Okay, while I wait for the mailwoman to bring me my Dr. Horrible DVD, I’ll blog something. The story of my hand drama!

Okay. So last weekend it’s in the negative single digits and I decide I need to plug in my car. So I go out there to do it, la la la, and the cord won’t plug into the car. It’s too cold or something. It’s like they don’t fit together. Darn it! I think, “Oh, ho ho, I have an extension cord inside! It’ll be warm.” So I go in, get the other cord, and sure enough it plugs right into the car. Whoop! But alas - ‘dramatic music’ - it’s not long enough to reach to the building! Gasp!

So, I decide to plug the other cord into this short cord. Okey doke. The first cord is still too cold to be plugged in. ????! But I sit there struggling with it. I’ve come so far! I figure I HAVE to plug in my car. It’s negative whatever degrees. So I wiggle it and try to shove them together and I’m making a little progress. And I’m getting colder and colder and colder and deciding this is ridiculous. I don’t have a boyfriend to come out and cram the two cords together, I’m gonna have to do it myself. I was sure I had the strength somewhere. I decide to just hulk out and shove them together and get this over with. Cuz I’m probably starting to embarrass myself in front of the neighbors. So I ‘RAAAARRRRR’ totally cram them together. Yes! Then the cord plugs into the wall easily (WTF???! But yay!).

My hands are a little tired, certainly warm, even with the cold temperature. I had on 2 pairs of gloves. Anyway, I don’t worry about it. Then a few hours later I go to drive the car. I start it. I unplug the cord from the building. I’m thinking the cord will come off the car easily, it went on easily. HA! That cord has now become cold too and it won’t come off! DAMN!

So I wiggle it and struggle with it, and pull. Then I go inside to get some rubber bands, to help me get a grip on the plugs. It helps with opening jars, to wrap a rubber band around the lid. It’s hard to get a grip with gloves on, but there’s no way those are coming off. Cold! I bring out the rubber bands and they help some. I wiggle the plugs around some more, la ti da, and I have to hulk out a little bit, and finally the cord is unplugged. Yay! I cram the frozen cord in the backseat of the car and go to my mother’s. My hands are a little tired and worn out at this point and I think, “Haha, isn’t that funny? Winter. Pfft.” Then my sister can’t get in the back door of the house cuz the knob is too cold to turn properly and she makes me struggle to open it from the inside. I try to turn it, “Can’t you go around?” “No, open it, open it!” So I eventually force it to turn. I say, “My hands are already sore!” La la la….

I go home again eventually and shove the cord back onto the car plug. It was partially warm I think from the inside car heat. But then I realize I am NOT going to mess with it like this the next morning when I go to work. So I decide to unplug it again. HA! I struggle with it and wiggle it around and it mocks me, yada yada. I think, “My rubber bands!” I pull them out of my pocket. They are not as helpful this time. I think, “That’s it! I’m getting the tools.” I go inside and get a wrench or pliers or whatever that was. At one point I thought, “What if I just pull the cord around and shove it into a window and mostly close the window and just drive around with it that way?” Then I thought, “No! That’s ridiculous.” So I mess with it some more, hulk out a little, blah bitty blah. I eventually make enough of a space for the pliers to fit into and after much messing with them FINALLY figure out how to use them to pry the two plugs apart. Tada!

I cram the cords into the back of the car and go inside. I think if my car doesn’t start the next morning, screw it, I’m taking a vacation day. Pfft.

Okay, next day. I get up. I find it funny that my hands are sore. Hahaha, winter, I think. Then I notice how hard it is to do things like put in my barrette. I go out, my car starts fairly nicely. But it hurt like hell to turn the key in the ignition. Hmm. Hurt again to click my seat belt closed. Oooowwwww! Plus my hands were kinda wobbly and drunk or something. Weird.

