Alone and Bored

The boyfriend's gone. He left last Friday and I've talked to him once since then. *sigh* It's so weird not to talk to him every day. I find myself filling the time at night when I get home with movies and/or books, or I waste time on a stupid website.

My 'pick-me-up' therapy is an obvious one, since I'm a bookaholic. I buy more books. And I recently found out the Borders closest to me was closing, so OF COURSE I stocked up on new-ish manga that was 30% off. (It's hard to find older teen/adult manga on sale.) I also stalked the bookswap page on Goodreads and ended up with some good finds for around $4 each (shipping cost). I feel slightly better, but regardless, I've nipped the splurge on books on the bud. I don't need anymore. Honestly, I need to dwindle my TBR pile down. Especially since I'll be moving next month.

My mom is coming up this weekend and we're going to see the new Jane Eyre, shop, and look for a new apartment for me.

A friend of mine and I started a new podcast for the site we review books on. It's like riding a bike since we've done this before, but with a different theme. We're going to try recording an episode every two weeks and cover different aspects of the YA world.

Anyway, right now I'm reading a cute parody on fantasy books called The Wizard, the Witch and the Two Girls from Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou. I started reading it today at a Starbucks and laughed out loud a couple times, which I'm sure brought stares, but I didn't notice since I was reading. I'm also almost done with The Pleasure Garden by Amanda McIntyre, Charlotte Featherstone and Kristi Astor. It's steamy (especially Charlotte's part), but the stories themselves are alright. Charlotte's tended to be repetitive since she kept switching between characters and had them thinking about the same thing over and over. Amanda's story was interesting. I've just started Kristi's and it's intriguing so far. Hopefully it'll end on a good note. I'm going to start Rage by Jackie Kessler and then either Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs or Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg next.

That's all I've got. Later!

Life Update

I've been reading a lot of YA recently. I don't know why. I just tend to go through stages of preferring one thing or another, so right now is a YA stage. Which is good, since I'd been in an adult stage before this one, so my YA TBR books have piled up. Also, I've gotten a little smarter about spending money on books and have utilized my local library to its fullest extent (i.e., I have ten library books currently checked out with an approaching collective due date).

Right now, I'm reading Sleepless by Cyn Balog (the first book of hers I've read). I just finished The Red Glove by Holly Black, which managed to overcome the second book in a series rage trend. After Sleepless, I think I'm going to read Finnkin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta (another first book of an author) and get rid of some of my ARCs by reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.

Besides reading, I'm trying to find a new job. I'm in a post-interview slump, having not gotten a job I really wanted. This sucks. The whole job search, resume posting, interview taking thing sucks.

Also, my parents are getting divorced.

I haven't really told anyone that, besides the boyfriend. But he doesn't really count since he was sitting next to me when my parents slapped me with the news.

I don't know how to act around them anymore. I'm angry with my dad for being the instigator and I'm sympathetic toward my mom for being forced on her own after having a family around her for so long, but there's only so many calls or texts I can take from them both before I stop responding altogether.

Plus, the boyfriend is shipping off to Afghanistan for his second tour with the military. It's only for three months, but that might turn into longer. Everything's all up in the air about where we're going to live when he gets back and if I'll have a different job by then, and several hundred other little things.

So basically, with so much change in my life, I've escaped into books. You could say it's the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.

Maybe that's why I'm stuck on YA. Life is so much simpler when you're a kid.

Time Drags on Tuesday

Here's an update of my life because I'm bored. And when I'm bored, I will do whatever I can to make time speed up. Thus, a run down of my happenings.

I've discovered the joy/horror of ebay and have "won" several auctions, most of which I don't need. It's a sickness and I think I might have to stop and join auction bidders anonymous (ABA) soon. Not to be confused with ABBA, the band or ABA, the American Bar Association. My winnings include 2 christmas presents, 8 volumes of different manga series, 3 YA books, 52 romance books *headdesk*, and 5 seasons of Doctor Who. The Doctor Who set was the biggest purchase at $100, which makes me wince. But whatevs. Merry Christmas to me!

I'm going to see the third Narnia movie with some friends simply because Ben Barnes is in it. I think this is a new low (or high, depending on who you talk to) of my Ben Barnes obsession. Of course, how could you not adore this man?

Look at how cute he is!

You want him. I understand. But I called dibs years ago and fully plan to make him my first husband. After the divorce, you can have your shot. ;)

Also, I've won two books from publishing houses: an romance/suspense series starter from (I think) Robyn Carr and a YA series starter called Wither by Lauren DeStefano (I'm pretty excited about that one). And I've noticed that publishers don't tell you when you've won something from them, they just send it to you, which could be either good or bad. I've also started collecting signed books from authors I like. So far I have a signed Sisters Red, Shiver, and Linger, and a personalized book from Lauren Dane. I'll be adding to that collection a personalized Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead because next week I'm going to her signing! Super excited about it because 1) it'll be my first signing event and 2) I really like Richelle Mead.

