And it starts...

As you can see, I have changed my layout, again.

But for a good cause. Christmas season has arrived!!! Yay!!!

And after this hopefully I will find/create/purchase a permanent layout. Because trying to edit my html and salvage my widgets (whoever invented that word was a genius) is not an enjoyable task.

Anyways, Thanksgiving is over. I'm heading back to school. I'm terrified of the month ahead.

And even when it's over I'm going to have to try and re-learn three years worth of French before fulfilling my foreign language requirement to graduate. Luckily, (since I can't afford Rosetta Stone - sob) I found this website that lets you download a free program, which should at least help me make a dent in my crash refresher course.

I'm also getting more and more excited about my almost-niece. I went into about five baby stores today, and the little tiny socks are just about the cutest things ever.

I'm sleepy. And I need to repack my suitcase.

Black Friday Kicks Butt! Or it just kicked mine...too soon to tell.

I got 99% of my Christmas shopping done.

I also got suckered into spending $30 on an exfoliating peel by a very persuasive salesgirl at UTC.

But I don't feel too bad. Because I haggled. And after I got home I googled (isn't that funny how that's actually a word? Seriously. Cracks me up.) It was actually supposed to cost $100. And it makes my skin milky white.

And I got something for Enid! I'm so excited. I was in Janie and Jack and there was a baby in a stroller waving his hands around, so I cooed at him and clapped my hands together, and he threw me a great big smile and started clapping, he repeated everything I did. I was in love. I adore happy babies. Maybe that's why I love this guy so much.

My neighbor, Blake. (Blakers)

When I have children someday, I want them to be just like him. Always smiley and happy and easy to please. And just the sweetest little thing in the entire universe. Seriously. If I ask him for a kiss he just closes his eyes, purses his lips, and lifts his head up for me. So cute. I don't want him to grow up. You hear that Blakers? Stay little. Forever.

Anyways. I'm completely shopped out. And I don't even want to THINK about what my credit card statement is going to look like. I know I didn't spend more than I have. And I know it's Christmas. But still. Scary.

Speaking of Christmas, I totally understood today why we start to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving. And that is because Christmas really IS the most wonderful time of the year. People are just generally happier during the holidays. So why wouldn't we want to get a head start on the good cheer?

I watched Wall-E tonight for the first time. Have you seen it? You need to. I'm serious. It made me cry. It was so sweet. What could be more endearing than a helpful little robot trying to save the earth and win the love of a fancy, clean, pretty female robot? He's like the little engine that could, only not an engine. And of course an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Good stuff.

And Hello, Dolly...

can I just say, WHOA Michael Crawford? He's like a little baby! So weird. And yet, so good. So good. I want to go watch Hello, Dolly in it's entirety now.

Or just go to bed. Because I woke up early to hit the online sales. God bless the internet. Especially amazon.

Goodnight dear readers.

A Linktastic - What I'm Thankful For: besides the obvious, of course

• people wiping out when trying to make it through the turnstiles at work (I have to explain this one. We have turnstiles to let people into my school's library, and they have to swipe their ID cards to let them pass. People often just try to walk right through and will get rejected. It's pretty hilarious. I've seen people flip, and I've seen some guys hurt their you know whats. Basically I've seen it all. Though it can sometimes get really hard to maintain a professional manner and hold my laughter. Ah schadenfreude.)

• the holiday cups at Starbucks

• pumpkin seed granola cereal

• Apple Store for Education

• Meg Cabot books

• the new Half Blood Prince trailer (have you seen it, it looks like it has the best cinematography of all of them! And Daniel and Rupert are so funny!)

Ok, so I could watch it over and over again. The music is amazing. So I'm thankful for Nicholas Hooper as well I guess. If the movie is as good as the trailer looks I think I will cry with happiness.

(I should take a moment here to note that I consider myself a connessoir of movie trailers. I study them. For a while I wanted to make them - yeah, kind of like Cameron Diaz's character in The Holiday, but whatevs).

My favorite trailer is one for Atonement, but this new Half Blood Prince trailer is challenging it. I think the only thing keeping it in second is the narrator. Because I don't like narration in trailers. Usually.

• Blogger (duh!) - though, I wish I could learn to format my posts better because this one does not look the way I intended it to. (I couldn't figure out how to indent the above paragraphs.)

