getting back to my roots: free writing

(The original purpose of this blog was to have a place to put unfinished snippets of ideas I was working on. Here's one from my freewriting session in class on Wednesday night.)

Prompt: summer above please

In the summer, the skies above the houses on Mandarin Place took on a strange life of their own, glowing with an unearthly luminescence in the wee hours of dawn as though a host of heavenly watercolorists were splashing color onto the night in bold strokes of pink that faded to yellow that drifted into blue, and the clouds would wait in the wings wondering, "Please, when is it our turn to play?" Their turn would come when the decadent blue of afternoon would be blotted out by the raucous, rolling laughter of the thunderclouds as they wrestled overhead leaving mud puddles, umbrellas, and damp trouser cuffs in their wake; but before long, the gentle winds of evening would coax the clouds back to their den, their energy spent from playing, and the gentle evening breeze would clear away the last wisps, bringing with it the softly spicy scent of pine woods, the acrid tang of smoke from a warm chimney, and it would make a place for the stars, winking on and off in sleepy rhythm with the lamps switching on in the houses below.

a little life in review

As many of you know, my work situation isn't the greatest. To sum up: I have one boss who is great, everything a manager should be -- and one who isn't. Unfortunately, the one who isn't pretty much makes my life there a living hell on a fairly regular basis.

I would quit this job point blank -- I have any number of good reasons for doing so -- except that I have a short list of reasons not to do so. First, I love being on flex time. I've done the 8-5 cubicle thing, and it is hard on my mental and emotional wellbeing. Don't get me wrong; I work 8 hours a day, most days of the week, but being able to take time off when I need to, go to lunch whenever I want, leave early when the work is done -- those things are priceless to me. The thought of going back to temping is, at this point, MORE depressing than staying in a crummy work environment.

Second, when I'm not dealing with my horrible boss, the actual work is interesting and even fun at times, and I'm learning a ton about the PR and marketing industry, which is something I could see myself pursuing further somewhere else. There are a lot of opportunities coming up for me to attend trade shows and make a lot of contacts if I can just hold out for a few more months. I'm not just talking about jewelry people here, but writers, editors, freelancers -- anyone and everyone I can shake hands with and slip a business card.

And finally, I don't have another job to go to.

However. Lately the not-so-great boss has been stepping up the abuse, and it's getting to the point where I don't know how much longer I can reasonably hold out. So, I've decided to take some proactive steps towards getting the hell out of dodge, whenever the need should arise.

I've started actively submitting resumes again, which I had fallen somewhat lax in doing, and I've signed up for a writing course through UCI. The class starts in a week and I'm absolutely thrilled about it. It's called "The Inner Game of Writing" and it sounds like EXACTLY what I need -- full of strategies to silence your inner critic, work through writer's block, and get back the confidence you need to write.

A friend of mine pointed out to me the other day that my dip in self-confidence about my writing lately is probably directly related to my toxic work environment. I spend all day defending myself against little nips and jabs at my worth, my competence, and my value, so that when I get home, my reserves are all used up. Little things that normally would not phase me are suddenly more than I can handle. The theory makes a lot of sense to me.

So, I'm working towards an out. Brandon says that if I sell my car for what we're asking, I can take a month off with that money and write or look for another job or whatever. It's tempting, but I'm not quite to that stage yet.

Luckily, the good boss is on my side and stands up for me. Without that, I think I would have been gone long ago. For now, though, I will try to shore up my reserves and go into each battle day telling myself that I am only using this as a good opportunity toward bigger and better things.

you know it's time to break out the rice cakes when...

The receiptionist asked me yesterday if I had any good news for her. I stared at her blankly. She clarified by saying that I was dressed very comfortably. (For the record, I was wearing one of my favorite shirts which is sort of a peasant style, and brown slacks.) I continued to blink in a manner suggesting that I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

She was asking if I was pregnant.

I can never wear that shirt again.

birthday plot

On Saturday night I was chatting with a couple of you (*waves*) and I told you that Brandon and I were going to go to Denny's for dinner. This turned out not to be entirely true.

