Vacation All I Ever Wanted...Or Was It?

Greetings and Salutations!

Before I forget...

I'm not a fan of Spring because the insects return and Summer is just around the corner. That's when the depression kicks in and I don't want to leave my home. I just want to stay in the air conditioning and pray that the wasps don't enter my house. Nobody cares, so I'll belt up.

I'm finally getting a chance to write about my long, strange trip to Washington DC. I have mixed feelings about our nation's capital, and I'll get to that in a moment. I will say it is something everyone should do once. If they are made of money. And healthy.

As most trips go for us, they are required to start out with a bit of drama. We ALWAYS have drama with the rental car company. We thought we could avoid it by using the same company we used last time, but it didn't pan out. They changed the rules since we last rented a car from them. We tried several others, which put us hours behind, so we finally had to take our car, which is on its last legs. I must say I'm proud of how well it did!

They're telling the truth. It Hertz to rent a car from their company!

The day we left was my nephew's fourth birthday! (This is also my cousin Heather's birthday and PI Day, 3/14.)

My sister-in-law Stacey made this collage of Pauly's birthdays!

I can't believe he's four now!

The trip up went well. It was beautiful! I saw real mountains! (They call WV the mountain state, but do you know there are actually no mountains there?)

Some of the views we witnessed on the way to Washington DC.

I was thrilled when we made it to the hotel so I could just lie in bed and do nothing. The hotel was spectacular! It even had a mini fridge so Doug could grab frappies for me. We never know what the coffee situation is where we stay, we have provisions on hand. (If the hotel had a coffee shop. then I would use it instead.) We sat in the room for maybe thirty minutes. Doug called his paternal cousins, who I have never had the privilege of meeting, and we went over to visit with them.

ROWHOUSE!

There are a lot of rowhouses in DC, but don't let the outside appearance fool you.

They're spacious and gorgeous inside!

Meeting the paternal side of the family was the highlight of my trip to Washington DC. They were such nice people, and they treated me like one of their own. I also found out that I have two die hard fans of my book, Dormiveglia. That means so much more to me than the money I've made thus far. We had pie. One of them was "pi r squared", which made me giggle. We spent the majority of the evening visiting with them. I had the best time!

The next day, this is where the trip gets complicated, we slept in. We were exhausted. Washington DC should come with a warning label. There are things no one will tell you about visiting the nation's capital, so I'm going to be nice and give you helpful hints, tips, and advice. You may plan to go there, and you may not, but at least you will know in advance.

How to Properly Visit Washington DC. Tip #1:

NEVER SLEEP IN. 

I'm totally not teasing. If you sleep in, you will miss passes to EVERYTHING!

The plan was to go to the United States Holocaust Museum. Both entrances had lines longer than any I'd ever witnessed at King's Island. I'd be willing to wait in a line at King's Island now. Maybe not, but it certainly made the lines at the amusement park look small!

This brings me to my next point.

How to Properly Visit Washington DC. Tip #2:

HAVE A METRIC CRAP TON OF MONEY.

The good news is that most places take plastic, so you don't have to carry tons of cash on your person in the middle of a crowded city. That was convenient. Doug doesn't like to carry cash unless he needs to use it.

This brings me to the next point.

How to Properly Visit Washington DC. Tip #3:

REALIZE THAT THERE ARE NO PLACES TO PARK EVER. AND THE LOTS AND GARAGES WHERE ARE YOU CAN PARK ARE BLOCKS AWAY FROM MONUMENTS, ATTRACTIONS, AND MUSEUMS, AND THE MINIMUM COST IS $22.00.

I wish I was joking, but I'm not. By the time we found a place to park, the line at the US Holocaust Museum was gone. We decided to go in and check it out. We had to go through a metal detector and and there was security everywhere, but I can totally understand and agree with that.

Most everything, aside from parking, is free in Washington DC. The problem is that if you sleep in (See point #1) by the time you get to your destination, they're out of passes. We saw a couple of exhibits that didn't require a pass, then we walked to the Washington Monument.

