Saturday Lynnzo and I went up to Blackhawk for the low-stakes gambling, a thing we do four or five times a year.
Up until this trip, I'd largely confined myself to the nickel machines, believing, as I do, that it's not the gambling that's fun, it's the game-playing.
(For those who don't play the slots, for a quarter in the quarter machines, you get to pull the lever. And that's pretty much it. Over and over.
On the nickel machines, you have bonus rounds and extra "games" that you can trip into. You get to play the Match Game or go 'round the board on Jeopardy or get a screen full of symbols that pay more bonus money if you select correctly and all kinds of things. You can play for two minutes on one nickel.)
Anyhow, up until this trip, I'd avoided the penny machines as being boring but this time around they had a new selection in and I found several that entertained me. I managed to have a blast at a penny a go for three or four hours.
As always, it was the drive up and back that I enjoyed the most, though. We take the bus and I love sitting up high, above the traffic, looking at the mountains, scanning for wildlife (we usually see bighorn sheep), and just generally enjoying the beauty of the Rockies. It was a gorgeous sunny spring day, too.
Sunday was less of an adventure, what with the cold and the gray skies and the rain that moved in.
I did some writing on the Sentinel story, I'm happy to report. Not a huge amount, about ten pages, but it's progress, right?
I remain astonished by how much easier almost anything is to write than OaT, you know? I mean, I have no idea if the Sentinel thing is anything worth reading (my earlier Sentinel efforts were dismissed, by one reader, as, "not really your best stuff" but whatever, because I'm not really self-aware enough to understand why not) but it's certainly much easier on the author.
And then it was Monday. Being as we're getting toward spring, naturally I drove to work this morning and hopped out of my car without remembering to turn my headlights off. Sigh.
But! Thanks to the Joy of Gifts this past holiday season, I have a handy-dandy jump-start system in my trunk these days.
I discovered my dead battery after work, and I whipped that gadget out, figured out which bits went where, shook it a few times when it didn't seem inclined to work, determined which one was the "on" button, and voila! The car went vrooooom and I toddled on home. I hope it starts again tomorrow morning.
And that's pretty much it for excitement in my life since Friday. Additional activities included soup-making, bathroom-cleaning, cornbread-baking, and reading.
Peaceful, but enjoyable.
It's Friday!
Some weeks that's more exciting than others. I dunno what it is with this week. After all, I barely bothered to do any actual work at all on Wednesday and Thursday, I just blogged incessantly and read other people's blogs, but I'm very glad today is Friday. Today I blogged a lot, but I also got a ton of work done.
Maybe it's partly because I've been re-watching Sentinel eps with fierce dedication this week and I have a few mild hopes this will result in Writing Something at some point this weekend. I'm a bit excited to see if it happens or not.
I have neither forgotten nor abandoned the Due South storie I mentioned previously. It's a work in progress as well. I still about 25 pages of dialogue and an idea. I need to weave those into a story.
I'm sure...pretty sure, that if I can get some time and some space, I'll be able to do some writing. Or...not. Because, as I predicted, my abject failure with reference to turning the SEN into something worth reading has seriously undermined my confidence. I'm beginning to look at my previous interlude of writing as just that...an interlude in an otherwise non-writing life.
If I'd known at the time that that was all there was going to be, I think I'd have savored it more.
So, I promised to say something about last week's Adventure in Volunteerism, didn't I? It's stale news by now, but okay.
Bottom line, I had a fabulous time and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year. The Oxford hotel was gorgeous; the people on staff were friendly, informative, and helpful. The few other volunteers I met were good people, and the 140+ people I personally greeted to the hotel's premises were all polite and grateful to be helped.
I even made a little spiel.
I suspect you don't miss me when I'm gone. Soon, maybe this evening, I really need to do a write-up of my weekend, but not right at this moment.
Posted by AnneZook at 03:34 PM | Comments (4)Hate it, hate it, hate it.