Brandon said that he wanted to go to Denny's for dinner. This isn't as strange as it sounds; we are poor newlyweds, and we sometimes go across the street to Carrows, so I figured he just wanted a change. I asked if he was worried about being shot, but he didn't seem concerned.

Then, he suggested that we get dressed up to go to Denny's. "It'll be fun," he said. "We'll freak out the waitresses." I thought he was joking until he started going through his closet for slacks and a button down shirt.

I was still skeptical, but he kept telling me how fun it would be, so I went to stare at my closet to see if there was anything I could wear. Then, I noticed that he was putting on black socks and I knew something was up. This is the man that had to be persuaded to wear black socks to his WEDDING and who frequently wears white athletic socks with black slacks and black shoes to church.

So I tried to call him on it, but he wasn't going to give. We both got dressed up, got in the car, and he said, "I only know of the one Denny's -- down in Newport."

"No," said I, "there's one just around the corner on Harbor."

So he dutifully drives to the one on Harbor, but just as we reach Denny's he says, "Wow, it looks crowded. Let's go to the other one."

So we drive all the way out to the other Denny's in Newport. By this time I KNOW something is going on, but I don't know what. But then, he actually pulled into the Denny's parking lot and parked. I was very confused. We got out and walked around, and then he looked in the windows and said, "Wow, there's a scary homeless-looking person in there. Let's not go to Denny's." So we walked BACK to the car.

At this point, I was very hungry and very confused. We turned around, headed back in the other direction, and then finally, parked in front of The Golden Truffle: one of the swankiest restaurants in Newport Beach.

He had 7:00 reservations and was trying to kill time. The little sneak.

Anyway, the restaurant more than lived up to its reputation. I had roasted duck in a raspberry peppercorn sauce, and Brandon had Guinness braised lamb and we both had the blackberry shortcake with Irish clotted cream for dessert. Forget the birthday cake; I'll take that ANY day! So nice and such a surprise!!

Spend most of my birthday-day at church on Sunday for regular services and then a special evensong service. But I DID watch Labrynth, which my sister sent me, and then GoF which Brandon got me. Yay for cheesy movies!

I found out yesterday that St. Patrick is the patron saint of Los Angeles (make of that what you will) and that Cardinal Mahoney gave all the Catholics in Los Angeles county a day off from no-meat Fridays so that they could have corned beef yesterday.

I kid you not. It was on NPR, so it must be true.

WHY is education so expensive?

I want to take a creative writing class at UCI. Extension classes start at $185 for five weeks and go up to $395 for five weeks.

Summer session classes are even WORSE. They are $192/unit, and all of the writing classes are 4 units. That's almost EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS, PEOPLE.

Education should be free.

FOUR years!

Today is four years to the day that Brandon and I had our first date. We went to see "Ice Age" and then had dinner at the Blue Corn Cafe. I talked a lot because I was nervous. He talked almost not at all for the same reason. But somehow we decided to have a second date, and he came to my birthday party three days later bearing a Harry Potter birthday card and a film award called "The Brandon" hand-sculpted entirely from styrofoam and painted gold with vast quantities of gold spray paint.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

seen in break room

There's been a little paper notice pinned to the bulliten board in the office kitchen here for a while which reads, "Cute baby bunny needs a home!" with a name and phone number.

I noticed today that someone hand wrote underneath it, "What size pot will it fit?"





(I wanted to make some sort of hostile work environment joke here, but you can just fill in the blank.)

monday the thirteenth

Is there such a thing as a bad luck Monday, or is that a redundant phrase?

I'm still not 100% well, but I am back at work, I am sitting upright, and I am functioning on a relatively high level.

Three full work days worth of emails to go through. That should occupy most of my day. Blurgh.

i love my husband

I didn't mean to get him sick, honest.

But if he has to be sick, I'm sort of glad of the company.

