  And then I had to juggle my lunch because based on my mealtime fat allowance I was over.  It was an easy fix; drop back to one piece of cheese from two, but it took actually looking at it.  Counting calories and fat grams, this is work.  This is going to be tough, but hopefully keeping myself accountable by blogging will help me remember to keep track.

Dr Pepper is one of my big weaknesses.  I'm going to try to cut back; I know that I can't quit drinking them, at least not cold turkey and I don't really want to.  Moderation is the key I think.  Maybe I'll try to relegate Dr Pepper to special reward status or something instead of a lunch time staple.

I'm updating this blog through the day.  Mostly it gives me a place to vent and worry and whine.  Like right now - for the last fifteen minutes I've been trying to figure out if I'm hungry, or if I just want to be hungry.  Being hungry would give me an excuse to go raid the kitchen, but I don't really think I'm hungry.  At least I don't really need to eat anything.  I think I just want an excuse to get away from my desk.

FYI I lasted until all of 2pm without a Dr Pepper.  Also, building Christmas party was too tempting to pass up.  I got a little square thinggy of cake and retreated to my ivory tower office without any more damage done.

Dinner was hard.  I wasn't hungry in the slightest, so I picked up my stuff and ran with it.  We had a book signing to attend tonight (tons of fun, book-addicts.com update to come!) and dinner didn't happen until around 10pm at IHOP.  I resisted the call of pancakes in favor of a 'smart choices' grilled chicken sandwich.  Go me.

Calorie / Fat Journal
[1800 calories daily / 19 grams of fat per meal ]

Breakfast

• maple brown sugar oatmeal - 160 calories - 2 grams of fat
• vanilla creamer x 2 - 60 calories - 3 grams of fat
• Total: 220 calories - 5 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1580

Lunch

• sandwich
• honey wheat bread - 140 calories - 1 gram of fat
• muenster cheese - 80 calories - 6 grams of fat
• thin shaved salami - 111 calories - 9 grams of fat
• apple slices - 80 calories - 0 grams of fat
• Total: 411 calories - 16 grams of fat
• daily calories remaining: 1169

Snacks

• Dr Pepper - 150 calories
• Cake Square Thing - Assuming 100 calories
• Izzy - 90 calories
• daily calories remaining: 829 calories

Dinner

• chicken sandwich, IHOP - 600 calories 
• daily calories remaining:  229

Go me!

Recently I've come to realize how much weight I've gained in the last two years.  It's substantial.  Enough that I'm often just uncomfortable because of my weight.  So, tonight after stepping on the scale and having a few moments where I hyperventilated and freaked out, I decided that I needed to do something about this.  It's within my power to do stuff; I can change what I eat, make time to work out and I should do that now when I'm in my 20's instead of ten, twenty years down the line when my heath is poor and I'm miserable.

So, I'm going to be making an effort to eat healthier - which means no burgers, fries, and especially chickfila.  I'm cutting down on my Dr Pepper; I'm going to make an effort to drink more water.  I'm going to look into what it costs to join the gym in the building where I work.  I'm going back to bellydance classes.

I can do this, I just have to remember that I want to.

Seriously.  I'm pretty much always on the go.  How do I ever manage to get anything done?

It's been a full weekend, that it has been.

Friday things got derailed from our intended Dr Who and knitting marathon so instead I spent Friday night reading the brand new Dakota Cassidy book, You Dropped a Blonde on Me.  It's awesome because it's her humor and the story of someone learning how to deal with life after a crazy turn of events.  I know I don't understand the whole dynamic of divorce and being remarried, but from the angle of just wanting an entertaining book - it delivers.

Saturday I told myself I was going to knock out a bunch of Christmas shopping.  I'm all done as far as my mom is concerned, but she's the easiest person to buy for, so that's not saying a whole lot.  I still need to buy my dad's presents for her, but he gave me a list and I'll work off of that.  I still need to buy for my grandmothers, sister, niece and my family pick person - who I don't know yet.  Great!  I have begun to buy at least one book for each family member and I've got that item knocked off, so that's the most important shopping all tied up and taken care of as far as I'm concerned.  I'll work on the rest later.

Saturday night was my cousin's wedding.  I haven't seen him or his family in close to six or eight years, and my mother whined about going until I almost let her off the hook, but we still went!  And I was really glad we went.  All of her brothers and sisters save for one attended.  They never get together any more.  And, my mom's stepmother was there.  There's a whole pile of family "stuff" in that situation I won't even touch, but it was a pleasant reunion to see her.  The wedding was small and intimate and a lot of fun.  They had a guitarist that did all requests, and did Glee like mash ups.  It was a fantastic time, and my mom was really glad I dragged her along.