I go to work, I start to scan the papers and ow ow ow ow ow. Every movement hurts. Who would have thought it was possible to strain your hand muscles?! Ridiculous! I think, “As soon as I have these papers scanned, it will all be smooth sailing.” Okay, so I gingerly scan the papers. Loading up the scanner with as much as possible, though I usually feed it like 3 pages at a time. But OW. Then - phew! - scanning done. I get ready to index. Damn. I realize indexing the papers will take even more hand motions! I have to type in patient numbers and then the names of the reports and things. OowWWWW!

#@%$##@@&*@!!!! Frickin’ shit! Okay, calm, everything is cool. It hurts too much to move my fingers around to type, so I decide to hold a pen and type with that. Which I do and it all works fine, except it’s much slower than usual. That’s fine, I think, all I have to do is get through the day, get my 8 hours in, and make up the work when my hands are better. La ti da. Then my hands start to hurt anyway. I’m still using them after all. They ache and I think to myself, “Oh, my God, I’m going to have to go ask for a sick day because of my hands.” !!!! Holy shit! Which I was totally fine with doing. Using a sick day for that, because OW, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to casually explain that to my boss. “Yeah, my hands hurt, so I’m gonna go home.” “Your hands hurt?” I mean I could say “stomach” or “head” and there would be no questions asked. But if I go in there and say my hands hurt so much that I can’t work, DUDE, that’s gonna require some explanation. And that would be embarrassing! “See, I was trying to plug in my car this weekend and I sort of had to hulk out…” You know, like doesn’t everyone have this experience? PFfft!

Damn! So, okay, I decide to take some ibuprofen and if I don’t feel better I will have to go embarrass myself and go home. I even felt stupid taking ibuprofen for hand aches. For headaches, sure, menstrual cramps from hell, sure, but for HAND ACHES???!! Damn! So, after a half hour or so my hands are feeling a little better. Looser, less painful. I start to carefully type without the pen. Then with it, then without. In the afternoon I went without the pen, but I needed more ibuprofen then too. I didn’t have to go home, though. Phew! Thank God. How embarrassing. THEN, I go home after work and my hands are exhausted. My BRAIN is exhausted. Just from trying to get through the day with my messed up hands. There’s no way I can surf the web. Typing? Plfthlp. All I can do is sit in my chair and watch TV and mope. I can’t even blog or twitter about my hand experience, because ow! Lol!

The next day I needed one ibuprofen, and I typed carefully but felt much better. The next day felt even better. ‘Til I was mostly better by Friday. Damn! Oh, also, around Monday or so - because my hands were all uncoordinated - I managed to pinch my hand in a mustard bottle as I was closing it. ????!! And I still have a red mark from it. I didn’t even know you could injure yourself from a mustard bottle. God! Man, was I frustrated this week! Bah!

And that is the story of my winter hand drama. Tada! I now have to go check the mailbox for Dr. Horrible. Adios! Arriva derce! Goodnight!

P.S. I had to pause for 2 1/2 hours before I had a chance to post this. So, in case you were wondering, the Dr. Horrible DVD didn’t come today. Booo! (Monday! Monday!)

Okay, I’m a little hyper, lol. Merry Christmas!

Winter is kicking my butt. I had to work late three nights last week because car/winter troubles made me late for work. BAH. First of all, traffic crawled because of the icy roads. Which is good. Traffic should crawl on icy roads. But, grrrrr. Then my car froze shut. Even though I brushed all the snow off the top of it, which is what usually makes it freeze shut. Grrr…..! At one point I almost slid past a stop sign and had to pump my brakes and - you know how when you’re ice skating or roller skating you have to turn your skates sideways to stop? I did that with my entire car! But I stopped it. I was going at a snail’s pace anyway, then pumping the brakes, then I turned the car to do that ice skate stoppy thing, and it worked. Phew! But that kind of stress is NOT okay on a daily basis! Damn!

So now I’m in winter survival mode. I stopped working on book/website stuff. I just don’t have the energy. I think I’m in shock. It’s so funny. Winter always does this to me. It’s pretty to look at, but horrible to have to drive through. It’s melting today. I swear nicer temperatures, 30’s and 40’s, are not always good. That’s the perfect condition for partial melting, then refreezing, which is what causes my car to freeze shut! And puts lumpy weird ice all over the place. Damn. Or black ice. I am not enjoying winter.