I haven't been this ill in ages. It's rather disconcerting. I keep thinking I'm getting better and then... Like this morning for instance; I felt good, I got up, made some breakfast, which was nice, drank some coffee, cleaned up, made the bed, took a shower...

...and promptly had to go have a lie down for a bit. Wore me plumb out.

But I am getting better. I no longer believe that my head is actually going to explode, which is definitely a bonus. If you'd like an idea of what I was like at my worst, however, there is proof. Looking back, I'm not really sure that the medicine is to blame, cos I'm taking the same stuff now, and my grammar is much improved. Hmm.

rabid grammar whore strikes again

Everybody's been asking me what I want for my birthday, and I couldn't think of anything until I saw this tee shirt:

oscar? Who's oscar?

I have been MEANING since FRIDAY to write a long, bubbly, chatty post about the Oscar suites and all the famous (and semi-famous and not famous) people I met because that is INTERESTING that is the stuff that people would be INTERESTED to read about.

But alas. I am sick. I have the blurgh. Which means that I am taking cold medicine, which means that my concepts of grammar and punctuation and sentence construction have gone all to hell.

Also, I can't remember anyone's name.

Honestly, I will try to be less lame and more entertaining soon, cos lord knows this blog is boring ME to tears lately!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RHONDA FABER GREEN DESIGNS SHINE
AT THE 78TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

(Hollywood, CA March 6, 2006) -- A newcomer to the Oscar suites circuit this year, Rhonda Faber Green Designs made a big splash with Oscar insiders at this year's Academy Awards. Kathleen "Bird" York, nominated for her song "In the Deep" from the film "Crash," wore Rhonda's Filigreen Double "S" diamond bracelet on the red carpet with her gorgeous copper gown. The following is a list of other movers and shakers seen on the red carpet -- and beyond! -- wearing Rhonda Faber Green:

• Nancy Hult Ganis (wife of Academy president Sid Ganis): amethyst and diamond Perfect Pair earrings, a matching, one-of-a-kind diamond and amethyst necklace, and a five-strand diamond Ovallure bracelet.
  
  
• Ah Young Lee (Richard Roeper's girlfriend): Filigreen diamond bracelet, large Filigreen Chandelier Earrings with white sapphires and diamonds and new pave diamond Filigreen ring.
  
  
• Finola Hughes (Oscar TV coverage for E! and Good Morning America):
  
  
• Stacey Gualandi (Inside Edition): Ovallure sapphire and diamond earrings and diamond Ovallure 6 strand bracelet.
  
  
• Jamie Krell (E! and Style Networks): Filigreen fleur de lis diamond pendant on a pave diamond pendant holder.
  
  
• Mary Murphy (TV Guide): diamond Lauren Heart Drop Earrings and Diamondot pave diamond necklaces.
  
  
• Zorianna Kit (TV Guide): Yellow gold diamond and citrine Perfect Pear earrings.
  
  
• Kate Linder (The Young and the Restless): Filigreen necklace and bracelet in pave diamonds.
  
  
• Heidi Oringer (ABC News Radio, KABC): Lauren Heart Bracelet and the Ovallure Long Drop earrings in Platinum.
  
  
• Brittany Galloway (Gospel singer): Diamondot necklace, Filigreen diamond heart pendant and criss-cross earrings.

Lacy's oscar round up to come

It's hard out there for a pimp gay cowboy.

the long lost france photos

So, some of you may remember that we had some issues with some of our honeymoon photos. One of the rolls I turned into the photo lab turned out to be blank, and I was highly HIGHLY distressed about it, because I knew it shouldn't have been blank. I thought Target had lost the real photos (I mean, they did end up giving us the photos from some nice Mexican family's birthday party -- it wasn't a stretch).

Well.

In finally clearing out one of the bags I took to Paris a week or so ago, low and behold, I discovered a roll of film at the bottom. I sent it in to Snap Fish to be developed, and YAY! It was our missing Paris pictures! I am extremely excited about this and will be posting pictures soon. There is a simply cracking one of Brandon asleep on the couch in our Paris apartment.

www.cowabduction.com/