Settling In

It's such a pretty night, and I'm doing nothing but listening to beautiful music.  My manuscript went stagnant this week after my blog went MIA.  It occurred to me that it's harder for me to write without my word meter.  Such a stupid little thing, but without being able to see myself progressing, I get discouraged before I even begin.  I'm like a little kid--I need that affirmation.  Now my little ticker is back and I should be able to get a couple thousand words pounded out soon (I hope).

This week was relaxing, somehow.  It helps that I adore my students this year.  Like, all of them, which is rare.  I wish I could retire with this group and end my career on a high.  One thing I find amusing is they are all so eager to volunteer for stuff, even before they know what they're volunteering for.  Today I needed a volunteer to be my "technical assistant."  Here's how that went down:

"I need a volunteer to--"  (twenty hands shoot up in the air, I raise my eyebrows) "--to clean my toilets this weekend and every alternating Thursday." (They roar with laughter).  "Cool, I'll take you, you, and YOU.  Thanks guys!"  

I'd like to say they learned their lesson, but yeah...no.
   

Clint was gone for five days and just got back today.  His schedule is still an adjustment, but it's getting easier.  I can finally sleep through the night now without jumping at every noise.  It helps that the dogs sleep in the house now.  And the rooster, but that's a whole 'nother story.  It also helps that I booby-trap all my doors.   

Okay, I might be a touch on the paranoid side.    

We have a birthday party tomorrow.  It's my little niece (Moo's little girl) who's turning three, but it's a costume party.  I guess that sounds odd.  Every year we have a themed-costume night with Clint's family around Halloween; this year everyone voted to move it up a month because we're all crazy-busy for Halloween.  So they decided to have the costume party for my niece's birthday.  The theme is Enchanted Forest.  I'm dressing up as...well, I don't know what it is.  I picked up the costume last year for 50% off, and it's some kind of purple, girly one-eyed woodland creature/monster thing.  Maybe I'll call myself the "One-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater."  Anything can be found in an enchanted forest, right?

Speaking of birthdays, Shan and I celebrated our 35th last week.  I wasn't depressed to turn 35, which surprised me.  I think it helps that I inadvertently roll my sister's successes into my own, and between the two of us we kicked ass this year (I can say that in my blog because I'm an awkward ball of insecurity in real life).  For our birthday, as I mentioned before, we went to the LA County Fair.  It was both fun and not at the same time.  Fun throughout most of the day while we were enjoying margaritas, funnel cake, and shopping; not fun when I got terrible cramps/fatigue that night (three guesses why) and lost the three dresses my parents had bought me for my birthday.  They were all in one bag, and I had set the bag down when Clint and I were talking to a guy about possibly installing an in-ground pool.  When we left the booth to catch up to my family, I realized I had left it behind.  When I ran back to get it, the bag was gone.  I knew for a fact that if I told my parents I had lost it, my dad would want to re-purchase the dresses--which would make me feel even more crummy.  So I decided to lie.  When I reunited with my parents, I forced a cheery smile on my face and said I had found the dresses, and Clint had made me stuff them into my backpack so I wouldn't lose them again.  They believed me and everyone was happy.  Except for Shannon--she walked up to me about five minutes later and whispered "You're so full of it. You didn't find that bag."  I was shocked.  I whisper-exclaimed, "How did you know? I thought I was so convincing!"  She said, "You were.  I just know you."

Twin sisters.  Or therapists.  Either way, *sigh*.

Signing off now to listen to more music.  I wonder if songs of the future will ever be as good as those of the past.  It seems impossible.  Here's an old-school piece I ran into on YouTube--Total Eclipse of the Heart.  This was my mom's all-time favorite song in the 80s.  She rarely blasted music, but she would blast this one, which was much more preferable at the time than Crimson and Clover, over and OVER (also her favorite).  Total Eclipse has got some of that 80s corniness, but wow does her voice and the instrumental get powerful.  I bet you Bonnie Tyler collapsed when she reached the end of this song...it had to be exhausting.  Seriously, it practically blows up near the end.  It's like a gripping story line, with that steady build-up of rising action, until it peaks at the climax and all that intensity explodes...okay, I swear I'm not talking dirty.  Those are the appropriate terms.  Really.

Whatever.  Never mind.

I love these lyrics because they're no frills.