I Can't Sleep, So This Is What You Get

Ah, it’s a damn good thing I didn’t try to do NaBloPoMo because dude, seriously, I’d have failed on day one. Kinda like I’m brutally failing NaNoWriMo. I’m supposed to have 50,000 words by midnight on November 30th. I currently have 2,000. That means that I’d have to write more than 7,000 words a day between now and the 30th and that includes an entire day in plane travel (I leave on Sunday to go visit my parents in Idaho), Thanksgiving, and two days spent driving from Boise to Eugene to pick up my stepsister from college. Somehow, I don’t see me hitting 50K.

There’s a police helicopter circling my neighborhood with its spotlight on. Oh, how I love living in the ghetto. Seriously. THE GHETTO.

Christmas is starting to annoy me. I think a lot of the fun has come out of it. I’m asked every year to give out Christmas lists and I get what’s on the list, but… there’s no surprise. My MIL this year has asked for a crock-pot and has even given us the brand name that she wants. That’s great, I don’t have any other ideas for what to get her, but what’s the fun in unwrapping a gift if you already know what it is? Meh.

I have a post in my drafts, an idea stolen from another blog, of 27 things to do before I turn 28. I’m kinda thinking that maybe just writing out 27 things will be a success at this point. I have NOTHING on the list. I also have a draft full of links, half of which are now irrelevant because I’ve taken so long to add to it and haven’t published it yet.

I posted a long long time ago about Wii Fit. I never posted that I finally got it about two months ago. Love it. Love love love it. My only gripe is that the exercises are so short. I’m hoping that they put out some aerobic games to use with the board. I’d so buy an entire game of step-aerobics or rhythmic boxing or hula hooping. Because seriously? I look like a jackass when I hula hoop, but I’m a jackass that is having a blast.

I should be reading right now. I’m still reading the same books that I was reading last time I posted about books and that was, erm, a long time ago. I’m a slacker.

I’ve had a lot of random thoughts through my head lately. Like, how long can a helicopter stay up in the air before they have to come down to gas up? What is the life span of a cow? I know. Random.

Do you watch Survivor? Did you see tonight’s episode? I’m not going to put any spoilers here, but no guaranteeing that there won’t be any in the comments. Holy awesome! I haven’t laughed that hard at a TV show in a long time. Best Survivor episode EVER.

I think maybe I shall try to go back to sleep now. Just because I’m up past midnight doesn’t mean that The Ana will sleep in later. Speaking of The Ana, she rolled over for the first time on Monday! Yahoo! I’ve copied Dooce and am writing her letters for each month, but I’m not posting them here. If you’re interested, you can check them out over here.

Th-th-that’s all folks.

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A Rambling Post With Nothing To Tie It All Together

Oh, internet, it’s been a while since I’ve written a real post. Mainly because I’m a whole lot of tired and a whole lot of occupied with baby and also because I’ve been a bit blah and overwhelmed.

In reading news, I’ve been reading slowly but surely. I just finished a book (Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon). I’m about 20 pages into a romance on my nightstand (Just For Kicks by Susan Anderson) and a book in progress on the coffee table (Toddlers Gone Wild by Rebecca Eckler). I have another book that I’m a few pages into on the end table (Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton) and another on the bookshelf that I’m also a few pages into (When Christ And His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman). I’m also carrying a book in my purse (Pieces Of My Sister’s Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold) that I haven’t managed to crack yet. So the reading is happening, albeit at the pace of molasses.

The baby is an amazing little girl. She’s just over eleven pounds now and babbles away at nothing. She kicks up a storm and loves to watch hockey. She had her first shots last week and was quite angry (understandably so), but forgot it all by the same evening. She sleeps like a champ through the night, but hardly at all during the day. Which brings me to a plea for advice – the baby has been sleeping with us in bed since she was eight days old. She refuses to sleep by herself. She’ll sleep great in my arms, she’ll sleep alright in her swing, but she will not sleep in her crib or bassinet. Just won’t do it. We’ve tried using a stuffed animal with a heartbeat sound to soothe her, we’ve tried rolling up a blanket next to her so it feels like she’s curled up next to someone. We’ve tried putting her in there when she’s already asleep, but she wakes as soon as she hits the mattress and won’t resettle. So tell me. How do I get her to sleep on her own? I’m not ready to let her cry it out yet, but I just have the feeling that it’s going to come down to that. Advice is welcome.

