Five Second Dance Party

Something Exciting This Way Comes

2005-12-03T01:07:00.000-08:00

Advance warning, it's ten times more exciting to me than it will be to anyone else, but I'm thrilled so you guys all get to deal with it.

But first. Back when I first started this wee little blog, last March, I entered a virgin post. It sucked. It still sucks. Here's what I had to say:

So basically, I've never done this before. I'm clicking around and not really sure what I'm doing. I guess one of these days I'll figure it all out and be brave enough to show my friends my cool new space. Until then... random anonymity is good. Anybody really familiar with this who feels like sharing their knowledge?

Fascinating. I know. But thanks to Jack and Deb I now have my own- for the reals- place to spout off. Come check me out and witness my attempt at a born-again virgin post. I'm over here!

And just to add, I will be customizing it and adding things and making it more me as time goes by. I'm still learning Wordpress so it will take some time, just be patient. And for now, no word verification. We'll see how that goes.

Pissed Off

2005-12-02T02:34:00.000-08:00

I'm so fucking pissed off, you don't even know. Some asshole is running around posting the link to "The American War Of Shame."

What is it exactly? A whole bunch of pictures of aborted fucking fetuses. Guess what, fucker, I don't want to see that shit.

What if some poor woman who had just miscarried clicked on your link? How do you think she'd feel? I have no issues with people who are pro-life. That's your choice. I'm pro-life, too. But I'm also pro-choice. And yes, I think you can have it both ways. I don't think that abortion is a black and white issue.

There are better ways to get your point across, asshole. Get a life and stay the fuck away from my blog.

Oh, The Stupidity!

2005-12-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

I like to think of myself as a smart person. Relatively so, of course, but smart nonetheless. Unfortunately some days my brain revolts and sets out to prove me wrong. Witness, some of the stupid things I've done and said in recent memory.

(1) I was at a football game in high school and I turned to my best friend Jacquee and said, "How many quar- never mind." Yes folks, I was about to ask how many quarters were in a football game. At least I didn't finish the question.

(2) A couple of months ago, I needed to grab something from the top of the hutch in my dining room. I moved a chair over, stood up on top of it and was promptly whacked in the head. Note to self. When standing up on a chair, make sure there's no CEILING FAN turned on above you. Yup, I'm THAT smart.

(3) Another head injury was caused when I was trying to grab something off of the top of the kitchen cupboards. Remembering my recent incident with the chair, I decided to forego that and just climb up on the counter. I should have gone with the chair. Yup, smoked my head on the hood vent on the oven. It left a lovely bruise.

(4) Another high school memory occurred when I'd had my drivers license for about a year and was driving myself and my friend to the homecoming game. My car was an old VW Beetle and took forever to defrost. Since we were running late, I rubbed out a little circle and off we went. We didn't make it very far before I went up on the curb. Here's where I get really smart. Normally, when one drives up on a curb, one turns the other way and gets off of the curb. I panicked. And kept going. Straight into a telephone pole. Fortunately the car wasn't damaged too badly and telephone pole was resilient and escaped without harm.

Okay, I know that I've done worse and many more stupid things, but I'm drawing a blank right now so I'll leave it at that. What have you guys done?

Suckin' It Up & Sucking Up

2005-11-30T23:57:00.000-08:00

So I've really been slacking on the blog thing! I've been going through all my old posts and trying to save them and archive them onto disk so if, god forbid, anything happens to blogger or if I decide to finally get my own domain and hosting (thinking about it!), that I can move everything with a minimum of fuss.

In the process, I rediscovered a lot of old comments and people that I miss. Man, I got boring and everybody left! Some of my old posts were fun! And I know some people don't comment anymore because of word verification, but, screw you too. I don't like to delete spam. I'll deal without the comments then, thanks. I am genuinely hurt by that, by the way, but it won't stop me from liking you guys and visiting your sites.

Anyway. I'm very grateful for all the people who've shown me how incredibly kind strangers can be. I was especially stunned when I really realized how many people take the time to let me know how much they care when I post my depressing posts. Which happens more often than I realized. I noticed it happening especially back in August when I was upset about losing my mother. I apologize for being a depressing little twit sometimes and again, am eternally grateful, for the way you all just accept me as I am. Sniff. Sniff.

So take the time to comment and say hey if you're still here and reading and just aren't saying much because I've gotten boring. I know I've removed some links, but I still visit a lot of them- my links list was just getting too long. I might make it long again, we'll have to see.

As I was saying, take a minute and say hello. Let me know you're out there and that you're reading. Much love to all of you. Let me say thanks to each of you.

Random Stuff

2005-11-29T01:13:00.000-08:00

Still running on empty, so here's some random stuff. It's snowing here for the first time this year. Here's the view from outside my patio right now.

I scanned in a bunch of scrapbook pages tonight to post in the Blog Advance forums, and I thought I'd share my favorite with you guys.

You can see the rest of the pages over at my Flickr account.

The Marilyn puzzle I was working on months ago still isn't done. That's what happens when you work on it in spurts, I guess. I'm hoping to have it done by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, the nutjobs in my apartment complex decided to decorate the lobby. Can we say overkill? It looks like somebody puked up Christmas down there. I'll take pictures tomorrow so y'all can see the hideousness that is over-decorating for the holidays.

And that folks, just about wraps up all that I have to say.

So About Gwen...

2005-11-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

It was amazing. Both nights. Sunday night was the first night I saw her and both Cassidy and I were unbelievably excited.

See? I'm so excited I can't even take a good picture. Actually, we did have good pictures, but one came out blurry and the other one was eaten by the camera.

We took a ton of pictures on Sunday night and... none of them came out. Maybe a few did, but I haven't seen them yet. I've seen lots of bad ones. About 100 of them, actually. So no pics from Sunday. But let me tell you that the show was INCREDIBLE.

Gwen came up on a throne and changed costumes for pretty much every other song. She had her Harajuku girls, of course, and had break dancers and lights and video screens and ohmygod it was so great.

So Monday night, I'm trying to keep my damn mouth shut and not spill everything to Meghann. Megs and I get all ready to go, we planned to leave at 4:30 to make the drive down to Seattle. We finish up and at 4:28 go to reach for the tickets and... they're gone. We freak out. Did they got lost when we were roaming the mall earlier? We didn't think we'd taken them with us, but... did we? We look everywhere. Behind the desk twice each, underneath stuff, in all of our pockets, all over the freaking place. Even in the kitchen cupboards. And the freezer. We looked EVERYWHERE.

It was about 5:30 and Meghann was almost in tears. I was panicky, but trying not to show it. We go down to look in the truck for the third time and still can't find them. We get back up to the apartment and pull out the desk. There they are. Phew! Seriously, we looked behind the desk twice each, but they were lying so that you couldn't see them until we pulled out the desk and they shifted into view. Bastards.

So off we went, an hour later, and make our way there. We walked in a few songs into the opening bands set and sat bopping our heads to MIA. MIA was neat to watch, they had good beats and amazing energy, but unfortunately you couldn't really hear a damn thing they were saying. They finish up and we start the LOOOOONG wait while they take down MIA stuff and set up GWEN.

There's us waiting. You can't see the people behind us, but I'll tell you that they were bitches anyway. We'll get to that. We're so excited! And then the lights dim and the bottom part of the stage lights up.

The music starts and the curtain rises. Everybody is cheering and going nuts, including Meghann and I. Gwen comes up on a throne, surrounded by Harajuku girls. She looks AMAZING.

When she started playing What Are You Waiting For, the screaming got louder, including my own because it's my favorite song.

Gwen's second costume change was into her 50's style bathing suit. She looked so much like Marilyn, I thought I was going to die. Gwen is freaking hot.

Singing Crash was probably one of my favorites of the concert. She had all the boys singing "Back it up, back it up," and all the girls responding with, "You got it, you got it," and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. I was dancing like crazy to the song. And Gwen looked so cute in her racing outfit.

She sat down for a bit, I would imagine to catch her breath, when she started singing Long Way To Go. The screen in the background was images of interracial couples and it was very moving.

Serious was another great song. She came out on a stretcher with all of her Harajuku girls dressed up like nurses.

