"...no dead end in sight..."

long time gone

I got online last night and was looking at copywriting jobs on the East Coast and then I came into work today and it was a pretty decent day. And I think, would I really leave? We'll see. I really like some of my favorite tenants. I think it was just a combination of exhaustion + watching the entire first season of 30 Rock on DVD and wanting to be Tina Fey, like, hardcore. Seriously. She is pretty much the epitome of what I would like my writing career to be.

As usual I get really good ideas in the shower. I sat here in a towel writing about a page of this idea I had this morning, and thought when I started that it would be really tempting to take a personal day and just write all morning.

Before I forget, I need to water my brave little plants that I bought at Calloway's on Saturday and have put out on the balcony to face the perils of indecisive Texas demi-winter. But Rudie just crawled into my lap and her precious little head smells like maple syrup. So maybe I will water the plants in a mo.

Girl Scout cookies came in today and I was driving home from Las Colinas and stuffing Peanut Butter Patties into my face as fast as I could and now I'm pretty sick to my stomach. I don't know what they call the cookies now, because they've changed all the names for some stupid reason, but I'd been craving peanut butter all damn day and suddenly my massive order of Girl Scout cookies are promptly delivered to my desk. I love it. Then my paranoia kicks in, and I hope these particular Peanut Butter Patties haven't, like, infected me with salmonella or something. Oh well. I'll get a little sick for GS cookies :D

I got a call from U of Phoenix today regarding a MS in Accounting or a MBA, which I asked them to call me about earlier in the weekend when I was on an accounting kick. I had a talk with pookie, and he basically told me what I'd told him about job hunting, which is Find a Job and We'll Move and then I Can Find One Wherever We End Up. Then I went from "hey, get more education!" to "hey, fulfill your dream of winning an Emmy for your writing!" and started looking at East Coast copywriting/creative writing jobs and now an MBA just feels so...bland.

Quickly, to break out of my blandness - photos!

Lemons and oranges!

No, not Walter -_-;

We went to Balboa Park for Valentine's Day and walked around and went to some of the awesome museums there. There were so many people walking their dogs (and even some people walking their cats, but that's a whole other story) and the weather was nice, off and on. I didn't get sunburned, either, which is a major accomplishment any time I spend any extended period of time outside.

I love the contrast in this photo. The next time I have any sort of expendable cash I'm buying some nibbly black paper and doing a 16x24" conte crayon or white Prismacolor sketch of this (yes, like in high school, but much better now that my drawing isn't quite so lame).




We are at the Museum of Man!, says Jay's foot. They had an awesome exhibit at this anthropological museum about how South Americans used to cut holes in people's skulls to exude their illnesses :D Oh, and an Egyptian mummy exhibit that also had baby mummies from Mexico and that made my stomach kinda turn gross backflips.




LOVED this car. It was a Chrysler Sebring convertible, my favorite color, and it also got pretty decent gas mileage. (Even though it was way too cold to keep the top down for very long.)



HUMMINGBIRD!



The infamous sunset! In the summer the sun is way off to the right, so this seemed really bizarre to me. It's always been like standing on the edge of the world.

So we had an awesome time, in spite of the rain and the cold. And now I am being told it's time for dinner, so I will scurry and update more latah~

here we go

I'm sitting on the couch watching the sun rise and even though there are clouds, they are retreating and the palette of colors over the ocean as the sun peeps over the hills can't be described. I can't even take a picture to adequately show what I'm looking at because it changes by the minute. (Right now it's a dusty pink.) Like a painting that belongs in a museum somewhere but it's in front of me for my viewing enjoyment. I can't use the word beautiful to describe how it is out here because that's an understatement, and it's a pale word compared to the experience of being.

I'm in the latter portions of The Tao of Pooh and it's focusing a lot on shuffling off all the intricacies that make life complicated to focus on the moment that is, the herein and the now. I like it. It works very well when I'm in a resting state. I was going to use the dreaded w-word but I am on vacay right now and that word is verboden.

