So, since sometime Sunday evening, I have a headache. Yesterday was distinctly miserable thanks to it. Today it was no better, but I went in to work to get arrangements made for the candidates. I managed to get that done, but by 11:30 the headache was even worse, so I went home. Well, I stopped by the post office and picked up my long-awaited and eagerly anticipated birthday present from one of my best friends, Dirjanka, then I came home, had a quick lunch… and slept from 1 p.m. till nearly 6 p.m.

Oddly enough, I feel a bit better now. Maybe it was just the stress and the lack of sleep resulting from the stress after all. It would be nice if I could get my current doctor to give me the prescription drugs that my old doctor gave me a free sample of recently: Wellbutrin. It seemed to help me. I don’t take it often because I only 7 left, though.

Jumping back a subject, my birthday present from Dirjanka was a million kinds of awesome. I love getting candy, especially candy I can’t get here in the U.S.: Old Dutch Boterwafeltjes, Dubbel spekken, and Napoleon Lempur candies are my favorites. My father’s former fiancèe was from the Netherlands, and her father used to share his Boterwafeltjes with me. I could have lived on those things. I’m not any better now.

Dirjanka also offered me some proper bribery: one candy for every paragraph. I think I have enough stashed now to do that. Once I get to feeling a bit better, I might have to start on that. When I feel a bit less like I have either the flu or major exhaustion, I’ll start trying that.

I’m going to try to start recording a bit of “current meta” at the end of each post, starting on this one. It would just be like “currently feeling”, “currently hearing” or listening to, and “currently reading”. Honestly, as much as music inspires me, it couldn’t be a bad thing; for example, “Something to Talk about” by Bonnie Raitt plays in my head every time I write one of those scenes where someone thinks Lizzy and Murdock are a couple.

Anyway, later, my freaky darlings!

Currently Feeling:// Sick
Currently Hearing:// Spiderbait - Riders in the Sky, Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk about
Currently Reading:// Neil Gaiman - Stardust

So, we went to see Iron Man yesterday — and I have to say that I actually like Movie!Tony better than Comic!Tony, especially better than Ultimates-verse Tony. Overall, I would even go so far as to say it was one of the best comic book movies in the last few years.

So, my roommate, muse, and reluctant commenter, D. Marie, now has her own blog: Ink to Page! Okay, I set it up and all, but the rest is all D. Marie. (Wow, look at all the differences in layout and colors!)

And that’s about it. I’ve been working on this post the better part of the morning — and it’s now afternoon. Therefore, it’s time to leave off.

Somehow 2008 has been a new sort of movie year for D. Marie and me. Until this year, I had never seen a single chick flick in the theater. Not a single one. In fact, until this year, I could count on my hands just how many chick flicks I had seen — and that is counting the so-called genre “romantic comedies”.

Suddenly, we’ve been to see three in the theater: 27 Dresses, Definitely Maybe, and yesterday, Made of Honor. Kevin McKidd (Lucius Vorenus of Rome) might have impacted my reasons for Made of Honor; I’m a dork like that. I will follow an actor’s movies, especially if they make an action or horror movie/series I enjoy. That’s why I’ve seen most of Keanu Reeves movies (I liked Speed), as well as Kiefer Sutherland’s (that one is thanks to Lost Boys, definitely not 24 — the more I hear about that, the more I want to scream).

However, this weekend, we’re tempering the chick flick with blowing things up: going to see Iron Man. Now granted, even in the original Marvel universe, I didn’t care for Tony Stark, but I have to admire the chuztpah of the casting director, getting Robert Downey, Jr (an alcoholic) to play Stark (also an alcoholic). Plus I heard a rumor of what was supposed to be playing after the credits.

Anyway, our movie is at 10 a.m., so I need to start getting ready now.

I have major kitty love. I’ve watched an episode of Bones and (glee!) Poltergeist: The Legacy. My day has improved. Just sometimes my job gets me a bit down.

Probably a lot of what sent me spiraling today was a PayPal screwup. I bought an eReader for myself. I marked it for PayPal to put it on my credit card. Instead they charged it to the main bank account I have listed with them. What happened? Yep, you guessed it. So, cue cursing, money transferring, and an unhappy (but polite) email to PayPal, which I sent this morning but still haven’t heard back from. So much for that “customer service will reply promptly” bit they have on their website, huh?

Anyway, right now I have my headphones plugged into my computer, listening to a nice mix of European Goth Rock (Edenbridge, Epica, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Kamelot, Xandria), with an affectionate kitty in my lap. This is not usually the kitty to be so affectionate. Usually she just claims a lap and bathes.

Anyway, sweet kitty and music. I would be singing along, but that usually gets me dirty looks, so I’m being quiet. I can do that sometimes. I’m ignoring writing, both Verdant and the fanfiction, at the moment and just taking a mental health evening.

But on another note… Dude! Someone just made a hit on this blog looking for Thomas Raith fanfiction. Rock on!