I took on a new mission recently to start commenting on the blogs that I read. I’m usually a lurker and then I thought about it some more and realized that if I love to receive comments, other people probably do, too. I mean, us bloggers tend to be a vain bunch and we want feedback. So now I comment. It means it takes me a hell of a lot longer to get through all my blogs, though, so if I’m commenting three or four days after you post, well, that’s the soonest I could get to it. I subscribe to so many sites that if I don’t read for three days I wind up with well over a hundred new posts to read and catch up on.

I’ve also been looking for some good new recipes. I’m not a really great cook and I’m a really picky eater which means that I make my five or six tried and true meals and not much else. It’s getting old. I need some variety. If you have anything good and yummy that I should try you should send it my way. Just remember that onions are from the devil. The devil, I say!

I’m going out on the town on Thursday and I’m getting really amped for it. A group of us (the same group that I went to see Gwen Stefani with) got a limo again and we’re heading to see Madonna. It’s going to be AWESOME. I’m a little nervous about leaving Derek with Ana for that length of time as he’s never had her by himself for more than an hour, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. My bigger crisis is that I have nothing to wear. Zero clothes. Nada. Nilch. I own two pairs of jeans that fit me (you can hate me, but I’m actually smaller than I was pre-pregnancy so everything is too big) and well, none of my shirts fit right. I’m also on the broke side until the day AFTER the concert so a new outfit is out of the question. I’m really not sure what the hell I’m going to wear.

My poor friends. I feel like I’ve really been neglecting my friendships as of late. It goes back to that feeling blah and overwhelmed thing I mentioned. I don’t like talking to other people when I’m feeling a bit down and so I haven’t been talking. Or posting. Or doing anything. I am amazingly in love with my daughter, but lord, she sucks the life out of me (no pun intended).

Lastly, I’m getting excited (and nervous) for an upcoming trip. I’m taking Ana to go see her grandparents in Idaho for two weeks. It’ll be great to get away and it will only be the second time my parents have met their granddaughter. She’s changed SO much since they met her last at just 2 weeks old. I’m just nervous about the airport and getting through security with the stroller and then wondering if she’ll nurse good enough to stop the ear popping and will she sleep on the flight or will she be a pill and cry the whole time… oh goodness, I’m going to give myself a panic attack just thinking about it.

So that’s that. That’s what is going on with me. How about you? How’s life out there in the world of the internet?

Storage Solutions

I have a dilemma.

In playing this new game of fit-baby-into-our-one-bedroom-apartment, I’ve run into some problems. I recognize that I’m going to have to make a lot of sacrifices in the name of space. My biggest and most painful compromise is the necessary evil of putting my books into storage. Not all, but most. And by most I mean about 900 of my approximately 1000 titles. The plan is to sit in this apartment for a year before moving to a bigger house where I can then unpack them all again and sit surrounded by books for days while I weep in joy at having my lovelies back around me. I love my books.

Here’s my problem. We have a very small storage unit that is already full. I have about four large bins worth of books that still need a storage home. Where in HELL am I going to put them? I can fit one in my closet, but I need to save room in there for more baby stuff that’s coming. I can put one in Derek’s closet and hope that he doesn’t notice. Beyond that, I’m stuck. The worst part? There’s MORE items that have to go into storage than just books. We have clothes that won’t fit me for at least a year, but I’m not willing to part with and we have items that we use and enjoy, but just don’t have the space for right now.

Rargh. I need a bigger house.

In other news, the diabetes thing has become a little more manageable, if still entirely obnoxious. I did have to go on insulin, which I suspected, and I’ve become accustomed to giving myself my daily shot of insulin before dinner. The hardest part is eating on a schedule and staying away from carbs. I heart carbs and I never realized how much until I had to put such severe limitations on how many grams I get to eat! It’s alright, though. I’m on my way to a happy healthy motherhood, right? Right? It’s all good.

