I don't think any trilogy should have more than nine books so I am probably okay.
I only intended to have a handful of books in this series but like having children, a fun hobby kind of got out of hand. Every morning I wake up at 4:30 and shower, make breakfast and lunch and then hit the computer.
Once I am satisfied that all of my Facebook updates and comments are funny enough I can finally get to work.
After I have checked my YouTube subscriptions.
And Googled the list I wrote on my hand yesterday.
My daily writing goal is only 1000 words and mostly it gets done in under an hour. Four paperback pages in an hour. Usually however... by the time two hours have passed I am really into the writing. I am excited about what the characters are doing and laughing at their conversations as though I am some weird voyeur. On weekends I write until I hit 5,000 words a day (20 pages) but if it is really flowing well, I just keep going. One weekend, I wrote 27,000 words. It was amazing and I was so wrung out, I could not keep my eyes open.
On weekday mornings, my alarm goes off warning me that it is about time to go to work and a little piece of me dies. Every day I am at lunch, wishing I was a full-time writer. I sometimes feel so disconnected from my job that it feels foreign to even consider going in every day. I am working for someone else instead of working on making my writing better. It feels like I am wasting my time on a 50 hour a week job and only getting to spend 30 a week on writing.
It kills me.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
More than one kind of tears?
Well this gal thinks so.
That chick cries a fucking LOT! I have like four reasons for crying/making-tears-to-keep-my-eyeballs-from-turning-into-ocular-raisins but she has reasons I have to look up in a dictionary! Lineal tears?
Is that like how many board feet of tears she cried this 28-day mentrual cycle or something?
What a friend she would be. She sees someone she hasn't seen in years, makes that weird, girl-squeal noise, hugs the startled and alarmed chick (who is, by then, thinking, "God, it's that fucking psycho-chick from that community college, adult ed class on mushroom identification! Why does she know my name?!?!") and then says "Wait! I need a phial to collect these tears of reunion!"
Which is not weird at all!
I would be her friend though. I like crazy people. "This is my friend Sally. If she wants to collect any of your body fluids, it's okay. It's for sciencey reasons. Not like perverted or voodoo reasons. I mean she's not going to, like, brine her chicken in your tears or anything." And my friends would give her that smile where they raise their eyebrows up really high.
Sometimes I don't think my explanations necessarily make people feel less weirded out by whatever just happened.
That chick cries a fucking LOT! I have like four reasons for crying/making-tears-to-keep-my-eyeballs-from-turning-into-ocular-raisins but she has reasons I have to look up in a dictionary! Lineal tears?
Is that like how many board feet of tears she cried this 28-day mentrual cycle or something?
What a friend she would be. She sees someone she hasn't seen in years, makes that weird, girl-squeal noise, hugs the startled and alarmed chick (who is, by then, thinking, "God, it's that fucking psycho-chick from that community college, adult ed class on mushroom identification! Why does she know my name?!?!") and then says "Wait! I need a phial to collect these tears of reunion!"
Which is not weird at all!
I would be her friend though. I like crazy people. "This is my friend Sally. If she wants to collect any of your body fluids, it's okay. It's for sciencey reasons. Not like perverted or voodoo reasons. I mean she's not going to, like, brine her chicken in your tears or anything." And my friends would give her that smile where they raise their eyebrows up really high.
Sometimes I don't think my explanations necessarily make people feel less weirded out by whatever just happened.
Plague
I was cleaning out the little shop truck the other day. We've only had it for a few years but it has already started to sag on its springs as a result of all the crap everyone is throwing in it. McDonald's bags, coffee cups, breakfast and lunch trays and loads of receipts and spare change.
As I dug around and excavated the under-side of the passenger's seat, I was finding more and more loose change all glued to the floor with milky coffee residue and sticky... for want of a better word... dog-hair-covered soda jerky.
I'm also unearthing screws, nails, tools, tie-downs, zip-ties and broken brake light bulbs.
