Castle in the Clouds

Well, the house is back to normal. The tree is outside and ready for the brush pile. The decorations have been taken down and stowed in the attic. My house looks much bigger with all that clutter gone. Although, I will miss the pretty lights at night just a wee little bit. Things with the Christmas night situation have morphed into something bigger. Still no details I'm willing to share. Despite having my feelings hurt and my heart broken, I have no desire to hurt the other people involved. I'd really like nothing more than for an apology and life to go on as usual. But that's probably not going to happen. On a happier note, we've made New Year's Eve plans. It looks like we're going out to dinner and hanging out at my cousin's house afterward. Nothing fancy but it should be enjoyable. We'll be spending the night with the same three couples we went to Las Vegas with a couple years ago. During our little in-between-the-holidays vacation we'v...

This year has been an odd one. I usually love the holidays. I adore the twinkling lights, the colorful decorations, the tree, the baking and even the shopping. This year wasn't quite as magical as I normally find the Christmas season, though. My heart just wasn't in it. I blame this partly on the snowless landscape and partly on the fact that my dad's house, the one I grew up in, is in foreclosure. Things started getting bad a few months back when he retired. I'm not sure who is at fault--my dad or GM--but checks didn't start coming right away. In fact, I believe the first retirement check was almost seven weeks overdue. By then Dad was way behind on all of his bills. Once the checks made a reappearance it was too late. He couldn't get caught up. So the three bedroom ranch went into forclosure and went up for auction on December 22. My dad has no idea if it sold because he didn't go to the courthouse; my dad said the bank will send him some kind ...

So I've been on vacation since Tuesday afternoon. I went in to work that morning for a few hours and then went to the office Christmas party at my boss's house. Afterwards, my week and a half vacation started. It's been both hectic and relaxing. I've gotten nearly all my wrapping done - I plan on finishing today. I've made the DVD for my dad (no worries about him reading this because he doesn't have a computer) and I'm nearly done with one of the scrapbook pages for his book; my goal is to get four pages done by tonight. Once those are done, I'll be ready for the party tomorrow. I may take down my little TV and a DVD player to my basement craft room so I can watch movies while I scrapbook. What else have I done? I got my haircut. It was grossly overdue. I think I had five pounds of split-ends weighing me down. I'm not sure how well the cut is going to curl because my girl wasn't available and desperation led me to an unknown salon. It feels bette...

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how I feel about the progress I'm making on Redemption's Path. It's slow going, my friends. I think I need to print it off and read it. No corrections allowed. Just a quick check for continuity. But I'm afraid I won't be able to resist the inner editor. Or critic. So I've been typing one stubborn word after the other, wondering how much I've botched.

I should have kept my mouth shut about how proud I was of myself for writing every day. Every day! I didn't even open the WIP last night. Or the night before that. Today at lunch (an hour insted of the normal 1/2 hour) I thought I'd get something accomplished. Yeah. Right. My laptop has decided to be a total pain in the ass and won't let me do anything. I'm not sure what its problem is, but it's pissing me off. Every time I open the WIP it locks up the machine. Can you say "annoying"? However, I was able to at least save the damn file and transfer it to the desktop here at work. I might be able to get something done before it's time to open the door and reenter the working world. Wish me luck!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Both! 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped. Even the tiny gifts in the stocking are individually wrapped. 3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Multi-colored in the house (including the tree), white & blue icicles on the house. 4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. 5. When do you put your decorations up? We usually get the tree the first weekend in December. 6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Christmas cookies made using my step-mom's recipe. They're so fluffy and light. 7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: There were five of us kids. Every year I would wake up my brother, BJ, and we'd get the coffee and hot chocolate made before waking up our Dad and step-mom. Many years we knocked on their door before 5 am. They never complained. Not once. I think that is one of my favorite memories: me and my brother making coffee and hot chocolate in near darkness. 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Sa...

I'm feeling rather proud of myself. I've been steadily writing on the Christmas gift project. A little bit every day. Not the 3000 I need, but something. Even when I'm not updating the blog with a new post I am updating the word meter in the sidebar. It's going to be a busy weekend but I figure I should be able to break the 25,000 mark if I stick to it.