Seattle, writing, and… Honey Boo Boo?

I’m going to Seattle in one week!!!!!!!!!!!  Those that know me know how freakin‘ excited I am about this trip.  Plus, it’s a business trip, fully paid for by my employer, and I get to spend five nights in the city I’ve been dreaming of moving to for at least two decades.  (I’m also legitimately excited to see the corporate campus.  It’s apparently huge and pretty awesome.  Maybe I’ll run into a certain world-respected technological revolutionary who happens to be the CEO of the company, too!)  I’ve never been to Seattle, no, but the weather and the location have always called to me.  I thrive on wet and/or gloomy days, and Seattle seems to have their fair share of them.  I’ve set several stories, both fanfiction and original WIPs in Seattle, and I hope to do some recon while I’m there to come up with new and original settings for stories. I want to be inspired and be filled with ideas for writing once I get home!  Anyway, those that follow me on Twitter (current Twitter is this, but I think I’m moving over to this one), Tumblr, and Instagram better be prepared for a ton of pictures. (And I know I’ll be putting some on here, too.)  I’m going to be burning up my iPhone snapping shots of every possible thing.  And as of right now, the forecast for Seattle is saying sunny days.  THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.  I want rain, and I want a lot of it.  For the full Seattle experience, I want to be soaked from the rain.  Got it, Mother Nature???

On the writing front, I have an idea that’s been percolating in my head lately.  It’s a World War II-era story and it’s slowly coming together.  I’ve written a few paragraphs here and there, just little snippets from that moment or this moment as I see them clearly in my head.  Maybe nothing will come of it, but at this point, I’m thankful for any writing inspiration I get!

Anyway, I have a busy week ahead.  I have to wrap everything up before I leave so that I have no loose ends waiting for me here while I’m out there.  I’ll hit the ground running when I get back and then, in mid-April, I get to go BACK to Seattle for another week of training!!!!

Also, we discovered “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” tonight, and, like most of America, we were unable to look away from the redneck trainwreck.  What. the. hell? We were flipping channels and I saw a toothless man speaking the southern version of American English and they had him subtitled.   Within three seconds, I realized what we were watching.  Within five seconds, we were both sucked in and howling hysterically.  While that family frightens the ever-lovin’ hell out of me, I couldn’t stop watching.  Also, it’s fairly obvious that Alana aka Honey Boo Boo, is, at 7-years-old, the smartest one in her family by a mile. Oy.  Stupid show!

A somewhat disjointed ramble…

Although it’s technically now Christmas Eve, it’s not officially Christmas Eve to me until I go to bed and wake up again.  In my world, it’s still Sunday.  Anyway, my mind is a disjointed jumble of thoughts and I feel like sharing them.

The “War on Christmas” that Fox “News” keeps rambling about (and I only know about it because MSNBC said that Fox was talking about it) is total crap.  I know that the Fox “anchors” want to pretend the whole world is against their righteous crusade (led by their prophet, Karl Rove), but I call bullcrap.  Well, I actually call bullcrap about that network’s entire existence but as for the whole war on Christmas thing – HORSE PUCKEY!  I’ve been told “Merry Christmas” the past three days by no less than 12 people in the service and retail industries.  Not once have I been told “Happy Holidays.”  Suck it, Bill O’Reilly (well, as soon as you remove your lips from Father Karl’s prostate.)

Tattoos don’t hurt as much as I remember.  The one I got on my ankle 14 years ago, which is approximately an inch big, hurt so much that I remember hyperventilating and almost blacking out.  So it was with trepidation that I entered the tattoo shop today.  The problem was that I had been obsessing about getting a tattoo and, because I know me, I knew I wouldn’t rest until I got it over with.  So I entered with my design in hand, didn’t hyperventilate and really only winced a bit while the needle hummed as it chewed through my skin, and left with this:

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The world of Harry Potter now with me forever?  CHECK.  (Now I’m thinking about getting “Nox” on my other wrist.)

After getting things done around the place, I settled in at my dining room table with my old time radio app and listened to Christmas episodes of “Our Miss Brooks” and “The Jack Benny Show” while I finished my yo-yo table cover.  I needed it done for Tuesday because we’re hosting my immediate family here.  So check it out!  Sitting on the trivet, which is sitting on the yo-yos, is a cool candle holder that I got at my favorite museum, Conner Prairie, yesterday.  It’s a replica of an 1858 Mason jar with a wrought iron candle holder hanging inside.  And in it is a beeswax candle that was made at the museum.  I love the way the whole thing turned out!

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Also, I desperately wish I were writing again.  Inspiration just isn’t there.  I’m heading to Seattle for training in mid-January and now it looks like I have another trip scheduled the week following that trip (meaning I fly home on Saturday and back out on Monday) so I’m hoping to get some writing done while I’m away from home.  Truthfully, I’m hoping my second week of training ends up being in Seattle, too, because then I’ll get to spend a weekend in the city we’re hoping to relocate to in about two years.  Hopefully the training invite will show up in my inbox right after Christmas so I can find out where I’m headed for that second week and get my trip booked.  Can’t believe how much travelling I’m getting to do since starting to work for this huge company.

We’re under a Winter Storm Watch for Christmas night and into Wednesday. They’re calling for between 5-9 inches.  While I know that the projections will change between now and then, I also know that, regardless of how much we get, I’m screwed as I head into work on Wednesday.  White-knuckled drive for sixteen miles at 20mph.  Awesome, Mother Nature.  Thanks.

Okay, I’m off to read, I do believe.  I shall leave you with this lovely view of our flickering fake wood stove.

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And Merry Christmas to everyone (except Fox News!)