Mr. Jen and I were talking about daydreaming today, about how I like to sit in the chair near the window and just think. Sometimes it's about how if I had a million dollars, I'd redo my kitchen in hickory cabinets and finally have a dishwasher, saving my poor little dry and cracked hands from hard labor.

Other times it's about a book that I'm writing or want to write. About what sort of shenanigans the characters will get into. Or maybe it's about what the love interest will look like and whether or not I would have crushed on him when I was in high school (always the answer is yes, otherwise, why would he be the love interest created by my imagination?).

And sometimes I just sit there and think about nothing. I sit there and watch the sunlight or the rain or the darkness. And it feels good clearing my head. 

Mr. Jen, on the other hand, cannot sit in complete silence for more than five minutes and three seconds before he's saying (quite annoyingly), "I"m bored."

"Thanks for ruining my daydream about meeting Jensen Ackles's Dean Winchester character!" I say.

"Thanks for ruining my daydream about plotting my next book!" I say.

It drives me insane that Mr. Jen cannot stop for long periods of time just to look at or appreciate something. Our hikes at the state park are hurry-up-let's-keep-going-I'm-bored. And maybe that's why he's not a writer or an artist or anything having to do with the creative arts. Mr. Jen likes science and storms and volcanoes. He would rather chase a storm cloud than stop to look at it and memorize the curve of it or the dark, bruised color. 

It amazes me how different we are or how differently we see things. But it makes him who he is and I appreciate that. Probably two daydreamers in one house would be too many. Because somebody has to do the dishes while I'm daydreaming.

What about you? Do you daydream?
 

I only have a few more photos to share. I wasn't very good about posting everyday! But I still had fun sharing the few photos I had and seeing everyone else's. 

Here's a pic of Lake Michigan. This was taken in May before they had the beach cleaned and evened out, so it looks really hilly. 



And the next two pictures are of the same place in the state park, but one was taken mid-summer and the other in winter. 

Here's the summer one:


And then winter:



And lastly, a storm that blew in last weekend. Mr. Jen snapped this one. I just love the lines in the clouds.


 

 And one more picture to lighten the mood (and because it makes me giggle).

Son eating a lime...

 We're under a tornado warning here right now. Apparently, two tornados have touched down, one ten miles east of here and another fifteen miles northeast. And my mother is freaking out. She has a tendency to exaggerate everything, for one, and freak out at the slightest problem. 

And I know a tornado warning is something to take seriously, but being where we are, tornados, especially violent tornados like you see in Kansas and wherever else, are not common. It's like issuing a rain warning in the desert. But just when I think it won't happen here, it will and maybe I should take cover? I'm definitely NOT going into the basement, if you can even call it that. It's a tiny room beneath the kitchen where we found a mummified cat corpse when we first moved in. I've never been further then the steps and I'm certainly not going down there right now and hunkering down for an hour until the warning lifts. 

Where else are you supposed to take cover during a tornado? Bathtub? Closet? Mr. Jen told me to go into Son's closet with some pillows. Oh wait, he just called me and told me to go NOW. I guess I'll hunker down.

I cleaned out the closet today and found a whole bag of stuff my mother had given me. It was full of school projects, report cards, teacher letters, etc.

I found a poem that supposedly I wrote in 4th grade. My mother insists I wrote it. I would have been ten, but I don't remember writing it. I have to wonder if some other cool kid wrote it and I just took the credit. Or maybe it was published somewhere and I just copied it?

Anyways, here it is: (If this sounds familiar let me know!)

Found and Lost
A wizard's hating pet.
Rather shortish.
Somewhat slimy.
May be hungry or angry.
Please feed nightly.
P.S. No Reward.

A dragon breathing spu(?)
Flails his slimy feet.
Would eat 100 small children nightly if we let him.
Please come get him.
P.S. Reward.

And then, when we were younger, my best friend Lacy and I used to send each other greeting cards all the time. We'd try to be the one who found the funniest. Lacy sent me this one:

"I quit jogging because it was bad for my health...(open card )
My thighs rubbed together so much, my underwear caught on fire."