Business travel, I mean. Some people go to Toronto or Paris (France) or go bask in the sunshine of San Diego. Me? I always wind up someplace horrible, like Texas. This next time, it's Missouri.
Missouri only has one thing going for it. It's not Texas.
As if that wasn't bad enough, it's Branson, Missouri, the watering hole of used-to-be C&W stars, happy home of deep-fried food, and frightfest of folksy décor.
Because I am a Good Child, after the business meeting on the fourth, I will drive down to see my mother, through the early morning hours of Sunday, May 8. Let us all hope this makes her happy. I will have no internet access. I doubt there's a computer in the entire town (pop. 57) where my mother lives.
The fun will include staying overnight in a hotel that the website swore was 3-star and that I found out, only after I'd booked it, was 2-star, in a neighborhood that could be anything from bad to absolutely terrifying, Many miles of unfamiliar highway driving, then taking tricky, "you can only get there if you've been there before" back road twists and turns to get to the nowheresville backwater of Branson before taking yet more undiscovered roads to arrive at the bugspot town where my mother lives, before I have to do it all over again in reverse.
Already I find myself looking forward to the moment when I climb back on a plane and come home.
I used to travel to the East Coast on most of my business trips. Usually NYC or DC. I complained about those, too, to be honest. I like to travel. I just don't like to travel on business.
Later,
I. M. Bitter
Shamefully, I may be reduced to that. Didn't write at all this weekend, not even with the "gift" of a snow day yesterday when Sunday's foot-deep blizzard kept me at home for an extra day.
Didn't work on the SEN. Or the Sentinel story. Or the due South story. Didn't even open the files.
I need something to jumpstart my brain. I may be reduced to writing bits and pieces with no pressure to create a story. Just to get the fires burning.
This past weekend:
Saturday: I had my hair done. Re-colored. Chopped about three inches off of it. Looks better, I think. Also, grocery store (to prep for the storm), lunch, and other random dinking around.
At the grocery store I bought carrots, celery, apples, and oranges. In retrospect, I can't figure out exactly how that grocery list seemed to me to be appropriate for a predicted 24-48 hour stretch where I was going to be trapped at home. I mean, yeah, okay, I also bought a piece of salmon, but still. That is not a 2-day menu.
It's not that I didn't think about it. I did. The trouble is, I ate right before I went to the grocery store. If I'm not hungry when I go to the store, I don't buy anything. If I am hungry, I buy a lot of junk food.
My brain is against me.
Sunday, I read fanfic in massive quantities.
That's about all I managed to accomplish, since the water in our building was out from, as near as I can tell, 5:00 Saturday evening until 8:00 Sunday morning. The hot water wasn't restored until 9:00 Sunday evening, so I was unable to do laundry or clean house. Or, for that matter, to take a shower. (You do not want to try and shower with Colorado ground-temperature water in the winter. Hypothermia is all-but guaranteed.)
I'm still a bit astonished to find myself reading fanfic again. Not to mention that it's useless fanfic, since I'm not reading in any fandom I'm likely to write in. Sigh.
I did watch a few episodes of due South, in preparation for that writing project, but it's a sad weekend where that's my most notable accomplishment.
Monday: A "snow day" but also, technically, a work day. I didn't work as much as I should have.
Okay, I barely worked at all. About 1-1/2 hour. The rest of the day I read fanfic in massive quantities. I was a complete slut and I read almost anything that had been spellchecked. Quality was not a criteria.
I think the I.C. has melted my brain.
Tomorrow afternoon I have to take my car in to have some work done. I intend to take a Massive and Serious Tome with me. A little restorative balance for the old brain cells, you understand.
I still have Kant's Critique of Practical Reason waiting on my bookshelf. It fails the "massive" test but it's serious and I've been wanting to get to it for several months now. (I read his Critique of Pure Reason many years ago and it was fascinating, but I got sidetracked by Descartes and Mill before I could read the companion volumes.)
