Question of the Day! The Worlds' End?

Another great question by Aubrie Anne, a fellow Webooker and new friend!


If you knew for certain that the world would truly end in just over a year, what would you do with the rest of your life?


Now, how's that for a wake up thought huh?

Actually I've been thinking about this for a few days, so I think I'm ready.  There are SO many things I've wanted to do all my life, and without having to worry about the future, the first thing I would do is sell my house and buy a REALLY nice RV.  I'd probably pile the cats in it too, even if I had to sneak them in so the hubby wouldn't know they were there.  There are only so many things you can walk away from and I'd worry that whoever bought the house wouldn't feed them.  Enough about that though....meow!


I'd of course keep the excess money from the house for things like airline tickets.  After all, an RV, even the best ones won't get you across oceans.


With family in tow, and hubby driving (since that's what he DOES) we'd of course see all the sights here in the good 'ol US before jumping ship, or ahem...plane.  Of course ships are awesome too, I think a two week cruise to Alaska would be fantabulous, as long as we don't get one of those weird illnesses that ships have become famous for, or well a fire breaks out and we're stranded in the middle of the ocean for days.  Hm.  Maybe a plane would be better.  I'd make sure my daughter saw as much of the world as she could, which would ensure a visit to Croatia since she has some odd fixation with that country for reasons I have yet to figure out.


Places I would HAVE to see:


Grand Canyon
Yellowstone
Rodeo Drive
Seattle
Key West
Giant Redwoods
Alaska
The Midwest (and a tornado!)
New York City (again but for longer)
New Orleans
Oh and I'd spend at least two weeks at Oak Haven Resort in Tennessee!  Gorgeous!
Denver (to see the Colorado Avalanche play hockey!)


I'm sure there are other places I'd wind up, but those are the ones that popped into my head first.


I'd go bungee jumping, parasailing, sky diving, mountain climbing, snowboarding, BASE jumping (at the Cave of Swallows of course), and basically find any and every extreme adventure I could to get involved in.  I'd probably have everything pierced that I could get, and get covered with tattoos, one from every place I visited to remind me of the adventure.


I'd love to see Ireland and Scotland especially, although there are TONS of other places I'd like to visit as well.  Russia, Germany, would love to go back to England, Sweden might be off limits as I'd most likely stalk Peter Forsberg and be either incarcerated or evicted as a result.


I'd rob a bank and spend all the money to take food and toys to kids overseas who don't know what either are, and spend the rest of the year running from the cops.


All in all I'd be an angel and a devil rolled into one, and suck out every single adventure I could find so I can honestly say when it's all over that I did it all.


Thanks again AubrieAnne the Fantabulous over at Who's Your Editor for the questions, this is FUN!  More answers to come tomorrow!

If I Could Change One Thing.....

Okay so, I asked you guys to ask me anything and I got some good questions, but only from a few of you!

I'm still taking questions though, figured it would be a fun way to help you guys learn more about me, and perhaps entertain as well!  AubrieAnne really kicked it into high gear and gave me a bunch of questions, but the one I'm picking for today is....

(insert drum roll here)

If you could change one thing about your daily routine, what would it be?

Yes, I know I picked the easiest one first, but alas there's a reason.  Kiddo had her first day of work today and it was my stepfather's birthday, so I'm just now getting around to posting here and didn't want to skip the day, so here ya go.

If I could change one thing about my daily routine, I'd definitely add more waking hours.

While most people have sleep disorders that keep them awake, I've got one that makes me wanna sleep.  Pretty much all the time.  I get up and an hour later, I'm ready to take a nap.  When I was tested, I fell into REM sleep within two and a half minutes of laying down.  At night, and at four separate times during the following day.  After seven years of Ritalin and Adderall, they've become non-effective so I'm pretty much on my own until someone comes up with a new drug.

I can tell you that it's difficult to get everything done in eight hours.  It might be easier if they were eight consecutive hours, but I get through my day usually in two to three hour increments of being awake.  On top of that, the issue is compounded because the disease also affects focus and concentration, so I can start out washing the dishes and leave them half done to go rake the yard.  Needless to say it's challenging to keep up with the normal day to day housework that needs to be done, much less anything else.

I make fun of it a lot, laugh about sleeping my life away and I'm generally a pretty positive person, but it's quite frustrating to be honest.  I guess the humor is a coping mechanism because some days it would be pretty easy to just sit down and cry.

So yep, that's it.  I'd add about ten hours less sleep and have the spotless house that I've always wanted, and well, plenty of hours in the day to blog.  We won't even go there.  Writing is my heart, whether it's a book, or a poem or a blog post, so yeah, pretty sure I do a lot more writing and a lot less cleaning than I probably should, but the dustbunnies haven't taken over and demanded a ransom yet, so I think we're okay!

