Meant for Friday (Explanation Below)

I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello, Goodbye". / I'm late / I'm late.

-White Rabbit from the animated movie "Alice In Wonderland" (1951)

See? Told y'all this post was going to be late.

Why is it late? Well, let me tell you: I had plans today.

But first, let's deal with the update stuff. Why? Cuz it's short.

• Enyo is at part twenty-three

It was really busy Thursday. I couldn't get any more work done.

Moving on to today.

Today was the last day my friend Alithea S was in town, and I was very grateful that I could finagle a way to see her. Work let me take the day off when I had offered to work a few hours earlier if they could let me out in time to make the "Alithea is home, have dinner with me" dinner. If I came in earlier, they wouldn't have a spot for me, and working half my shift before leaving for the dinner would be silly, so they just gave me the day off. The shift itself was a short one, and they ended up getting another woman who was already working a short shift that day stay an extra couple of hours. The night before, the same woman was closing with me, and at the time when my department manager (who knew I wanted to go to the dinner) heard that my issue had been resolved, it was slow, so they suggested that the other chic go home early. And I told her to go ahead since she was helping out the following day, she could totally leave early.

And so she did.

And in seeing as the dinner wasn't until later that evening, I took the liberty of NOT setting my alarm and sleeping until I woke up. And GAWD did that feel good!

When I finally woke up and had a clear head, I tended to some things before my shower: I balanced my checkbook, paid some bills, fixed my phone, did my daily hello to the world, made of list of things I needed/places to go, cleaned the litter box, and texted with some friends regarding my phone being fixed as well as having the day off as well as carpooling to the dinner with Jessie F.

Little pink bottles for you & me...

First stop was to the store to pick up some hair stuff my SIL Ana Marie uses on my niece Bella's hair. I saw her using it on Bella over the holidays, and I immediately recognized the bottle. She loves the stuff, and since my niece and I (as well as Ana Marie and my brother Lynn H) have the same hair, I thought I'd check it out for myself.

We shall see tomorrow.

I had seen the brand before and was curious about picking up some of the shampoo and conditioner but wasn't sure I wanted to spend more than I usually do on a new product that I wasn't sure would work on my hair. But I had gone to Grocery Outlet to pick up my bottle of Leave-In Seal & Shine for not that much so let's see what this stuff can do.

Anyone else see dildos & butt plugs? No? Just me then?
Dammit!

Usually when it comes to me - (ESPECIALLY MY HAIR) - it's a long process of trial and error and rarely do I find anything that works that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for. Most of the time the stuff that I do find gets discontinued. (I'm looking at YOU Salon Selectives.) If it's not disconnected, it's either a decent price but a small bottle or something hella pricey that I will rarely get my hands on.

Oh the joys of finicky hair. (sarcasm)

Since I found a few of the other items on my list, I headed to the O'Reilly Auto Parts to get my steering wheel cover. The one I have now has balded pretty badly and looks just awful. I bought a new one which thankfully didn't cost as much I thought and headed back to my car when I saw a nail place in the same shopping plaza.

Now anyone that knows me know that I'm a tomboy. When getting ready to go somewhere, most of my "prep time" is my hair since I can't stand it when it's frizzy or big so I have to properly shelack the frak out of it else it looks really wrong. (I can look like a dandelion on crack or something.) The only real girly things that I do are dye my hair, get my eyebrows waxed from time to time (since I suck at plucking and I get a little OCD about how my 'brows look), and get manicures and pedicures.

Lately my nails have grown to a long-ish length so I thought I would treat myself to a manicure. (It's also awesome since my cuticles are horrendous, I don't know how to file, my nails are weaker than I'd like and grow funky, and you get a hand/arm massage afterward.)

So I go into the place, I'm the only customer at that moment. One lady comes to take care of me. I want my nails filed shorter (if when trying to snap my fingers I stab my fingertips, they're too long). She files, buffs, cuticle oils, clips my cuticles (gently and without drawing blood... A+)...

... and then it's time for the massage.

Now let me say first off that my lower back has been killing me for the past few days. Probably my sitting all day at a computer doesn't help matters, but nevertheless... pain. I'm sitting what is like a comfy version of a old school desk (chair with a swivel desk in front). She takes some oil and rubs it on my hand and forearm and the proceeds to work on my hand. (The massage is my favorite part of the manicure because since most of my jobs are clerical-ish - also since I write a lot - the massage feels good and reminds me that the natural state of my hands is not animalistically clawed over a keyboard.) The attention she pays to my hands is lengthy but feels nice since I didn't realize my hands were that stiff. Then she moves to my forearm. HELLO KNOTS! I just sit there and zone out on the good vibes. Then her hand goes up the sleeve of my t-shirt and she massages my upper arm. I don't really think anything of it until she does something unexpected.

She stands up and moves to my shoulder and starts massaging, finding a HUGE knot behind my shoulder. After she's done working the shoulder, she massages the back of my neck.

By this point, I was so relaxed, I almost pass the frak out.

