Nothing else matters ...

Early journal today. Mostly because I had the most bizarre dream and I'm still a little wired from it (even though I had it in the middle of the night) and I ... I don't know. I wanted to get it down on the screen before it slipped away entirely.

Before I begin, I'm scared of spiders. Terrified would be slightly more accurate. I hate the things. I can't sleep when they're in my room, even if they're as far away from me as physically possible within a confined space. Uggh. I can't even look at them. So, why (WHY?) am I dreaming about motherfucking spiders spinning webs on my ceiling and dropping down onto my bed to cart me away for their nefarious purposes?

I woke up in the middle of the night (not long after I'd gone to bed) and I was sure that there were sticky strands of web dripping from my ceiling. I have never pulled the covers over me faster than I did in that moment. They were coming! For meeeeee! You know how you're in that half awake state were your subconscious is still kinda doing it's own thing even though you don't want it to be? I would have sworn that I could have felt the little monsters dropping on my bed to come and get me. With sticky strands of web dripping and twisting and waving above me.

I've had nightmares about Zombies that aren't that scary.

So. Yeah. I have creepy dreams. Creepy dreams that startle me awake and won't let me sleep soundly afterward.

I also finished my book last night.
Book #35 - For a Few Demons More (Rachel Morgan/The Hollows #5) by Kim Harrison - Picking up where the last book left off, Rachel is called in to help investigate when a rash of werewolf suicides doesn't quite add up. Keeping the artifact that she acquired in the last book secret while fending off the Demon Al and trying to wiggle her way out of being a bridesmaid in Trent's upcoming wedding, Rachel may have bitten off more than she can chew. There's a moment at the end of this book where Rachel thinks she's lost everything that is absolutely heartbreaking. She literally throws all caution to the wind and forces her will onto something immense and she doesn't expect to survive it. There's good setup for the next book since this one ends on a bit of a mystery. Trent's plans for the future of his race take a pretty big step forward when he finally meets Ceri. All in all, a good read.

Now that I've hit book 5 in the series I'm at the point where I think I've only read the rest of them once. That's so exciting. I'm not sure if I'm going to plow through like a large, beastly, plowing type thing or flip back over to the Otherworld series. I have two more weeks until the 3rd book in The Darkest Powers series comes out and I want to get back into that world just prior to reading it. Hey. I think I have a plan. Finish the Rachel Morgan series, skip on over to the Otherworld series and get as many of those under my belt before the 3rd book in the DP (which is an offshoot of the Otherworld universe) comes out.

It's good to have a plan.

Which reminds me that I need to finish my latest chapter. I think I know where I'm going to go with it. Excellent. *rubs hands together* Excellent.

Wow. I sure can go on sometimes.
Later!
Umm. Is this icon perfect for this post? I know. Scary.

OMG! I was having the weirdest dreams last night. I can't remember them at all at this point but I do remember waking up and thinking Hahahahaha! Wow!

I'm in a much better mood than I was yesterday. I have no idea what that was but it was banished by watching the first 2 Final Destination movies. I think I'll review those. They're just so damn fun.

By the by, I think part of yesterday's bitchiness was caused by staying up way too late and getting up way too early. 4 hours of sleep is enough for a normal person, isn't it? I think I need to lay off the fanfic late at night. It sucks me in and makes me lose track of time. Damn those fantastic writers out there! I'm currently alternating between Firefly and Terminator Salvation (Blair and Marcus all the way, babies!) fic. There's not a ton of TS out there (and even less that's well written and in character) but the FF more than makes up for that lack.

I don't think I'm going to get out of my pjs today. Nope. It just feels like the right thing to do. How can I argue with such a feeling? I can't.

I was thinking last night (between bouts of fanfic reading) about this time last year and ( I was a mess, wasn't I? )

Heather wants to go grocery shopping.
I'm out.

I was watching Roswell last night before going to bed. I'm up to episode 11 of season 2. I think that's what fueled my conspiracy-driven dreams. There was a lot of skulking in shadows and elaborate plans to foil the enemy. It was awesome.

You know, NaNoWriMo starts in less than a week and I still don't know what the hell I'm going to write about. Maybe I should get on that. Or maybe I could think up something wickedly cool about werewolves. I don't think werewolves get the respect they deserve. They're all growly and alpha and sometimes yummy. I could do a werewolf thing. That might be fun.

All this werewolf talk is making me want to watch the Underworld trilogy. Werewolves and vampires. Double yum. Or Skinwalkers again. Honestly, though, I think that's more because of Jason Behr's massive arms than anything else. Actually, that plan doesn't sound too shabby. A shot of Jason Behr's arms with an Underworld chaser. nice.

