Apprehension

Tomorrow is my driving test. Last night, as I waited for sleep to come, I envisioned all sorts of horrible accidents I could get into. This is not helpful. I'm anxious enough as it is without thoughts of injury or death. I'm not so worried about myself, but that I might hurt someone else. I don't think I could forgive myself if I hurt someone with my car.

On a somewhat unrelated subject, I saw Bourne Ultimatum yesterday(lots of car crashes in that movie). It was beyond awesome, and everyone must see it.

Break Time

After 18 months, I'm taking a break from writing. I figure a month should be long enough. No updates, no deadlines. I can write what I want, when I want; or not at all. It's good to have the pressure off. Granted, I put all that pressure on myself, but I've put more effort into my story than I have into just about anything I've ever done. I think it's good for me.

I can't quite relax though, because my driving test is next week. I haven't driven in over a week. A neck injury prevented driving practice for a few days last week. I've been reading the Wisconsin Motorists' Handbook and Study Guide. A little more practice with parallel parking and negotiating parking lots, and I should be good to go.

Movie Review: The Others

I've been watching some creepy movies lately. With the older movies, it's more of a film study, and I don't get too into the story, but watch for things that made them creepy. The twists are usually predictable, or at least not terribly surprising. But the twist in The Others was great.

The film started out alright. The music wasn't really creepy, the main character seemed a bit odd, but her strangeness was explained away. I settled in for two hours of what I figured would be more mildly creepy stuff with increasingly creepy music.

As the movie progressed, things got weirder and weirder, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It was starting to seem like some sick practical joke, 1940s style. Then the twist hit. Wow. I did not see that coming. Rarely does a movie have such a surprise ending.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Music: 8
Creepiness: 6
Acting: 10
Plot Twists: 10

School

It's finally here: the first day of school. I had the kids ready to go nearly half an hour before the bus came because I figured it would come early due to road construction. It came maybe five minutes early, though we waited about twenty. We had to wait for it at the end of the driveway because the view of the road from the kitchen window is blocked by corn and a tree branch.

All of that waiting would have been alright if I hadn't injured my neck yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning, adjusted my neck as I usually do, and got a cramp, or so I thought. Turns out I pinched a nerve or ligament or something. I've done this before. It takes a few days to get better. Meanwhile, my head is almost constantly tilted to the left, I can't make sudden movements, and I can't turn my head very far to the right.

The limited range of motion will keep me from practicing my driving for a few days. The last practice went rather well. I didn't get lost, but the Wal-Mart parking lot continues to torture me. Hopefully, my neck will get better soon, and I'll get more practice in before my road test in two weeks.

Driving #3

The last driving session went very well. I'm still getting the hang of some of those hills and get going a little fast on the downhill side, but aside from the incidental speeding, I didn't break any laws.

I was also able to get to my destination without first getting lost. This is very big for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't in my hometown. I still don't know my way around very well, and I don't know why I can't figure it out.

My road test is scheduled for mid-September. I get nervous just thinking about it, so I try not to. At least I have a few more weeks to practice.

Little Known Artist of the Month

The Little Known Artist of the Month for August:

The Elected

This band has an old sound that's great on rainy days or when you just feel like taking it easy. Check out their website and listen to "Fireflies in a Steel Mill." You'll swear you've tuned into an oldies station. You can even buy their albums in vinyl format!

This video is pretty neat, too:

More Driving

Today's driving went very well. I only missed one turn, and had to go around the block, but in my defense, I didn't have enough room to get into the left lane on the first pass.

I have no sense of direction. I just don't know my way around. For example: I know how to get to Kwik Trip coming into town from the North. I can even get there from the back way around the church. But I don't know how to get there from the Hospital.

Hopefully, I'll figure this all out with practice.

Driving

I'm learning to drive this year. My husband is my driving teacher, so that adds a new level of difficulty. His favorite teaching methods are overreacting, and explaining what would happen if the roads were icy and how our insurance rates would go sky high.

Every time I drive, I run into some new situation that I need to work on. First, it was slowing down for turns. After that, pedestrians on the road. Then came farm machinery. Now I'm having trouble with parking, and stop lights.

I did stop for the red light, barely. I was thinking about where I needed to turn, and didn't slow down soon enough. So, I need to work on my concentration, which is nothing new. I've always had a one-track mind, so multi-tasking is difficult.

The next driving adventure should come on Tuesday.

Tired

I think I'll start a new feature here at the Soap Box: You Know You're Too Tired When...

...When you try to wash your hands with toothpaste.

I did that today. It took me a minute to figure out that it was toothpaste and not soap, never mind that soap doesn't come in tubes.

My Day

Dear Reader, today was very busy. We have company coming tomorrow, so I spent most of the morning cleaning. To break up the monotony, I cleaned in shifts, spending 15 minutes in one room, then 15 minutes in another and so on. The house looks great, but I'm exhausted.

I gave the three older girls haircuts, and they all look pretty decent.

The angel is sick. She threw up in the van on the way home from church. Poor little thing. She had to take another bath(she hates baths), and go straight to bed. Hopefully, she'll be better tomorrow.

