Loving Twilight

A Texas Gargoyle

2010-04-12T07:00:00.001-05:00

Spring in Texas

2010-04-11T07:51:00.000-05:00

The view from my weekend, bluebonnets and indian paintbrush along Texas Hwy 152 near Llano.

Spring

2010-04-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

Spring is so here. This is one of the flower heads on my Red-Tipped Photinia bush. This same bush also has a read flower head for the first time. It must be old enough to breed this year.

History of the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells

2010-04-03T16:34:00.000-05:00

This story was published in the Mineral Wells Index last year, but it's a great history if you don't already know the story. With all the changes about to happen to this old haunted hotel, I thought it was interesting.

History of the Baker Hotel.

Orb at the Stanley Hotel

2010-03-31T07:34:00.000-05:00

This was taken at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. We were hoping the table would move like it did in this room on a certain televisions show, but no love. We're stuck with just an orb.

How to Handle a Haunted House Part 3

2010-03-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

How to Find the Ghost Hunters

Now that we’ve covered when and why to call a team, how do you decide who to call? Most people start on the internet, which is fine. The internet can be a great resource, but don’t rely on it alone. Go to the bookstore and check out the paranormal section. Many authors will have contact information in their books. Go to the library and check out the newspaper archives, too.
When you find a team to contact, it’s best to ask for references. After all, you are inviting strangers to your home. You wouldn’t invite just anyone off the street, and you shouldn’t invite just any team. When you make contact, the team will want to interview you, usually over the phone. That’s great. While you’re on the phone, interview them. Ask how long they’ve been doing this kind of work and the names of the members. Ask if anyone has a criminal record. Do an internet search on the names you receive-this simple search can reveal useful information. If the team has a website, surf over and read carefully. If anything you read concerns you, ask the team about it. Talk to them; ask how they investigate, and why they investigate. Be wary if a team will not disclose how the investigation will be conducted, and what equipment will be used. You have a right to know what will be happening in your home. If their answers don’t agree with you, find another team. In the rare case that a team will not reveal information about its members, walk away. Different teams have different approaches, and one will likely stand out as the one best suited to you.
The paranormal community is a small one, and word can travel fast. If one team won’t recommend another, find out why not. It’s also a good idea to contact several teams if there are many in your area. If you can’t locate a team in your area, contact the closest one. Often, they will be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck, and happy hauntings!

How to Handle a Haunted House Part 2

2010-03-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

Call in the Ghost Hunters?

The next thing to evaluate is your motivation for wanting a paranormal investigation. If you genuinely think your location is haunted, and you are seeking answers, that’s great. If you just think it would be a neat experience, contact a group and tag along with them before you drag them out to your maybe-haunted home. If you want to make it into the newspaper, don’t call a ghost hunter. Call a reporter. Paranormal teams love to help people and document true hauntings. Most teams want to help dispel the fear surrounding hauntings, and help people understand the cause if they do indeed prove a haunting. What paranormal teams don’t love are people who waste their time and money to be amused or entertained. They don’t want to show up at your house to find an army of neighbors waiting to hold a séance. Groups of people hinder the process, and many teams will take offense to the idea that they are psychic séance holders.

Are You Hearing Voices?

There are times when calling a ghost hunter isn’t the best idea. If you are under the care of a psychiatrist, please consult this doctor before calling a paranormal team. Paranormal teams usually do not have doctors among their members and are not qualified to help you in that area. Sometimes hearing voices can be attributed to clairaudience, which is the ability to psychically hear the voices of the dead. Sometimes they have other causes. A medical professional is usually the best avenue to discern the cause of voices unaccompanied by paranormal evidence. If you’re being treated by a doctor, and they say it’s ok to give a team a call, then by all means, call! I say this not to offend anyone, but to assure the safety of everyone involved.

Is Your Environment Appropriate for a Ghost Hunt?

Another time when it’s not appropriate to call a ghost hunter is when you haven’t cleaned your house since 1962. If a team can’t move about the area freely, the team can’t investigate. If the location is a condemned building, it also isn’t safe for anyone to investigate. If you do not own the property where the supposed haunting is occurring, secure permission from the owner before calling in a team. If you have small children likely to be disturbed by an investigation, find a sitter for the night. If you have large scary dogs, find some other place for them to wait. If your spouse or roommate is uncomfortable with the idea of a paranormal team tromping around the house, it’s best not to call until they are willing to be involved. Using common sense makes the investigation a better experience for all those involved.
So when should you call a paranormal team? You should call if you really think you have a ghost and you’re scared. If you’re not scared and just want proof, start the journal mentioned above and get in touch with a team. If a full blown apparition shows up in your living room, walks through walls and chats over tea, yeah, that would be a good time to call.

House Blessings and the Clergy

What about the clergy? If you belong to a church or religious organization, talking to a clergy member can be helpful. Some will bless a home, and some will hold prayer circles. That’s great, and if it helps, even better. Most members of the clergy don’t perform exorcisms, and going church door to door asking for one isn’t the best idea. While most clergy members won’t look for scientific proof, they have been known to tend to the spiritual side of things and can certainly help the situation.

Part 3 Tomorrow!

How to Handle a Haunted House Part 1

2010-03-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Think you have a haunted house? Living in a place you believe to be haunted can be a scary experience. Should you tell anyone? Will they think you’re crazy? Yes, you should tell someone, and no, they probably won’t think you need a straight-jacket. There are some steps you can take to investigate possible causes on your own. Above all, keep a calm head, an open mind, and use your common sense.

Keep a Journal of Events

The very first thing you should do is start a journal to list all the possible paranormal occurrences. In it, document the strange noises, cool breezes and phantom footsteps. Write everything down, even if it seems trivial or insignificant. Note down the time and date of every entry, and when or if the event recurs. If someone else experienced an event with you, write down who it was and what they said they experienced. If something only happens on a certain day of the week, note it. If a pet reacts to something you think might be related, jot down what the pet did, when, where and any possible mundane causes. The presence or absence of certain people in the area can also be an important clue. Often, keeping a journal can put a supposed haunting into perspective, and give you some insight into possible causes.

Research Your Property’s History

If you’ve analyzed a few journal entries and still think you have a real live haunting, you should rule out natural causes. Investigate the location thoroughly yourself, and compare your findings to what you’ve collected in your journal. If the rumblings in the wall only happen at 7 A.M., it might be the plumbing rattling as someone showers. If the lights flicker every night as you’re making dinner, the cause could be overloaded wiring as you’re using more power to run the dishwasher, cook in the microwave, whiz up margaritas in the blender…you get the idea. Rule out any outside environmental causes. Are you near a train or a power station? Is the guy next door broadcasting over a short wave radio? Do you have critters nesting in the attic? Dig deep. A little legwork can save some time, and possibly some embarrassment later.

