So another week of dance classes, and I have to say that I think at times I look more like a fish floundering on land than an actual dancer.  Tonight one of the ladies in my class and I spent half the time looking at each other with very lost looks on our faces and laughing with one another.  The thing is that the usual instructor was there this week - where last week we had a substitute.  6:45 rolled around, the music went on and she started a sink-or-swim session.  I think I succeed in moving in the right direction, but there's no way I'm doing this stuff right; we won't even discuss what I look like doing it.  But it's fun!  And my arms and all sorts of me hurt.

If you're into comics, the Boondock Saints comics are out.  I'm subscribed to them via Heavy Ink.  Comics are a very recent addition to my reading library.

Right now I'm reading an amazing Zombie book called Feed; I'm sort of anticipating being up later on tonight with nightmares, so I'm half tempted to draft this blog and publish it after that wake-up, but tomorrow is Thursday and I should be a good girl and do my Girl Talk Thursday since I've missed the last two Thursdays!

I'm constantly entertained by things that happen on Twitter.  Like, the random stuff I say that complete strangers pick up on and reply to.  It's funny to me.  For instance, I twittered something to the affect of, I have a Dr Pepper. What do you have?, and got like 50 replies with what other random people had.

Today I realized I haven't picked up knitting needles in weeks. Going to try to fix that on Sunday, since, wow, Sunday's Crafty Day.  I totally forgot!  Oopse.

And it's a holiday weekend! That's uber exciting.  And I might have plans for Monday, so that's a step up from my current habit.  Oh, and I'm getting my hair cut this weekend.  Finally!

Okay, so today is the year anniversary of all the new credit card restrictions.  Supposedly this is going to make the big, bad evil credit companies behave! Except.... things have only gotten worse.  Look, I know I don't even begin to understand all the rules and what's going on, but I do know that before all this mess I managed very well on my own.  Yes, I had a balance I was kicking myself about, but I was paying it off and the interest rate wasn't awful.  I'm not sure what it is now, it's something I need to do a little detective work and figure out, but things are getting stupid.  I paid off a credit card two weeks ago - or was it a week ago? Whatever! I paid it off, I'm so excited that I did! In another six months I'll have paid off another one and then it's time to tackle the black holes in my life; my two albatross birds.  However, credit rates and rules are going crazy.  I understand that in the long term this is supposed to be helpful, but right now it sucks and it's frustrating and I'd like nothing more than for it to all have never happened.

Next on the list.  Health care.  Excuse me Mr President, but we have a war going on.  Yes, I'm sure health care is very important, but in this economy, with a war going on, I think there are other things to worry about other than gouging me of every penny I have.  I'm literally dreading when we have to change insurance; seriously dreading it.  How much is it going to go up?  Will I be able to afford it?  What else is going to be up'd in price?

We're experiencing a terrible winter this year.  Tomorrow it's going to snow again and if we get the projected two inches of snow we'll have had the snowiest winter ever in Texas.  This means it's been cold here.  The winter is usually when I can get by with tiny heating bills and save up some extra money.  Not this year.  I'm paying as much, if not more than I did to cool my apartment.

I know I'm complaining, but all of these things are out of my control.  I can't exactly get the credit card companies attention, and if I could they wouldn't care.  The president doesn't care about little me, he's thinking about the country and the long-term plans.  And the weather sure as heck doesn't care!

Today is Monday, can't you tell?  I had a mostly sleepless weekend because of dreams and just not being able to stay asleep. I even went to bed early last night and I'm more exhausted today than I have been in a while.

Friday was loads of fun because I spent it with Amanda and we ate dinner with her family, saw Valentine's Day and got gellato at Piccomolo.  The down side was that a toddler ruined most of the movie and an older gentleman talked at us for almost an hour at Piccomolo.

I had a weird, terrible, horrible dream Friday night/Saturday morning that Amanda and I were kidnapped.  It was so bad that I text'd Amanda just to make sure she was okay....

Saturday was the writer's meeting - and we had a blast!  Might not be getting as much writing as I'd like to done at these, but they are so much fun!  I also found The God Engine, which I blogged about but have yet to read.

Sunday I went to church at my old professor's church, loved it, thinking I'll go back again.  After that I went to my parent's place and watched the Olympics with my dad and wrote. 