I sent a text to the owner's son-in-law saying "I am keeping the money I find, to help defray the cost of my inevitable tetanus shot."
I was thinking This is probably where typhoid comes from. I am about to start the zombie apocalypse from touching this old wad of gum, combined with whatever this black goop is on the underside of the seat. What is that?!?! Why is it all over my arms now? It's like I can't feel it but I can see it. Oh God, now it's on my pants. I sure hope this comes off in the wash.
And on it goes. Cleaning is not my forte anyway. I mean it's not like I have ever really found out what my forte was or even what one is... but I have found out a LOAD of things that are not it.
As I dug around and excavated the under-side of the passenger's seat, I was finding more and more loose change all glued to the floor with milky coffee residue and sticky... for want of a better word... dog-hair-covered soda jerky.
I'm also unearthing screws, nails, tools, tie-downs, zip-ties and broken brake light bulbs.
I sent a text to the owner's son-in-law saying "I am keeping the money I find, to help defray the cost of my inevitable tetanus shot."
I was thinking This is probably where typhoid comes from. I am about to start the zombie apocalypse from touching this old wad of gum, combined with whatever this black goop is on the underside of the seat. What is that?!?! Why is it all over my arms now? It's like I can't feel it but I can see it. Oh God, now it's on my pants. I sure hope this comes off in the wash.
And on it goes. Cleaning is not my forte anyway. I mean it's not like I have ever really found out what my forte was or even what one is... but I have found out a LOAD of things that are not it.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Restaurant review (as written by my colon)
Dear Stir Chinese Restaurant in Seattle,
I ate dinner there today. You probably remember me. I was the only person in the entire restaurant, which, at the time, seemed strange. Now it feels more like a kind of foreboding, which I missed.
I am writing this while perched uncomfortably on my toilet. I am remembering your delicious General Tso's Chicken with steamed rice and egg flower soup, with each contraction of my bowels.
I would enjoy sending you the bill for the two rolls of toilet paper I am using, per hour, and the reduction of my pride. But on what scale does one measure dignity? I have also lost a lot of weight on your "Chinese Cleanse" but all you will receive is a Single Finger Thank You from me.
At first, I was excited to have "beat the dinner rush" in your restaurant. But now the only rush I feel, is coming from your food, exiting my body. My stinging anus would like to point out that although people pay a lot of money to go on diets like this one, I doubt that they can sense parasites building little red-roofed pagodas in their small intestine.
I am certain I can imagine the result, were I to mistakenly laugh. Or cough. Or sneeze.
I will endeavor to refrain from partaking in any of those activities. I would be much like a filling water balloon were you to remove its rubbery sphincter from the spigot and then release your finger grip on the balloon's neck.
Have you ever seen a shuttle launch?
Thank you for the excellent service though. My meal of intestinal parasites was delivered quickly and with a smile. Although I have never had cholera, I now understand how people die of it. Thank you for letting me see what it is like to live in other countries! It has been an exciting ride.
I ate dinner there today. You probably remember me. I was the only person in the entire restaurant, which, at the time, seemed strange. Now it feels more like a kind of foreboding, which I missed.
I am writing this while perched uncomfortably on my toilet. I am remembering your delicious General Tso's Chicken with steamed rice and egg flower soup, with each contraction of my bowels.
I would enjoy sending you the bill for the two rolls of toilet paper I am using, per hour, and the reduction of my pride. But on what scale does one measure dignity? I have also lost a lot of weight on your "Chinese Cleanse" but all you will receive is a Single Finger Thank You from me.
At first, I was excited to have "beat the dinner rush" in your restaurant. But now the only rush I feel, is coming from your food, exiting my body. My stinging anus would like to point out that although people pay a lot of money to go on diets like this one, I doubt that they can sense parasites building little red-roofed pagodas in their small intestine.
I am certain I can imagine the result, were I to mistakenly laugh. Or cough. Or sneeze.
