Weekend Sunburn

It's been a very long weekend, which is sad to say. Unlike a good group of Californians who were probably on the beach, we thought it would be nice to thin out our goods by having a garage sale. People have been suggesting for a while that I should thin my books out too. To date, I've bought in seven months, 153- or something books. No kidding!

It was really slow today for the sale, so I managed to get chapter 20 finished on (CN). It was weird because I was having lunch, maybe it was the tons of little brown rice on my plate that held my attention so thoroughly, allowing me to daydream. I have the next chapter thought out, and though a little rough, I'm about two to three chapters away from being done. This should be exciting, but maybe I'm just holding my excitement till I get the last chapter in place and the editing done and the notes from the reading partners and then the rewrites. When that is done, maybe I'll party.

I'm already trying to prepare for the notes on my zombie book and my comic hero book. Two books, two outlines, two very rough ideas that need a lot of thinking.

I've typed my notes out of five notebooks, two journals and tons of hand sized flip pads. Took a long time to do and not completely done, but in truth, I'm surprised on the sheer number of notes I've collected in the last five years. Some of them are actually pretty interesting. Good thing to keep. I also found a comic strip my cousin drew of me as a writer. It was pretty cute. I also found a cut out I made of one of my main characters. So many things I forgot I had.

I've noticed that I leave a lot of my thoughts on many elements, papers in binders, lose papers, on the back of receipts, on napkins, on sticky notes that are half the size of my thumb. I leave so many pieces of myself everywhere. It's a wonder that I don't lose all my thoughts on my novels. Now most of those thoughts are safe in a computer file that I can pull up as needed. Hopefully I don't forget that I put them there.

Sorry Batman. Sitting it Out.

Sorry Batman, but Novel Girl is only going to be fighting plot weasels and bad dialogue this summer.

I've mentioned on Twitter that we've had three break ins on our street in less than a month. All the neighbors are up in arms, and even I am feeling terribly jittery on this one. There is such a violation to being robed. It might not be violent, if you and your pet are lucky, but just the same, it is such a complete violation. Your house is supposed to be a fortress where you are safe and some unknowns get in to rob you. I heard crime rate is going up with the way our economy is.

Unlike the females in horror movies who go weak kneed and run upstairs to hide, I'm thinking I'll be waiting for these buggers with a scary Halloween mask and a baseball bat. (Don't worry mom, I've already taken in the possibility of getting shot. I'll call 911 first before I make a grand entrance.) I'm tired of these strangers forcing me and many other neighbors to be scared. Who are these people? Are they violent? How many come to collect our things? How many of them are tramping through our house and possibly terrorizing our pets? Doesn't that just make you want to take a baseball bat and wait for them?

Once, when I was in 6th grade, I was brave because my best friend Tiffany, was fearless.

School had gotten out and we had to walk a few blocks to get back to her house, because her mom wasn't home and we could eat whatever we wanted. Our diets consisted of sour cream potato chips, cinnamon graham crackers with melted marshmallow and chocolate sauce, orange soda, a few candies, lots of cartoons and video games. However, we also valued our figures... That being rather sporty, or for me, as sporty as a constantly hospitalized asthmatic could be.

Tiffany and I decided we had to work out so we could outrun the others on the field. She held my feet so I could do my sit-ups and then I held her feet. The only light on us was coming from the late evening cartoon lineup on the television, which was probably Fox because we liked Tiny Toons. Something blocked the little light coming in from the open curtains so my attention darted that way, long enough to see a male figure trying the sliding glass door.

I dropped her feet immediately. "Someone's trying to get in!"

She rolls onto her feet and though I was ready to hide in her bedroom, she was already heading towards the glass door.

"What are you doing?!?!" My demand went unheard because the scent of excitement had already buried deep in her.

She had the glass door open and was looking for this guy that was in her large backyard. There weren't many places to hide so it was clear he had jumped the fence where she was building a fort. She ran that way and of course, being the side kick of my first hero (sorry Bats) I followed her. We climbed over the fence, which we were now getting use to doing because we were full of mischief.

She went first, glancing around the side of the wall and turning back to me, her eyes wide. I was already nervous, but she was unreadable. "There's a lot of them."

