Fiction Friday

A Prelude


Death is cold. It holds onto you in it's icy grip. It refuses to let go. But there is something stronger. Something only living within a few select souls. It stays hidden beneath the surface and may never show it's face. Until the soul meets an untimely and violent death. Then the beast awakens. And defends itself against death.

Movies and stuff

I finally saw the newest Underworld movie. It had gotten some bad reviews, but I freaking loved it! I was into the characters and it all fit into the other two movies well enough. Sequels generally contradict a tad bit occasionally. I thought it was really good. I would recommend all three Underworld movies to anyone who loves vampire and werewolf movies. They are most excellent. Even if the vampires don't sparkle. ;)

Four years

I totally missed my blogiversary! It was last month sometime. I have been blogging for four years. I've changed a lot and made more than one friend for life through blogging.

I love this place. It's mine. And I share it with you. :)

Found at Xmichra's

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Too much in my head

I can't get it all organized and out!

Tonight in yoga I learned I am close to doing a headstand. I did the halfway kind with my feet still on the floor, and my teacher said my alignment from head to hip is perfect! I just need to get the balance to put my legs up. I was so tickled! I really like this teacher too, we have several that take turns. I told her I would practice at home alone. Lol.

Let's see, what else. Two birthday parties tomorrow. One of my bestest friend's little boy first at 11. Then a girl from Brianna's dance class at 1. Both at parks. But it will be fun.

And I found out distressing news tonight! T can't do a cartwheel! I'm so shamed. How has she not learned in school? That's where I learned. I shall teach her. Cuz yeah, I can still do one. I could do one before I started working out, I should be able to do it neater now.

I think that's all for now. It isn't much, and I may post in the other place laterish. I really have to clean my apartment tonight. I won't have time tomorrow during the day and it must be clean before tomorrow night. And since my vacuum cleaner is broken it will take forever to get the carpet vacuumed using just the attachments to it and the dustbuster. LOL. But as long as I get most of the fur up, I'm good. :)

If I've missed sending anyone an invite to my other blog, just email. I don't think I have everyone there yet. And I don't invite strangers, so don't bother asking if we aren't already friends.

Busy weekends

Life is all wet right now. Literally. We are having a lot of rain lately. That's a good thing, as things have been too dry in years past. But it makes it hard to do things on the weekends. This weekend we have an inside thing though. Today is Brianna's end of semester Ballet party. They had the tea party in December and today we are having Pizza, Pirates, and Pointe. I can't remember the name of the ballet she is showing today, not sure what I did with the paper she gave out. But anywho, it shall be fun. They are bringing pizza in from Tomato Head downtown. Apparently the owner's daughter takes dance there.

Also have tons of cleaning to do. I am still clearing out stuff that needs to go to storage. I have a trunkful to drop off today. It looks like I've just moved! A box of stuff too small for Brianna, a box of winter clothes, my comforer wrapped up to be stored for summer. (I use a quilt in summer, too hot for a comforter.) More boxes that need to be sorted and put away/given away/stored away. lol. Apparently the year Tristin was gone I just stuffed things into the storage room and ignored it. Hard to catch up with a year's worth of junk. She has most of a room now, and it should be empty by the end of next weekend. We are waiting for her dad to send money for the bed. He refused to send enough, said she didn't need bunk beds. So I said once he pays me what he owes for that loan, I could pay the rest. That should be coming within a couple of weeks. He has some settlement for a wreck coming, blah, blah, blah. I'm not holding my breath, but he seems sincere about it coming this summer.

Ok, off to get ready for the party. Laters. :)

Unintelligible ramblings

I realized to day that I have been avoiding something. I've pushed it aside and just flat don't think about it. It shouldn't bother me, but it does, so I don't think about it. I'm going to stick with that plan, it's working so far.

I've started wearing perfume more often. I have about four bottles I was never wearing, so now I spritz a bit on occasionally. I don't know if perfume can actually go bad or lose scent (Mich?). But it seems silly to have it and never wear it. I never wondered about what was in the perfume until recently. I looked up what I'm wearing today:

Very Sexy For Her Perfume by Victoria Secret for women. Launched by the design house of Victoria's Secret, Very Sexy For Her fragrance is vibrant and sensuous. It's the ultimate fragrance for the woman who loves everything about being a woman. This feminine scent possesses a blend of pimento, clementine, cactus flower, camellia, hydrangea, mimosa, white amber, musk, vanilla, and blackberries.