I will endeavor to refrain from partaking in any of those activities. I would be much like a filling water balloon were you to remove its rubbery sphincter from the spigot and then release your finger grip on the balloon's neck.
Have you ever seen a shuttle launch?
Thank you for the excellent service though. My meal of intestinal parasites was delivered quickly and with a smile. Although I have never had cholera, I now understand how people die of it. Thank you for letting me see what it is like to live in other countries! It has been an exciting ride.
Coffee maker died.
There is no longer any reason to carry on.
Yes. Lack of coffee has driven me over the edge. I'll be like a cartoon man, dragging himself across the desert. The mirage of a Starbucks, always just out of reach. This morning, I'll crawl myself over the threshold of K-Mart, on my hands and knees as the old, greeter lady walks over, hears my piteous moaning, bends down and says,
"Coffee makers are right this way, hon."
I will groan at her, my unintelligible gratitude, as I clutch my aching, thought-free head and whine my way to the various coffee makers on display. Obviously I will not be capable of making anything like a sensible decision, in my un-caffeinated state. I will jostle on the floor, with the other poor wretches who awoke to no coffee.
I will need to rely on bold print and small-word statements that appear on the box, along the lines of: "THIS MAKES COFFEE FOR YOU!"
In this morning's coffee maker competition finals, any coffee maker that says words like that ^ on the box, wins!
Even the Russian judge will award it a 10/10 for sheer brilliance and grasp of the fundamentals of what this competition is all about. That coffee maker understands the true meaning of this advertising battle and transcends the petty "bitterness" between rivals.
Will I clean the new coffee maker before making this morning's pot of nectar? Perhaps. Or possibly I will be drinking my first cup, with bits of shredded cardboard and Styrofoam packing peanuts, still in.
When I say "Nothing tastes like that first cup of coffee." I will not necessarily be expounding on it's level of deliciousness.
Oh God, my head.
Yes. Lack of coffee has driven me over the edge. I'll be like a cartoon man, dragging himself across the desert. The mirage of a Starbucks, always just out of reach. This morning, I'll crawl myself over the threshold of K-Mart, on my hands and knees as the old, greeter lady walks over, hears my piteous moaning, bends down and says,
"Coffee makers are right this way, hon."
I will groan at her, my unintelligible gratitude, as I clutch my aching, thought-free head and whine my way to the various coffee makers on display. Obviously I will not be capable of making anything like a sensible decision, in my un-caffeinated state. I will jostle on the floor, with the other poor wretches who awoke to no coffee.
I will need to rely on bold print and small-word statements that appear on the box, along the lines of: "THIS MAKES COFFEE FOR YOU!"
In this morning's coffee maker competition finals, any coffee maker that says words like that ^ on the box, wins!
Even the Russian judge will award it a 10/10 for sheer brilliance and grasp of the fundamentals of what this competition is all about. That coffee maker understands the true meaning of this advertising battle and transcends the petty "bitterness" between rivals.
Will I clean the new coffee maker before making this morning's pot of nectar? Perhaps. Or possibly I will be drinking my first cup, with bits of shredded cardboard and Styrofoam packing peanuts, still in.
When I say "Nothing tastes like that first cup of coffee." I will not necessarily be expounding on it's level of deliciousness.
Oh God, my head.
Baby names
So a relative was cleaning his place and found a list his wife had made.
The names of their next 10 children.
"Honeeeeeey!" I can only imagine the conversation after that. Did we talk about having 13 kids? Was I asleep for that conversation?
He owns his business so I suppose it will someday be called "David & Sons & Daughters & More Sons & More Daughters Landscaping."
Marrying Steph must have been like hitting the baby-lottery.
The names of their next 10 children.
"Honeeeeeey!" I can only imagine the conversation after that. Did we talk about having 13 kids? Was I asleep for that conversation?
He owns his business so I suppose it will someday be called "David & Sons & Daughters & More Sons & More Daughters Landscaping."
Marrying Steph must have been like hitting the baby-lottery.