As you check out all the above possibilities, try to gather evidence. If you have a camera, (even the disposable kind will do fine), snap a few pictures when you think something strange is happening. Take a picture when you feel that cold chill crawl up your spine. Experiment with a tape recorder, too. Using a fresh tape, set one up to record when you think paranormal activity might be occurring. Let it run while you’re not home and while you’re asleep. Play back the recordings in a quiet room, or using headphones. If you do hear voices on the tape, be sure it’s not the television, the neighbor or someone’s cordless phone before you decide it’s the voice of a ghost. Be skeptical-it’s better you find out your cat was hissing into the microphone than the ghost hunter who drove a hundred miles! On the other hand, if you hear your long dead great aunt telling you where the lost family heirloom is, you might just have valid evidence of a ghost!

To learn more about recording ghost voices, or EVP (electronic voice phenomena) check out the American Association for Electronic Voice Phenomena at www.aaevp.com. They offer useful advice on recording and interpreting what you’ve taped. Pictures are a highly debated topic in the paranormal community. Best to read up on the subject before you decide you’ve got the image of a ghost. There are thousands of websites and many books on the subject. Research widely, and use your best judgment.

Part 2 Tomorrow!

EVP and the Ovilus at UNT Denton's Bruce Hall

2010-03-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

Earlier this year, Lisa Olive let Michelle use her new tool, the Ovilus, during an investigation at UNT's Bruce Hall. The Ovilus is designed to amplify Electric Voice Phenomena and make the sound audible in real time Check out the results!

Baker Hotel Ghost Video

2010-03-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't seen it, Michelle's fantastic video of a ghost person and a ghost dog is on YouTube as well as the Mystic Ghost website.

Finally

2010-03-26T09:00:00.003-05:00

So instead of having a blog for the ghost stories/ghost hunts and this one, I decided it was much easier to have it all in one place. So, I finally moved the Mystic Ghost blog back here, where it belongs. Enjoy the old ghost posts, they're all tagged and easily findable now. (The Mystic Ghost blog was so old there were no tagging abilities, sheesh.)

Comment Spam

2010-03-25T19:01:00.002-05:00

As always, I fail to understand the point of comment spam.

Do these people, or the people who design these bots, really think anyone's going to click that crap? Don't they realize if someone wants an escort for the evening or pills to make the night go well, they'll google it themselves instead of cruising here to my little blog to search old posts for links to smut?

This blog is not that special, I promise.

My New Tarot Project

2010-03-24T19:09:00.000-05:00

I have a new project where I get to talk about Tarot cards.

I promise to never go into long, theoretical lectures about symbolism, how Tarot came from Egypt (it didn't!) or why Rider-Waite is the only deck that a person can learn with. Cross my heart.

CandleLight Tarot, for Beginners.

Sunflowers near Fairbury, Nebraska

2009-09-10T16:18:00.004-05:00

My mother drives along a stretch of road every day that passes this sunflower farm. I'm so glad she drove me out to see it!

While I never want to live in the middle of nowhere where these things appear, I can see why some people do. They're georgous.

The 50 Book Challenge

2009-08-29T17:33:00.003-05:00

So, this year I decided I WAS finally going to read fifty books in a year. I've been trying to strengthen my plot-forming abilities, and so this year I've been reading mostly pure genre fiction.

Turns out, genre fiction reads faster than I expected. It's almost September, and I'm at sixty-seven books. Three or four of them I wasn't able to finish, but that still puts me far ahead of fifty.

Now the difficult question: What, really, have I learned about plotting? I have about two weeks ahead of me where I won't have time to read, so we'll see if I can come up with an answer by then.

Not Posting

2009-06-01T12:46:00.003-05:00

I may not be posting, but I'm reading and keeping that list updated. In my own defense, even if I'm not posting, I am getting work done on a novel.

One Pass Manuscript Revision

2009-04-04T11:20:00.004-05:00

Why, oh why, did I not find this back in September?

Holly Lisle's brilliant technique.

The good news is that I'm at the perfect point in my current first draft to deal with her first step in revision. Should make both the writing and the fixing a lot easier.

Roomba vs. Ferret

2009-04-03T14:49:00.001-05:00

A Roomba is a robot vacuum.

A ferret is a fuzzy creature with sharp teeth.

Our ferret Jack wants to kill the roomba.

Watch.

The Wentworths

2009-04-02T11:23:00.003-05:00

I really like stories about screwed up families.

The Wentworths by Katie Arnoldi was a great one. Here's the backstory. How cool!

Reading Binge

2009-03-31T17:55:00.003-05:00

While trying to find an agent for my completed novel, and fleshing out the idea for my next, I've been reading.

A lot.

I'm going to hit the 50-books-this-year mark, no problem.

I can tell I've been reading far too much urban fantasy, because today I wished for a spell to make the idiots driving too fast on my road slow down. Uh-huh. Also, it looks like I've been reading wordy UF, judging by that last sentence. Sheesh.

I think it's time to break out some short story collections. No extra words there, usually.

The View

2008-10-29T04:14:00.002-05:00

Halloween picture weirdness. Took this Thursday night in the oldest building on the Texas Wesleyan University campus. More to come--if you're local to me, check out the CBS 11 news on Halloween for more of the story!

Cards and Waiting

2008-09-02T12:49:00.001-05:00

So in order to not stress about all the query letters and synopses I've sent out, I've been reduced to this: playing cards with my cat.

I really need to start working on something else. It was all the cat could do to stay awake.

Bookmarks

2008-08-27T04:47:00.003-05:00

These bookmarks are one more reason to love World Market.

Yes, Mom. One of those is for you.

No, I'm not telling you what color the fabric on the back is, but I promise you it's not what you'd expect.

Genres

2008-08-27T04:25:00.002-05:00

So I've gone through four complete revisions of a novel, and I'm finally querying agents.

This entails pigeon-holing my novel, which isn't working. It's had me laying in bed, unable to sleep, thinking about genre.

See, every time I sit down to write, I intend to write horror, and I'm always shocked when it never comes out that way. I mean never as in not once have I come close to true horror. And I'm good with that--it's fine not being horror.

Creepy, sure. Paranormalish sometimes. Weird. But not horror.

In my queries, because I can't say--"This would be women's fiction, if there was less blood. This would be horror, if my main char had meant to do it. This would be mystery, if the plot ended with whodunnit,"--so I've called it mainstream, or character-driven.

Character-driven is about the only genre-esque term that seems to fit.

Lack of objectivity sucks this morning.

New Uses for Cards from the Catalog

2008-07-28T18:22:00.003-05:00

So libraries are phasing out card catalogs. My heart broke a little writing that sentence.

So what are they doing with the cards? This. How cool!

I Hate Summer.

2008-07-26T18:04:00.003-05:00

Usually, I'm still in love with summer in July. My patio is shaded in the morning, my flowers are all blooming, and I get to read the newspaper, in the shade and watch the hummingbirds in relative comfort, yanno, 85 degrees, 90 maybe, before 10am?

Not this year. I spend the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee out there, and I'm so soaked in sweat I'm running for the shower. The a/c unit is running so often it's chasing away the birds. My flowers, watered every night, wilt in the reflected heat from the brick by noon.