Tonight I hope to do some outlining work on some other projects and write a bit.  The end of Suspicion is so close! I can see it looming in the distance! ...and then I start Premonition.

Mostly, today's just a Monday and a blah one at that and I'm tired and whaaaaaaa~~~

Okay, so I read the first chapter of Practical Demonkeeping and I'm not hooked and I'm eying other things on my shelf....  I bought more books Tuesday night before the critique group.  I bought a book by Alan Moore on writing for GN's and comics and two McKinley books - which fit in with two goals so I might be putting aside the Christopher Moore book.  This is bad since I keep doing the same thing to his other book, Fluke.  I really, really, really liked Lamb and You Suck was good - but I could never get beyond the first chapter of Fluke and the Practical Demonkeeping first chapter just kinda... didn't get me.  Struggling with the idea of pressing on or grabbing up Chalice or Dragonsbane by McKinley....

[edit] Okay, I'm cheating on my writing. Today I will be brain-dead and not mind.  I took Chalice with me to work today and managed to get through the first section of the first chapter and OMG I'm hooked already! Have I mentioned I really like Robin McKinley's books? I want to know more about the elemental fire Priest, the Master and what the heck the Chalice does!!!![/edit]

I was super excited with the comments I got back from the critique group; I got some great opinions and review and I'm actually looking forward to tackling the issues addressed.  I really feel like it's all coming alive.  I might need to rethink some of the names... I know why people are named like they are - but the reader won't for quite a while - if at all in this book.  I think that's a thing to tackle much, much later once I know where the book actually ends.

I had another one of my super weird, crazy dreams last night.  This time I think I can blame Avatar for a little of it, but not the dragons bit.  There were these floating islands or maybe they were really tall plateaus that looked like islands that were covered by jungles.  Anyways!  My dream followed a character who did some interesting things and dragons were involved in a non-stereotypical rawr-I-will-eat-you way.  I was able to jot down what I remembered of the dream and do a reasonable amount of brain storming on it.  I don't have a climax for it - which is the main problem I see.  I could, however, make it a very curious short story with the material I have right now for the quarterly Glimmer Train contest on writing a 12,000 or less word story.  There's a regular contest schedule set up there too!  I'm getting interested...  Jane Friedman clued me into that on her blog, There Are No Rules.  She has some really good stuff on there.  Like this blog she wrote about a book she wrote with someone else [BIG edit] the someone else is Becky Levine.[/BIG edit] called The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide - and I want it. I've bought more books in the last week than I really should have, so I'm sticking this on the To-Buy-Eventually list - like, in a month or something when it looks like I'll read it sooner rather than later.  I'm really big on revision right now so I need stuff like this for tips and whatnot! ... Hmm, maybe I do really need this book now...

I'm watching the minutes tick by as I loose my lunch break.  *sigh*  Yesterday was crazy and today is worse; my job is not normally like this so I'm more surprised about all of this crazy stuff and more or less frustrated with myself for the inability to do everything perfectly the first time.  I don't talk about my work here much - I realize - mostly because I'm following my company's blogs and I don't see myself as a spokes-person or anywhere near equipped to talk about my company or what we do so I keep my trap shut.  I would never want to jeopardize my job here because I like it. I like the people I work with.  I don't always understand what we do, but I can do the job, I'm reasonably happy with it and in this economy and time those are things not everyone has.  I'm thankful for my job - but I'd be really happy if the last few days did not repeat themselves in the level of crazy that's been going on.  I think this afternoon, should everything not blow up, I'm going to tackle the mess that has become my desk!

I think it's pure stubbornness I'm wearing my dress today.  I bought it before Christmas but it was just too cold and pointless for me to wear anything other than jeans to work.  It's a brown dress, which is even more pure novelty considering I don't particularily like brown or wearing it - but this one has a design of blue colored teardrop and semi-nike-swish things that go absurdly well with my blue cashmere sweater that - well - I kinda felt super compelled to buy it.  And thankfully the weather is copaerating and it's warm enough to wear it so today is a good day.  I'm also feeling much better!  I think that tomorrow I will push myself to get up and exercise.  I put it off on the weekend and yesterday for not feeling well at all, but I think tomorrow morning I will be pretty well off.