Today I woke up way early; like 8am, which for me on a weekend is stinking early!  I did all kinds of responsible things; I started laundry, did the dishes, went grocery shopping and bought stuff for the Chin Children.  And then - I did revisions.  I'll be talking about that in a few days over at cidwrites, but today was a big day as far as going through the draft and making changes.

Tonight was my Uncle D's Christmas party.  He used to have a family get together every year for a while until he moved, but my family has stopped going.  This year, however, I got an invitation so it didn't matter if my stick in the mud parents (love you mom and dad!) weren't going, I was going!  I also dragged Suzan along and made her go make nice with my family.  There were the most amazing, squishy chocolate covered gingerbread cookies!  And I got to see some more family and chitchat with other people I don't really know that well.

All in all - a very productive, fun weekend.

This week is going to be more of the busy, busy, busy.  Tomorrow night I need to do more Christmas shopping, Tuesday night we're going to a Richelle Mead book signing, Wednesday I know I have something, Thursday is #writersdatenight and I might be free on Friday before the crazy starts all over again.  So - there 'ya go!  Lots happening.  Time for me to go to sleeeeeeep!!

Ohmigawd I felt craptastic last night!  Fer serials.  I went to bed a little later than I intended to, half because the last Blades of the Rose book is ginormous and half because I haven't been sleeping through the night.  I've been waking up too early and then laying there far too awake and without the umph to get up and out of bed.  In theory it was a good idea, but I was just so sicky feeling and uncomfortable I barely slept.  I meant to take some of that night time cold medicine that knocks you out, but I forgot and then woke up in the early hours too cautious to take any for fear that I wouldn't wake up.

As exciting as it was to wake up with cops, moms, and apartment office people hanging around my bed, it's not an experience I want to relive any time soon!  So I suffered through the night.  This morning I felt icky still, but as the day has gone by I'm feeling better.  I've only supped on two Sucrets, which is a big improvement over the 8 I had yesterday.  Yeah.  8.  I had a timer going to count down the minutes and seconds until I could have another.  Today is infinatley better, made so by copious amounts of warm tea and the thought that tonight - tonight I get soup!

Sometime this weekend I have got to start thinking about Christmas presents.  I'm buying for: mom, dad, sister, niece, grandma, grandmother, and family pick.  Each year on Christmas Eve we all draw one name - someone in the family who we buy one present for.  This way we don't have to buy presents for everyone, and everyone gets two presents on Christmas Eve; one from their family pick, and one from Grandma who runs the Christmas Eve party.

Well.  Lunch is now officially over, I've read through most of it, so I must scuttle off to do work things!

(Aren't you proud that I'm blogging again???)

I have Blink 182's old song, What's my age again?, running through my head, only it's, What's today again?

For some reason I can't keep the days and dates straight in my head.  I don't know if I should blame it on taking so much time off of work and focusing on writing to the exclusion of piddly things like dates and days or if it's something to do with this achy cold I have going on. 

Today for instance; I woke up this morning thinking I didn't have to go to work.  Um, yeah keep dreaming!

I should probably pull out my planner and jot down things with a bit more zeal so I make sure to keep track of this stuff and jog my memory.  So that's it.

Well, everything can't always go according to plan, right?

Sunday was a study in what happens when nothing is planned!  I woke up fairly early and did my annual Birthday Shopping Spree.  This mostly consisted of work appropriate clothing; two pairs of slacks, one pair of jeans, a few shirts, and three pairs of shoes.  All in all, I spent relatively little thanks to good sales.  The shopping has become an almost unintentional tradition.

The afternoon was spent attending the Ft Worth TGIO which was the epitome of last-minute-planning, but I got to eat awesome biscuits and gravey, so who cares?  There was a little crafty shopping and then I went home and watched Dr Who stuff and The Secret of Kells and fought with knitting....

At least until the angry policeman arrived and accused me of listening to bass bust'en hip hop and playing video games way too loud.  Now, I am the first person to admit that I like listening and watching stuff on the loud side, but I wasn't last night.  I didn't really appreciate the angry cop routine since I wasn't doing anything wrong except maybe not having cake.  Yeah, I realized today that there was no cake involved at any point in time over the weekend.  How much suck is that?

This has been a nutty weekend so far.  It's almost 1:30am on Sunday morning and for some reason I'm still awake.  I guess I keep thinking if I hang around long enough something uber cool will happen - but I could be sleeping....

So instead I'm going to blog about this weekend.  Since my friend Suzan and I have back to back birthdays we decided we would do an extended weekend of awesome to celebrate.