Plus it’s the Christmas season, which I now feel obligated to focus on. I still have some stuff to buy, a little shipping to do, and I have to put up a tree in my apartment so I don’t feel like that pathetic starving artist who lives alone. Pahaha.

The price on the Dr. Horrible DVDs went down again. A lot! I apparently sold two print copies of my books a month or two ago. Woohoo! I never check these things. Hmm. Whoops, now you know how pathetic I am and how seldom I sell print copies of things! Oh, well. Geeeez. Weehee! I don’t care, I’m happy.

I got brownie mix in the mail, but I’m too lazy to actually make the brownies. Seven tablespoons of butter??!! No wonder they taste good. According to reviews. Sheesh. I wish I had a Kindle. That was random, but then I could curl up with a book, or many books, without having to take up space in my apartment that I don’t have. For some reason I feel the need to own every book I ever read and liked, even though I will really probably never ever read it again. ?! It’s a weird thing. Anyway, the Kindle would solve that problem. Woohoo! Books would still cost money, but hey, that’s a whole other problem. If I could afford the Kindle, I might be the type of person who could afford to buy many ebooks, eh? Oh, but then I, of course, still wouldn’t have time to read them anyway. Bummer! Plus, if it’s a good book, I will stay up late to read it, and be exhausted at work. I will skip meals to read it. I will just let things go, and I can’t do that! I can’t get lost in a book like that. Gah! If ONLY…… sigh.

I’m giving people tea for Christmas. They won’t read this, don’t worry. Pfft. And brownies and oatmeal bars and hot chocolate and candy and raisins and apple cider. Gift bags, basically. Cheapie cheap. But thoughtful. And fun for me! Oh, and personal size bags of microwave popcorn. Heehee. And then I get all the leftovers. Ha. And then the children get actual gifts. Toys, whatnot. Did you know you can order checks that look Christmassy and then write people checks for Christmas with them? Ha! I am so doing that in the future. I refuse to buy gifts for people that they will hide in storage or have to return. I only buy gifts for people I think I know well enough to know what they like. Pretty sure I’m wrong a lot of the time, though. Lol. Otherwise I give people the expendable gift bag thing. So they can say, “Oh, yeah, we ate that, it was great,” when really they took it to work and dumped it out on the break room table. Ha! Okay, I don’t think anyone really does that to the gift bag. I hope. ?

Shite, I hope no one reads this. But if they do, they won’t be surprised about what they are getting because I give it every year. Mm-hmm. Very predictable. You know what? I ate Pringles with dip and chocolate caramel chip cookies for dinner last night. Yum, but man did my stomach not agree with it. Bleck. Next time I’ll eat only the cookies, lol. Ha! It’s past lunchtime, but I am slow about meals on weekends. I just surf the web and forget to eat. I’m pondering the romance novel thing again. Interesting….. Very interesting. Sorta. If I just throw a romance into the sci-fi thriller plots I’ve already concocted…. HMMM. My next book, that I wrote last summer, is extremely romantic, though the romance doesn’t start ’til well into the book. Interesting. It’s called Black Ribbons. I guess I should release that book next. Not sure if it will be a freebie, though. I go back and forth on the free ebook thing. Make them all free? Or just my first few books? First few books seems the most logical. Duhhhh. I think Fugue is the best book I’ve written so far. It’s my favorite. But, heck, maybe that’s just because it’s the last one I worked on. Anyway, it’s the best and it’s free, people! My novels that I’ve published so far are all very different from each other. I bet it’s hard to figure out what kind of writer I am. First romance, then comedy sci-fi, then action/thriller. What? Eh? Yep, weird. People don’t usually do that, huh? Write different genres? They stick with one. I don’t know. I can’t help it!

