I think my brain is melting

Happy Tuesday to all my wonderful friends. It is Tuesday right? Well, I think I jinxed myself by talking about my neighbors because since I posted that it's been cold and rainy here. No opportunities to even sit outside in my lush-ness. I have been pent up inside my house for a few days now and not very happy about it.

I do my best to keep my spirits up but the weather really affects me. I just read a blog that had an interesting way to keep her juices flowing and I seriously think I'm going to try it. She listens to music and keeps glow sticks around the house. If you have to ask what the glow sticks are for, let's just skip it.

I have also been reading another blog lately and she breaks writing down into such simple steps that it actually makes it enjoyable to try these new ideas.  The newbies should check it out or maybe those of you that are looking for something new.

I have started to kind of revise my WIP only because I became stuck. Stuck for too long. I felt that I was far enough through to go back to the beginning to do some editing and revising. Besides, what did I have to lose? It has helped to get me excited again and I've changed things up just a bit. I swear it feels like this thing is never going to be finished.But I will persevere no matter.

Yesterday was a blow off. I had nothing. I mean n-o-t-h-i-n-g! So I decided to paint. I had to force myself through the resistance. I am so glad I did though because I love what I did to the box yesterday. And as a result I got a well spring of ideas. Unfortunately not for writing but enough to finish this piece.

I'm finding this is usually what happens to me. I get excited and things are flowing and I am able to write and write and write. Then...I run out ink or something. And then I check my e-mails obsessively to see if anyone has sent me anything new, or I check to see if anyone critiqued my chapter, or to see if I have any new followers and when I find nothing, I get a tad bummed. My head can take me to strange and daunting places sometimes. I'm just sayin'.

I am also reading piles upon piles of books. I'm reading to read, but I'm also reading to learn about structure. This was suggested to me by a fellow blogger and probably my best internet friend (Terry), so I have been making notes in my books and highlighting like crazy. Oh well, I guess it can't be fun all the time...

Visions and Laughter

Have you guys ever been in the middle of a conversation with someone when out of nowhere you have a vision of just whipping an apple at their head? Or while they're talking to you and nibbling on something, just walking over with a dead pan expression and slapping their stupid little treat right out of their hand? Well, I do. This happens to me quite often.

When this happens, I can't help but to burst out laughing and then I'm sure you can picture the look on someone's face while in the midst of their story, I just begin to giggle uncontrollably. I actually have to make myself concentrate at times so that these images don't interrupt what I am doing in the moment. The best is when I'm alone and this happens. Then I laugh even harder when I hear my own laughter and realize I'm by myself laughing my ass off. (Please don't commit me).

Well, both of my children have the same idiosyncrasy. My daughter and I were sitting at McDonald's innocently eating our Big Mac's when a guy walked by our table and my daughter just broke out in hysterics, which made me do the same. When she could catch her breath enough she began to tell me that as the guy was walking by, she said, "Wouldn't it be funny if he just took our Big Mac's and threw them on the floor and kept walking?"  We laughed so hard tears came to our eyes. And my laugh is one that causes my body to jerk uncontrollably, rock back and forth and you can hear it from across the street. Periodically throughout the day this image will flash through our minds and we crack up again.

It could happen at any time, anywhere and out of nowhere, I just laugh. The people who know me, know what's going on and I'm sure it might be quite embarrassing at times for them but it's a curse I (we) have to live with. And they have learned not to ask, "What?" because it takes me a good hour to explain what I just saw due to a lack of oxygen and ongoing bouts of laughter.

I used to enjoy this affliction before I realized that most people don't find it as humorous as I do when I try and explain the picture. "Whipping an apple at someone's head? My gosh, they could be seriously hurt," someone might say to me. Then of course I feel like an evil soul that has come to roam the earth for an eternity of obscene visions and twisted laughter.

Sadly enough, it even happens to me at funerals which I won't go into here. I'm sure you can come up with your own scenarios, which would make you agree with most people in  my life saying that I have a sick sense of humor.

But now, I guess it's not a curse after all, someone has sent me a girl and a boy who can enjoy these little glimpses of hilarity with me. YAY!

~Live Happy

Oh, and so far this week I have cranked out an estimate of 8,000 words. I'm finding that I am going back trying to remember who had green eyes and who had blue or if they are returning the keys or the gun. And every now and then Shay and Jake will carry on their own little conversation that doesn't quite go along with the plan I had for them but I'm going with it.

For now, I'll just write and edit later.

As far as my painting goes, I spent all week trying to find the right red. I also bought myself some pastels. WooHoo! Oh how I love pastels. I tend to draw on my walls every now and then so I figure the non-oil-based pastels would be best for washing off if necessary. Dave thinks the stick figure with big hair walking across our living room wall on a tight rope is kind of dumb, but I like it.

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