I'm considering putting tin foil in the windows to reflect the heat back. (The cost of electricity jumped 32% here last month, youch!) Comfort is winning over taste, clearly. It hasn't rained in weeks. The cats are even avoiding the windows.

This year the summer sun is evil. Check out this forecast. I'm not supposed to visit my friends in CT until September, but I'm seriously considering going now. Like, tonight. It's rainy and in the low 80's there. Not fair.

Cute Mutt

2008-07-25T23:10:00.005-05:00

Michael's been out of town this week.

I finished draft three, the hand-editing, anyway, in four days. It'll take me two to put the revisions into the computer, but hey, I got the wrack-my-brain stuff done. Yay me! (Coincidence? Doubt it.)

And this dog wandered into my yard.

Again. And again. I took this picture a few weeks ago, but the dog keeps coming back. Normally, I run off stray mutts; I hate dog poop. Really and truly, I own no dogs, I want no poo in my yard.

I've been known to carry little yap-yap dogs back to their houses, and bang on the door until the owner appears, wondering who the hell I am, and why I have his mutt. It's not that I don't like dogs. I do: if it's my dog.

But this mutt's cute. He comes over, lays in that same spot, and watches me. He doesn't poop. After about an hour, he leaves. He's become my daily little joy.

Second Drafts

2008-07-19T19:22:00.002-05:00

So last night I finished the second draft of this novel. I call it 'this novel' because I still lack a title. I have some, but I hate them all.

About two hours after the printer shot out the last page, I started to feel something like anxiety. Wow, I really finished the second draft. Now I can send it out.

Add an hour. Anxiety has turned to panic. Did I remember to actually put the shovel in where I thought I did? Did the soup burn? I didn't describe Mark enough. No one will know what he looks like! Wait, the glove, where's the glove, oh god, I can't remember which chapter I'm supposed to look for it in!

Add thirty minutes and some vodka. This novel will never be fit to see the light of day. I will never be done tinkering with it. Agents? They'll laugh, this novel is so not ever going to be ready.

That was my night. Sanity returned this morning. And as I was perusing some writing blogs, I came across this: Writing a Novel, A Love Story.

Libba Bray is brilliant.

Second Season

2008-07-10T13:44:00.001-05:00

Mom, this is the second Stargazer season you've missed. Just sayin'.

Small World

2008-06-27T01:07:00.003-05:00

So weeks ago Jon mentioned that he'd met a couple guys in the Border's where our writer's group meets, and they were working on something, and he invited them to drop in one Thursday night.

Tonight they did. They're working on a graphic novel, which I know almost less than nothing about. In conversation, one of the guys mentioned he used to work at a casino in Connecticut.

Foxwoods, I asked, in utter shock.

Nope, he says, Mohegan Sun.

I look at him and say that I'm from Ledyard, mostly.

He grew up in Groton. We were both shocked to run into each other in Fort Worth, at a writer's group! So the three of us ended the evening lamenting the loss of grinders (the sandwich and the word!), shops that deliver grinders, and Greek pizza.

Small, small world.

Wait until I tell them that there are at least two more people from Ledyard (that I knew, anyway) in Texas: one in Denton and one in San Antonio!

Bikes, Books & Soaps

2008-06-26T12:15:00.003-05:00

So my bike broke the night before last. The consensus seems to be that I shifted gears while putting too much power on the pedals, which caused the chain to jump off and rip a spoke out from the wheel. I almost crashed. I ended up waiting in a nursing home lobby while M rode home and came back with the car. The nursing home was creepy, but waiting at 11pm in a butcher shop parking lot didn't sound like much fun either.

Anyway, the lack of a bike gave a family member and I time to have dinner last night. It didn't go so well. The highlight was when she said books were just like soap operas. You get the same thing from them, she said.

I asked her nicely to please never, ever say that again, and things went downhill from there. She wanted me to explain, and of course I did, and I'm sure she was offended, because soaps are her life, but she refused to counter my opinions. That was almost more irritating that the original comment!

I miss my bike.

Tattoos and Dentistry, oh my.

2008-06-25T21:52:00.002-05:00

Monday night I broke a tooth. Luckily, I already had an appointment for Tuesday, so that was happy. The tooth could be crowned, rather than yanked or replaced with an implant, happy again.

But the assistant stuck her foot in her mouth, and she's so nice, I feel bad for her.

She had me captive, gauze and mold-making goo in my mouth, water running down my back from the irrigator they use with the drill. She asked me if I'd ever written a children's book.

I told her no, I don't have kids, never was around them much, I wouldn't know where to start.

She's uber-Christian, by the way, and I've known this for the past three or four dental visits. So I'm pretty sure I know what's coming.

And yup, there it was: I should write children's books preaching to kids about how they shouldn't smoke, drink, pierce themselves, get tattooed or do any of the things they're tempted to do, of which a good Christian woman would dissaprove.

Wow, does that sound boring. But that's beside the point.

So she says all this, and removes some gauze, and my hair falls behind my ear. She notices then I have three holes in my earlobe. She squints, says nothing, and wipes off my face. She really is a lovely woman to have poking around in your mouth, she's very good at her job and always happy. And she believes me when I say, ouch! I'm not numb yet! More drugs!

So she keeps on, and talks about tattooing some more. Then I get out of the chair, and because I've just had my hair chopped off, she sees the tattoo on the back of my neck. (Luckily, she missed the big on one my leg.) Her eyes get huge, and I can tell she's so embarassed.

As I'm paying my bill, and telling her how relieved I am that my tooth could be fixed and not yanked, she says goodbye, come back soon, all this, four or five times. Her face was beet red. I wanted to tell her not to worry about it, really, I don't think kids should do permanent things to their bodies either, but I was afraid I'd make it worse. I'm good at that. Too good, often.

Stinks, though, cause I wanted to tell her not to be embarassed.

The Cost of Commas

2008-06-19T14:04:00.004-05:00

I was in Barnes and Noble yesterday, looking at geology books with my FIL. In my wandering, I came across a book that was regional, of a specialized interest, and written by a person with whom I am acquainted.

Cool, I thought. It's a little pricey, sure, and that font is kinda big (insert warning bells here) but I know this guy and I like this subject. So I bought it.

I began to regret it on the drive home. I read the first two chapters in the car, and by about page four, I was wondering where the hell the copyeditor was before this book went to print.

Then I began to wonder just how much commas really cost in print, because there were more missing than not. I mean, if they cost that much, the sentences could have been recast, shortened, phrasing removed, and they wouldn't have then been needed, right?

It's not that there was a misprint on one page. There were big bad mistakes on most pages.

When I arrived home, I googled the publisher. I was smelling POD, or some other printing company that advertised itself as a publisher. This one was small, perhaps new, but legit by web appearances.

Then I found the bookmark in the book, soliciting authors for books to be written on the same subject. (Insert more warning bells here.)

As I got to chapter three in the book, I began to really feel sorry for my friend, whose typos went unfixed, wrong words uncorrected, and whose clunky sentences kept their clunk. And their howevers. All of them.

