Well, you can say that everything with me is an adventure.  It all happened when leaving the theater from watching How to Train your Dragon when my mother called me.  I answered the phone and just heard... well, noise.  And then I heard my mother, but she wasn't talking to me.  I assumed it was a pocket call or something, but I listened anyways just in case, and I overhear something to this affect:

"I have money! I will pay you whatever you want.  I'm on a bicycle, I need to go 30 miles in that direction.  My husband just had a stroke, and he's in Ft Worth." at this moment she realizes that I'm on the phone. "Oh - I didn't mean to call you, but dad's had a stroke, they're transferring him to Harris in Ft Worth. You need to go there now. Bye!"

.....and thus ensues a lot of chaos. Now, as soon as I heard the bit about my mom being on a bike and needing to go in "that" direction my heart was already in my throat.  If something was so bad she was going to pay someone to drive her 30 miles - 30 miles which would go towards her year-end-goal - well I knew it was serious.  By the time my mom finished and hung up on me I was running through a very busy theater parking lot in the rain and yelling at my friends to run or get left behind.  I'm such a nice friend.  I love you guys, I really do! ...but I probably would have left you and had Ryne come back for you.

My mom is in Houston and was going to do two days of long bike rides, but is now on her way home and then here to the hospital where we will pow-wow and .... hang out.

And let me pause to say that Ryne was amazing.  In the moments of me doing my own rendition of Connie and Carla's escape from the airport, he made me a to-do list as I spouted things off and made me laugh with an appearance of the Hardcore Frog.

So I got everyone to my place, dumped them off to watch Supernatural - I think?  At which point I drove like a mad-woman to Harris in Ft Worth.  My dad was probably in ER for 30 minutes before I got there, so all in all it worked out really well.  We hung out in the Er and they let him have food and sign papers and all that fun stuff.  And can I say that ER is like, the most boring place on earth?  Nothing happened - which is probably good - but we didn't even have a tv!

My Dad - TV = Super Grumpy
My Dad + TV = Grumpy

It's the small things in life.

Around midnight we got moved upstairs to ICU - I think. It might be some t-word that makes me think taxidermy.  I love my dad, but I don't want to get him stuffed, thanks!

At the moment his prognosis is that he had a stroke, but it's the kind that works its self out.  They're even talking about releasing him today, Sunday, so that's really good!  Just need to do a bunch of tests and try to determine what happened and if it's preventable, etc.  It's super scary and I'm sure that as soon as the adrenaline wears off I'll have a breakdown or pass out or something, but for now I'm wide awake and ..... might do some writing.... or just sit here and worry and fret. That too.

Okay, so it's Friday and all I can think about is the weekend. Hurray! It's here! And omg the next discs in the Avatar: Last Airbender anime are in!

Don't know what I'm talking about? That's okay. M. Night Shyamalan is making a movie from the beloved Nickelodeon series.  I'm sure you'll see enough advertisement and fan-fair about it to get excited too.
Right now I'm in the middle of Book 2: Earth, for those of you who know how the 'books' (read: seasons)
 go.  I'm slowly working my way through them.  Book 1: Air was available on Watch Instantly via Netflix ages ago and I think I spent a whole Saturday streaming them while I wrote.

I'm iffy about the movie.  I don't precisely like Shyamalan movies and that he would take something I really like and rip a bad movie out of it worries me.  And maybe I don't know yet - but who is the person in the bottom right corner in green?  That doesn't look like the Blind Bandit which is the only persistent Earth Bender besides Boomy that I know of yet.  There's already been plenty of discussion about the actors chosen.  Aang is themed around Chinese heritage, is played by either a dark Caucasian boy or a Hispanic; I forget which because honestly it's been a while since I read the articles.  Katara and Sokka, Eskimos, are played by white actors.  At least Zuko, taken heavily from Japanese influence, at first glance looks different.  Honestly I'm less worried about the color of the actors skin and more worried about their ability to play the roles.

Regardless, I'm going to curl up on the couch tonight and enjoy like, two hours of cartoons and writing with friends and friends children coming over.  It's going to be great fun.

And Zuko! I'm squealing over how this season is turning out because I really like the antagonist in this series.  He's such a great character in that he does great evil but because of how it is set up you sort of cheer for him and whatnot.  Oh well, that's enough of my rambling.

