flashy dogs, home-made lotion, and some writing wangst

I have skipped out on Kung Fu tonight OMG! I had been reading about this massive storm we're supposed to be getting tonight (cold front moving in, and finally, I mean it was 73 degrees here today, how the hell am I supposed to feel all Autumnish with this crap going on, I ask you,) with hugely gusting winds and all of this nonsense. And as some of you might remember, the road I take is not the safest in bad weather. And then someone on the West end got totally creamed by a falling tree through his windshield. On top of it all, I had a really bad feeling about driving tonight, and so here I am. And it's just mildly breezy, with a ghostly waning moon, whispy clouds kind of drifting by all storybooklike. Where the hell is this violent storm that was supposed to start, uhhh, seven minutes ago? Jaysus.

So a few weeks ago a friend of mine told me about these cool flashy-flash LED dog tags, you know, so cars can see your dogs at night if you walk them. Now of course, I've got a fenced in yard and all, but it's been a problem for years that I can't find my damn dogs at night. Two of them are black, you see, and they are very crafty about not wanting to come indoors when I call them. In fact, I've had to hunt them down clued in solely by the jingling of their various tags. Not fun at any time of the year. Although sometimes, if some lights are on, I can see Trisky's white tail tip. So I says to myself, I says, "Self," I says, "you should get you some of those flashy-flash LED dog tags, so you can always locate your dogs at night." THen last night I had a dream that all my dogs ran away down the North Road, and then I had another dream that I bought them all flashy-flash LED tags. So today, I went to the pet store and I bought them. Thinking, you know, how practical this all was, although I was strangely giddy about the whole thing. Then it occurred to me as I got in the car, Hey, is this really a practical thing? I mean, I'm still going to have to call the dogs indoors and they will still probably want to remain outdoors. After which I realized that this flashy-flash LED tag thing was probably more the idea of the thirteen year old girl that lives in my brain, the one who thought how cool it would be to have sparkly dogs!!

But I put the tags on anyway, and just before I had to take Haku out and I decided to light him up, as it were. I had no idea that these flashy-flash LED tags could light the entire goddamn neighborhood. Not only will I always be able to locate my dogs, but so will all the neighbors, and probably any airplanes flying over as well. I only hope they don't mistake my dogs for a landing strip. Again I say, jaysus.

Anyway, after the pet store I went down to Green Earth, and lemme tellya why. I mean, well really because I had to get my supply of soap and toothpaste and other non-animal tested things, but also because I wanted to buy any kind of organic lotion or oil. Anything, really, that didn't have parabens in them. ...The chemical preservatives called parabens—methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl (alkyl-p-hydroxybenzoates)—displayed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body´s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body´s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid—virtually every system in your body." Seriously, any obsessive-compulsive health conscious people reading, go and check out whatever lotion you use. It's probably got parabens in it. This sucks for me, because I use lotions almost constantly. I've got a bottle of skin lotion in every room. I use it every night after the shower, and first thing in the morning. I put that crap everywhere, and have been for years. Sure, I've got nice skin, but now I'm all paranoid. So I decided to look for organic stuff, because lately I'm obsessed with putting as few odd and random things into my system as possible.

So I was at the health product store looking at a 12 dollar bottle of mixed oils for the skin: olive oil, peanut oil, and a drop or dab of a few other kinds. 8 ounces, I think. I was about to buy it and then I said, "Huh? Can't I just buy, say, a liter of olive oil for like ten dollars and then mix in any other thing I want?" Which I then did. Then a little while ago I mused, how neat would it be to buy some cocoa butter, melt it, and mix that all in, too? How neat would it be to make my own damn skin lotion?

As well as being obsessive, I get weirdly ambitious sometimes.

So, when I came home from the stores, I sat down and decided, you know what, screw it, I'm going to write. The thought of it made me sick, because everything I've written has been total stink for the last few months, but I realized I had to stop censoring myself, to stop thinking whether or not editors or agents would even look at this crap, and to just have fun again. Some of the stuff I used to write wasn't all that godawful, but more than that, I loved writing it. And I haven't, not since I went all "OMG I would like to get published someday!" So I'm going to tell myself that I'm not going to get published, that I will just write the entire series for giggles and the occasional comment. That I will be the same self indulgent writer I used to be when I wrote fanfic exclusively.

And then, I did. I sat down and write a grand total of three paragraphs. Which, hey, is a lot more than I've written since September, I think.

Yeah, yeah, I say this every few months when I get discouraged with myself, and then it works for a few days, and then I start to hate it again. Blah blah. I suffer for my "art" and so now you have to, as well.

I think that Spencer and Meghan are coming out Friday night so that we can all take Gran to see Harry Potter. Harry Potter on its opening night, god help me. Hopefully Tricia will come, too.

