One down, eleven to go

Okay, who stole January? I mean, it was right here the last time I looked. This time going faster the older one gets thing really sucks. Since my last post, I have been trying to take serious my impending job search. I hate looking for a job! That being said, I am plugging away at work writing grants as if there is a tomorrow, while the curtains seem to descend slowly over the little nonprofit where I work. And who knows how much time we have? A week? Two more months? Kind of like life, I suppose.

The stress of job loss and house hunting, combined with reading to two classrooms of virus vectors (2nd and 3rd graders) has resulted in a nasty sore throat for me. Fortunately it has been a brief ailment and I am already on the mend. At least the termite tenting hoopla is over.

The photo above is from our termite tent-enforced getaway to 29 Palms. The sunset, while beautiful, was one of very few high points. Lola, my amazing wonder pooch, got herself in a bad situation that resulted in an scary injury and the 29 Palms Inn had so many issues that I could never recommend them to anyone I like. So consider yourself forewarned-- Do NOT stay at the 29 Palms Inn! (This has been a public service announcement, we now return you to your regularly scheduled web crawl)

Optimism is for Idiots

So much for my new year sunny outlook thing. After the termite tenting festivities, which by the way went pretty well considering my aversion to toxic chemicals, I came back from the desert to have my annual job review. The review was stellar and so was/is my proposed raise. But the same day I had my review, my boss and friend also resigned. And it looks as if our little nonprofit may finally go belly up. I may still get the raise, at least it will look good on paper. What a strange phrase, look good on paper. As usual, I digress. Anyway, I am in job hunting mode, or at least next week I will be, so if anyone has any writing job leads in San Diego, especially telecommuting and grant writing leads,I'd be much obliged.

The New Year, So Far

Four days in and so far so good. My first day back to work was spent alone, the boss was out with some eye funk of some variety and my other co-worker was en route from Japan. It was a perfect start to the new work year. The biggest obstacle I'm currently facing is writing my own review-- a task I should be tackling instead of making this post. And when I say biggest obstacle I of course mean only in the realm of my day job. Next week we are uprooted from the tiny abode as the Termite Death March (Match?) plays on for a few days. We, me and the boy, and our trusty pooch, Lola, will head out to 29 Palms Inn near Joshua Tree for a little desert respite. I think margaritas and star-gazing sound like a very good thing, indeed. If anyone lives out that way or knows of something fun and interesting to do, leave me a comment-- I'd appreciate it!

British Woman Weds Dolphin

Apparently disillusioned with the dating scene, Sharon Tendler married her long-time paramour, Cindy. Cindy is a male dolphin who lives in Israel. Tendler promotes bands and imports clothes. They will have an open marriage. Cindy will have lots of dolphin sex with his female playmates. The jury is out as to whether Ms. Tendler will be having sex with any species. Is this the threat to the "sacred" institution that the religious right(sic) is so worried about? I sure hope so. Maybe I'll marry a Bonobo, seems they have lots of sex, and good sex, at that!

Christmas This Year

was actually quite enjoyable. My mom, Todd, my brother, sister-in-law, and my cuter-than-bunnies niece, Kirra, had a very low-key and not overly consumptive day-- both on the food and gift front. We ate and shared a few presents and I, the biggest humbug of the lot, got the most amazing gift from my sister-in-law: a scrapbook of my life thus far. She has been working on it since the summer and it has pics of me and my grandma, my brother, me performing wedding ceremonies, all my hair styles (yes, the eighties were well represented), and my first trip to Europe. She scanned postcards, a poem I wrote for my mom, photos, etc. I cried. A lot. There were photos I don't remember and parts of my life I'd forgotten. Pretty amazing. And to think I thought she didn't care for/like me. Of course I had to consent to wearing the silly hat in the photo above-- ply me with red wine and I might do just about anything... Oh, that was another page, photos of me in various states with a glass of something in my hand. Pretty funny stuff.

Nels Cline, oooh!

The new Wilco with Nels Cline. Yum, Jeff Tweedy and Nels-- a jackpot if you ask me. And just so you know, a friend of mine thinks that the thing that will save me from destitution is my lack of resignation. Cripes, I am screwed! Full disclosure-- This post was written in a red wine haze.