The encore was Hollaback Girl, but we didn't get any pictures of it for a couple of reasons. One was because we were simply too enthralled. Another was because Megs was crying. And the third reason was because we were so damn jealous. Gwen pulled the first two rows of girls up onto the stage with her at the end of her set and gave them all hugs and sang with them. Megs and I were going to try and bribe the security guards with makeout sessions, but they were all older women. Phooey. And of course, when I saw her with Cassidy the night before we hadn't known that was going to happen.

That's Megs and I in front of her tour bus. We were going to try and stalk her and catch her going to her bus, but it was freezing ass cold and she probably wouldn't have appreciated it too much, so we took off and went to the casino where we gambled all of our remaining money away. I had a blast.

It's hard to say which concert was better. The first night was fantastic because it was all new and we were a smidge closer, but the seats the second night were better because we weren't on the floor, but we were in row 7 so we had a perfect view of everything.

The only crappy part of the second night was the lame-ass people behind us. We were standing up and dancing and halfway through they asked us to sit down so they could see. We were nice and sat down. Until we realized that it was absolutely no fun not being able to rock out and dance around, so two songs later we were back up and we ignored them for the rest of the show. If they wanted to see that bad, they could have stood their asses up. It's not our fault they were lazy. People all around them, not just us, were standing up and grooving. Whateva.

So I had a blast. And if you get the chance to catch her on tour, I highly recommend it. I've been to a LOT of concerts and she is probably the best one I've been to. Top notch.

I've Got Nothin'

2005-11-19T02:19:00.000-08:00

I'm bored. I'm not writing as much as I should be. I have plenty of material, not enough motivation. Why? You'd think my life's passion would be motivation enough. Apparently not.

I'm just... cranky. A lot lately. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm like 10,000 words behind. On a good note, I've written more on this piece of crap book than I have on any other book.

Canucks lost the other night. Boooo. They play again tomorrow.

See? This is all that I've got. Gwen Stefani is Sunday! And Monday!

I got my Matt Good pictures developed today and a decent amount of them were good. I'll see if I can't post them soon. If I get motivated. Again with the motivation.

And yeah, join Blog Advance. 'Cause I'd really like you a lot if you did.

Pimp This Site

2005-11-13T23:47:00.001-08:00

So there's this contest. And I kinda want to win it. And you guys can kinda help me. One my favorite places to spend my online time is over at the BlogAdvance forums, associated of course with Blog Advance the traffic exchange.

If I get the most people to join Blog Advance by clicking on the referral link that I've now provided for you (twice), I win an upgraded account AND $100 cash. And who doesn't want cash, especially unemployed somebodies like me?

I know a bunch of you have already joined, but if you haven't, at least click the link and take the time to check it out. It's a great traffic exchange and there are some wicked cool people (like me) that hang out and spend A LOT of time in the forums. It's a little ridiculous. Ridiculously cool of course.

So, here's the link again. Click it. Join it. I'll love you forever.

Thanks Toby

2005-11-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

For finally getting your ass in gear and for giving me something to blog about. I've been running on empty. He finally proposed! My best friend Jacquee is getting married! And check out the rock...

That's a whopping 1.2 carats, folks. When Toby goes all out, it apparently extends beyond electronics and large television sets. It goes for diamonds as well. Really, I'm proud of the boy. He's done very well for Jacquee.

The proposal was very sweet, with a trail of rose petals leading to wine in a bubble bath where the ring was nestled inside of a rose. So sweet. The engagement is going to be uber-quick. They're getting married the first weekend of March, assuming that all the rentals fall into place as they should, so today we went dress shopping. Wheee!

Jacquee knew what she wanted going in. It was the first dress she tried on. It will be the dress she wears on her wedding day. But to humor myself and Lexi who were tagging along with her, she tried on some other dresses for us. Like this one that caused us to burst into giggles when she came out from the fitting room.

A regular Southern belle, our Jacquee is. All she needs is a parasol. The runner-up dress was gorgeous with a long, flowing train and lots of lace.

Beautiful, is it not? It's nothing compared to the dress Jacquee will be walking down the aisle in. The dress in the picture has gold trim, but the version of it that Jacquee is getting will have light blue replacing all of the gold bits and the dress is a snow white, not an off-white. So please, use your imagination to get a real idea of what the dress looks like.

Ah, man. I wasn't tearing up until I started putting this post together. My girl is getting married!

My Song

2005-11-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

I wanted to find a song with my name in the title. I didn't think I'd find anything, but I thought why the hell not, right? So I go into Limewire and type "Courtney" in the song title field.

What comes up?

Sir Mix-A-Lot. Baby Got Back.

Right then. I wish I could make this shit up.

Matthew Good Was Good To Me

2005-11-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

How cheesy am I? Heh. So I went and saw Matt Good Saturday night and it was such a great show. Incredible. I can't wait until he plays again so I can see him. Fortunately he's from here, so I hope he plays again here soon.

I took off for Cassidy's early in the evening and we sat around and waited for Aaron to come get us. We were bored so we took a shot glass and wrapped it up in a condom to give to Aaron as a present. Don't ask. I don't even know and I was a participant. In fact, I think it might have been my idea.... god, I'm weird. Anyway. So Aaron showed up with Mike and Mike, we gave him his gift, and off we went.

Lots of boring stuff, yapping, blah-blah-blah-ing in the car and then we get there and more blah-blah-blah standing in line stuff. We get in and we sit down at a table nice and close. We order some drinks and THE BEST CHEESECAKE EVER. White chocolate with raspberry. Yum. It was some seriously good cheesecake. More drinks, my sister-in-law Jen (very cool girl, I'm lucky) showed up and sat down with us.

Then the opening band came on. I'm apparently the only one who didn't mind them. They were called The Ladies And Gentleman. They dressed all in white, which was a little odd, but I thought they were funky and kinda cool. Everyone else thought they sucked which probably means that they did suck as I'm pretty easy to please at a concert. Now if I actually remember them a year from now, that might be different. I remember the good ones.

They finish up and Cassidy and I made our way up front and center. Well, a bit back because the crowd was thick. The guys in front of us were just about the most annoying guys on the planet. They were the guys that start the pushing and shoving circle in the middle of the mosh pit. It's Matt Good, guys, not Metallica. Whatever. They pushed and shoved and almost killed us a few different times. We definitely got our toes trampled. They kept trying to get us to move in front of them and got mad when we wouldn't, but uh, if we had? We would have been trampled underneath them. Stupid boys.

During the show, this really drunk guy kept wandering around. He tugged on my hair a few times and then he even licked Cassidy's ear. Gross. Then later, he was staggering behind us and leaning into people at random. He started to lean towards me, but I just stepped out of the way and crash bang boom. He fell flat on his ass. I hope it hurts still.

Matt Good was, again, amazing. He played a looong set, it was just shy of two hours and he gave two encores. I took lots of pictures with my non-digital camera that I really really really hope turn out. I pissed off enough people with my flash, they better turn out decent! I'm hoping that I can get them developed tomorrow so I can post any that turn out.

Soooo, if you ever get the chance to go see him, do. He's well worth the money.

First Day Of NaNoWriMo

2005-11-02T04:17:00.000-08:00

I am so in over my head. For those of you readers who don't know what it is, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The object is to write 50,000 words by the end of the month. This equates to roughly 1,666 words per day.

I had to stay up until 4:00 AM to do it, but I got 2001 words done today. And I still have no idea what my story is about.

Ay yi yi.

**Edited to add: I just had to edit this post over five times to get this post to turn out right, that's how tired I am.

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T23:47:00.000-08:00

A little late, but better late than never. Cassidy and I went out this past Saturday to a Halloween rock concert and had a blast- not that Cassidy remembers any of it. Hee.

Cassidy was a most fabulous gangster girl, while I was, well, something. A punk rock fairy thing. I'm not wearing my wings in these pictures, but I had black fishnet wings, too.

See me trying to be a badass? Yeah. I can't do it. I laugh. And laughing really kills the image of someone trying to be all tough. Whatever.