This was the one of the only monuments we saw.

Our first day was just lousy. It was supposed to be fifty degrees. I don't think it ever made it past forty, and the wind was 40 mph. No matter what direction we were walking, it was hitting us, pushing us back, and merciless. The best part was even though it was hitting us, no matter what direction we were in, my hair was in my face. I had to look at Doug's shoes so I could see to follow him! It was ridiculous! I was cold and tired and annoyed. To make matters worse, the monuments are miles apart.

And here we are at the next point.

How to Properly Visit Washington DC. Tip #4:

YOU MUST BE YOUNG AND HEALTHY TO PARTICIPATE IN SIGHTSEEING.

Again, I'm not joking. You can be older, but the point is that you have to be healthy. You have to be able to walk a minimum of ten miles without breaking a sweat. I am not young. I am not healthy. I thought I was doing pretty well until this trip. Then I was reminded that I'm not in the best health or shape. It was a revelation I didn't need. (It's not like my self-esteem needed more kicks to the head.)

Doug wanted to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. We couldn't even see it from where we were standing! I decided to give it a try. We made it to the World War II Memorial, and we could finally see the Lincoln Memorial in the distance. It was still too far away. I shook my head and I told Doug I had to make a choice. I could either make it to the Lincoln Memorial, or I could make it back to the parking garage. I couldn't do both. So we went back to the car. The wind was whipping around us. I actually got shoved back against the curb and almost fell into the street as we were less than a block from the parking garage. The wind was getting worse and worse as the day progressed.

The fountains weren't on while we were there.

The World War II Memorial.

Can you even see the Lincoln Memorial in this picture?

That's how far away we were!

I'm assuming this is the view from the Lincoln Memorial.

I wouldn't know. I never made it there.

This shows just how far away it was.

The reflecting pool was empty during our trip.

Everyone knows that Huntington WV is Barboursville WV's parking lot, but after my first day in DC, I have a little more respect for the city made almost entirely out of parking lots. (This city has torn down nice buildings to make parking lots! I used to HATE them for it!) You never have to walk far. You pay a minimum of five dollars to park.

We returned to visit the family, which again was something to which I greatly looked forward. On the short drive there, I fought to pull my purse sized compact brush through my wrecked from the wind hair. It took me the entire trip. By the time we got there, the wind had stopped. Ironic, huh?

We had dinner with my new loved ones, which was spectacular! I finally got to do something on my bucket list. I got to try scotch. I think it was fifteen year old Glenfiddich. My wanting to try it has to do with my career. I try to experience things that my characters do in order to properly write about them. I had a teeny tiny glass. I took two sips and I do not understand how my fictional character Peter drinks it! (I think he drinks Glenlivet or Laphroig, but I could be wrong. He prefers twenty year old scotch too. I can only imagine how strong that is!) It was so strong, and it burned! It is definitely an acquired taste. My fictional character must have no taste buds, or maybe he can just handle it better than I can, but kudos to him for being able to drink it!

Glenfiddich Scotch Whisky.

We visited after dinner, and had more pie and coffee for dessert. Then we had to call it a night. We took pictures and said our goodbyes. It made me sad to leave them. I would love to go visit them again. I'm even willing to brave the trip and DC just to see them again!

We returned to the hotel, where I proceeded to crash and burn. We had to get up early the next morning and try to make it to the US Holocaust Museum before the passes were gone. I could barely move when I woke up the next morning. I kept limping around, trying to get ready. Standing in the shower was fun. I would have had a bath, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get out of the tub!

We left early, but not early enough. (See point #1 again.) The garage we went to the day before was full. (See point #3.) And we had to find somewhere else to park, which was farther away. (See point #4.) Thankfully it was the same amount of money to park there.

I felt like sobbing as we walked to the museum, because my hips felt like they were going to break or dislocate with each step. We made it to the museum. There were passes still available, thank God. We sat and waited for our turn.