Crazy girlfriends are pretty fun!
After finding a stable, "normal" girlfriend and dating her for months and months I can look back on the wonderfully psychotic girls I have dated in the past.
Remember that astronaut that drove across the country to "talk to" the girl she thought was seeing her man? She had duct tape, rope, gloves, etc. in the trunk? (OHMYGODISTHATMYKINDOFGIRLORWHAT?!?!)
She wouldn't even have made the top five crazy girlfriends I've had. But at the time, there is NO WAY I would have said no to a girl like her. I would have actively pursued her. She was smart, clever, funny, possessive, (judging by the zip ties and work gloves, a TOTAL problem-solver) controlling and manipulative. She also had that trait that I seemed to find so irresistable.
She was broken inside. Broken in a way that even her trunk-full of duct tape could not fix.
There was something she fought valiantly against, which made her who she was. She excelled and struggled and won, time after time. Only the hole that she was trying to fill was never going to fill up, no matter how successful she was.
She is exactly the kind of girl I found captivating. Brave, a fighter and possibly wholly unaware of her own brokenness.
I'd let her tell me how to act/think/talk/be and then go right on being me. Eventually I would sit her down and tell her if she wants someone who is that way, she needs to date someone else. Someone more like that imaginary guy who she wants me to be.
Then she would go right on to tell me how all of her problems were completely my fault. Obviously.
She would sit in her car, down the street from my house and watch to see who would come over (based on a true story) and I would love that about her. I could sleep soundly knowing she was out there watching over me and would kill the shit out of anyone who meant me harm.
She would make me wonder why any man would cheat on his woman! Just wait five minutes and a whole new personality will roll around to make your life exciting! And it's like gambling. You have NO IDEA WHO WILL POP UP in this slot machine of hormonal imbalances! It could be the sensitive, lucid girl who loves you and apologizes for how she's been acting. It could be the cold, angry girl who says you are the reason she has been so crazy lately (except she was like this in every other relationship she has ever had, but that personality won't be in the rotation for another half hour). Or it could be the passionate, loving one who wants to have all of your babies right now! Or the one that wants to break up and never see you again.
You don't get to choose. Or you can choose two. It's really hard to tell.
The one thing they all have in common is that they are insanely in love with you. Mindlessly, wholly, explosively in love with you.
If they are going to die, they are taking you with them! Isn't that sweet?!?!
I once asked a girlfriend about her son...
"If 'the son will marry his mother', what kind of girl will yours marry?"
That stopped her from folding clothes. She pretty accurately described herself and then went all scary-quiet.
For a few days, she tried pretty hard to act normal. But normal didn't really do it for me. I wasn't in this relationship for 'normal'. I wanted crazy and passionate and unstable and scary.
I didn't have to wait long.
Every day was an off-balance surprise in most of my post-divorce relationships. As time went on I ran into every girl who couldn't be in a solid relationship because at least one of their personalities had to be stable. They were like having four or five crazy cats in a burlap bag which had a two crazy-cat breaking limit on the GVWR placard. The craziness was going to spill out all over the place and that's when the fun starts.
There was going to be some significant hair loss, overturned tables, high-pitched screaming and a lot of tears, blaming and possibly a confused police presence which would briefly interrupt the all-important, prolonged make-up phase of the relationship. You know.
The relationships mostly ended in confusion and with a lingering feeling that we might have been able to make a go of it if had we not met at such a crazy point in "our" lives. A point that seemed to last kind of a long time for some of these girls. Like "adulthood".
I learned a lot in those relationships though. I learned how to take care of a stable girl in really sweet ways. I heard all the romantic ideas and the different languages girl's hearts speak. It got to where I could identify what would make a girl melt very quickly in the first conversation.
Also I learned to accept the crazy that, it seems, even the most "normal" of women try to hide because even they know that some of those thoughts are not right. So when you meet a crazy girl it might be that she just has a dislodged filter and you get to see all the thoughts she doesn't let out. Or she is still holding back on what she thinks is too crazy to let out.
