Countdown to Colorado Vacation!

We've bought the plane tickets and reserved the cabin. I am super excited! This trip is long overdue.


MySpace Countdown Clocks

Spring Break? Where?

I don't know what happened to this week. In a way, work was really slow. But the evenings went so fast. I can't believe it's already Thursday. Which means I now have to get cracking and get my mind back on school work. Blah.

I had a nice visit with my college buddy Adam last night. He lives in Kansas and was visiting grad schools out here so he made a short stop at my house. I wish he was still here :(

Spring Break is sad when you still have to go to work every day and can't leave town. I really feel like I just need to get away right now. Planning vacations for the future does not help with this mindset.

That is all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I suddenly feel like I have a lot to say, but I really don't. Just these few things:

1. I wonder if Jane would be understanding if I told her I was taking part in the writer's strike. Not the one in Hollywood, but the Novelists Strike.

2. One of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult was interviewed on D.C 101 this morning. Go to Eliot in the Morning to listen.

3. In honor of St. Patty's Day, I am at home drinking beer and possibly writing poems about Ireland. I did not celebrate appropriately this weekend for reasons I have not yet determined. And since I will be needing to work in the morning, I can't really do much tonight. But, here are some great photos from Ireland. Oh I want to go back!

Michigan and Florida

Here's a little play:

Michigan: We want to hold our primaries early.

Florida: Yeah, us too. We don't want to wait.

Democrats: Umm, guys, you can't do that. We're gonna have to punish you if you do.

M/F: Punish? How?

Democrats: We're not going to let you go to the convention.

Obama: And we're not going to campaign there. I'm even taking my name off the ballot!

Clinton: Well, I won't campaign, but I need those votes so I'm gonna be sneaky and keep my name on the ballot.

M/F: Oh. Well, we're gonna hold our primaries early anyway.

3 months later:

Democrats: Well, Michigan, Florida, I'm afraid you broke the rules of how we do things in this country, so you aren't going to be allowed to go to the convention this summer. Sorry.

Michigan: What?! No! We're sorry. Can we just have another vote? A do-over?

Florida: That's a great idea. Let's just pretend none of this happened and we'll have our primary when we're supposed to.

Democrats: Uh, I don't know. You did already had a vote.

M/F: Redo! Redo! Redo! Redo!

Clinton: Oh, let them have a redo. (I need those delegates at the convention damn it!)

Obama: I don't know about this. (I don't want her to have those delegates.)

Now, imagine this:

A criminal, let's say a murder, commits a crime. He knows killing is against the rules and there will be some kind of punishment in his future. Yet, he still goes off and murders someone.

Then, he's been given his sentence and suddenly, he doesn't like it. So he says "Wait, I didn't mean it. Let me try again."

Nope sorry murder, the deed is done and you must face the consequence. You don't get a redo. It's just not the way things work!!

So, Michigan and Florida, this is to you: What makes you think you can break the rules, knowing full well what the consequences will be, but when it comes down to actually taking on those consequences you want to try again?! You can't!

Really, I don't know what else to say. I am so disgusted I can't even say anything else. What is the world coming to?

I have no social life

John is off at a bachelor party tonight, which means I am home alone doing things like grocery shopping and dishes, maybe some writing.

For many women, a boyfriend out of the house might mean a night for the girls. Me, I am here at home all alone. Why? Because the one person I would go out with on such an occasion is not in town this weekend. I'm not sure how I lost my entire social life. Moving across the country didn't really do much to help that. But one would think a year and a half would have produced some sort of community. But no. There's like two people that I actually hang out with. Take those away, and I have nothing.

Except Jane Austen. I think some Pride and Prejudice (the old BBC movie) is in order.

I have a dead character!

Today I realized one of my characters is dead. She has one small scene thus far and all she did was sleep in her stroller. She was supposed to grow up and reappear late in the book, but I realized today that she's actually dead. She dies when she is 5. Sad times. But really, it is for the best. She wouldn't have been much use anyways. I think she actually helps my main character more by being dead. Yeah.

Kids Nowadays

I find a write a lot of about my brothers-they give me a lot of jumping off type material, what can I say. Today I am wondering what they are teaching kids nowadays.

