Snow Baked

It's official. When it looks like this outside...


...it looks like this inside.


Want one?


I made them to look like the cars outside my window.

I'm probably going to be home again tomorrow as the snow I finally freed my car from yesterday magically reappeared today. I'm not sure what I'm going to make tomorrow as I'm out of powdered sugar. I did just get more peanut butter, so maybe I'll make cookies.

I just hope I can get to the store tomorrow so I can buy supplies for the dinner I'm having for an old friend who's coming into town. Keep your fingers crossed the airport will be open for her! Oh yeah, and keep them crossed that they'll be able to get back out again on Monday night because the weather man is calling for more snow.

Snow Bound

This snow is driving me crazy! Being cooped up in the house, you'd think I'd be productive and, I don't know, read one of the 50 books I have sitting next to my bed or finish my SCBWI WIP Grant application or get some homework done for my web design class. The least I could do is barrow a shovel and dig my car out of the two feet of snow it is buried under.


I made some progress, but then the bucket I was using shattered (yes, shattered) and I was left with no way to clear the snow. A walk to the store also proved futile as they were out of shovels.

But it's like in school when they tell you you have to read a book and it looks like a good book by an author you've liked in the past and you actually really wanted to read that book. But just because you now HAVE to read it, you have suddenly lost all desire to read it. That has been my life for the past week.

So instead I spent my time doing things like this:


baking Valentine's Day cookies to give to friends once the snow melts.


making cream cheese brownies for a movie night that gets cancelled because of the snow only to be forced to eat all the brownies with my roommate because it's really not the brownies' fault it snowed.


starting a new fashion trend of wearing boots from my good ol' college days in Idaho that I swore I would never wear again and pairing them with the same pair of jeans from yesterday because I really don't want to bother getting another pair of jeans all slushy.


watching episode after episode with the popular Australian television drama McLeod's Daughters on Netflix and seeing how many budding stars I can spot that now sport American accents on shows like Legend of the Seeker and Fringe.

Any ideas how I can waste time tomorrow and probably Wednesday as well? We're supposed to get another six inches, so Washington might be closed down for a few more days. At least I have internet access and can check my work email at home. So I have been able to get SOME work done.

There's a first time for everything

Because I'm a rather voracious reader, people are often surprised when they find out I haven't read every book ever published. No, I've never bothered with a lot of Jane Austen because I didn't much care for the ones I have read. And just because I forced my way through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy doesn't mean that I ever got around to reading The Hobbit.

And yes, I watch a lot of movies, but there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to see every one of them. Talkies have been around for almost a hundred years now. That's a lot more movies than even I can manage.

But today was the end of an era for me. I finally watched The Return of the King all the way through for the very first time. After spending years telling people I had seen the beginning and end and parts of the middle about five different times, I sat down with a couple of friends and watched everything.

My conclusion? I'm really glad we didn't go for the extended version, and I really should have re-watched the first three because I haven't seen either of those since they were in the theater.

Maybe now I'll finally get around to reading The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mocking Bird. (Don't judge me. I'm sure there are plenty of classics I've read that you haven't.)

Get Off My Back, Murphy!

This guy has been stocking me for some time now, and he just doesn't seem to want to go away. And wherever he happens to be, stress and mess is sure to follow.

Mostly, it's just little things that are going wrong that tend to add up to a big headache. (You know, a snag in my tights combine with a broken strap on my shoe.) In the past week, I have spent more time moving furniture and boxes and books because of one disaster or another than in probably the past two years combine. And I seem to be leaking money at every turn because something is broken/missing/needed. It's a good thing my roommate is so understanding and vigilant because I have also left more windows open, doors unlocked and electronics turned on than I care to admit.

I think I've finally cracked.

But then I think about all of the things that really could be going wrong in my life. But instead of dealing with earthquakes and unemployment and sick children, I'm just dealing with inconvenience. While my problems will eventually be dealt with, forgotten or fixed, there are many less fortunate people out there who aren't so lucky. Maybe it's time to forget myself in service and deal with my problems by helping others.

After all, Murphy's not such a bad guy once you get to know him.

writing about writing

For a blog about writing, I sure haven't been posting a lot about it recently. Maybe that's because I'm doing a lot of it and don't want to take the time to write about it. But here is an update just for you. Yes, you.

I'm in the middle of revising my NaNoWriMo novel*. I haven't actually finished it, so I don't know if this counts as revisions. But what I have written I wrote so fast that I can't seem to go forward until I go back. But it's a fun story, and I really like the characters. It's not something I'm willing to give up just because my writing in the moment wasn't the best.

Preparations for the SCBWI WIP Grant are underway. I'm having the hardest time with my synopsis. The novel I'm applying with is complex, and I can't seem to describe it in a way to make it work for the application. I keep trying to envision what the book jacket would say, but that doesn't seem to be helping. I'll get it eventually.

My writers' groups have started up again. With the holidays, everyone was in and out of town, attending parties and doing hoards of other things that prevented us from getting together. I can't tell you how happy I am to be meeting with other writers again! It's been far too long since we've traded manuscripts, bounced ideas off each other or given book recommendations. While writing is a solitary pursuit, writers are more often than not a sociable people. We are just people who need people. Does that make us the luckiest people in the world?

I've been spending a lot of time in my ideas folders. Literally. I have a folder on my computer called "Ideas Box" and a file folder labeled "Writing Ideas". I have been reading a lot of things in both this folders and seeing what ideas need to be dumped (at least for now) and which ones I'm ready to work on again. Sometimes the best ideas are old ideas.

And if all that wasn't enough, I start tutoring again this week, and I'm registered for an art class at the community college. I get so much inspiration when I'm learning. Because I tutor a junior in high school and we mostly work on SAT prep, I'm constantly exposed to new words and concepts through our work together. And this will be the first art class I have taken since, well, grade school. Luckily, it is a graphic art class, and I've done a lot of layout and design classes, so I think it will push me just far enough outside of my comfort zone without being too overwhelming.

*I really need to come up with a better title than that. Especially since NaNoWriMo has been over for more than a month now. And most of the novel has been written after the fact.