Living a Life I Don't Know How to Live

(Originally posted at carlamlee.com.)

Pursuant to my goal to blog (somewhat) more regularly, I have decided to start doing a monthly review post, in which I plan to (briefly) discuss the highs and lows of that month.

Writing

High: Sarah and I sent The Talking Dead to first readers, and we're looking forward to feedback. We figured out what was wrong with Monsters & Music and redid the outline.

Also, Sarah left on her trip, and Intern immediately promoted himself from Intern to Manager. This is hilarious.

Low: Because of her wedding trip, we haven't managed to do a ton of writing on Monsters & Music, despite being eager to do so.

Reading

High: Sarah gave me UK versions of three books by Jaclyn Moriarty: Feeling Sorry for Celia, Finding Cassie Crazy (aka The Year of Secret Assignments), and Becoming Bindy Mackenzie (aka The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie and aka The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie). Awhile ago, we were talking about whether it was possible to write engaging, detailed, and entertaining books all in correspondence, and these were Sarah's examples. I read all three during the wedding trip.

I've actually read the second one before, as The Year of Secret Assignments, and liked it well enough, but it was a lot more enjoyable reading it in order. (I didn't even know it was part of a series.) Feeling Sorry for Celia is definitely the strongest of the books, and Becoming Bindy Mackenzie is at times unbelievably ridiculous, but I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in different ways.

I then picked up the fourth book, Dreaming of Amelia (aka The Ghosts of Ashbury High), as an ebook to read while traveling home.

Low: Though I really enjoyed the series (I've not quite finished book four), I am frustrated and exhausted by the use of "crazy" as a pejorative, especially in book four, which contains dangerous crazy people with their being crazy and therefore dangerous and hacking people to bits because they are crazy. Fuck that noise.

Wrestling

High: The Elimination Chamber PPV was AWESOME. So much love for the Usos (who are my favorites and who deserve to be tag team champions) and the Shield. Plus, this was my first time watching wrestling in person with anyone else (Sarah, Craig, and I caught up on the regular episodes prior to the PPV, and of course watched the PPV together). We went to a public viewing of it, and it was amazing to be in a crowd of wrestling fans all cheering on the show.

Low: Punk still has not returned. Woe. The Usos didn't win the tag team belts. Woe. But really, not really any low points this month.

Social

High: Best part, of course, was getting to spend time in person with Sarah and Craig. We haven't been in the same place at the same time since 2005, and this trip was even better. This time, Jake went with me, and so they all met for the first time, and got along really well. That was a delight.

There were many amazing parts to the trip and hanging out with them, but one of the best was that they took me to see Meat Loaf. I love Meat Loaf, and have never seen him life, and this was a pretty intimate venue with music and storytelling, and it was lovely.

Low: Saying good-bye to Sarah and Craig. We have to do another holiday together sooner rather than later.