Before we were taken up in the elevator, we were given a small booklet. In the booklet was a name and a picture of someone in the holocaust. They were given according to gender. A woman who worked at the museum talked to us before our elevator went up to the exhibit. Her parents had both survived the holocaust, which was why she worked there. Then we were sent upstairs. Did I mention I'm not a fan of elevators? I'm even less of a fan of crowded ones! But it was a very short trip to the next floor, and we were not packed in like sardines like we were in King's Island's Eiffel Tower lift.

The first part of the exhibit was encased in glass. We stood in a long line and read the descriptions. There was so much reading, and I wore my contacts, which was a bad idea, but it was sunny and with my wonderful severe light sensitivity issues, I knew I would need to wear sunglasses while in the car. Halfway through the exhibit, I was going cross eyed from all of the reading and straining to see through the glass cases with the reflections of people in the glass behind me. I gave up and began reading what was important. An hour of our time was spent trying to read everything.

No matter how many books I've read, pictures I've seen, and stories I've heard of the holocaust, they are still shocking to me. It's something to which I have not built a tolerance, or to which I'll never grow accustomed, desensitized is the word for which I'm searching. It just amazes me that one person started the hatred of a religious and ethnic group that carried on for over a decade. One person. That's all it took.

Another thing that is rarely mentioned about the holocaust is the fact that the Jewish people were not the only ones persecuted. Political prisoners, homosexuals, and the developmentally handicapped where tortured and killed. The homosexuals were forced to wear a black dot or a pink triangle on their clothing. Lesbians were punished to a lesser extent.

The pink triangle that gays were forced to wear.

While none of these groups deserved torture or death, I think what upsets me the most about this was the killing of the developmentally handicapped. People who hurt the developmentally handicapped, children, animals, and the elderly are just the lowest of the low in my opinion. It doesn't get any lower than that.

By the end of the first exhibit, we found benches, thank God! I had to sit. My body was screaming at me at this point. Once we rested, we went down a two mile long hallway, part of it was a sunway (for lack of a better word) of sorts, a hallway surrounded by windows all around. We ended up in a hall of pictures of those who were in the holocaust. Some of the pictures were so high that we couldn't see them. At this point, we had been in the museum over an hour, so I was thankful that there were restrooms along the way. Another mile long hallway took us to a more interactive exhibit, where we saw the replicas of gypsy wagons (gypsies or Roma were another group persecuted by the Nazis, as were blacks) and even a cattle train that shipped two thousand people at a time to the camps. Patrons could walk through the train. It was so small, I doubt two thousand people could fit comfortably in one of those train cars. I can't imagine how horrible it was.

Another mile and now a staircase (oh goody) took us to another part of the exhibit. Then another mile and another staircase and another mile, and more stairs, and so on and so forth, and my body was less than thrilled. There was so much to see. One area had thousands of shoes encased that where taken from the Jewish people. And the exhibits went in order for the most part, except for the first room. You had to read to figure out if you were going in the correct order. They were oddly placed.

There were also rooms with short films about the holocaust. We didn't go into any except for one, because they were all crowded. The one we watched was awesome though. One female survivor shared a story that made me cry, about how she met her husband. He was an American Jew who came to rescue survivors. He found her. She was with a group of female survivors. He called her and the other female survivors ladies, a term none of them had heard in years at that point. Doug already figured out that the man and woman sharing this story would end up married, but it was a surprise to me. Another guy, I can't repeat half of what he said, was part of the resistance. He was found out to be Jewish in a very crude way, again I'm not going to repeat it. But he survived. He was definitely a tough guy. I wouldn't mess with him!

And just when the end of the museum seemed so far away, it was over. Doug and I read our booklets. We both ended up getting stories of survivors! I had really hoped for a survivor, but for us both to get one was the best part!

The person in my booklet hid in the woods until the holocaust ended. She and her family actually hid underwater when the SS came to take people to the ghettos and the camps. Her mother disappeared. The story never went on to say what happened to the rest of her family, but it was written that she never saw her mother again. She hid in the woods and survived.