And then Derek and me. Derek was a ghoul of sorts. He left his mask at the bar and didn't wear it all night because he was getting a wee bit claustrophobic. Not that I blame him. I can't stand wearing masks. And yes, his hand IS on my boob.

And that was us. What did you do for Halloween? Was it fun? What'd you dress up as? I want to hear all about it!

Randomosity

2005-10-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

I should attend more conferences. They give me lots to blog about. Here are more random tidbits from the weekend that either were left out of the previous posts or that happened on Sunday.

Diana Gabaldon gave the keynote on Sunday. She's a super sweet lady who does not look even remotely close to her 53 years of age. She's up on stage and she's talking about doing book signings in Germany. Apparently, a German man came up to her and said, "Diana, what is the appeal of a man in a kilt?" For those who don't know- her books take place primarily in historical Scotland, hence the kilt question. Diana's response? "I guess it would be that you realize that he can have you up against the wall in seconds flat." The room was stunned into silence for a millisecond before bursting into laughter. It was great.

One of the courses that I did not attend (but wish I had), was called SIWC Idol. When you walked into the room you handed over the first two pages of your manuscript. Jack Whyte, with his magical reading voice, read them aloud. Three editors were on a panel who then proceeded to say what they would really do with those pages. By all accounts, it was brutal. Some peoples' work didn't make it past the first sentence. One person's pages started with the word, "Whooosh," and that was all they heard before they literally threw it away. Another person's was great until they used the term "rivulets of blood," at which it was thrown into the slush pile as well. Part of me wishes I had gone to hear what they would have said about mine- the other part of me is glad I didn't because I don't know if I would have been able to handle that much truth!

Best quote of the weekend was said outside with all the smokers that Jacquee and I acquainted ourselves with. She was an older woman and we were talking about how much work it is to be a writer. She said, "I wouldn't be able to play at this game if I weren't a kept woman." I think I should use it in a book someday.

I met a very cool girl, also outside watching Jacquee smoke, who is heavily involved in NaNoWriMo, who invited me to the kick-off NaNo party this coming Sunday. I'm looking forward to going!

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. NOW are you all tired of hearing about the conference?

The Jenny Post

2005-10-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting here for hours starting at the blank screen, trying to figure out how to write this. I think I'm afraid to leave out something important, or afraid that I'm not going to be able to accurately portray how amazing this woman is. Please, forgive me if I babble.

Derek teased me before the conference because I was so nervous about meeting her. I was explaining to him that, as he knows, I don't do the celebrity worship thing. I think a few actors are hot, a few actresses are beautiful, and that's about it. I have author-worship. Walking around this conference in the presence of people like Jenny and Jean Auel, Terry Brooks, Michael Slade, Anne Perry- it was intimidating exciting, amazing- I felt like I was walking the red carpet of a huge Hollywood premiere.

Jenny, to me, is like Julia Roberts is to most people. Larger than life and you can hardly believe that they're truly real. I was probably also a little afraid that I would find that she was more human than I wanted her to be and I would be disappointed. Is she human? Yes. Was I disappointed? Not in the slightest. In fact, I love her more.

Friday was the first day that I was able to speak with her, if only for a few brief moments. I mentioned on my post about the first day of the conference that I let out a silent squeal when I saw her and Bob walk by me to their table. I'm part of an online group/fan site of hers and we call each other The Cherries. To identify each other at these things where there are some of us milling about, we try to always wear cherry something or other. I had on cherry earrings and was carrying my cherry purse. I had just set it on the ground when she walked by and I wanted to kick myself. I should have left it up! I was only a table away from her and I was probably staring instead of listening to all I should have been listening to. (God, if she reads this she's going to think I'm a stalker! I'm not, I swear, just awestruck!) Needless to say, I didn't get the chance to accost her at this point.

The workshop that we had with Jenny that day was on making collages as a tool for brainstorming. It was something I've seen before from her website, but hearing her process and what exactly the placement of the pictures in her collages mean to her, was really something else. In fact, Saturday night when we got back to my place, Jacquee and I started ripping out magazine pictures and starting our own collages thanks to this course.

When the course was over, we went up to the front of the room to introduce ourselves. We said our names and looked at her like morons. She looked at us like, "Okay. Nice to meet you. Now what?" We then told her we were cherries and she practically lit up. She started talking about looking forward to breakfast and we grinned our excitement and then left her to pack up her things. As we left the room I turned back to Jacquee, grinning ear to ear. I'd just spoken to Jenny Crusie. Wow.

The next morning was breakfast. There had been a slight panic the night before when I realized I had no clue where "The Guildford Restaurant" was, but soon realized they just meant in the lobby of the hotel. Jacquee and I arrived to find the rest of the cherries in a group waiting to go in. We all sat down and waited for a bit before Jenny arrived and we sat around talking and eating for about an hour. I was so nervous. I was seated across the table and kitty-corner to Jenny and I don't think I said more than a few words. I didn't want to sound like an idiot! I did talk quite a bit to Janice- a fellow cherry- and had a very enjoyable breakfast.

We were all surprised when we went to pay our bills and found out that Jenny had graciously accepted the tab for us all. It was completely unnecessary of her, and yet so nice. We should have been paying for her! We were also let in on what table number Jenny was assigned for the meet and greet lunch where one author/editor/agent is assigned per table.

Lunchtime came and we booked it to table 21 so we wouldn't miss out on the fun. Lunch with her was so much fun. We talked about books, the email group, the courses, Bob, and dessert. It was quite funny, actually, Jacquee had picked up a dessert that she hadn't been able to identify, taken a great big bite, and had been completely disgusted- still without knowing what it was. Jenny laughed and then said she had to know what it was and so Jacquee passed the plate on over her direction. Jenny took a bite and made a face that made us all laugh. Disgusted, right? Nope. She liked it, she just couldn't figure out what it was. Turns out it was a buttertart- but with raisins.

After lunch was her course on community in fiction. Again, it was a fantastic class and it really made me think about how my characters are all intertwined within their story. I hadn't realized how much a characters work relationships (even if seemingly irrelevant to the story) can really hold a lot of meaning. When I finally finish a first draft, I have a long list of things I need to examine in my manuscript to make sure that my relationships are genuine, unique, and yet realistic.

During the booksigning, Jenny was great and was patient enough to sign my stack of books. I felt so bad about bringing so many that I had even left several at home to try and be a little more reasonable. I'll get them signed next time. Jacquee and I laughed when we saw her and Bob sneak out early and head to the bar.

Her keynote speech was loosely based on Chris Vogler's, A Writers Journey. I wish I had it on tape because I could never reproduce it. Ever. As I think I mentioned before, she got the only standing ovation of the weekend. Because she's brilliant. After the speech, Jacquee and I walked up to her to tell her how great it was. She was in the middle of a conversation so we hung back a bit and she grabbed my hand and held it for a few moments to acknowledge us. Jenny held my hand. Squee!

Sunday was the last day of the conference and all day I felt a little nagging bit of sadness- I didn't want the weekend to end. There isn't going to be a separate Sunday post because there's only tidbits worth sharing- a large chunk of which was Jenny and Bob's workshop on co-authoring a novel.

Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer play off of each other wonderfully. They are so different, and yet so alike in their humor, that they work very well together. Even the way Bob's powerpoint slides came up on the screen drove Jenny nuts and Jenny's talking about shoes drove Bob crazy. The best part of this workshop (besides the obvious wealth of information they gave) was the emails back and forth that they shared. I'm going to try to paraphrase the best ones here.

***
Jenny: So DLD is about love and lust and love overcoming lust. (Okay, I can't paraphrase four paragraphs worth of theme on a book that hasn't been published yet, so just realize that this email was exceptionally long and an in-depth analysis of the potential themes of Don't Look Down.)

Bob: Ok.

Jenny: I love these lengthy, thematic conversations we have, don't you, Bob?

Bob. Yup.
***

I would have shot him. At any rate, they were very very funny.

After that workshop, Jenny signed a few more of my books (minus two that I left at home- again, with the accosting and not wanting to overwhelm her). I had a camera with me in my bag and I should have used it then, but I didn't want to tie up her time when others were waiting. I thought that I would try to catch her after the final luncheon, but it turns out that I never did end up bumping into her again.