She repeats the procedure on the left side - hand, forearm, upper arm, shoulder, neck - and my legs tingled and I completely forgot I had a lower back.

pic courtesy of Nailderella (I take no credit)
http://nailderellanails.blogspot.com/

So it was time for the polish, and I chose a red sparkly number (I like odd and dark colors like black, grey, dark red, etc) by OPI called Stay the Night. The other ladies there saw the color I had chosen and told the lady helping me to put a black coat on first and then my color.

The black looked cool on its own but then she put the sparkly one, and I thought it looked really neat... especially in the sunlight.

When I surfed the net trying to find a picture to post of the lovely color, I found out that it's part of a Mariah Carey line of polish called Liquid Sand. Everyone's got a fragrance or something these days.

Sheesh.

I wonder if I had my own fragrance, what it would be called and what it would smell like. I'd probably call it Fro, and it would smell of lumpia or pork adobo.

tiny sparkly Asian hands

Okay. Since I didn't take a pic of my nails earlier, here's the best I could come up with in the bad lighting of my bedroom. ========>

Moving on...

After leaving a building after an errand, I jetted home (since I was near there anyway) to change into something warmer due to the fact that the temperature drastically changed from when I entered the last business I was in to when I left it.

When I was warmer, I left to snag Jessie F who then ran a final errand with me at a stationary shop before heading to the new house (which I had gone to twice from the direction of work) after getting gas. We got a little lost since I was at a completely opposite area than work but I recognized streets and landmarks and TA-DA! we made it!

We had beer, salad, tamales, enchiladas, pasole, ice cream, cake... mixed with a heaping dose of family, friends and conversation and laughter.

Ahhh, good times.

I SO need a teleporter... or a TARDIS... so I can travel to Colorado to see Alithea. Dammit it all to HELL!!!

Random Doctor Who question... could he regenerate into a woman and have a male companion? Would the TARDIS then be pink? It is a woman after all. (I saw that Neil Gaiman episode.)

Tastes like hearts of oak

Then we all left so Alithea S could sleep (taking with us some tamales and rice). I took Jessie F home, and she invited me up for a night cap. She shared some of her Bacardi Oakheart that she loves a lot, and when she looked in the fridge, she said, "We don't have any mixers aside from Fruit Punch Crystal Light." I told her to bring it on over. I played bartender, we bullshitted, I made her listen to the beginning of the Nerdist podcast with Adam Savage - Live at LARGO! We chatted some more, I made with the funny, and we were all tired so I started getting ready to head home.

Now... Jessie F had gotten me a Christmas present but kept forgetting to bring it when she was going to see me. Even on her two-part birthday (lunch in the afternoon and the drinks in the evening at a British pub), she would look at me and say, "DAMMIT! I forgot it again!"

So tonight when I picked her up for the dinner, she'd remembered again that she forgot saying she left it at the apartment. While up for the night cap, I thought Do I remind her? I thought about sending her a text after I got to my car saying, "Present?" But no... instead I told her that I could have continued to perpetuate the "Dammit!" scenario, but brought up the present reminder, and she jumped up with that "OH!" energy, dug in a bag or something behind her, and finally gave me my Christmas present.

I think I might post an AudioBoo or all the lovely things he says. ^_^

Okay. It's late. I'm fading. I shall sign off on this puppy and (hopefully) get back to my nice dream with Christian Kane last night. *fingers crossed*

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Story Done. Sore Thumb. Now What?

There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.
-Harry Crews, novelist and playwright (b. 1935) 

Well hello and happy new year to one and all my lovelies out there!

I thought that was quote was appropriate seeing as this story pained me to write it.  Pained me in the sense that every time I tried to work at it, it just sat there and laughed at me like some childhood bully that just spilled my chocolate milk all over my dress.

Or something like that.

Okay, perhaps that's just a skosh of an exaggeration, but you get my meaning.

Also (most likely from working on this story so much) yesterday my right hand started aching - specifically the joint area below my thumb up to the knuckle and also the meaty part of my palm.  I'm pretty sure it's from typing as well as moving the minibook around (lifting it out of the way of the cat and all).  I finished editing and posting yesterday as well as blogging all this with an achey thumb.  You never realize how much you need your thumb until it's taken away from you... well kinda taken away.

Oh the suffering I do for my art. ;-P
Moving on...

My brother's random "Wheel" prompts kill me.  I had an interesting idea with "Antonina", but what started out as a cool idea turned into "Holy crap!  What am I going to do with this?  How am I going to end it?"  With that story, I felt that I started off strong (I liked the violence I wrote in the beginning and the "fight scenes" thereafter), but I didn't feel it was really any good... at least the latter half (especially the ending).

Now with "Jacob"... my original goal was to finish it before the end of last year, but due to frustrations and creativity blockage mixed in with the holidays, insomnia and catching the plague... I ended up postponing my original goal to January 2012.  It would have been nicer if I finished it within a few days of the new year, but damn that plague.  Hacking and wheezing and sniffling and body aching... kind of makes it a little difficult to function.

I most likely got this from my family when I went to Fresno to visit for the holidays.  My brother and his family seemed to be passing it around to each other.  My mother had visited them and got it, too, though hers turned into pneumonia before I left.