I looked up my favorite too:

RALPH LAUREN created SAFARI perfume in 1990. It is the result of the following top fragrance notes: orange, black currant and jasmine. The middle notes are: orris, rose and genet and the base of the fragrance is: sandalwood, cedarwood and vetiver. SAFARI perfume is recommended for casual use.

Now, I don't know how accurate those are. I just googled and found them. Sounds good to me though. :) Mimosa! I luvs mimosas. The tree, not the drink. Never had the drink actually. I should try it. Being Southern and all. Doesn't seem right that I haven't. Damn, now I'm going to have to go google the drink.

More ramblings laterish. I also have pictures I need to post. Brianna's first bike and all. Coming soonish!

Found at Xmichra's

1. Avoid ~ stress and conflict. It triggers down episodes. Unfortunately, it's hard to avoid. :/

2. Castle ~ Awesome new show with Nathan Fillion.

3. Episode ~ Stress causes one of these. lol.

4. Limited ~ points of view annoy me.

5. Nail polish ~ I has many.

6. Dip ~ mmmm.....salsa, french onion. More things I am avoiding.

7. Share ~ I don't like to.

8. Damage ~ is not always noticeable.

9. Improper ~ behavior is sometimes fun.

10. Handle ~ I can handle my life, barely.

(Belated) Fiction Friday

I've had an idea for this story for a few weeks now. Late last night my brain suddenly became inspired and purged it out. It is very rough, but I liked it so I'm posting as is. I may edit it and re-post at a later time.

The Fan

He stepped inside the bar leaving the rain behind. He shook his arms to rid the black leather jacket of water then ran a hand through his hair. The rain had made him late, he didn't want to miss her. Walking through the inner doors he heard before he saw her. She sang the blues. Her voice like velvet, dark and sultry. Moving through the smokey bar he found a seat in the back. He wanted to observe her without being noticed. She wore a long midnight blue dress. It was fitted and clingy all the way down, with a slit up to the middle of her shapely thigh. As she turned it sparkled subtly in the gray room. It was backless and his gaze slid down to that perfect place at the small of her back. She turned again and his gaze shifted up to her full lips. He couldn't see her smokey blue eyes from here, but knew very well the depths of them. Her dark hair was pulled up with a few carefully placed tendrils framing her face.

It was over all too soon. Six songs a night, three times a week. He headed backstage with the single red rose as usual. He would leave it outside her door again. Maybe one day he would have the courage to give it to her face to face.

Maybe one day.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

On a more pleasant note, Brianna has her first bike! We bought it yesterday at Wal-Mart. She learned braking (the pedal in reverse kind, not the handle bar kind) in the time it took to go from the toy dept to the garden center. (Yes I let her ride it through the store.) Both girls also needed new helmets and we had to get a tire pump for Tristin's bike. Today we went to the park and rode a little more than half a mile. Well, they rode, I walked/ran depending on how fast Brianna went. She doesn't get too fast yet, still getting used to it. Plus she doesn't always watch where she's going! She almost ran off the pavement while checking out the scenery. But she's doing awesome on it! It's blue, and we bought a little basket for the front of it. I took pictures, and video, hopefully I'll get them posted sometime this week.

Fiction Friday!

Contradictions

Dressed in jeans and sneakers
or heels and pearls.

Cheerful and happy with
shadows dwelling beneath the surface.

Strong and tough exterior.
Tender, easily hurt inside.

Balanced precariously between
sanity and instability.

Lonely yet rejoicing in solitude!

Simple yet complicated.
Intelligent but naive.
Awkward then confident.

This is who she is.

Out of character

Ok, I took a new class at the gym. Zumba! I told you about it. It was AWESOME!!! Yes, with all caps and three exclamation points. I am on such a high when I opened the patio door for fresh air I whooped out loud. Very loudly outloud. That is totally out of character for me.

Loved it! Now to get the gym to schedule more evening classes. I shall annoy the piss out of them till they do. In person, through my trainer, by email!

I like whooping outloud loudly. :)

Out of the rut

Okay, so I'm feeling better and have started by rearranging the living room/playroom so that it is one big family room. I love it, don't know why I didn't think of it before. So I have all this focus and these plans for the whole apartment! Now if I can find the time to implement the plans... lol

Life is challenging to say the least. My ex caused more trouble this week. Over money as usual. After two months of waiting for money he owes me, now it will be longer. I got pissed and called his mom, so some is coming. I'm just so tired of him causing me late fees then saying it's not his fault. He does not grasp that all of the girls medical/dental insurance comes out of my check, plus I have to pay all of Brianna's childcare which is a lot. He has to reimburse me for his part, that's part of child support. So I can't pay some other bills until his check comes.