Doug's person worked with jewels, diamonds predominantly. He and his family were taken to a concentration camp, and he and his father were separated from the rest of the family, who were taken straight to the gas chambers. He and his father were kept alive in case the Nazis needed diamonds. They were liberated from the concentration camp in 1945. We were both elated to get survivors, as the woman who spoke before we went up the lift said many of the victims perished.

The US Holocaust Museum was the one place I wanted to go, so I'm thankful we finally got to do that. What I was not prepared for was all of the walking. I used up all of my energy fighting the wind on the first day, so we kept having to stop and rest along the way, me mostly. Doug kept wanting to get through it faster, but it was all I could do to get through it. I hope to go back some time when I have more energy to see everything, but I did see a great deal of it.

After we were finished at the museum, Doug wanted to go to some monuments, but I couldn't do it. All of the monuments we hadn't gone to were too far away. He wasn't thrilled, but I just couldn't do it. After he perused our options, which we could have taken a bus tour, but in order to catch the bus, we had to walk something around fifteen blocks, and I couldn't do that either, we headed back toward the car. As I stopped to rest, we saw a Starbucks, so Doug took me in to get coffee. We sat there for a couple of hours, drank coffee, and I rested. Then we made it back to the car.

From there, we had to find a store so Doug to get a few things he either forgot or didn't have at home when we packed, so we found a Walmart. Then he had to go to Office Depot. I was exhausted, unhappy, and hungry. I thought I was going to throw a party when we got back to the hotel. We had dinner and crashed.

The next day, I went to the mall. I bought books and sunglasses, my go to items. I was too tired to try on clothes. That just wasn't happening. Then we made the drive to visit my mother! That was the second highlight of my trip! Seeing my mother! I refused to be a little over two hours away and not go see her and Arlene. It was totally worth the extra trip. We had a nice dinner and visited before we had to leave for the hotel. Then we met her for lunch the next day. We went to a place called Pure Bread. They had soups, salads, and sandwiches named after dogs. *lol* Hence the name Pure Bread. (I looked for the Johnny sandwich, but I couldn't find it! Johnny is my favourite canine cousin!) It was packed. We had lunch before my mother had to return to work, and we had the long drive back.

It was sad having to leave her. I know, I'm in my thirties, and I still can't watch my mother drive off, or I'll sob uncontrollably. That has happened since I was three. I made the mistake of watching my father, with my mother in the passenger seat, back out of my grandmother's driveway and drive off, and I sobbed, and my grandmother had to call them to get me to calm down. And I loved staying with my grandmother and Janet, but watching my parents leave messed me up! I know better than to watch her leave now. I didn't have the energy to cry as it was.

We made it home around 9:30. One of our loved ones was kind enough to stay with our kitties, give Moo Bear his medicine, and just watch the house. It was like a vacation while we were on vacation! (I thank God for this person!) We visited for a bit before returning them to their home. Then we crashed and burned! I am still exhausted. I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

Let's sum up what we've learned today!

• Washington DC is overrated, but everyone should visit once.
• Washington DC is a city for young, healthy rich people with tons of energy. 
• I do not fit into the young, healthy, or rich categories.
• There is no parking, and what parking is available is expensive.
• Monuments are no less than ten miles apart.
• Museums are free, but you have to get there at the crack of dawn to get passes.
• West Virginia is referred to as "The Mountain State" but there are actually no mountains.
• I miss my mother, Arlene, and Honey. (Honey is my canine sister.)
• If I ever visit DC again, it will be to see my new loved ones...
• Unless Doug can carry me around to the monuments.
• I miss my new loved ones.
• I'm still exhausted.

The end!

Dormiveglia Release Day!

Dormiveglia is released and available for purchase on Amazon!

If you have a Facebook account and would like to participate in the release party contests, click here. There's still time to enter the caption contest. The winner will be announced at 7:00 PM EDT.

If you would like to check out or purchase the book, click here.