During my drive home, I felt a little tickle in my throat.  The next day I visited ye ole drugstore and loaded up on meds.  (That's my way!  I'm a big medicator.)  I don't get terribly sick all that often, but when I do, I want it to last as short as possible.

In any case, I'm feeling better now.  I killed the sickness after a few days, but I still have a lingering sniffle and cough.  (The body ache is now from my upcoming bout with powerloss.)

Meaning... sometimes I hate being a girl.  Once a month I wish I could just scoop out my cervix with a melon baller and put it in a mason jar for five days until it's over.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about before.

It took me a while to get the "Jacob" story going.  No beginning felt right.  Then I found one that wasn't terribly formed well, but I felt I could work with it so then I just continued on my merry little way, making notes as I went, and then like fertile bunnies the pages kept multiplying. 

On the day before Christmas Eve (the day I was to venture to the land of Fresno), I posted on my Facebook my progress with a mild question of curiosity:

16 pgs & a possible ending. Huzzah? O_o How many pgs is the longest short story? #amwriting  

For some reason when I think "short story", I think "short".  Granted I've read from short stories that seemed to never end, but I guess when you love an author and a story so much, you don't want it to, and you get so lost up in it that you forget you're reading a short story and not a novel.

In response to my question, my friend Jonathan S. (aka Jaquas) posted this:

From the internets, so take with a grain of salt:
# Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more
# Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
# Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
# Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

My other friend June B. had commented that the longest short story she had seen was 30 pages.  The longest she'd written was 24.


I was at 16 with a possible ending in my mind.  I just had to knit the words from page 16 to the end... wherever that would be.


And just so you know, I don't knit well.


Out of mild curiosity from what Jaquas posted, I did a word/character count, and proceeded to have this little chat with him via the post.


Me: Jaquas: I just counted 8300+ words/44+k characters... and I'm still not done. (I just feel like I'm rambling at this point.) #sigh
Jaquas: So you're at Novelette status :)
Me: Oh dude, am I? Or maybe I'm just at bullshit status? LOL!
Jaquas: Well, yeah, you're always at bullshit status though. :P
Me: Someone's gotta keep up with you. ;-P

And there you have an example of me and my friends.  (Cue Randy Newman's "You Got A Friend In Me")

I purposely did not bring the minibook with me over the holidays since I didn't think I would get much work done.  Also, I had some cuteness I needed to play with.

my adorable niece Bella in a new Christmas dress

Like I always do, I brought a notebook with me and ended up filling my moments of insomnia with some writing.  I worked on Jacob and amazingly enough one of my novels (Chloe).


My Facebook comment to the short story thread on December 29th:


I handwrote some stuff at my mom (thanks Insomnia... you bitch). Now I need to add it to the monster of whatever this story has become. Oh dear! O_o

January 3rd:

Finished typing up what I wrote while in Fresno. At 23 pages and at 11k+ words. *headdesk*

This short story was going to kill me.  Plus it was getting more difficult to get it done and out of my head since my other children were wanting Mommy to play with them.  I had made a goal that Monday would be the day that I would finish my story, Tuesday would be editing, and Wednesday would be posting.  Now if you follow the rule "It's not tomorrow until the sun comes up" then I did post it yesterday.  When I posted it on my various social networking places (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), I added an author's note (like I do) as well as this comment:

17,480 words and 33 pages, I give you... crap!

Looking at the word count now, per Jaquas's internet findings, I was 20 words away from a novella.  

So I wrote a novelette.

...

...

...

Fascinating.  

The author's note explains my feelings toward the piece.  Granted I wrote it late... hella late.  I refused to go to bed until I finished.  (Oh dear gawd.  Writing's hard!  But I love it so.  LOL!)

My friend Jery T. commented on my Facebook posting "Oh, I bet it's not as bad as you think."  My reply back?  "You obviously haven't read it. ;-P"

So now to continue on with my goal of upkeeping the various story blogs I have.  Most likely I will not be able to write something for every story blog every month (sorry kids and readers), but I will try my hardest.

I still entertain the notion of vlogging one of these days.  I had thought "I'll do it at the beginning of the new year."  But then the plague said, "I don't think so," and took not only beautiful and enchanting stage presence (NO ONE looks good when they're sick) as well as my voice (there were times I sounded more like a dude than I usually think I do giving Barry White a run for his money, and then there were times where I thought I could have subbed for the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin.)


Oh well... maybe some day... when I grow the babbalones to do it.  (That was a reference my Seester would get.)


Anyway, I posted the story yesterday.  I don't think anyone has read it yet.  Oh well.  I'm not sure anyone even reads these posts or any of my stories.  Well, I know some of my friends do, but my secret desire is to have subscribers and a readership, but that'll take some time, I guess.  Or maybe it'll never happen.


But there I go.  Being shiny happy positive again.  Why?  Because that's how I roll.


All right.  I reached my other goal of blogging about this before I head out for the night.  My friends have moved into a new place, and we're going to listen to our SoCal friends' internet radio show Dusty's World at the Hall of Justice (aka their new abode).  I need to run some personal errands, grab some grub for myself as well as some apple juice for the Jager tonight, and I'm good to go.


Later my lovelies!


Have Goodness!
Rae