I want to send the publisher a copy of Strunk & White. Mostly though, I hope they spelled the author's name correctly on the paycheck.

(ETA: Just did some more research, and discovered more warning bells. Their contract states that the author must pre-sell 1000 copies of the book before they'll take it on. Yikes! Linky.)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2008-06-18T00:22:00.003-05:00

I read lots of books. Lots, really. But I haven't read one, until this one, that's made me want to change such a tedious part of my life as food, ever. It's by Barbara Kingsolver, and family, and while I doubt I'll ever harvest turkeys, I'll be a more responsible food consumer.

The cost in energy, time, and revenue to a farmer to bring me a plum, out of season, from whatever far-flung clime it grows in, is too high, now that I know about it.

Not only have I started shopping regularly at my local farmer's market, I bring my own bags now.

I had no idea how much oil it cost to ship food to my grocery store. I had no idea the reason people in some parts of the world need things like golden rice is because of the way farms are managed.

I'm on the local, organic food bandwagon now, and I've learned that everything tastes better when it comes from the farmer's market. Even lettuce.

My Weekend

2008-06-16T12:19:00.002-05:00

There are six hummingbirds in the picture. Sadly, the camera I used sucked, so you can't really see them. But anyway, this is the view from my weekend. I can relax here like noplace else :)

Next time, I'll bring a better camera. The hummers actually buzzed me a few times, when I got too close to their food!

And, I almost forgot: I beat my FIl at pool. Twice. Yay! He got beat by a girl.

The Jello Chronicles

2008-05-15T13:51:00.006-05:00

As I was attempting to clean out the house of many treasures in preparation for a long-distance move, I came across the cookbook in the photo. That price sticker is from a resale shop, so I'm guessing this copy of Jello Joys dates at least 40 years back.

It's a noteworthy find, because I think it explains the origins of this little delicacy.

Now, at least, I know where to lay the blame.

(Post from Chia's blog about the green jello nightmare.)

The End of April

2008-05-11T16:10:00.005-05:00

For the last two weeks of April, scenes like this were my daily view.

Sometimes I saw cows, sometimes the just-planted fields of wheat, corn, soybeans and milo, barely sprouted. Often I saw sway-backed nags bent with their heads in the grass. But mostly I saw grain elevators like these, or silos, and the occasional field irrigation apparatus.

The internal landscape was vastly different - inside the house of many treasures, and myself as well, but that's a story for another day.

For today, there's just this grain elevator in Jansen, Nebraska, and the fields that surround it.

Creative Excuses for Late Pizza

2008-04-13T15:14:00.000-05:00

This cracked me up last night...

Headaches

2008-04-12T11:40:00.002-05:00

I've been wondering all week why my head's been hurting so much. When I looked at this page, on the top stack of my desk, I had a 'duh' moment.

All week I've been trying to turn pages like this into something with a lot less red marks and a lot more coherence. I've been taking my own edits, combining them with suggestions from my writers group (bless them!) and attempting to fix them. I haven't even looked at most of these pages in about a year.

No freaking wonder my head hurts! I need new glasses.

What's wrong here?

2008-04-07T18:18:00.003-05:00

They used the wrong word twice, which is frightening because it means they really don't know it's wrong.

I wonder why I'm not getting any work done?

2008-04-05T10:16:00.002-05:00

The First Finished Draft!

2008-04-05T06:40:00.004-05:00

I started my first novel in 1998. I never finished it because I had characters and no plot.

I started my second in 2001. Again, characters and no plot, but this time I had an interesting setting. It's in a drawer somewhere, about 10,000 words in.

My third, kick-ass setting, one great character, nothing much else. 20,000 words in on that one.

My fourth, great plot, a very historical (meaning reseach heavy and so bo-oring to write) setting, and bland characters. Also in a drawer, and 5,000 words in. I learned to give up on a bad idea more quickly with that one.

But a week ago, I finally finished a first draft! Finished! As in, I had a plot, a character that wouldn't shut up and for some reason, the bodies kept dropping wherever she went. Wahoo!!

My writer's group tells me it doesn't suck. So now I'm in red-pencil land, and it turns out, fixing is a lot easier than writing. I'm into chapter three with the edits now, and I still have hope for it. Hopefully, by chapter ten, I'll feel the same way.

Little Joy: The Meep Meep Bird

2008-04-03T12:44:00.004-05:00

Michael took this picture this morning, while we were watching this little bird build a nest.

He makes a 'meep-meep' or 'cheep-cheep' sound, depending on which one of us you ask. I'd never seen the individual feathers on a wing spread like this.

Anyway, that's my little joy.

(ETA: Ronnie identified the Meep Mep bird for us: he's a Bewick's Wren. Thanks, Ronnie!)

Little Joy # 14

2008-03-26T16:09:00.002-05:00

Today has not been a banner day. I woke up to a smell that could only mean my sweet old cat had had an accident. On my bed. While I was in it.

The I found that my breakfast - bananas - had gone rotten overnight. Then my husband called and said American Airlines had grounded 200 planes this morning, and so his flight was cancelled and there wasn't another one for twenty-four hours.

Then my new neighbor, the one with the loud diesel truck, loud four-wheeler, loud stereo and trailer that he likes to leave parked in front of my house knocks on the door. I've just woken up to all of the above, so I'm not feeling especially sunny. His dog has gotten loose, he says. He wants to know if he can drive his four-wheeler over my lawn to get down to the field behind our houses to look for the dog. (Nevermind why you need a four-wheeler to traverse a field, it's beyond me.)

So I point him to the side yard that he thinks is mine but actually belongs to the obnoxious college kids who rent the house on the other side of me. Payback for them blocking my driveway once a week for the past year, let's call it, since he had to drive within inches of their bedroom windows, where surely they were still sleeping off last night's festivities.

So my little joy for today is so far still elusive; I'll find it later this afternoon. I will, I know, because my joy for today is hope. It's a simple word, small, but it promises to let big things spill out. Today I'll trust it.

Haunted: A Novel of Stories

2008-03-22T17:13:00.003-05:00

I finished Haunted last night, by Chuck Palahniuk. I'd read two of his others before, but they didn't prepare me for this. Not even a little. From the back cover, I knew Palahniuk was taking a shot at reality television, at the way we glorify ourselves in a piteous way with those shows.

What I got was so much more than what I expected. I was grossed out and horrified, but entranced at the same time. My two favorite stories were the last two: Obsolete and Evil Spirits.

Anybody who can name a character Sister Vigilante and make it work just plain rocks.

Stuck in my Head Today

2008-03-16T17:36:00.002-05:00

Lyrics:

"I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that phase.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space"

It's from Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, and the song's divine. There's something wonderful today about the thought of emotions echoing in space, the way they might crackle back at you, like lighting in a jar, maybe.

Cat's Cradle

2008-03-15T12:40:00.004-05:00

I finished reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut last night. It's the first Vonnegut I've read. As I closed the covers, all I could think of was a little poem by Robert Frost, called Fire and Ice.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to persish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

I wonder if Vonnegut was a Frost fan, and if Frost would have approved. It's a small poem, and a large one, and I've no idea where I picked it up, as I couldn't find it in a book before going to bed last night. I found it this morning here.