Um... I think that's it. Until next time.

Yesterday may have sucked...

BUT TODAY TOTALLY KICKED ASS!

First up, the Rangers won, baby! They're going to the World Series for the first time EVER and it's going to be awesome because they're going to win! And then there will be a riot.

Second, I got my Kindle today and it's become my favorite possession. I've had so much fun with it. Pretty soon I won't go anywhere without it. ;P

And the final reason this day kicked ass... I won the Second-Hand Saturday giveaway on Reading Teen! What! I knew they'd love that story! And I chose the Immortal Beloved ARC because I really loved that book and want to own a copy of it.

AH! Best. Day. EVER!

Now I have to pick a giveaway winner of my own on Whatchyareadin?. Later!

I want to cry

Ugh. Tonight was crap. Work was super busy, so I was running around a lot. And then I had a giveaway itch, so I entered a crazy amount of giveaways and didn't get anything read. I'm supposed to review Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton on Saturday. ...I don't see that happening. And, AND!, I have WAY too many books to read. I honestly never thought I'd complain about that. But my TBR bookshelf is completely full (and starting to bend in the middle from the weight), and it's spilling onto my desk and inside my car. And then I go and enter all these giveaways? What's wrong with me?

I think I have a problem.

In better news, I might be going to a Sci-Fi convention with my mom on Saturday. William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorin, Christopher Lloyd, Brent Spiner, and Tom Felton will be there signing things! I really hope we can go and I can meet Tom Felton. I have a 'he's too young for me but I don't care because he has a British accent and is super cute' crush on him. My mom wants to get all the Star Trek cast members. So... there's that.

Oh! And I get my Kindle tomorrow! Yay!!!! I'm super excited about it! I'll be able to read galleys on it, which will be great since I get too distracted reading online. The interwebs are not a good place for a person who likes shiny things (see: blog's profile pic).

I started writing RG again, which was really nice. I've been too busy this week to do anything with it, but I have high hopes I'll finish the whole thing by the end of the year. What a relief that will be.

As of right now I'm reading: Angelfire (see above), The Passage by Justin Cronin, and Nevermore by Kelly Creagh.

Up next: Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler, and Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink, plus several manga volumes!

Now that *that's* over...

I finished The Iron Daughter tonight. It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I don't know why I didn't catch on to Meghan's immaturity during The Iron King. I guess I was too enthralled with finding out about the world Julie Kagawa created. But it was very apparent in Iron Daughter. That and when did Ash and Meghan fall in love with each other? When they were fighting for their lives against the Iron fey? I'm sorry to break it to y'all, but that's an adrenaline rush. Not. Love. *headdesk* And of course there was a "love triangle". *glare* I'm so sick of love triangles that I refuse to read anymore books that have them until such a time that I can stomach them again.

On to happier news, I received my giveaway win on Saturday! I now have so many books on my 'TBR' shelf that my Star Wars action figures have been momentarily relocated to the 'Books To Be Given Away/Resold' shelf. ...you read that right.

Last night I was talked into (i.e. guilted into) playing Halo Reach with the boyfriend. I've previously stated to him on several occasions that I do not like Xbox's controller and I certainly don't like playing Halo. I still stand by that statement after over an hour playing Halo Reach. Give me a Sony game station any day over Xbox. I'll even take a Nintendo game station.

That's all I've got. Until next time... mwah.

I won a book!

That's my big news of the week. I won a copy of Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Kowel from Cecelia Bedelia, who is now my best friend even though she doesn't know it yet. (Not in a stalkerish way, I swear.) I just genuinely love people who give me free books. I enter about ten giveaways a week, it seems, but I never expect to win one.

Also, I finally finished The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. It's the first of the Maximum Ride series. It was.. alright. Definitely intended for children, though. I'm not going to read the rest of the books since I have far too many others waiting on my bookshelf.

I've been working on something new. A short story from the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance kind of inspired me to do something a little different. I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but when the mood strikes to write, I have to go with it. Otherwise I might lose it altogether and then the lynch mob of RG readers will find me. *grimace* (I'm working on it, I promise! ...don't hurt me.)

Until next time, stay classy blog readers.

Oh, Hai

I'd completely forgotten about this blog... man, this makes me wonder about other blogs I might have floating around the interwebs.

Anyway, update on life. I'm back on tweeter. I'm also reading quite a lot. You can find my ratings and the occasional review on my Goodreads profile. I'm also involved in a YA/Adult review site aptly named WhatchYAreadin?

So, that's me. What's going on with you?