Fashion... right, okay, I can do this one!  Lets talk about Cid and fashion, since this is a timely post as I am currently attempting to wheedle down on the absurd bulk of stuff in my closet.  When I was little fashion was ~ whatever mommy picked out.  Jr high and high school it was sort of a whatever-is-different-or-not-cool phase.  In college my fashion extended to wearing the same pair of jeans and a band tshirt every day.

And then somewhere along the line I met my gay man.  That's another story in and of it's self, not for this time.  If you can believe it, shopping with guys was what finally turned me into a fashion literate person; that and watching lots of bad fashion shows when I could afford cable.

Some time ago I decided I really wanted to be rockabilly/retro kinda hot.  I mean that's Bernie-freaking-Dexter!  She does a lot of rockabilly modeling stuff.  I really like the hair, the clothes, the super retro style and everything about it.  If I could 'choose' to be a style or fashion, I would love to dress rockabilly every freaking day!  This was really what I wanted to 'be' when I graduated college and finally got a real job.  I did entertain the idea of dressing this way and even had that sort of pin-up a-la-Bettie-Paige hairstyle for a while, though mine was more red.  And then life happened.  Do you know how long it takes to style rockabilly hair?  Or how expensive and hard it is to find 'rockabilly' clothing?  It's just too much effort.  Seriously.  I'm not pretty enough to spend that much time on how I look every day.  And, to be honest, I'm not that good with putting up with uncomfortable clothing.

My idea of fashion now?  Jeans, my comfy Target jeans, and a cute/fun shirt and flat shoes.  Maybe a sweater if I don't want to get ogled as the Tattoo'd Wonder.  I love my tattoos, but they aren't exactly dressy sometimes and I like my sweaters! (apparently I own 15 of them in different colors and designs!)  The thing I'm really jonesing after, is being able to be comfortable and confident in what I'm wearing.  I don't think it matters so much what I wear anymore as much as how I feel wearing it.  Yeah, there are things I wear that I like and I think are fashionable.  I have a whole collection of headbands and jewelry I like to accessorize with, but I don't wear it if I'm not comfortable dangit!

Still not clear on what I'm talking about?  *sigh* I GUESS I'll have to communicate with pictures  :P

Starting from the feet up.  If I'm going to lust after one shoe, it'll be anything made by Naughty Monkey.  They're about $100 a pair, I have two, but they're the most comfortable shoe I've worn in my life next to converse.  Aren't these HOT shoes?


I wear a lot of jeans.  Target has hooked me on these jeans.  I think they're that Mossimo brand, they're women's and they're amazing.  Not high waisted and not the fall-off-my-butt hiphuggers, but a nice middle ground.  They do stretch so ladies, if you want that tight arse look - wash and dry often.
Spring and summer I wear dresses more frequently, and I like to show off my tattoos.  Hey!  I got'em might as well share them!  I'm developing a small collection of mostly sleeveless dresses.  I don't think I have anything strapless like this one, though I'm awfully tempted to go buy it this weekend.....
Okay, so my #1 thing to wear in the summer: tanctops!  I adore tanctops.  Okay, I don't have like, amazingly taunt arms or anything, I have a tattoo sleeve, but in Texas you just want to not be stuck wrapped up in clothing.  I especially gravitate to things like the third one which could easily have a sweater tossed over it to be considered "work appropriate" - those are always my favs.  I'm really digging this loose trend.  I've gained weight, I've never been a twig so that fashionable flowy look really appeals to me.
Speaking of sweaters, I like them either plan or patterned.  And yes, I own a gray and black leopard print sweater I love.  If you don't love it, shut up. I do! Sweaters are really great because they're versatile and useful.  I think I'm always lugging a sweater around with me.
I have a massive tshirt collection.  Seriously.  Most of them are like the one on the left; very artistic.  I hardly ever wear something like the one on the right.  I do not wear ones with like, sayings or logos on them, but I like this skull and crossbones one, because, well - it's a skull and crossbones!
This whole vest thing, totally love it!  I've bought three vests that I don't wear too terribly often, but I really like them!  They're fun and just give an outfit a little something else.

No outfit is complete in my opinion without accessories.I have two drawers in my dresser devoted to necklaces.  I have gauged ears so I don't wear normal ear rings, but necklaces I do wear!  I always love pearl anything, but I really like this sort of mix-and-match artistic thing going on like in the picture on the left.  I also like really long necklaces that dangle.
Lastly, one of my true loves ~ Loungefly bags.  I don't really stick to the whole sub-culture fashion anymore, but there's just something about a Loungefly bag that suckers me in.  I own two, both I paid a pretty penny for and if I could find this one in a store I would probably buy it and it's matching wallet too!
So there you have it.  Things Cid does not need, but wants.  I'm something of an eclectic now I think as far as fashion and clothing goes, but I'm okay with that!