Guitar

I've been playing my guitar a little bit every day. I'm getting much better at playing the same songs over and over, but I've been thinking about getting some sort of instructional video to improve my playing over all.

In other news, I had another actual conversation with my father-in-law yesterday. We talked for about an hour, covering subjects ranging from driving practice to disciplining children. This is good.

Locked Out

I wasn't having the best day today. Mostly because I'm foolish enough to let my husband teach me how to drive. Between him and the attitudes of my in-laws(that's a whole other post), I'm stressed out to the point where I don't care if I ever get my license.

So, I did what I often do when I'm stressed out on a Summer's evening: I grabbed my guitar and headed out to the nearly empty barn for a little concert for the cattle. I was out there for about 45 minutes. When I came back to the house, it was locked. My husband only remembers to lock the door half the time, but Murphy's Law dictates tonight should be one of the nights he remembers. I knew he wouldn't hear the doorbell. I couldn't call him because the barn phone has been disconnected. I went around to the back porch, which is next to our bedroom, and knocked. He was sound asleep, and couldn't hear me.

I went out to the shop and got a screwdriver, pried open the bedroom window, and shouted at him. I asked him politely to let me in. He got up sleepily, and unlocked the door. He did apologize for locking me out, but I'm still not too happy about it. I'm sure some day I'll think it was hysterically funny, but that day is far off.

Little Known Artist of the Month

I think it's time I resurrected this feature. This month, we have an accompanying video. The Little Known Artist of the Month for July is:

Debra Lyn

Here is the video for Debra's single "I Can't Remember to Forget You":

Feelin' Hot

I really don't care for hot weather. July is terrible for heat, and it only leads to the humidity of August. Thanks goodness for rain and air conditioning.

The garden plants love this weather. They're growing like crazy. Unfortunately, the bugs seem to like this weather, too. Hundreds of little grasshoppers ate the tops of my carrots. I have done better keeping the weeds at bay, but the insects have gotten the better of me. Next year's gardening strategy shall include some kind of bug spray.

Writing

Dear Reader,

My writing pace is bugging me. It seems awfully slow. I write about one chapter a week, each chapter being approximately 2,000 words long. At that pace, I can write a bit over 100,000 words a year. It may sound like a lot, but once I get to editing, about half of that will eventually be deleted, and I'll have to add a lot more before the story is in decent enough shape to be published.

This is my first novel, and I want it to be as good as I can possibly make it. It may take another year after I finish the first draft. I've been writing it for over a year already. Tolkien took twenty years to write the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I guess there's no big rush, though I don't expect to write anything of that caliber or popularity.

Anyway, I should get back to writing. I'd like to get 5,000 words written this week, and time's a wastin'. Wish me luck.

My Rules of Writing

Dear Reader, my last post gave me an idea. I'm going to list my Rules of Writing. I may add to them later on. If you should have any suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments section.


Patronized Saint's RULES OF WRITING:
-------------------------------------

1. Don't Write Crap*
2. Stay True to the Characters
3. Review and Revise
4. Editing is Never "Done" Until Publication


*This rule may be broken only in extreme cases of writer's block, and anything written in such cases is then especially subject to rule number 3.

Procrastination

My procrastination has spread to my writing. I've spent days with the intention of writing chapter 92, and I've written maybe one of the five pages. The short length of the chapters makes the offense worse.

I think I need to just sit down and write four more pages, even if they turn out to be crap, just so I get it done. But that would violate my first rule of writing: Don't Write Crap. However, I may have no choice, as re-writing doesn't seem to be so difficult.

The Orchard

A few years ago, my husband and I started an orchard. We now have a cherry tree, two apple trees, and a pear tree. The past two years, the apple trees and pear tree have come under attack by tree-hating rabbits. Or maybe they're tree-loving rabbits? Anyway, we thought the smaller trees were done for, but they grew back a couple of times. Something is eating the leaves off the little apple tree again, but not stripping bark this year, so we have hope for it.

We actually have apples this year! We've never gotten apples, not even from the old McIntosh that grew out of a bunch of apple cores that were buried 10+ years ago, so this is exciting.

We also got cherries this year! Yay! We got enough to make into a pie, which I made yesterday. It was delicious. I look forward to many more years of making pies from homegrown fruit.

Teeth

On Wednesday, I had my wisdom teeth extracted. I do not recommend this procedure unless it is absolutely necessary(or you really like pain and swelling).

The procedure itself was interesting. For some reason, the top teeth were much easier to extract than were the bottom teeth. Not having had my wisdom teeth removed before, I have no idea if this is the norm. I would have asked, but the surgeon had his fingers in my mouth, and I was pretty numb from the Novocaine.

Here it is, Saturday night, and the swelling in my face has finally subsided to where I look half-way normal. My jaw is still plenty sore, but I'm avoiding the prescription painkillers. I don't want to take anything that powerful or addictive, so I'm alternating between acetaminophen and ibuprofen. The pain is worse at night, so I'm not sleeping well, but I haven't had any major complications.

Chewing is an adventure, but I managed to eat some pizza tonight. Hopefully by this time next week, I will be recovered.

More Stewie!

Mothers of small children can relate to this. This is my favorite Stewie scene.