*Yawn, stretch*

What?  Is it really the last day of November?  Yeesh.

I finished NaNoWriMo, but I have not finished the story.  But that's okay.  I'm going to keep on working on it, although not necessarily at the same break-neck-ignore-everything-else pace that I had earlier this month.

And the lack of NaNo pressure means that I'll probably be blogging more regularly!  Yay!  In my old age (no smart-ass comments, please), I've realized that I can't focus on multiple writing projects very well.  I can still run 27 knit/crochet projects at a time, all with mental patterns, but more than one story gets things a bit confusing.  Hence the limited blogging.

Hopefully, though, I'll finish "Happily Ever After" soon, and then I'll put it away to age for a month or two before I start with the editing process.  Ick.

Unlimited authority!

I have been granted 'unlimited authority'!!

Okay, so it's limited to within the walls of MLT, but still!

*cackles and rubs hands together*

Sneak Peek

I know, I know. I've been bad about posting this week. But I've been making really good progress on my novel! I'm about a third of the way through, I think, and I'm pretty happy with the story so far. Here's a peek at the opening scene:


“Dammit!”

The peaceful silence of the glade was broken by the shout as Princess Martha Louise dropped a frog into the pond.

“We’ll try another one,” said Heather, the Princess’s companion, rolling up her sleeves and reaching into the water.

“Wait, how do we know if it’s a new frog?” Martha Louise asked.

“Um…” Heather paused, trying to figure that out. “We don’t, I guess.” She thought for a moment longer. “I could try putting them off to the side when you’re done, instead of putting them back into the pond.”

“Okay,” Martha Louise agreed. She was sure that some of the frogs would make their way back into the pond, but she did not have a better idea.

“Here we go,” Heather said, reaching deeper into the pond and pulling up a rather large frog. He was wet and slimy, and smelled vaguely of fish. Martha Louise reached over and took the frog from Heather’s hands, closed her eyes, puckered up, and kissed it.

Nothing happened.

“Dammit!” she cried again.

“Here, give me that,” Heather said, reaching for the frog. She carefully deposited him on the opposite side of the log that she was sitting on, then reached into the pond again. This frog was a smaller candidate, with a bright green skin.

“He looks kind of regal,” Martha Louise said cautiously.

“He does,” Heather agreed. “He’s very shiny, and he smells better than the last two.”

“Well, here goes nothing,” Martha Louise said, taking the frog. Again, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and kissed the frog.

Nothing happened.

“Dammit!”

Heather took the frog and placed him gently beside the larger frog. The two animals looked at one another, as if wondering just what offense they had committed to receive this kind of treatment. The larger one croaked deeply, and the smaller one replied with a more high-pitched rabbit.

“Shush!” Heather scolded them before reaching into the pond again. “We’re busy here!”

Again, Martha Louise took the frog from her companion and kissed it. Nothing.

“What am I doing wrong?” she finally cried in frustration.

“I think you’re just kissing frogs that are really frogs,” Heather observed. “We really don’t have any way of telling whether a frog is just a frog, or if he’s a cursed prince.”

“We really should find a way… I need to get a prince!” Martha Louise looked as if she were on the verge of tears. “Heather, I’m almost twenty five! In two days, I’ll be a quarter of a century old, and I still won’t have found my prince! What’s a princess without a prince? I can’t be an old maid!”

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Heather tried to reassure her. “I’m sure you’ll find your prince. After all, you’re a princess, and like you said, what’s a princess without a prince? Just because you haven’t found an enchanted frog, that doesn’t mean you won’t find your true love. Besides, don’t you think true love’s first kiss will be better with a person than with an amphibian?”

Martha Louise sighed. “You’re right, I know… and these frogs are kind of nasty…”

A deep croak came from the group of frogs behind the log, and both of the young women turned to look at them, wondering if the frogs had actually understood what Princess Martha Louise had just said. As they looked, they managed to catch sight of the two smaller frogs hopping away from the larger one as quickly as they could – it seemed that the croak was just a coincidence. The large frog slowly turned around to stare at Martha Louise, then croaked again.

“Um, let’s get going,” she said, rising from the log beside the pond.

“Good idea,” Heather replied, glancing nervously at the frog. He croaked again, and the two young women hurried away from the pond.

I want to do something big

As I mentioned a few days ago, I can't stop listening to/watching Dr.Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The more I watch it and hear it, the more I want to do something cool like that.

I've considered some options. I could just take the idea and adapt it, making myself into some kind of superhero or super-villain. If I were to do that, however, I would need some sort of identity, because, well, I'm not a superhero or super-villain in my everyday life. I would need a costume, too. I'm kind of broke, though, so I'd have to use a costume that I already have. I've got this nifty silver outfit... and Avon just came out with silver mascara. I don't really know what kind of super-character that would work with, though. I've got lots of scrubs, and surgical gowns, and surgical gloves - but I don't know that I want to be that close to Dr. Horrible. Plus, I wear scrubs in real life, which would make it harder to disguise my identity.

I could also learn to write music, and just blog about my own life in song. Of course, that would involve learning to write music... I can't actually read music, and I'm not a poet, which makes the whole lyric thing more challenging. I could find a new friend who can write music for me - but I have no idea where to find that sort of friend.

