Living a Life I Don't Know How to Live

I am absolutely delighted to find Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Netflix. I used to love this show, particularly when I lived somewhere I didn't have much of a local queer community. Some of the episodes still really touch my heart; there's this one with a guy who wants to propose, and they really set up a fantastic night for him and his girlfriend, and he was precious, and he tried so hard, and I was just delighted. I love the combo of this and Clean House. (I also love that I really don't need cable television. Yay streaming shows.)

This weekend was really super productive. Saturday, like I said, Sarah and I finished our current edit of Woods. We're now working on the final few scenes we decided it needed, and I'm doing one more polish edit this week, and then the goal is to send it to first readers Sunday or Monday. I am surprisingly nervous about this; it's been such a long time since I finished anything and sent it off to be workshopped. (I mean, besides legal writing. I'm fab at taking criticism of legal writing, mostly because of all the time I spent having my creative writing critiqued.)

Then Sunday, we finished the outline of our second project, Horror on Holiday, and split up the scenes so we can start writing it. We've given ourselves a fairly tight goal to get it finished (not as fast as we wrote Woods, which was in less than four weeks, but still pretty fast), with the caveat that if either of us feel too pressured, we will push back our goal date. (My sister, Kris, pulled Sarah in to help keep me from working myself into another breakdown, and Sarah is taking this responsibility very seriously. You should be super proud of her and Craig, Kris.) We also started the outline of our third project, which requires some serious, complicated, complex worldbuilding. I never expected to be writing something like this, despite the fact that the initial spark of an idea came from my idea file, but I am very excited.

I also did a lot of home organizing this weekend, craft and art supplies, dvds, and books. I have definitely put a restriction on buying new books until I read some of the ones I have sitting around on my To Read Bookcases. I now also have a pile of dvds that need to be watched.

Finally, I cooked an amazing roast in the crockpot last night, and a chicken casserole that has tortillas and peppers and cheese and salsa verde and corn and all sorts of deliciousness. I took some for lunch today, and it was fantastic. Didn't get to try the roast until dinner, but it was also amazing. (A little too salty for my taste, but most things are, and I think that may be the soup base used in it. Next time I'll try to find a low sodium version and see if that helps. I hate the taste of salt.) Kris put together a meal plan for me awhile back, as part of her work as my personal assistant this summer, and I appreciate all the time and effort she put into so much. I love not having to think about it, just grab the shopping list for the week, shop one day, cook the next. It makes life so much easier.

I updated my 2013 reading list yesterday, and I really need to make a book post soon. I have read some awesome books and short stories lately, and I want to share them with you all.

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Twister still makes me happy, no matter how many times I see it. It gets my energy up and makes me fondly remember my own days of (stupidly) chasing storms with S---. I've been through more tornadoes than I can count, double and triple funnels, and crazy weather. Nothing like what the movie portrays, of course, because that's some crazy movie stuff.

But it still makes me giddy and excited and it's helping the writing, just a little.

I was able to talk to Sarah for a short while earlier and that was both fun and encouraging. We have secret(ish) plotty plans, and I hope they come to fruition within the next year. Go us, and Craig and Jake. Our plotting and planning rocks.

Sarah, you'll be pleased to know that the chocolate pie tasted fantastic. I really will have to make it for you at some later date. It was excellent, cool and refreshing and rich, and I'm very pleased with my first attempt at making my own crust.

Sometime this week I'm going to bake a cake, as well, and make chicken pot pie, and some special potatoes. And maybe chicken breast with mole sauce and who knows what else. I'm going to enjoy having free time.

Jake just told me: "Whenever you cook, you either make me sick or you make a pretty good product. It's either death on a plate or damn good."

I'm highly amused. And he's not wrong. Though, to be fair, the death on the plate comes when he asks me to make something and I tell him I don't know how to make it, but he keeps asking until I try. So I do warn him that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Sarah said she's going to teach me how to make flapjacks. Too cool.

Jake wants to make his special grilled chicken breast for Sarah and Craig and all sorts of things. He's a tiny bit frustrated that they will only feed my love of gaming, but he's laughing, too. We have such plans, and if even half of them work out, life will be so much fun.

I both want to talk about this until I get told to shut up and hold it close to my own thoughts. I'm such a dork.

Especially because one of the reasons I like Twister is because it's funny to see "Star" all upset and old and stuff. Hee.

Back to the writing grindstone. Nose to it and all.