WHAT A WAY TO BEGIN THE NEW YEAR BUT IT'S GETTING BETTER

Do you know how much it sucks to wake up on the first day of the new year sick?  Bleh!  I can't believe that's how my new year started.  So I've been sick for the last 14 days. 

Horrible, nasty head cold.  Sans Nyquil or decongestant.

I know. I know.  I'm such a whiny brat.

Now, I'm back at work and have a huge stack of books to read!

I have 17 days and counting for the final Reuts list for their anthology.  I can't wait.  Sigh.

So now I have a new challenge to keep me occupied.  Figment, which Random House has taken over, has come out with a new contest.  I have a deadline of the 30th to turn it in. It gives me something else to think about.

Other than that, life is good and boring, which is wonderful.

TOTALLY FREAKING EPIC! REUTS FINALIST!

I did the Reuts Publications Nanowrimo's four story challenge.  I had fun rewriting fairy tales.

This morning I found out I am a finalist!  Out of all those amazing stories they received, They chose me!  They announced the finalists on their blog. 

  I'm so stoked it doesn't even matter if I actually get published.  I'm just ecstatic they liked at least one of my stories.

SQUEE!!

Oh, and just for the awesomeness of it all, Sam made it too!  Yeppers!  Yay!  So happy! (as you can tell by the extensive usage of exclamation points)  =D

CONGRATULATIONS SAM!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Just want to wish everyone out there Happy Holidays and New Year.

It's the Year of the Horse by the Chinese, which begins January 31.  I'm a Snake myself.

Anywho,  good love, good food, good friends, and good wishes for all.

A WORTHY CHARITY, MUSIC, AND STORIES. COME ON. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO . . .

http://writerlysam.wordpress.com/composers-for-relief-supporting-the-philippines/

A blog within a blog.  That is the question I know you are asking yourself.  Ah, this blog is special.  This blog has the ability to change lives.

I had the privilege to be invited to write a piece for a wonderful charity to help the Philippines. All proceeds go to Gawad Kalinga to support the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Here is my piece.  Inspired by Requiem for a Queen - M² feat. Dina Fanai [M² consists of Michael A. Levine & Man Parrish]  Please go to the sidebar in the link above and listen to the gorgeous music as you read.

Check out the album Composers for Relief: Supporting the Philippines on both itunes and amazon. 

*****

MEETING AGAIN

I know everyone has that one friend that you lose track of and then find again, that is if you're lucky enough.

For me, I have a friend, whom I had a serious crush on when I was younger (not that he knew), that I lost track of, met up with him again, lost track of, and finally in this last two weeks found him again.

Maybe this time, I won't lose him this time around.

He's the one that makes me laugh at myself and just makes me laugh.  He teases and flirts outrageously with me.  It's not any guy that I will let say what he says to me and get away with it.  I would be such a mess psychologically without his friendship at a time in my life when I hated myself.

Hell, I'm still screwed up but not as much as I could have been.

He got me through a trauma I don't think he realized really happened.  I wrote it out in a short story and gave it to him to read. 

And, now that I've met up with him again, it's as if time hasn't passed.  We've aged, of course, but that's it.  We still make naughty references to each other just like when we were teens.

I'm glad that I found him.  My life was dull without him.  Now, it's a flirt fest an a half with as many laughs.

GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS

In my old house, we had a ghost.  A poltergeist to be more exact.  We called him Fred, and he used to steal things sometimes he would throw things too.

One time, my mother, sister, and I were watching a movie.  I had gotten up to get a drink of water in the kitchen.  When  I returned to the living room, I nearly freaked out and dropped my glass.

On the wall across from me, we had five pictures and a plaque.  Two of the pictures were oval-framed silhouettes.  One was of me and one was of my brothers.  They were from our trips to the Spruce Goose and the Queen Mary.

Anyway, my silhouette was swing back and forth like a pendulum.  I'm not talking tiny swings either.  I'm talking like the bottom of the frame was going from 6 o'clock to 8 and to 4.  It did this for five minutes straight.

Nothing else on that wall or the adjacent wall was moving.  When it was over, I stood in awe and my mother and I exchanged looks, and a minute later, I tested the silhouette myself.  I lifted it up and let it go, but it only swung three times before stopping.  I did it once more with the same result.

♫ Twilight Zone Theme Song ♫

Another time, we had six people standing beside the pellet stove as we were gabbing and having a good time.  In front of us was the gun cabinet with two hats on top of it.   All of a sudden the cowboy hat jumped forward about three inches.  Let's just say that our guests freaked a little.  Even my brother was shocked, considering it was his hat.

Everyone was at least a foot away from the cabinet, no one was moving other than subtle bodily shifts, and the top of the cabinet is about six feet in height.  Let's just say that my brother picked up his hat to see if there was anything under it like a mouse.  (We were surrounded by farmland.  Field mice were notorious.)

♫ Ghost Hunt Opening Theme Music ♫

My third major encounter was when I was all alone in the house.  It was summer time and I was reading in the chair by the window before bed.  All of a sudden, an ice cold hand caressed my cheek.  I wasn't expecting it and gasped.

At first, I thought it was the draft from the window, but that was on the wrong side.  Then I thought it was the air conditioner, but when I gazed up at the curtain by the duct, it wasn't moving.  I had shut it off earlier.   So, I said hello to whomever it was and went to bed.

Needless to say, I believe there is something more out there than what we can see. 

AND THE STINK GOES ON! YEAH, THE STINK GOES ON!

The Chuie, the Fluff and I were minding our own business as we stepped outside so they could do their . . . business.  =D

And then something jumps away from behind the barbeque.  I thought it was the feral black cat that usually hangs out around our house.  It was dark so all i saw in the thin porch light was fluffy black legs.  The cat, right?

WRONG!  It may be genetically linked to felines, but felines don't spray foul smelling musk.

Yeppers, our little visitor was a skunk!

Well, Fluff decided he had to go chase said beast as well as the Chuie.  So, zoom went Nascar-boy, ripping the leash out of my left hand.  It twisted with Pugsley's leash and WHACK! YELP! It smacks the poor dog in the side, sending her into the dirt.  She's all traumatized now and cowering and stuck in the middle of a tug-of-war with the Fluff and I.

So I watch helpless as Fluff gets it --- in the mouth!

He comes running to the back door, stinking, as the culprit goes running off into the night.

I bend down and he is foaming at the mouth like some rabid beast.  It was like a St. Bernard on crack!

So I give the dog leashes to my mom and got a bowl of water and proceeded to rinse my dog's mouth out like a naughty child.  Let's just say I had to unclamp his jaws.  Then my poor, idiot dog had to be locked into the shower with me as I washed his chest and neck (and all his other body parts since he needed a bath anyway) at 9:40 pm.

My mom phoned a friend who gave her a recipe for skunk removal: baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and shampoo.  Mix and plaster dog.  It didn't help with the mouth problem, but it worked wonders for the chest.

And so both he and I were soaked as we exited the bathroom.  After drying him off, he proceeded to go ape-poop crazy by rubbing his face in the towel, the blanket, the chair cover, the carpet, and the blanket on the floor.  the chair cover went from flat to a literal ball of material by the time he was done.

So I took out the doggie tooth brush and toothpaste and brushed his teeth.  He, of course, was fighting me every step of the way because he was angry at all the indignities I made him go through and the trauma I inflicted upon him in the shower.

Thankfully, he is over his humility and is his cocky self again.

*****

And here is a random that just happened two seconds ago.  The was a dog outside.  A white dog with a black nose that was not ours, but was almost a spitting image of her.  Spooky.