Fire in them Hills

So I can’t go home because my neighborhood is trying hard NOT to burn down.  Yup, I’m in THAT canyon that’s been on the news smack between the 2 and the 134.  Literally watching the helicopters circle the fire trail where we walked the dogs.  My mother called me on the way home for the day telling me to come to her house because mine was inaccessible.  Sure enough its 10pm and me and the kids are still hanging around waiting for the police to let us IN!  I’m dying for a huge dose of Nyquil and my bed!  The kids are happily playing Wii with Eithne’s girls while we wait for the all clear from the fire department.

And I realized I seem to have a strange reaction to news like this.  Ironic Laughter.  When fate throws these unexpected curve balls I seem to find it amusing!  When I crashed my car into a poor old man I took all in amazing stride, shrugged it off and boarded a plan for Albuquerque as planned.  Even when I got the news I no longer had a van because the insurance company totalled it, I found it amazingly humorous.  It was weeks later as I experienced the complete restructuring of my life this caused that I felt the real reaction of shock and depression.

At the moment, I have no idea if I have a home.  Although its probably fine.  And I’m extremely happy we no longer have a dog, imagining the poor beast would have expired from smoke inhalation!   I’m sitting here chuckling over the complete silliness of waiting and wondering when this whole inconvenient “fire” is going to be over so I can go on with my life.   Yet if I’d lost my home with all my new clothes!  stuff I’d roll my eyes at fate, handle it and later, much later when it was safe… have that breakdown the situation deserved.

In the meantime… I laugh at the crazy plot-line the writers of my life have thought of now!

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Current News

Well Internet fans, I’ve had a head-cold the last few days.  “And yet you still blog,” you say.  Well, no… I usually blog in big batches and then pop them up during the week.  NOT cheating… I’m just being efficient!

Anyway, so I used up several blogs over the weekend while I mostly slept.  Well, basically just cat-napped because the noise level in my house goes up and down in volume.  I could sleep through a steady hum of electronic usage and talking but not the lull of silence broken with enthusiastic child enjoyment or the more normal… insults and arguing.

So the point of this blog is to forewarn all that there may be a day or two that I don’t do a new blog.   Aren’t I efficient… a blog about not being able to blog due to illness.   Stalling for time seems to part and parcel of the desperate attempts to keep up with all the plates I have spinning in the air! 

After all, I have the “I don’t know how you do it all” reputation I’ve built to live up to!

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How I saved my sanity with this calendar

Everyone talks about how kids need structure and I believe kids need it because they’re whirling balls of chaos!  Really its the mother who needs structure.

When I first moved into my current house I was a new mother of my third child and a part time employee.  I desperately needed structure.   And I found it in the form of the Boone 14 x 14 Magnetic Calendar.   Here is a link to buy one off Amazon.com 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UHBCH8/ref=asc_df_B000UHBCH8863930?smid=A18POD3EAEER5F&tag=dealt306820-20&linkCode=asn

This is a narcissist secret because it makes my life easier and I then have more time for ME.  Let me tell you how I first used it.

We’d fixed up this house and I wanted to keep it clean.  But between the kids and the job I didn’t have time to do it all myself NOR the money to hire help.  This was partly because I was taught “if you’re going to do a job do it right the first time and you won’t have to do it over.”   (Thanks Mom for pounding the nails into my perfectionist plaque!)

My Boone calendar

My Boone calendar

Yet my perfectionist gene is balanced with my lazy narcissist gene and I had to scale back my expectations of house cleanliness.  So I took a hard look at just what had to get cleaned on a daily or weekly basis and what could stand to be cleaned only monthly.  Obviously dishes and people had to be cleaned if not daily at least every other day.  Laundry, toilets and floors needed to be cleaned weekly.  But washing fingerprints off walls, floor mopping, dusting bookshelves… I could live with only doing that monthly.

And with my Boone calendar I had 4 weeks to divide those chores into.  (Floor day, Wall day, Dust day, Bathroom day… you know, scrub that shower, tub, etc.) I added the day the kids went to the school library so I could make sure they took those damn books back.  (As if 2 obsessive reader parents don’t have kids books in the house!)  Then, of course, I added the days I projected to be ovulating (when horny me comes to the surface) and when I’d be menstruating (when scary me might pop out but when oral sex moves up the agenda).

Then I added more monthly chores (mow, filing, accounting, etc.) and the weeks my girlfriend had her daughters during the summer, or days during the rest of the year.  Hell, I kept better track than she did sometimes and I gave her one of my calendars!  And this system has been working brilliantly for years now.

