Goodbye, Summer. See You Next Year - Don't Rush!

Today is August 31st. Technically, the last day of summer is not until September 21st... but for me, fall starts when August ends. It may not be any cooler. It may not be the start of school. But when September 1st rolls around, I think to myself, "I made it! I survived! Now - on to fall!"

I think it's partly because by now, we're in the swing of the school routine. Sweaters and coats are showing up in stores and I begin to shop for the perfect new sweater to celebrate Sweater Day (the first day when it's cool enough to justify wearing a sweater. Yes, I celebrate this day as my own personal holiday). I can start thinking about the holidays - yes, I start thinking about the holidays early. :) I start thinking about cool mornings, bundling up in scarves and coats on my way to work, stopping to get steaming coffee. Late nights bundled up in sweats with hot chocolate, stargazing. Long walks with Abigail through crunchy leaves. Walking around the county fair with Maggie.

Summer is just about over, so I'll go ahead and admit it - I hate summer. I live for fall and winter.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon going through my closet and clothes storage. I've realized recently that I can't see the back of the closet, but I still have trouble finding clothes to wear. As I was sorting through my clothes, I realized it was because apparently I never put away most of my cold weather clothes. Duh! I went ahead and put them away because as much as I'd like to believe that lined jacket weather is just around the corner, common sense tells me that sweaters would make better transitional pieces. On the other hand, my tanks are about to get retired. I'm getting one last wear out of my favorite studded black tank, and then the tanks are all getting washed and put up (except for maybe two that would work nicely over a long-sleeved T or under said sweaters).

I think getting that done made me even more anxious for fall; I realize that I have several times as many cold-weather clothes as I do warm-weather clothes, and they're pieces I love. I found two brightly-colored sweaters I bought on clearance this spring for a few dollars apiece and haven't gotten to wear yet, one in bright raspberry and one in bright cobalt. Can't wait to pair them up with some other brightly-colored layered tanks!

Another thing I miss - long necklaces. I don't know why, but somehow I never end up wearing jewelery half as much in the summer as I do in the winter. My best friend bought me a beautiful black pendant for my birthday, and my aunt and uncle gave me a gorgeous seafoam-green cut glass and bead necklace, and I'm looking forward to wearing both of them.

And jackets! Don't even get me started! I love my jackets! I was drooling yesterday as I was packing them away. Jackets, coats, blazers, etc - I can't wait to get to wear them again. A jacket and a scarf is one of my favorite things to wear on a cool fall morning.

And, of course, boots. I have two pairs right now, but I have my eye on a few new pairs already. I discovered boots last winter and am totally hooked.

So, I totally didn't mean for this to become a fall fashion post, but as you can see, it's big on my mind right now. What's on your fall wishlist?

Ol' Man Trouble, I Don't Like Him...

So my cell phone died last night. At first I wasn't sure what was up, but after I cleaned out my truck I realized what had happened: last night when I came in after the play I was so dead tired that I left my phone in one of the two cupholders in my center console. Next to it was a styrofoam fast-food cup from earlier that day. Apparently sometime last night the cup sprang a leak and flooded both compartments. :(

It's crazy that this has happened, since my family has been kidding me lately about how it's been awhile since I last killed a phone. Whenever I kill a phone, it's ALWAYS liquid-related.

I tried phone first-aid - drying it off on my sweatshirt, holding it in front of the air-conditioning vent, etc, but it was still leaking. I disassembled it, dumped it in a bag of rice (which is supposedly the best moisture-sucker-outer available in a pinch) and took it with me to work.

After a few hours, no improvement, so I moved on to plan B: get a working phone with my number as soon as possible! I called Anna and had her dig out my old LG flip phone, and she watched Abby while I got on the phone with my provider and had them port the number over. Turns out I'll need a new SIM card, which will take 3-5 days to arrive. Grr!

I went ahead and had them do it, but I'm sort of wondering now if it's worth it, since I was planning on buying a new phone soon. I'm looking at switching to Straight Talk, specifically this phone. I'm excited about having video and MP3 capabilities, but I'm sad that all this no longer comes in a flip style, as I still miss the flip style and HATE the whole QWERTY keyboard thing.

I am thinking that it will take less time to buy a new phone and get my number ported on to it that it will to get the new SIM card and get my old cell phone up and running, so that's probably what I'll end up doing. I just hope my phone comes back alive enough to retrieve my pictures, recordings, and some texts. :(

Saturday Night Live

I'm not much of a weekend-goer-outer. Maggie and I have our girl's night out (dinner and shopping) every Thursday night unless the roads are impassable, and except for the occasional lunch out with friends, that's about all the going out I can take. :) I also hate crowds, so I try to get all my errands, shopping, etc done during the week so that weekends I can spend sleeping in, doing projects, watching film, reading, blogging, etc. My weekends are pretty low-key.