If you haven't been convinced that she's amazing by this point, then you need serious help because the woman is a goddess. She said it herself in her speech.

The Conference: Saturday

2005-10-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

I'm too busy to keep writing these mammoth posts! So let's get on with it, shall we?

Saturday morning we overslept a smidge. I blame Cassidy for convincing us we should go over and drink Friday night. Which was fun. But we overslept. We didn't oversleep by too much, which was fortunate, just enough to make us scramble and off we went.

Our day started off with a keynote by Jean Auel who I've linked to in the previous post and I'm too lazy to look up her website again. The woman really did something amazing when she wrote her first book. When she wrote it, she was getting her MBA by way of night classes and raising five children.

Now this wasn't just a novel she wrote. This was a wordy-ass novel. You figure the average novel these days is 90,000- 120,000 words. She had over 200,000 words by the time the first draft was finished and she realized she had more to write. At this point, she' s written something over 500,000 in the Earth's Children series. Throw in the fact that this was in 1979 (or thereabouts- again, lazy and not checking the exact dates. I'm within two years), and you realize that wait- no computers. She did this all on typewriter and by longhand. She rewrote the entire book at least four times, she said, and some parts as many as 40 times.

When Jean finally submit her book to an agent and the book was being shopped around, the average advance price for a new author was between $5,000 and $10,000. (Really, the average hasn't changed much, not even 25 years later.) Jean was given $130,000. We should all have those dreams, and that was essentially her speech. She's brilliant.
After the speech, everyone dispersed and we went to our first course- Point of View and Developing Characters by Bob Mayer. Bob Mayer is Jenny's writing partner-in-crime and he's a great man. Very stoic. He had breakfast with us Saturday morning (which I haven't discussed because I'm saving it for the Jenny post) and didn't say much, but nodded at appropriate points. His workshop was amazing. I was writing notes like mad, and I'm still not sure that I got everything down. It was so good that I went out almost immediately after and picked up his book, The Novel Writer's Toolkit, from the tradeshow in an attempt to soak up some of his knowledge at a later date. Next was lunch. Again, spent with Jenny so it will be discussed in The Jenny Post. (It deserves its own caps, no?)

Second course of the day, we started out in Matt Hughes workshop on Story Mechanics- Middles. After ten minutes of listening to how Dumbo (yes, the movie about the elephant) was laid out we decided we weren't getting much out of it and moved over to The Art Of Queries given by an agent named Cricket. I can't remember her last name and she was filling in for another speaker so I can't find it right away and again- lazy. This was another GREAT course in how to submit a query so an agent pays attention. One of the key things I learned was that you can't sound vanilla and professional - it should look like a business letter, but not sound like one.

In between this course and the next, something quite amusing and, really, inconsequential happened, but it made me giddy with excitement just because it was so random and cool. Jacquee and I were just walking along and out of the blue, Donald Maass (that big-time NY agent I mentioned in the previous post?) just turns around, smiles and waves at me. Jacquee looks behind her and looks back at me and I could see the confusion. She goes, "Have you MET him?" I just laughed and squealed because no. Hadn't met him. He probably mistook me for someone else. Or he thought I was hot. Hee. At any rate, I was waved at by a big time agent! Squee!

Last workshop of the day was another one given by Jenny and I scribbled like mad in this one, too. And yet again, more in The Jenny Post.

Book fair and signing time was next. Jacquee and I loaded up our new tote bags with our conference purchases and books brought from home and made our way into the room of authors. First stop- Jenny. She graciously signed about four of my books and one of Jacquee's and I made Bob sign my copy of his book, too. She signed my copies, "Cherries Forever." Yay. She called me babe, too. Hee.

We made our way up the big-name section and stood in line for awhile. I went to see Diana Gabaldon first and she signed my book with, "Best Wishes," in Gaelic. Next I stood in line for Terry Brooks. His line was long because he was so incredible that he spent about ten minutes with every single person asking them about how they were enjoying the conference, what they were working on, and REALLY being interested. It was very very cool. I will be making a point to check his website often for when he's around- he's relatively local (Seattle), so he comes up to Vancouver pretty often for book signings and readings.

Next book signer was Jack Whyte. I happen to have an Advance Readers' Copy of one of his books that is about ten years old and he did a double-take when he saw it. (Advanced Readers' Copies are books that are given to bookstores before the book is actually published. It is often trade paperback size and there are still errors in it as it's not the final product.) He asked where I got it and I told him and he just laughed and said, "I haven't seen one of these in years!" I also had my copy of Clan Of The Cave Bear signed by Jean Auel.

After the book signing (god, this is a long post- sorry, guys), Jacquee and I took our bags to the bathroom where we got all spiffied up for the banquet. We made our way to the banquet hall and settled in. Jenny gave the keynote speech and I'll repeat this in The Jenny Post, but her speech was so amazing and so funny and so brilliant, she got the only standing ovation of the entire conference, including the closing speech by Diana Gabaldon. Brilliant. I can't say it enough. The woman is a goddess.

Last, but not least, was the Night Owl Workshop. Jacquee and I went to a panel with Jo Beverley to discuss current trends in romance. It was interesting, but some of the women in there were obnoxious know-it-alls. It's okay, I'll get over it- I just wanted to hear someone besides them speak for a question or two. I did get some information about it regarding romance though and it was good to have the open discussion.

Home and off to bed. This post was going to include Sunday as well, but I've taken too long to write this and I'm tired and it's so freaking long as it is, that I really should end it. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get to Sunday and The Jenny Post. Bored yet?

The Conference: Friday

2005-10-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

I had the most amazing time at the conference. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I have so much to say about it that I'm not really even sure where to begin! I know that for each author that I met with and talked to, I can probably type a whole post for and I'm probably going to end up doing that.

So here's a brief (or maybe not so brief) rundown of how my weekend went.

Thursday night Jacquee arrived and we sat around my apartment while I drilled her on what to say during her agent interview. (There were 10 minute agent and/or editor appointments available where you were able to pitch your novel if you so desired. I opted not to have one because I'm not far enough in my book.) She was insanely nervous about the interview, I was just nervous in general because meeting new people scares the hell out of me and a large room of people terrifies me even more. We stayed up entirely much later than we should have, but finally went to bed.

Friday morning I woke up with the alarm, keyed up and anxious, but excited. Jacquee and I got ready while blathering on and on to each other about how nervous we were. We finally walked out the door on time and made our way to the hotel. We walked in, found the registration desk, and got ourselves checked in, put our name tags on, and headed towards orientation. During orientation we weren't told anything we couldn't have figured out within a matter of minutes on our own, but just having gone to it made us feel a little bit more prepared.

At around 8:30 it was time for the morning meeting and keynote speech. Kelly James-Enger was the speaker. I was so nervous that I can't really tell you what she said, but I do recall the moment that I recognized Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer walk past. I looked over at Jacquee and gave a silent squeal. I was in the presence of greatness. Yikes.

The speech ended, everyone clapped, and off we went to our first workshop. (If I keep writing the entire weekend in this much detail, this post is going to be insanely long.) Our first workshop was with Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. She gave us loads of information about getting an agent, working with your agent, and what you should expect from your agent/author relationship. She was witty, funny, smart, friendly, and when I finally finish my manuscript, she is probably going to be who I wind up querying.

Lunch was great and then more workshops. This next workshop was where I first met Jenny Crusie. Because Jenny gets her own post later, I'm not going to go into detail here, but she gave a great workshop on brainstorming for your novel using collages.

The last workshop of the day that we chose to attend was a panel of bestselling authors talking about making it to the bestselling list. We're talking big-time names here. Jean Auel, who wrote Clan Of The Cave Bear, The Mammoth Hunters, and more, has sold over 34 million copies of books worldwide. Her books are known by just about everybody. I couldn't believe I was in the same room as her. In fact, for a few minutes she even sat in on the same agent/author workshop with us! Terry Brooks, Anne Perry, and big-time New York agent Donald Maass put on the presentation. While interesting, after Terry Books had finished with his Q&A session, I realized I wasn't getting much from the workshop and moved over to one taught by Matt Hughes. He was speaking about writing scenes in genre fiction.

