Busy Not Blogging

A picture post to show why I’ve been so absent in the blogging sphere.

 

The end.

No, no. I tease. But that’s how I’ve felt this month. Everyone at work is taking their summer vacations, so I’ve been doing 30-35 hour work weeks, coming home to redo my bedroom, and doing wonderful (but exhausting) things with grandparents and coworkers the time I have off. I say time, not days, because again, I do a lot right after I get off work.

The 9th, I got my hair trimmed, and so did my sister. We gave her bangs. (She doesn’t have bangs yet in this one.)

Friday the 13th, my grandparents took Ej and me to our state fair. I wore heels the whole time as part of a new challenge I gave myself. Any day I’m not working and have to leave the house for whatever reason, I must wear heels. The girls in Korean dramas wear heels for everything, and I aspire to be that awesome.

I am the happiest person alive when I have a corndog.

The day after the fair, I worked. And then turned traitor by trying a pesto and cheese sammich not of Panera making…

Then I fell asleep. I’m rather good at catching up on sleep in odd places, contorting myself to fit where I need to.

I have worked on my room a total of six days, a few hours at a time when I get off work. I had to take down (by that I mean unscrew, rip apart, and basically destroy) a giant desk, move everything out of the way to fit a giant futon bed in, paint one section of wall at a time, let that dry, move all my belongings to the newly dry wall, paint the next section, and so on and so forth. Oh, and each section requires two coats of paint. So that’s been.. exhausting. But still fun, and I know it’ll be worthwhile when I can put all my Victorian things around the room.

Since I can’t afford a smiley vampire shirt right now, I compromised and got a toothy cloud tee for painting.

This Friday, the 20th, I took a break from my room to dress a little nicer and go to dinner at The Elephant Bar–Grandpa’s treat. Guess where we went after that?

Here’s a big hint…

AAAGFAGAODIGHODHGIURHOEFASAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was kind of amazing. Also, I fell in love with THIS MAN and if you look at those pictures, *coughs*dressed like a 19th century man*coughs* you’ll see why. Aaaaand his voice!! It was better than the Prince Eric on CD. Ursula was, too, although sadly, Ariel was not up to par. But that didn’t matter! I was there for the Prince, darnit!!! Kiss The Girl was intense because they kept coming THIS close and just…no, and then the costumes were spectacular… I just… gush, gush, gush. The one complaint I have was that weird crush Flounder had on Ariel. I know in the Broadway, he’s a little boy, and it’s adorable and I was expecting that. Instead, he was played by someone more teenagerish and he kept talking about how in love he was with her. Yeeeaah.

You can have this, to enjoy, though. It’s pretty much the whole reason I wanted to go see it.

As of today, my door frame is done in a “Romantic Smoke” colour; a darker rose in comparison to the lighter “Embroidery Rose” on the door. I have a pink door. Teeheehee!

So far, ’tis been a productive month.

 

 

 

 

30 Days of Writing: Day 11

11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?

Sometimes I wonder if these questions were invented by a writer. Some of them seem so absurd to me. Or maybe they were written by a non-writer who wanted to know how a writer-person thinks. But if they wrote a series of questions, that implies they’re a writer of some sort, for they wrote questions for writers to answer.

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused myself…

Again, how do I even answer these questions?

I’m almost positive I don’t have a least favourite character to write. There is a small sliver of doubt when I think of certain chapters… but even the villains can be disturbingly fun to write. They can be the most fun.

We’ve already established from a previous question that I love writing male characters. They’re so… not… female.

Torin is amazing. (King Torin, to ye peasantry!) He’s brash and thoughtless and sulky… come to think of it, I’m not a nice person for making Lira marry him. And yet I giggle with immense glee as I type those words. Teeheeheeheehee! xD

I haven’t written him in a while–which is a bad, bad thing–but Payne was always extremely enjoyable. He reminds me of Prince Zuko. Except I was writing him before I saw Prince Zuko, so the similarities surprised me.

Emma Browne. Oh, I loved writing her. So much so that I often toy with the thought of writing a new piece to continue where I left off. However, the words haven’t come as smoothly as before and I’m wondering if a sequel is simply not meant to be for Emma Browne. Perhaps she has no more to say to us.