This weekend, on the other hand, has been CRAZY! But in a totally good way! On Wednesday, my air mattress - the thing standing between me and back pain - died, so my main priority on Thursday was finding a new full-size double-high air mattress. Maggie and I went everywhere - it was not to be found. Twin? Yes. Queen? Yes. Full? Nope! I finally settled on the only full-size air mattress to be found, but it was only a single high and I was really dubious about it. Brought it home, set it up, woke up Friday morning, boxed it up, and took it back to the store. Bleh. I finally caved and went and bought a Queen-size double-high, which means I couldn't use my bedframe, box spring, or any of my sheets. As I was lamenting this, my brother mentioned that his bed was a Queen-size and he wanted a smaller bed. I seized on this and offered him mine, so I at least got a properly sized mattress and box spring (I just threw the air mattress on the very top). I still can't use my sheets but I'm going to see if I can find my sheet set in a Queen-size at the Wal-Mart up the street tomorrow. And I'll start looking at thrift stores for a Queen-size bedframe again (I bought my last one for $5 there). It's a little inconvenient, but at least I have a bed again, one that doesn't hurt my back.

So Friday was spent mostly sorting out the mattress situation, then running around town to various stores collecting all the odds and ends that we needed for today's rehearsal. I also repaired a costume that had come apart during a previous rehearsal, and stitched up the tree costumes so Hannah could paint them with a bark pattern during today's rehearsal. It was after midnight when I got to bed.

And morning came too soon, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much energy I had. :) Today's rehearsal went SO WELL! I am really pleased! I admit, I was stressing a bit this week, just cuz we're down to crunch time, but today was so rewarding. Hannah and I were crazy people, getting everyone in costume, assembling a few last stage props that had come in just this week, getting everyone settled, getting the singers warmed up, getting the sound system up and running... I don't think we stopped moving except to eat, but it was so worth it! Before, between, and after run-throughs, I set up a photo area with props and took tons of photos. I got an individual shot of each actor in costume, some small-group shots, and of course a couple of group photos. I am really pleased at how well they all turned out. This afternoon I ran to Wal-Mart and fed them into their "Prints In Minutes" machine and made each actor a collage with some of their best shots and a group photo. It makes a nice $2 memento of the time we've spent together. :) I also got Hannah a huge collage featuring each actor, a shot I made her pose for, and our group photo. I get to pick them up tonight, and I'll hand them out tomorrow and let everyone sign them! I'll get some of the photos up here eventually, too. :)

Tonight I got to hang out with Abigail since Chris and Natalie had a birthday party to go to. I never get to babysit on the weekends - if they go out, they usually ask my sister, Anna, to babysit - so this was a real treat! Abby was a little upset that Mommy had to go (poor baby!) but cheered up quickly. We watched a few minutes of The Tigger Movie, then we went to my other uncle's house to see my grandparents who were in from Florida, and my uncle's family. Abigail loved their trampoline and bounced all night with my cousin Emily. We also took a walk on the pier and saw jellyfish (lots of jellyfish!), crabs, fishies, and boats. They have a little Yorkshire terrier that I thought Abby would like, since it's a really small dog, but it turns out she did NOT like it at all! I think she was a little unnerved since she's used to small animals being slow or still, like the kitties and bunnies, and Baxter was quivering with excitement. Oh, well. In contrast, she shrieked with happiness when she saw a jellyfish, and waved at it and said "Hi, jelly!" What a kid. :)

By the time we made it home she was so tired, sticky with sweat and bugspray, dirty from the trampoline and running around on the grass, so I ran her a bath and poured her in. It's amazing what water and soap can do. Five minutes later she was clean and much happier (I'm kind of grouchy when I'm hot and dirty, too, so I don't blame her a bit!). She was happy to be pajama'd and read to and sung lullabies and popped into bed. :)

It's A Good Thing

When I was in Alabama last month, Robin set up an air mattress for me. It felt incredibly comfortable, and the next day my back and hip felt better than it had in a really long time. By the end of the week sleeping on it, my back and hip pain was gone. I came home, put my regular mattress up against my wall, and borrowed an air mattress from the basement. Sure enough - back/hip pain, gone.

Last night Maggie and I were chilling on my bed, and I noticed it was sagging in the middle. I figured it was probably time for a refill, since it'd been at least a week since I'd last used an air pump on it. I pumped it up, went to take a shower, came back, and it was saggy again.