At the end of the week I erase the transient weekly entries along with that weeks day numbers and after moving all the other weeks up I put the new week on the bottom.  The things that never change, I never need to erase or re-enter.  Then I check the side of the fridge where I keep clipped all those notices of upcoming events and add any to the new week if they apply.

I haven’t had to buy an annual calendar in years!  And luckily my own personal schedule isn’t so packed with events and phone calls that I need to always have my calendar with me.  Because nothing is more fun than when the kids notice I’ve put something like Christmas or better yet, Last Day of School on the calendar over the fridge. 

Ah, the happy sounds of more chaos.

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Menfolk alone

The following is an excerpt (with commentary by me in parenthesis) of an email from the home front while I was away at the convention. 

  Dinner was a hit. We had sausage on a stick, fresh off the charcoal grill (read here Hibachi).  Also the Rice Pilaf, found in your mother’s pantry. I owe her a box of Trader Joe’s Rice Pilaf. We had corn, salad, and baked beans. Conor struggled to taste the Rice Pilaf, but Evan encouraged him and he ate a full serving.  The corn and beans were warmed with 100% solar power. I put the cans on the bricks out back and they warmed to serving temperature.

   We went over your wish list of chores. (which was vacuum, clean toilets, wash my car, etc.)  Evan decided he wanted to fill the water slide. (a giant vinyl contraption that with the attached air blower, blew up into a slide you could hook water to and it would spray out… my fight against renting a bouncy for B-day parties.) I was busy tending the fire, so Evan decided to set it up himself. He’s certainly learning self reliance at Webelos Camp (cub scouts). He dragged out the slide with a little help from Conor. He set up the blower and filled the water weights. He turned on the blower and it promptly blew the air sleeve across the yard, along with the plastic bag he put on the blower to keep water off. That’s when I was asked to help. I wrapped a bungee cord around the air sleeve (must not have noticed the ties at the end of said sleeve for this function) to keep it attached to the bungee. We tried again. The water slide has this big hole along the slide, and the huge hole in the bottom. It tried hard to fill, but nothing happened. Conor voted to buy a new water slide.

My husband’s family motto… there’s a hard way to do everything.

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Shawn of the Dead

Its been recently pointed out to me that I missed a crucial favorite movie in my movies blog.  Shawn of the Dead.  I must admit this flick should have been included in the list.

I dislike horror flicks and zombie flicks to me have always been along the lines of “Horror flicks for the stupid.”  After all, if you can’t run away from a shuffling zombie, well you deserve to get eaten.  Sheesh!  And Shawn of the Dead is a hysterical slam of that genre.   People are turning into zombies all around them and they’re so drunk and in their ingrained patterns they don’t notice for almost a day.  And of course the only place they can think of to run and wait it out is The Pub!

It’s not for everyone because sometimes British Humor just isn’t…  but I really enjoyed it as a comedy with the added plus of making fun of a genre I don’t like much.

On the opposite spectrum, I watched a zombie movie that was so “realistic” it was barely in the genre and it freaked me out so much I was up many nights trying to think of ways to “fortress up” my house!  It was 21 Days Later.  The plot being scientist were experimenting with anger management so they infected these primates with something that made them crazy mad and then the nutty animal rights kids broke in to “free” the monkeys.  And out into the human population goes the Angry virus.

But these zombies…  who didn’t eat, drink, feel pain and barely slept… also had no goal other than to bite and infect anything not already infected.  When they moved, they moved at maximum speed and strength and it was scary.  These zombie were damn hard to escape from or fight.  Completely terrifying.  And the virus infected you within 1 minute of a bite.  Shudder.

So of these two movies, one made me laugh and I’ll enjoy watching it again, preferably in a bar!  And the other one I’ll never be able to watch again!  I was in “how to survive that!” mode for weeks! 

Where’s my steel door?

 

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Flying the downside

The flight to Orlando, FL for the conference we took the Red Eye, something I’d never done previously and something I hope never to do again unless I have Bose headsets and a very nice neck pillow!  I cat napped (which if it was Cat would be fun, but…) through the flight and arrived too awake to sleep yet still tired.

On the way back our flight was delayed.  At first it was just delayed by 30 minutes due to the incoming plane was late.  Then it was delayed another hour because the plane had arrived with mechanical difficulties.  Then several more hours and finally they gave up trying to fix our plane and worked on finding us another plane. 

Once said plane was found we had to wait on a pilot that didn’t have too many “hour” in the air to fly us the 5 hours straight to LAX.  So originally we were supposed to fly into LAX at 9pm and instead we arrived in at 1am.  Lucky for me my brother has a similar humor  on the curves life throws you so he rolls with the news he gets to pick us up at 1am with a joking humor.

