Rode Hard and Put Up Wet

That probably doesn't apply to this post, but I really wanted to use it as my title.

1. Thank you for all the kind, supportive comments on my self-indulgent post from Monday! I'm feeling much better about things now. I've reserved a U-Haul truck for Saturday at 8 AM; we're moving out of this apartment this weekend, whether it's to our house or to my in-laws' house. I have a plan now, so I feel loads better.

2. I have a lot more hardcore packing to do in order to move by Saturday at 8 AM. Because of this, and the moving stuff, and if we do move into my in-laws' for a few days, I won't be blogging again until things are settled.  I may still comment and lurk, but nothing from me.

3. I still haven't watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. What is wrong with me?!?!

4. I think my sweet little boy cat, who's been neutered since he was 8 weeks old, sprayed in my house yesterday. I was livid. Thanks for waiting until the last few days we're here, jackhole! In his defense, I think the packing and the new cat outside is stressing him out.

5. I'm now officially over 500 followers. I know numbers aren't everything, or even anything, really, but I am humbled and quite frankly surprised that 500 people have decided to follow my blog. I hope I can at least make you smile from time to time, because I'm sure as hell not making anyone informed. :)

So, this is it. Hopefully the next time words appear on this webpage, I'll be a home owner residing in my new pad. Woo!

I Wanna Know

I'm starting to think that the stress of not knowing what your living situation will be not only trumps, but also magnifies all other stress. The smallest things suddenly become Very Important OMG, and I run around thinking How Is This All Going To Work Out?

I don't have a closing date. My contract says on or before June 1. We're moving 45 miles away, so we'd really been hoping to have several days to trickle it out over, especially since there are some minor painting things we'd like to do before all our stuff is there. Our landlord has a family waiting to move in to our apartment.

My in-laws are going to let us crash with them temporarily, if need be, and that's where my worries start to pile up. What will I do with our furniture? How will our now THREE cats get along with their THREE cats? Especially the stray whom I haven't gotten neutered yet because I was waiting until we moved so he'd have an indoor place to recover? What about all our food in the fridge/freezer?

*stress*

And then I started having writing angst. I finished reading through my first draft of Four, talked over some revision idea with Evan, and then began to wonder if this was really the novel I want to put my heart and soul into right now. At this point, with all my other stress, I can't even differentiate between legit concerns and plain ol' fear.

Also, the mosquitoes are here in Georgia. I'm a mosquito magnet like you wouldn't believe. And yesterday it reached 95, and they're showing temps in the 90's all week.

I'm sorry if this sounds complainy. Sometimes it's nice to write it out. I just really want to know something.

However, in happy news, I noticed that I'm just shy of 500 followers! Holy moses! Never thought I'd see that day. You guys are one of the most integral parts of my routine now, and frankly I have a hard time remember life BB (before Blogger). Not sure if I can afford to run a contest per norm...mayhap I shall send a random box of packed stuff to a lucky person! ;)

Evil Cats, Evil Books

Most days I'm pretty sure my cat Mack is human-level intelligent and capable of reason. And that he uses his intelligence for EVIL. EEEEVILLLLL...

The apartment in which I will not be living much longer has ledges built into the walls around chair-rail height. These ledges are about 5 inches wide--perfect width for cat butts.

Mack the boy cat lives to walk across my desk. Over and over, blocking my view. Occasionally stopping to try and eat my plants. Knocking my candles onto the floor. Stepping on whatever is on my desk--paper, sandwich, whatever. All in the pursuit of looking out the windows...

This is pretty much our daily routine. Especially if I'm eating--the effort goes up a few notches. 

I've decided that I'm tired of waiting for my hubby to finish my rough draft of FOUR before I read it. He has 13% left, and that's close enough, right? So I'm going to start reading today. Let's see, it's been...28 days since I finished? Yes. So, a February has gone by, and I think that's enough time.

Last night I started to chicken out about revisions. I'm a big coward when it comes to revisions--I get so many ideas that they start snarling in my head until I feel like beating it against the wall. That's usually when I scrap the revision idea and start on a new draft. 

But not this time. Thankfully, my stalwart CPs (Lola, Portia, and Tara) are there to talk me away from the ledge. Last night I kept my breakdown limited to just my hubby, and he snapped me out of it well enough, but I know I'm going to need hand-holding. Turns out I'm a little bitch baby when it comes to revisions. (I got the phrase "bitch baby" from Grey's Anatomy and I love it.) 

Oh, and what's all this about the world ending and such on Saturday? I have plans on Saturday, thanks. 

It's That Day Again!

Today is my 3rd wedding anniversary! Sometimes it's hard to believe three years have gone by, and other times it feels like forever (in a good way). We've been together for over 6 years now, and *insert mushy sentimentalism*.