I'm freaking out! I'm seriously having a nervy b right now!

Anyway...

But I digress.

Before I forget...

This was too cute not to share!

Go check out my book! 

Many thanks for your support!

And now I'm going to go freak out some more.

Cheers...

Won't You Meet Me in September?

It's hard to believe that we are three days into September! I feel like it crept up on me before I had the chance to prepare myself. This month is going to be busy. Usually August is my busy month and I get some downtime in September. Not this year. I have a lot going on this coming weekend alone. I'm exhausted just thinking about the next four days. I'm going to be living on coffee to get by.

So far, it has rained every day this month. We will probably see more rain at some point today.

The weather the past three days.

Being a pluviophile, (a lover of rain for those who don't know) I normally enjoy a good rainy day. Lately, I feel like I've seen enough rain to last a few months. The city where I live has seen flash floods several times within the past two weeks. It will rain heavily, flood the downtown area and leave people stranded, trying to get home for hours, and then the rain will stop and the sun will dry everything up. *shrugs* Once was bad enough. Twice, it's getting old. Three times? We'll see. I'm just glad that my husband and I live on higher ground. We also live in an area where there are several roads we can take to keep us from the flooded areas. I would post pics of the flood, but I'm actually on my laptop, and the pics are on my Kindle, and it's easier to blog from my laptop.

September is usually one of my favourite months, because it's the precursor to Fall. I honestly believe that I suffer from Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. I get depressed and have very little energy, motivation, and drive during the warmer months. The hotter it gets, the less motivated and the more depressed I become, so in September, I start feeling hopeful and energetic again. I can feel myself becoming rejuvenated. September makes me feel like I am waking up and coming out of hibernation, or like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon and spreading its wings for the first time. 

This is an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote from The Great Gatsby.

I really can't wait!

I love EVERYTHING about Fall. The colourful leaves, the clear robin's egg blue skies, the warm days, the cold nights, and of course the Fall fashions. I especially love that Fall happens at the end of September, which makes it my second favourite month. October is my favourite month ever.

I'm so not a Summer girl. I'm not comfortable in skimpy clothing or swimwear. I'd take a comfy pair of jeans and a long sleeved tee over shorts and a tee shirt any day. The insects die. The pollinating allergy inducing plants die. The humidity dies. The heat dies. All of the bad things temporarily die, the same way I do during the warm months. (Apparently I thrive when surrounded by death. I'm not sure what that says about me.)

Unfortunately, my second favourite month this year is looking more stressful than fun, because for once in my life, September will be as busy as October normally is for me.

How I feel three days into the month...

I'm still battling insomnia, which isn't fun. When I do sleep, I don't get that wonderful, uninterrupted REM sleep. I feel like I'm running on empty right now.

How I feel every single day...

There are many things that I'm fairly sure contribute to my insomnia. 

There's the fact that I am a writer, and inspiration doesn't have a schedule, so I could be drifting off to sleep, and an idea hits me like an Acme anvil in the Road Runner cartoons, and I HAVE TO GET UP and write it down. Sometimes, I end up working, and then I see 5:00 AM on the clock and wonder where the time went. That's just how it is when I'm working. It really doesn't seem like I work thirteen hours per day, but because I enjoy my work, time goes by rather quickly.

There's the fact that I do have a chronic illness which can cause pain or many other symptoms that would interrupt sleep. I can't get comfortable due to pain, or I wake up in pain and have to change positions and it may take me a while to get back to sleep. Thankfully, it has been a long time since pain has kept me up, save for my recent migraine.

I do have an anxiety disorder, several actually. I have OCD, GAD, social anxiety and panic disorder (sort of). OCD is the worst of it. I will climb into bed and realize that my shoes are not properly put away, or that the cats might need food/water, or whatever reason my brain gets locked onto, and I have to go check these things. Panic disorder used to be my biggest problem. I'm so thankful that panic attacks are rare for me these days. They have to be triggered by something. which means there's a reason, Before, I would have panic attacks for absolutely no reason.