While I was in those workshops, Jacquee was in her one-on-one with agent Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Agency. It went quite well, fortunately, and Jacquee was asked to send in the first three chapters of her manuscript! Yahoo!

Finally the day began winding down and we made our way to the ballroom for dinner. Terry Brooks was the keynote speaker. That man is hilarious. He had everybody laughing while at the same time making great points about being a writer.

After dinner and the speeches, Jacquee and I decided NOT to go to the Night Owl ghost story, but instead to go home and to bed. It was too bad, too, because apparently Jack Whyte, a very funny man with an amazing speaking voice (complete with Scottish accent), wore a kilt for the presentation of the story!

If this post weren't so darn long already, I'd continue my way through the weekend, but at this rate it looks as though Saturday and Sunday are each going to get their own posts along with each of the authors!

In short, the first day of the conference went very well. My nerves were put to rest and I learned a great deal- especially when it came to information that I need to know about getting an agent. More to come tomorrow.

I Know, I'm A Slacker

2005-10-20T04:09:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I've been busy. I've been entertaining unwelcome house guests and now I have my writing conference this weekend and I haven't even talked to my husband for more than 2 seconds on the phone in almost three days. Good lord.

Friday I was helping out Marianne for what was supposed to be an hour, but it turned into three watching her kids when Brian, Marianne's sperm donor, couldn't be bothered to come home on time to pick up the kids. He wanted to catch the last period of the hockey game. Fucker. I hate that man. Then I went over to Cassidy's and proceeded to get piss drunk which I don't do very often. Good times were had.

Saturday I spent cursing alcohol. Then a birthday dinner for Derek's aunt. Then home for the night.

Sunday was the hockey game that was on pay-per-view, so I hung out at the bar and watched the game. Canucks won! Then over to Mike and Steph's where I learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em and beat everybody. Go me!

Monday, what'd I do on Monday... I stayed home. Then I did something. Why can't I remember what? Hmmm. Okay, well, Monday is apparently lost to me. I have no clue.

Tuesday, I slept all day. No clue why. I was tired apparently. Then Marianne showed up with the kids to hang out for a bit and we got looking at Halloween costumes and figuring out what she was going to be and then Cassidy called and invited me out to go see Default. Little did I realize how freaking cool it would be. Private show, only invited guests, how I lucked into that- I'll never know. We played pool with some guys named Troy and Christian and Troy (married, like me) made fun of Cassidy and Christian flirting, but Cassidy didn't know that until now. Hee.

Wednesday, today. Hmmm. I babysat. And I worked on editing my best friend Jacquee's novel. And now it's like 4 am and I have to go to bed, but I'm freaking out about the conference and being stupidly nervous about meeting Jenny Crusie. And I'm babbling. Because I think I'm tired.

So I'm going to bed. Right now.

When No News Is Not Good News

2005-10-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well, if I had won the essay contest that I entered last month, I would have found out by today. And since it's 10:00pm and I've heard nada, I'm going with a no-win.

Oh well. I guess I try again next year.

Oh.My.God.

2005-10-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

I think that it is just hitting me now. I am having breakfast with the person that I idolize the most in just ten days. I am taking courses in how to write better from the master herself, Jennifer Crusie. Then, a week from Sunday, I am sitting down with a group of approximately 10 to 15 people to have breakfast with her.

I read my first Crusie about four years ago, when the cover of Welcome To Temptation caught my attention.

Pretty, is it not? I read it and loved it. From that point forward, whenever I saw a Crusie hanging around, I picked it up. Some of her books I've purchased multiple times and handed out to friends. Now, the only books I'm lacking are the out of print ones and I keep my eye on eBay constantly, looking for an auction I have a chance of winning that will complete my collection.

I think about this upcoming breakfast and my nerves are all over the place. I'm going to be such a fan-geek! Will I even say a single word or will I be frozen in awe? Good lord, I'm nervous. Wish me luck and hope that I manage to look just slightly idiotic and not like a complete loser!

Goooo Me!

2005-10-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

I don't have these kinds of days very often, so I figure when I have them I should post them, right? Well, I was feeling pretty proud of myself yesterday for assorted reasons and here they are:

(1) I took apart the computer by myself and installed a new NIC without any help. May not be major to some people, but I was scared to death of unscrewing something unscrewable and then really, uhm, screwing things up. But I didn't. So I rock.

(2) I've lost 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Yahoo!

(3) I made myself a new avatar using Photoshop. Photoshop, thus far, has been a mystery to me so anytime that I actually create something using it, I'm thrilled.

(4) Again with the Photoshop- I redid Cassidy's head on a body posing with Johnny Depp and it looked way better than the first one I did. So I'm making progress.

(5) I took the plunge and decided to get bangs cut and, for the most part, I actually like them. Yay for risk-taking! Next is the big dye job where I go way way dark. Professionally done so my damn red highlights stop coming through.

So that's it, but it made me feel really good and all confident and shit for a few brief moments in time, and I thought I should share. Yay me!

Rough Road Ahead

2005-10-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

Little bit of backstory here. A little over a year ago, my dad was offered a job in Idaho. He thought about it, thought about it some more, and then yet some more and then decided to take it. He uprooted my family from their home in Washington and off they went.

Selling their house in Washington was a nightmare. It took over a year for them to get out from under it- paying on two different homes all the while. Finally, they got rid of the damn thing. That was just about two months ago- maybe three.

Today, my dad's boss took him out to lunch where he gave him the news that his position was no longer required. And now my dad is out of work.We knew it might be coming, but were hoping against it.

At any rate, I'm a little stressed out and I'm really feeling for my dad right now. It just sucks.

Hockey!

2005-10-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, hockey is back! So right at 7:30, Derek and I settle onto the couch to watch the game. We're hyped and ready for the lights to dim in the stadium, the music to cue up, and for the players to skate onto the ice amidst thunderous applause.

We waited. And we waited. The Maple Leafs/Senators gave has run into overtime. TSN split screens the two games- so we see the puck drop for the Vancouver game. And then... back to the other game. That nobody in the West cares a rats ass about. And we wait. And we wait. And a referee gets injured and instead of switching to the Vancouver game while we're waiting for action to resume on the Leafs/Sens game, they show the refs huddling around their injured comrade.

We missed almost the first seven minutes of playtime on the first game of the season after a year of lockout. Derek was beyond furious. He was screaming at the tv and then came over to the computer and pounded out a nasty letter to TSN that I immediately made him delete without sending because really, calling TSN a bunch of fucking cocksuckers isn't going to get quite the reaction I think he was looking for. Not that there was much they could have done anyway.

It took a few minutes for him to lighten up and get back into it but by the time the second period rolled around, we were ready to go again. And Ohlund scores! Yeah! I jumped off the couch and cheered and scared the bejeezus out of the cat. The Naslund scores on a breakaway! Rock on! Then boooooo, Phoenix scores. And nineteen seconds later, Naslund scores again! Woohoo!

Saprykin for Phoenix. NO! But it's not enough and the Canucks win their first official game!

And that was a lot of explanation points. I'm excited, what can I say?

I Must Be Crazy

2005-10-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Flash For Something Better Than Beads

2005-10-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Alright folks. This is something that means a TON to me, so if you can help at all I would very much appreciate it.

That's right. The BoobieThon. Here are your options. You can submit pictures of your covered or uncovered boobies, or you can donate money. Donate $50 and you get a password to view all the un-covered pics.

Since I've sent in both a covered and uncovered pic, you can donate $50 and then play, "Guess Which Boobs Are Courtney's." I won't tell you, but you know, it could be fun looking.

The reason this means so much to me is, if you didn't know already, my mother died of breast cancer just over ten years ago. Not only does that leave me motherless, but it also leaves me at high risk for cancer. Help find a cure. Please.

You Shouldn't Judge A Book By Its Cover

2005-10-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

But with a cover like this,

Can you help it?

This is probably my favorite fantasy book of all time. It ranks high on my fave books overall, as well. Attanasio is quite wordy, which I typically don't like, but what can I say- I'm a study in contradictions. Or not.