"A lot?" I asked. She nodded her head and peaked. I had to peak too.

When I did, I realized that "a lot" was indeed a whole lot of high school students which meant these kids had five years on us and they were a big group all noising around her neighbor's house who was also in high school and obviously not home because it seemed like they were lingering trying to get in.

We were spies! We had to watch, though now I know calling the police would have been better. Everything was going great until a car drove by yelling, "Hey! There's kids over there!"

In a panic, we looked for a place to hide. The only place there was, was this tiny bush. We did it anyway, Tiffany had me up against the wall where I was hankered down into a tight ball with my hands over my eyes. I was still young enough to believe the universal rule of hiding. If you can't see them, they can't see you. Tiffany, however, I have a feeling had not covered her eyes, and was ready to spring.

One of the young high school boys came over and we heard him walking in the dry grass. I bit my lip and remained the way I was. There was a shout that he must have heard from his group.

"They're just a bunch of kids, and ugly as hell!" He yelled back.

Just like that, he was gone. Tiffany and I jumped back over the fence, ran inside the house and locked the door. We hid in her bedroom till someone came home.

And this concludes another Tiffany and Christina adventure. There are many of them. Next time I might talk about how we tried to rescue dogs, how we tried to get jobs on a farm with horses, how we worked very hard signaling U.F.O.s and the time we tried to snag a pirate... Unless I already told you about the pirate. It's hard to remember.

Sleep! Please! Let Me!

It has been such a wild couple of weeks with work. How wild? I've had more 14 hr shifts in one week than is allotted to the most diligent of nurses. (Love you nurses! You do more for society than I do. You are wonderful, but I still don't want your type of hours! xoxo) I'm surprised at how tired I am. I'm use to the writer's life, the: wake up, write, breakfast, write, small break to check emails, write, dinner, write... Yeah, I sometimes skip lunch unless I'm reminded to eat, but that doesn't feel at all as stressful as working on your feet for 14 hr days to smile at people who are super upset that the air conditioning is no longer working or that there is a problem on stage and we didn't get the 'okay' to open house on time. All you public workers, you need a big, huge metal of honor for dealing with this! As for me, I think I'll take my computer into the closet and shut the door.

The nice thing is that I'm babysitting my aunt's dog, which means our own private gym, large television, private pool, garden and hot tub, on a hill that over looks the city. I love these requests because we get a chance to have a vacation, or at least it feels like a vacation. You should really see this house. Beautiful and comfy. They have the most comfortable bed, better than any hotel I've ever been to. I like to just lay in that bed and read. Anyways, back to the story.

The babysitting thing. This dog is on a freaking timer! How can you get a dog to be so precise? If I was a runner, I'd never have to set my alarm clock because she is always up at exactly 6 a.m. She won't let you sleep after that, though she's a tiny thing. She wants out, then she wants food. If you think you're done, you aren't. She then goes back to the room you were sleeping in and if the door is closed, she whines. If you leave the door open, she wants on the bed, which you have to lift her because her legs are about 2 1/2 inches. She then proceeds to lick hands. Not a great way to try to fall back to sleep and when she's done licking your hand, she finds your face. So she goes back on the floor, where she cries. Then she's back outside the closed bedroom door, where she continues to make even louder sounds that are almost vaguely demonic. I thought I was almost asleep but the alarm clock turned on. So we turned it off, but I found it hard to fall back to sleep with the whining, so I got up, went downstairs to lay down on the couch, where she then laid on the carpet, went back to sleep. I wasn't asleep for ten minutes before another alarm clock in a different part of the house went off. I should tell you that there are exactly four alarm clocks here, one set at 6:20, one at 7:00, one at 7:40 and one at 8:30.