I'm releasing a book on October 31st. I think this is the biggest reason for my insomnia. I'm a nervous wreck. It's my first book. It's not my first published work though. I wrote articles for a national church newsletter very briefly. It was called The Cardinal. It has nothing to do with the Catholic church though. When people found out that I wrote for The Cardinal, they automatically assumed that I was Catholic. *shrugs* 

My dream is right there within reach. I'm afraid I'm going to fail miserably, and that everyone is going to do the "I Told You So" dance. I have written forty-one books, and the series is bloody good, and if I had a title for any of the forty books in the series, I would release one of them first. Dormiveglia is the one that I am releasing first for a myriad of reasons:

• It's a collection of short stories that showcase my work. 
• It's to get my name out there. 
• It will hopefully make a little money to devote to the series, hiring professionals, etc. 
• It's dedicated to my friend, Aimee Long.
• It's time to put something out there, just like Aimee said the last time I saw her.

I feel like I may have a nervy b before this is over with. I have less than two months to finalize the book, add the finishing touches, edit, re-edit, re-edit some more, obsessively edit for the final ten times, and put it out there. I need to get a cover done for the book so I can create a website. (I'm a writer, not an artist.) I want to have at least one book signing prior to its release. That's the other problem. *sighs* I know that I mentioned this before, but September is going to be as busy as October normally is for me.

That's all I want to do this month...

This weekend...I have no idea how I'm going to make it through. Tomorrow, I have an appointment and then there's a conference at church that begins tomorrow evening. Doug will probably have to work the screens for seven of the eight services, but I don't mind being up there during the conference. It keeps us away from the multitude in the sanctuary. We have one guy who is great about helping out when he can. His job hours are sporadic, where as Doug's hours are set, so Doug can almost always run the evening services on weekdays as needed. So it's basically two people. At the family reunion day at church last Sunday, tables were set up to recruit more help in the media department with the screens and lighting. I'm really hoping we have garnered some serious attention by those who signed up. I need to compose an advertisement to run on the screens, but alas, I'm too busy. (I would say that I burn the candle at both ends, but I honestly feel more like a three wick candle most of the time.)

I have to keep the car tomorrow for my appointment in the morning and on Friday to take my mnl to the first morning service of the conference. If she didn't want to go, I would probably skip Friday morning so I could have extra time to work on finalizing Dormiveglia. I forced myself to wake up at ten-thirty this morning clinging to fragile hope that I will be clapped out enough to sleep for more than four hours tonight. I'd kill for five hours. Six hours would be divine.

So yeah, I'm exhausted and I'm freaking out.

I'm freaking out a lot...

I keep reminding myself of what Charles Bukowski said:

Because Bukowski says that intelligent people are full of doubts and stupid people are filled with confidence, I must be intelligent. As much doubt as I'm experiencing, I must be super intelligent.

Next month is my Christmas time. I love Fall. I live for that season alone. I can't wait for everything that October has to offer.

Unfortunately, I will barely have time to catch my breath in October. 

October is normally busy for me and Doug. We go to two major Fall festivals, mostly pertaining to pumpkins. Then, there's Judgement House, which requires a huge amount of time. There are practices, set building, costumes, fine tuning, room directors having freak outs and meltdowns, and finally dress rehearsal. On the first night, there's usually drama. I won't get into the gory details, but I will say that we just can't seem to have Judgement House without the drama. That's just how it works. One or more people make a big scene and it has to be dealt with by security and/or authority. But again, that's how it works, and Judgement House goes on, and everything works out, and at the end of the week, you're exhausted and half out of it, but if you remember your name, you're still doing better than the ones who only answer to their character names. After playing a character for so long, you start to believe you're that person. (I've played an angel for the last seven years, but I still know for a fact that I'm no angel. *lol*)

This month...oh as if I need more reason to freak out...this month will be busy enough for TWO Octobers.

 

There is no maybe. I need time.

If only I could add more hours to the day and more days to the week...