Okay. I'm done. I totally have things to do. Totally.
Later.

I have roughly half an hour until I have to be back up at Hailey and Cole's school to leave on the field trip to the apple farm with Hailey's class. What do I do with this time? Journal. Of course.

Since I have places to be and things to do, this journal will be short. In theory.

First off, I slept horribly last night. It was all jumbled dreams and constant waking. I wish that I could remember some of the stuff I was dreaming about because it was incredibly weird. I love the way the subconscious takes all these unrelated things and squishes them together while you're sleeping. It's the stuff that stories are made of.

Speaking of stories, I did my daily writing yesterday plus I ended up typing up all the stuff I'd already written on my SPN story. I like doing my first draft longhand on actual paper. It's so much easier for me to visualize when I go back and make edits. It also lets me do minor editing when I'm typing it up. Stuff that I'd marked as something that needs to be tightened up or rearranged. The initial time it goes from paper to screen seems to loosen up some of the words I'm trying to get out. I know that a lot of people compose directly on the comp, but the beginning of stories always start out on paper for me. Somewhere along the way I usually end up transitioning to writing directly onscreen, but they always start out on paper.

What can I say except that it works for me.

Okay. The clock is ticking here. I have to get the last few things together that I need and then head off to school.
Later.

Boy, oh boy! I was having the weirdest dreams last night. Now, I didn't sleep well to start with. This begs the question ... was I not sleeping well because of the weird dreams or were the weird dreams caused because I was waking up every 30 minutes and remembering what I dreamed about? Do I always have dreams like that? The sad part is that I can't even remember what they were about at this point. I just remember thinking... Huh. Weird. So, I've been up for a while (5-ish? Maybe.) and I'm already looking longingly toward my nap.

In other news, it's nice and cool this morning. Cool enough that I have socks on and my toes are still a little chilly. I'm not complaining in the least, btw. I much prefer this cool weather to the 100+F heat we're expected to have this coming weekend. Blech.

I have a hair appointment tomorrow and I think the hair is going to be cut. Short. I'm still feeling the tiniest bit wishy-washy on it so it might not happen, but I'm leaning strongly in that direction. *sigh* I don't know. It's taken me so long to grow out, but now it's just like this lump of hair. And since I started dying it reddish again the bottom isn't holding the color like I want it to. Too long with all the blonde highlights, I'm told. Blah. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Huh. You know, since I have my hair appointment tomorrow morning I may have to revise my journal schedule. I might *might* have to either journal even earlier in the day or do it mid-afternoon. Look at that, I'm being all flexible and shit. Or, just flexible.

Last but not least, as part of my epic trilogy watching (Matrix, LotR, Scream), I started watching the Indiana Jones movies last night. I'm on Last Crusade right now. Technically, Indy is no longer a trilogy but it was one for so long that I still think of it that way. And I like the 4th movie so don't go getting all negative on me about it. It's fun. And that's exactly why I watch movies. Well, for the fun and the eye candy. Word!

I am done now.
There might be some movie reviews in the future. No promises, but I'm feeling kinda sassy at the moment. Hey! How is there no "sassy" mood? That's just wrong!
Later!

Okay. So I just finished this book and it has a lot of really great things going for it, starting with the fact that (a) the name is AWESOME and (b) the cover is a little haunting. So, you're getting the whole kit and caboodle with this review. Picture, quote, long ass review!

Don't say I never gave you anything!

But then I'm distracted by movement in the Forest, a glimpse of red at the edge of my vision. She's no longer running, no longer even walking or standing, but crawling now. Dragging her broken body across the ground toward me, her fingers clawing at the dirt. Her progress is slow, unbearably so. Such that it's almost sad to see her reduced to this. Her body has used up it's stores of energy and has begun collapsing in on itself.

Book #47 - The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - First off this is a book about Zombies ... Oops, infected. This is a book about the infected (who are also called the Unconsecrated) and the village of uninfected that lives in the middle of this undead forest. The village is surrounded by a fence which no one ever crosses. The lovely Mary remembers stories that her mother used to tell her (passed down since the time before the infected roamed) about the ocean and she longs to see it some day. Only a vast stretch of infected lie between her village and her dream. When the village fence is breached one day, Mary must convince those that escape that the only chance they have is to follow the old fenced paths to find somewhere safe.

( no real spoilers, I just got wordy )

I used to have all my Zombie themed books in one place on my bookshelf, but I don't anymore. It's those Stephan King books, they take up nearly an entire shelf by themselves and one of them was Zombie-fied (Cell) and I HAVE to have books by the same author grouped together. That's just the way it is. So my Zombie books are no longer huddled together waiting to infect. They're scattered. Sad.

