Thought Patterns

Back!

We had an absolute blast! But, like all vacations, I am glad to be home. It is exhausting for me to be so ON all the time.

I'm still going over the images. I filled one 1GB SD card and almost filled a second card with photos and mini-movies.

The Family:

Part of the "resort", the All Star Music:

Thank God.

Okay, the vacation started out rocky to begin with.

One of the cats got ill right before we were to leave so we had to put it off a day. Pav spent the all trip at the vet's. That's a story for later.

We finally left 1pm Wednesday. It promptly started raining until we were about four hours into the trip.

I was only able to drive for two hours before I was done. My body just can't do it anymore, dammit. We didn't even make the trip in one day. We were both so exhausted. The hotel we stayed in was awful. It's off of exit 205 on Interstate 81. Big name but big suckage.

The rain that we had left behind on day one caught up to us for most of the second day, much to our joy. (insert sarcasm) We got to Lorna's mom's place in Boyertown, PA without any more adventures, though.

I stayed there one night and headed to Jersey on Friday, saw Kelli test for and get her first degree black belt. I can't remember the name of the style they follow but I call it Moo Shoo Duck since it has Moo Duk in it. Anyway, saw Kelli get her belt then went out to a celebratory dinner at a place called Prospector's. Decent place.

I wasn't feeling well (truck lag?) and had bourbon salmon. Not bad, but didn't taste any bourbon. And yes, it was cooked thoroughly. After that, we ran some errands and returned to my brother's house. I really love my niece and nephew and I had a lot of fun with them. Ryan and I played some Xbox games. Ghost Recon (?) and some sort of race car thing. Kelli had her cousin over so I didn't see much of her while the cuz was there.

I still wasn't feeling well but I ate two slices of pizza and, later, some ice cream cake. Ryan and I stayed up late playing with the Xbox and on the computer.

When I woke up Sunday, I felt like crap. What I had to eat the day before violently exited the opposite end. I lay on Kelli's bed while she told me the names of all her stuffed animals (and she has a lot). I felt so lousy that I had my bro test my blood sugar in case I was crashing from the cake the night before. Nope, 'twas fine. I was supposed to go visit Mom but I just kept feeling worse as the day went on. Finally, when they left for Mom's, I left for PA and Lorna. All I could think of was getting to Lorna. I feel bad that I didn't see Mom. I normally would have gone to her and had her fix me but my step-Dad's brother was in town too and they were having this gathering. I did NOT want to hang with strangers while I moaned, groaned, and pooped my brains out.

The trip back to Boyertown from Riverside took much longer than it should. I pulled over at a rest area off the turnpike and slept for about 45 minutes. Then I continued on. I got to Boyertown, caught Lorna up on the black belt thing and bits of the trip, then I went to bed. I got up a few hours later and hurled what little was in my stomach.

We went to the doc Monday (yes, I was feeling that bad) and he confirmed what we were afraid of: another bout of diverticulitis. And a bad one. He prescribed liquid diet and two antibiotics.

Tuesday morning, Lorna says she's not feeling well and then she gets sick too. We think it was either a 24hr bug or a combination of too much licorice and bad Lebanon bologna. By Wednesday morning she is feeling mostly better and we finally leave Boyertown Wednesday afternoon, drive until 7ish, stay overnight, then continue the drive today.

Lorna's feeling better, although wiped out, but I'm still puny. I managed to eat a baked potato a short while ago so if it stays in, I'll be able to eat more tomorrow. This morning we stopped at Cracker Barrel where I had some cereal and banana. It didn't stay put very well, though.

The dogs are thrilled we are home. Sam is in Lorna's lap in the recliner. The others are stretched out around us. Jo and PopCorn are on the bed, declaring they are Queens of the House. My fish are doing great, although I see less shrimp, I think.

And so, we are home, at last.

I will be leaving tomorrow (Wednesday) to drive up nawth to see my nephew Ryan test for his first degree blackbelt. I plan on being gone just a week.

I will try to post something while I am gone, but I won't be making any changes or major stuff. I will have access to email of course. Anyway, just thought I would mention it before I forget. I'll be driving to TN to get on I81 north which I follow all the way up to the PA Turnpike. Then I take it until it smacks into NJ where I'll take a right and drive south to Riverside. It is a 12hr drive so I won't be doing it all in one day. It's too hard on me bod.

Okay, well, gotta get back to packing and stuff.

Greetings and Salutes! I am currently in Mt. Laurel NJ, visiting my family. My mother and step-dad live here in Mt Laurel while my brother, sis-in-law and their two brats live in Riverside. Last night I got to see Kelli get her first belt in karate and see Ryan get a belt promotion (he got a stripe on his belt). He may be eligible for his black belt as early as October but more likely he will wait until April. It was fun to watch them!

