Month: May 2007

Moof (Pictures)

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Over the weekend, I drove up to Aurora to see my mommy. Greg took me, her, and Aidan out to dinner at Max & Erma’s. At first, Aidan was insisting on Cracker Barrel, which I don’t like. But I was going to go with it because I could always get a salad or something. Well, my mom talked Aidan into Applebees, but on the way there, Greg and Mommy started talking about Max & Erma’s. They were convinced Aidan wouldn’t know the difference. But as soon as we got there, Aidan blurted out “THIS DOESN’T HAVE AN APPLE!” Luckily, Aidan likes Max & Erma’s fine, so all was well.

Kids have marvelous brand-recognizing capabilities.

When we got back, Greg yelled out “There’s a prophylactic on the patio. What’s a patio?” I laughed for ten minutes at that.

I relaxed quite a bit at my mom’s. Managed to fall asleep a lot more easily, so I took a couple naps. Caught up on a few Food Network shows when Aidan wasn’t hogging the TV with his kid show DVDs. It’s pretty sad that the only TV I get is when I travel, so when I get it, I soak it in like a dry sponge. I mean, I guess I could watch broadcast TV, but who wants to fuss with the rabbit ears? It’s easier to pop in Mean Girls or something. Anyway, got Aidan to sleep in his own bed, even though he was up Sunday morning at 7am, talking about GOOD MORNING and climbing onto the love seat with me. He eventually went to play with my mom, giving me a little bit more time. Sunday we relaxed mostly. My mom filled up my gas tank for me, and I headed back to Columbus about 4pm when POW. Yet ANOTHER flat tire, not even six months after my last one. 🙁 I managed to pull off the highway and into a McDonald’s parking lot. Roadside Assistance came and changed my tire (I totally need to learn to do that), and I headed back to my mom’s on a donut that sounded like it wanted to fall off at any second.

At first I was annoyed. I mean, I had to work on Monday, and I wasn’t into giving up a vacation day when I already have it scheduled for May 25th. Now I have to take some unpaid time. But oh well. The bright side was that I got an extra day with my mom, and she brought me breakfast at Bob Evans the next morning while I was getting the new tires put on. I also got to hang out with crimsonghost_oh a bit too. He didn’t like my spaghetti. It wasn’t my best batch, to be honest. 🙁

I headed back to Columbus about 1:00. I got here at about 3:00, way too late to try to go to work. Kiss a vacation day goodbye. *grumble snort* So I kept Aidan and spent the next four hours with him. We went to the library and to the playground, and then he got to meet the little kittens:

Aidan & a Brand New Kitten

Aidan & a Brand New Kitten

Trying to teach Lucy to calm the heck down. Often, she simply will not hop on my lap and settle down. She marches around, puts her face in my face, bites and pulls my hair, and usually walks across or in front on whatever I am reading or working on. IT’S SO ANNOYING. But now she’s snuggled up beside me, which I like. Early this morning, I finally got fed up and put her out of my room. I’d been tempted for a while but felt badly, but I need my sleep.

Especially because I have a two hour style guide meeting tomorrow. Help.

OH yeah, at the health fair, I discovered a yummy, low-cal recipe. You just take some chocolate Quaker rice cakes, some chocolate Cool Whip, and strawberries. Can you guess where I am going with this? I cheated of course. You can cut even more calories by using fat-free Cool Whip, cocoa, and Splenda, but why do all that work when Cool Whip isn’t that loaded with crap? So, just take a rice cake (quake?), spread on some of the Cool Whip, and add a strawberry or two. Yummy! You can eat seven of the mini ones or four of the big ones. It’s filling without making you feel like a pig, and it’s 100 calories. Woo. I’m guess that 100 calories is like, nothing? Does anyone know what a regular meal should have, in terms of calories?

*blink blink*

Chill out time now. See ya.

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Thinking About My Writing Career

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Quite honestly, I feel intimidated. So many authors I look up to have either been professors, or they’ve gone to Ivy League schools such as Columbia or Yale. And then there’s me, working an entry-level job at age 32 and with eight years of work experience, with a BA in Psychology from Ohio State University. I don’t really have an impressive CV, so I start to wonder if I have the smarts to make it as an author.

And the lack of discipline is really a challenge. It’s hard, though, after working all day, to come home and try to create. So I wonder, because I am whining so much about how much my brain is fried at the end of the day, if I really want this?

Good books. I want to write good books, but it’s so hard. It looks easy. It seems like it should be easy. The planning and the ideas is fun. The researching is amazing. The actual writing? OH MY GOD. Let’s just say… um, yeah. It sucks ass.

Ass, I say.

But I know I can do it. I KNOW it. I just need to sit my bootie down and focus.

halseanderson said she has different sizes of jeans. Big jeans for when she’s writing, because she has to bribe herself with snacks. Smaller jeans for revising, because revising is fun. I know that writergrl has her days of wanting to crawl under the desk and whimper. I know firsthand the things adamselzer goes through to make a good book. If those authors go through that, then I shouldn’t be feeling so alone, right?

But I do feel alone. I feel like my turn won’t ever come, mostly due to my fault of not either producing stuff that’s good enough, or producing nothing at all. Both of which is my own fault, both things I can fix with hard work and DISCIPLINE.

Discipline, because getting halfway to my goal and having the almost irresistable urge to bail is BAD. I’ve got to push through, be willing to write thousands of words that may be thrown out someday just so I can get to know my characters, develop them, and mold them into something readable and saleable.

Because quite honestly? I have no intention of working in anybody’s office (except my own) for the rest of my life. This is a decision I just recently made. What this means is that I have GOT to focus, I have got to work my ass off, because writing is the only way I’m going to be able to do that. I want the whole package. I love copy editing, I do. But I don’t want to have to answer to the rigid rules of an office atmosphere. Ideally, I’d be able to survive off of writing novels and freelance editing, but I know that I have to really hunker down to be at that point.

I miss having a writing friend who I can dish about all this stuff with. :( And I don’t mean just the technical stuff, but all the crazy, emotional stuff too.

Just as an FYI, I made a MySpace for writing: http://myspace.com/ronnithewriter When it asks for the last name, put in Davis. Security measure, you know. To avoid the spammers and scammers.

Anyway, I’m off for now. ‘Til next time.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Blendon Woods with Aidan (Pictures)

/ aidan, pictures

I took Aidan to Blendon Woods metro park on Monday to get him to let off steam, so I could get some walking in, and so I could take pictures of Aidan! First, we stopped in the nature center, where he saw a turtle, a snake, and a toad. He also saw hissing cockroaches. Ew. Then we looked through the observatory windows and watched brightly-colored birds nibbling on the birdseed and a raccoon picking up the leftovers.

Then we went on a walk. Along the way, I took lots of pictures:

‘.’

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