Random Stuff Friday

1) I don't drink much soda. A couple times a week if that. But the other day Husband bought me a 2-liter of Pepsi (the hard stuff - full-fat!) and a bottle of Rose's Grenadine. Put them together and you get the BEST cherry Pepsi EVER. Top it with a little maraschino cherry and wow. Deeeeeee-lish!

2) Going through the wash this is what I discovered in 5yo's hamper:

She said she "accidentally" drew on her leggings. I guess the marker also "accidentally" drew the arms and legs and heads on the square little bodies too.

3) I'm waiting waiting waiting. And I decided to give myself a bunch of self-imposed deadlines to distract me. Then I talked to one of my friends who showed me the error of my ways. Not that self-imposed deadlines were bad. Just that I was giving myself deadlines to things that maybe weren't what should be deadlined. *opens dayplanner* I must regroup now.

4) This week was our team meeting at the day job. Normally we're a pretty virtual team. About 20 of us work together, sprinkled across eight locations all over the world. It's nice to see everyone, but at the same time, it is freaking exhausting to manage all my regular day job stuff on TOP of the info-dump that comes with a week of all day meetings. My brain feels like mush.

5) On a completely separate note, I just needed to see this again.

*deep breath, crosses fingers and waits* (Because I TOTALLY believe in the power of the FB cookie. Don't you?)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

With the start of the calendar year, enrollment has opened for the charter schools in our area. Kidlet is starting kindergarten next year, so I promptly applied based on the deadlines.

The public charter school system runs on a lottery system. Well, the first school we applied to had their lottery last Friday. They say to allow 7 days for notification if your child's name was drawn.

It's been 5 days. I've kept my email open all day everyday. I've gone into the school's system to check on the status of her application about 12 times. I've been waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

The worst part? Kidlet isn't waiting.

It's just ME!

She's blissfully unaware and only knows that she's going to get to go to school next year. Kindergarten. Big kid school. Woohoo. That's usually where the conversation ends.

So, yeah, waiting, hovering over email, checking and rechecking things. It's not just for the queriers or those with books on submission.

Now then, on this lovely snowy, slushy, wet and drizzly (at least in parts of Utah) day . . . what are you waiting for? Cookies to finish baking? The work day to be over? Beta readers to come back to you? Kidlets to FINALLY take a nap so you can get some writing done?

So Glad It's FRIDAY!!

I'm tired. And I feel like this has been, like, the LOOOOOOOOOONGEST. Week. Ever.

The 4-year old started preschool. She loves it. I mean LOVES it. So much so that when I dropped her off on her first day, I had to holler to her to come back and give me a kiss goodbye before she left for her day. Yeah, the kid is all about schoolish stuff - she totally got my bookworm-nerd genes.

With preschool comes 1 morning a week I drive car pool. After much shuffling, scuffling, rearranging and maneuvering, we have discovered 3 booster seats do not fit well in the back seat of my sedan. So now we need a new car. I haven't had a car payment in 7 years. Not looking forward to this.

Speaking of my car, the registration expires this month. For the first time EVER the husband was timely on and all safety and emissions stuff has been done (yesterday). All that's left is renewing online.

And remember, when we went out of town (who can forget the infamous Rest Stop adventure)? It was because the Husband and his brother had plans to do some serious vehicular improvements on his "Ladybug" - aptly named by the 4-year old. (I'll find a picture and it will explain everything, but not right now. I'm too tired right now.) Anyway, Husband LOVES this car. Anyway, on his way home after picking up Preschool & Toddler from daycare, he was rear-ended. SUCK. All the people are okay, but the car is injured, though still functional.

This takes us back to, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a new car. *sigh*

Moving along, on the brighter side, I've been querying a bit on the DL. I like to think I have a pretty thick skin, but it is my own false self-assurance and I have decided I really don't. So here is my thoughts on queries and you can take it for what it's worth.

Rejection sucks.
Requests rock.
Waiting is akin to the 7th circle of Hades.

You can probably tell where I'm sitting.

Okay, well, sorry for the full o' venting post. Just had to ramble a bit to get stuff out of my system. But hey, it's Friday, right? So seriously, my weekend can only get better from here!

Dory the Fish

Ok, I'm back now. Kind of. We're currently suffering some crisis on the childcare front - so I'm a little stressed out.

Any who - I'm just about finished with my second manuscript and feeling pretty good about it, as a rough draft anyway. My sister hasn't finished reading what she has yet, so I'm still waiting for that review. And the crappy economy is really taking a bite out of this road to publishing adventure for me. With publishers purchasing so far in advance (similar to the way movie production companies buy scripts), they can go several months - possibly up to a year, without buying anything and still have new books coming out for up to two years out! Doesn't help on the patience front, but what do you do, right? .....

**Deep Breath** and ... (to be heard in the voice of Dory the fish) Just Keep Writing, Just Keep Writing....

And honestly, there is something to be said about the satisfaction of finishing a manuscript. My first completed manuscript comes in at 529 pages. My current one - unfinished - is at 566. What can I tell you, my characters have a lot to say. I've been trying to keep myself motivated, and that sense of accomplishment is a great feeling.

Okay, that's it for now, I think. Oh, wait, one more thing. Rejection is a lot easier to handle if you have someone or something to blame, so I suppose the current state of the economy is my scapegoat. At least there's a positive thing about it. I guess.

Glass Half...???

Patience has been working with me and against me these last few weeks. I've already blogged about waiting and the virtue that patience is a couple of times. The next thing to determine is whether I am an optimist or a pessimist. I have received responses to half of my queries. Yes, exactly half. And herein lies my dilemma...

Thoughts to Share

So here goes. This is my first blog as I try to turn a new leaf and join the world of bloggers. I don't have a great deal of deep thoughts to share today, just a couple things that made me go... hmmmm.... I thought I'd share:

Firstly, Failure is one of the greatest forms of inspiration. Leigh Mitchell Hodges once said, "Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success." For some that early morning hour is just that, a short amount of time before things fall into place. For others, that early morning hour seems to stretch out for ages and you just have to remember that it is only a matter of time before dawn will break and everything will be okay.

Secondly, is waiting. The adage goes, 'patience is a virtue.' I have learned that it is a virtue that comes and goes depending on the situation and all people possess it to some degree. Being patient really doesn't make waiting any easier though, even if all you're waiting for is bad news. Even if what is happening falls into the realm of 'prepare for the worst, hope for the best.'
You know, it reminds me of being a little kid and going to Disneyland for the first time. That giddy feeling of excitement in your stomach, though you're not sure if you're excited happy or excited nervous or maybe, just maybe, you could be excited scared. (That last one could just be me, scared to death my first time on Space Mountain - something about rocketing around in the pitch black darkness...) So you stay up late and get up early. You're dressed and ready before your parents can yell at you to hurry up. And then you get there only to wait. Hurry up to wait in line. Run to the next ride, hurrying to wait again. As though the sooner you get in line, the faster the line's going to move. Yeah, right. That's what it feels like. Hurrying to wait.

Yeah. It sucks.