Over the weekend I spoke to my youngest brother on the phone. He was telling me that his bearded dragon had recently shed a layer of his skin. The conversation went something like this:

H: I'm holding Dudley's skin in my hand right now.
Me: Oh that's lovely.
H: He sheds it like a snake.
M: I know.
H: He probably has leprosy. Leprosy is when you lose your skin.

Then I went on to try to let him know leprosy was more than just "losing skin" and that you can indeed shed without having leprosy, but I didn't get very far. I don't know where he gets these ideas but I blame the schools.

The Tudors

For some reason, I am obsessed with Henry VIII and everything that went on with his court. I guess it's about the romance, seduction, and betrayal. It's just exciting. It's not always pleasant to think about it being historically true, but then again I really do love history, especially the controversial parts of it. I blame my mom for starting my obsession. And,in a fictional exaggerated sense, it is really fun.

So I just finished reading my latest dive into the fictional Henry. As I mention about The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory is my favorite author of historical fiction. I just finished her latest book, The Boleyn Inheritance. Not nearly as exciting as the other, but still amazing. I blame my lack of interest in the fact that the woman I cared about, Anne of Cleves, didn't get her head chopped off, and the woman I could care less about, Katherine Howard, did. Kitty, as she is often called, was a young flippant thing. The blond cheerleader who did the entire football team. I could really have cared less if she died. Still, I really enjoyed the book. And it took me forever to finish, because of school, so I feel great knowing it is over and I can start something new.

I also just finished watching the 1st season of the Showtime series, The Tudors. This show has all the things I love about Henry, sex and betrayal, but I'm still waiting on the beheadings. There was someone burned a the stake, though. That was fun. I hate the actress that plays Anne Boleyn. As John said, she has a pig face. Sure, she looks like AB well enough, but she can't act. She should stick with porn. Wolsey was great in this. Go Sam Neil. And Katherine was wonderful. My only complaint is they started the series with Anne Boleyn, where there was so much of Henry before her. And I have a feeling that once she dies, they won't keep going with the series. Why is she the only one most people remember? Henry gets good and crazy after she messes with his head. Old fat Henry was fun. While I look forward to Anne without a head, I do hope the series keeps going after that. Oh, and the fact that the series also focuses on Henry's downfall with the church rather than just sex, is also good.

lit mag topic ideas

So, we were recently told about our final project for my EP class. And immediately I knew I wanted to do an online literary magazine. Or, what it will most likely turn out to be- a collection of works by yours truly on my website, disguised as a magazine by a lovely title, table of contents, etc. I had been tossing around the idea of starting my own lit mag... maybe not seriously now, but an idea for the future. When I have 5 minutes of spare time in which I can read submissions. So, it only seemed right to focus on this for class. There's only one problem...

I need to figure out what to write about! I will be doing a collection of poems on love/relationships/family for my final MFA project so I have been focusing on writing that will work for that. But, I don't want this project in any way near that. I need something new. So, I can use my collection of poems about Elizabeth Custer, which really have no place anywhere else on the planets. But, I figure this can just be a later addition to the website. I'm not really feeling it now.

I guess what it really comes down to is I want to write something new. I just don't know what. I feel like writing about Baltimore would just make me depressed, though it is an idea. I could write about Ireland, which would actually make an amazing mag, as I have amazing pictures. Colorado, always something there to say, but it's just so...overdone (by me). Away from places, I can go really simple and choose something like rocks, or seaweed. Could be fun. Or I could just do a bunch of experimental poems that don't mean much of anything. Or... I just don't know.

Now, I really don't have to make any decisions now. I just wanted to start writing over Spring Break, so I'm been tossing things around. I think maybe my brain just needs to stop. I do welcome any and all thoughts.

bedside pondering

John sleeps on the left side of the bed, I sleep on the right. In the bathroom, John uses the sink on the right, I use the sink on the left. Why?!

I have no conclusion, this is just something that crossed my mind today as I was brushing my teeth. Why do we switch sides?

I wonder if there is any study that talks about what it means to sleep on a certain side of the bed and what's wrong when other "side" things don't reflect that. I'm sure there is. I just need to find it. I am intrigued.