Caterwauling

Yinz all have a happy holiday now, y’hear?

I’ve been writing furiously for my NaNoWriMo project because, alas, it’s a holiday month. Not that we’ll celebrate the holiday, but I’m going to go north for a few days to help Mom move.

I’ve enjoyed being ahead of schedule with my word count. Unfortunately, I’ll come back 5,000 words behind schedule. But like I can’t bullshit my way through those last 10,000 words in a few days. Sleep? What’s that? Like fresh air and daylight (other things I’m deprived of), apparently I’ve had enough in my life.

I’ve fallen in love with my characters. I’ve finally gotten a real picture of them — what they look like, what their natures and demeanors are, where they’re going to be (theoretically) in 10 years. Hell, I know them better than I know myself at this point.

The break will be good for the imagination, I hope. I know my fingers will be itching to be typing while I’m gone. I also hope that, after I take a break in December — to catch up on the ever-elusive lifestyle maintenance things I’ve neglected due to being away from home too many hours a day and then staying up all night writing (example: I did five loads of laundry tonight — that only removed 50% of the dirty clothes from my bedroom floor *sigh*) — I’ll be able to fall back into the groove of finishing the book and doing a really good edit on it.

In the meantime, it’s my last chance (for now) to feel like I’ve kicked ass, so allow me just a moment to brag a lil bit:

40,000 / 50,000 (80.0%)

… oh, who the hell am I kidding? I’m *always* snarkalicious.

I was running errands this weekend when I ran into someone from my long-ago past. And damn it, he looked good. They do that to us, you know — they get better-looking with time. Whereas I’ve gained an extra ass cheek and crow’s feet since then. *sigh* Stunning.

I was the one who walked away from him, though. Well, ran away is more like it. For those of you who have been around this joint for years, are you nuts? you may remember him as the one to whom I’d said, “That’s IT?!?!” after, ah, activities.

I also changed my phone number so he would Quit. Calling. Me.

In any event, I found the old-school blog entry from the day we met. And I realized that while I get mad at myself these days for squelching my feelings down so deeply that they explode like a freaking Zambelli’s fireworks display (see: meltdown, today’s sobbing and swearing), well, apparently I used to give away a *twee* bit too much of the truth.

Here’s part of that entry. Good lord, who was that girl?

Anyway, when I saw G., he was with a new girlfriend, I guess. And Evil Dawn surfaced long enough to think, “Awww, so that’s who he’s disappointing in bed now!”

Bitchiness: Coping with all the bullshit in life, one snarky comment at a time.

It’s been quite a creative couple of days here at Chez Dawn.

First, I gots me a French pedicure:

Then Tiff got bitten by the crafty bug, and we ended up going to Clay Cafe Studios in honor of her birthday to get all crafty and stuff.

I made a tabletop:

It’s the big square in the center of all my other mosaic crap, BTW. It’s got a mirror in the center.

Clay Cafe gave me mauve-colored grout. Gah. Mauve! I went to Michaels and bought some bluish-silver grout, which I need to apply one of these days. I have a wrought-iron table to which I am going to superglue that mofo. I can’t wait.

More of me and my cobalt/black/mirrored glass fetish:

But wait, there’s more.

While I was at Michaels, I started collecting crap for a holiday swag. I grabbed greenery and started shoving all kinds of glittery blue and silver flowers in it, and people actually began stopping me, telling me how pretty it was and asking where I’d got it. Hah. With the creativity that runs in my family, they’d be appalled if I actually bought and didn’t make something.

Here’s the swag, in regular lighting:

I threw it together in five minutes, tops.

I tried to get a pic of it all lit up with the blue lights. Twenty-seven pix later, this is the best I could do (clearly, photography is not one of my creative pursuits). Well, it could be the 2 mpx camera, but oh well.

And it wouldn’t be a holiday without a bad cat eating my creation:

And, last but not least in the creative pursuits:

37,500 / 50,000 (75.0%)

Reader Poll Monday

1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?
Stuffing balls. Not that the holiday is going to be the slightest bit traditional this year, but that is what I look forward to all year round. We cook with real butter in my family (see: ass, explains size of), and there aint’ nothin’ tastier than fried stuffing balls. *drool* Too bad mom’s oven got stolen.

2. If you could impose a heavy luxury tax on any single item, what would it be?
Bibles. Perhaps then the religious right and other assorted wack-jobs would quit beating my freedoms and rights with them so carelessly.

3. What’s the most interesting job you’ve ever had?
I’m still waiting for it. I seem to tell the most stories about my days in PR/fundraising/marketing. Every day was a grab bag of “What the hell is today going to bring?” I loved it — kept the ideas fresh and constantly generating.

4. Have you ever been on TV?
I’ve been at events with TV cameras (see “David Letterman”), as well as a lot of fund-raising events that I’d helped to coordinate. But thankfully no, my ass moves quickly out of the camera’s way.

5. If you had a 5 year old daughter who wanted to be in a pageant, would you let her?
Momma needs to pay the rent, so she should learn to earn her keep as early as possible. Have at it, munchkin.

6. Would you rather have a constant itch, or a constant sore throat?
Itches can be soothed. Sore throats cannot. Although, where exactly is this itch and who gave it to me? Because I’d have to inflict revenge on them for eternity!

7. What’s one TV show you simply cannot miss each week?
Like y’all couldn’t answer this one for me.

Monday: “Medium”
Tuesday: “The Office,” “Law & Order”
Wednesday: Hmm, nothing. Wow.
Thursday: “Reunion,” “ER”
Friday: “The Soup”
Saturday: Enh. “SNL” if I’m around
Sunday: “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy”

8. When is the last time you went out dancing?
Ah, I used to be a fixture at the gay bars. But alas, it’s been a coupla years. And honestly? No desire to go back. I’d rather go do the “white man’s overbite” at the straight bars.

9. Does hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me?
Hearing it in August kind of made me insane. Hearing it nonstop from now till doomsday is a twee bit obnoxious. But you want to see me go into convulsions? Play “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” And prepare to have my most wonderful foot in your ass for the holidays.

10. Ask me something.
I know you love to bake, but what’s your favorite “real food” to prepare?