Waiting during the delay wasn’t too bad.  Mom’s Platinum AMEX gets us into the first class lounge of Delta and we wait in style with free drinks, cheese N crackers and cookies.  We broke into our flight lunch eventually and I did get to check my emails online.  It was there I finished the first run of editing Cat and got her down to 117,800 words.  Still too high by 20,000 words.  Sigh.

Delta gave us free movies on the flight but I was too tired and cat napped the whole flight home.  And discovered the plus side of sleeping on the airplane.  Its wonderful for my muse.  My cap naps start with me priming my brain with picturing a scene (which is how I put myself to sleep) and I end up in dream mode and that’s where I get some of my most interesting characters and scenes.

After all, writer’s need time alone with their thoughts and scenes just as much as they need time on their computer.  Apparently my muse is so “easy” it’ll take any time alone to try and move my writing along. 

So even my muse is a slut.  Surprised?

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I Mispoke!

At a conference there is the usual sales talk to everyone who comes to your booth.  And then there’s the personal talk between the exhibitors.  I think I enjoy that much more.  And of course, my Conference Peeps were all at one booth.  So the boss can say, “Heather will be at the booth… and if she’s not there, check the Lansinoh booth.”  Ooops, bad on me!  Sure enough there I am.  But, hell no one’s coming to the booth at this hour.  They’re waiting until its time for me to go so they can delay my meal and make me miss the breakfast servings and have to choose lunch.  (I LOVE breakfast.  Can’t you Cat readers tell that!)

Anyway at one such exhibitor bonding I was telling the story of my weight loss and was asked how often I went to the gym.

“Five times a day,” I replied.

She looked at me and I started laughing and we began to riff off it. 

ME:   “No, I meant 5 times a week.” 

HER:   “I was thinking…five times a day… you must be in love with your trainer or something!”

ME:   “Yeah, it’s work out, then ‘WORK it’ out”

HER:   “What’s he working, the Kagel muscle?!”

hysterical laughter as we pretend to grunt/pant and count at the same time.

ME:  (quoting the trainer)  “Almost there… just five more… three, two, one… (climax)  and rest.”

I wonder if he’d charge me for that session?

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Orlando Trip – GNO

BEST GNO… EVER!!!

While Kim napped I went to the concierge to find a place to take the girls on GNO.  And passed right past him because he looked 70!  Instead I went to a young male check in clerk who, when I asked where can we go to dance and drink, suggested City Walk in Universal.  Hell, I can do that here!

I went to the young girl and she found us the Blue Martini.  It was a Latin Fusion club with a live band and then a DJ and I thought, sounds interesting.  She said it had great appetizers and martinis (obviously) and printed out the menus.  Gotta love hotel staff!  She even gave us several back up options, too.

Kim finally woke up and gathered her clan down in the lobby.  I arranged for a town car to take us because I wasn’t sure how many but when I finally pried them away from the schmoozing and yaking with everyone who passed through the lobby only 3 girls accompanied me.

Oh but these were the cream of the crop, my friends.  Kim and I have clicked from the moment I met her.  She’s ahead of me in the “40’s and learning” curve and I bounce my feelings off her whenever I can to get her Earth Mother sage advice.  And she’s the one who’s been encouraging me to get into Stand-Up.  Probably because she owns stock in Depends and wants my ability to make you laugh ’till you pee your pants spread nationally.

Then I met Barb.  I just love this woman and I’m going to devote a whole blog to tell you her amazing story.  But first a little about the woman I met on GNO.  Kim gives me her Earth Mother Advice but when I see Barb I see Earth Mother.  She’s curvy with thick salt N pepper hair and a smile that makes you relax into her calm surety about life and where she is.  That smile has an intriguing Cat twinkle in its depths. 

Lastly I met Gina (yeah, two best GNO buds and both named Gina!).  But this Gina is a classic TransAm Cougar in Training (CIT).  She looks like she should be on the beach in Malibu or at least at the BBQ drinking Margaritas.  But she’s got a really sharp mind and she’s ready to explode into her 40’s!  And I’m completely ready to take her there!

So on to the events.  The Towncar takes us to the Blue Martini and when we pull up there looks to be either a line or a crowd waiting to get in.  The girls begin to worry they won’t get in… that they’re not dressed right because there are bouncers manning ropes.  But they don’t know they’re with Cat and she’s ready to GET OUT.  After paying the driver I saunter/lead them around the crowd.  I’ve caught the eye of one of the very cute bouncers and he says, “Ladies!” and unhooks his little velvet rope with a smile and wave.  I lead my girls in and we stop only to pay the cover. 