Okay, so ~ I am alive. I am getting better.  There have been no more instances involving the cops and my mother.  That is a good thing.

I know I recapped the DFW Writer's Convention via my writing blog, but I thought I'd talk about the non-professional aspects over here too, since I haven't posted and well, I feel like it.  I meant to get all ready on Friday but wound up piddling around with Linda, shopping and getting lunch and stuff until mid-afternoon when there was a whole trip back and forth to Ross to return a laptop bag and dig around for another.  See, I found this perfect blue and black laptop purse, but it's made for a 15"ish laptop.  Lappy is a 17is" laptop.  Two inches.  Two friggen inches kept me from having the coolest laptop bag.  I'm upset.  I also had to just accept that most stuff is made for 15" laptops apparently!  Insert a very unhappy Cidly  :(  I did get two really nice shell-shirts to wear under sweaters for work and stuff, so that was a win!

Saturday Linda came to my place and we took Jeepie to the convention where we met up with Suzan and Criss - yea!!!  Haven't seen Criss recently since she got prego on us.  I miss her face!  I was really surprised by the lack of technology.  I assumed more of the people there would have laptops and all, but apparently our group was in the minority.  In most of the classes we were the only people clustering around outlets and taking notes on laptops.  And I'm the one in our group that brings a power-strip.  NaNoWrimo taught me well.

There was much fun to be had at my expense because I went to the romance/sex writing workshops.  This included twittering about me being in these with the con's hash-tag.  I also saw people sitting in front of me pulling up my twitter profile as SOMEONE twittered yet another silly thing at me.  Oh well.  Good thing I like to laugh at myself, right?

My amazing friend Linda got a partial request from an agent, so uber congrats and well wishes her way.  (I have yet to hear back on the short story I sent in, but I shouldn't hear back until end of next month)

Saturday night was the cocktail party in which I played dress-up with Suzan and *gasp* MADE HER WEAR A DRESS!  This included a really funny Marylin Monroe moment while Suzan took a smoke break.  We also met a really cool recent transplant to Texas who will be joining our online critiquing.  Super jazzed about this.

Sunday.... Linda and I - without talking about it - both automatically assumed that the conference would also be starting at 8am.  She showed up at my place same time as the day before - without us deciding that's what we were doing, we both just assumed the same thing!  And we arrived at the convention center... and realized our mistake!  LoL!!  I had about an hour long conversation with an author who is trying to understand twitter and so we sat on some benches and I pulled up my TweetDeck and we discussed twittering, retweeting, hash-tags, and the benefits and uses of twitter.  We also got the guy leading the twitter workshop to come over and join us and then there were four of us talking about twitter.  It was really fun.

During a session with one author, the author stopped speaking for a few moments and then asked the full room if anyone had any Claritin - allergies are really bad this year.  Well, when I'm sick and I need to be in public sans-medicine-head, I take Claritin.  Yes, it's expensive but it leaves me clear headed and functioning.  I pop'd up with the medicine and this author said she'd read my first ten pages of a manuscript and critique it.  I needed to have gotten it out last night in all honesty but I got blocked with web hosting issues on godaddy.com

So I'm excited about that!

I also hate godaddy.com  If anyone is better with internetz than I, I would love helps.  Otherwise I'm going to corner Suzan and beg her to help me, though it might not take begging, it could just take some Dr Pepper....

There were also some really nifty writerly threads available.  Sometime this week two shirts I bought will be here and I'm sure there will be pictures. I can't figure out if they have a website so I'll just have to tell you that both shirts are funny and one is semi-sexually funny, but writerly, both are girly.... yeah.

Ho-hum...  I'm rather certain I don't like staying at home.  I don't think I ever realized how little time I spend in my apartment some times until I had someone living with me.  I'm sorry world, I make a terrible roommate.

The Epic Closet Cull is .... still underway in the way that I mean there's a huge freaking pile of STUFF at the foot of my bed.

My apartment is a wreck.  Tonight will officially be Cid-cleans-stuff night; bathroom, bedroom, chin cage, dishes, trash - you're all going down!!!!!!

And my garden is officially beyond resuscitation and is dead.  Dead.  Dead.  Dead.  I'm sad.  I also don't know if I have the willpower to start over again.