Anyway, that's the news for right now. I'd better get back to listening to voice clips on GAFF writing now. Yes.

flashy dogs, home-made lotion, and some writing wangst

I have skipped out on Kung Fu tonight OMG! I had been reading about this massive storm we're supposed to be getting tonight (cold front moving in, and finally, I mean it was 73 degrees here today, how the hell am I supposed to feel all Autumnish with this crap going on, I ask you,) with hugely gusting winds and all of this nonsense. And as some of you might remember, the road I take is not the safest in bad weather. And then someone on the West end got totally creamed by a falling tree through his windshield. On top of it all, I had a really bad feeling about driving tonight, and so here I am. And it's just mildly breezy, with a ghostly waning moon, whispy clouds kind of drifting by all storybooklike. Where the hell is this violent storm that was supposed to start, uhhh, seven minutes ago? Jaysus.

So a few weeks ago a friend of mine told me about these cool flashy-flash LED dog tags, you know, so cars can see your dogs at night if you walk them. Now of course, I've got a fenced in yard and all, but it's been a problem for years that I can't find my damn dogs at night. Two of them are black, you see, and they are very crafty about not wanting to come indoors when I call them. In fact, I've had to hunt them down clued in solely by the jingling of their various tags. Not fun at any time of the year. Although sometimes, if some lights are on, I can see Trisky's white tail tip. So I says to myself, I says, "Self," I says, "you should get you some of those flashy-flash LED dog tags, so you can always locate your dogs at night." THen last night I had a dream that all my dogs ran away down the North Road, and then I had another dream that I bought them all flashy-flash LED tags. So today, I went to the pet store and I bought them. Thinking, you know, how practical this all was, although I was strangely giddy about the whole thing. Then it occurred to me as I got in the car, Hey, is this really a practical thing? I mean, I'm still going to have to call the dogs indoors and they will still probably want to remain outdoors. After which I realized that this flashy-flash LED tag thing was probably more the idea of the thirteen year old girl that lives in my brain, the one who thought how cool it would be to have sparkly dogs!!

But I put the tags on anyway, and just before I had to take Haku out and I decided to light him up, as it were. I had no idea that these flashy-flash LED tags could light the entire goddamn neighborhood. Not only will I always be able to locate my dogs, but so will all the neighbors, and probably any airplanes flying over as well. I only hope they don't mistake my dogs for a landing strip. Again I say, jaysus.

Anyway, after the pet store I went down to Green Earth, and lemme tellya why. I mean, well really because I had to get my supply of soap and toothpaste and other non-animal tested things, but also because I wanted to buy any kind of organic lotion or oil. Anything, really, that didn't have parabens in them. ...The chemical preservatives called parabens—methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl (alkyl-p-hydroxybenzoates)—displayed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body´s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body´s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid—virtually every system in your body." Seriously, any obsessive-compulsive health conscious people reading, go and check out whatever lotion you use. It's probably got parabens in it. This sucks for me, because I use lotions almost constantly. I've got a bottle of skin lotion in every room. I use it every night after the shower, and first thing in the morning. I put that crap everywhere, and have been for years. Sure, I've got nice skin, but now I'm all paranoid. So I decided to look for organic stuff, because lately I'm obsessed with putting as few odd and random things into my system as possible.

So I was at the health product store looking at a 12 dollar bottle of mixed oils for the skin: olive oil, peanut oil, and a drop or dab of a few other kinds. 8 ounces, I think. I was about to buy it and then I said, "Huh? Can't I just buy, say, a liter of olive oil for like ten dollars and then mix in any other thing I want?" Which I then did. Then a little while ago I mused, how neat would it be to buy some cocoa butter, melt it, and mix that all in, too? How neat would it be to make my own damn skin lotion?

As well as being obsessive, I get weirdly ambitious sometimes.

So, when I came home from the stores, I sat down and decided, you know what, screw it, I'm going to write. The thought of it made me sick, because everything I've written has been total stink for the last few months, but I realized I had to stop censoring myself, to stop thinking whether or not editors or agents would even look at this crap, and to just have fun again. Some of the stuff I used to write wasn't all that godawful, but more than that, I loved writing it. And I haven't, not since I went all "OMG I would like to get published someday!" So I'm going to tell myself that I'm not going to get published, that I will just write the entire series for giggles and the occasional comment. That I will be the same self indulgent writer I used to be when I wrote fanfic exclusively.

And then, I did. I sat down and write a grand total of three paragraphs. Which, hey, is a lot more than I've written since September, I think.

Yeah, yeah, I say this every few months when I get discouraged with myself, and then it works for a few days, and then I start to hate it again. Blah blah. I suffer for my "art" and so now you have to, as well.

I think that Spencer and Meghan are coming out Friday night so that we can all take Gran to see Harry Potter. Harry Potter on its opening night, god help me. Hopefully Tricia will come, too.

Anyway, that's the news for right now. I'd better get back to listening to voice clips on GAFF writing now. Yes.