Love Those Anonymous Commenters

Someone decided to let me know, out of the goodness of his or her heart I'm sure, that my previous post might be in violation of a certain company's policy. So I changed the name to protect the filthy rich (a category of which I stand firmly outside). This has been a public service announcement.

*Words Censored* and My Future

Ok, maybe that sounds a bit melodramatic, but I found the perfect little duplex for me and my mom. It's right in the center of everything yet oddly hidden away. And it's on a bridge! It sounds weird, and it is kind of-- it reminds me more of San Francisco than San Diego. Either way, it passed the test: My mom, Todd, and my friend, Mike, are intrigued. Now if we could get inside to see what it looks like on the interior to get the full picture. So far we have just circumnavigated the property and done lots of speculation as to what it might be like. Of course it's abut 95k more than we can afford (remember, this is San Diego) and we can't technically move for a few months. But if you want to help make a dream come true for two sassy redheads, me and my mom, then PLEASE click on my *words censored* and maybe I'll actually make a few $$$. Special thanks to my Blog Explosion pals-- I'll return the favor!

'Tis the Season

for a bad case of pesticide poisoning. Did you know that the average tree from a Christmas tree farm has absorbed 28 pounds of pesticide? Yum! Can you say chemical sensitivity and environmental toxins? And hell, you don't even have to be a tree hugger to do the math: babies, pets, and other living things, when placed in close proximity to an organism that has consumed that much poison, are bound to experience major discomfort, to put it mildly, when in the same room with said organism.

And then there's the issue of "drift," something a friend of mine in Oregon was dealing with when trying to grow organic grapes. She kept trying to get certified by Oregon Tilth but high levels of pesticide residue was showing up during soil testing. They finally realized that it was from the xmas tree farm down that way that was spraying-- something that isn't supposed to happen when there is even the slightest wind-- and the noxious concoction was finding it's way to her vines.

Of course, the toxins do the most harm to those darned migrant workers who insist on taking good American jobs. You know, like working around way too many chemicals day in and day out, six and seven days a week, for 12 hours or more a day. Yep, just so you can have that tree. But the next time you think you may be allergic to xmas trees, or you baby nephew breaks out in a rash, or your dog gets sick just from sleeping under the overly-decorated fire hazard, consider that it may be a case of pesticide poisoning.

Let the Madness Commence!

Buying a home can be a stressful experience. Hell, who am I kidding? It IS a stressful experience. Now, imagine trying to find the perfect abode for your mother and yourself, with extremely limited means, in San Diego where a square foot of real estate sells for about the same price as a ounce of gold. Yep, that's what I'll be doing here real soon.

My mom and I are looking for a duplex or two-on-one and we both have slightly different expectations. Mine, of course, are realistic. This is my 'blog so I can assert that. And actually, my mom was hoping we could find the perfect little matching Spanish cottages with two bedrooms and a great yard for the pets. Sadly it ain't gonna happen. More like two miniature one bedroom shacks with bad vinyl flooring and no roof. Or something like that. We did see a place we both liked-- about 100k more than we could spend, and we both liked the main house. She will most likely get the nicer of the two abodes, whatever we find. And I am looking around my very cute, tiny, perfect little condo and wondering why am I doing this?

So, take pity on me, click my google ads so I can make an extra $4.92 a month or just contribute directly to my Paypal at the link above. Let's see, if 1000 of you contribute $10 each, hmmm, that's $10,000. And if my dog can get some modeling gigs... Ah, never mind.

NaNo Withdrawals

I thought I'd be glad to be done with this whole speed noveling business, but the lack of frenetic writing activity has left a big fat gaping hole in my big boring life. Not that I lack things to do, but the camaraderie and the fervor of writing at a pace beyond what I would have thought possible is sorely missed by me. And what to look forward to? The holiday stupidity? Sorry I am not more chipper, but the season really gets me down.

50,007!

I did it! I made the National Novel Writing Month word count goal of 50k. Of course my story probably sucks (I have not read it) and it is in no way finished, but I got to end with a sex scene and I made the goal with two days to spare.