That was us! We hated gym class. We hated running the mile. I should send her a greeting card tomorrow. I think she'd love it. We haven't done this in forever. I've already planned to send a card to her older sister. Both of their parents have passed and my parents "adopted" the girls years ago so they both come to our family Christmas party. The older sister, Crystal, doesn't like making plans so when Lacy asked her if she was coming she said, "I don't know." But she has to come! It's a tradition that we all buy each other gag gifts. Last year I bought two boxes of chocolates and took a bite out of every single one then rewrapped the boxes. And my gifts this year will be equally fun!

Anyway, I told Lacy I was going to send Crystal a ransom card using magazine clippings to write my message. 

At Walmart today I picked the card out. On the front it says, "Just a friendly hello!" And on the inside I'm going to paste a picture of Lacy with a note that says, "You better be at the Christmas party or your sister gets it!" Crystal has a twisted sense of humor. She'll love it. (I hope!)

Other Funny Thing: Mr. Jen went to Walmart today wearing two different boots!

There were several things I wanted to talk about in this post, several things that don't relate at all to each other. So I'll just make a list.

1. I hit a deer Sunday night. It's the first time it's happened to me. Really, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. In the newspaper, in the police records section, sixteen car-deer accidents were reported over the weekend. Ours could have been A LOT worse. Thankfully, no one was hurt and my car is still drivable. I have collision insurance, which means my car will be fixed for free. Yeah! It dented and scratched the hood, broke the grill and really smashed up the front fender, but that was it. Like I said, it could have been worse. I mean, that dang thing darted right out in front of me. There was no stopping. I remember thinking, Oh Crap. What if a hoof comes through the windshield? But there were no hooves, thank God. The scariest part was watching that deer roll off the hood of the car and then thrash on the side of the road. Luckily it got up and took off. I hope it's all right, but I'm pretty sure one of its hind legs was broken.

2. After submitting resumes and applications all over town for the last two months and receiving not one flippin' phone call, I now have two interviews this week. One at a local bank and the other at Walmart. My friend asked me tonight if I had the option to pick, which job would I go with and I had a hard time answering. The reasonable answer would be the bank---better hours, better pay, holidays off!, the opportunity to advance into a higher paying job. But I think I'd have more fun working at a place like Walmart, plus I know a ton of people who work there. I can name seven right off the top of my head. Plus I like buttons and scanners and I've always wanted to operate one of those awesome button-intensive registers. We'll see. Maybe I won't even have to choose. Maybe neither will like me.

3. I revised Possession again this weekend. I don't know why. I had already decided I was going to retire that book, but then I started thinking about it again and I couldn't STOP thinking about it. I rewrote the beginning and a few chapters in the middle. And then I status queried on a few of those agents who still had it or who had expressed interest in a revision and two of them got right back to me. One asked me to send over the newly revised edition via email when previously he'd asked for it by snail mail. The other agent wants me to email in two weeks. I also sent out four new queries. I'd thought I'd exhausted the list of agents for Possession, when really I'd exhausted the list I wanted. But this is the same thing as going for only the popular guys at school when one of the lesser known guys might actually be the better fit. So I have to try. 

4. I don't think there was a four. How about...Happy Halloween!!! 

This Mom cannot wait to go trick-or-treating tomorrow night. I love me some chocolate.
 

 We just got home from a pig roast at my father-in-law's house. Mr. Jen and I grew up together, so my parents are good friends with his dad and that whole group of people.

One important thing to note, my parents and Mr. Jen's dad and that whole group they run with are cliche Michiganders. They all hunt, fish, live in the middle of the woods, drink lots of beer, roast pigs and...

Drive golf carts down two-tracks.

I had SO MUCH fun riding golf carts tonight. It was after dark by the time we got around to it so we're driving through the woods through midnight black. And I'm not so sure our driver (a guy who's known me since I was born who everyone calls Junior) was sober. He took us through woods where there were no trails. He took us up a HUGE dirt pile and we came crashing down the other side. There might have been some screaming on my part, but I assure you, it was gleeful screaming! 

They were talking about getting together a bunch of carts for a poker run soon and I am SO going!