There are a lot of exclamation points again. Yeesh. I wish I had some noodles right now. I’m craving noodles. Yummm…..! I have rice. Not quite as appealing. I have been thinking of making my own bread, but I don’t want to have to punch the bread dough down. That’s just weird. I’ve done it before. It turned out good. (STILL don’t know if that should be “turned out well.” Damn!)

You know, winter is kind of nice today because I’m inside the house. Excellent. I will have to drive out there tonight, though. Still, it is busy melting. More power to ya, balmy weather! Ay caramba, I hated this week. Shite. Had a tension headache for most of it. Not dealing well with the sudden shift to winter. “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” -Wash/Firefly. Hee. Love that dinosaur scene.

I should probably go. I ran out of things to say. Or, I spaced out anyway. Close enough! Maybe I should watch Firefly again. It is good for the Christmas season. There are a surprising number of Christmas references in it. It’s funny. Hmm. That sounds nice. I could watch it with my tea and imaginary noodles. Yessssss…. broke into parseltongue there for a moment. Hahaha. Dorky.

Alright I’m going. Adios!

Yup. I did it. I released the novel finally. Woohoo! Ahem. Got my first feedback yesterday. My friend read it and loved it. Yay! At least one person doesn’t think I’m warped. Here is my first unofficial review from her: “I loved it! I loved all the sarcasm!” Hehe. She also found a huge gaping flaw with the story that I didn’t notice until my last proofread or so, but it was too late at that point! Then I pointed out to her another big flaw. Silence. I said, “Did you notice that?” She said, “Noo.” Ha! Yes, I ruined my book for someone. No, she loved it anyway. NICE. And now more than 2 people have downloaded it, so I’m happy.

I still have a lot more to do for the book, though. I have to upload it to all the free document sites I found. About 10. And Google Books, and…. I forget. I have a list. And I also have to finish uploading all my music videos to YouTube, cuz I said I would! I will get back to that tomorrow. Today is all about babbling in the blog. Yesterday I tried to work on book stuff and I just shut down. I had to go take a nap. I just couldn’t do it anymore. Gah! I spent Friday and Saturday, all day, working on the book. Formatting ebooks, yada yada. I forget what else. Each day felt like a week. I couldn’t believe it was only 2 days. Yesterday I added all my books to Goodreads, and then had my little shut down with the nap. Goofy. Soooo much work. I have to change my poetry book information on Goodreads. They spelled the title of one book wrong and I got an account and corrected the spelling. Ha! Yeah, I’m a geek like that.

There’s a link somewhere to the right (to Goodreads). I’m too tired to copy and paste. Ow. I just nuked a muffin in the microwave and it burned me! I need to let it cool. It was frozen a minute ago. Science! I am a dork today. I had much more to say when I was at work writing this blog entry in my head. Today I got home from work and looked in the mailbox and there was a box in there that was too big to get out. ?? Yes. They open the front of the whole mail thing, cram everybody’s mail in there, then close the front, and there just happens to be enough of a… lip? A something, so I couldn’t get the package out. I thought of leaving them a note for tomorrow. “Please turn this” or something. But I decided to go for it! I ripped the box open while it was still inside my mailbox and took out what was in it, then I yanked the empty box out of the mailbox. Score! Ha! My neighbor walked by while I was doing this, “Hi!” She didn’t bat an eye. Funny. I made a small mess, but I’m in that Monday kind of mood. ANGRY. I’m not angry, just impatient. Something. Grr. I’m actually pretty mellow. Compared to this weekend going back to work was relaxing. But, yes, still impatient. Grrrrrr…!

Let’s talk about the book. Okay! It’s a thriller, and looking at the other thriller novels here, I noticed I am one of 2 or 3 women who have written one. The rest are men. Hmm. This makes me wonder if anyone will…. I don’t know what, but I have a unisex name anyway. I’m afraid people will go, “Oh, girly thriller, pass.” Lol. I guess I’m over that now. It’s a really cool novel. I mean, wow, aren’t I modest? Hehe. Also, it has a female main character. How often do you see that in action/thriller/suspense stories? You know? I think it’s cool! All my main characters are women. Cuz I’m a woman. I don’t know why that strikes me as funny. I sometimes feel I should be writing traditional action/thrillers with a man as the main character. But then I think, “Why would I?” Maybe I don’t watch enough movies, but I can only think of female action heroes on the small screen. Yes, I spaced out for a moment pondering it. Serenity! I knew there was one. Yeehee! Anyway. Buffy and Dark Angel were the TV shows I was thinking about… Scully’s pretty cool…. Okay, I can’t think of any more, but my brain’s not completely functioning right now. And I swear my eyes are computer burned!