How hard is that to understand? He keeps saying my rent isn't his problem and my bills aren't his problem. Well yeah, they are a little. A certain percentage of my bills are paid by child support plus the hundreds of dollars out of it that reimburses me. How can he be so smart and so dumb at the same time? The man is an instructor at the Naval EOD school that all branches of the American military uses!

But I'm putting that aside. Just wanted to share the idiodicy of it so you can see how I end up so freaking stressed. It's just frustrating. But for now I'm good. Tonight I'm taking a brand new class at the gym. It's called Zumba. I'm too lazy to link, if you are curious you can Google it. I hope they make it a weekly class. Preferably during a time I can actually attend. lol.

Yesterday Brianna and I went to a park that was new to us. It also has a nice walking/running/biking trail. We walked/jogged at least half a mile ( wasn't paying attention to the markers) from one play area to another and back again. She gets a new bike at the end of this month (not from daddy, from mommy after daddy REIMBURSES her, yes the five year old is learning that word already). I shall post pictures of yesterday when I get them on the computer.

The next couple of Saturdays will be full of festivals! The Dogwood Arts Festival is downtown this weekend with arts/crafts booths. And next weekend is an Italian Festival! Never been, but it sounded interesting. I'm trying to get us out on Saturdays. Just going to work/school and home all the time sucks. lol.

Until later...

Out of Focus

I have been unable to focus on things lately. I'm a little stressed over finances thanks to the King of Asshats, AKA: my Ex. Late is late and is just as bad as not paying, just fyi. But that should be settled soon, hopefully. Perhaps if I annoy him enough he won't get behind again, yes?

In happy news, I received three beautiful necklaces from the talented Xmichra. Go see her stuff, it is all beautiful. I've been meaning to add a link to that and other pages on the sidebar, but haven't. I'm good at making lists, but need to work on implementing them. :) I hopefully will have pictures soon to post of my new jewelry. This from the woman who finally put pictures from Sept and Oct 2004 in a photo album this last weekend...

I have to get organized. I am not as balanced as I apparently appear from the outside. My house is a cluteristic disaster! (Yes, it's a word, or at least it is now. :P) I was still sorting and getting rid of stuff when Tristin moved in. Now we have that extra clutter. Most of storage stuff has been moved, but a lot needs to be sorted before it's moved. And then the kids are both outgrowing toys and clothes and seasonal stuff needs to be put away. Argh!

You see? I need focus. So I shall make a new list and break it down to very small tasks. I get more accomplished if it seems I've done a lot. So the more I can mark off a list, the better I get at it. So tonight, number one on the list is: Find Focus. I can do anything I put my mind to, and my apartment will be neat!

Springtime in East Tennessee

Xmichra posted some pictures of how much snow they still have, so I decided to post pictures of my flowers.

These planters "guard" the entry way onto my porch from our sliding door and the stairs to other patios.








And we go around for the tour of the porch...









Tulips, marigolds, and daisies! Oh my!

(And my lil gnome.)







The sage and Italian oregano is returning just fine, but no sign of new growth from the rosemary.








The purple stuff smells AWESOME!










Spring feet!
(Brianna's)


















Brianna found these broken off at the garden center and gave them to me. :)








From a scavenger hunt the girls played.

Bad Dreams

I had a horrible dream last night, or really early this morning. And I can recall it rather vividly even though I've tried to forget. It isn't all clear, but at some point I am part of this group. A small group at first, then a bunch more people are added. We are going to rob something maybe? And it's weird that there are so many of us. It makes me remember another dream I had months ago, but only vaguely. Like this is the same group of people as in the old dream.

So at some point we are out behind the large building we have been in. There is a plane laying in the field at the edge of the woods. One little blonde girl is there, and me and two others are going to take her to safety and look for more survivors. But then I turn to the left and there is a little dog house with several puppies inside. They are dead, sliced in half. It was so vividly horrible! At that point the others know who did it and are afraid the person is still around and start running, I follow barely keeping up.

The dream kind of moved on after that, and I remember bits. But that part was the freaky-stick-in-my-head part. And I'm in such a horrible mood because of it!

And...

I finally finally finished a blanket for Brianna. I bought the material before she was born! lol. It is not quilted, I used yarn at intervals to hold the layers together. It's a tad thicker than a quilt. I did hand stitch the sides, I hate sewing machines.