5th of July: Recovery

Had the best, most exhausting Independence Day celebration ever (Why do people call it the 4th of July? That happens everywhere.). Family poured in unexpectedly, so what was going to be a small gathering ended up being more like a family reunion. Represented by both sides of the fam-damily, which was sorta awkward but ended up working out pretty well.

My dad took all the kids fireworks shopping and ended up buying $--- worth because he's great at spoiling them (and really likes showy explosions), and so the kids shot them off until nearly midnight. We also shot clay pigeons b/c that's apparently what rednecks like to do (make even more things explode), and I tried it for the first time and shot three out of four. I woulda got that fourth one too if my ear muffs hadn't have gotten in the way. :hmm: Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Cooked and ate waaaaay to much food, opened waaaaay too many cans and bottles, and breathed waaaaaay too much black powder. So today, I'm so exhausted and sore from laughing and talking that I just want to crawl under my bed and go back to sleep.

It was awesome.

Me, A Teacher?

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I don't think I can pile anymore on my plate. This is going to be one insane month. LeFiWriMo starts tonight at one minute past midnight. So in addition to writing 850 or so words a day on Cataclysm, I need to be making progress on the novel project. In addition, two new developments are spicing things up.

Suddenly, I'm a teacher. My nephew, who is being home schooled, started 1st Grade this year, and I get to teach Art Appreciation. Luckily the text is very simple. But after fifteen minutes or so of looking at art, we also get to make some. I'm sure we'll have paint and glue and tissue paper strung out everywhere in no time. I'm honored that my sister would consider involving me in Seth's education already. I figured I'd be needed for High School Lit or something, but 1st Grade Art Appreciation is going to be awesome. Better, class starts on my birthday.

On top of those preparations that I'll be making, I'm also preparing study guides for our LifeGroup. That is, our church group of young married couples. There are about 14 of us, and we've decided to dig into the Book of Acts. Lots of history and culture and amazing happenings to read about. I know how much preparation my mother has to do to prepare for her Bible studies, and I'm finding out why. This is weighty stuff. Art Appreciation is one thing, but presenting God's Word to adults in a meaningful form is quite another. My mother always tells me, "As teacher, you'll get far more out of it than they will." That doesn't mean we're bad teachers; it means that we must be prepared, whereas the students may give the text only a cursory glance.

Needless to say, my gaming hobby is about to suffer. My evenings will be filled with writing and studying and cleaning up paint spills, I'm sure, rather than seeking treasure and dodging fireballs. Does this mean it's time to grow up at last? Hehe, whatever. It feels good, if a bit overwhelming.
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A Day Full of Blessings

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Seventy-nine degrees, rain. The first time the temperature has been below 100 since June. The oppression of heat breaks for the nonce. Yesterday, when the first gust front came through and the rain began, James and I meandered around outside and ate our first purple grapes from our own vines, then we started experimenting with our new distiller. It's a gorgeous hand-made copper contraption straight out of the Middle Ages and came all the way from Portugal. One might think we were going to try making our own liquor, but we have different plans. I'm not allowed to mention it by name yet.

All week, I took a break from the novel project and thoroughly enjoyed typing up the opening pages of a new project. I won't make too much of it, b/c I've started things like this before and not finished them. On the other hand, these characters and their situation are clicking better than any I've written for a long time, so I'm hopeful that I'll actually get to write "The End" on it one day. I usually hate writing rough drafts, but so far I've not felt bogged down by details or lack of direction. We'll see...

Point is, the blessings keep coming. Such prolonged happiness is a gift.

The only cloud has been my husband's grandfather. It's heartbreaking to see the patriarch so strong and able one day and an old man the next. It puts human frailty and mortality on the table for us all to examine. Hamlet scrutinized a skull. I've been watching a man come to terms with his age. The difference between men and babies being fussed over is that babies have yet to gain a sense of dignity that must be swallowed. A bitter draught.
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Progress Report, 8-1-11, and Writing Amid Sorrow

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What a tough weekend this was. Crying with friends who had every reason to think they were having a miscarriage, only to learn today that the baby is alive and kickin' so we have the glorious opportunity to celebrate and thank God for mighty miracles. And each life is rare and precious. Now learning that my husband's grandfather is in the hospital with heart issues. *whew* Life is a roller coaster, all right.