Isn't it gorgeous? He has three more books in the series with fantastic covers, but this one takes the cake. Bee-yoo-ti-ful.

Seriously, Just Shut The Hell Up

2005-09-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Mr. Construction Dude.

I know it's your job to make my back patio look all sparkly and new, and I appreciate it. Really, I do. What I don't appreciate is you seeming hell-bent to do the work as LOUDLY as possible. At 9am. When I've only been asleep since 5.

I know that nine is supposed to be normal-person hours and that's great, do your work. Is it necessary, however, to slam your ladder up against my bedroom wall SIX or SEVEN times before you have it in a position that's satisfactory to you?

Must you really have a shouting contest with your partner two stories down? And uhm, was that a dead body that you were slamming down onto the patio above me? It was definitely something large and heavy. And again, was once just not enough?

At this point, I value my sleep more than my patio. Unfortunately, it looks like I don't have a choice in the matter.

Choosing A College, Resisting Change, Going With The Flow

2005-09-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

I used to think that I embraced change and in some ways, I probably still do, but I prefer the safe changes like a new haircolor or a different clothing style. You know, non-permanent change.

I was laying in bed last night, unable to sleep, and I was thinking about all the major life changes I've had, and I was realizing how much I just go with it. I don't fight for what I really want- or even try to figure out what that even is. And no, this isn't going to be a post about how lame I am for that or anything. I'm not trying to be hard on myself. I'm just thinking directly onto the computer screen.

When I was in high school I didn't want to go to college. I did, but I didn't want to try to figure everything out. I had no interest in finding out which college was going to suit me best, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life (still don't, really) and so I didn't do anything. I waited until the very last minute and applied to just one college. The one all my friends were going to. I was lucky that I had good grades and a 98% chance of acceptance, because I would have been screwed if they didn't let me in.

I wonder what would have happened if I'd taken the time to explore other avenues. What if I'd actually looked into going to a college with a great writing program or a great psych program (something else I considered for a while.)

Of course, then I realize that I never would have lived in Bellingham, I never would have spent my weekends North of the Canadian border in the nightclubs, never would have met Chris, so never would have met Derek and married him. Who would I be?

It's so strange how little things like having no direction in high school can lead to things like me living in a completely different country now. The fact that I was even able to make the step to move to a different country is amazing. I'm so scared of the unknown and immigration, a different government, and different money, is certainly uknown.

I say it's amazing, but it took losing everything I had in Bellingham to get to me to do it. And it goes back to letting things happen to me. If my old roommate, Kacey, hadn't screwed me over and stabbed me in the back, would I have ever quit my cozy job and moved? Would Derek and I still be living apart or would he have moved back to the states already?

I don't know. This has been a long, rambling post and I haven't really said anything of substance. So why am I so scared of change?

One Second There, One Second Gone

2005-09-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Those of you from the area might have read in the paper about the bartender from Cheers nightclub who was murdered Thursday night. Yeah, I knew her. Not well, but I'd had conversations with her. My husband knew her much better as until about six months ago, they were coworkers.

Her name was Mayvette. Maria Yvette Monzon, actually, but she went by Mayvette. Thursday night she worked as usual, bartending, before driving home. She never made it inside. Her family grew curious when her car remained parked outside, but they hadn't heard from her. Checking the inside of her vehicle, they found Mayvette. She had been shot inside of her vehicle.

The police are still not sure who did this. There are several rumors floating around. She might have seen or heard something at the bar that she shouldn't have. She might have been friends with members from rivalling gangs who became territorial over her. She might have angered a customer who then followed her home. The police have said that she was targeted specifically, though.

It's a very strange feeling. Part of me wishes that I had gotten to know her better, but the other part of me knows that I'd be in a world of hurt right now if we'd become good friends. I feel odd because just knowing who she was doesn't seem like enough. Enough of what, I don't know. I feel like I should have REALLY known her, or not known her at all. I don't think that simply knowing who she was gives me any right to feel anything other than acknowledgement at her murder.

But she was murdered. And I'm good friends with some of her friends. I don't know. It's just strange.

It's Only Fair That I'm The One Tagged This Time

2005-09-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Megs. Payback sure is a bitch, isn't it?

Go to your archives... find the 23rd post then find the fifth sentence. Here's mine:

"In all seriousness, that totally made my day."

Awwww. That was when I got my first non-friend comment from Nan. I wonder whatever happened to her...

Cynical

2005-09-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've realized lately that I've become quite cynical. I look at other people and instantly think the worst.

I really noticed this a few weeks ago when I was riding the Skytrain home, and I noticed a man sleeping on the ground by the pillar holding up the tracks. For a brief second, I felt sympathy before automatically deciding that he must be sleeping off the effects of his last drinking binge.

Has it gotten so bad out there that you have to automically assume that every homeless person is out there because they screwed up on their own? It's so bad that some guys hold up signs like the one Cassidy saw in California. It said, "Why lie? I need money for beer." Or something to that effect.

Is there anyone out there anymore who is there strictly by an unlucky turn of events, much like the now homeless victims of Katrina and Rita?

And with these unpleasant thoughts circling through my head, I'm off to take care of some kids for the night.

Years Gone By

2005-09-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

Anna wanted me to do this and I was severely lacking in ideas of what to blog about anyway. She has good timing!

10 Years Ago: Ten years ago was a very rocky time for me, but I don't think I really realized it at the time. It was a turning point in my life. It had been just shy of two months since my mother had passed away. I was starting the ninth grade and it was when my relationship with church, and my ideas of religion in general, began to change. It was about that time that I got my first boyfriend as well. Jake Corbin. Awwww.

Five Years Ago: Five years ago, the changes in my life all came to a head and I was really screwed up. I was staying up all night, crying and watching music videos, and skipping college classes because I was sleeping all during the day. It was about six months later that I would play a dangerous game. I took two pills for every game of solitaire I lost until I emptied the bottle. Then I panicked and went to the hospital where I had to drink charcoal. I don't recommend doing that.

One Year Ago: One year ago I was quite happy. Cassidy, Derek, and I had just moved into a house out in Port Moody together and we thought we'd really gotten a great deal. Were we ever wrong.

Yesterday: Cassidy and I played all day. Okay, not really, we worked. But it was fun. Then I came home and I pretended to clean. Then I went to Wal-Mart and bought a new bookshelf. Derek and I got home and we went to put it together and it was a pain in the ass because the screws were all screwed up. No pun intended. I eventually got it put together- thanks to Derek's masterful drilling skills- and we went to bed.

Five Songs I Know All The Words To:
(1) Date Rape by Sublime. Is that bad?
(2) Home by Michael Buble
(3) What Are You Waiting For by Gwen Stefani
(4) Throwing Stones by Paula Cole
(5) Best I Ever Had by Vertical Horizon

Five Snacks:
(1) Chips
(2) String Cheese
(3) Pudding
(4) Celery w/Ranch
(5) Crackers

Five Things I'd Do With $100 Million:
(1) Buy a swanky house for my parents, my in-laws, my sisters and sister-in-law, and myself. Not to live in together. That would be crazy. Seperate houses for everyone.
(2) Buy a used bookstore that I could call my own. Maybe I'd just keep all the books. Lots and lots of books!
(3) Pay off all of our nasty debts.
(4) Make sure all of my friends and family members are set.
(5) Give a large chunk to breast cancer research. (Even though I'm sure there's already a cure and nobody's talking, but that conspiracy theory is a whole 'nother post.)

Five Places I'd Run Away To:
(1) Hawaii
(2) Really anyplace with sandy beaches, lots of sun, and umbrellas in your drinks.
(3) Paris. Get lost in the crowds and the people and the atmosphere.
(4) A private, waterfront home where I could be alone or with just a few loved ones.
(5) Into the world from one of my favorite books.

Five Things I'd Never Wear:
(1) Cowboy boots.
(2) Black jeans.
(3) Those shrug things. I hate those.
(4) Leg warmers.
(5) Most hats.

Five Favorite TV Shows:
(1) Survivor
(2) The Amazing Race
(3) Without A Trace
(4) CSI (Vegas only)
(5) Will & Grace (The early years)

Five Greatest Joys:
(1) Goofing around with Derek.
(2) Reading a really great book.
(3) Solving a difficult puzzle or problem.
(4) Getting a lot of writing accomplished.
(5) Making young children laugh.