Emory and I, since it was 4th of July, sat out on the patio. I was going over my new Sci-Fi Book Club magazine by the pool, read a little, took my computer to write, then my grandparents came over with dinner. They left before the fireworks. We watched three movies, then went swimming and Emory watched a forth movie while I was writing. I was so sleepy by 3:00 a.m. that I barely had a page edited on chapter sixteen. Almost got to bed too, but Daisy the Dog wanted assistance. I sent her down stairs so Emory could let her out. We actually have to go outside with her because there are a lot of predatory animals here in the mountain area. I was cozy when I heard the birds and had this feeling I should check on them. My cousin lets these little parakeets climb in and out of their cage, but their flight isn't that great so I found them out of the cage and there is no telling how long they had been on the floor with their cage up on a table, unable to get back to it where their food and water was. We haven't been babysitting until Saturday. Had to give them food and water and get them back in their cage. I think they were grateful, because they didn't try to peck at me. I was settled back in bed when Daisy was coming up, and I tell Em I took care of the birds. He yells up, "What about the fish?" I'm thinking, "You have got to be kidding me! Fish too?" Yep, found the fish after doing a bit of a search. Em and I don't come up here very often so I have no idea what new animals they have. We fed the many, many fish that included water frogs, then I was about to settle back in bed when I decided to check the last room, just in case. No pets! I was finally free to go to sleep.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Zombie Cupcake!

My cousin made this.

What Day is it Again?!?!

Ever have one of those days?

Christina Thoughts:

-Is my favorite radio DJ drunk when she's on the air?
-Blueberry Marie Calender's Pie = mmmm, thanks backstage techs!!
-Matt LeBlac asked me where Row L seat 2 and 4 was located. My personal thoughts? "Oooh, super cool, now I need to call my best friend who is so in love with the Friend's series"
-Best Friend failed to answer her phone. Thought: "Super sucks! What is more important than a phone call from me??" (Just kidding Scooby!! You know I love you!!))
-Dancing Dad's fill me with delight, which was great because I was getting very agitated with the costumers.
-Tried to color my hair pink with a pink marker. It colored a little bit, but was too long of a process. Got bored quickly. Also was supposed to be working. Nothing to do. People inside, me outside. Oot! Oot! Ooooh!
-Should probably stop eating so much sugar... Don't feel like oatmeal. Mmm, there's enough Fruit Loops for a second helping.
-Am I a gamer if I only obsessively play one game?
-Super Hungry... OH! M&Ms and Gummy Bears!!
-People still make blond jokes? That's so-o-o 80's!
-Princess Diva Captain Wh-a-a-a-t? How about Space Captain?
-Oh, Space! I'd love to go there.
-Oh, Star Trek! I'd like to go to an Alien Convention!
-Nerd? Really?
-What in the world is that on my camera?
-Talked to a real Holocaust Survivor! Really Deep! Ug! Hate crying!
-Oh! That was a really good little teenage boy! I'd love to tell his mom she raised him so properly!
-Can I learn to speak Klingon?
-Why does everyone think I have ADD? Was it something I did?
-Ug! Lost my BOOM voice! Now how am I going to be heard?
-Hugs? Why! Seriously! I don't know you! Okay, fine! You complimented me, you get one hug!
-Volunteer ushers have become loiters!
-Oooh, grapes! How thoughtful.
-Very, Very, Very tired now.
-Why is paypal sending me stuff in Spanish? It looks important! Why can't I speak Spanish!
-Need to Read...
-Wonder what is going on in the fish market in Seattle.

Welcome Home Rejected!

A rejection letter popped up in my email a few days ago. I was a little confused because I don't remember sending anything out this year, so far. (Don't want anyone to think I'm not planning to send stuff out again)

It was from a project I sent out last year, probably in November. Crazy. Welcome Home Rejection, though I never knew you were missing and you could have stayed lost a little bit longer. Oh well. I actually don't feel excited or disappointed, because I never knew this story was still floating out there.

I am tired, so after a Fruit Loop breakfast, I might go cuddle down with the dog and take a nap.

Work on WIP Monday

I've decided to work on new projects for Monday. It helps clear my head and makes it easy to focus on the other book with a renewed investment. Today, however, is a crappy, "WIP" day. I was tired today, so I took a nap... (a little too long). I've also really marvel at the Doctor Who book I have so I was reading that and enjoying the quiet. So today, I'll be lucky if I even put 500 words down on both the novels.

3418 / 70000 words. 5% done!

2981 / 70000 words. 4% done!