Writing - well, its not exactly taking off and flying down the road toward greatness. I try to write at least 500 words a day, even if it is only rambling. I hope to be able to print out and edit SS some more. We shall see.

My word count is awful, not even enough worth updating word count page for. Yawn.
In other Real Life, I got my CPAP adjusted and I believe I am actually sleeping better. It went from 8 to 10. Joella is here with me and has fit in well with my mother's crazy household. She and my brother's dog met already too and they played nice. Not much else to say at this point. Sorry!

Slowly my writing is coming back. A few hundred here and a few hundred there. I am doing a lot of thinking and working out problems but still not all that much writing. I am still editing SS and today did some writing on Long Lea.

The May Story-A-Day Challenge is fun. I have done six so far, but one probably does not count. I will do eleven then, just to be fair. I need to put one or two of them up on the site so y'all can see just how horrible a writer I am.

In Real Life the chin strap made no difference. I still snored wonderfully with my mouth clamped shut. Goody, huh? However, I have now become the household power meter. The power went off for some reason late last night/early this morning and I awoke not being able to breathe. Duh. No power meant no air pressure which meant clamped shut throat. It came back on in less than an hour and I put it back on and went back to sleep.

I go up Nawth soon. We are figuring out the final details now. Today I moved a lot of the computer crap (I have several dead computers I am 'working on') to under the TV table and then did some much needed paperwork filing. Tomorrow I start working on the desktop computer desk and other such cleanups. If I don't, Lorna will do it while I am gone and I will spend the rest of the year looking for stuff.

Can you believe it is MAY already??!! Me either.

Check out the WordCount page for updates on, well, word counts.

I have signed up for the Forward Motion Story-A-Day Challenge. I have done one today, so I am at least semi-active in something! What it is, you go to one of the 'plot generators' and write a story on the plot you are given. Cool? Well, yeah, but not as easy as it sounds! For example, mine today was:

My main character/protagonist is a female. My main character is a hair stylist. An archetype present in my story is King Arthur. A key object or symbol in my story is a escalator. My story will be set in Madrid. My story is about fairness. An event or situation in my story is adultery.

Now, YOU try to do something with that! I won't tell you what I did. Well, maybe if you ask nice.

What else have I done, writing wise? Does the fact that I about 20K behind on the Dare give a clue? Or that I did a grand total of 133 words today give another?? I just have had other things to do, other things I would rather do. I sit down and stare at the screen, nothing coming to mind. I think it's about to end though. It better!

In Real Life, Lorna has gone up Nawth to spend a long weekend with her folks. Years ago the high school vocal teacher retired. They (the former students and others) gathered and had a surprise concert for her. Apparently a lot of those Pennsylvania Dutch folks had taken her class! They all had so much fun, they now hold two concerts a year, with her as the director. Lorna's Dad and Sister sing in the group so she went up there to hear it. They now make recordings of each concert then sell/give away the tapes. The surprising thing is, these folks really are good!

Am I like behind again or what??

I got the first 50 pages of SS done and re-keyed. I worked some on the plot and have several more scenes to put in. They will really help the story along.

I need to get back into the groove of UHaTO (the two year novel) since the actual writing/plotting will begin soon. I believe it will be one of my best; SS being the best of course.

I am also considering looking at MoW again. I don't know yet. I think I will after SS is done but probably not sooner. I am crazy but I'm not stupid!

We went to the Silver Armadillo yesterday (a gemstone/stone/lapidary type of store) and after walking far too much, we bought a book: Love is in the Earth - A Kaleidoscope of Crystals by Melody. Its a book of the metaphysical properties of stones and crystals. Sarah mentions these often and I wanted to know a little more than what I could find on the net. Plus Lorna wanted it just to read.

In Real Life, Lorna leaves tomorrow night for a long weekend up Nawth to visit her family. She will leave Thursday and return Monday. Me and the dawgs are going to be on our own again. I leave in late May to go up Nawth too, but I will be gone for at least a month. There about. I have a neice who doesn't know me and I need to stay long enough for us to exchange memories. And I have a nephew who is growing up without me there. Oh, and of course there is my parents and my brother and his wife. Mom got in a stair lift so now I don't have to rent a hotel room. My brother's house is not accessible so I won't get to stay there as long as I usually do. At least not without a lot of drugs.

Went to see the sleep doc yesterday. We discussed my progress so far with the CPAP and decided I might need to get another mask. This one is leaking too much around the upper nose and therefore onto my eyes. Plus I went and broke mine last night so it is necessary now even more.

(by the way, SS = Simple Sarah; UHaTO = UHauls and Toaster Ovens; MoW = Mutts of Wayback)