Living a Life I Don't Know How to Live

Long time without a post. Sorry about that. I have been busy. Mostly with work, of course, but some social stuff too. I will tell you about a few of the social things, because they were a lot of fun.

In no particular order, some of the places I've been.

+ My sister's marriage ceremony

July 5, impatienke married Mr. impatienke in a civil ceremony at the courthouse. Most of the family was able to make it. Next summer, they're having the full social ceremony, and I'll be one of the bridesmaids, but this was nice, too. After, we all went out for a family dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and that was, as always, delicious.

+ My sister's graduation

Back in May, impatienke graduated with a couple Bachelor degrees. We went down for her ceremony and it was really delightful. I love family events. We also looked at bridesmaid dresses then, which was slightly less fun, since I get bored fast when clothes shopping, but I do love Kris and hanging out with our friends. The next day, the brothers M hosted her graduation party, a hotdog party which I planned for her at her request. It was a blast, and I think she really enjoyed herself.

+ Tessa Gratton's BLOOD MAGIC launch (link to Tessa's photo post about the event)

Tessa Gratton (user name="tessagratton" site="livejournal.com">'s launch party for her debut novel BLOOD MAGIC was held at Rainy Day Books, a Kansas City area independent bookstore. I'd been looking forward to BLOOD MAGIC for awhile now, and though I haven't had the time to read it (such is life), getting to hold it, with its beautiful cover, was amazing. Unfortunately, I worked right up until the event, did some work at the event, and then went back to work after the event, but at least I had the chance to attend. Everyone was charming and funny and so excited for Tessa, and I had a lovely time.

I'd never been to Rainy Day Books even though I drive past it twice a day at least five days a week, generally, because their hours are fairly short, but it seemed to be a nice store with really friendly people, and I hope to go back. (To the store itself; I'll be attending more events, but a lot of their events take place elsewhere, because it's also a very small store.)

+ Fourth of July fireworks

Though none of us wanted to fight the crowds to get spots around the lake to watch the Fourth of July firework display in my hometown (nor did we want to fight the traffic to leave after), a friend tipped us off to a great spot to watch from afar. We had an excellent view, the show was badass, and I saw many Sky Lanterns, though I'd never seen one before. I particularly loved the ones released in formations. June was a busy month at work and July is the same, so it nice to have a few days off for the holiday and for my sister's marriage ceremony. (Even though I did some work remotely.)

+ Partying with the brothers M

The brothers M brought the Shadow up to me a few weeks ago, and we spent some time hanging out around Kansas City. To thank them for bringing me my bike, I took them to Fogo de Chão, which I had serendipitously learned about from a coworker the day before, and it was amazing. I thought we might have some trouble, because I'm not much of a fan of red meat and Jake can't eat pork, but oh, god, so many options. So many delicious, delicious options. We then went on to the Ameristar, where I learned they'd gotten rid of my favorite werewolf slot machine. (I'd only discovered it on Jake's last visit to KC.) Sad! I tend to find casinos boring pretty fast, though I enjoy going with friends, but loved that stupid werewolf slot machine. It told a werewolf story! Technically, it told numerous werewolf stories! I'm going to see if I can't buy one for myself. Because that's just what I need.

+ Writing

Sort of this falls under work. I do less of it than I'd like, but I do what I can.

+ Full mooon

I've done a lot of traveling under the full moon, which I love, driving with it just outside the window. Thursday night, the moon was high when I got home from work, and it reminded me of the summer in Washington, all those late night walks around Redmond, and all the werewolf stories I told myself.

What I haven't been doing is visiting San Diego again, though Kris and I had planned to go over Memorial Day weekend. Alas, there was too much family stuff and work stuff going on to get away. I hope to make it out sometime this fall. Nor did I get to visit Tucson when karenhealey was in town. Nor did I get to go to Indiana with law school friends. Lots of travel fail lately.

What is coming up:

+ Jim Butcher event sponsored by Rainy Day Books. I'm going with Kris and our friends, even though I haven't liked the series for awhile and haven't even read the last book, I don't think.

+ Chicago trip with law school friends. I'm not sure if this will happen, and it will be a short trip for me if it does, but I want to see them. It's a short, cheap flight, I don't mind a fast turnaround.

+ Mini-writing retreat with some of the Interrobangers. This also may not happen, but if it does, this fall will be awesome.