You won't know which! :-)
Remember that astronaut that drove across the country to "talk to" the girl she thought was seeing her man? She had duct tape, rope, gloves, etc. in the trunk? (OHMYGODISTHATMYKINDOFGIRLORWHAT?!?!)
She wouldn't even have made the top five crazy girlfriends I've had. But at the time, there is NO WAY I would have said no to a girl like her. I would have actively pursued her. She was smart, clever, funny, possessive, (judging by the zip ties and work gloves, a TOTAL problem-solver) controlling and manipulative. She also had that trait that I seemed to find so irresistable.
She was broken inside. Broken in a way that even her trunk-full of duct tape could not fix.
There was something she fought valiantly against, which made her who she was. She excelled and struggled and won, time after time. Only the hole that she was trying to fill was never going to fill up, no matter how successful she was.
She is exactly the kind of girl I found captivating. Brave, a fighter and possibly wholly unaware of her own brokenness.
I'd let her tell me how to act/think/talk/be and then go right on being me. Eventually I would sit her down and tell her if she wants someone who is that way, she needs to date someone else. Someone more like that imaginary guy who she wants me to be.
Then she would go right on to tell me how all of her problems were completely my fault. Obviously.
She would sit in her car, down the street from my house and watch to see who would come over (based on a true story) and I would love that about her. I could sleep soundly knowing she was out there watching over me and would kill the shit out of anyone who meant me harm.
She would make me wonder why any man would cheat on his woman! Just wait five minutes and a whole new personality will roll around to make your life exciting! And it's like gambling. You have NO IDEA WHO WILL POP UP in this slot machine of hormonal imbalances! It could be the sensitive, lucid girl who loves you and apologizes for how she's been acting. It could be the cold, angry girl who says you are the reason she has been so crazy lately (except she was like this in every other relationship she has ever had, but that personality won't be in the rotation for another half hour). Or it could be the passionate, loving one who wants to have all of your babies right now! Or the one that wants to break up and never see you again.
You don't get to choose. Or you can choose two. It's really hard to tell.
The one thing they all have in common is that they are insanely in love with you. Mindlessly, wholly, explosively in love with you.
If they are going to die, they are taking you with them! Isn't that sweet?!?!
I once asked a girlfriend about her son...
"If 'the son will marry his mother', what kind of girl will yours marry?"
That stopped her from folding clothes. She pretty accurately described herself and then went all scary-quiet.
For a few days, she tried pretty hard to act normal. But normal didn't really do it for me. I wasn't in this relationship for 'normal'. I wanted crazy and passionate and unstable and scary.
I didn't have to wait long.
Every day was an off-balance surprise in most of my post-divorce relationships. As time went on I ran into every girl who couldn't be in a solid relationship because at least one of their personalities had to be stable. They were like having four or five crazy cats in a burlap bag which had a two crazy-cat breaking limit on the GVWR placard. The craziness was going to spill out all over the place and that's when the fun starts.
There was going to be some significant hair loss, overturned tables, high-pitched screaming and a lot of tears, blaming and possibly a confused police presence which would briefly interrupt the all-important, prolonged make-up phase of the relationship. You know.
The relationships mostly ended in confusion and with a lingering feeling that we might have been able to make a go of it if had we not met at such a crazy point in "our" lives. A point that seemed to last kind of a long time for some of these girls. Like "adulthood".
I learned a lot in those relationships though. I learned how to take care of a stable girl in really sweet ways. I heard all the romantic ideas and the different languages girl's hearts speak. It got to where I could identify what would make a girl melt very quickly in the first conversation.
Also I learned to accept the crazy that, it seems, even the most "normal" of women try to hide because even they know that some of those thoughts are not right. So when you meet a crazy girl it might be that she just has a dislodged filter and you get to see all the thoughts she doesn't let out. Or she is still holding back on what she thinks is too crazy to let out.
You won't know which! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)