I Know...

So, I've been away for a while.  Not really away, just away from blogging.  Busy and stuff.

I got a job.  It's a good job and I like it, even if it's not the kind of job I ever imagined myself doing.  The perks are excellent and the people are wonderful.  Our department's Christmas party was Friday.  I had my first (and second (and come to that, possibly 3rd, though I can't remember for sure)) Jagerbomb, 2 G&Ts and a glass of champagne.  With the exception of the second G&T, which a coworker bought for me, these drinks were all free, paid for by the company.  It was great to see everyone let loose, even if some of them let a little looser than they should.

I sadly did not finish my NaNoWriMo story, Quicksand in November.  I made it to about 21,000 words and couldn't manage any more.  This whole working full time thing has gotten harder since I was doing it last.  I honestly think that's just the weather, though, because I work until 6:00 and right now that means I'm there until after dark.

I sold enough shirts to get the Reactionary Motors one for my Dad for Christmas.  My dreams of having the Bitch, Please one for myself have been put on hold, but such is life.

I was just about to write about our plans to visit Slovakia over Christmas, and I realize now that I've totally neglected to say anything at all about Prague, which was wonderful and will get a whole blog post shortly.

Also, somewhere in the confusion of November and December, our flatmate, whose Internet we used and paid toward, left and the Internet was disconnected (we'd recently given him £30 to it - not impressed)

My Slovak is not improving as quickly as I'd hoped.  Need to get working on that.

I think that's all for now.  I'll post about Prague soon, and try to keep a little bit more updatey in the meantime.

:(

I'm using that face, 'cause there isn't a universally recognized I just vomited in my own mouth emoticon, and profound sadness at the situation is the runner up emotion. Soon after I got to work, this guy called, sounding fairly distraught and mumbling, then said something like, "Just let me put this down", set the phone down and proceeded to jerk off audibly. Yeah, perfect way to start my night. I'm terrified to answer the phone now. Apparently, he used to do this fairly frequently (I'm assuming it's the same guy), but stopped sometime before I started working here 5 months ago* and picked tonight to start up again. I tried to star 69 him, but it didn't work. Ugh. I so do not need this shit. I mean, honestly, why can't he just watch porn like everyone else?

Between that and learning about Bridalplasty, which is just a horribly depressing statement on the condition of the world, this hasn't been the greatest night ever. Dumb crap like this should not be getting to me, but for whatever reason, it is tonight.

I didn't make it to the gym tonight, and I really need to. I realized today that I haven't been since before Christmas. Not good.

On a much happier note, it's officially Jan 11. The past couple weeks have zoomed by... I can already feel the (comparatively) warm English rain on my face, smell airport smells and see London. I am so there.

*Hey, 5 months ago today - well, yesterday, but today for me... or something.

A Happy Christmas to You

This picture creeps me out for a few reasons, not the least of which being that the birds in it seem to each have four legs. I thought it was fitting for the last in my miniseries of Creepy Holiday Art from Yesteryear.

Anywhom, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, bursting with excitement, and, because I couldn't wait any more, opened my stocking. My cousin texted my sister and I at twenty to seven, so since Rhiannon was awake anyway after that, we opened our presents while it was still dark out. I texted out my Merry Xmas message, figuring that it would be late enough in Ontario - and not remembering that not everyone I know is in that time zone. I think I woke a few people up.

Now I'm crazy tired and don't really want to bake pies, but want to eat pies later.

I got a lot of cool stuff, which I want to list, and might, when I am not so ass-tired.

I finished Siddhartha on the 23rd and loved it.

Now I'm going to cut this short, because I work tonight and need to make pies... and really want to sleep. A lot.

Another Post Called :)

My surprise came today! Actually, I'm going to keep this post fairly short because my surprise was a book* and I'd like to get back to reading it.

It came wrapped in wonderful book-covered paper, with a wonderful note from a wonderful man. I may overdose on wonderful by the end of the day :)

The book is Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. The simplest way I can describe it is to say it's about the title character's quest for enlightenment/Nirvana/inner peace - but really, you should read it for yourself, because I can't really do it justice. Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I'm a little under half-way done and, as I've said, would like to get back to reading it, so this is where I cut my post short. My advice, dear reader, is, if you haven't already, go and track down a copy and start reading it as soon as possible.