I wasn’t gonna be so deep and philosophical in here. Or if I was I was gonna do it better! I guess work really does fry my brain a little. Eight hours of that. Ummmm…. I’m still thinking seriously of writing romance novels. Strange but true. My first book was accidentally one. I didn’t realize it was ’til I went to categorize it on link sites. Wow! It’s funny how that shocked me. Lol. I thought I was just writing about life and whatnot. Lord. Anyway! Most of the things I have to say are mystery/suspense/sci-fi/action stuff. BUT I’ll never get to where I want to be writing only that. And I can write paranormal mystery kind of romances. So I wouldn’t be totally wandering off the path. It’s just weird that there are pretty much rules like you have to have a happy ending. Etc., etc. I don’t usually like rules. But if it means possibly writing full time and quitting the day job, I can definitely follow a few simple rules. DUH. Why did this not occur to me before? Well, there are reasons. Anyway, I can still write my sci-fi dark weird stuff for me. And you! If you like that sort of thing. Cuz no day job means more time for writing. All kinds of writing! But mostly romance. Which I am not entirely averse to! I mean, I used to read romance novels for fun. I did! Now I read them for torture. I’m kidding! I don’t read anything now. I don’t have time. That’s one of the things that had to be given up in order to find time to write. Ironic, no? It’s weird that I’m being so businessy about this. Practical. Well, I’m trying to speed things along. I’ve been a starving artist for long enough, thank you. I am craving ramen noodles right now… Seriously! It’s so hard to find vegetarian ones. I’m gonna have to go back through this blog entry and erase a lot of the exclamation points.

You know what was going through my head all morning? “I said ‘brr’… it’s cold in here… there must be some Clovers in the atmosphere…” That’s right. A cheer from Bring It On. Which I saw a few weeks ago. I was even typing to the beat of it. Very weird. I think it was keeping me awake. So not used to getting up early to go to work! Four day weekend. Thanksgiving. You remember. Now it’s in my head again. But this time it’s lulling me to sleep. Ahhhh!!!….. zzzzzzzzz. Wake up! My friend was talking to me about my characters on the phone and I said, “Who?” It was so weird hearing their names out loud. I have been alone with them for about 8 months. I think I’d never heard their names spoken. Wow. Weird.

God, I have Cousin It hair. It’s attacking me right now. Snarly and strange. I need a hair cut! My mother just had some photos developed from the 80s and my sister’s hair in some of them is so funny! Christmas morning crazy long thick bed hair. She had to tie it back or it would strangle her in the night. Lol. In one picture it looks like a crazy wig, but it’s actually her hair. That picture stayed undeveloped for 20 years! Shit, we’re old! @#!$@#@!! Take that spellchecker.

Argh. I should probably shut up now. I’m just babbling away. In metapad, where it is so quiet my unspoken words create an echo. Hahaha. God, I’m a dork. “Brr, it’s cold in here, there must be some Clovers in the atmosphere…” It’s ongoing. The cheer. My wrists hurt from typing! Okay, time to go extract the extra exclamation points. God, I didn’t even do that alliteration on purpose. I’m in some weird zone! The Twilight zone, lol. (Ha!) I will have to rent that movie someday and see why everyone is so nutso about it. I don’t get it. But then I haven’t seen it, or read the book. Hmm.

I’m getting hungry. So, I shall go now. Wow, you’d think I could be more clever. Wait. It’s “cleverer”. Despite how stupid that sounds. Ugh. Editing. Going now. Later.