Old Phones Jangle

2008-03-07T11:45:00.009-06:00

It almost feels like spring this morning. The snow's melting, the newscasters have nothing to talk about, and I'm left to clear out my own cobwebs of thought.

I woke up this morning thinking about how in childhood, spring days like this, especially in New Hampshire, made me anticipate summer, swimming lessons, and empty afternoons with nothing to do but explore the mazes of junk in my grandma's basement.

I used to love to poke around alone down there, hoping to find some new treasure to show my cousins. They loved to explore the cavern too, and I always wanted to be the one to find something shiny and wonderful first.

I never did, of course, because the basement wasn't full of treasure. It was full of junk; a sad echo of a muddled mind. As a child, it was a wild romp, but not now. The things that shine now are cold memories of the early morning fights over mushy Crispix cereal, or glasses of orange juice that were somtimes sweet and sometimes rotten. It was like breakfast bingo - would the day begin spoiled or sweet? Would she scream that morning or not? Would he finally lob his ceramic coffee mug across the room at her? Was the yogurt safe to eat? Often, it wasn't, and any safety found in those summers was just an illusion.

I'd test my yogurt on the dirty floor in the hall, my back against carboard boxes and my knees against the wall, within earshot but out of firing range. I just knew one morning missles would fly and I didn't want the mug of instant Sanka hitting me. I used to sit there and wonder what kind of sound the phone would make if he threw it. Would it jangle and clang, or just crash? I tested the theory once, years later. Old phones jangle when they hit wood or linoleum.

(Inspiration this morning provided by Chia.)

Daffodil For Mom

2008-03-07T07:32:00.001-06:00

Here's the shot of spring I promised you. I know it's gone already, and you never really did get to see it, but sometimes a glimpse has to be good enough. If winter is a tunnel, maybe a daffodil can be the light at the end.

Or maybe not, my metaphor-maker's been on the fritz lately. But sometimes what we have has to be enough, no matter what we really wanted it to be.

Reading & Writing

2008-03-06T23:17:00.002-06:00

I read an article at the beginning of February in a writer's magazine that has totally fouled me up. It was two articles really: one about reading while writing, and one about not. One warned about the dangers of incorporating stolen bits of someone else's fiction into your own unknowingly, and the other, predictably, didn't.

I decided to test the theory, to see if my writing improved while on a crash book-diet. It didn't. In fact, I haven't written anything worthwhile since I stopped reading. Maybe the creative part of my brain can't survive in a vacuum.

The biggest con in the article eschewing the practice was that often, a writer will let what she reads seep into her own work. I've decided it's a silly fear. No one has ever read what I've written and said "Wow, that sounds like Stephen King, or Chuck Palahnuik, Margaret Atwood or Alice Sebold."

My brain's just come out of Heart-Shaped Box. I think I'm about to put it in A Widow for One Year. When it comes out, I bet no one will be able to guess what I've just read, and that suits me just fine.

If anyone from the AW Blogroll is considering testing out the theory; don't. You won't be able to blog and tell us how it went for ages!

A Freakish Beginning to March

2008-03-06T22:36:00.001-06:00

So much for spring. This was taken hours before sunset.

Turtle & the Frogs

2008-01-09T01:08:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to convince the cats that the frogs live here for my own enjoyment. I'm losing that battle. We wondered how Turtle's fur was getting in the frog tank. Now we know.

Little Joy #12

2008-01-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

This was one of the last pictures taken of Grandpa, and the last of him and I.

I wish it had been taken on a different day, because all I remember about this day is how hard we had to fight to get one - one - thing that he really wanted put into his will.

And now that one thing has been - and certainly the spirit of that one thing - mostly ignored by the people who would claim to have loved him most. I wish they had respected his wishes. I wish none of it had been a fight, but there were at least two.

From now on, I'll try to remember that he doesn't have to worry about anyone's unreasonable-ness anymore, and try to hope this picture into becoming a little joy.

Story for the Tall Munchkin

2008-01-06T14:51:00.000-06:00

Since Chia dubbed the youngest girl the Tiny Munchkin, seems fitting that the other girl should be the Tall Munchkin. Tiny M told Craft Girl, her brother and I that Tall M would not believe this story if Tiny told it, so I'll tell it.

When our mothers were kids - Little Sis three or four years old, Evil Green Jello Woman would have blowups every Sunday night when Grandpa was home from sea. She'd wait until everyone was in the living room, so no one could get past her, and stand at the top of the stairs. She'd start screaming. One mantra was that "First thing Monday morning I'm filing for divorce!" She'd scream so hard and so long that she'd make herself pass out. She'd fall to the floor at the top of the stairs and lay there. After weeks of this, the older two sisters would realize she would wake up eventually, but Little Sis was always worried about Jello Woman and would bring her cool washcloths.

The older sisters, seeing this for the game it was, would step over Jello Woman and go back to their rooms, where it was safe. Jello Woman always woke up, and it was just a weekly thing. This insanity became normal. "Oh, Jello Woman's done screaming and passed out again. Now we can get by her and do our homework."

Once, the Avon Lady came to the door, and saw the kids walking over Jello Woman. It was apparantly no big deal. The kids kept on walking, and the Avon Lady didn't come up to see what the matter was.

This is why I've labeled these posts "broken." Chia's title was very apt.

More later on how Jello Woman's just like a scare goat and the saran wrap story. And maybe even how I took away the Avon Lady and the cheese.

*Disclaimer - Please read the posts bearing the label "Broken" with the knowledge that Evil Green Jello Woman has several mental illnesses. Untreated by refusal, not ignorance.*

Broken

2008-01-05T12:33:00.001-06:00

My aunt Chia posted this today, and it got me thinking it might do us all good to start a little broken blog ring. Lots of us broken folks play on each other's blogs. Maybe they'll play, maybe not.

Chia's Mom, aka Evil Green Jello Woman, delights in being the center of attention, and if she can get there by denigrating someone else, so much the better. The yelling was kept mostly in check, but something else took its place this time. (Except for the day Tiny Munchkin, her mom and I were together last. Sorry as hell that had to happen, but no one's immune, really.)

When we were all together last, she was flirting with her son's-in-law. It was highly disturbing. It's creepy enough that the next generation of husbands get kept at a distance. I do it because I don't feel like my husband should have to suffer at her histrionic hand the way we all have; when I can protect him from it, I do. Chia's daughter (I need a nickname for her. Quilt geek maybe. Or the brainy red-head.) says her husband is a little scared of Jello Woman, and if anything, that's to his credit. Tiny Munchkin's husband got to escape because of work, lucky, lucky man.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not male and I'm really glad she had no sons.

Next?

*Disclaimer - Please read the posts bearing the label "Broken" with the knowledge that Evil Green Jello Woman has several mental illnesses. Untreated by refusal, not ignorance.*

Goodbye, Grandpa.