Also, I read one of those lists that they put up on MSN occasionally a few days ago. This one was What Not to Buy Your Man for Christmas or something equally lame, and it recommended against giving books as gifts. Such a load of crap. I think books are among the best gifts a person can get - this one especially.

*I've been in suspense about this surprise for what seems like ever. My one and only guess about what it could possibly be was this book. So glad I was right.

Merry Xmas Continued

I remembered what I was going to say. I could have just added it to the bottom of my other Xmas post, but I decided to do a a new one, just so I could put up this picture of the Tree Child playing keep away with one of Jareth's magic crystals. At least, I think that's what's going on in this picture. That's it, executive decision: all blog posts between now and Christmas will feature a frightening and/or confusing piece of public domain holiday art.

So, what I remembered: my laptop went effing insane today. It was going ridiculously slow this morning, so before I turned in for the day, I started running a whole computer scan. When I woke up, it was going ridiculously ridiculously slow and it took me about 15 minutes to check my email. The scan was still running, so I disconnected from the interwebz and let it run. It was still running after Rhiannon and I had watched Pride and Prejudice, so I left it running and went back to sleep. Then I was woken up by strange flashing light from behind me, and I rolled over to see Modo's screen flashing black and then white, but with the menu bar at the bottom looking totally normal. No idea WTF is going on there, but I had to leave for work, so I couldn't really stick around to investigate. I really don't want him to be broken. I have horrible luck with laptops (one stolen, one broken), Cameras (one broken, fixed and then stolen, one really effing broken) and all things technological, so I'm afraid he might just be dead. Erg.

In other news, it's after 4 and I haven't started my night audit. I should get on that. I don't think I'm going snowboarding today. Blah.

Merry Xmas!

I'm too lazy to find another public domain Xmas picture, so I'm reusing this terrifying snowman that I dug up for my Devereaux Court Christmas post. Now that I'm thinking about it, though, he kind of clashes with my blog. Oh well.

I know it's officially over, but happy Solstice anyway. Also, Merry Christmas (or whatever winter holiday you celebrate) and Happy New Year.

I'm supposed to be going snowboarding tomorrow, but considering I'm ass-tired, kind of sick and have sore ankles, and I won't be able to sleep between now and then, I may well skip it. I don't know. I'm undecided.

We have to listen to Christmas music at work. If we change the station, we get fired. I may kill someone.

I didn't make it to the post office today to check for my surprise :( I woke up way later than I intended to, after the post office was closed. If I snowboard tomorrow, I won't be able to go until Thursday. Blah.

I ordered a camera last night and my credit card-bank card hybrid was a bag of dicks, so the payment hasn't gone through yet, so they haven't shipped it yet, so I won't be getting it before Christmas, which sucks, but isn't a huge deal. Anyway, it's cute and pink. I would put a picture, but my browser is being a bag of dicks as well.

There were other Christmasy things I wanted to mention, but I don't remember what they are, so I guess this will be the end of my xmas post. If I think of anything else, I'll tack it onto the bottom.

:)

Possibly this is my 800th post titled :) I blame it on the fact that I can't stop smiling. Honestly, I look through old blog entries, mentioning how I just feel off or through my old notebooks, where, unconsciously, I've written things like I hate my life and I actually can't remember feeling that way. I know I did. I remember the events or the existence of the emotions, but the feelings are completely gone. Right now, I'm smiling and it seems like I always have been.

Christmas is coming and I'm not going home for the first time in my life - but I'm actually not too upset about it. I'll hang out with Spooey, work, probably have a holiday drink. Nothing terribly exciting, just a nice, quiet Christmas.

(It's 2:00am, so I'm sending good wishes for good luck.)

