Mmm, River

First, Spooey came back last night! She's been gone for a couple of weeks, so I've been working out with my dad or (far more often) alone. I had planned on going to bed early, but I stayed up until 3:00ish talking with her, then Vic. made it home, right after I climbed into bed.

Last night I did go to the casino with my mum. I started with $10, went up to $33, got greedy and kept playing, and ended up with $23. Still a win. We're going back tonight, because my mum didn't know how to work the slot machines properly, so she was only betting on one line last night, so she lost by a lot. Anyway, it was fun, which is the important thing.

Today Spooey and I got up late and went to work out. Since it was later than usual, it was hotter than usual, and I said something about how I wanted to swim in the river, and she said her bathing suit was at home - and the next thing we knew, we were planning a swimming trip to the river, which we went on as soon as we were done working out. Our lame younger siblings wouldn't come with us, because the idea of swimming in the river was just too gross for them, despite the fact that that's where everyone in the city gets their drinking water.

At some point, we decided to swim across the river (it's a big effing river), and part way out we realized that there was nothing under us except for spongey green algie stuff, which smelled gross if you touched it, so we had to keep swimming all the way across without stopping. By the time we got to the other side, I was laughing so hard that I had started to drool. It was hot.

Now I am so effing hungry I could die. I might, actually, if I don't get some food in me. I have to get cleaned up anyway (I still smell a little like river), and clean the kitchen (which there will be a rant about soon, no doubt), so I suppose I could eat somewhere in there as well. Mmm, eating.

Okay, I think that's it.

Motivational Ruffles, and All That's In Between

'Evening, Blogees.

I came into the office today to work on the identity guide for my cousin's business (I'm on my laptop, as my work station still has no Internet). Since I last mentioned said business, the logo has been redesigned by the website guy, aka, the bane of my existence. He's not really the bane of my existence; he's just a guy who went to college and assumes that this means he knows more about everything than us sad, uneducated people, who got our experience by designing magazine ads. At my cousin's request, I emailed him with what I have done so far for the identity guide (which he insists is absolutely vital), and asked if there was anything I needed to add before converting my svgs into one pdf. He responded with a fairly rude email, saying I had disregarded his instructions, and that a whole bunch of things I had included didn't need to be in there (these are things that every other visual identity guide in the world seems to have), and not to finalize anything until everyone had had a chance to look at it. I replied (and copied the reply to my cousin) as politely as I could, and asked a bunch of questions - basically, if I'm not supposed to do X, then what should I be doing instead? My cousin just wrote me back and told me she would let me get pointers from him. UGH. Whatever. I'm not dealing with it until tomorrow.

My mum and I walked to the store, got a bag of chips (I usually don't eat chips. God knows what we were thinking), and came back to the office to eat them. On the back of the bag, there was a story that started with:

At the age of 10, I lived with my family in the Fisher Housing Projects in Detroit, Michigan. By today's standards, we were considered poor.

It goes on for four paragraphs about this random kid stealing peaches from someone's backyard, then another two paragraphs about how he learned his lesson, and why self-control is great, and things to remember to help you demonstrate self control in everyday life. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone or something.

Last night, my mum and I watched the first three episodes of Dollhouse. She's completely addicted, just like I knew she would be.

A few months ago, at my brother's request, I brought V for Vendetta home from the office (I keep my movies at the office, to prevent the exact thing that ended up happening). He didn't watch it that night, but my mum and I and one of my other brothers did. The next night, that brother and the youngest one asked if they could borrow it, and I said yes, if they put it back on my shelf when they were done. Because I'm an idiot, I didn't check to see that they had put it back until last night, when my youngest brother asked if he could watch Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He insists that since both of them watched V, it isn't his fault that it didn't get put back. The other one insists that he watched the movie with my mother and I, after the youngest one watched it, so it's my fault if it didn't get put back. This is especially annoying, because this is the second copy of that movie that I've loaned out, only to have it disappear on me. My first copy is currently residing on my friend's uncle's shelf - unless, of course, he decided to lend it to someone else.