The place is wonderfully packed on a Thursday night.  The music is nice and loud and completely in Spanish!  So I have no idea what they’re singing but that beat moves my hips and after a quick tour we find a standing table and get drinks and appetizers.  At one point they do play a song I know even if only about half of it and it’s that “You know you want me” song Calle Ocho that I just posted on my blog.  I scream and drag them dancing.  Kim has pictures and I’ll put them up if she ever sends them.

With music so loud we can only bond in two’s to talk but we manage it!  Best part is there’s room where we’re standing to dance right there should the urge get us.  And frankly I was very pleased no one asked us to dance.  These people must have been professionals or taken classes and I will admit there is clearly not enough Latino in my genes (i.e. none!) to allow me to get any where close to the sexy dancing these Latino women were pulling off no matter if they were the 90 lb 21 year old all the way up to the 250 lb 40 year old!

Eventually we move to a table and then to an outside table just to be able to tell all our stories to each other.  And it was so much enjoyment Cat (i.e. me) didn’t even need to feel the men leering at her.  I was having much more fun with my girls.  Of course, maybe that was because Gina was just mesmerized by the lead singer and the way he pulsed/twitch/pumped his hips.  So she often left us to stand right in front of him between the tables and the bar chairs watching him.  I went with her one time and because we were drunk (?) or because it was fun (?) we both watched him arms around each other pointing out the possibilities and must have looked like two girls trying to pick out a man to make a threesome with for the evening. 

That was more fun the being Cat pretending to pick out a man.  Being Cat with another woman picking out a man for both of us.  Truly the most fun, ever!  That really puts a look in a man’s eye!  I saw it on several of them… purrrrrrr.

As per any new Cat/Heather audience I shocked and amazed with my irreverent humor, blatant sensuality and unusually perceptive insights.  We announced this was to be a new conference tradition!  But after two delicious (and probably strong) Triple Chocolate Martinis and just about no dinner for me I was drunker than I’d ever been.  And by 12:30 pm Orlando time we were ready to go.  Some of us (i.e. me) had to be down to the exhibit area by 7 am the next day… Orlando time, i.e. 4am L.A. time.  So we caught a cab.

And for the 25 minute ride home we could finally hear ourselves talk.  Oh that poor, young cab driver!  Of course, with me in the car the conversation went to sex.  I think Gina was singing the praises of that lead singer’s pelvic ability.  Then we got onto the myth/reality of Asians and their “size” in that area and I shared my “experience” suggesting if Anal is your style you can’t do better than an Asian male.  Kim who being African American has plenty of experience with the gifts of those men and said, “It just don’t fit!” 

That segued into porn (and I’m just NOT going to go into how) and after the discussion of why its beneficial for women to use it as a foreplay tool.  Then they wanted to know what sites I go to.  Well, I explained I like the Anime and drawn stuff because there’s no restrictions.  (Tentacles, people, tentacles!  Expand beyond the ordinary, use your imagination!)

Like I said, that poor, cab driver.  Because with three girls in the back, guess who sat next to him up front.  You got it.  Me!  I was good, I only tried to get him to join the conversation once.  He’d obviously had experience with drunks but I doubt with sexy drunk 40 year olds!

And what made it the best GNO ever?  I got to laugh.  Usually I’m entertaining and I love it but these girls were also “away” from all their regular lives and their sense of freedom was off the charts.  The four of us were riffing off each other in a way that left me speechless (and you know how almost impossible that is) with laughter.  I was begging them to stop and dancing around doing the pee-pee dance because for once it was me who needed the Depends!

I did pay the price though.  Once in the room without the distraction of my girls my body reminded me of WHY drinking too much is not good for me.  I drink the sugary drinks so I forget I’m hungry and don’t eat.  I hovered on the bathroom floor begging my body to puke so I could sleep and it just would not cooperate.  Not even with a finger down the throat (although I did note when I did that, there’s a lot of room down my throat and my gag reflex is lessened.  I think the husband is going to enjoy me testing my new limits in oral sex).

With time (and frankly a huge poop) I finally thought I’d try that masturbation/ distraction technique from an earlier blog.   Looking back now I was probably experiencing a form of seasickness!   I lay on my stomach on the floor (because really guys, that’s how most women masturbate) and just doing that felt soooo good I didn’t even try my theory.  

Which was fine because trying to masturbate on the cold hard tile of a bathroom is difficult!  Almost too uncomfortable to get off!   Smirk… yes, I do know first hand!  Sometimes you just NEED that clitoral orgasm and if you have to get out of bed to get it, well… you do!