Great questions AubrieAnne, thanks for the reply and I'll catch another one (one that requires a bit more thought) on tomorrows post!

Sunday Fluff - A Visual Feast - Week Three

This week I guess you can't really call this a feast.  I've been playing around with my daughter's Canon EOS and this was my first playtime with night photography.  I don't know all the little tips and tricks so this is more of the "before" for what will come later as I learn more about the camera and photography in general.  I just really loved the colors of the leaves and the vibrant greens of the plants, so ahem, welcome to my front yard!

Ask me anything! Going once.....

You guessed it!

I have NO idea what to write about today.  Hmmm, maybe two blogs is too much for my collective imagination to handle?  Or maybe it's the fact that I've got a houseful of Christmas decorations lying about everywhere and my OCD has kicked in.

Regardless, I'm at a loss people.  At least without boring you to T.E.A.R.S.  Which is possible.  Probable even.

Any ideas?  Suggestions?  Burning questions for the Mama Kitty?  Something you've always wanted to know but were too afraid to ask?  Oh!  Like the age old question, are ducks flammable?  I texted Cha-Cha and they said yes, but I'm not convinced.  I've also wondered if the mummy penis is wrapped by itself or just laid down and wrapped against the mummy tummy. Tee Hee, Mummy Tummy.  If I were a mummy man, I'd want special attention paid to that bad boy, but then some have questioned my sanity.  On multiple occasions.  Anything else you can think of?  Oh, and how did they figure out that good rum takes all those years to age, and were they all pissy while they were waiting for it?  Bet they had a huge "The Rum's Ready!" party when it was done.

Oh well, think of stuff and ask me!  I'm driving myself nuts!  I'm gonna go wrap the house in ribbon and I'll be back later to answer your questions.  Oh and I'm gonna cry if there aren't any, so if you want to have a part in making a grown woman cry?  Yep, just ignore this and go on about your lives like I don't even matter.  I promise I won't hold it against you.  Much.

Toodles!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Today was a good day.  Despite being awakened at six in the morning.  As a matter of fact, it had to have been a specifically fantastical day to make up for being awakened at six in the morning.

Granted I went back to sleep, but it's never the same when you wake up at that hour of the morning.  I don't know if it's just losing the "deep" sleep, or the sun pouring in the windows, or the fact that once I'm awake the four legged furries demand my attention, and they're rather adamant about getting it.  I try to tell them I'm going back to sleep, and you'd think from animals that sleep over half the day that they of all creatures would understand, but no.  They're exceptionally vocal in the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway, I left before the hubby and youngling to go to help out with Thanksgiving dinner II.  Spent some quality time with my Mom, talked about a lot of stuff and got to enjoy our time together.

The best part of the day was that as my daughter was leaving the house to come join us at my mothers, she got good news.  After three interview processes, about six weeks of waiting and three different Game Stop stores, she's finally in the ranks of the legally employed.  She'll get a call tomorrow to let her know when to report to work.

Work in itself is good enough, but the fact that she was able to go to work for the one company that she really wanted to work for is even better.  The fact that she'll get discounts on a PS3 one of these days, a discount on my God of War 3 game once she gets the PS3, AND a discount on the much talked about, often incessantly talked about, agonized over, fantasized about Cataclysm, well that's just icing on the cake.  Yes, Game Stop is the perfect employer for my little geek girl.  She's a World of Warcraft fanatic, and with Cataclysm being released December 7th, the timing really couldn't be better.

Now all I have to do is figure out if I want her driving to and from work, or if I want to pile up the miles driving her to work, then home, going to pick her up, and then back home.  I'll worry about that later.  For now, I'll drive her out there, enjoy our time together while we drive and let the chips fall where they may.

All in all, this was an awesome day, Black Friday and all.  My only trip even remotely shopping related was to get a leaf blower for my Mom to give my Stepdad for his birthday on Monday.  In and out, with the exception of lugging around a box of 100 ceramic tiles looking for my husband who had mysteriously disappeared with our shopping cart.  Grrrr!  Trust me, I've reminded him a few hundred times how heavy that box was!

Hope everyone else had such a great day, now I'm off to grow roots on the love seat and spend some time with my favorite guy and my gainfully employed babygirl.

Ta Ta For Now!

The Finale! Happy Thanksgiving!

November 25 - It's that time.  I've been writing in another post, adding each day what I'm thankful for, and so far it's full of randomness and small things for which I am grateful.   Since today is the big day, I'm writing a stand alone post for the token Thanksgiving thoughts and thanks. 