Also, they need to hurry up and release the rest of Poltergeist: The Legacy on DVD sooner rather than later. I would kill for better quality releases than the VHS episodes I recorded off Showtime way back when. The tapes are old, and the picture is fading. It’s still better than my VHS of Roar, but at least that’s come out on DVD now. I haven’t even seen the fourth season of Poltergeist: The Legacy; after the third season, Showtime sent it down the river to the SciFi channel, at the time where good shows went to die.

And that’s about it for me for tonight. I’m going to sit here and enjoy kitty affection, maybe read some fanfiction (I’m thinking Supernatural), and crash early. Ciao!

Some days at work, I need an assistant. Then again, I’ve said something similar to that one before. I rush trying to finish something for 1 boss, only to have the other boss toss three or four more things my direction. (It’s never one: it’s almost always three or four, at least: make flight reservations for X, Y, and Z; make copies of all these resumes; assemble packages about Tallahassee to give out to candidates; why haven’t you gone to pick up your travel card yet; et cetera.

Some days at work, I want to tear my hair/eyes/flesh off or burst out into tears if someone else hands me something else to do or finds something else they want me to take over/do or they think I’m not doing well enough. I’m well aware I’m not doing some of the things my predecessor did. Guess what? She was only one person’s assistant and I belong to two masters — she had more free time to do all these extra things that I don’t.

Some days at work, I miss antidepressants. Some days at work, I miss going to the Employee Assistance Program.

Some days at work, I hate everything, every second, and everyone — starting with me…

…and I hate that.

It’s not every day that I update Bell, Book, and Candle before I update Thoughts of a Struggling Writer. To some extent, the reasons behind all this are very simple:

1) I only update BBaC when I have writing news to share. This is my more all around journal: still concerning writing, but also fanficcing, reading, the pleasures of working in a public university, and other such bits of trivial joy.
2) I was on BBaC deleting entirely too many spam messages for the number of comments (read: zero) received, so whilst I was there, I did a quickie update.

I have entertained notions of being rid of BBaC and linking this journal to my author website. I’ve even thought about copying all the posts over to it. Of course, the nice thing about being a domain owner is that I could do some interesting domain masking tricks and have this blog show up under the URL for BBaC and hide it away that way. I do update this more frequently after all.

And in other news, I felt so proud of myself for writing as much as I did on Verdant at the doctor’s yesterday. At least, I was proud till I realized I only wrote about 500 words. Till I get to feeling better, I can’t guarantee how much I’ll be able to get done writing-wise. My concentration is shot, I’m exhausted all the time, I’m palming Tums like they’re candy, I can’t seem to catch my breath, my shoulders are a constant ache, and my bottle of ibuprofen is disappearing fast. That was why I was writing at the doctor’s yesterday. My (non-primary) doc and I think it might be a bad reaction to some medicine I was taking. We’ve switched me to another one now. Here’s hoping it works better. And we’ll see what my primary doctor has to say when I go to see him later in the month.

I think it might be about time for a new layout here. This one is just so… pastel. I’m not a pastel person; Lizzy is, but not me. I much prefer darker, deeper colors. So next time someone comes to check this the colors may have changed… again. Too many options, not enough time to test them — and none of them exactly to my liking. (I know: it sounds like an entitled Yuppie thing to say, of which I like to think I am neither - especially not a Yuppie, seeing as how I grew up in a town with less than 100,000 people in it - but I’m the one that looks at this blog the most. I would like it to be pleasing to my eye.)

And that was a ramble and a half. Wow, whoops.

Anyway, I have an hour and a half left until it’s time for me to head out for the day. In that time, I plan to look at new layouts, try to write, and attempt to stay awake. Why, oh why isn’t it the weekend yet?

I have an icon over on my other journal that is a pretty accurate description of how I feel sometimes regarding my coworkers. The text reads “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel”. I wonder if the people I work with on a day to day basis realize this. Just the little things that annoy me could be the things to get someone a bad name in literature, like:

• Only coming in my office when the Starbucks downstairs is closed
• Walking up to my desk and demanding (not asking or even attempting politeness) to see my records of something (Note, this wasn’t even my boss. This was just a random librarian)
• Complaining that the coffee I made for my boss isn’t to your taste
• Dumping out said coffee for boss and remaking the pot to your taste
• Only drinking one cup of paint thinner said coffee
• Giving me more work to do at 4:15, when I leave at 4:30
• Giving me more work to do at 11:15, when I go to lunch at 11:30
• Act like you’re too good to follow procedures

I had a problem with one person - not a coworker, but someone I knew from online and eventually met - where s/he completely annoyed the everliving crap out of me by cranking down the temperature in our hotel room to 68°, despite the fact the rest of the people in the roomeither were uncomfortable at that temperature (D. Marie, Godrod, and myself), were unable to stand said temperature due to metal pins in leg (Heavyarms), or didn’t want his/her temper and/or keep his/her friendship (the final person in the room). It wasn’t his/her apparently constant need for cold temperatures that got him/her in the book, though; it was said temper and attitude. I might work the other half into the story later.

