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?
 

1. I'm quitting energy drinks tomorrow! I binged all weekend, cut back yesterday, only had one today, and tomorrow I'll have none. Seriously, if I quit smoking, I can quit energy drinks and stick with it!

2. Allow me a moment to be a crabby bank teller: Don't bring eight deposits and two tax payments to the drive-thru thereby holding everyone else up because you couldn't get off your butt and walk inside to the lobby! ESPECIALLY when the business you own is a health club!!!! 

3. I miss The Hills. ;( August cannot come fast enough. 

4. Did anyone see the Supernatural finale on Thursday? What did you think?

5. Has anyone read The Host? I'm having a hard time getting into it. Does it get better?

6. I read Holly Black's Ironside and Melissa Marr's Ink Exchange both within the last week. I loved them and I'm sad there won't be another story with Kaye and Roiben, but at least there will be more Marr books! Yeah!

7. Possession is almost finished! (And I'm afraid it sucks!)

 

...with energy drinks. As in, I'm addicted to them. This I realized the other day when, at work, I decided I needed an energy drink at ten a.m. and walked over to the gas station to acquire one.

One of my co-workers says, before I leave, "Won't you just crash later on? And feel worse?"

And I said, "Well, yeah, but that's why I'll buy two."

I'm getting better though. I can go several weeks without one if I really set my mind to it. But once I buy one, just one, I'm on a fast roller coaster down hill. I'll drink four in a day! And when I wake up the next morning, I feel hung over!

It's terrible. I'm so addicted. Why can't I be addicted to broccoli? Or brussel sprouts? Is that so much to ask? 

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!

Why are you silly people not posting? Entertain me!!!! ;)

It's been one of those days where several things went wrong, but so many things went right that it didn't really matter. 

The Wrong Things
1. We woke up a bit late and when we went out to the car, all the windows were frosted over. And I couldn't find my De-Icer!
2. My nose was really, really annoying today. It kept getting that tingling sensation like I needed to sneeze, but I couldn't! No matter what I tried! I almost pulled the car over because my eyes were practically swollen shut from the nose tingles. 
3. Son forgot his library book and today is library day, so we had to turn around and drive back home for the stinkin' book because he was very sad that he wouldn't be able to get a new book today and I just can't stand seeing him sad when it comes to books.
4. The book I ordered----Tantalize----didn't come in today!

See...not too many bad things and nothing really extreme.

The Good Things
1. sruble called me today!! She sounded a lot like I thought she would on the phone. I wonder what she thought I sounded like? Did I sound like the dork that I am in our emails? I mean, she knows I'm a total dork, but I often wonder how emails correlate to speech. You know?
2. We had Subway tonight and it was oh so delic.
3. I read a bit of Possession and I really, really like it.
4. American Idol was pretty dang good tonight! Lakisha rocked it!
5. Mr. Jen told me I looked like I was losing weight. Yeah!

Speaking of Possession...I cannot wait to finish up the revision and get it back out there. There are four agents who are waiting or said they'd like to take a look at the revision. And then, when it's back out there, I can start on something new!!! I've got a few ideas that I need to pick from. I've written at least a chapter of each of them and I think I'm feeling the most love from the urban fantasy I'm calling Half Shadow. But you never know which one will turn out to be the "next love" until you really dive into it. But I'm excited to get going on something new.

I can't think of anything to post about...so I guess I'll just write about random things...

American Idol
Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis are my favorites and they both did well last night!!! Yeah! I'm actually not looking forward to the girls tonight and I guess that's because no one stands out for me. Or maybe it's because I'm strictly heterosexual and I mainly watch AI for the hotties! Okay, no, I'm kidding. (But only a little)

The Black Donnellys
Who's going to watch this new NBC show next Monday night when it premieres? I'm totally there. I love that kind of stuff (organized crime shows) and I especially like the way the four brothers seem to stick very closely together. 

My nose
It won't stop getting all tingly like I need to sneeze, but then I don't actually sneeze.

My Chemical Romance
Is on the TV right now and Frank Iero is totally punk hot.

My Image
If I could lose a bunch of weight and I had an unlimited amount of money to reinvent my image, I'd buy a really, really expensive leather jacket, a pair of black boots (that I'd wear over my jeans) and then I'd get a tattoo. And possibly get my nose pierced. I wonder if my image would embarrass my son or if he'd still think I was cool? If my mom wore a leather jacket and had her nose pierced, I'd think she was cool. She has a few tattoos, but they're really lame. Like my dad's name in a heart. 

Speaking of parents
Last weekend I took my son down to the lake so he could go ice fishing with my mom and dad and brother. And there's something you need to understand about my dad...he's very hillbilly/hippy. Like, here's what he was wearing down there: A pair of army green snowpants from the 70's and one of those pullover coats people used to wear in the 70's, they're kind of like potato sacks...let's see if I can find a picture online...ah, here we go:


This is the kind of jacket I was talking about, except my dad's is sky blue, white and PINK. Yes, PINK. It's his favorite jacket. He wears it everywhere. But that's not even the worst of it. My dad also has this huge head of hair. Think Ashton Kutcher in That 70's Show and THEN, he also has this huge, full beard, like ZZ Top. Seriously, imagine seeing this guy out on the ice. He's a total hillbilly. NOW...