First of all, I'm thankful for my husband.  We've had our problems, sure, but any relationship worth having will have problems.  What can you say about a man who knows all the bad sides of you and not only loves you anyway, but understands, or does his best to understand.  After 21 years he still tells me I'm beautiful.  Still wants to hold my hand when we go out.  I'm still the person he'd most spend time with.  For all that and so much more, he has all my love.

I'm thankful for my daughter.  Who knew that 18 years ago I was giving birth to my best friend.  She's given me hope when life has been at its darkest, laughter when I wanted only to cry, and so much more.  I can't say how proud I am to be her Mother, how happy it makes me to see her growing into a beautiful woman and knowing that I had some small part in making her who she is.  

I'm thankful for my mom and stepdad.  Losing a parent is never easy, but my stepdad has come as close as any man could to giving me back a parent.  The two of them are always there for me, for our family, they've done without to help me when I needed help, and they've provided financial, emotional, spiritual and mental support for me more times than I can count.  I couldn't ask for better parents, except maybe if they actually decided that tatoos and piercings were cool.

I'm thankful to God that He has seen us through the past four years, that every time it seemed like the rope was gone, He added a little more for us to hang onto.  I never expected him to solve all our problems and there have been times that I've been furious at Him.  Wanted to curse and scream and keep asking why we were going through all this.  But I trust that He has the answers and one day they'll all become clear.

I'm thankful for the men and women in our military, some of who are celebrating without their family and loved ones so that I can sit here, safe in my house, and write this blog.

Finally, and oddly enough, I'm thankful to all the people who hurt me, who mistreated me, who didn't believe in me, who spread lies about me, who went out of their way to ensure that my life wouldn't wander down the primrose path untouched.  They've all made me who I am today, and I've never been more proud to be me.  I've proven that I'm stronger than I knew, smarter than I thought,  more resourceful than I'd imagined.  I'm thankful that I didn't stoop to their levels to get revenge, and in so doing perhaps have been instrumental in helping them understand that being hateful and envious doesn't do anything but make you a bitter person.

There are so many other things I have to be thankful for, in spite of the situation our family has been living for the past few years, but suffice it to say that I'm here, I'm still kicking, I can still find joy in almost every day, and that alone is enough for me.

So with that, I wrap up my list of Thanksgiving thoughts, and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, or Happy Thursday, whichever you might be celebrating today.

To read my random thanks posts for the rest of the month, clickie here!

The Fading of Fall

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and in my mind, the official end of fall.  Maybe that's why it's never really been one of my favorite holidays.  I can be thankful (and try my best to be) every day.  I don't need a special day to realize how blessed I am no matter bad things look from time to time.  This month in particular has been a trying one.  We'll no doubt run out of money before the end of the month, and I've already got commitments to pay past due bills on the first, so we'll be going into December already behind.

That means several things, next month is going to be rough, and well, no one is getting any gifts for Christmas.  It'll be okay though, we had the same situation last year and it seems like the holidays end up being even more special because we realize that the frills and fluff aren't the most important things after all.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.  I'm going to miss fall.  As much as I love the holiday season, the bright lights, the decorations, and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) lots of snow, I'll miss the crunch of leaves underfoot;  The crispness in the air that only fall can manage.  I'll miss the colors of the trees in the yard and on the highways where usually that's the only thing worth looking at in the monotony of cars and pavement.  I'll miss the scents that linger in the air, scents I can't really describe, but are there nonetheless.

Tomorrow, fall will wither away like the fading leaves on the trees, slowly becoming bare.

There's a beauty there all it's own though, and as usual, nature replaces one beauty with another.   Things now though will pick up, people will either be a little bit kinder or a little bit more rude, in some cases a lot more rude.  Drivers will be more likely to honk their horns at you, or flip you off as they drive by.  People in the malls won't smile as often or as freely.  Everyone will be in a hurry, going here and there, preparing, in too  many cases spending too much money for too many things.

To me, fall is simpler, easier, like the calm before the storm.  I'm looking forward to Christmas, don't get me wrong, but I'll miss fall when it's gone too.  I'll look forward to it all year, until once more the leaves start to fade from green to brilliant orange and red and yellow, to finally drop to the ground to crunch under my bare feet (yes, bare) and leave the tree limbs naked as they spike up into the not quite as blue skies.

I'm going to send it out with a bang though, decorating starts tomorrow so that I can enjoy the Christmas season, kinda like Cindy Lou Who before the Grinch saved the day.  Hopefully I'll find a Grinch for the Riley family, but if not?  Well that's okay too, a tree is just as beautiful all dressed up without anything tumbled beneath it to take away from it's splendor.