 

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Orlando trip

Since I’m compulsive about things I can’t go straight to the best story of my trip… I have to do it in order.   So  in the interest of NOT torturing all of you too long the next few posts will be about my recent trip to Orlando, Florida.

It was actually a business trip for work and I was accompanying the boss (who’s my mother… added restraint!)  But I was determined to try and get any moment where I can feel like I’m on vacation. 

Kim (who I’ve been trying to get together with for GNO with my girls in L.A.) was there & said, “Yeah, lets go out.  Meet us by the pool.”  So I go and meet her peeps who are all colleagues but “I’m on Vacation!” so for a moment we forget that we work in an industry together and bond as people.  And just when it starts to get fun, (i.e. all about me… so you know…within seconds of me hitting the group.)  we feel a few drops.

Then a sudden little mini-storm rolls in and dumps water all over me.  One minute a sexy goddess with a drink bouncing waist deep in a pool… the next a wet puppy who can’t see past her water logged classes and her running mascara!  Oh, it burns… it burns!!

At first it was just like Club Med and we refused to get out unless the Lifeguard told us to.  Of course then the lightning and thunder began and he said, “Everyone out.”

We dash for cover and Kim screams… party in my room.  So I check in with the boss, wrap my dry clothes as best I can and squish my way back to the hotel.  It is by now POURING.  Wet puppy is now drenched puppy.  I dry the best I can once in the hotel lobby and hand the towel to the waiting crew who have mops!   Off to the elevators I squish in my bathing suit because I am not going to wet my clothes by putting them on.  And hey, I work hard to look good in this suit… and besides its only breastfeeding frumpy ladies and married men.

(The next day someone said to me, “Oh, you’re the girl in the bathing suit!  And I’m all, hell girl there are tons of people in suits how can I stand out to be remembered like that.  Then I realize, I’m entertaining all in the elevator ride with  the prequel of THIS blog.  Just what I do… entertain every stranger there.  So I’m surprised I’m memorable?  NOT!)

Anyway… I get to Kim’s and her roommates asleep, so I say, Party in my room its empty.  She says sure after a quick shower.  So I pop in one myself only to get a text from her (yea.. my text works!) that a nap is calling her. 

And GNO is once again delayed!  It was delayed the night before because as we gather with my mom the talk always turns to business.  For hours!  Even with drinks!

But I am undaunted!  GNO does happen and wait until you hear it!   Juicy. 

But that’s for tomorrow’s blog.  Hee hee hee.

 

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Writing 102

As a beginning writer I’m learning my craft.  And I’m learning how I use or work my craft.  Apparently I write every little itty bitty bit down, writing minute to minute real time for my characters.  Only occasionally lumping action into a paragraph.  Its how my first novel Cat, ended up 151,000 words when it should have been closer to 90,000.

So just as I honed some of my beginning talent with Fan Fic, now I’m learning to tighten sentences and dump excess scenes, lines, dialogue, etc.   I always knew I was long-winded, but sheesh!

Cutting Cat was pretty easy at first, but my writing got better as I wrote it and now it’s much harder to discard sentences or condense entire paragraphs into one sentence.  I have noticed I tend to write my sentences like this.  I did this and then did this.  Which I can lose a word by saying, Doing this, I did this.  So when I get to the end of this editing run I get to search every “and” in the book and see what else I can do.  Then start again with the word “that” which was a suggestion I got from a writer at LOSCON last year.

After that its another round of reading out loud.  Won’t my neighbors just love me, because I can’t do that in the house with the kids!  And its very hard to read aloud all day.  I get hoarse!  But it does help in catching some of the rhythm mistakes and odd word choices.  Maybe they’ll still take it if its 99,000 words because I only have 10 chapters left, 55 pages and I’m still at 122,500 words.  Sigh, I may have to cut Austin’s testing scene.

Luckily Cat 2 which is Sarah’s story is only 123,000 words but if my writing has gotten better then cutting it will be harder.  Maybe Cat will do well enough that they’ll accept Sarah’s size.   And I just realized Cat 3 could either be short… i.e. only the outline I’ve done or it could be long… i.e what I’ve done and what comes next.  But Cat 3 must wait her turn and by then I’ll know more about just how long she can or cannot be.  Plus, who knows where I’ll be in my craft by then!

The two people who’ve read both Cat and Sarah have remarked at how much better Sarah is as a book than Cat.  I’ll admit she was easier because its more a straight relationship romance than what I’d set out to do with Cat. 

I think I’m getting this writing stuff down.  And it’s fascinating learning something new in this “journey of my craft”.  The most eye opening part is realizing how much I judge a new author by that first book.  And the first book isn’t ever the best of an author’s career!   Wow.

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