I feel a mental crisis coming on...I must save my brain before I lose it entirely.
Except...tonight I plan to plug my laptop in, pop in another due South DVD, and keep feeding the voices into my brain until Writing Happens.
When I am bored...I am boring.
Always Remember:
This coming weekend is Doors Open Denver. Information available at Doors Open Denver on the city website.
I'll be at the Oxford Hotel on Saturday, from 10-1:30, for anyone who decides to come downtown and wander around this free tour. (The festival is Saturday & Sunday, but I'm only volunteering for Saturday.)
Maps and a free-ride, light rail coupon are available at your nearest Quiznos.
I haven't blogged for days, I know. I don't blog as often as I used to.
I blame the SpikeMania. If all I'm doing is obsessively re-watching episodes of BtVS and if I posted all of my weird ideas about vampires and whatnot the first time I went through this, in the spring of '03, I don't have much to blog about.
The first time I watched the show, it was the whole mythology of the demons and vampires that took my brain over. This time, embarrassingly enough, it's just Spike's pretty face.
I'm determined to get back to writing, though. Tonight, I'm going out to dinner and then to the grocery story, but once I'm home, I'm just sure I'll....
Well, no, I won't. Because by then I'll be exhausted. But Sunday. For sure. I actually do want to work on the current Sentinel story. And the Due South story, for that matter.
I won't have any reason to be exhausted tonight, I should point out. Based on the amount of work I haven't done today, I should be fresh as a spring daisy, but that has little to do with anything. (I have, in fact, done so little work today that I'd have gotten exactly the same amount done if I'd left at 9:00 this morning.)
I may not be blogging here, but I'm back in full-swing on the political blog. Time to start cutting back again. I really don't have the time to spend hours a day doing that any more.
This weekend's big plans.... Hmmm. Hair appointment. Target. Lunch. Laundry.
I need to get a life, don't I?
I just paid my MasterCard with my Visa. Such a cliché, but at least my Visa is my debit card and not a credit card.
. . . .
I paid my cell phone bill.
I love on-line bill paying, don't you? I am the sort of person who never has stamps.
Last night's Volunteer Training was less painful than I expected. First, I got a nice, high-calorie, high-fat, low-nutrition dinner first. And then it was over about half an hour early, so that was good. I didn't want to do it, but now that it's done, I'm glad I did. Another cliché.
Then I almost got killed on the highway on the way home, of course. I hate taking I-25 through the T-Rex construction zone after dark. If it had been up to me, I'd have driven the surface roads, but I was following my Volunteer Buddy and she took the highway. She also took my least-favorite on-ramp, the one at Auraria. Next time, I'll find my own way home.
Today, odd things are buzzing in my head. Probably thanks to last night's completely diet-free dinner, I feel all energized and mentally alert. If I were at home, I'd be writing like a fiend, right at this moment. Since I'm not, I'm resisting the urge to go find something to read or to dabble with some new story idea. (I think I have enough things started at the moment.)
I should, of course, be working.
. . . .
Okay, I stopped for a moment and called to cancel my hair appointment on the 16th. That's Volunteer Day, although I'd forgotten that when I booked the appointment.
You know what? I'm tired of having to schedule hair appointments a month in advance to get time on one of the two Saturdays my guy works. And now I find out he's taking one of those two off this month. It's time to find someone with more weekend hours in a place where the commute to and from the salon doesn't add an hour to the process. By the time I'm sitting in the chair for two hours, and commuting for an hour, it's a 3-hour process almost every month and it's not something I'm prepared to take on after a ten-hour workday. I need weekend appointments, okay?
Anyhow, he must have heard something in my voice, even though I didn't say any of those things to him. He's going to rearrange his plans to be available early this Saturday morning, even though technically it's his "day off." There are advantages to having used the same stylist for eight or nine years.
Truthfully? I'm a bit disappointed. There's actually a salon across the street from where I live. I was rather looking forward to trying that one. Imagine how convenient it would be. I could walk over after work and be home by 7:00. I could pop over on a Saturday morning and be home by ten. Sigh.