I really don't know how I'm going to make it through October. Not only do we have the Fall festivals, which I live for all year long, and Judgement House, I'm releasing a book, and my mother is coming to visit. Please don't get me wrong, I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MY MOTHER! I only see her once every few years. This year, I was privy to see her in July, but I still can't wait to see her again. She lives nine hours away, nine hours. That's too many for me! 

Doug and I are talking about moving closer to her in the near future. There's nothing for us here in this wasteland of a state. We would move closer to my brother and sister-in-law, but his job requires relocation, so we probably wouldn't live close to him for very long before he would have to move again. I live too far away from my family. Doug has had the privilege of having his family close by. They all live fifteen minutes away from our house, one aunt in one direction, and an aunt, an uncle, and his mother in the opposite direction.

So back to my mother's visit. My only problem with it is that October is ridiculously busy, but I'm taking full advantage of seeing her. Seeing her is one my top priorities in October, so I have rearranged my schedule. I'm missing book club this month. Doug and I are still going on our trip, but we're cutting some extras out this year. We will be going to the festival only on this trip, instead of gallivanting around the city and hitting the extremely huge, not so enclosed retail shopping compound. We may still go out to dinner at our usual favourite restaurant that does not exist in our city. I don't get people who go out of town and eat at the same restaurants they have at home. I like to try new things to an extent. I admit that I do not mess around with coffee, but if there were other coffee vendors besides Starbucks, I'm willing to try them. (Starbucks has killed all of the other coffee businesses in this area, and probably elsewhere as well.)

Somewhere in the middle of this chaos, I must find time for a book signing. My Saturdays are completely booked, except for the eleventh, so I'm hoping to be able to have a book signing on that Saturday. I'm not sure where. I'm not sure what time. I'm not sure who to call. I'm freaking out!

As for Judgement House, I do want to be a part of it. It's very important to me and to my husband. We may have to skip some practices. This is expected for the most part, as we usually miss one practice in order to take a day trip out of town to the second festival. I may be missing many more practices due to working and my mother's visit. I'm seriously considering going in as an alternate for JH instead of doing the full week. I'm also hoping to have the energy to do anything during JH week.

October 31st, Dormiveglia goes on Amazon. I hope I haven't had a nervy b by then.

Happy Belated Labor Day, by the way, to those who celebrate it.

My Labor Day wasn't extremely exciting. I slept way too late. I did get to see Crystal. She came to town very briefly, so on Labor Day, we met for coffee and talked. I went back to her brother's house to visit with them for about an hour, then I headed home to eat the best hot dogs in the world, because my husband makes them. He grills kosher dogs just for me so I can eat them. (Hot dogs are a huge migraine trigger, so I can only eat the kosher ones.) We sat out on the porch for a little while, and then went inside to watch shows on hulu plus. That's really all we did.

My mother's birthday was August 31st, so here are my favourite pics of me and her. I shared these pics of us on her birthday on the social networking sites that I frequent.

I have some recent pics, but I haven't downloaded them to my lappy yet.

There's nothing else to share. I whinged about how busy I'll be. I gushed about how I can't wait for Fall. I freaked out about publishing my book of short stories. Check, check, and check.

I should get back to work.

True story!

The last picture made me laugh until I cried, so I had to share it. It's true, and that's what makes it funny. I do want to note that I'm not a huge fan of Twilight, but I know enough about it to know why the scene used in this picture is funny. (On Vampires Suck, which I absolutely loved, they did this scene, and when he says, "Say it. Out loud. Say it," she responds with, "You're a Jonas Brother.")

I hope you're less stressed and less exhausted than I am. I must get back to work, although taking the day off and just breathing sounds like a better idea. I'm stressing so much that I may have forced myself to get up early for nothing, because I doubt I'm going to sleep any better tonight...although I did sleep last night. I don't remember seeing anything after three o'clock.

So, until next time, I'll be doing this:

AND...

I hope my husband believes this for the next two months:

Cheers!