2008-01-05T03:06:00.000-06:00

I've just gotten back from spending a week in Nebraska for my Grandfather's funeral. He died very late Christmas night. While it was a shock, I'm glad he's free from suffering and anguish. The only way I could find to say goodbye myself was to write about him, and so I gave a eulogy at his funeral. I said a lot of things, but this is one I want to remember, and share.

"He was a man able to put aside the struggles and look for the small joys in life. The most enduring memory I have, and I know my cousins will also remember this, is of Grandpa’s small monsters, the bob-dingles. He would put one of us in his truck – always a big red Chevy -, and drive down the darkest, most twisted roads through the woods. The trick only worked when we were young enough to believe that bob-dingles and dingle-bobs were little red monsters that fell out of trees onto the top on his truck, but that was long enough. The thump and scramble his hand made on the truck’s roof made the dingle-bobs real, and as soon as our eyes got large with fear, he’d laugh and explain the joke. That was Grandpa at his best, in a big-hearted, loud-laughing moment."

It's those big-hearted moments that get me upset all over again, but they're also the ones most worth remembering. I hope they have big red Chevys in heaven.

How I Spent New Year's.

2008-01-04T20:47:00.000-06:00

If you can't tell what this is, you're forgiven. It's lime jello, olives, cheese, apples, maraschino cherries and something else I was unable to identify.

No, I didn't make it, and no, I have no idea how it tastes.

For years I've been trying to get a picture of this particular family delusion of goodness, and now I have. It's strangely unsatisfying.

Anyway, this is what I did for New Year's Eve. Glad Grandpa didn't have to eat any either this year.

From "An Arsonist's Guide..."

2007-12-16T16:33:00.000-06:00

"...spirit being not that thing which helps you rise above, but that which weighs you down."

The author was talking about New England and the Robert Frost house and people who condescend. For some reason, I can't get this line out of my head.
What is he really trying to say, and to how many things could this thought really apply? To how few couldn't it?

The Crimson Petal and the White

2007-11-30T10:29:00.000-06:00

I started reading this novel when the afternoons were still warm enough to sit on the patio in shorts and wiggle my toes in the sun. Now it's the end of November, and I'm wishing I had my time back.

The plot dragged, but the details were luminescent. I read a review likening the story to something Virginia Woolf might have written - and while her social commentary was certainly there, she might have chosen a more conventional tense.

Still - it's hard to put down a book about whores, mad wives and the London Season.

Thanksgiving Snowstorm

2007-11-23T10:40:00.002-06:00

As we drove home from central Texas Thanksgiving night, the sky spewed snow on us.

In November!

After driving in it for four hours, you'd think we'd be tired of snow - but no, we had to take pictures and play.

Now, if it would only do this all winter, I'd be happy!

The Shining Ball

2007-11-16T10:22:00.000-06:00

The utter highlight of the trip - The Shining Ball at the Stanley Hotel. Picture 200 people who believe they're in a haunted hotel, drinking and searching for scary little twins around every creepy corner.

Everyone was drunk on Stephen King, ghost stories and costume joy. Even the mostly naked Mardi Gras man in blue.

He knows who he is. I'm sure his butt is still chapped from the 30 degree weather.

The Stanley Hotel

2007-11-15T10:14:00.000-06:00

It was beautiful. A lovely scenic area, minus the power plant, unseen but completely existant. Picture it in the right foreground, next to the strip mall.

A good excuse to try out a new camera, a great halloween ball, but a ghost-hunting mecca? Not so much.

It might have been better had the supposed phenomena in our overpriced little room hadn't been caused by the elevator. No one but us believed an elevator could shake a door, though, and that was more dissapointing that you'd realize.

Monkey Joy

2007-10-16T14:27:00.000-05:00

After putting on a display of happy romping, he mugged for the camera. For a moment, he just exuded joy and peace.

Then it was back to the ropes.

The End of Summer

2007-10-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

Leftover airline miles and old friends. A place where the end of summer really felt like the end.

Seasonless

2007-09-16T20:13:00.001-05:00

While the argument can made that no matter where a person is, they can be out of place, some differences in place leave me feeling more homeless than ever. There have been some large differences, or moments, depending on your perspective, since I moved to Texas.

One that causes perennial lament is the lack of seasons.

It's the second week of September. School has started. Michelle and I are costume-hunting for the Shining Ball in earnest. Fall clothing collection catalogs are ariving in hordes. But it's not fall here, and it won't ever be.

Today's high was 92. It's not like I expect a New Hampshire-worth display of autumn on every tree. Even a subtle change would do - some small piercing of a stagnant season. There will be no crackling leaf piles rustling in the cool wind, because the wind is never cool here. It's either hot, or cold.

There will be no moment on a early evening stroll when I smell someone's first fireplace smoke of the year and the temperature is just shy of too cold. Pink cheeks belong to January, and none sooner.

The enormity of a seasonless existence is overwhelming today. Even when I remember that I don't ever have to shovel snow.

The Frog in my Fishtank

2007-09-15T14:18:00.000-05:00

Another little joy. I love frogs!

Eclipse #4

2007-08-28T13:59:00.000-05:00

I take back what I said before. This is my favorite.

This was at nearly 5am. This moment filled me with the sense of the mysterious that seems to fade from adult life so often - that wonder that we all wish we could remember from years gone by.

Another Eclipse Photo

2007-08-28T05:54:00.001-05:00

This might well be my favorite eclipse picture. But it's late, or early, and I'm going to bed. I'll look through the rest of the pictures when I wake up.

Man In the Moon

2007-08-28T05:51:00.000-05:00

During the eclipse, we spied what looked like the profile of the man in the moon.

Lunar Eclipse

2007-08-28T05:46:00.001-05:00

I've been up all night. Michael and I spent the darkest hours of the night, where morning slips in unannounced, in the driveway with cameras and a telescope. I'm sure the next door neighbor who leaves for work at 4am thinks we're insane. Oh well.

Here's the moon partially eclipsed.

Punishment

2007-08-26T13:20:00.001-05:00

So, last night I decided that in addition to punishing myself with quitting smoking, I'd add torture: an elliptical machine. It's only been four days without smoking, but it's four more than it was four days ago. I figured I'd get some use out of the ability to breathe deeper. Positive reinforcement, sort of.

And my whole eat healthy-kick that started a year ago is suffering, let me tell you. Two servings of whole grain a day has become "Let's go out for Italian tonight! Pass the garlic bread!"

Yeah, I know. I'm weak. But I haven't smoked, even though I can't concentrate, get weird sweats, have a fever on and off and am dizzy most of the time. I had no idea there were actual nicotine withdrawl symptoms. And all this while wearing the Nicoderm patch!

Excuse me while I go punish myself some more.

Puppy Love

2007-08-25T12:18:00.000-05:00

Maya, Michelle's new puppy, and I. I miss dogs :(

Old Friends

2007-08-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

Today seems to have been about old friends (aka: the wonders of myspace.)

