Random Stuff Friday

1) The weather in Utah sucks right now. Between the inversion, aka pollution, trapped in the valley and the frozen rain, yeah, not so awesome living in Utah right now. It hurts to breathe.

2) That means lots of time indoors. Reading and writing, woohoo! But also trapping three kids inside and that basically voids out that woohoo. Boohoo.

3) Every time we drive past a Taco Bell the kidlets yell "Doritos Locos Tacos!" ... whoever named that was a marketing genius. And after so many months of this, 7yo and I finally caved and stopped by to try some. And they are everything their name screams! It's a taco wrapped in Doritos. And you can never go wrong with anything wrapped in a Dorito. Remember Doritos 3D? Yum! For reals.

4) You know what sucks? Traveling so much and being so tired that you can't even keep up with the shows you watch even though you only watch them online! Yeah, I technically "watch them at my convenience" but they're only available to stream for a certain number of days on the official websites and, uh, yeah, when you miss one, it's TERRIBLE!

5) Speaking of TV, Husband and I recently (like a few weeks ago) discovered Supernatural. And I have grown to appreciate just how delicious Dean Winchester is. Sam Winchester does this weird nostril flare thing and yeah. Totally not as delicious.

All right, peeps! Have a great weekend! Hope you have lots more fresh air than I do!

Never Enough Time

** I've been trying to post this for several days and very clearly, Blogger and I are not friends. If anyone has any other bloggy sites they prefer to this, I'd love to hear it!**

picture credit: CarSeatBlog.com

If you missed any of my tweets or FB posts, you'll have missed out on the fact that I spent 5 days on 5 different planes with stops in 4 time zones, 3 U.S. states, and 2 countries. It was CRAZY. I have to admit, there were a couple occassions when I woke up from a nap on a plane and couldn't remember where I was going. Ah, just another week on a #dayjobtrip.

Over the last year or so, my dayjob schedule has only grown more frantic, and the travel I've had to do more insane. And obviously if you're hanging out here with me, you know that dayjob is not my ONLY job. There's also the writing thing (well, duh), the family thing (of course), and I also sell some kick@$$ super environmentally friendly cleaning stuff on the side - because I totally have time to do that too (yeah, right!). . . If you're interested ... click here to check out my Norwex site!

To say I've got a lot on my plate is a bit of an understatement. I've got plenty of hectic-schedule to go around, what I don't (ever) have enough of, is time.

I've taken to writing wherever, whenever, however I can, though sometimes, especially after a schedule like last week, exhaustion takes over and I have to nap instead. It's hard to balance RL and writing life, and I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this.

So how do you do it? How do you solve the "never enough time" conundrum? Do you have a set time and space and a big giant DO NOT DISTURB sign at home? Have you resorted to heading over to the nearest coffee shop with some headphones to get it done?

Any and all tips are welcome, because, well, I've got several thousand words left to get on paper and L'Agent (im)patiently waiting on a finished ms. So ... uh, HELP!

What's Your Wrench?

We're off to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of -- Oh, wait.

I'm heading down to Mexico City today, will be there for a couple days, then to San Jose for a meeting with some big kahunas, before I get home on Friday.

So I'll be online, but sporadically.

I've learned over the last year or so that whenever I travel for #dayjob, I am so much more absent from my onlineyness, and I wonder, what is "that thing" that seems to throw a wrench into your normal weekday routines?

I always have a hard time staying up with all the goings on, squeezing in my word counts, blogging, tweeting, and all that jazz. I need to figure out how to take that time and make it more ... oh, I don't know, productive or something. Like maybe I should write during layovers instead of playing Facebook games... just kidding ... maybe not *whispers* >someone send me Candy Crush Saga tickets so I can get to the next level!!<

Clearly, my wrench involves getting on airplanes (and FB games) and this thing called work, *pshaw* ;) but yeah, how about you? The Children? Goats? Sparkly vamps?

I Can See Clearly Now

I've been wearing glasses since 6th grade.

Umpteen number of years later, I'm still wearing glasses, but guess what???? As you read this, I'm GETTING LASIK!! Sorry about the yelling. I'm just really excited about waking up in the morning and being able to see!

I'm excited about opening a book and not having to literally have my nose buried in it to see the words if I don't have glasses or contacts on.

Not that I'll stop having my nose buried in books, but that could actual just go back to being a saying.

So I'll be all drugged up for most of today - Valium is my friend - and then hopefully I'll be back just in time for some Random Stuff Friday, when I can see all of you clearly!

What's New?

I know, I know, I should've asked this when everyone was still riding the wave of New Year's partying, but I'm not sure everyone would've been up to responding after their night (or nights, depending on some of you ;) of partying.

So now's my question to all of you? What's NEW????

Would love to hear what you're working on out there! I need a swift kick in the pants right now to get me moving along on a project that has spilled over into 2013, but I've got a NEW project that's dying for my attention.

So what's the old project? A book about a girl, a boy, some funnel cake, and lots of carnival rides.

What's NEW? A book about a girl, a boy, white dresses, pretty flowers, and lots of wedding cake. And it's not what you think, I swear.

So what's NEW with YOU???

Random Stuff Friday

1) I have not written down any resolutions. Yet. I don't know if I'm just mentally refusing to accept any set goals (clearly I have commitment issues), or if I'm just in denial. Or maybe it's because I think resolutions shouldn't just be set in January. I'm not sure which argument I'm going with yet. Maybe it means I should just make "stop procrastinating" my first resolution of 2013.

2) Check out what the BiL gave me for Christmas: Noise canceling, sends me off to my own world, Beats by Dre. Complete with Monster cables. I don't know what that last part really means, technically speaking, but apparently they don't make them like this anymore and he had to go 3 different stores to find them. So now I will plug them in, enter the universe I've created in my head, and get some writing done! >>> Sorry I don't have a picture here because Blogger is being lame - AGAIN! <<<

3) Husband is anti-Apple products. Took years to convince him to let me get my Macbook. Let's not even discuss the iPhone. I might be possibly thinking about maybe considering getting an iPad. Eventually. Have to start the negotiations now. At some point in the future. For now, my Macbook will have to do.

4) I still have a HUGE stack of TBR books that were released in 2012 and before ... but I'm already working on my 2013 MUST HAVES. Anything out there that you guys recommend I add to my pile? A few on there already are Clockwork Princess and City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, Icons by Margaret Stohl, Crave the Darkness by Amanda Bonilla, Prophecy by Ellen Oh, Senshi by Cole Gibsen, Pivot Point by Kasie West, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tucholke, Transparent by Natalie Whipple, Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger, and that's just to name a few. What else should I look forward to getting?

5) It was 16* when I backed out of our garage this morning. It was 13* when I dropped 7yo off at school--less than a mile from our house. It was 11* by the time I got the 2 younger kids to daycare. And 9* when I parked in front of the dayjob offices. Apparently as the sun gets higher today, the temperature gets lower. I think I'm taking this as a sign to spend the rest of the weekend in cozy warm sweats with big thick socks, lots of hot tea, and, of course, the laptop for writing and the TBR pile for some good reads.

Have a great weekend everyone!