I've started working on another new story. I really like the idea of this one a lot, but I feel guilty when I work on it, because really, I should be: finishing Caution and Creep, editing Caution and Creep, editing Emmeline, writing Little 15, editing Sunshine, writing 200 Pages, writing The Things That Aren't, writing Sugar Dust, rewriting Taken, rewriting The Inn at Night or working on a million other stories that are in Title Limbo at the moment. But the new one has Death in (the character), and I like it. Maybe I should make a list, pick 5 and only work on them, until I'm done. Caution and Creep has got to be up there... I've had readers waiting for over 2 years.

I had pizza today. Bad idea.

Ok, it's ten after two, so I'mna make me some hot chocolate and start the night audit.

Have a wonderful day, people.

Good Morning!

I'm at work and really should be working, but instead I'm blogging and waiting for my fingernails to dry.

I spent the first chunk of my shift going over the eight or so pages of 200 Pages that I've completed. Honestly, if I wasn't so burnt out from eleven eleven wish, I think I could finish it in a couple of night shifts - certainly within a month, because unlike eleven eleven, I can just produce word vomit, not edit it, and as long as I include all the necessary scenes, leave it at that - although, now that I've said that, I do feel like I should get my MC pinned down a little better -then maybe I'll get drunk and channel her for a few days.

Also, I finally finished part 12 of Little 15, which is going to end up being a novella, instead of a short story (it was revised to 'short story' after I realized that my original oneshot had taken two chapters to finish).

Caution and Creep is still looming over me and 56,000 words in, I kind of feel like a tool for shelving it. Also, I shelved it in November of 2008; I really ought to finish it. There's too much to deal with, story-wise, and it would really be stressing me out, if anything other than my desire to be elsewhere ever stressed me out these days.

I'm getting a surprise! It's coming on either Thursday or Friday (or maybe Monday, given our wonderful postal system) and I'm super excited. I want it now! But I'm getting good at acting patient; waiting for wonderful things is a big part of my day-to-day :) Also, my family sent my and my sister's xmas presents today, so we should be getting them sometime in the next week or two. We have to send their stuff tomorrow.

Clayton leaves tomorrow (well, I guess today - actually in less than three hours) for Ontario. He was supposed to leave a couple of days ago, but he decided to fly instead of bussing it, so we got him for a few more days. It sucks that he's going, but I know that I'll see him pretty soon - and he's going to be happy where he's going, and that's all I could wish for any of my friends.

Ok, my nails are dry and it's after 3:30 in the morning, so I should probably start doing some actual work now. Ooh, then two days off!

Randomness

I am so sleepy. I'm not sure why, but I am.

In news: My roommate, Jazz, who has become my good friend, has gone back home to Ontario. I now have a room to myself (which everyone keeps pointing out in an effort to cheer me up), but I'd rather have Jazz back. Also, my friend Rolly left yesterday. This place is becoming depressing. I'm trying not to even think about Christmas.

I finally submitted Aigaion Girl for publication. I have to wait a couple of days for them to make sure my files are all good, then I can order my proof copy and then, then, it will be for sale on Amazon, and I'll be a happy camper. Now I just need a bloody website.

Oh, while I'm not thinking about Christmas, I'm almost done writing my Christmas cards. I even got Christmas stamps, with sparkly little trees on them. The guy at the post office gave me a dirty look when I asked for two packs of xmas trees instead of one pack of trees and one Virgin Mary. Seriously, butt out, post office man. Besides, the trees match my envelopes. Also, I bought gift tags, which I have to write out and mail home for the presents that are already there.

I think that's it. Winter here set in around Halloween (I made a snowman named Frankensnow. I'll put up pictures when the Interweb isn't ass) and has not gone anywhere since. I almost want to go tobogganing, but not really.

Oh, that does remind me of one more thing, actually - my shopping trip. I bought really nice winter boots that are good up to -45, some crocs with furry lining (I know: barf!) to wear in the kitchen, the aforementioned Christmas tags, a case of Dr. Pepper and a copy of The Rock, which I've been trying to find on DVD for my brother for probably close to 10 years, and I managed to pick up in a grocery store in the middle of bloddy nowhere. Ugh.

Now that's it. Exciting stuff, I know.