Living a Life I Don't Know How to Live

Friday, I picked up my first grocery order. It's a little bit of a pain to drive to the store, but being able to order online and just pick it up when I get there was more than worth it. (If I can work out a way to be at home during the delivery hours, I may switch to delivery, but until they have weekend delivery hours, that's probably not going to happen.) I hate grocery shopping SO MUCH that a little extra money and drive time is more than worth not having to do it myself.

Niece H, my youngest niece (at the moment) had her fourth birthday party Saturday afternoon in Columbia, so I happily rearranged my normal Saturday schedule. Izzy and I went out for our walk at 4 a.m., and then Sarah and I had a few hours of writing time (we're working on our second novel, because the first one is with our first readers right now) before I had to take Iz to the vet. (Nothing was wrong, I just had to establish treatment with a vet per the adoption agreement.) She did really well with all the people, and absolutely charmed the staff. Vet started talking about how smart she is approximately thirty seconds after meeting her, and agreed that obedience training and then therapy training would be a good idea. I'm going to have to set aside some money for private obedience classes, because Iz still cannot stand other dogs.

I cleaned up the kitchen a little in preparation for cooking this week (originally, I planned to do it Sunday, but plans changed), and then Iz and I hit the road for Columbia, which is about two hours away. I love road trips, Iz loves road trips, it's a good combination. We found the park pretty easily, and Iz had her first experience at a park. She loved it -- until other people showed up walking their dogs. Oh, Iz.

Still, I was more worried about how she would do with Niece H, who is the first kid she's spent time with. (Nephew C, my oldest nephew, is a teen, and is the closest person to a kid she's met so far.) She did great with Niece H, who absolutely adored petting her and booping her on the nose. Iz also loved all the adults, and she was pretty good about not begging for food. (She doesn't get people food because it made her sick the one time we tried.) (Well, no, she does get peanut butter and Vet said I need to feed her some eggs, because she's underweight, but most people food is off limits.) I hadn't seen my youngest brother, Thomas, his girlfriend, Sarah, or Niece H since Christmas, so it was great to see them, meet some of their friends, and see their new place. Niece H was SO EXCITED that we showed up (Kris and Neal also drove up from Springfield), and we had a blast. Thomas grilled delicious burgers and hot dogs, and Youngest Niece picked out an adorable sugary ice cream cake. (I skipped that part, but it looked awesome. I'm not a huge fan of white cake or ice cream cake.) There was a unicorn piñata, and Niece H had a great time trying to break it. In the end, Thomas had to hit it, and he decapitated it, but still didn't break it open, so they ended up tearing it apart to get to the candy. I died laughing, and am so glad I recorded it, because it is adorable.

Kris and Neal came back to Kansas City with me, we dropped Iz off at home, and then went to iHop for a late dinner and a lot of talking. I haven't gotten to see them as much as we'd planned this summer, because Neal ended up getting this awesome job doing exactly what he wants to do, which is fantastic, but definitely cut into their trips up here. We had a great time hanging out, came home and talked more, and finally crashed in the wee hours of the morning.

Kris joined me on Iz's morning walk, I had a super short call with Sarah, and then we headed out to Bob Evans for brunch. The food was good, but the service was horrible; at one point, we were left for nearly a half an hour without being checked on, no drink refills, nothing. It ended up being really disappointing.

We showed Neal Lilo & Stitch for the first time (how MY brother-in-law managed to go this long without me forcing him to watch it, I have no idea), and he seemed to like it. He certainly laughed a lot. We grabbed bbq for dinner out at my favorite cheap and cheerful bbq joint, Rosedale BBQ (which I just learned has online ordering, SCORE), and then grabbed dessert from Culvers.

Back home, Kris and I did some SECRET PROJECT planning (more on this soon), and then we apparently taught Iz to play, finally, specifically to play fetch with one of her squeaky toys. She played again tonight when I got home from work, and I'm so thrilled. We have fun together.

After they left, I did some work, took Iz out for her nightly walk, and then we cuddled and read for awhile.

Tonight, I'm cooking and moving stuff around for my furniture delivery this week. Finally I'll have my gorgeous red leather sectional. I'm super excited, and will post pictures once it's here. I think Izzy will like it, too; she loves cuddling up against me while I work, and she can't do that right now unless we're at Jake's. I think we might have played too hard earlier, because Iz is sort of drooping around. I'll take her for a short walk right before bed, and let her relax quite a bit while I cook and clean.

(Right now I have apples baking and they smell delicious.)

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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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I have been trying to post more regularly, though it is hit or miss.

Last weekend, Jake came up to spend the weekend with me. It was the first time he's stayed in my new (but not actually new) place. Usually, if we spend the weekend together, it's down at his house, because Dad's down there and Jake's siblings and Oldest Nephew and our friends and often Kris and Neal are in town. Plus the Hawaiian restaurant we love (Island Style) is nearby. We've been hitting it up for great food, excellent company (the family that owns it has basically adopted us all, and they are delightful), and karaoke. Occasionally, I even sing, though mostly I just record and cheer on the others. (Oldest Nephew is freaking amazing. None of us had any idea he could sing like that.)

Anyway, Jake came up here. Sarah and I had a Skype session and writing time scheduled, as we almost always do on Saturdays, and while we worked, he organized my apartment for me. It was AWESOME. He sorted out the boxes, put away the ones I want to keep, took the rest out to be picked up, moved stuff around, set up my kitchen, including my new blender, repotted plants, but in new daylight LED bulbs where I read and write, helped me unload my car -- all in all, just made the apartment cozier. Plus awhile back, Kris picked up a bunch of art supplies and storage for me, and I finally sorted everything into the boxes and have all that set up. I still haven't purchased my living room seating, but the apartment is coming together nicely.

One of the things he did was move these two small bookcases I have. I was using one for my Get Rid Of Somehow Books. Now I'm starting to fill that one a second time, and the other one is being used as my To Read bookcase. I, uh, have more books to read than I thought. There was a point in time when I'd read every book I owned. Not anymore. I need to put some sort of limit on my book buying until I read some of them. At least the physical copies.

I'm up to more than 100 days of consecutive writing. I've also given up soda, and have replaced the fizzy drink with sparkling mineral water (sometimes mixed with flavored tea).

Apart from the organizing and writing, we had some good meals, bought a ton of groceries for me, and went to see Pacific Rim at my new favorite theater. (It has a bar! And red leather recliners! And is generally AWESOME.) I enjoyed the movie a lot, actually, though I would have rather it not been such a white guy movie. I wish some of the characters had been swapped out for men and women of color. It was a fun summer blockbuster full of explosions and pretty monsters and I absolutely loved both Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi. Charlie Hunnam was fun too, though he was fairly Jax-like to me in the role.

I have managed to do some reading lately, and I should do a post in the near future over books I've read and really enjoyed, because there have been quite a few.

Today I had a Skype session with Sarah, during which we finished our current edit of Woods. Now we each have a few more scenes to write, and I am still working on some of the description. It's almost ready to go out to first readers, though. Exciting. Tomorrow we're going to have another call. We may finish the outline for our next project then, so we can get started on writing something new soon. I then finished organizing art supplies, did some more sorting of books, and am sitting down to do more writing. I was going to cook a roast later, using a Kris recipe, but I'm still full from brunch (biscuits and gravy for the win!) and will probably just eat some fruit later. Tomorrow I'll make a roast, though. And some sort of chicken casserole thing.

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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.