25 Random Things...

So I'm doing a cross post of my 25 Random Things list from Facebook. Hope you enjoy a look into my lameness!!! As if you needed more evidence of that...

My List of 25 Random Things

1. I have been working for almost 15 year in a place that I totally believe in and will most likely stay for my entire career. Even if I become a novelist!!!

2. My family’s nickname for me is Moose.

3. My grandma’s nickname for me is Sweet Face.

4. I have been stressed out since birth…I’m sure I have told you the story about how I made my Mommy go and get work I missed from kindergarten when I was out sick for a week. Hello??? Type A personality much?? Childhood?? Peeshaw…

5. I’m allergic to soy…and that rhymes with Joy. Joy can eat no soy. ;)

6. I am an INFJ…introverted, intuitive, feeling, closure fanatic. Not pretty…

7. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes…I just sort of took it on. Didn’t cry. Didn’t stress. I was oddly at peace. I’m not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

8. I miss my Grandpa, Chass, and Joel every single day.

9. My best friend is my sister and I have no clue how I could exist without her.

10. I am addicted to Vera Bradley…seriously…I have a problem. I justify every purchase with some lame excuse…when really…it is all just so pretty!!! And it makes me happy!!!

11. I would love to work in a particular hospital someday…and not just because there are cute doctors who sometimes do bench science too. SWOON!!!

12. I hope that someday I can work in Palliative Care…because I think I would be really good at it.

13. I am super organized and crazy with the lists.

14. I have learned over the past two years that I am really good at event planning too. Who else could help get a big meeting of really smart people together in about six weeks? And have a small team of folks who caught the dream and worked their butts off too to make it happen.

15. I REALLY REALLY love my job and am so happy that my career has unfolded the way that it has. I have been so lucky!!

16. I am a total romantic and wake up every day thinking that it could be the day that I finally find “him”. Whoever he may be. (I can’t believe I just wrote that…LAME!!!)

17. I still can’t quite believe that I get to volunteer at Camp Fantastic…despite my shyness. I must have done something right/good along the way in life to be bestowed the honor.

18. I really, really love to write and would love to publish a novel someday.

19. I am so excited to celebrate my rescheduled birthday on February 13. Which…by no accident…is the same day that “Confessions of a Shopaholic” movie is released. Reading Sophie Kinsella made me think that perhaps I could be a chick lit author.

20. I am embarrassed that I have such a low friend count on Facebook…although I did just join…I will not be able to tag 25 people. (More proof of how LAME I am…)

21. I miss happy hours with my IT friends/family…one of these days I will get the full crew out together again. Or rather…not work so late that I miss the ones that are scheduled.

22. I love Duff on Ace of Cakes…he is like a big teddy bear…with cutest darn laugh.

23. I love Henry Rollins…I read his books/poetry to help me write from the male perspective.

24. I am so proud of my friend Nicol who is doing the Iron Girl in August.

25. I finally after way too many years…finally outsourced cutting the lawn this past October. Boy will this coming summer be awesome…hello lounging and tanning!!!

Progress on a Week Night??? (Word Count = 96,011)

Why yes...I inched up to 96K this evening after typing up my notes from this morning's coffee writing and adding some embellishes as I typed along. I have my fingers crossed that I can write more tomorrow AM too. We shall see. As I learned this past November, apparently a Venti Mild Coffee stirs the right inner juices to get word flow going.

It was fun this AM sitting in Starbucks watching snow flurries fall in the very early AM. It was so calming really. Sitting at a tiny table with a journal to scribble my "Lolly Friar" words into. It made for such a calm day. It is like my 30 minute writing sessions are like yoga or meditating. It is a springboard to a better balanced day. Here's to getting back to more regulated schedule where I can write.

PS - My rescheduled birthday is fast approaching and I am so excited. Lots of fun coming up this weekend too. Have I mentioned how glad I am that January is over??

Did I do more novel writing?? (Word Count = 95,143)

I did!! I did!! I'm 5K words away from 100K. Can you believe it? I swear...I'm a bit blown away at the moment. The fact that I am still working on the same project. The fact that I am at 219 pages. The fact that when I could have given up and put this one on the shelf with all the others I did not. I really think that this is the one. I am going to finish. I think I can. I think I can. I'm the little writer that could!!

Actually...I am not sure why I have been using the LIttle Engine That Could to describe things recently. I was using it at my meeting this week too. I kept saying that it was the little meeting that could and then someone said once we got to the end that it was the big meeting that did. I feel in some strange way the same thing for my current work in progress. Whatever the title will be...this is the one that I am going to finish. I think I can...I think I can.

Another Muse Revealed...

It most likely is not much of a surprise that I tend to be of the school that believes things happen for a reason. Or that sometimes little signs are thrown your way to tell you that you are on the right path. I find that this happens most in terms of my writing. The little slaps upside the head that should browbeat me into getting my butt in the chair and writing. I had to share the latest such happening with you…

Let’s flash back a bit to July 2, 2008 just after Lolly Friar was born in my mind and I was flirting with the idea of one of her suitors. He was going to be a doctor (because I love hospitals and they always make it into a novel I work on) and he was going to be someone who was super science smart and had a certain kind of look. Blue Eyes (of course!!). Short (huh??). Evidence of some blonde hair (say what??). Here is the line that occurred to me on the way into work many months ago.

To set the context…it is with Lolly and her very best friend Eliza as Lolly is describing "the good doctor" –

“Think ER’s Dr. Romano.”

Eliza looks at me totally gob smacked, choking a bit on her salad. It must have been a vicious piece of arugula.

“I know, right? And yet I was all a twitter.”

So on Thursday night after having collapsed finally after the highs of my meeting earlier in the week, I awoke with no reason. Upon channel surfing a bit to relax, I stumbled upon ER. I have not watched in years…and it was a truly fantastic episode. Dr. Mark Greene was back in flashback and it was poetic. And then…as if summoned to get me writing again…Dr. Robert “the rocket” Romano in all his glory appeared in the episode too. Being an ass (did I mention how much I LOVED his character back in the day??) with something a bit more hidden way, way deep beneath the whole “god complex surgeon” stuff. Well…that is at least what I believe. ;)