Last night I lay awake in bed and contemplated a new prologue for Suspicion and I penned out a few paragraphs I think I will have the critique group read.  I'm rather thrilled with the idea as well as expanding the novel to include various bits from other characters perspective other than the female main characters.  I think it will help the reader fully understand the complex plot that was just lost on the first draft.  Lots of nothing happened and then in a few thousand words everything happened and left even my head spinning for how in hades it all came to a point besides the fact that green is a very suitable color.

I was reading Brandon Sanderson's blog, oh my, yes - blogs, and the whole thing about his books being made into movies intreigued me.  I've sort of been forcing myself to ignore that he writes anything other than Wheel of Time but I do believe I will have to read his books, and at the current rate I am devouring printed pages of stuff I should easily be able to do that - later this year.  Heck, I started Robin McKinley's book The Hero and the Crown last night; I probably haven't read it since Jr High.  I can't believe I haven't read it between then and now - it's such a crime!  I will probably also finish it tonight or today or something impossible like that because I just could not sleep despite how exhausted I was so why not read?  (and of course between the time I wrote that line this morning and now after work, I finished the book.)

Perhapse I need to be interested in thicker books.  Then I would spend more than three days reading it.  It's a little exciting to move on from a book so quickly, but it's also a bit of a let down.  I wish they lasted me longer, but I am glad to have read them.  I'm going to force myself to hold off reading The Blue Sword until tomorrow.  I believe my current plan is very much to not go to church tomorrow because my fever has yet to leave me and the headache is still permanently wrapped around my head so that even after ingesting drugs to dull it - it's still just there outside of sight and hearing like.

So I leave work very soon and I'm going to go on to the Borders where we have critique group at instead and probably eat some soup at McAllisters and piddle around on the next scene of Suspicion and force myself to be yet more productive today.  Ug, and I must also get food for that little varmet the rabbit - and it needs fresh bedding.  I ached and hurt so bad last night I almost didn't clean the Chin cage, but I did.  I don't have the right bedding for the rabbit.  The rabbit gets expensive, absorbant stuff.  That's what happens when the animal actually sits in their bedding; they get the better stuff.  My Chins, who have a tray that slides out of the bottom of their cage, can have cheapy crushed corn stuff that absorbs and whatnot and so long as I am mindful of changing it every few days works rather well.  However, I'm starting to feel that their cage isn't getting really clean and I'd like nothing more than a chance to hose it down and scrub it - but where do I put the Chins while I do this?  I'm pondering over this question and browsing CraigsList.  People are bound to have cages they don't need anymore, what with small children learning the responsibility of an animal isn't all that glamerous.

You ever have those days that you get up and get ready and it's effortless and you just look awesome? That's me today. Unfortunately I'll be in the office by myself all day today, and I only plan on being home tonight doing housey things after grocery shopping.

I had a very strange dream last night and I will blame a good portion of it on a conversation we had over dinner last night about my friends cousin dating an Asian girl and his parents trying to learn how to say her Korean name instead of calling her by the American name she picked for herself.  So last night I dreamed I went to an English boot camp and had an Asian boyfriend who was very tall.  It was rather weird, because in the dream I wasn't there for the boot camp but met all the people in it - the Asian guy was one of them.  Through a conversation it was decided I needed to quit my job and do the boot-camp and in semi seriousness the Asian guy asked me to be his girlfriend.  I started the boot-camp late and got poked at for not really knowing if me and the guy were dating or not but we both said yes ... and the rest of the dream was a montage of me studying note cards.  I don't even want to know what this dream means!

I'm working really hard on finishing the green, angel hair scarf I started in October. I utterly failed at getting it done in time, but if I'm lucky I'll have it done soon enough and can move on to finishing the navy and gray scarf I'm knitting in the round and after that I have another scarf request or two...loosing count here! I'd also like to attempt something else....for my own sake.

So my friend Jessica asked me to babysit her bunny for two weeks; looks like Molly and Polly are getting a neighbor!!!!

I'm getting back into reading my blogs religiously.  If you have some time, and love reading other real life, outrageous drama, read Robin McKinly's blog about what another author posted on Amazon; read the blog!  Writing Excuses has a new podcast/blog up on Tragedy.  Paperback Writer has some great tips on places looking for novel submissions.  When I first got turned onto the Guide to Literary Agents blog I was really into reading it and I've slowly gotten bored with it - but it's the things they publish like this article on an Authors Platform that make me keep following them; not amazing news, but interesting and useful.