Janet gets to go with Michelle and I to the Stanley Hotel in October! And Stan, whom I haven't seen in 13 years, has been in DFW for the last 3. Lord knows how he dug me up today, but he did, and it was a lovely surprise.

Now I just have to chase him down at UNT for a cup of coffee. No fair being so close and trying to stay so far!

I also realized Janet, my mother and my aunt all share the same birthday. Weirdos.

The Criminals are Leaving!

2007-08-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

This is sad, but I'm super-exicted today about the horse trailer and tow-racks that showed up across the street today. It's a couple houses over, and the whole neighborhood is in a celebratory mood.

The criminals are leaving. The people who caused six sheriff's deputies to sneak around our houses in broad daylight with shotguns and revolvers drawn are moving!

Thank freaking God.

I've been unnerved lots of times, and freaked out plenty, but there's nothing quite like cops with guns drawn doing the cop-walk in the street right in front of you to make you nervous.

Bail must have been set high enough that now they can't afford a U-Haul. Whatever. As long as they're leaving, it works for me.

The Highlight of My Yesterday

2007-08-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the best thing to make a day better is a really simple thing. Yesterday it was just watching our ferrets be ferrety. Sometimes I wish I could be as fascinated by plastic balls as they are.

Little Joys #2

2007-08-17T12:36:00.001-05:00

Today I got a lovely email from a man in New Dehli telling me that "Joy takes a completely divine form when shared." That put me in mind of these chimes. My mother-in-law gave them to my husband and I as a wedding gift. She was dying, and told us that whenever we heard the chimes, it meant she'd come down from being with angels to visit us.

I love that. I love that I'm reminded of her so often by something she wished to be used just for that purpose.

Thanks, Linda, for leaving us something to let us know when you're around. I hope you are with the angels and that you're able to teach there too, just like you wanted to.

Little Joys #1

2007-08-16T15:21:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I mailed my Grandparents a disposable camera and asked them if they could take pictures of the things in their lives that they enjoyed. I wanted to get to know them better. Being the people they are, they couldn't be bothered. Later, I learned that since the camera came wrapped in silver protective paper, Grandma thought it was a bit of fruitcake and stuck it in the freezer. So much for trying.

But it occured to me today that if I thought it might be interesting to see why brought little joy into someone else's life, other people might feel the same. So I'm going to start taking pictures of the things that bring me happiness, no matter how small. I'll post them here as my "little joys."

We all spend so much time wrapped up in our daily hassles that I think we forget that we can slow down and breathe for a minute. We can find something to love, every day. Here's to remembering that.

The Human Stain

2007-08-16T11:37:00.001-05:00

I was so excited to read The Human Stain because I'd never read Roth before, which is pretty inexcusable. Today I feel like a total loser because I got half-way through it and gave it. It was a slow story, but it's lit-fic and to be expected. Reading it, I felt like I was in the middle of a beat-down. It just dragged me down and down and finally I was so sick of the societal injuries he kept harping on, I put it down. I picked it back up again - I hate to abandon a book, especially 200 pages in, but damn.

I know there's hate in the world. I live here. Show me something I don't know.

If anyone wants to recco a Roth book with a little less dipping into the black pool of ugliness, please, let me know. Ugliness is good when it makes a point. This just felt to me like I was mired in ick and wasn't ever going to get out.

Being a Container

2007-08-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the inspirational writing of the day on Daily Om was about being a container, holding a sacred space inside yourself for another person who needs some space to just be.

It was also about remembering that a person's desire to help someone else should be about the person needing help, not about how much the helper can give.

Everyone on the planet should read this, just once, if for no other reason than to remember we are all sacred.

Hummingbird

2007-08-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

Prior to this year, I'd never seen a hummingbird. I'd seen pictures, but never the real bird close up. Maybe I should have worn my glasses more as a child.

But this year, they love my cannas. They flit and drink and fly away, but today I happened to be out with my camera at just the right moment.

Anyway, I think it's neat.

So this is what you do on a boring drive...

2007-08-13T15:20:00.000-05:00

So every year Michael and Ernest and a myriad of other r/c geeks descend upon Midland, Texas to show off new toys, fly them in a scale hangar, and do guy stuff.

This year Michael and Ernest had matching cars to drive. I'm sorry, matching man-machines. The word 'car' has been outlawed. One is red and one is black. The black one should have been yellow. Hydrofoam geeks will know why.

Seems this is the best way to pass the time on a drive in the middle of nowhere. Take photos of the red car. Err, man-machine. Yeah. See why I stay home?

Hot

2007-08-12T15:02:00.000-05:00

Today's forecast: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 102. Heat index values as high as 107. Calm wind becoming east between 5 and 10 mph.

God Bless the a/c man. I'm going to sit outside until I'm sweaty just so I can come in and get frozen in the a/c.

Shannon's Domestic Side

2007-08-07T09:20:00.000-05:00

My cousin makes cool bags. Who knew? You can buy them here.

Sogginess

2007-08-07T09:06:00.000-05:00

So I'd share a picture of the misery here, but I'm outside on the laptop, and the laptop is having LAN issues, so I can't get to my pictures. And really, I'm too hot to care. Today is the second day of the a/c adventure. When we bought our house three years ago, the previous owner said the a/c was in fine shape, and just needed tune ups to keep going. The home inspector said though while it was old, the unit should keep up fine for years.

And yet this year it kept freezing up, and the electric bill jumped to ungodly proportions. So the nice a/c people brought out our new unit yesterday. It's big. Really big. But it's not cold yet, because the same woman who sold us our house also did a majority of the ductwork and insulation herself. Yeah, it all had to be ripped out. Much of it was black when it came out yesterday. It was supposed to be pink.

Last night, at eight o'clock, it was still 90 degrees in the house. Today we found the wireless card for the laptop, and I'm not going back in there until some kind of air is blowing. It's gonna be 100 today, so I get to sit out here and feel like a pioneer, who had no idea what a/c was.

The people who settled this area had to have been out of their ever-loving minds to live here without benefit of freon.

The Stanley Hotel!

2007-07-29T14:56:00.000-05:00

You know the creepy, grand hotel that inspired, in part, Stephen King's The Shining? This one? The one full of ghost stories and bygone grandeur? Yeah, Michelle and I are going, the weekend before Halloween, with a bunch of folks from Nightwatch radio. How freaking cool. Hurry up, October!

Is it bad that I'm almost more psyched about the costume ball than the ghosts?

The Stanley Hotel!

2007-07-29T14:51:00.000-05:00

You know the creepy, grand hotel that inspired, in part, Stephen King's The Shining? This one? The one full of ghost stories and bygone grandeur? Yeah, Michelle and I are going, the weekend before Halloween, with a bunch of folks from Nightwatch radio. How freaking cool. Hurry up, October!

Is it bad that I'm almost more psyched about the costume ball than the ghosts?

Turtle

2007-07-22T14:45:00.000-05:00

Oh, to relax like that!