If we step outside original works and talk about fan fiction, the entire cast of H2O are quite possibly the most fun ever, but especially Cleo and Lewis. Something about the accents. And the cheesiness of their story.

And most recently, Felicity Merriman as a six year old captive. That is some exceptionally fun writing.

Although I still can’t think of a least favourite character to write, there’s no doubt about which ones I struggle with the most. Any character in The Turnings. Many of them are based on people I know–myself included–and rather than finding it easier to write about what I know, I second guess every action, word, and thought. Would I really do that in such a situation? Is my Beta going to be insulted that I wrote her dialogue that way? Will readers think that was a selfish motive? Does it matter what they think if it’s more realistic?

Whoever said to write what you know never took real life and tried to turn it into a mock vampire novel. Because it’s not the best. It’s the hardest.

Featured Snippet

Within hours, everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spread several towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisement than typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It is impressive and unusual news, the sudden appearance of a mysterious circus. People marvel at the staggering height of the tallest tents. They stare at the clock that sits just inside the gates that no one can properly describe.

And the black sign painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, the one that reads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

-The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern

I have three days (now it’s two) to finish this book before it goes back to the library, and I’m nearing the end. So far it’s been absolutely breathtaking. It’s just… it’s magical. That seems a cliche, but really, I can think of no better way to describe it. I hope it ends as well as its begun.

Featured Image

This was actually taken by my mother, per my request. On the way to work at 4:20 in the morning, I noticed the sky was this gorgeous dark blue and the moon and stars made it look like a book cover, and not at all like real life. It could be the after effects of reading The Night Circus that made it so special, but it was quite a sight.

5 Looks I Want To Try

Five looks I might actually try, if only I had the money, skills, and bravery. (Or stupidity.)

• Shorts With Tights

We saw this look in London a lot. I guess it rains so much in England that people get desperate to wear shorts in the summer regardless of the weather. So girls would walk down the street, carrying giant, colourful umbrellas while wearing shorts over tights.

Zooey pulls off this look. But that’s not a big surprise. She can pull off a lot of quirky looks. This is also a look combining shorts and tights that I really want to try.

• Korean “Cutesy” Stuff

Like loose fitting tees with smiley faces and hoodies with animal ears.

tofebruary.com has oodles of stuff I want to buy. This “Playful Smile Top” would be in my closet or on my person at this very moment, except I can’t justify spending $24 on something I’d have to hide from most of my friends and family. I think it’s hilarious because it’s this vampire smiley face thing. Like, “Hellow! I’m adorable and cheerful and I just ate your arm off!” That’s the twisted side of me coming out. Oh, and look! The model is wearing shorts with tights, too; combining two daring fashion statements I want to try.

Kitty Hoodie from tofebruary.com – click to see more pictures

I could pull of this look. I could own it. This playful, cutesy stuff is so. me. The problem is that wearing anything like that would only put me in more danger of being mistaken for a twelve year old. I shouldn’t be tempted to make it worse for myself than it already is.

• Giant Feather Earrings

I actually own a pair of these already. I look at them sometimes and go, “I should match an outfit with these, because they’re just… so. fun!” And then I realise all my summer clothes are either work uniforms, sundresses, or the colour blue, and nothing I have goes with the brownish earrings. Plus, I have to wear my hair a certain way so the earrings don’t overpower my face, and that’s a complication all its own.

• Posh British Lady’s Hat

Speaks for itself, I think.

• A Short Pixie Cut!

I’m already set to try this for my 25th birthday! We’ll see how long my hair gets by then.

But I have to be careful. With my round, babyish face, I could end up looking like a boy instead of a sophisticated girl-woman. Even this might be a bit short in the bangs to look good on me.

Then there’s this, which I think is utterly adorable, but perhaps not brave enough for a 25th BOOM SHAKALAKAH! (Perhaps.) I can see it working as a style once the pixie cut starts to grow out a little bit.

But this… this one would be scary, and possibly still be feminine enough. I’m scared. And also excited. But I have three years and three months to get used to the idea!