I really, really hoped it was just my imagination... but it wasn't. It had developed a hole, as I discovered when I stripped the sheets off and examined it.

I deflated it and threw my old mattress back on the bed (thank goodness I hadn't gotten rid of it yet, I guess), and... eh. Did I ever really think that this was comfortable? And immediately - seriously, as soon as I laid down - my back and hip started to ache. I guess I never noticed how badly my mattress was affecting my back before since, well, I was kind of ALWAYS in pain. But now that I've gone a few weeks pain free, I DEFINITELY feel the pressure.

Couldn't get comfortable. I knew I was going to wake up stiff and sore, and I was seriously tempted to just drive to the 24-hour WalMart and get a new one (since I obviously wasn't sleeping, anyway).

I didn't, and I felt it this morning. :( My priority tonight is to hit every department store until I find one (and wouldn't you know, my bedframe/boxspring is full-size, which apparently is the hardest size to locate). In a way, I think this is good - I've been afraid to give up the old mattress "just in case," but now I know I will never, ever go back to sleeping on it. Might I buy a better traditional mattress sometime in the future? Yup! But in the meantime, this is the $50 solution to back pain. Worth every penny.

Anyway...

Abby asked for pancakes this morning. Chris has said she loves them, and I've offered them to her before, but she hasn't wanted them. Today there was a bottle of syrup on the counter, and I think this brought them to mind. I made her a little pile of quarter-size pancakes, perfect for dipping, and then a little pile for myself. They were incredible. :) Pancakes at my house are whole-wheat monsters that are heavy. I forget that light, fluffy pancakes even EXIST. And I don't even feel bad, since I am so not a carbs in the morning kind of person, and I eat pancakes maybe three or four times a year.

Around 10 AM we called to let Maggie know that we were on our way to get her. Abby was so excited when I told her we got to take Maggie with us - she loves hanging out with Maggie and has asked every time we've been at my house this week to take Maggie with us, but for one reason or another Maggie hadn't been able to join us, which disappointed her deeply.

We picked up Maggie and went to Monterrey's, a mexican restaurant that we all love. Abby ate most of our chips :); Maggie ordered the chimichanga plate, and I got a "fajita quesadilla" plate. It was sooo yummy - steak, carmelized red onions, and cheese quesadilla (and it was a really good portion size so I didn't feel guilty at all), with a side of spanish rice and a lettuce and tomato salad.

Abby was so good during lunch. After lunch, we walked down the sidewalk to a coffee shop and ordered coffee. As soon as we walked in the door, Abby's eyes lit up and she got excited. I couldn't figure out why until she ran to the dessert case and pointed. Maggie and I got a good laugh at this, so we got her a little frosted cake hole (like a donut hole, I guess) with sprinkles (she was very clear that she wanted the one WITH sprinkles).

Half an hour later, I began to see we might have made a mistake. :) A very yummy one.

This picture doesn't quite cover the damage. She was COVERED in chocolate! Oh, well. A handful of wet wipes later, we were all good again. :)

Go Read This

Once in a while, you find out that someone has already said what you always wanted to say, and said it better than you could have said it. This is one of those times. Tiffany of True Femininity has written a great expose of the Christian childrearing myth entitled "Child Rearing Is Soul Winning... Or Not." Everybody who has or intends to have kids - and even those of you who don't! - should rush over and read this. :)

A Writing MeMe

FaithWriters Blog is hosting a writer's meme today, so I thought I'd join in the fun!

How often do you get writer's block? Whenever I've been away from writing for awhile, it's always painfully tough to get back into practice. Other than that, I'm usually pretty inspired.

How do you fix it? Music is always good, and I like to reread my own writings to get back in touch with my own "voice" as well as characters. I also find that the more inspired I am in life, the more inspired my writing is.

Do you type or write by hand? I type fiction; I write out poetry. :)

Do you save everything you write? Definitely! I learned this lesson the hard way - years ago, I got disgusted with a novella I'd written and deleted it. Now I'd give anything to be able to get it back - the story was terrific and it would be such a great piece to flesh out!

Do you ever go back to an old idea after I've abandoned it? I never abandon everything! Everything is always a work in progress. I forget who said that no poem is ever finished until the poet dies, but I totally agree!

Do you have a constructive critic? The most incredible constructive critic I've ever had was the professor/author who taught my fiction workshop in college, Wayne Karlin. I learned more about writing in general and my own strengths and weaknesses as a writer in the one semester I took with him than I'd learned in all the years before. Now that I'm out of school, I've sort of had to become my own critic, which is a really good skill to develop, but isn't quite as satisfying.