One thing I love about my work is, B brings in candies. I grab a small handful in the mornings when I open up her office. Today they’re getting me through the day, mainly due to utter exhaustion, along with my usual one cup and one travel mug of coffee.

So, I did finally start that fan fiction that had been bothering me the last few weeks. I’m two very short chapters into it, and already it has more reviews than some of the stories I put on FanFiction.net quite a while ago. It’s number 30 out of 31 for hits, actually. For being out less than a week, that’s pretty good, I think. I’m also using it for some free advertising for Amaranth.

And that’s actually a lovely segue to a follow up on a post I made on 18 April, entitled “Tentative Green”: I now have a publishing contract through Cacoethes Publishing for Amaranth. I actually heard from Denise Mosley on Wednesday, April 23, and finalized the plan. On Thursday, I mailed all my information to the company. Friday, it arrived. Now I’m just waiting to see what sort of editing needs to be done. It should be out as an e-book in December and as a hard copy book in January.

So now, I’m working on Verdant and trying to plot out some ideas for Ash and Azure, the third and fourth books in the series. What’s bad is that I have ideas for Azure but not so many for Ash. I mean, I know basic plot elements and some of the major things that will occur, but I don’t know the case that they will be working on. Oh well, I’m sure something will come to me.

And now back to work, both on writing and on dealing with annoying coworkers. Ciao, my silent readers.

So I’m blogging from the new iBook, he who still has no name. (It’s between Bombay, Bakura, and Wraith. Yeah, I managed to drop one from the list.)

I’m still getting used to the keyboard, but overall, I’m absolutely in love with this new baby of mine.

Depending on what we do for food tonight, I might take him around and try to get some work done on Verdant tonight. Of course, after we get a bit of our cleaning done that we desperate need to get done.

And I’m still trying to remember to breathe.

I can’t say too much because this is very up in the air, but I may have gotten a tentative green light.

I can say that I have a kitty in my lap that is determined to kick arse and take names on everything plastic in her general vicinity. There is another kitty in the recliner next to my desk who wants to do the same.

My iBook with no name (though maybe Bakura or Bombay… hmm, or Wraith or Eastwood)  arrived in town today, but I wasn’t at home to get it. So first thing tomorrow I’m going up to the post office to retrieve my new baby. Name help, anyone?

In the meantime, though, I’m might take Heero out on a last run and perhaps work on Verdant during dinner at Samrat. I feel re-inspired.

So, after my big babble yesterday about The Dresden Files and my newly redyed hair… the day was actually a bit hellish. Not as bad as the day before, but still not any fun. Well, D. Marie and I did actually end up going out and grabbing One Fresh Stir-fry and Dairy Queen for dinner last night. That was good.

I also splurged and bought myself something I had been wanting for a long time, to make up for my week of hard days: an iBook G4. Yes, the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Air have come out since this one, to say nothing of the upgrades of the Powerbooks, but it was an iBook G4 that I wanted and that’s what I got myself… at least till I can afford to be rid of my home desktop PC and replace it with a 20″ iMac. Anyone want to donate that kind of funds to me?

It’s strange: the first two computers I ever used were Apples. One was at my childhood friend’s house — and that was a fair indication she was a money kind of friend, since that was the mid-1980’s and she had a computer in her house. The other one was in my sixth grade classroom — and it was shared between the 9 students in my grade and the three grades below mine. Both were old school Apples, but I have fond memories of them.

After that, in high school and onward, there was no option other than PCs, so that was what I used. I bought myself a used iBook G3 in very early 2007, as a birthday present to myself. I call that computer Heero.* Now that my new iBook G4 is on its way in, I’m worrying on what to call it. I’m debating on Wing, Zero, Duo, Deathscythe, Bakura, Omi, or Bombay.

Now that my work computer is updated to Office 2007, I’ve also updated my home computer to the same. I’m really digging it. It reminds me a lot of Office for Mac in a way, especially with the word count at the bottom of the screen. I do dig the custom colors. Yes, both of mine are a black background. They’re awesome that way.

Also, I added some new icons to my group. They’re all pretty spiffy. Most of them are, like my old ones, writing-centric, but one is reading and one is an anime-style girl. Somehow the latter seems most appropriate here.

And now to wait for my new baby… whatever his/her name may be…

* All my computers** have names. The eMachines laptop my father bought me in 2004 is Ultra Sephy. My iBook G3 is Heero. I have a small Strawberry iMac I picked up used called Ichigo. My home PC is Kaichan, with a 2nd hard drive called Setsuna and an external hard drive called TARDIS. My flash drive (with all my stories) is Ryou. If I ever replace Kaichan/Setsuna with a new iMac, it would be Kaiba.

** Not just my computers. My cars have also had names. My first car, a 1991 Geo Prism, was KITT. My second car, a 1993 Geo Prism, was Shinigami. My third/current car, a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero, is Shinigami Hell. If I ever get the car I want, a Honda Civic Hybrid, it will be Shinigami Hell Custom.