In other news ... no, there is no other news. Just Zombies. I apologize. You know, I hope I don't have nightmares tonight since Cole isn't here (he's in Carmel visiting his other grandparents and celebrating his birthday). I won't have his sweaty little hand to hold in the middle of the night. His hand's not actually little anymore. The kid's nearly as tall as I am. Boo. I guess my dog will just have to keep the Zombie screaming nightmares out of my head. Can dogs even do that?

Oh, I nearly forgot! The bottom section of our stairs is (mostly) completed. Everything except the top of the top stair. The guy can't put the hardwood on it until he pulls up the carpet above it and he's not doing that until tomorrow. Someday I'll take pictures and you'll be all Oooooh, pretty! :)

I'm done now.
Happy Zombies!

I did some Christmas shopping today. And it was much better than yesterday. I'm done with Cole. And Hailey. And my mom. And Heather. And my grandma. It's pretty good.

My mom and I were discussing how we're going to get my 200 pound bookcase up two flights of stairs once Heather moves out. Huh. I'm kinda thinking I'm going to have to take it apart and carry it up a piece at a time. Frankly, I'm not thrilled by that, but the other option is to just leave it in the garage and I'm not doing that. Possibly we can find someone to help us get it up the stairs, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Okay. I totally forgot to mention that I had the best zombie dream the other night. It was full-on movie-cool. Like, there was a zombie horde and they were trying to get Cole and Hailey and I and I had to put the kids up in the air ducts to keep them safe and then we got separated and it sucked but I was able to get back to them and save them and we hid in a airport and the zombies were sporadically throwing themselves against the super shatter proof window and just smashing themselves into oblivion. Awesome.

I'm trying to force Cole to watch The Wrath of Khan and we keep getting 30 minutes or so into it and then we get distracted. Cole tells me that he doesn't like it, but when we're watching it he's all into it. Kids. Go figure. Anyway. We have all the movies on tap to watch, so we should be getting to them eventually.

I think I'm done. :)

I had a shockingly good day at work. Shockingly good. No major problems. No major yelling by my manager. I think I might faint.

I did have a strange Starbucks day, however. I ended up going there 3 times today. THREE. Weird. And tasty.

I'm working on my next book and it's a zombie book and it's not half as scary as the last zombie book I read. However, I reserve the right to change that statement depending on whether I dream of zombies trying to gnaw off my arms tonight. What? I dream stuff like that often.

I was up so early this morning that I was able to watch Supernatural before leaving for work. I must say that I wasn't shocked by anything that happened. The hints that kept popping up seemed to be pushing toward the resolution they gave us. I will also say that I enjoyed the episode. Yes, I did.

I think I'm done for now.
Toodles.

I'm getting seriously burnt out on my job. I don't like it. I don't like my new District Manager. Although I'm fairly certain that I'm going to stay with the bank (I've been there nearly 16 years, thankyouverymuch), I'm really beginning to think that if I don't get out of a retail branch soon I'm going to kill something. I almost cried when my DM told me today that we were going to have an 8:00 conference call everyday. I think it might come as a surprise to her that not everyone bleeds bank colors and lives and dies for all things bank.

Anyway.

I dreamed about werewolves last night. It was awesome. The even better thing is that I was the werewolf this time instead of being the human-type person who helps the werewolves. And? Jason Behr was my human slave. AWESOME!

I made a command decision to take tomorrow off. I need it.
I'm out.

I had the weirdest dream last night. I don't even think I can properly detail it out. The short version is that I bought a house in the LA area that used to belong to a family of drug runners. There was a covered bridge going over a little creek and weird hidey-holes all over the house where the drug runners would hide themselves and their stuff. Also, my dad was there giving me advice. It was ... odd.

And in news that might be cool to me and me alone, I've watched all my shows that were hanging around on my DVR. Lost was GREAT! I was all ... AHHHHHHHH! And ....OMG!!!! I had a good time watching it. SGA needs to have Ronon in civilian clothes more often. He's very pretty. Supernatural was FUN! Psych made me laugh! FNL was good! All in all, a very good TV watching evening.

The fam and I (minus Heather but plus Amb and Phil) went out to Japanese food for dinner tonight. I've been craving Japanese for weeks. WEEKS! It was so good. The kids always amaze me with how much they eat when we put rice and teriyaki chicken in front of them. Oh, and Cole is obsessed with pot stickers. He can tell a good pot sticker from a bad one. He cracks me up.

( meme )

I'm going to go zone out for a bit. I have a slight case of the tireds.