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!