Blog Rec

If you want to laugh over how the 'other side' lives, i.e., your husband, boyfriend or significant other, while you're indulging in all the Twilight stuff out there, definitely check out this blog.

Twilight Widowers Anonymous

It's hilarious! And I pimped it out on the podcast, which should have a new episode up sometime tonight.

It's Funny

I love getting the emails or PMs asking me when I'm going to update because it's funny. I feel like I'm writing all the time. True, it may not be what they're following at the moment, but I do write a lot.

A lot, a lot.

The boyfriend sat me down the other day as a sort of intervention because he felt I was spending too much time on the computer.

I didn't know how to answer him because to me, it seems like I'm always trying to catch up. Between the podcast, writing two multi-chaptered fics, the online community stuff, and keeping in touch with the friends I've made online, I AM online most of the day. Plus I listen to tons of music and watch whatever movies or television shows I've downloaded inbetween the times I'm not online. So I see where he's coming from. From his viewpoint, I'm just online. From mine, I'm clearly doing different things and never really getting anything done.

Eh.

I don't know what to cut down on, though. I thought about it all day yesterday. I love writing. Now that I've started, I find it hard to stop. Plot ideas rattle around in my head all day long. Lines I want Edward or Bella to say pop up at random times and I'll find myself hunting for a piece of paper in my car while driving so I can scribble it down before I forget it. I love doing the podcast. I love talking to Caitlin, Danielle, and Claire about this thing that has become such a big part of my life. And I love talking to/stalking the women I've met online.

But I am going to cut down... around him. That might mean I'll have to skip a podcast episode recording here or there, or be a little later on my updating, but so be it. Because I love John (that's the boyfriend, btw) and I'll push aside what makes me happy a little bit to make him happier.

It's all about compromise, right? Finding that balance. (Hah! I knew I could use it at least once in this post.) -serious time again- So if that upsets some people or makes them go into a frenzy... whatev. He's more important to me.

God, when did I get so freakin' sappy?

I'm going to write something dirty now for a friend's birthday... Later.

April?? WTH?

When did April sneak up and kick me in the ass? Not cool, April. Our friendship is over. No more enjoying your showers or looking for Easter eggs for us. We're done. You're supposed to at least let your 'friends' know when you're coming, not just show up and crash the party. Did you lose my cell number or something?

Besides my anger at April, life is... eh. Work, boyfriend, reading, podcast, occasionally writing, trying to find a balance between all that and keeping up with my friends - the list can go, but I'll stop there.

I finished Chapter 16 of 'I've Been Looking For You'. Now I'm just waiting for vjgm to validate it so I can post it over on FFn. Also working on Chapter 12 of 'Resident Geek' and outlining my Twilight Gift Exchange story so I can start working on that in between my other stuff. (Dear lord, why do I agree to more?)

We recorded episode 12 for the podcast this past Saturday, and it should be out soon. I'm really excited about this week's subject cuz we're FINALLY talking about slash! (One of my favorite subjects. Hah!)

The boyfriend's camping, starting tonight. I'm going to have three blissful nights to myself! (You'd understand that excitement if you lived with someone and you value your personal space every once in a while.) I'm hoping those nights will be spent writing and catching up with everything I need to do.

Here's to hoping!

Thank God That's Over

I finally finished writing Chapter 11 for Resident Geek. It's being looked over right now by my DnD expert, Dollegirl, and my beta, Jen, so hopefully it'll get back to me sometime tonight or tomorrow and then I'll post it for public viewing.

Personally, I'm just glad it's written. I learned so much about DnD and now I have no outlet to use it. It's kind of frustrating. I want to play just so I can use my newfound knowledge, but I certainly don't need another thing to become addicted to.

Rock, hard place.

I'm going to be taking a break for the rest of the week after I post from writing. I need a break. Besides, I've got awesome Saturday plans with my parents and boyfriend, and then the podcast to record on Sunday. And I might be the one editing it together if Caitlin is too busy with school and the play she's working on. Eek.

Later.

RG Love

So... my big news is that Resident Geek was nominated for the 'Edward you wish was your boyfriend' Bellie of the new Twilight awards, the Eddies and Bellies.

You can check out my reaction to the news in the 8th episode of the Temptation podcast. I still grin uncontrollably every time I think about it.

Let's see. What else...

I'm slowly writing the next RG chapter. But I accidentally stumbled into a new series of books from Laurell K. Hamilton, which I already read one of her series, the Anita Blake one. I started the Meredith Gentry series and just finished book 7 this morning. This is the main reason why you haven't heard from me in a while. A book or so a day takes up a lot of time. ...not that this is news to me since I've read a lot since the day I figured out what the alphabet was.

That's about all I got.

Holy Headache, Batman

I'm getting sick.

Gah!