So, I guess that's it.  Happy Thanksgiving one and all, and for those who don't celebrate the day, Happy Thursday.  Make it a thanksgiving Thursday, and remember how many blessings we all have, because no matter how rough life gets, no matter how many trials we have to endure, in the end, it's our life and that in itself is enough to be thankful for.

Thank you Nathan Bransford!

The following post was written by Nathan Bransford, published author and tweeted only seconds ago.  It's a fantastic look at writing!

Check out his blog at:  http://blog.nathanbransford.com/


The Nine Circles of Writing Hell


We have all probably started ill-fated novels that, shall we say, did not go where we wanted them to go. For one reason or another, either our will or our preparation or the idea failed us, and sure enough, they ended up in novel hell.

Based on the Nine Circles of Hell in Dante's Divine Comedy, here are the nine circles of writing hell.

Save your novel from these sins, my fellow writers! Repent before it is too late!



First Circle - Limbo

Hello shiny idea for a novel! Should I write you? Should I not write you? Maybe I'll write a few pages and see how you go. Should I... oohhh Farmville.


Second Circle - Lust

Novel, you are so brilliant, you shine like a beautiful bright beacon, nay, like filigree sparkling in the darkest of unlit nights. Everything you do is wonderful, to change but one of your words you would be a sin unto mankind. Whatever you want novel, whether it's second person stream of consciousness or an illogical plot twist or overwrought prose that makes people blush, you can have it, please take it, it's yours. I LOVE YOU, NOVEL.


Third Circle - Gluttony

No time to eat. No time to work. No time for breaks. No time to attend to essential hygiene. Twenty-six-hours straight. MUST. WRITE. NOVEL. I. WILL. NOT. BURN. OUT.

Okay, I'm starting to get burned out...


Fourth Circle - Greed

Dude, Stephenie Meyer wrote that vampire book in like six weeks or something and now she's a gagillionaire. How hard can it be?!


Fifth Circle - Anger

I hate agents, I hate query letters, I hate rejection letters, I hate editors, I hate published authors, I hate unpublished authors, I hate periods, I hate exclamation points, I hate semi-colons, I hate paper, I hate words, I hate the space between words, and most of all, I HATE THIS FREAKING NOVEL!!!


Sixth Circle - Heresy

You know what novel I don't like? THE GREAT GATSBY. I mean, what's the big deal?! Green lights and drunks and parties and blah blah blah? What a bunch of trash. I threw that book across the room. That Scott person needs to get a clue, I can't believe anyone published him. And DON'T GET ME STARTED on how much editing he needed.


Seventh Circle - Violence

Oh, you think you're reeeeallll clever, don't you, Manuscript. You think you're smart and witty and amazing and your characters are funny and you're going to make people cry. Well, how about I introduce you to my friend MR. SHREDDER!!! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha.....


Eighth Circle - Fraud

Oprah won't REALLY care if I make up this memoir...


Ninth Circle - Treachery

This novel doesn't need revisions. I don't need to write a good query letter. Who needs to take the time to research agents? This novel is gold, baby, gold!!

What could possibly go wrong?

Once upon a time....and she lived happily ever after!

Once upon a time there was a girl.  The girl fell in love with writing.  She wrote about everything, all the time.  All was going well until the girl found out she was a narcoleptic.  

She was very sad for a time.  Seems all she wanted to do was sleep and sleep and sleep more.  She couldn't write while she was sleeping so of course her writing suffered.  Then an amazing thing happened.  The girl was given Ritalin.  She was so happy she wrote and wrote and wrote some more.  She wrote books, she wrote poetry, she wrote short stories.  She wrote with her friends and she wrote with strangers.  She heard the guy on SouthPark say "Drugs are bad" but she didn't listen.  She took them three times a day and wrote until she couldn't write anymore.

One day though, the drugs stopped working.  She started sleeping again, and there was nothing Prince Charming could do except watch her sleep.  His kisses wouldn't wake her, so he started yelling.  That didn't work either.  Finally he just gave up and saved his kisses for when she was awake, so they kissed a lot less often than they used to.

The girl didn't like that so she got the nice man at the hospital to give her more drugs.  He gave her Adderall.  She was happy again.  She was kissing again, and writing again.  Sometimes about kissing.  Prince Charming was happy and so was she.

All fairy tales must come to an end though.  Even the new drugs stopped working after a time.  The girl was sleeping more than ever.

She figured she'd never get a novel written since she was sleeping so much, and she wanted to share her writing with the world!  She thought and thought and thought and finally came up with the solution to her problem.  If she couldn't stay awake long enough to write an entire novel, she'd write.....a blog!  