I was reading over my Locust Street fiction that I wrote 50 single-spaced pages for during Nano 2008 and I like it. I like it very much, but it will be a challenge to get back into writing it after being out of its particular groove for so long. We'll see how it is when it's finished. I don't know. I don't think I'm even halfway through it because it's difficult to spend 50 pages setting up one setting only to have it uprooted.

The one bad thing about being here is I miss my Rudie girl terribly. Little dogs are nice but they do not compare to that polite-yet-annoying whisker-kiss she gives my face in the weekend mornings when she is trying to tell me to get my lazy butt out of bed. Or my middle of the night cuddle in which she crawls under the comforter and snuggles against my side.

Anyway. The clock says 6:50 but my body knows that's not right. I woke up and it was so dark and lovely, and because my brain is awake I can't go back to bed. My auntie is awake and I will see what we are going to do today. Also at some point I will post pictures of our adventures because they have been interesting, to say the least.

squall line! ruh oh!

So today some lady calls work today and is like "where's so-and-so?" I go "they're in [suite #]" and the lady is like "...what floor is that on?" DUR? What do you mean, what floor is it on? I just told you the suite number. It is not rocket science, seriously. And I love that moment of realization when perfect strangers realize how stupid they look for asking that question. I am gracious, mind you, and I don't let them know I think they're stupid. I just laugh a little and am polite and say something like, "yes ma'am, that's the right floor" and move on, but inside I am smirking like a big brat. Awesome.

We're supposed to get a huge band of rain come through tonight. It's already starting to rumble a little bit. I talked to Mammaw and she said it's supposed to rain this weekend when we're there, which is sorely disappointing. Then I get an e-mail from my auntie and she told me to pack warm clothes. I'm like...wtf, if it's pouring rain or even in the least bit dreary I am curling up inside with a book/my laptop and I am not going anywhere.

This is all because of the convertible. I swear. It just figures that we go anyplace and I spend money that I've saved for ages on something fancypants and then it's going to be raining. This happens every time.

Also I got a call from our cable provider today. Or rather, the collections agency they turned us over to because I haven't taken the box back, because a) I wasn't aware it was necessary and b) when I left my last cable company I could just drop it off at a service location like 5 miles from here. This stupid lady in the collections department started hassling me saying it would be easier for me to pay them the $450 and have the cable provider reimburse me when they get the box back so it doesn't have an effect on my credit score. I was like WTF I DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY STUPID and asked to talk to someone else. She gave me the number for the cable provider, which I called, and the nice lady there told me it would only ruin my credit if I waited until like May to bring it back. So whatEVER, our apartment complex has boxes and mailing labels which pookie is getting for me tomorrow so I can get that sucker out of here. And yet another reason why I am sticking with KERA and our TV on DVD. Stupid stupid cable. *sigh

We went to Applebee's tonight for dinner and I think it's starting to become obvious that the superfluous industries (restaurant, some retail) are starting to suffer. The host was an older man, who looked like somebody's CPA, and while I'm glad they aren't just hiring stupid college kids I didn't like being led through the smoky bar to our specified non-smoking table. So I am presuming that he was new. Also I think all restaurants outside Dallas should be non-smoking. I start coughing and can't breathe, and it's not just me being dramatic or anything. I don't care how far away you sit me from the bar, we are still trapped in a wooden box with a bunch of smokers, and the air is recycled. I can still smell it on my clothes.

Also, the food wasn't bad but it wasn't awesome or anything. All the staff was kinda nervous, like "please say I'm doing a good job! let me take care of you! please??" I think because of all the job cuts and stuff that are going on in the area. I just wanted to give the demi-huge pregnant lady bussing our table a hug and say, thank you, you and your baby are doing an awesome job, but I didn't want it to be awkward or anything.

I'm also wondering where the nearest tornado sirens are in the area. I know when I lived in the dorms we had a siren right outside my bedroom window, and now they might be nowhere near. So I think I'll go ahead and post this, because they're reporting tornado-like circulation in Grapevine and I have to be ready to take the animals into the bathroom and not think about that tornado documentary we saw on TV last week, lol.