Books Books Books

I realized the other night that I haven’t updated my blog at all this year on what I’ve been reading. There’s a good reason for that, I promise. I had joined Goodreads a few years ago, but just recently I had a flux of friends begin recent updates to it and now I’ve found myself doing the same.

For each book that I’ve read I’ve written a review and posted a rating. You can find all of that at the site as I find that I am far too lazy to repeat all the info here. Plus, if you sign up, you can add your books and then I can see what you’re reading, too. Always a good thing. So pop on over, sign up (or not), and share some book love with me.

(As always, if you don’t feel like doing that, my book list on this very site is always updated. Just click on the books link at the top of the page.)

My Little Guilty Pleasure

I have a confession. I love romance novels. I know what you’re thinking, that you already knew that. But no, I’m talking about the really bad romance novels. The ones with titles like, Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride or one of my personal favorites, The Last Virgin In California.

I was at Value Village the other day and I love that store. I love that store because I can buy up these romances at 2 for 0.99 with every 5th one free. I think I bought 20 of them. And they’re so awful! The covers are embarrassing, the titles are worse. And yet, I can’t help myself.

You see, sometimes, the writing isn’t so bad. A lot of authors get their start by writing these serial romances. Hell, Nora Roberts, the most famous of all romance authors, got her start this way.

As I was buying these books up by the dozen, I started to think about my reading list and I almost considered not adding them when I read them because, well, they’re a little embarrassing. But I shouldn’t be ashamed of this love. Even the bad ones make for a great escape and, if nothing else, something to mock.

So this is me uncovering my little guilty pleasure. I read Harlequin and Silhouette romance novels. And I’m not afraid to admit it. So there.

One Word

I’ve been reading a fabulous book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and while I’m far from done, she’s made a point that I can’t stop thinking about. During a discussion with a friend, her friend makes the statement that every city or person has a word that encompasses what that place or person is about. He says that for Rome, the word is SEX. For the Vatican, it’s POWER. Gilbert decides that New York City’s word would be ACHIEVE, while L.A. would hold the similar word of SUCCEED. Then Gilbert starts to contemplate what her own personal word might be. As far as I’ve read, she’s still searching, but it led me to start thinking… what is MY word?

What is one word, that without doubt, is what I am all about? NURTURE springs to mind because my automatic impulse, in almost all situations, is to try to fix whoever is broken. I’m not sure how much I like that word, though. LITERATE seems as though it could be appropriate as I’m rarely more happy than when I’m surrounded by books, but that just doesn’t seem enough.

I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time. What’s your word?

104 Book Project Wrap-Up

Well. I uh, didn’t quite meet my goal. In fact, I didn’t even match what I read in 2007! But that’s okay, I’ll forgive myself and I’ll try to do some reading catch-up in 2008. You know, before baby sucks all my time and energy. I say that with joy, by the way.

Here is the complete list of what I read in 2007 and here are some highlights from the year in books.

Favorite Three Fiction Books: I had to do three because I couldn’t choose. One was Veil Of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald. Another was The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory and third was Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. Two of the three were from my A-Z List, which is still uncompleted, but it only goes to show that good things come from recommendations!

Favorite New Author: New being new to me. Sara Gruen has become one of my new favorites. Water For Elephants was simply amazing and when I read a second book by her, Riding Lessons, and enjoyed it immensely as well, it secured her a position amongst my favorites.

Favorite Non-Fiction: Yet another recommendation, and a good one, was The Meaning Of Wife by Anne Kingston. This was a really great book about what it means to be female and married…. or not married. Very very good.

Sad Reading Moments: Terry Goodkind finished off his Sword Of Truth series and when I read Confessor, it was a bittersweet time. A great series, I was sad to see it end.

Best Reading Month: I rocked the house in January with my reading and I completed 12 books in that one month. Will this January be as successful?

I’m still trying to work out what I want my goal to be for 2008. I’m tempted to still go for the 104 and just push hard to get myself off the computer and into a good book more often, but I’m a little afraid that come baby and August, I will have little to no time to do much of anything, including reading. I suppose I could start now and see where I wind up? No harm, no foul? So be it. 104 Book Project: Take Two starts now. Happy reading!