Tuesday, March 19, 2002

 

I got a new 'do' today. I love my long hair but I was tired of the plainness to it. So, on the spur of the moment, I got that new cut done. It's the new cut that looks like the hair has been curled, but not. It doesn't look too bad, but $50 was a bit high. We'll see how it does everyday.

I had another wierd dream about a week ago. The surrounding area was a bit foggy-like, but I knew I was at a place sorta like a college campus, like in the 'quad'. I walked up to a picnic table carrying some books and sat down. There were several faceless people sitting there fawning all over Wil Wheaton. I started talking to him like we were just best buds and he thought it was great that someone finally just 'talked' to him. I was telling him about my current story idea that I'm working on. I was all excited about it. I don't remember his reaction about it, though. That's all I remember about the dream.

I've been working on a new story. I've been jumping around from different ones and I'd chosen one to work on, but the other idea just wouldn't leave me alone. It's been floating around in the ether for a long time waiting for more ideas to add to it and finally I've got some more story. Most of my time lately has been spent in world-building. It's a fantasy world and I've been creating a whole planet for it. I've even drawn two hemispheres of it and I'm working on the three human races that live there. There's also a couple of non-human sentient races that I'm working on developing. Not sure if I want to go with some traditional fantasy creatures or with something totally new.

Anyway, I don't have a title yet, but the world is called Saria, so I've been calling the story, "The Sarian Chronicles." I still don't know a whole lot about the plot, so it'll be awhile before I actually get to write it. Basically, I have the beginning, but where the characters go from there to resolve their situation is not clear. Plus, the 'how' of how they get into this situation isn't clear to me either. I hope with more brain-storming sessions and world-building sessions it will become clearer soon. I'm itching to get writing on these.

Meanwhile, I've been reading more. Right now I'm reading, "The Inadequate Adept" by Simon Hawke. Pretty funny. Reminds James and I of Rocky and Bullwinkle where the narrator will interact with the characters (and, in this case, the reader too).

Happy St. Patrick's day, a bit late! In my family this is an important holiday, we are proud of our Irish heritage!

Dawn posted this at 3:57 PM.

Friday, March 08, 2002

 

We're back from galavanting around again.

Xander's doctor appointment went well. He has a very minor birth defect. No surgery needed, unless we wanted to do cosmetic surgery. We feel it's not necessary and he can opt to do it when he's older if he wants. I'm just glad it's nothing serious.

Well, I'm on day 8 of my March dare. I'm doing very well. I missed one day of doing my sit-ups and push-ups so I did double the next day. I realized that I could do more than I'm doing, so I upped the ante a bit. Starting yesterday I've been doing 15 push-ups and 20 sit-ups. I was finally sore today in my tummy muscles. Maybe in another week I'll up it again.

The only area that I'm doing poorly in is the eating healthy bit. While we were in Montgomery I was tempted sorely by all the yummy food the town has to offer. They have Cinnabons! I love Cinnabons and we had to come home with a box. Heheh. Yum! The last one was eaten this morning, so I'm doing better from this moment forward. :)

The writing department is going fairly well. I did practically nothing but that on the entire trip from here to B'ham. I talked a few things over with James on the trip from there to Mongomery and he convinced me I really should work on an older idea that I've had. It's one that I feel more comfortable writing in some aspects (I know more that will happen in this story than any other I've worked on), but uncomfortable in other aspects of this work. Anyway, I have 1200 words already.

Good news! I found a paperback of my most favoritist fantasy author. Tamora Pierce's "Song of the Lioness" series was the first fantasy stories I remember reading. It's one of the very few books that I've read twice and would love to read again (as soon as I get hands on a copy). Several times I looked in card catalogs to find more books that she's written but never found anymore. I gave up and forgot about it. I wish I'd have thought to search the internet! I picked up the first in her "The Circle Opens" and I'm almost through with it. In her Biography section in the back there's a sff.net website address. I've read about all her other series and can't wait to read them. Check out her website!

Well, Xander wants to eat, gotta run!

Dawn posted this at 2:40 PM.

Saturday, March 02, 2002

 

I had a really odd dream the other night. Since during the time I was pregnant, I often dream about having children and always boys. I guess this is because I'm so hung up on the idea of 'preserving the family name' since James is the last in his line to produce male children. I do want girls too. Anyway, in this most recent dream, I had two twin boys about a year old. I also had a little baby that I refered to as my 'little man'. We call Xander that, probably picked up from Nikki's journal. Anyway, this wasn't a just a baby, he was a funny-looking 5 inch little man. In the dream I loved him (he was after all, my child), but secretly, inside, I thought he was disgusting looking. He spoke to me in a thought speak.