Anyhow, where was I?
Oh. Yeah. I know, I should be working, even if I am in a good mood.
. . . .
Sorry, another interruption. Mechanic called to schedule the work I need to have done.
I do intend to work at some point, I promise you.
Or, not. Seems a pity to waste such a good mood on working doesn't it? Trouble is, there's really nothing else to do. Except read the news headlines and blog on the political blog, but that's not the kind of activity designed to preserve a good mood.
. . . .
I decided the problem was caffeine. Walked over to Starbucks, got another coffee. Picked up one for Buehler, too, so I get points for that.
Now I'm going to buckle down to work. I'll just check a few headlines, just to see what's happening in the world....
Prince Ranier passed away? That's very sad.
. . . .
MountainMan came, so I had to stock up on snacks.
This is ridiculous. It's practically noon!
I've had a bad case of the Idonwannas at work for the last week or two.
For instance, my boss was out of the office all last week. Normally that's a sign for me to really dig in and get a ton of stuff accomplished, but this time I just...didn't.
Admittedly, I had 2-3, hour-long meetings scheduled for pretty much every day of the week, but aside from those, I really wasn't as productive as my conscience thinks I should have been. Don't know what my problem was (is). Don't want to, that's all.
I'm having the same mood this week but thanks to the Magic Power of Guilt, I'm getting a lot done.
In spite of my perception that I accomplished almost nothing at work all last week, I was completely exhausted by the time it was over and I slept until 9:30 (!!) Saturday morning. That cuts seriously into a person's Weekend Play Time. Especially if, like me, your idea of a weekend involves starting each day with a two-hour coffee-drinking, toe-wiggling session.
Still. Did some shopping, did some eating, did some dinking around. All very low-key. All very relaxing.
Sunday, did some writing. The latest version of the SEN is finished and I've put it aside for the obligatory cooling-off period. I had some Stellar Ideas for improving it late on Sunday, but I didn't feel up to tackling it again.* Unfortunately, I didn't even write them down.
Otherwise, I feel a waning of the SpikeObsession. The sort of waning that leaves the love intact but allows one's brain to move on and watch other shows, at least occasionally. (I won't be writing anything unless I can get some episodes of something watched. )
Blah, blah, blah. Today the weather is filthy. Cold, rainy, blizzards to the south and east of us, gale-force winds moaning through the building like voices of the damned, etc. A good morning to be home, curled up in bed with an overstuffed pillow, a hot cup of coffee, and something good to read, but here I sit, virtuously at work.
In theory, I'm having dinner on the 16th St Mall tonight, then walking over to the library for the training meeting for Doors Open Denver, but it sounds less appealing than it did when we planned it. I had something more along the lines of a balmy spring evening in mind, you know?
_________________________________
* Okay, actually, a Good Friend sent me a link to the LoP site a couple of weeks ago and, as I was previously unaware that Lust Over Pendle was one story in a series, I'd been waiting until I had time to tackle the entire page full of stories. Sunday, I dove in headfirst. I'm not a HP fan but Hall's LoP universe makes the world a better place.
I haven't actually finished all of those yet, but after I do, next up will be a Wodehouse/Sayers crossover story I read about on torch's site. I figure, if she's praising it, it must be fabulous, right?
I can't believe I've sunk to reading crossovers in my old age, but I'll take good writing wherever I can get it. (Actually, I had no idea that Hall had turned her LoP stuff into serial crossovers. I was a bit disappointed by the first one, as the crossover was handled, very implausibly, as, "Poof! You're in a new universe!" and it wasn't a universe I'd ever heard of. The second one, so far, is just charming, even though the characters crossing over into the HP universe could be complete OCs without, so far, damaging or changing the story at all, but that's pretty much the risk you take writing crossovers and I don't really care because I’m enjoying the story enormously.)
Posted by AnneZook at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)