Five Favorite Toys:
(1) I don't have one yet, but if I did it would be an iPod Nano.
(2) The computer.
(3) Do books count? Books.
(4) Puzzles
(5) Digital Camera

Five People To Tag:
(1) Cassidy
(2) Meghann
(3) Brian
(4) Toni
(5) Aurora

If you don't do it I won't be sad. Unless you're Brian in which case I will be sad because I'm giving you an easy post.

Cast And Crew

2005-09-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

I read yesterday that someone hates it when people name-drop in their blogs. You know, "The other day Bob, Suzy, John, and I all went to blah blah blah."

I realized that not only do I hate that, too (who the frick are these people and why am I supposed to care?), but that I do it as well.

So I'm introducing the cast list that is going to be given a home on the sidebar when I figure out how to make it look all neat and spiffy. In the meantime, it is going to be right here (with a ghetto-style temporary link on the sidebar).

Derek: My husband. I try not to pick on him too much here because it makes him all sad and then he gets pouty. We met when he DJ'd at Cheers nighclub in Canada and I drove to Canada all the time to take advantage of the lower drinking age. Actually, I me this roommate and dated his roommate first. Then I dated Derek, loved Derek, and married Derek. He drives a truck for an environmental recycling company (recycling things like oil, antifreeze, and other hazardous crap), and DJ's at The Delta Lion pub on the weekends.

Jacquee: My best friend. We went to high school together and keep in touch on a regular basis. Her boyfriend is Toby. They live in Alger together and her name will probably come up fairly regularly.

Cassidy: Another best friend. She was actually one of Derek's best friends in high school. Funny, Derek was terrified that Cassidy and I wouldn't get along and now we probably get along even better than they did back in the day. Cassidy has her own blog that can be found here.

Meghann: And yet another best friend. She lives in Bellingham with hubby Daryl. We met working at a call center for T-Mobile. We bonded over difficult customers and a boss named Chuck. And Fareed. Meghann's blog is here.

Brian: My best on-line, long-distance buddy. We met back in the yDrive forums a loooong time ago and have been very close ever since. Even if he won't read the damn book I sent him over a year ago. Brian's never-updated blog is here. Go leave him a comment asking him to post something please.

Marianne: Friend and the woman that I babysit for. Her children, Cameron and Holly, are some of my favorite kids ever.

Kimmy: My sister. She's cute, young, and stupid. What can I say? Okay, maybe not always stupid, but we do have a lot of disagreements over life choices. What are sisters for? I love her like crazy and just never want to see her hurt.

Brenna: My step-sister. She's learning how to drive now! That makes me feel old considering the almost 10 year age gap.

Sweetpea, Sadie & Callie: The cats. Nothing much more to say about them. I love them to death, but lord are they obnoxious sometimes.

More to be added as needed.

What's Dawn's Secret?

2005-09-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

Aurora Baker has a secret. So I'm going to resurrect my old list of, "What's the big secret?" and see if we can come up with any answers.

(1) I tell people I'm a girl but I'm not. Hee.
(2) This one time (at band camp) I told everyone I loved cheese and now I'm forced to eat it all the time rather than admit I don't really like it.
(3) Nobody shall ever know my true hair color. NEVER!
(4) I'm a mass murderer. Hmm. That's creepy.
(5) I told someone my favorite color was puke green so now every gift they give me incorporates that color and I have to pretend to enjoy it. (6) I told everybody I was adopted and nobody knows any different.
(7) I told everybody my left eye is made of glass and people still believe it.
(8) I'm the one who farted in the library that day that everyone still talks about.
(9) Double-Oh-Dawn? Not so much a made-up name.
(10) People still think I'm receiving royalties from Dawn dish soap for the use of my name.

That's all I got for now. I'll try to come up with more.

I Wasn't Kidding

2005-09-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

I like to joke that I live in the ghetto. Except that I'm not joking, really, and I don't think a lot of people get that. Shortly after I moved into this apartment, I was joking with my friend Brian and I was laughing at the hooker that I ran into at the coffee shop on the corner. I don't know if he realized that while I was laughing about it... there really was a hooker in line in front of me for coffee.

So, in case you all thought I was exaggerating. This was the article that was on the front page of The Province, the local newspaper.

I know you can't read the whole article, so let me pick out a few highlights for you.

The article opens with, "Fed-up residents of a Whalley complex were celebrating yesterday after clearing out the druggies, prostitues and thieves who had infested their building." That would be my building they're talking about. Not just my complex, but MY building in that complex. "Neighbours in the Elm building in the 9600-block 134 Street banded together in an eight-month campaign to root out the undesirables."

They tried to get Derek in on the Block Watch thing, but he seriously doesn't have the time to attend all the meetings they wanted him to go to. Plus, we kept forgetting to lock the laundry room up every night. Oops.

"The building was overrun with dealers, hookers and break-and-enter artists and their hangers-on."

And later, "One apartment door was busted down and everything 'cleaned out,' including the fridge. Needles and condoms were found."

The whole article can be found here.

Now do you believe me? I live in the ghetto.

4 Out Of 5 Ain't Bad

2005-09-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Some perverse part of me really wanted to hear what strangers thought of my blog so I put it up for review. For the last few weeks I've been anxiously checking back over at I Talk Too Much to see if my review is up and today it was there.

I'd take down the free iPod thing, but I refuse until I get one. Which means y'all are gonna have to put it up with it for quite some time. People are signing up but not doing the offers- bastards.

Anyway, I'm happy with it. Yay me.

yDrive

2005-09-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I was an internet junkie. Oh wait, I am one now. Okay, once, a long time ago, before I turned into a older, mature internet junkie, I used to hang around the chat rooms on Compuserve's yDrive.

yDrive was a youth forum and I freakin' loved it. I met so many people, including my very best friend Brian, there. That's not the point of this post.

For a time, I was a staffer of yDrive and I had a cool asterix by my name and it looked like this: *Courtney/HOST. I was proud. I posted new threads all the time and kept conversations moving and had plenty of fun moments, including booting people several times for using fake accounts. Cheaters. That's not the point either.

Well, today I was checking my stats and someone found my blog by typing in "ydrive compuserve." I wish they had stayed to look around a little bit or sent me an email or SOMETHING, because I probably knew them.

And that is the whole pointless point of this post. That someone found me and now I'm dying of curiousity. Who were you?

Survivor Is Back

2005-09-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

I couldn't be more thrilled. Survivor is back on and, not only do I get to enjoy my weekly unhealthly dose of humans being petty and spiteful and bitchy (so entertaining!) but **spoiler alert** my Steph is back!

For those of you who don't watch the show and have no interest in it? I'm sorry. This post is going to bore you to tears. For the rest of you, read on!

I saw in the previews that they were bringing back two former popular Survivor's and I suspected that one of them was Steph. Seriously, it is geeky how excited I was to see her on the show again, however, I'm being a little more realistic in that there is no way in hell she can win. Everybody already knows how strong she is and if she makes it as far as the individual challenges, there is a damn good chance that she'll pull a Tom from Palau and win them all. Because she kicks that much ass.

Other favorite people? Hmmm. I like Margaret, the nurse. She seems like a pretty tough chick and her medical skills are going to be invaluable. Blake, the guy who got hit by the tree branch and took it hard, seems a little yuppy to me and like he won't be able to handle it, but what the hell do I know, I wasn't trekking through a Guatamalan jungle for 11 hours.

I was very surprised by how many of the guys were hit by the opening challenge. Four of them were flat on their backs from dehydration and exchaustion, yet the women were holding up a-ok. What's up with that? Go Girls Go!

Anyway, I'm rambling now and being generally incoherent because I'm pretty tired myself. Better post tomorrow.

Unloading

2005-09-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm turning into someone I never wanted to be.

All of a sudden I'm looking around realizing that I'm stodgy, old, uptight, flustered, boring, and so many other things that require more than one word to explain. When did this happen?