Did you ever write a novel? Yup, several!

What genre would you love to write but haven't? Wow... I think I've tried everything at least a little bit, but I think I've dabbled the least in historical fiction, which kind of makes sense since I don't like to read it, either. :)

What's one genre you've never written, and probably never will? Hm... nothing comes to mind...

How many writing projects are you working on right now? I'm pretty bouncy - I always have a couple of stories in my head.

Do you write for a living? No, I do not, although I do "write to live".

Do you want to? I'd love to use my writing skills for a living, but I really don't want to write for a living. I'm not very self-disciplined and I don't think I've make a very good novelist, for instance.

Have you ever written anything for a magazine or a newspaper? No - but I'd love to!

Have you ever won an award for your writing? No, but I made my professor laugh. :) Not an easy task!

Do you ever write based on your dreams? Absolutely! Some of my favorite stories started as dreams.

Do you favor happy endings, sad endings, or cliffhangers? I favor a well-crafted ending. An ending shouldn't just be something that happens because the writer has run out of things to write about - it should be the logical and inevitable conclusion. I'm actually a fan of ambiguous endings if they're ambiguous for a good reason.


I'd love to hear answers from other amateur writers out there! If you'd like to participate:
1. Copy and paste the following to the comments and replace my answers with your own.
2. If you have a blog, copy and paste these questions and your answers to your blog.
3. Challenge your readers to do the same on their blog.
If you don’t have a blog, skip #’s 2 & 3!

The Play's The Thing!

It's that time of year again - the last obstacle between summer and fall, lol - crunch time for the church's summer musical drama!

I've enjoyed directing it this year, and that is good. :) Because I have to say, I didn't enjoy it much last year. I wanted to. I know that part of the reason I didn't enjoy it is because I was really struggling with some attitude issues on my part, but it also felt like I spent 90% of my time dealing with behavioral issues from teenagers who were old enough to know better, and only 10% of my time dealing with artistic issues. This year, smaller cast - only 12 cast members! - and I felt like I was able to give guidance to everyone. I also threw out the scripts early this year, forcing them to memorize earlier. At least, that was the idea. :) I still have a few scragglers in the memorization department, but I'm not stressed yet.

Today we had our first Saturday rehearsal, and we arrived to discover that our set had FINALLY been set up! Yahoo! I looks great!

I was also good about taking pictures this year!

My assistant director, Hannah, backstage with the actors waiting for the fun to start. Without Hannah, there would be no play! We complement each other very nicely - I'm a big picture person and she's very detail oriented and so she keeps me together. :) She does the work of several people each year - she is responsible for making sure everyone has a script, issuing replacements if they get lost or destroyed, making sure we have extras for readers, etc. She also keeps track of attendance and finds readers to fill in parts for absent actors. If she can't find a reader, she may end up reading a part - or several! - herself. She follows me around and takes notes on things we have to do, props we have to get, emails we need to send, etc. She helps keep all the kids under control. This year she helped me do the shopping. On performance day, she helps get everyone into costume and makeup, and helps manage backstage.

In fact, thinking of all she does... what do I do? :)

Most of the cast onstage. Hannah is reading for an absent actor, as is my dad (who is also the Music Director).

Craig, Chris, and George singing. :) For those of you familiar with Patch the Pirate's ministry, the musical we are going is "Kidnapped on I-Land."

More Craig, Chris, and George. Chris' character "Silas" is caught between Craig's character, "King Me-First," and his trusty sidekick "Paulie Parrot" (who represents Silas' better side).

More of my guys, this time with Me-First's fire-breathing dragon, Torch.

I was running around taking pictures today and then had to turn away for a moment, so I handed my camera to a backstage actor to hold. I turn around, he says "You know, we never get pictures of YOU!" and - snap. I have no idea what I was saying/thinking. :)

Hanging around backstage, waiting for cues.

We did the play for several years with either no backstage/wings to speak of (actors would simply walk off or onstage from the floor) or with really small/modified wings. Last year I begged for a backstage and proposed this design - two "wings" with a curtain in the middle. I loved it, it looked great, and the Christmas drama program loved it so much they stole it for their musical. :) This year we ditched the curtain and just went with the two wings. I love it - it's SO NICE having a place to change costume, relax, etc.

My sister Elizabeth is my pianist this year and has done an INCREDIBLE job! I'm still kind of in awe over how well she's doing!

My sister Maggie singing one of the songs.

Maggie turning pages for Lizzie and hanging out piano-side.

I'm excited about our play this year. I think it will be the last play I direct for awhile - I'd like to take a summer off - and I think it'll be a great play to go out on. :)