I can feel my nasal passageway closing by the second and the headache that won't die pounding away between my temples. And what really sucks about all of this? I have to pull a 10 hour work day tomorrow.

Anyone want to trade places?

On the RG front, I found and downloaded a copy of the Player's Handbook and I'm slowly making my way through it. I have to stop every five pages or so because my head starts hurting too much. (Partly from the headache and partly because D&D is too damn confusing when you first start out.) I just thank my lucky stars that I played WoW for as long as I did and can understand the basic jest of it right away. It's the little things that drive me up a wall. Like, the three basic principles from which all over rules stem from. One) Simple rules, many exceptions. Meaning, there may be a rule that says you can't learn advanced sword skills without first learning basic skills, BUT if you're a... whatever you may innantely know advanced sword skills. Two) Specific rules beat generic rules. Basically, if there's a rule that says you can't use a power when it's charging and you have a specific rule on your arcane blast that says you can. Then you can. Three) Always round down with fractions. (This one I'm actually fine with.)

It's freakin' principles one and two that make my head spin.

So... what they're trying to say is anything can go, as long as you keep track of it and know when you can break the rules.

Which is confusing as hell to me.

Rules are rules, people. You're not supposed to have so many damn exceptions to every rule. If you do, then they shouldn't be called RULES. They should be called guidelines.

...I may feel a little strongly about this, in case you couldn't tell.

Anyhoo, the chapter is inching along. I think I'm going to focus on IBL4Y whenever I get stuck on something for RG and have to wait for Dolle to get back to me.

Oh, and the seventh episode of the podcast is up. (The one where I get interviewed. Egads!) We got some awesome graphics up on the page now. Makes us seem more legit.

I'm going to kill my internet

I swear, I am. It keeps dipping in and out. About every five seconds, it looses connection. And then gets it back. And this just keeps happening, over and over and over... and over.

GRR.

VERY frustrating.

I even tried to overcome this crappy internet connection by going to Panera Bread to use their free internet for the podcast episode recording. But Panera Bread failed me. Apparently they kill their wireless around their 'busy time' (ie, lunch time) to make the freebie lurkers move on.

Double GRR.

And I'm not kidding or exaggerating. My internet connection died while I typed this up.

Yeah... not cool.

I've been writing a little of RG's next chapter. It's pretty slow going because every new paragraph brings five to ten questions with it that I have to ask Dollegirl (my D&D expert). And there's a certain scene that comes along later in the story which will not get out of my head, so I had to write it all down. Very unusual for me to write an entire scene like that outside of the story sequence.

The boyfriend's out of town today. I miss him. *sigh*

Anyhoo, that's all I've got.

RG Updated!

Yeah, I know. I was shocked too when I finally finished a chapter.

The response I got in the last 18 hours astounds me. I am literally astounded.

Right. Now.

I started working on the next chapter. It's kind of slow going since every two minutes I come upon yet something else I have no idea about and have to email Dollegirl with a buttload of questions. (And in case you were wondering, a buttload is more than a load, but less than a boatload.)

Eek

I forgot to post the last two days. My bad.

So, we recorded a new episode of the podcast. It's up and everything. We had a special guest on: withthevampsofcourse! She's rock awesome and I love her to death.

Also, I've been working on the next chapter of RG and I'm almost done with the pre-edited version. Just two more steps to go through and you'll get a new update!

Caitlin was interviewed for the Twilighters Anonymous Podcast and she briefly talks about our favorite fanfictions and plugs our podcast. Her interview is in the first part, near the end. Check it out.

That's all I got. Later.

Ugh

Worked a little on RG last night and stupidly agreed to work today.

GRR.

I don't know what I was thinking. I hate working on the weekends. It always makes me cranky.

But, I guess it's better to get overtime than to lay around and do nothing.

Umm... let me rephrase that, I wish I was laying around and doing nothing rather than getting overtime.

Laziness Is Next To Procrastination

Hold the phone, ladies and gentlemen.

I actually wrote some of RG last night.

I know, it's shocking. But I'm sure you guys will be able to handle it.

Really, that's all I got. I was boring yesterday and did pretty much... nothing but work. Bah.

Okay, laters.

OME, an update??

The fifth episode of the podcast is up! I know we're late this week, but there's a good reason for it.

I finished the second book of Mortal Instruments and now I'm waiting here, semi-patiently, tapping my fingers on the desk, for the third book to be released in two months. TWO, damn it.

And the major news of the day, I posted Chapter 15 of I've Been Looking For You. It's up on Twilighted and FF as of now. (Ugh, the drama! Hah.)

I feel almost like an evil scientist for posting something so angsty and then just leaving it on a cliffhanger. ...and I'm loving the reviews I'm getting. *insert evil laugh here*

Until tomorrow, mwah!