This picture is a good explanation of my life with my husband, Evan:

This photo was taken at the wedding of our friend on the left (the blond one), about a month before the wedding of the friend in the middle (the redhead). Both of these guys were at our wedding, and they're Evan's 2 best friends from his youth. Excellent times were had at that wedding, and truth be told, I was so drunk in this picture I don't even remember it being taken.

Fun times with life!

Out of curiosity, I looked up my blog post from this time last year. Turns out for my anniversary last year, we watched 11 episodes of LOST and grilled steak & veggies. Sweet!

Also according to that post, I had just finished reading 2 excellent books and had just seen Iron Man 2. Living large, huh?

We saw THOR for this anniversary, and I also just finished 2 good books. Man, my life is predictable, huh? :)

Happy Monday!

How Writing is Gardening: a post in pictures

Inception

Outline

Skeleton draft

First draft

Revisions

Final draft. 

Okay...so maybe this was just an excuse to post pictures of my garden's transformation over the course of 1 year. 

Your Knowledge is Greater Than My Knowledge

In personal news: the house buying is coming along nicely! We had our inspection done earlier this week, and while we're going to have to replace the furnace/AC unit, we're still moving forward with the purchase. Our latest closing date has been set as June 1, but we're really hoping to close earlier so we'll have at least a week to make the move.

So if all goes well, this will be my first house! It's not much to look at from the outside right now, but I have big plans for landscaping and some repainting. The inside is very cute with some unique characteristics, though. And the backyard is huge! When I was there for the inspection, I watched two bunnies running around in the forested part of the yard--so cute!

I've been haphazardly packing the apartment, trying to keep some things out and unsure what to do with others...so basically, the apartment is a wreck with boxes everywhere. I like to have neat surroundings whenever I'm working on something big writing-wise, so the chaos isn't helping me think.

I'm still waiting on Evan to finish reading my rough draft, and he's getting closer. I've slowly started my story bible. So far I've got some of the world-building and a lot of the mythology, but nothing much else.

This is where I need help: I've never revised before. I have three messy novels sitting on my hard drive, all worthy ideas, all still untouched because I'd rather write a new messy one than try to clean up an old. But I really want to polish FOUR up and try my hand at sending it out, thus revision looms.

I have Donald Maass' The Fire in Fiction and The Breakout Novelist and am reading through them again with revision in mind, but I'd welcome any and all information you guys think might help me. Personal methods, links, websites, worksheets--anything!

And because it's been so long, a picture of my fur babes:

I was dyeing my hair. They were supervising. 

Fit For Life

First off--my 25th birthday was a resounding success! Older brother and I headed to Panther Creek like I'd indicated. We did not, however, run. We hiked at a very steady clip. The entire trail, there and back, is 7 miles of absolutely gorgeous scenery. We've had amazing weather, and Saturday was no exception.

Some photos (my camera died almost right off the bat, but I was able to resurrect it for the end photo):

My brother asked for a less-cheesy smile. This is what I gave him instead.

The photo doesn't do it justice, but this entire bend of the river is walled off by stone. So cool!

This is at the very end of the hike--quite the precarious climb down, but worth it! 

All in all, a fun day in nature. I was (and still am) super sore afterward, though. We followed up with lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and cooled off with frozen margaritas. 

Recently I've decided that Evan and I need to add some more fitness into our life. Since he got the desk job, his life has become very sedentary. And while I run several times a week, I'm still not as active as I'd like to be. 

Neither of us needs to lose massive amounts of weight, but he's lost a lot of muscle that's turned into some flab, and I've got some softness in places I'd rather not. 

I've already been slowing transitioning us off red meat and more into grains (like quinoa, which I can't get enough of), but it's not been enough. Last year we did a cleanse in which we cut out all processed foods, white flour, sugar, carbs, dairy, etc. We felt really good afterward, but pretty quickly fell back into our unhealthy eating routine. 

I like to cook. A lot. But I'm severely lacking in motivation most days, and our grocery store produce section sucks big time--and there's no where else to shop. Therefore, we have a tendency to go out to eat when we don't feel like cooking, and we all know what a trap that is. 

Since our move to the new house is fairly imminent, I'm trying to empty our pantry, so I've been cooking at home about 90% of the time the past few weeks, and the difference we feel even there is amazing. I always try to cook healthy. We don't have snacks hanging around the house, except for stuff like nuts and fruit. So I figured it's gotta be the fast food junket we've been enjoying. 

I follow Women's Health Magazine (@WomensHealthMag) on Twitter, and today I saw that they're cross promoting the Fit For Life Summer Challenge with Men's Health. 

Check it out! There are some interesting things to think about in there, plus workouts for all kinds. I don't know if we're actually going to partake in the challenge itself, but I printed out the eating guide and some of the workouts. 

Are you active? How do you try to incorporate fitness into your daily routine?