I think this covers it.... yes, it should, if not, well, I'll say it next time!

Okay, so there's a perfectly logical explanation for my silence all week.  I've been sick.  I didn't really think all that bad sick, but enough that I just sort of curled up and -- didn't do a lot.  Like, I took Tuesday afternoon off - and slept.  Had the bad idea I felt well enough to go get soup with a friend.  Well, I did but I had such a bad case of medicine-head that I was a zombie.

The drama really started happening Wednesday when I woke up around 4:30 or 5am and decided I should take another dose of generic brand Nyquil stuff and go into work at lunch.  I boot up my laptop and shoot off an email to my Florida people - and curl up and go back to sleep.  I woke up hours later when I had to pee.  And after you pee - you of course need food!  It was about 10:30, so I figured it was okay if I got up.  I'm halfway through making my sandwich when - someone starts pounding on my patio door!  Now, I'm disoriented enough I don't really realize at first it's my patio and that it's not really in my head.  I finally go over and pull back the blinds - and my mother is on my patio.

Insert a moment of extreme confusion and then mild panic as I think something has happened to my father.  My mother, carrying a pair of heavy bolt cutters comes in and informs me she was about to break into my apartment.  In short order I come to find out my work never got my email.  So, they called my emergency contact - my parents.  My mom zips over from work and had been pounding on my front door for some time.  However, because my friend is crashing on my couch for the time being all the doors between me and the front door are closed - I never heard it.  I'm sure the heavy case of medicine-head played a big roll.

Not long after the cops show up and the management office at my apartment complex are calling; because the complex couldn't unlock my apartment for my mom, they instead offered to call the cops to do a wellness check.  So me with my medicine head had two cops, my mom, and the management people of my complex in my apartment explaining that I really was okay.  It was crazy.

Me? As a popstar?

The first thing I did when I seriously started pondering this Girl Talk Thursday, was laugh.  Okay, maybe it's the doses of medicine I've been consuming that are clogging up the proper ways of thinking or something, but I just saw record companies loosing money with me as the next greatest pop-star.  Why?  Because I doubt I would be easily controlled. If I had to compare myself to current pop-culture-super-stars, I would pick the following:
P!nk, Sara Hudson, and Marti Dodson from Saving Jane.  Why?  Because all three women have some seriously killer pipes and attitude.  I could never be a Lady Gaga, dressing up to just shock people, or a Brittany with her publicity stunts or a Rhianna with the crazy boyfriend. 

If I were going to be a popstar, I'd be one because people liked me, and not because I was a safe bet for the music industry.  Sara Hudson had an amazing voice, lots of talent and family in the industry, yet her solo album tanked for many reasons covered in a documentary I once saw, but what they didn't say - and what made me like her - was her attitude.  The way she just sort of flipped the world the finger and was herself.  It takes a lot of guts to be yourself.  (now, I'm not saying I support everything Sara does, don't read me like that.)  I'd want to be like that; myself in front of the world.  It might be hard, and people might be harsh, but it's too much work to create a persona in my opinion.  I'd have to be myself, and people would have to be okay with it.

P!nk had to rediscover herself.  I remember her early music and I didn't like it.  She was just another face in the music, another voice - and whatever.  However, she sort of reinvented herself some years back and - okay, I don't agree with everything P!nk does, but I do love her music and how she is - just P!nk.  See - people can make music, as themselves, and still do awesome.  I like a lot of stuff about her; her attitude, her performance ability, her voice - yeah, I guess I have a girl crush - So What????  I guess I have some of that same toughness in me.  Guess it's the tattoos.

Marti Dodson from Saving Jane I know the least about, but just listen to her music.  It's awesome I would want to write music like that.  Stuff that said something, and didn't just have a catchy tune. 

I probably wouldn't go with a different name, though I could see a band name, something ridiculous most likely.  I would have a lot of fun and I wouldn't take it too seriously.  Fads come and go; we can't all be Green Day or MxPx that somehow seems to reinvent themselves to sound current and appeal to new fans. 

Hmmm, I think my first album would be Simply Cid, and it would be ... insane.  I'd stand for something, have lyrics that made you cry, all while wearing jeans and being barefoot.  Yup, sounds about right for me.

Okay, so this is mostly just pictures to show you the different grouping of clothing going on here.  And yes, this is mostly just for my amusement.