I thought about just doing video blogs, too, but that defeats the purpose of writing every day. Unless, of course, I write a script for the blog. Hmmm... that's an option.

Is there anyone out there with an opinion?

What a boring day...

I got sent to a conference for work today, and I was bored out of my mind. The office manager chose the courses for us, and the choices were... not ideal. It's not that it was a total waste of time... well, not really. Let's just say, I felt really smart.

*sigh* At least I got paid to go hang out in a hotel all day, right?

Baby Got Book

Friends pointed this out to me last night, and I had to share.

I love my dreams

I have the most whacked-out dreams!  And I love them, because they give me something to write about :)

I dreamt that I was the stage manager for a show, and I had to sit in the audience to watch rehearsals.  (Okay, that part's not a big stretch.  Shut up.)  It was a musical that I had never heard of, and it was starring my friend Jonathan.

He was up on stage singing a song that summed up the whole show - it was about bad poetry and unemployment.  And the words of the song were atrocious, but in a way that had everyone rolling with laughter.  The song had a line about how hard it was to find a balloon that said "I'm sorry I couldn't take you to the zoo, because I'm broke," so he found a plain balloon and wrote on it with a Sharpie.

It was an awesome show!  I wish it existed outside of my dream... *sigh*

I <3 Neil Patrick Harris

Have you ever listened to a song or watched a movie and liked it well enough that first time, and then gone back to it again later and realized that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread?  

I have.

I have become rather obsessed with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  I just can't get enough of it.  It's on my iPod right now, and I swear, I watched/listened to it at least seven times today.  I'm close to having the whole thing memorized, and it doesn't phaze me at all.  I love it.

I realized that I've had a huge crush on Neil Patrick Harris since... well, since I saw him on Doogie Howser, MD.  Yes, I've been crushing for almost 20 years... 

Wow.  That last sentence makes me feel REALLY old.  But to put it in perspective, I was 9 when the show started, and I had a crush on him even then.  And then I found out that he can sing!  Ah, the joy of it!  Have I mentioned that singing/musical ability is a big plus?

If only he were straight.  And single.  And I was too.  (Single, that is.  I'm already straight.)  Or a man.  (Me, not him.  Then he wouldn't have to be straight.  I'd have to switch teams, but I'd totally do it for Neil!)

My favourite letter is 2.

According to dictionary.com, a letter is "a symbol or character that is conventionally used in writing and printing to represent a speech sound and that is part of an alphabet."  Again, according to dictionary.com, a number is "a word or symbol, or a combination of words or symbols, using in counting or in noting a total."  Given these definitions, the symbol "2" is a number and the symbol "B" is a letter.

Letters and numbers should not be a difficult concept.  I learned my letters and my numbers before I started kindergarten.  Most people learned their letters around that same time in their lives, and I am quite sure that schools, while severely degrading in quality as time goes on, still teach letters and numbers.  

All that being said, IT DRIVES ME CRAZY when people insist on naming NUMBERS on their eye exams when I repeatedly ask them to read the LETTERS on the screen.  Letters, people!  "2" is not a letter!  "8" is not a letter! "1" is not a letter!  I get that you can't quite see the symbols on the screen because you're old or blind, or whatever, but when I ask you to read the LETTERS, at least use letters in your guesses!

/rant.

My head exploded

I had to listen to love songs again.  Bits of my brain scattered around the room, and I managed to collect most of them into a pretty little jar, which is now sitting on my desk.  I stapled the skull bits back together, so that my head wouldn't be too lumpy.  But it sounds hollow if you hit it now.

If I hear Olivia Newton John's "I Honestly Love You" one more time this week, I think my head might pop off and fly around the room (since clearly the explosion didn't do anything to reduce the love song content of my morning).

I wanna puke.

I think that the genre of music referred to as 'love songs' needs to change its name.

I work as a surgical scrub technician, which means I'm the gal who hands instruments to the doctor in the operating room ("Scapel!"  "Yes, doctor!").  It also means that, once I'm sterile, I can't touch anything or leave the OR.  With some doctors, it's not that bad.  With the one I'm usually with, it's torture.  Why?  Because he insists on listening to the "Love Songs" XFM station during surgery.  The two operating rooms (and in fact, the entire ambulatory surgical center) are all on the same sound system, so everyone has to listen to his choice of music.  All morning.

After listening to four hours (yes, four straight hours) of love songs today, I realized that very few of them are the sort of song that you would play for someone with whom you are in love.  If you start listening to the genre, you'll realize that these 'love songs' should really be called 'creepy stalker songs.'  At least half of the songs that played this morning were from the point of view of someone who had been dumped and couldn't manage to get over their 'true love.'  It was just... ick.  If I played any of those songs for my SO, he'd have a restraining order against me in a heartbeat!

And on a related note, do you remember, several years ago, there was a big controversy over the song "How Do I Live (Without You)"? (Big is a relative term, of course.)  The question was whether the LeAnn Rimes version or the Trisha Yearwood version should be included on a movie soundtrack (bonus points if you know which movie it was!).  The folks in charge decided that Trisha's version should be included, because at 15, LeAnn was too young to understand the emotion behind that song.  As I listened to it at work today, I realized that LeAnn's version should have made it!  Why?  Because that horrible, desperate love is totally typical of a fifteen-year old!

And that's why I wanna puke today.