Gee, now what? I guess life returns to normal, whatever normal is. But hey, I can now add novelist to my head stone, huh? Oh, feel free to send gifts of congratulations and I will accept them graciously ;)

Buy Nothing Day

It's that time of year again. The time of year when people all over the planet add to their personal credit card debt and forestall their retirements by purchasing a bunch of useless crap that no one really needs that will end up in our overburdened landfills or on your tacky neighbor's front lawn for their weekly yard sale. Don't be one of these people, don't wait in line in front of K- Wal- Cheap plastic stuff- mart at 3 am waiting to get $10 off the latest video game console/nose hair clipper/penis enlarger. Just say no to stuff and hello to nothing. Buy nothing, it's a small gesture, but what the hell, do something different this year, will ya?

It's All Down Hill from Here

or so they say. Last night, I cleared the 31k mark with my NaNo novel and I'm starting to run out of ideas. My novel is nonlinear in that I go from present, to the past for back story, to the present again. Now that I'm at 60 single-spaced (someone told me I was crazy for doing single- and not double-spaced) pages I am having a hard time remembering what came before. No, I do not have an outline. I feel like I just met a ton of people with a bunch of different life stories and I am required to remember everything, names included. Hmm, that's exactly what I've done. Next year, I think I'll do this a bit differently...

Half way there!

For those following my speed noveling project, I have crossed the halfway mark both word count-wise and month-wise. At this very moment, I have 26,500 words on the electronic equivalent of paper. On Friday, a nasty cold tried to strike me down but I perservered. Of course I missed a gorgeous weekend and a day and a half at work, but I keep the words flowing from my sinus-achey head. Tonight, I am aiming for another 1,500 words to add to my total. I will be victorious!

NaNoWriMo--Day 12

Day 12 and I'm already at 20,721 words. Pretty darn good considering that I woke up sick yesterday morning and am still suffering today. All I want to do is sleep. I'm. So. Tired. So today I am writing in fits and spurts because I have only enough stamina for 300 words or so at a time. Fortunately I have about a 2000 word lead that I plan on hanging on to, thank you very much.

Other than that, I am heartsick that my beloved city is burning. No, not San Diego, Paris, silly. And we thought only stupid Amerikans rioted in the streets these days (ours are usually sports and beer induced, however). Well, it seems that inequality is a global pandemic (forget the bird flu) and the French are not immune. I remember even back to my first trip to France, sometime in the early eighties, that there was a ton of tension between those of Northern African descent and the native-born. But this new situation is even more ridiculous: the oppressed are native-born! Nationalism rears it's ugly head, again and no country is immune.

Word Count, My Captivating Nemesis

Day 7 of NaNoWriMo. I am churning out words at a respectable rate. At this point, I have 12,388 words committed to paper. Well, to computer hard drive and numerous back-up devices, anyway. Not that I expect my sweet little ibook to go belly up, but if there was an evil Gatesian plot to wave a gigantic magnet over anything Apple looming on the horizon, then the success of such a plot could be the end of my noveling aspirations. Of course I am thinking of changing my middle name to Repetitive Stress Injury, but hey, what NanoWriMo contender isn't?

(A special hello to my pal, Teresa-- I miss you!)

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Well, it seems my novel really wanted to get out into the world. Yesterday, the first day of National Novel Writing Month, I wrote 4,152 words! The daily average to stay on target for the 50,000 word total by the end of the month is 1,667 words. My personal goal was 2,000. Double plus is not too shabby for a newbie to NaNo. I am worried about losing ground, though, as today I may not be able to get much writing in due to work and other commitments. Ah, the life of a struggling novelist :)

Ask Me If I Care...

about Halloween. Or any other lame co-opted Hallmark holiday. No, I don't want to see tarted-up French maid outfits on hyper-sexualized 12 year olds or any other plastic-y costume from Wal or K or whatever Mart. Sorry, I just don't. Whatever happened to imagination and home-made costumes? Do you think this post has too many hyphens?

7 Days Before the Madness Ensues!

I am talking about NaNoWriMo, of course, the National Novel Writing Month project that I am about to begin. I still have no idea what I am going to write about. No plot, no characters-- but wait, there is one character, an acrobat-- no more of a trapeze artist that keeps flitting about in my head. Perhaps she has a story that needs to be told?