There's a lot going on in this picture.  Starting on the far right, and furthest from the camera are work jackets.  Below that are "nice" capris.  Next to that are work pants.  The huge pile of shirts are all button up shirts.  Next to that are suit-sets.  Above that are skirts.
Okay, from left to right.  Dresses on both sides of the door.  Below that are vests.  Along the dresser are sweaters/cardigans.  And you can just barely see my small collection of shrugs.  And yes, that is a pile of jeans.
Left to right.  Jeans.  Capris.  Khakis.  And jean shorts.
My band t-shirts, which will not be included in the total number of things involved in the cull.  These are irreplaceable and were a major part of my college life.  I'm thinking about making a quilt out of some of these.
Things with long sleeves!
These are my memorabilia shirts.  Most of them are either Maverics or Stars, considering how long I worked for them.  Included are my roller derby shirts and a Rangers shirt.
The left half are graphic t's, and tshirts and stuff.  The right half are shirts I can wear to work, most of them need a cardigan or sweater over them.  I probably won't get rid of much from this section, to be honest.
This would be my collection of jackets and hoodies.  I can get rid of several of these and not be too upset, I think.

And that's it so far.  At a preliminary count I'm up to 336 articles of clothing in my closet.  This does not include what's in the wash or in the dresser - yet. 

I think the answer to this question has changed a lot over time.  For my own entertainment, I think I'm going to do a review of my life in answer to this question.

When I was in high school...

• ....it was converse.  
• I hardly ever dressed up.  I didn't like to.  I rarely did.  
• Most of the time I wore jeans and tshirts or ... something strange.  
• But I always wore make-up.

In college it didn't change much.  

• I rolled out of bed and put on my jeans, my converse, but most importantly my band tshirt.  In college (and even now) I owned a huge collection and wearing them made me feel super awesome.  Why?  Because I could always identify the other people of my personal little music club by peoples reactions to what I was wearing or if they were a poser or for real.  I also really liked looking like I could have been on tour with a band; later on I really did.  
• A few times I would dress up, but the instances were rare and only for special purposes - which I always tried to down-play.  
• I still never went a day without make-up.

As an adult *shudders* it's changed.  

• Now, I feel awesome by just being in my own skin.  I have freaking awesome tattoos, that I love.  I like that by just being me, I am art.  And I'll admit, even though I did not intend for this to happen, I like the way people give me space when I'm showing a lot of tattoo'd flesh.  It's like an instant intimidation factor; it also lets me know pretty easily whether or not a person (read guy) can handle my personality.  
• I accessorize a lot; from my 00 diamond-like gauges to the collection of necklaces that fills an entire drawer in my dresser - I love accessories.  
• Jeans are still my #1 pick in the morning.  I've discovered a target brand of jean that fits awesome, and is comfortable.  
• Slimming shirts that um, accentuate and hide are always favorites.  
• I wear heels sometimes, and when I do they're usually awesome; I buy Naughy Monkey heels for a reason.  Not only are they fun, funky and sexy - but they're comfortable.  I've been on a date before and had to stand around for an hour and was no worse for being in heels.
• My hair.  I like my hair.  I get fun cuts and colors and I love it.
• I still don't go a day without make-up....

So maybe my things haven't changed much.  I don't know that I try to feel sexy...  It's a little weird for me, but I do go for feeling awesome about myself.  Oddly, yes, tattoos have made me love my body more for just who I am because it's unique and colorful thanks to the tattoos.

Okay, so I have a really big closet.  I also have a lot of clothes.  Said large closet is full of enough stuff I have quite literally lost count of exactly what it is I own.  I decided back in December when I set goals for this year that I wanted to cull the contents of my closet/dresser by 10% and that I would make use of a holiday weekend to complete this project.

April 1st - today - is the launching of said Epic Closet Cull.

I have a spread sheet that I have color coded and printed out to help me tally up how many articles of different types of clothing I have.  Yes, I really have!  What?  You think I'm joking?  Pft - here's proof!!

Seriously.  My ideal time-line will be:

• Thursday Night: Organize closet into groupings of clothes.  If possible, start on Dresser.
• Friday: Tackle the Dresser!  Start on the closet, hopefully get half done.
• Saturday afternoon: Get the second half of the closet done.
• Sunday: Say goodbye to 10% of my clothes, maybe more.

I'll probably be twittering a lot of pictures asking opinions on keeping or tossing stuff and posting lots of pictures.  I also plan on finding stuff I've long since forgotten about!

Wish me luck tonight.