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

2007-07-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

I finished this last night - well, let's call it this morning. I surprised myself; I enjoyed this book much more than I had thought I would. First off, it gets language points for being modern British. I love to see how the English language varies, and I almost always catch phrases of expression that seem so much more efficient that how the same thing would be said in American English. Often British English seems more precise to me.

The reason I delayed reading this book for so long was my fear that it would come off as overly endearing. It didn't. The writer managed not to pass judgement in his novel - there was no forced sympathy.

To look into an autistic mind in a creative way was fascinating. To see a narrator unable to comprehend emotion was disturbing in a quite good way. I will admit that I skimmed the appendix with the math problem - I barely made it through geometry. Can you blame me?

Wednesdays

2007-07-11T00:45:00.000-05:00

Our oldest ferret, Fuzz, got another shot on Monday to manage his adrenal disease. He's starting to like shot weeks - he's learning that he gets extra treats all week, plus, the shots really do jazz him up for a day or two. All his fur has grown back, though some of it is gray now. His vet is an hour away so it's always an exciting ferret production full of extra licks and lots of excited nose-poking.

Not much else going on in my world. Writing and creature care, how exciting :)

Finished Chapter 5!

2007-07-10T11:59:00.000-05:00

This is exciting, because it means I'm halfway through. It also means I have something to bring to my writer's group this week. I try to keep two chapters ahead of they're reading, so I already know the answers to the questions they're asking.

My new goal for this week is to be three ahead. With all this rain putting the kibash on any outdoor fun, that shouldn't be a problem.

Started reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime last night. So far, so good. No signs of super-sweetness yet, which is why I've put off reading it for so long.

I finished Winter Moon the other day. Dissapointing! Half the book was set-up to kill off a character whose only place was to set up the last half of the book. That would have been okay, if he hadn't been the most likeable character in the book.

Sleep & Dreams

2007-07-09T09:10:00.000-05:00

Dawno's post last night got me thinking about my own sleep and dreams. Rather, my own lack thereof. I think my internal clock is set on PST when I've lived most of my life on EST. Stinks, and even when I've had several year long routines, those sleep patterns can be demolished in a week or less.

She talked about a couple dreams she'd had, and I can't ever remember my dreams. Only my nightmares. Even childhood nightmares stick with me. I had a recurring nightmare for several years, but the night it reached its resolution (I died in the dream) seemed to be the last night I had it. Weird psyche tricks maybe? A friend thinks I was dreaming of a past life horror. I have no idea which is more correct, if either, but I'm glad the dream is gone. It was very Jack-the-Ripperish, complete with drizzling rain and cobblestones. The good news was that death in a dream isn't painful.

I'm trying to force myself to be an optimist, can't you tell?

Chick Lit

2007-07-08T01:20:00.000-05:00

So I'm way behind the times. Last month I read In Her Shoes and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I didn't see either movie on purpose because the books have been on my TBR shelf for ages.

I'd read a book that was listed as Women's Fiction before (Margaret George, can't recall the title) and I didn't finish it. I finished both of the chick-lit books, but when I put them down, I wasn't quite sure why I'd made it all the way to The End. Divine Secrets was engaging, and I enjoyed reading it, but at the end, I felt like I'd been dropped into the void.

I keep telling myself there must be more to these stories than I grasped. In the end, both Sidda and Rose found love, sensible places for their lives to unfold, maybe happiness, but the definite possibility of happiness. Is that enough?

Maybe I just hate happy endings.

Dallas BMSE this month

2007-07-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in ghosts, you might also be interested in the Body-Mind-Spirit Expo. It's happening in Dallas July 21 &22, and a few other locations this year as well.

Chris and Ginger Pennell, former ghost hunters and now Spirit Quest pioneers, will be there too.

http://www.bmse.net/home.lasso

Rain and Rain and Rain

2007-07-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

This is how the sky has looked for three weeks. No, I'm not kidding. It's summer in Texas and it's only 81 degrees today. My rosebushes are so diseased from the damp that I'm going to have to pull them out. Well, I will when it quits raining long enough to do it.

Rain also brings something else to the surface here; fire ants. Big, mean fire ants that bite. Which is another reason those rosebushes haven't come out yet - the bed they're in is infested and the poison doesn't work in the rain.

Good excuse to wallow inside and read books I haven't gotten around to yet.

I miss the sun.

Stargazer for Mom

2007-07-06T15:50:00.001-05:00

I planted several of these lillies a few years ago when we bought our house. My mother loves them, but she has a black thumb. Now she's moved to Nebraska, so she can't see them here anymore.

So, here's your Stargazer, Mom.

How Novels Work & Warped Classics

2007-07-05T23:17:00.001-05:00

So, I skipped my writer's group last night because it was my anniversary. (Texas de Brazil, btw - and it was fantastic!) But, I got books today, so that almost counts. I went in looking for How Novels Work, and they didn't have it. But they did have a synopsis, which listed all the books dissected in Novels. I'd read about four listed, but felt really I should read them all. I picked up The Human Stain by Roth and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Haddon. I'll read all the books discussed first, then order Novels from Amazon.

I've almost picked up Haddon's book several times, but the age and circumstance of the protag always put me off. It looks like a book that could easily turn preachy, and I hate that. We'll see this time. And I've never read any Roth. Shame on me, I know. The rest of the books listed are ones I'm sure I can get at the library, which I absolutely need to use more often. I'm selling books at the used bookstore about once a month because I have no place to keep them. If only I could stay out of bookstores! Oh, wait...nevermind.

I did learn I haven't read nearly enough modern lit fiction, but that's easily remedied.

I missed my writer's group. One guy is writing a fantasy novel about cybernetic monkeys, which is way out of my norm, but interesting just the same. Another guy has been experimenting with the classics - taking lovely old novels and warping them with a very sharp wit in short stories. They're fantastic, but so far he hasn't been able to locate a market for such stories.

Red Lovliness

2007-07-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

I think the red ones were my favorites last night.

Today is my seven year wedding anniversary. There's dinner at a surprise restaurant in Fort Worth tonight. All I've been told is no bluejeans.

And it's raining. For the 23rd day is a freaking row. I guess I should just be glad the sky cleared up last night for the fireworks, and I don't live in the flooded areas. One lake here is 21 feet, FEET, above normal. Lots of houses have become swamps. I have a whole new appreciation for the hill I live on now.

Fireworks

2007-07-04T23:34:00.000-05:00

So I realized I've missed blogging. What better way to start back off than to share fireworks photos? I know, I couldn't think of one either. Besides, I got a new camera this week. Must have a reason to make use of it.

This was taken tonight, at the fireworks display our town put on.

The Mystic Ghost blog is still up, but I wanted a personal one again, too. I've missed the exchanges. I tried to make it too complicated before. Simple is good.

Moon

2007-07-02T03:20:00.000-05:00

New camera love. The moon over my house tonight. It was full dark outside - I love having control over the exposure time length.

NT Daily Article

2007-02-04T14:24:00.000-06:00

We had a great time at UNT talking to the Esoteric Mysteries Society - it was a night full of interesting questions and good conversation.

Thanks to Kirk, who wrote this article for the NT Daily.