When it rains it pours.

Well, we're on the 18th day of the month and I'm no where near the finish line for NaNoWriMo. I do believe I will fail in my 50K words this year. :(  I've had so much to deal with lately I knew it would be near impossible to take on the challenge this year. But that's me, I jump in and see what happens.

As I've already posted about, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer last month, and since then it has been a wild ride of nonstop doctor appointments, chemo treatments, and scheduling/filling/picking up scripts for all her prescriptions. Plus my "regular" life of raising children and caring for my household (dogs, cats, chickens, & even a husband!). And now, my paternal grandmother is at the final stage of her life. It won't be long before she'll be gone, and I've only known her for two years.

Yeah, it has been rough around here. I feel like I'm being pulled in more directions than my body can actually manage to be pulled in. There have been days where all I want to do is scream into a pillow and punch a wall (but I haven't...yet).

Not to mention, the longer I go without writing, the more frustrated I become. Frustration has become my middle name. :(  Writing is my break from the real world, a time to enjoy a fantasy world, and a way for me to vent without it actually being all about ME.

I texted my husband the other day on a particularly hard day and said, "I don't know why I even bother anymore."  To which my supportive man replied, "Because you love doing it."  And he was right. I do love writing! I love creating worlds from nothing. I love seeing what kinds of troubles my
characters will get into. And I especially love my readers!

I have been trying to hold onto his words: Because you love doing it. I needed that reminder. I needed that second of remembrance to feel connected to my day job. Even if I haven't been able to work like I'm used to. Writing is one of my joys and I certainly don't want to lose that.

So I'm going to resign myself to being a "loser" of NaNoWriMo this year. That's just the way it has to be. I don't have enough hours in the day to even come close to catching up and still do everything else I'm responsible for.

I will continue making handwritten notes while I'm sitting beside my mom watching poisons being pumped into her body to combat an enemy far worse. I will continue to type snippets into my cell phone notepad while I'm waiting for one of my kids to come out of school at pickup time. And I will continue to feel extremely frustrated about not having the hours and alone time to bring those notes and snippets onto my manuscript's pages. One way or another things will get done, even if it isn't on my timetable (and obviously it's not). I just have to remind myself to breathe, not panic, and just move along until things calm down enough to get back into my routine.

Mom is improving tremendously. She's beginning to take care of herself more and we're hoping it won't be long that she'll be able to take care of her own house again. Until then, I'll try not to scream into a pillow and punch a wall.

My Favorite Things: Electronics

http://www.roku.com/meet-roku

In the spirit of oversharing, today I want to talk about some of my favorite things in electronics.

We live in an electronic world; there's no getting around it. And in the spirit of that amazingly unique revelation (NOT!), here are a few things I don't think I could live without.

 

• Wi-Fi -- Though not really and electronic thing, a girl has to have Wi-Fi to run all the other good stuff.  Duh!
• Dell Inspiron Laptop -- Yep, it's my electronic drug of choice. My computer, my filing system, my database of useless knowledge, my friends from all over the world live inside of it. I go into panic fits at the thoughts of losing my computer and everything in it. Eek! My old Dell had to be sent back to Dell because it wouldn't come on and I attached a frantic note to it begging the tech department to NOT format my harddrive.  Nooooo!  At that point I had half  book written and stupidly didn't have it backed up anywhere else.  Trust me, I learned from that experience and now I back up everything in at least three locations.
• Kindle 2 -- Yes, it's older, bigger, heavier, and probably not as cool as the newer models, but my Kindle 2 has been with me for a few years now and it holds 99% of my library. On any given day I have the ability to pick it up and start reading a new book. Or even snag an old classic I enjoyed as a teen. If it weren't for Wi-Fi and my laptop, the Kindle 2 would be top on my list.
• Kindle Fire -- While I don't use it very often, I do enjoy my Kindle Fire. I take it along when I go out of town overnight (anything longer requires my laptop). I use it to entertain my kids at doctor appointments or other "boring" events/tasks in life. While I don't use it for reading (I don't like the glare), I appreciate that I can pull up any of my library at any time and pick up where I left off on the Kindle 2.
• Roku -- Some of you may not know what this is, so let me just say that it's the best thing for television since SyFy came into existence. LOL!  I'm just sayin'...  My family enjoys the ease of Roku that we actually have three boxes in the house. When given the choice between a cable box or a Roku box for her bedroom, my teenager chose the Roku. All of them are linked to my Netflix account and you can pretty much watch whatever you want at any time of day.
• Netflix -- Yep, I'm back into the "not an electronic" territory, but give a girl a break. I've been a Netflix subscriber for about 5 years now and have enjoyed it tremendously. Aside from getting movies in my mailbox all the time, I really love the streaming aspect of the service. If  get bored I can just turn it on (on my Roku box) and watch movies and tv shows I've never seen. Works for me!

 

What are some of your favorite electronic items?

My Favorite Things: Movies

Since I'm trying to get back into the flow of blogging regularly, I'm starting a new blog series titled My Favorite Things. These will be monthly and will range from today's topic of movies to books, nail polish, authors, electronics, and many more. There's no telling what I'll decide is a favorite thing to share with all of you.  ;)

Let's jump into today's post. Here is a list of my favorite movies (thus far), in no particular order or genre.

• Underworld series
• Queen of the Damned
• Skinwalkers (Not for the acting, but for the actor Jason Behr)
• Resident Evil series
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
• Wanderlust
• Fright Night
• The Adjustment Bureau
• Dogma
• Skyline
• Inception
• Lost Boys
• An American Werewolf in Paris
• Anything with Brenden Fraser ;)

Are we seeing a pattern here? Eek! :D  I do enjoy vampires, werewolves, ghosts, aliens, and any other monster. I'm also big on murder horrors: The Cabin in the Woods, Midnight Meat Train, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Ferryman, and many more.

What movies on are your favorites list?