As for writing, things are good:

THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Project: Falcons Rising
Pages Revised: n/a
Pages Cut: 4
New Scenes: 1 - the last 4 pages of the "ship" chapter make way for almost 19 pages of new material! I'm far happier with the content now. There actually is content instead of useless words with no conflict to speak of. But, like I said last time: Ugh! I loathe writing rough drafts. It hurts.
Bad Things that Happened: Athna's plan goes awry
Good Things that Happened: my, but don't those ships look stately. In other words, I'm not tellin'. ;)

It's difficult to press on with a project when circumstances put it into perspective and make it seem like one of the least significant items on the list, but there it is.
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Progress Report (2-18-11) and the Zoo

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WEDNESDAY'S PROGRESS
Project: Falcons Rising
Pages Rewritten: 5
Pages Cut: 3/4
Good things that happened: Kieryn makes a rainbow
Bad things that happened: Rhoslyn's dress was found where?

I didn't have the chance to write a word yesterday. I was invited to go to the zoo with my sister, mom, niece, and nephew. So I walked around the zoo for six hours yesterday with a 5-yr-old and a 2-yr-old, and a had a great time. Best of all, my honey showed up after lunch and had the rest of the day off to spend with us. But today, for some reason, I feel like I've got a hangover. Could it be only one day without coffee is killing me? Could it be the miles we walked yesterday that I'm not used to? Could it just be getting high on too much goodness? I hope it's the latter but bet it's the other two.

Little Wonders:
Feeding a peacock from my hand. The zoo people let the peacocks roam where they will, and when the kids stopped to ride the carousel, one came right up to my bench and I got to feed it crushed Fritos from my purse (don't tell the zoo people).

Listened to pair of bald eagles fight over their hidden stash of meat.

Looked and looked for a copperhead snake lying in it's usual pile of leaves, then decided "Aw, how sad, they took it out," then after a few minutes of still glancing over the leaves, saw it lying right in front of me! How could my eye not see it? Amazing and very scary camouflage.

The kids faces. Watching them see and discover and get excited when they have something to show you. Best thing of all.

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Birthday Surprise!

I am just thrilled. Expect nothing and you'll likely be pleased beyond measure.

My birthday is Sunday. I try to ignore the approach of my birthday and treat that day like any other. Having expectations about my birthday in the past have led to some very bad birthday experiences, so I refuse anymore to allow myself to expect anything at all from anyone. Usually, my mom and sister (and now niece) and I go out to eat and shop a bit (my mother insists she buys me the clothes I pick out) and that's usually about it. But this year I caught hints of my mother and my husband scheming behind my back. "Whatcha up to?" I'd ask. "None of your business!" he would reply. Then on Wednesday he came home with a huge box in the front seat of his pickup truck. My mother bought me a brand-new color laserjet printer. The old one, we'd had it for about a decade, had finally printed it's last novel draft this last winter and died with me cussing it till its last pathetic breath. Since then I've had to email every doc I've needed printed, so my husband could print them off at his office and bring them home to me in the evening.

So praises to my mother, the best Mom on earth!

Then last night, after our LifeGroup get-together, my husband took me to Carino's for Italian nachos and tiramisu. Junk food city! After that, he said, "I gotta run over here for something." Yeah, that's vague. But he's often vague, so I didn't question him, just rattled on about whatever we'd been discussing. Next thing I know we're at the bookstore. He says, "Go to the magazine aisle and don't look over the shelf. Stay there." I give him the "I know what you're up to" look. But I don't want to mess up his scheming, so I hide in the magazine aisle, ignoring covers of sexy half-dressed men and women and try to find a magazine of genre fiction. (Sadly, there is only one, the new Analog, which I don't read b/c it's only Sci-Fi, but I bought it anyway b/c I can't leave a bookstore empty-handed.) A little while later James comes back and says, "They didn't have what I needed. Let's go." We paid for the copy of Analog I'm likely to never read, then went to the truck. In my seat was a bag tucked around two items. I had to laugh. My husband found what he came for, paid out, ran to the truck, then ran back inside to get me, and I was so involved in looking for a fantasy fic magazine that I missed it all. He's so sneaky, and so sweet.

So what was in the bag? Why, George was in the bag. Not the curious monkey. My favorite author, rather. The Ice and Fire guy. I guess it was three posts ago that I worried that I'd not get back to a bookstore to buy that particular calendar until too late. Well, that calendar was in the bag. Strange to be excited over a calendar, I know, but the art of Westeros's castles is outstanding! I'm gonna frame the suckers when 2012 rolls around and hang them up in my writing room for inspiration. The other item was "Warriors," the collection of stories edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois. I had been eyeing that too, last time I stopped in. Started the first story when we got home. Late, it was, and I fell asleep dreaming of vikings.