Turning a New Leaf – For Real This Time!

Today is the first day of a new me. Or a return to an old me. A better version of an old me maybe. Oh, you get the idea. I have new rules for my life starting today and I vow here and now to stick to them. I even got off to a good start this morning.

No more snoozing. My alarm goes off at 6:11 every morning and I proceed to hit snooze every 9 minutes until about 6:50. Yes, I'm a lazy bum. I then have to rush around like crazy and am late for work everyday. Not that anyone notices or cares, but I know and the guilt takes a toll.

No television before 7:30pm. When arriving home from work, the television always goes on though there's nothing but reruns on the screen. Why do I need this distraction? This is prime getting-stuff-done time. And yet, I'm getting nothing done. No more, my friends. I'm getting all kinds of stuff done now.

No more eating out every night. And that includes ordering in. I've gotten beyond lazy and have blogged about my kitchen not being very inspiring. No more. I may never prepare a gourmet meal, but I can make a few good standbys and that will have to do. It's better for the waistline and the wallet.

Exercise! Exercise! Exercise! Whether it's heading over to the middle school around the corner to walk on the track, or going to the rec center (as soon as I join tomorrow) down the street to swim laps. I'm going to exercise. For the first time in five years I've had to buy a new wardrobe one size up. That's apparently the motivation I needed. *sigh*

Doing homework throughout the week instead of all on Sunday. (It's a long one but go with it.) This may be the toughest one. But this is what the no TV time is for. After cooking dinner, eating dinner, and cleaning up after dinner, I will do some homework. And if the kitchen doesn't look perfect, so be it.

Getting to bed at a decent time. Ok, this one will be the hardest. For some reason, my nights between 9 and 12 disappear. I put kiddo to bed at 9 and the next thing I know, it's 11:30. How does this happen? Is it only happening to me? Is there a cure?!

The big one - write more. I stand corrected, this will be the toughest. My current WIP has been stewing in my head for what feels an eternity at this point. I have a roadmap for it, I'm looking forward to writing it, and yet I don't. That's about to change. Especially since I got ANOTHER new story idea over the weekend. I can't keep putting these things off. I need to take it seriously. I'm starting small. I will write no less than five pages a week. It's not a lot, and I hope to do much more, but I need a goal that feels easy. And that's it.

Now it's your turn. What mid-year resolution are you making? Putting your foot down and making new rules? Have any writing goals you'd like to share and therefore be accountable for? Well, accountability around here is kind of an open ended thing…

Book Pushers Welcome

I knew I needed to update this blog, but whining about how busy I am, hating homework, how bad my Monday was (and it was REAL bad), or how messy my house is is getting old. So I went in search of some fun holidays or observances to talk about. And boy did I find them.

May is National Salad Month, National Vinegar Month, National Photo Month, Sweet Vidalia Onion Month, Ultra-violet Awareness Month and our least favorite, National Revise Your Work Schedule Month. Anything with the word "revise" in it is simply unwelcome in the company of writers.

The things we observe during this week are even more fun. We have National Family Week, National Hug Holiday Week, National Pet Week, National Postcard Week and the ever fun Intimate Apparel Market Week. It's no surprise that one is also celebrated in February, August and November. You never can have too much intimate apparel.

We also have National Wildflower Week, Update Your References Week, and National Nurses Week. But the most important thing to celebrate this week, is Reading is Fun Week. Boy is it ever.

I have been reading books non-stop since grade school. Someone gave my sister a set of condensed classics and I tore through them. Little Women, The Wizard of Oz (I still say that man was high when he wrote that), and the one that began my addiction to mysteries, The Hound of the Baskerville. Sherlock Holmes was so cool.

I eventually moved onto every Encyclopedia Brown I could find, took a turn with that Forever book just like every other girl of my generation and then to the Harlequin Young Adult books. But by high school, I found Romances and the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm happy to see my daughter is following in my book marks. Though recently her teacher told her she couldn't read Harry Potter because it was above her level. Excuse me? That woman must not value her life much. My daughter can read anything she wants to read (within reason) and no one is going to tell her not to strive higher. The nerve. And this is the same woman who told the students they needed to go Monday through Thursday with no screens. No television. No computers. No. Screens. The kicker? Their parents should do this with them. I'm pretty much in agreement with Maggie that the woman is obviously a communist.

Where was I? Oh yes, Reading is Fun Week. When did you start reading? Do you encourage others to read too? Are you a book pusher? (I know lots of those and thanks to them I'm in danger of death by book avalanche!) If you don't read (and we both know that everyone who stops here does), what in the world are you doing missing these incredible treasures?!

Trying to Win an ARC!

And you can too. In case you don't know, an ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy of a book not yet released. It's sort of pre-final edits version and they are highly sought after items. The adorable Gemma Halliday is running a contest for a chance to win an ARC of the anthology THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR STRUTTING and all I have to do to qualify is promote her around the net. So...I'm promoting.