• Ray LaMontagne, Rufus Wainwright, and David Cook (thanks CGGB for opening my eyes)

• a nice little break from classes

• Monks and Nuns falling in love/goofy monks

• an empty canvas and a variety of paints

• the amount of rain Southern California has received in the past few months (I love rain)

• tea! (btw, I cheated on my tea over the weekend and had two coffees - peppermint mocha frappuccinos with the red sprinkles, yay Holidays! - because we were shooting the film and I needed the extra caffeine. Let me tell you, my tea was not appreciative, nor was my stomach.)

• Scrubs, Bones, The Office, and basically any other show that takes me out of my own world for a half-hour to an hour at a time. And for that matter, Hulu, for letting me watch them whenever, wherever. Oh, and TV on DVD.

• Borders' pre-Thanksgiving sale. It's today, yo! So get yourself out there.

• Black Friday sales

• The drive down the 5 from LA to San Diego. (we didn't have oceans back in the mid-west ::shrug::)

• Dean and Sam Winchester (sigh).

• Failblog, distracting me from my everyday duties.

• Purple

• Carbs (or maybe I'm not. I dont know. I have a love/hate relationship with them.)

• Stickynotes, they make my life so much easier.

Finally, I just wanted to share this quote that my friend shared with me. It correlates with rant on chick-lit and chick flicks.

"It's about time we confessed: we might love the great and the good, but we can also adore the cute and ridiculously bad, as long as the leading man is handsome or the story - no matter how cheesy - makes us laugh, makes us cry, or makes us hot."
- Jo Berry and Angie Errigo, taken from Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre by Tamar Jeffers McDonald

True Beauty in College

is this.













Today I purchased my first Mac. And I love it. I have named him Cooper, after one of my favorite Meg Cabot characters. I know. I'm a freak. I don't care. Leave me alone.

Adequacy/Inadequacy

I was feeling a little inadequate, in some regards, because I'm taking a creative writing class, which I love, but which is focused solely on literary fiction.

Don't get me wrong. I like literary fiction. Reading it. Not so much writing it.

I'm more of a genre gal.

But I was getting the impression that writing genre fiction, especially the genre I mostly write (which is chick-lit), is not respectable.

I don't really know how this can be so, however, when one of my favorite authors - Meg Cabot, in case you haven't been paying attention. And if you haven't, well, come on. Get with the program here - is so great at it and her books are bestsellers and people love her.

(Plus she just won a Distinguished Alumni Award from her Alma Mater, Indiana University.)

But I no longer feel inadequate. I know that I am a good writer (sure I could always use some polishing), and I have a niche. And different people have different tastes, so it's perfectly fine that I want to write light bubbly fiction geared mostly towards women. Because that's what I like to read. Because it cheers my most stressful and depressing days. And if I can do that for someone else that I think that is pretty respectable.

The only place I'm still feeling slightly inadequate, however, is the amount of time I'm able to put into my novel.

As you can see, my NaNoWriMo count is only at 4,786 words. And the month is half over. I've come to terms with the fact that I am not going to finish by the end of the month.

(But, I finished chapter four last night. And I'm feeling pretty good about it. Especially since one of my best friends is sitting next to me reading parts of it and I can hear her giggling at the funny parts. It brings me joy.)

Anyway, I asked Meg Cabot - on her message board, not really expecting a response from her but maybe from one of the moderators - about how many words/pages she writes a day. And SHE responded personally! But the amount she told me is like TEN TIMES the amount I write a day. And some days I don't write anything, because I'm too busy studying for an Acts exam.

So I feel inadequate. And it's only slightly helped by the knowledge that I'm trying to write a novel at the same time I'm trying to finish my senior year of college and bring up my GPA so that I can graduate Summa Cum Laude (which suffice it to say is NOT going to happen after this semester's results from Acts).

Okay. I'll just keep taking it one day at a time.

Thanks Meg Cabot for responding personally to me. And congratulations on your discipline. I admire it greatly.

By the way, readers, if you are at all interested in Meg Cabot (as you should be) you should read her blog/check out her website.

Too hot.

Ok.

It's the 14th of November.

One month and eleven days until Christmas.

In some places, it snowed today. In others, there has been snow for a while.

Here, in Southern California, the temperature reached 92 degrees.