+ Wiscon 36 in May 2012. Obviously I don't know if this will happen, but it's been awhile since I've gone, and some of the Interrobangers will be there, so I would like to go. Plus I would love to see my friends, particularly cabell with her new family and chr0me_kitten, whom I haven't seen since I left Michigan.

+ AMOK AMOK AMOK with Sarah. I haven't seen my bff in person since 2005, and we are highly overdue for a visit full of amok.

+ Motorcycle ride into Kansas. I need some great wide open in front of me and soon.

And of course, work. Which I love most of the time, but is tiring.

It's been so long I don't remember my tags. Huh.

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Jacob has become addicted to Angel the Series. This is both good and bad, as he will now stop and watch it whenever he sees it on television, which is good for me, because I get to see episodes I haven't seen, but bad because he expects me to explain them all to him when he doesn't understand, and unlike when we watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I don't know all of what happened in every season. So we both get confused.

However, this does mean that he won't have any room to complain when I buy seasons two, three, and five, so we know what's going on.

~~*
( what's been in the mail and thank you notes )

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Stressed now, over paying bills and Jake being out of work and hating my job so much. Don't even want to talk about it, or how in the world I'm going to find the money to send the Berkeley application and fee this week. University of Hawaii, Manoa contacted me and I'm going to email the woman back and ask for a fee waiver, and Harvard's out, I think. The more I read, the less I want to actually go there, even though it was an honor to be recruited. I need to decide on the last two schools, then, and get my act together.

~~*

Right before I fell asleep, I had a thought about the perfect end to the novel. At least, I hope it's the perfect end. It's writing easily, five hundred words in less than half an hour, it flowed so well. I need to get back to it, and I want to watch RotK:EE tonight and oh. So much to do and so little time to do it. So little money. Must stop talking now, until I'm in a better mood.

I really miss having a decent library available. When J lived in Union City, I'd walk over to the nearest library whenever I'd come visit him. It was nice, with gorgeous landscaped grounds, and had a ton of good books. I'd just sit and read and enjoy myself. I love the peace of some libraries, how welcoming they feel.

The Cape library is not like that. It's small and feels awkward; it's too noisy for its size, and there isn't any selection. We went by today, so J could look at the Sunday paper, but I only found an old magazine to read, nothing good. This disappointed me a lot.

After the unsuccessful trip to the library, we went and got drinks at Barnes & Noble. Yes, even on my day off, I can't stay away from it. The amount of time I spend there is truly obscene. We also cashed in the last of our credit at Babbages, and picked up some pirate game for the PS2, which looks like a lot of fun, and a Harry Potter game for the gamecube, as well as a new memory card for the gamecube, so I can resume playing Tak. Because it's fun to throw sheep, dude.

We've spent the rest of the day here, playing video games and watching tv. It's been nice and relaxing, but despite J's company, I've been feeling kind of lonely. I'm not sure what to blame it on, and I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll just let it pass, I guess.

I finished Path of Fate, which ended fantastically! Go, read! I've now started on my other new book from that shopping spree, Bite by Richard Laymon. I've never read any of his work before, and I'm not sure why, but I'm really enjoying this story. It's not a typically vampire tale, but it is intriguing, and while I'm able to put it down, I always look forward to picking it back up, so that's a good thing.

Our nice weather has passed, I guess. Today it's been chilly and rainy all day, and they are predicting snow in the near future. I hope they're wrong about it, as they have been a lot lately, but you never know. I just have to say I'd better not have any trouble getting to St. Louis on the 13th, and no trouble with the flight taking off on schedule. I am getting out of here for a week, and no damn snow is going to stop me!

I want to write. I just don't have any ideas for what I want to write. I mean, I want to write a nice fantasty series, but I just don't have any ideas for it. The things I most love to read right now, I have no idea how to write. I did get in half a page on what started as the Nano novel, and quickly fell from that lofty goal, but that I've still been tumbling around in my mind. In a bit, I should pull up DF and crank out at least a little more on it. I want to get it finished and sent away, because as much as I enjoy the story itself, I'm tired of having it hanging over my head, and I want to move on to other things. It finishes the series, anyway.

I want a grand adventure in my life. A huge, gigantic, epic, death around every corner adventure. I know I'll never get one, not one flooded with magic and animals and buried hope for humanity. Is it too much to ask to be able to write one, at least?