Monthly Archives: December 2008

Year-end meme

Posted on by Sherri
3

Borrowed from What I Got So Far. He can have it back when I’m done.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Had writer’s block. Real writer’s block, not “I don’t know what to write,” but “I’m too frozen with fear to write.”

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I always resolve to do more things just for pleasure. I usually keep that resolution.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
No real ones. Only the ones I made up.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A book deal.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
November 17, because…well I’ll just be cryptic here and say it was a great day of personal growth. And it’s the only event I can actually remember the date for.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Overcoming my shyness and pitching my book at the OWFI conference in May.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Truthfully? I don’t think I had any big failures. And if I did fail at something I ended up better for it, so that’s success, too.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes, the fragrance sensitivity, though I didn’t know what it was till late this year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Fragrance-free household products.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Though it came late in the year, my husband’s.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
This girl whom I can not name because I’m afraid she would scream at me by email again. Wait, two girls.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Utilities and mortgage. Boring, I know.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Several things. My meeting with the editor at the con, then getting my office insulated so I could work up there. Also getting out from under the writer’s block.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Maybe Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Linkin Park

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
Happier, fatter, and richer even though we have less money.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Write.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Obsess over things I can’t control.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I hosted a giftless Christmas, the best Christmas I think I’ve ever had.

21. Did you meet/date anyone special in 2008?
Only my husband.

[22 is missing]

23. How many one-night stands?
Five. The number of times my husband and I made whoopie. Just kidding.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
30 Rock and Friends reruns

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope. Still zero.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Time Traveler’s Wife.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Linkin Park

28. What did you want and get?
Self-respect.

29. What did you want and not get?
A book deal.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I honestly can’t remember any films I loved. The one that sticks in my head was a few years old that I saw on TV, with Bill Murray as a Jaques Cousteau type guy, his name started with a Z…

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I did nothing and I was 38.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Some boobs. Oh wait, that was WIGSF’s answer. I have those, and let me tell ya, it ain’t all that. My REAL answer is: finishing BVAl and starting the next project.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Goodwill.

34. What kept you sane?
I felt fairly unstable all year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Well, Johnny Depp is always right up there.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I hate politics.

[37 is missing]

38. Who was the best new person you met?
The editor at the conference, IF he ever answers my agent’s query. But that will obviously be next year. Does that count, if he doesn’t actually impact me until the year is over?

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
You really do teach people how to treat you.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

“So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?”

“Wish You Were Here” –Pink Floyd

Ass

Posted on by Sherri
5

For some reason, people are finding this blog via the search term “ass”. Do I say “ass” a lot? Maybe I do. But do I say it so much that it would show up in a search engine as an authority on ass? Maybe it’s because some time ago Dwight put a link to a picture of a horse’s ass (another term I get in my search column) in the comments.

Well, for whatever reason, I feel I must solidify my place as the site to come to when you’re wanting ass.

So to that *ahem* end:

  • ass ass ass ass ass
  • ass ass ass
  • ass ass
  • ass ass ass ass
  • ass

and

Ass ass ass ass ass ass, ass ass ass ass ass, ass ass ass ass.

Ass.

Come on, spammers.

A new fence for 2009

Posted on by Sherri
4

I had a great writing day yesterday. I wrote for 3 whole hours while Richard stayed downstairs with the 2 little kids, and the two bigger kids went shopping. I probably won’t get that kind of time today, because today the Dallas Cowboys play the last regular season game. If they win, they clinch the second wild card spot.

I’m surprised to find I resent the time I won’t be writing. I’m finding myself finding ways around it, like venturing out into the early morning cold to my office, making the children fend for themselves in the food department, or *gasp* skipping the game.

A good writing day can make the whole year seem better. For most of 2008 writing equated to pulling my own teeth out of my head with pliers. Actually, 2008 felt that way in most areas. I had to work hard to keep my enthusiasm, my sanity. When those things are hard to come by you start to wonder if you’re fooling yourself. If maybe the sluggishness and self-doubt and confusion are the real feelings, and any attempt to counter-act them is just paint on a rotten fence.

So I guess I’ve spent the year rebuilding that fence, one picket at a time. Boy, does it hurt to pull off those rotten planks. Sometimes they don’t look rotten, because of all those layers of paint. Sometimes I think, “Well I can’t pull off that one, or the whole thing will fall apart.” But the rot is spreading, so I pull it off and guess what: the fence doesn’t fall apart. Instead, I have a nice clean space to put a new picket.

One of those pickets represents a fresh perspective on writing. Another is self-confidence, and isn’t that a surprise. Another is a renewal of my marriage, and self-worth, and family.

I didn’t realize how stressful this year was until the stress relaxed a little. I feel big changes coming next year, but I won’t speculate on the nature of the changes. I’ll just keep pulling off the rotten pickets so I’ll have a place to nail those new ones when they’re finally delivered.

~~~

It’s always a little embarrassing reading old posts. They just reveal me as such a damn dork, and I don’t see it till a year has past, and by then it’s too late to yank ‘em down. So since it’s too late and everybody already knows I’m a dork, here are 2007 and 2006. Be kind.

Happy New Year, everybody.

One mo ‘ginn! *

Posted on by Sherri
4

I don’t even know what to say about my Christmas. It was…it was…teh awesome! I started the week thinking my holiday would consist of playing with the toys the kids opened that morning, but Monday my mom confirmed, and soon after both my brothers did, too. I could easily have gone off the deep end cleaning the baseboards with a toothbrush, but I chose to let them see my house as I live in it, which ain’t that bad anyway. Except for the fridge, but every household has its junk room.

So I looked through the cookbook to find a couple of desserts I could make with minimal effort, went to the store on Tuesday afternoon for ingredients and sandwich supplies. No turkey. Sandwiches, a veggie platter, pumpkin pie from a can, and apple cobbler.

There was some exchanging of gifts when my mom got here, but I squeezed my eyes shut until it was over, and *presto* it’s like it never happened.
I was amazed at how scentless everybody made themselves. There was a little residual scent that all people on the outside have, just from being around it all the time, but the effort they all put forth on my account was the best Christmas present ever. I was able to relax and have a great time with my family.
No Mary Tyler Moore party here. No disasters. Oh sure, I forgot to make coffee like I’d planned. I also forgot to take a single picture. I didn’t have enough plastic cups. The bathroom shelves were a mess. That was the downside. And you know what? Nobody cared.
The upside? I guffawed with my brothers over nonsense. My first-ever apple cobbler was divine. My living room was stuffed full of people who love me. After months of feeling separated from the world by my scent problem, I reconnected.
Can we have Christmas every month?
* This is a family thing, baby-talk meaning “I want to go again!” I don’t remember whose baby. Might have come from the hub’s family.