This is too hot. Too hot for November. I don't like being hot. I don't really like snow either. But I at least like the option of wearing a light jacket.

My Weekend Thus Far

So, I finished ANOTHER Meg Cabot book last night.  I kind of want to cry.  Because it was the last one until she publishes more - for adults anyway. I could go read her YA and probably be equally as happy.

I'm at my aunt's house playing with the dogs.  Working on my novel.  And taking pictures.

I've an additional 900 words so far, and I'm planning on doing some more tonight. I've breaked only to take some pictures and watch last week's episode of Bones.  Oh, and now I'm watching When Harry Met Sally while I make dinner. I didn't like it last time I saw it. But I LOVE it now.

I think I'll show you some pictures...you know...just to be nice.



This is Mr. Lou looking pretty.






Mr. Lou again. I can't help it, he's just such a good model.


















The pretty koi.













This is my grandpa. I think I look like him.



















Gillie.







Charlie Blue. Don't you think he looks, well, blue?




Buford.

News of the Day

In the world: It’s Guy Fawkes Day! I know, it means pretty much nothing here. But whatever. I think it’s significant, and I wish I could be there sharing in the festivities. I love celebrations and it looks like fun. I posted signs around my workplace saying “Remember, remember the 5th of November…” I think people appreciated it...really, they did. This just goes to show how much I wish I lived in England...I really do.

In the Nation: We have a new president; the first African American president. Regardless of what you think of him, this is an historical moment.

And sadly, author Michael Crichton died today at the age of 66 after a battle with cancer. His death was unexpected and my heart goes out to his family and friends. I will always love him, because he brought me Jurassic Park, and opened my eyes to the wonders of dinosaurs at a very young age. Also Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day anyone?). Thank you Michael.

On the home front:  My NANOWRIMO word count is still at last night’s 1,020 because I haven’t had time to work on it yet today. (Stinkin’ homework). But,

“Big Boned” came in for me at the library today so I can look forward to reading it, more like devouring it, over the weekend.

I will be spending the weekend at my aunt’s house in San Diego to babysit “the boys” while the family attends a wedding up north. I am looking forward to taking some time away from campus to spend by myself doing whatever I want (i.e. writing my novel, reading Meg Cabot, and watching movies until my eyes hurt). Not to mention that I get to hang out with three of the coolest dogs EVER.

(Especially Louie, my good friend).

NANOWRIMO

So, I've taken the NANOWRIMO challenge.

If you don't know what that is, NANOWRIMO is the National Novel Writing Month, where you are supposed to write a whole novel during the month of November.

Today, I finished the first chapter. It's a bit short, though, only 651 words. I might have to go in a change that later.

Anyway, I'm going to try and update on my progress so a) you can know how I'm doing and b) so I have incentive to keep working at it that way I dont have to come back here at the end of the month and feel like a tool because I didn't finish something I committed to.

So...there's that. I'm going to try and get a widget or something. Or I'll just post my word count at the end of each post.

Maybe when I finish it I can publish it. And you can buy it. And read it. And love it. Maybe.

It's a fetus!

My sister is having a baby girl.  She plans to name her Enid.  I think it goes without saying, but I'm excited.  And since I think she has gone public with the news, I feel compelled to show you all what my little neice looks like.  She has the same nose as my sister and I.  I'm already attached.

Look at her little eyes, she's face the camera er whatever it's called.




Sucking her little thumb with her little legs up in the air. So sweet.




Same as above. See the little button nose? Thats MY nose. Except not really but whatevs, you get the point.

I'm not getting old yet.

I felt like a little kid today.

My friend and I got two free tickets to Knott's Berry Farm, so we went.  And I got so excited about everything.  She said I was so distracted by everything, just like a little kid.

Then we went to the Sprint store and I got my phone switched, so now I can receive texts from outside sources like Google and email addresses and such, yay!

(This means I can use Bluetooth to make new ringtones)!

When I came out of the Sprint store it started raining.  Please note: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE rain, and I've missed it so much since moving to California.

Anyways, I went into Baskin Robbins and got some Mint Chip (my favorite) ice cream and the lady put frosting on it for me (remember those clowns?).  I was so excited.  So I sat under an umbrella outside in the rain and ate my ice cream.  It was spectacular.