Picture that hillbilly on ice skates!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! I've never laughed so hard. And he was singing and holding his arms up in the air like he was trying to fly. I'm trying to buy myself a video camera and you can bet the first video I take and post on the Internet will be of my hillbilly dad ice skating. It was hilarious. I wish I had a picture of his full head of hair and beard, I think you'd get the idea better. I'll have to see what I got later.

I think that'll conclude my disparate post.

Apparently revising is good for my house cleaning. When I start thinking I should sit down and get in a few more pages of revisions, I start cleaning.

I'm not a huge cleaner. To me a clean house is a waste of precious time, but somehow in the last week I've: scrubbed the bathtub, cleaned all the kitchen cupboard doors, got on my HANDS AND KNEES and scrubbed the kitchen floor beneath the table. I did the dishes. I did ALL the laundry in the house, which I'm quite sure has never, ever been accomplished.

If I start color coding my closet, I think I might check myself in, cause that's just damn crazy.

I called Charter this morning because I was promised a certain cable/Internet package several months ago and have yet to receive the price. The girl I got is extremely Valley Girl and I'm not so sure she knows what she's doing. I'm still on the phone as I type this and my phone is clocking the time lapsed as 51: 25.

She keeps coming back and apologizing for the time it's taking her. "Our systems are slow today," she said. Mmmhmmm. More like her system is slow.

"Okay, there's a package..." pause... "Okay, a package with..." pause... "Let me see here..." pause... "Can I put you on hold for just a moment? Thank you."

Five minutes later....she says the exact same thing and this happens four more times.

"Okay, I found a package for your cable and Internet. Bundled together it's 79.98, but your additional services would have to be added to that price. Let's see...okay, your modiem (that's how she pronounced it) is an additional two dollars and ninety-sex (that's how she prounoucned that, I'm telling you, Valley Girl). So...okay...let me add this up. Okay. 79.98...92.95...2.96...14.99.............I have a total of 300.00...What are you paying now?"

"Uh...137. I think you added the cable/Internet package twice." So I added it up, since I was looking directly at my bill. I'm like, "Does 119 sound better?"

"Uhh...............can I get you to hold just one more minute, please?"

OMG IS SHE SERIOUS! "Yeah, sure."

She comes back five minutes later, "My supervisor said that package is for in...uh...installation. So, yeah. Uhh...let me see here. I have a package at 89.95. Would you like that?"

"YES. PUT ME ON THAT ONE."

"Hahaha. Okay. I appreciate your patience. Can I put you on hold? I'm just going to switch your package over."

I'm thinking, FINALLY. But I'm still on hold and that was about seven minutes ago now...I swear...

Oh, she's back.

"Yeah, okay...so I'm still adding your package...uh...it'll just be a few more minutes...okay?"

How hard is it to put in a cable package? I mean, seriously.  I'm so very close to hanging up. I'm really only saving like seven dollars in the long run. She's telling me I'll get two additional video-on-demand packages, but I'm inclined to think she's lying. BECAUSE SHE HAS NO IDEA WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT.

Still on hold. Clocked time: 64:03....

Oh she's back. I have my package...but wait...

Apparently I'll be paying two dollars more...and she never mentioned the additional VOD packages. OMG. I'm hanging up. I'll make Mr. Jen call back later. I can't take this anymore.

1. This holiday meme that's been wandering around LJ of late has made me even more aware of the fact that Christmas traditions really do vary widely.

Growing up, my brother and I got presents from my parents, which were wrapped and set under the tree long before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Santa would come and leave a few gifts sitting on the dining room table unwrapped. I think my parents did this so my brother and I had something to play with when we woke up at five a.m. and wouldn't bother them until at least six a.m.

Now I do the same thing with my son. I think it works out nicely.

2. I really, really love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and they will eventually be the downfall of my butt. Literally.

3. Last week we got hammered with a snow storm and it was super cold and windy and I was super moody and depressed. This week it's raining! And in the forties! And the snow is gone! YESSSS!!

4. I started a new WIP on Saturday as a way to get the creative juices flowing. And I quite like the WIP. I actually  just got the idea Saturday night while watching an anime with Mr. Jen. Naruto, to be exact, which is an awesome anime. And I'm a total Sasuke groupie. I get great inspiration from animes.

Weird thing about this new WIP, it has werewolves in it and I've never ever done werewolves. It should be fun trying something new to me.

5.  Because of number 4, and said creative juices, I think I've found a good momentum on Possession revisions. I've now made it to page 120. I still have a good 100 pages to change over to third person, which is really tedious. Lots of clicking and replacing "I"s with she or he, but I think it's coming along well. I do need to go back to the beginning and fix a few scenes, but at least I know where I'm going and am actually making progress.

6. Did I mention I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?