Tonight, I'm going to the casino with my mummy. I have $10 that I can spend, which I'll split into two $5 bills. Hopefully, if I go with my mum, the guard won't feel the need to ask me my middle name and have me spell it, while glaring at me and making it obvious that he thinks my ID is either fake or not my own. I should probably go work out now, since afterward, I have to heat my bathwater, clean up and get changed. Thank God it's not hair-wash day.

I didn't work out yesterday because I didn't feel like it. That's a dangerous habit to get into, especially because that makes it the third day in four weeks that I've missed, and this time, there was no good reason for it. I should work twice as hard, but I probably won't.

I think that's everything. I think. Oh, 5:55, time to make a wish. Alright. That's done with.

I missed one thing. I've started working on the final chapter of Aigaion Girl. As happy as I am to have nearly completed my... fourth book (likely the first one that will ever be published), it's a little bittersweet - and I feel an inordinate amount of pressure to get the ending perfect. I've been looking forward to writing this ending, but now I'm terrified that my readers are going to hate it. Eeek.

Okay, I really do think that's it. And I really do have to go work out. Right.

I.N. Out.

The Short Long Weekend

I have no idea what I did for the first two days of the long weekend... other than work out, but I do that every day.

Today, I did lots of fun things.

I went out for breakfast with my parents, which was yummy.

I read and answered reviews for Aigaion Girl, which I had a lot of. This is because I put in my last set of author's notes that I plan on self-publishing, so as well as my regular number of reviews, I had bonus ones, with people assuring me they will buy it when it comes out. Also, I gave A/G to Jammy to read.

I entered another photography contest (the first one I entered was a few days ago). Over all, I think the pictures are pretty good. I don't know what I'm up against, though, so it's hard to say whether or not I have a shot.

James and I headed to Starbucks and he bought me a frozen drink, which was tasty, despite the fact that the girl behind the counter didn't know what skim milk was, and ended up giving us splenda syrup.

After Starbucks, we walked to Natalie's house, where she wasn't, and called her, and found out she wasn't there.

Then I showed James my work out route, and the bat-cave bridge (it's a little bridge that looks like the bat cave, if that wasn't clear). Somewhere during our wandering, we saw a group of people in period clothes playing minigolf. They're my heroes.

We went to Timmie's, then to the casino, 'cause we were supposed to go to the casino last time James was in town, but we forgot. The casino rocks, by the way. I'd never been in there before, so it was quite the experience. They IDed us at the door, which was to be expected, then the guy caught me completely off guard when he asked me what my middle name was. My middle name is actually Athena, but I haven't gone by my first name since I was eight weeks old, so it took me a minute to realize that Athena is actually my middle name. Once I said 'Athena', he looked at me some more, then asked me to spell it. When that was over with, we went inside, and James got ten dollars to split between the two of us. While we were playing the slots, I took a picture of James, and this female security guard came out of nowhere within about two seconds, and told us we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. She was very appologetic, but we had to delete the picture we'd taken, which kinda sucks. Hence the less-than-flattering picture that was taken by the sign out front. We were probably at the casino for an hour or more, and in that time, managed to not only not lose, but also, to get ahead by $9ish, so that covered Starbucks, which is pretty cool.

We walked back to my house, then to my Mummy's office, to print Aigaion Girl and print out some wallet-sized copies of the above picture, then came back to my house, ate pizza and played Pick Two (best game ever).

Loki and I walked James most of the way home, then turned around and walked back. Then I uploaded some pictures to Facebook, and now I'm writing this. Basically, I packed my whole long weekend into today.

Also, as a totally random aside, I was writing Aigaion Girl yesterday or the day before and trying to find music that had to do with the apocalypse or end-of-the-world type stuff, and I came across Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire. I've always liked the song, but I'd never actually listened to the words. I left a comment to that effect on the YouTube video (also mentioning that I thought the song was oddly suited to our current global climate), and someone gave my comment thumbs down, because they thought I was talking about global warming. God, people make me sad... but go listen to the song, 'cause it's good, and it is appropriate today, possibly even moreso than it was when it was written.

I think that's it for today.