Now the girl is at her computer whenever she's awake writing all kinds of things on her new blog.

She was having so much fun with her blog, she started another one.  And then she joined blog hops to find more people to be friends with, and more blogs to read.  Now she's reading all the time, and only one thing still makes her sad.  She needs more people to read her blogs.  If she could only find someone who would help her find those people, well she would live......

Happily Ever After.

The End

Sunday Fluff - A Visual Feast - Week Two

If you know anything about me, you'll know I love cats.  Seriously love cats.  I've got a tattoo of a paw print on my wrist, have four of the little monsters in my house regularly, four others that come in at night and I've lost count of how many make themselves at home on my deck.  So today's fluff is literal.  These are my babies.

Kameko - (Japanese for Tortoise Child/Wish for long life) aka Moo Moo (she's FAT)

Formerly known as Shitty Kitty (from past owners) now Boo Boo or Queen Boo as she prefers to be called.

Moo Moo - SEE she IS fat!

The baby, Cajun Tuscaloosa aka Kittenhead

Boo and Kittenhead being lovey dovey, or Cajun being lovey dovey and Boo dealing with it.

Kittenhead being CUUUUTE

Oddly enough, I couldn't find any pictures of LeeLoo.  She's an ODD cat, but I'll go into that more when I manage to locate her pictures and maybe add them next time around!  These are my babies, I command you to now.....LOVE THEM!  :)

When Writing Goes Wrong...or Right....or Write.....UGH!

I'm beginning to think I'm a narcoleptic with attention deficit disorder.

How the heck does that work anyway?  I'm supposed to be doing Nano and what am I doing?  Writing and making new blogs.  Okay, so maybe I had some help from my kiddo, but still.  My novel remains largely untouched and I'm getting pissy about it.  Chase is strangely quiet and stuck in freeze frame outside her apartment building while life goes on around her.  Let's just hope Stevie doesn't find another crush while she's there.  I've actually got a picture of her in my head, and she's an action figure.  Ugh.  This is NOT good.

So what happens when you get stuck on a scene?

My husband keeps telling me to skip it and move on, but I caaaaaaaaaaaan't!  I've tried.  I know there are some writers who can write random scenes from their novels completely out of order but so help me, I haven't figured out how to do that.  Maybe I could use my cleaning methods on writing?  Hubby complains about that too.  I start cleaning by vacuuming, and the next thing you know all the furniture is in the kitchen and I'm painting the walls, and a couple or maybe dozen hours later the room is clean and spotless and has that new paint smell.  It works there, why can't I get it to work when I'm writing?

I know the narcolepsy has a lot to do with how I do things.  When I was on the Ritalin, I was focused.  Sharp.  Alert.  Even when I was sleeping 14 hours a day.  Wow, those were the days.  TEN whole hours of awake and alert.  My how far we've fallen.  Now I'm  up at noon, napping at two and six and nine and back in bed at twelve.  Is it any wonder I can't write?  At least my novel.

Instead, I start a new blog.  Yep.  One that's not work.  Just fun, all the time.  I guess writing is writing but unless someone wants to syndicate my blogs and pay me scads of money (in that case, have your lawyer call my lawyer and we'll work that out) it's not doing me any good financially where a novel, in my wildest dreams mind you, might make me some money.  One day.  A little.  Maybe.

Maybe Chase is just tired, but I'm about ready to shake her ass awake so she'll start talking again.  In the meantime, I'll just keep writing for fun and fortune (hint hint) and fame (more hints) and let the pages flutter as they may!  Maybe soon the pages won't look like these.

Feed My Addiction!

Okay, so I'm plugging along here and I realize that some of my randomness is too random even for a random blog about random topics.  How's that for random?

Plus, I really love pin up art.

So I made a new blog.  Yep.  Another one.

I'll probably want to shoot myself before too much longer, but until then, here's a linkie to get there!

WHEN you get there (not if peeps, when) you can pick up the button thingy to add to your page too if you want!

Finally! Hippity Hop with Me!

So, I've been trying to find decent blogs to follow that don't demand that you follow them first.  I mean really, are we SEVEN years old people?  Ugh.  I lucked out today and found this fantabulous site and wanted to share it with whomever might reading, so here ya go.  I'd definitely think about checking this out.  The blogs are awesome!

This is my first, er, second new friend, check her out, she's preggers!  Stop by and say congrats!

Photobucket Me

Okay so today is a random day.  At least so far.  Here's the random for the day.

This is me.  Via Photobucket.

AND FINALLY, MY MANTRA