I was apologizing to him because I'd forgotten about him. I'd been spending more time with my other boys and I felt genuinely sorry. He forgave me, but he was sick. He started throwing up things. The first to come was pieces of oranges that were as big as his body. More stuff came out and I was amazed that they had fit into his tiny body. I remember being surprised that I didn't feel sick, watching him expel all this stuff. I asked him if he was okay and he said he was. He made me feel more guilty when he told me that he'd been hungry and had eaten that stuff even though his stomach wasn't ready for it. Then he ate from me and again I was amazed. Amazed that he got anything from a nipple that was nearly as big as his little head.

Tres Wierd. My dreams always are. As James says, "It'd be weird if you didn't have a weird dream."

Dawn posted this at 6:07 PM.

 

Day two of my March dare and I'm going strong. Yesterday I did my minimum amount of exercise, read two chapters in a current book on writing, two writing exercises from said book and wrote over 300 words on an old fantasy novel I dredged up. I don't know much about what happens and I'm about to run out of what I've plotted but I'm just kinda going with it for now. I don't know if I exactly ate healthy, but I did eat less. We skipped lunch 'cause mom was taking us out to an All-you-can-eat bar-b-que place. It's the best restaraunt in the whole county, nearly the best in the state (can't beat the chinese place in Tuscaloosa we like to go to, Trey Yung's). I didn't stuff myself, but I was full.

Today was a beautiful day and we went for a walk in addition to my minimum exercises. So far I've read a chapter of my writing book and plan to read another in a moment. I think I've done well eating less too. I'm planning on getting in to writing something too. Probably just an exercise. I'm not exactly 'in the mood' to write today. I forced it yesterday but I didn't feel like writing then either. I've got to get that joy back, that urge to write. Until then I'm not going to force myself too often.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be tough days to keep up with the dare. We have Xander's doctor appointment in B'ham then we're planning to go to Montgomery until Wednesday afternoon. I'll take the trusty laptop so I should be able to get some work done in transit. I should be able to keep up with it, but it will be difficult.

Dawn posted this at 5:32 PM.

Friday, March 01, 2002

 

I had a scare yesterday. James had the van, so I had to strap Xander's car seat into the tiny Pulsar. It is difficult to fit it into the back seat, so I had to put it in the front (no air bags). I wasn't used to him being right there next to me to look at and I was distracted. The second time I peeked over at him, I glanced back to the road and found the car dangerously close to the edge of the shoulder. That particular section of road had a deep gully with no railing. After I righted the car, while my heart was settling back down, I noticed a Police car coming toward me from the opposite direction. He, of course, hit his lights and I slowed down and pulled over at a pull-out.

So, after being scared wit-less, I had to suffer the humiliation of admitting to this officer that I was making eyes at my baby while I was driving. He said that he thought my baby would appreciate it more if I'd stay on the road and told me (as if I didn't already now) that that gully was deep and that it would have swallowed my little car and I could be hidden down there for days. I said, "Yes, sir, I know," as politely as I could and tried to convey just how much it had rattled me without being fake. I gave him my license, expecting a ticket, or at least a warning. At one point in the conversation he had leaned closer to me and asked if I was okay. I wondered why he asked me that. I told him I was just a bit shook up over being that close to driving off the road. He gave me my license back and told me to drive carefully. I assured him I would.

As I pulled back on to the road, a cynical voice in the back of my mind said, "It would be just my luck if I had some of my lunch left on my face." I took a chance to glance in the rear-view mirror and sure enough, there was a large dollop of bar-b-que sauce from my sandwich. No wonder he'd looked at me so closely. He might of thought that was blood on my lip. Now I can see the scene through his eyes. A few toys and diaper bag thrown in the back, baby seat strapped into the passenger seat, a woman driving wildly and a spot of what looked like possibly blood on my lip. With all the domestic abuse in the world, he may have thought I were a victim. But Xander seemed blissfully happy in his seat, so maybe that had assured the officer that things were generally okay.

Within about five minutes I had gone from fear to embarrassment, to guiltiness and then back to embarrassment. Where's a large hole to crawl into when you need one?

This came at such a bad time when I've been trying to erase the words 'stupid', 'dummy' and 'idiot' from my vocabulary when referring to myself. I have a terrible habit that when I make a mistake I will verbally call my self one of those demeaning words. I've read that many times the self-esteem of the parent will be reflected in a child's self-esteem. I don't want Xander to grow up saying those things about himself. Besides, it's not true that I'm those things. I may be clutzy, and definately absent-minded, but I'm not intellectually challenged.

I could go on and on there, but let's just leave it at that.

I'm daring myself to do 4 things during the month of March:
1) Read or study my Bible daily
2) Eat less and healthier everyday
3) Do some form of exercise 6 days a week: Minimum of 5 push-ups and 10 sit-ups and go for a walk everyday that the temp is over 60 degrees.
4) Some writing related activity 6 days a week: Writing, editing, or reading about writing. I'm going to try for actual writing once every three days or more.

I think these are 4 simple things that I can do everyday. Hmm...that makes an acrostic...my March R.E.D.S. dare. ;) I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm off to work on some writing and that will be two out of the four done for today.

Dawn posted this at 1:23 PM.