iScribe

I’ve been slacking.  I submitted something yesterday (and sent out three more pieces today) but I still want to write something new to send out this weekend.  Wish me luck.

Today was the first day this year that I got to wear my polka-dot rainboots.  I love them, even if they do make me look like an overgrown six year old.  Sometimes we have to remember how awesome it was to be little and jump in a couple puddles, right?

Half Price Books in Tacoma is my favorite place to shop.  They might not have everything that I am looking for but neither does Barnes and Noble half the time.  I am a little sad that I only came out with a stack of movies last night and not a stack of books.  Se7en and Lucky Number Slevin (because they are my favorite movies and I lost my first copy of Slevin), The Towering Inferno (on David’s advice), The Aviator (one of the only DiCaprio movies that I liked - oh, who am I kidding…I like him as an actor but I hate to admit it), and Fanboys (because it looks like a mindless comedy and has William Shatner in it as well as Jay Baruchel).

I finally jumped on the Christopher Moore bandwagon.  He’s an awesome author.  I read Bloodsucking Fiends on the advice of Evan and I loved it.  It’s an easy read, funny, witty, and is a different twist in the growing population of vampire novels.  This one isn’t quite as romantic as Twilight but what it lacks in glitter it has in sarcasm.  I’m looking at You Suck or maybe LAMB next.

Me: (plugging my ears) But before we start a new game… *click*

Rick Astley: Never gonna give you up…Never gonna let you down

Jake: *stare*

Me: What?  I just Rick-Rolled you… *smile*

Jake: I’m going to Rick-Roll you right off of your chair…  You see what I did there?  That was a “Before and After”…

…a doughnut.  Dammit.

So I’ve lost about 10 lbs in the past few weeks.  Slowly but surely.  *sigh*  A little too slow if you ask me.  It’s seems as though I’ve lost about 2 or 3 lbs every week.  I need to exercise more.  Someone once told me that losing about 2 or 3 lbs every week is a healthy amount to lose and that something might be wrong if you’re losing an exorbitant amount every week.  I guess I’m just impatient.

Work has been fun.  I’ve been trying to reconnect with my old students and form a connection with my new ones (most of which are kindergartners).  They are all good kids at heart…but the one that likes to cut yellow jackets in half with scissors kind of scares me a little.

I need to keep writing.  I figure that if I spend some time getting a few things off my chest on tumblr, then my mind can be clearer and I won’t start daydreaming in the middle of my stories.  I’ve been having some weird things on my mind lately though.  My focus just hasn’t been where it needs to be.

…I should end every argument with Jake by showing him a clip of Friends (when the characters are arguing like we are at that moment) to show him just how how silly we look.

When I was in high school, my creative writing teacher had me read a book called, “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg.  I love this book to death (even today) and am a bit heartbroken that it’s lost in a black hole that has formed in the back corner of my storage unit. Although, I remember it word for word because I reread the book incessantly.  I’ve never loved a book about writing this much (no I don’t want to marry it).  It has a smooth and non-wordy delivery (unlike myself) and it has a myriad of awesome writing activities and exercises. 

One of which talks about how sometimes writers get too attached to their work and have trouble letting go of our pieces.  So, in an exercise in “letting go”, she suggests setting up a booth (like at a fair) and selling poems or something for cheap.  For example, say someone wants a poem for his girlfriend.  She will ask him about her and jot out a quick poem or free write something for him (about her) and charge something cheap like $1 or 50 cents.  Although I’m almost 100% sure that no fair would have me because I am just a wannabe writer, I think that this would be a good activity for me to do.  So that I can practice letting go and so I can practice writing my little heart out.

I have been highlighting and post-it-noting the heck out of my year old Writer’s Market.  It officially looks like one of my old college textbooks.  I would get a new version of Writer’s Market but I’m a starving artist (“starving writer” just doesn’t have the same ring to it) and I’m assuming that any of the big named magazines and publishers in the book haven’t moved and are still in business.  Of course, in this day and age I probably shouldn’t count on something like that.

School went swimmingly today.  I don’t know what swimmingly really means.  Especially since I, myself, don’t know how to swim.  So let me rephrase that.  School went smoothly.  No fighting, a good game of dodgeball without the PE teacher giving me the stinkeye.  Well, okay.  Maybe she gave me a couple dirty looks.  But I think it’s just cause she doesn’t like me.  I brought in an air pop popcorn maker and we had a blast.  As awesome as this week has gone, I’m still glad that tomorrow is Friday.  I need to finalize a few more stories this weekend so I can send them out.

I’ve been so happy that I’ve been so diligent with my diet and with writing.  I’m excited about submitting stuff (even if I don’t get picked up by all of them…or even some of them) and I’ve lost a few pounds since I started my diet.  My eating habits have changed and it’s not a hassle to eat like this anymore.  So the next step is to start exercising more.  [insert groan here]

First day of school = success.  No fighting and I got props from my boss about doing a great job yesterday at the meet and greet.  Yay!

Also, on the writing front, an editor got back to me about using one of my pieces on her website in December.  Yay for online ‘zines!  It doesn’t pay but it will get my name out there.  It’s a super short piece (even short for flash fiction standards) but I’m just glad that someone else thinks that my work is good enough to be published.

I spent the last few hours schmoozing with the PTA, office staff and my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.  I also filled out a volunteer form because I don’t feel like I will be spending enough of my life on the campus…I hate how most of the time the internet just doesn’t understand sarcasm.  Even my seven year olds understand sarcasm. 

Aanyway,  I’m back to my regular schedule, which means that I have the middle of my day to spend writing.  I’m very excited about the fact that I have the time to get some serious writing done.

I’m going to miss my summer kids.  Yes, even the ones that always got into trouble.  It’s funny how there’s always kids that reminds you of other kids that you have in a different class but the classes seem like polar opposites.  Even if both of the classes had a couple of the same students.

So tomorrow is the first day of school.  Wish me luck.

1 hour: Parent Meet and Greet/School BBQ

4 hours: Quality time with my best friend, Write or Die

14 hours: Back to work for the first day of school…

Just sent out 3 more pieces for consideration.  Keep your fingers crossed.