When I mess up, all I can do is sit there and stare because I'm so embarrassed that I can't do anything else, not even mutter how sorry I am without giggling and making it seem like I don't care. When I do. And I really am sorry. Why can't I just sound sincere, appropriately apologetic, learn from it, and move on? Instead I sit and dwell on it.

I say something that makes me sound ridiculously old-fashioned and retarded and then when I realize what I said and how STUPID it was, I dwell on it. Over and over and over again. Cut it out. Just cut it the fuck out.

I don't know how my husband puts up with me. He teases me and says things that shouldn't mean a damn thing but then I... wait for it.... DWELL ON IT (notice a theme here?) and decide that maybe he wasn't joking and then there is no maybe and then all of a sudden I AM A CRYBABY. No maybe, no joking about it.

Even as I write this, I'm seeing how this will go tomorrow. Cassidy will look at me and say, "Do you really think that??" and I'll nod and look down and laugh it off and change the subject. And then feel stupid that I even posted it. But at the same time, I really don't want to censor this because, well, writing this all out and putting it in some public venue somehow eases my mind.

What is it about opening myself up for public ridicule that gives me comfort? Especially when public embarrassment is one of my greatest fears. Against my better judgment, I'm leaving comments open, but please don't tell me that I'm just being silly because I'm not. Please don't try to pacify me by saying that I'm okay. Because I'm not.

The Bog, The Bog, The Bog Is On Fire

2005-09-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

So I wasn't able to get any pictures of my own. The smoke is just too thick tonight for any pictures of orange glow. Instead, I get to recycle pictures courtesy of CTV News.

The Blaze

The Smoke

Exciting? Okay, so not so much exciting. Am I horrible person for being terribly disappointed that the fire is under control and that I don't get any good pictures?

Can't See The Forest For The Fire

2005-09-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Burns Bog is burning.

One of the largest peat bogs in North America is located about 6 miles from my home, and it is currently on fire.

There isn't any danger of it getting much closer to my home right now, but I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it. Tomorrow night I hope to get some pictures that I can post. While certainly dangerous and hardly a good thing, it does make a spectacular sight. The sky is bright orange. You can smell the smoke burning all the way through Vancouver and even as far as Bellingham (a good hour from the fire). It's all sorts of crazy.

I tried to find internet stories on it but even though it's been going on for five hours now, there still aren't any articles online. How lame is that?

Blogging Etiquette

2005-09-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Is there some rule that says that if someone links to you, you have to return the link?

I hope not. I haven't come across this personally, but I have seen other sites where people have made a big stink because someone they'd linked to hadn't returned the favor.

I'm sorry, but I don't want a link to some lame-ass blog on my sidebar, just because you decided you liked mine. Is that selfish of me?

'Cause, well, I kinda really don't care.

What do you guys think? Should linkage have to be reciprocated?

And Continuing With The Questions

2005-09-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

For those not in the know, I'm answering questions asked of me by my readers and friends.

This next set of questions came from my darling Chicken.

(1) If you could be deserted with ANYONE on a desert island, who would it be and why? (And it can't be Derek because that would be the answer.)
Well, I said I'd be honest and I don't want any of my other friends to be offended, PUH-LEASE, but I'd probably have to say Jacquee. We've been friends the longest and we can sit and talk until someone comes to stop us. We'd be totally cool and probably wouldn't even notice we were deserted. That's not to say that I couldn't do it with my other friends, too, just Jacquee has been around the longest. More memories to think over?

(2) Writing is your talent and one of your favorite things to do. If you couldn't write, what would you do?
I'd open a used bookstore. Even if I do happen to make it in the big, bad world that is publishing, I still might open a used bookstore. They're my favorite places to be. They give me comfort.

(3) If you could time travel, what era would you go to and why?
I think I was born in the wrong decade. I really wouldn't go back that far. I'd probably want to be in my mid-twenties during the fifties. The days of Marilyn. If we're talking different centuries, I'd probably want to go back to Regency England, where the biggest problems the elite had were which party to attend. Plus, the dresses were fabulous.

Anymore? C'mon, let me at 'em.

Questions Asked, Questions Answered

2005-09-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

The first set of questions came via email from Cassidy.

(1) What happened (or obviously didn't happen) to make you fake your first orgasm?
Who said I faked any of them? Okay. I did. Uhm, well. It was my second partner and the boy had stamina like it was nobody's business. The only way I could get him to call it quits (seriously, HOURS later) would be to fake it. Then he would finish up. It wasn't that he wasn't good... it was just that he lived in the army barracks and I could hear other people all the time through the walls and there really was no comfort involved there. So yeah with the fakage.

(2) You're on the plane that went down into the Pentagon on 9/11. Who do you call and what do you say?
I wasn't with Derek at the time. So. Huh. I probably would have called my Dad. My dad has been there for me through times that no father should have to see his child go through. I would have told him that I loved him and I would be waiting for him with Mom somewhere. *sniff*

(3) Why do you think people are so drawn to you?
Are they? If they are, I'd say it would be because I'm honest, but not brutally so. I don't hide things. If you want to know something about me, I'll tell you. That and I keep good secrets. Don't I, Cassidy?

Moving along. Second set of questions comes from Zube Girl.

(1) What is your one biggest comfort when you're really down?
Sleep. You know I'm depressed when I'm sleeping all the time. I don't have to think about bad things in my dreams. I don't remember my dreams at all. I find that sleep is the best form of escape for me.

(2) What is your favorite word? (Not necessarily because of its definition, but just because you like the way it sounds.)
Eclectic. I like the sound and definition. I like to say it really slow- "Ec-a-lect-tic." I know there's no "a" sound in it, but when you say it all slow-like it sounds neat. Almost like epilectic.

(3) Pantyhose or bare legs?
Hmm. Well. I'm white as white can be so I like the instant tan that pantyhose provide, but I can't stand the tightness and the pinching on the waist. So I'm going to go with bare legs on that one. Sorry, guys, you're going to have to be blinded.

Third and last set thus far, come from Toni.

(1) What's your all-time favorite book?
Oooh. This is very very hard for me. I don't know if I can list just one. Will you settle for a top five? Well, that's what you're getting. Top five. Welcome To Temptation by Jennifer Crusie. Wicked by Gregory Maguire. The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans. Sir Apropos Of Nothing by Peter David. The Dragon And The Unicorn by A.A. Attanasio. And I'm still missing so many good books...

(2) What's one item you wish Canada had that the US has?
It seems so random but Farmans Sweet Pickels. There are no sweet pickles up here. There's bread & butter pickles... A couple other things I miss are the special spaghetti seasoning I use (not sold here) and Pasta Roni White Shells & Cheddar. Can't get it here. Oh, and Jack in the Box.

(3) What is one food that you could eat everyday for the rest of your life?
And we wonder why I'm fat. Cheese fries. With ranch dressing. Yum. Good thing that I *don't* eat it every day.

Pro's & Con's

2005-09-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm supposed to be going to Oregon this weekend. Here's the thing. If we go, Derek and I are going to be out a lot of money. If we stay, I might regret it. I've made a list of pro's and con's, but I still can't make up my mind. Help me, please.

Pro's:

I get to see Alexandra. I haven't seen her in ten years.
It is Alex's wedding- and how many times is she going to get married? (I'm hopeful it will be just the once.)
I'll see my grandparents.
No hotel costs because we'd be staying with my grandparents.

Con's:

Derek and I will lose out on approximately $500. That's lost money from not DJ'ing and babysitting, gas, food, wedding gift, outfits for the wedding...
Long ass drive.
I won't really get to talk to Alex because yeah, it's her freaking wedding and I can't monopolize her time.
I won't know anybody else there.

So. What do I do?

Playing Field Is Open

2005-09-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a mini-break from a massive cleaning of my house to say that I asked Zube Girl three questions, which means that I leave myself open for questions to be asked of me.

~ Ask me 3 questions. Any 3, no matter how personal, private or random.

~ I have to answer them honestly. I have to answer them all.

~ In turn, you post this message in your own blog or journal and you have to answer the questions that are asked of you.

Easy enough. I'll answer what I can tonight and then I'm gone to Oregon for the weekend, so the rest will wait for Monday when I return.

Be nice.