The great part is, you can do it too. If you want to check it out for yourself, click here. Gemma is the author of the refreshing and funny High Heels series and though I've only talked to her in blogland, I think she's a total peach. Plus, she tells the best (most horrific!) dating stories. Makes me feel better about pulling my toe from the dating waters for a while. LOL!

Something told me NOT to buy the TV...

Turns out, it was my truck. Yes, my truck knew. It knew that I was going to need that money for something else. Namely, a transmission.

My truck has been acting up since last fall. And I did have it looked at right away. I trusted that the mechanics knew what they were doing. Further proof that I am much too trusting.

So, on my trip to Pittsburgh this weekend, the truck decided it had been long enough. She was good enough to get me there and back, which knowing what I know now tells me she really loves me. But right now she is sitting in some garage having her transmission rebuilt.

I have determined that I am involuntarily restoring my vehicle to it's original condition. She's only eight years old so I'm pretty sure this won't get me into any fancy car shows, but by the time I'm finished, I'm going to have a brand new vehicle…one part at a time.

So far I've put on new tires, new brakes, new batteries (yes, that's plural), and a new alternator. Can't forget the new radio, that's important too. Now, you might think this is me complaining, but I'm not. I was lucky to find this truck when I did. I was desperate, driving a vehicle in dire need of expensive repairs, and was running out of time on my pre-approved loan.

You're probably asking yourself, what is the point of this blog? Well, I'll tell you. Five years ago, I would have seen all of this as the universe conspiring against me. I would have cried and wailed and sworn I had nothing but bad luck and I could never get a step ahead.

But not anymore. Now I know this is just part of life. Things break. Things wear out. And life is expensive at times. That's just the way things go. My truck will be good as new in a few days, which means I don't have to worry about it leaving me stranded 500 miles away from home, and I have a rental car so I'm not stuck without a way around. My life hasn't even been interrupted.

So I suggest to you, attitude is everything. I am living proof that positive thinking works. I say this all the time and I'll say it again – If you expect bad things to happen, bad things will happen. BUT – If you expect good things, they *will* come your way. My life is not perfect, but I'm happier, more secure, and better adjusted than I have ever been. To me, that's all the proof I need.

Have you managed to keep the negativity at bay? Do you blame things on bad luck? Or do you roll with the punches and keep that positive attitude through thick and thin? If not, I promise you the slightest change in attitude can make a huge difference.

PS: That picture above is of my little rental car. It's even the same color. It's a Dodge Caliber and I would never buy one, but Kiddo just loves it. I have to admit, it's nice to be able to put groceries in the back instead of in the truck bed.

Two Mediums, Extra Prozac

Have you ever tried to order a pizza online? No? Well, let me walk you through this. But be prepared, it's not pretty.

So Sunday evening the kiddo and I got hungry. I'd been working on homework all day with more to go. Cooking was not on the horizon. That's when a brilliant idea came to me. Let's order pizza! Since I was already online, I figured I'd use good old technology and cut out having to deal with a half-brained teenager on the phone. Mistake number one.

Since I don't want to promote any specific company, lets say I went to the PH website. I'd registered on there before, or so I thought, so I tried to log in. No go. So I tried to register. At which time I was informed my email address was already registered. Really? Ok. Lets hit the "forgot my log in" button and see what comes up.

So I wait. The answer comes and off I go. Now I'm registered. I pick a coupon, order the pizza on it and try to check out. I'm informed I must order at least $8.50 worth of product for delivery. I know I've ordered more than that amount so I check the items in my cart. The amount due reads $0.00 even though there is a pizza and coupon in my *cart*. Hmmmm…I try again and a little message pops up saying I must contact my local store as this order cannot be processed online.

Since calling is what I was trying to avoid and by this time I was mightily ticked off, I ventured to a different pizza provider. Mistake number two.

We'll call this one PJ's. I know I've never registered here so I start the process. I enter my name, address, phone numbers, blood type, weight at birth, and shoe size then press continue. Nothing happens. I scroll up the page to find the little red print that will tell me what I've done wrong. No little red print. I check all lines and click continue again. Nothing.

In case you haven't figured it out, by this point I was beyond irritated. My daughter had already moved as far down the couch as she could. She's a smart child.

At the end of my rope with the damn technology, I picked up the phone and called the store number on the screen. Enter the half-brained teenager. And I'm exaggerating when I use the word "half". I can't even understand anything she/he says in the greeting. Not even enough to determine if I should use the word "he" or "she" in this damn blog.

After the initial greeting I said, "I beg your pardon?" to which the person repeated the greeting EXACTLY the same way again. To this moment I have no idea what that garbled greeting was supposed to be. It was as if the nitwit decided to actually place the mouthpiece of the receiver in their mouth and then talk.

At that point, I hung up the phone and declared to kiddo we WERE NOT having pizza for dinner. Sometime around 8pm I got up and made a pizza in the kitchen. *sigh*

Have you had a similar experience? Do you think technology really makes our lives easier? Or are you like me and convinced its sole purpose is to drive us all insane. It's just doing it at the speed of smell. (Thanks Ron White for that last little joke. *g*)