Friday night - we went to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar.  Incase you aren't familiar with this, it's a bar with pianos and people who play and sing requests of stuff.  They can play just about anything, as long as they know it, and it's a great time to sing along, drink, dance, whatever.  But of course I can't go anywhere without something happening.  As soon as we got there we had a run in with this guy in a wheelchair who is like haunting the place or something.  He came up to Suzan and I thought she knew him, but aparently he just wanted to tell her she was very pretty.  I almost think he followed us to this corner we staked out for a bit because he wheels up to me and even though I'm singing and watching the act he wheels up and stares at me.  Yes, I know I'm too nice to just tell someone to scamper off, so I get dragged into this very awkward conversation with him.  I'm really not sure if he was really not all there or if he was just using the chair and this almost drunken voice to pick up girls, but it was weird and uncomfortable.  He even stood up (um, so why the wheelchair?) and hugged me.  And tried to pull my clothes around to see my tattoos.  Yeah, wasn't thrilled.

After that experience most of the rest of the night was a lot of fun.  Suz and I got pulled up on stage to do the chicken dance and make fools of ourselves since we were celebrating birthdays.  There was a diminutive older guy who was rather drunk that decided to booty dance at our table - not us, the table.  Pete's also must have a hotness test for the bouncers.  And we did tons of singing.  It was a great night.

Today, Saturday, I had the Dallas TGIO for NaNoWriMo.  It was kinda a train wreck since the planning ML got sick and there was a schedule conflict for the space and we got bumped to another room, but everything worked out.

Tonight we went to a Brahmas hockey game - it's a minor league hockey thing.  The game was loads of fun and we sat right on the glass.  The fights were awesome, the game really good once they got warmed up, and I think we're looking to go more often to those games.

Plans for tomorrow have kinda fallen through, so I'll be winging it on my actual birthday.  I'm thinking shopping and then the Ft Worth TGIO and maybe go see a movie if I can find anyone who is interested.

Okay, going to convince myself that sleep is the best bet right now.

My brother came to visit me yesterday.

Maybe that doesn't sound strange to you, but up until a week ago he was living in Florida.  I knew he was going to be back in Texas - but in Longview, now exactly a distance to just drop by for a chat.  We sat around for like two hours chatting and laughing and talking.  It was really nice, especially after NaNo.  We did talk some shop on books and writing but he's a casual reader only so it was more be gabbing and then moving on to other topics.  It was really cool, and it was nice to not feel harried during a conversation because I need to get back to writing like - RIGHT NOW!

I have yet to make it back to the kitchen to start post-NaNo cooking, but that has more to do with my own laziness than anything else.  I have two awesome steaks thawing right now that will be fantastic when I cook them on Friday, or maybe tonight if we don't do our #writersdatenight celebration meet up.

Sometime this weekend I want to get back on the knitting train.  I need to make one book cozy for a word war winner in Atlanta and then do some work on a scarf I've promised a friend of mine come January for her birthday.  I also want to knit this awesome ereader cozy I found on the Lion's Brand Yarn site.  It calls for crocheted button holes.  I'm hoping I can either ignore that part or hand that bit off to one of my crocheting friends to finish for me.

Last night I did manage to get cleaning done in the apartment.  All my furniture is back where it belongs, but there's still stuff where it doesn't belong and I really need to take out the trash and do this last load of Thanksgiving dishes.  All in all, things are coming together, so it's nice.

At some point I'm going to get down and dirty with the Christmas shopping.  Maybe this weekend I'll head up to Kohls or something and start in seriously.  Or maybe not.  I'm not particularly driven this morning - and now it's time to go to work!

My brain feels like it's mush.  Which means that NaNoWriMo is over!  Yup.  In case you haven't heard, I was an ML for this thing called NaNoWriMo - think like a big club and me being one of the co-presidents.  Anyways, I wrote over 200,000 words in one month.  My brain hurts.  So I've been reading!  It's awesome and makes me happy.

But I really don't want to talk about NaNo.  In fact, I want to talk about anything BUT that.  So - what am I going to do now that NaNo is over with? 

I'm going to blog.
I'm going to read.
I'm going to knit.
I'm going to watch movies.
I'm going to hang out with people.
I'm going to watch hockey.
And much, much more.

Mostly I'm probably going to be reading. I've read one book today, and I'll probably read more of another - and clean.  Dear lord my apartment is a pit of ick.  It wasn't that bad - not until this weekend when I had tons of people over and things just kinda got more and more messy.  I still need to clean up the kitchen and put my living room back in order.  Yup.  Super exciting, huh?  So I'm going to go do that now.