Writing, writing, writing, and then....nothing.

I know I am. so. not. alone. in this horrible moment where you're all excited for your story, and your fingers cannot pound out the ideas fast enough.  You have no problem spending all your free time sitting at your computer, cluttering it up with dishes, music blaring, and ignoring phone calls unless it happens to be your writing buddy (ies).  You think to yourself: This is it! *insert crazy mad laugh* This is going to be THE story!

And then....

It just kinda dies.

I'm not experiencing writer's block. Trust me, I know when I have that. I'm experiencing....well, I'm not for sure. I don't want to call it boredom because writing is anything BUT boring. Laziness, maybe? No drive at all?

Due to me reading more fantasy novels and watching Game of Thrones (ohmoigah - loovveee), I started in on Fairy Tale Novel again.  Now I told myself I wasn't supposed to touch any other ideas until Gus Novel was done, but two wise writing buddies told me to just go where my muse was, and it was there. So there. I'm talking like the above paragraph kind of there, and then I just lost my desire to keep writing it. Or ANYTHING for that matter. I have all these ideas. Tons of notes and storyboards crammed full of inspiration, but still I don't want to write them.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

But I don't like it.

I no like it at all.

Happy Father's Day!

thank you 

for always letting me tag along.

for taking care of us even when you were having your own bad days.

for making sure things were kept sane (or as sane as our family can be - ha!) while mom went back to school.

for a ridiculous nickname like sam hambone lollipop hobo melon belly jones.

or just sammy jones for short.

for cool family outings like going to the imax to see the rolling stones.

for allowing us to play our music as loud as we wanted, as long as it wasn't rap or country cause you didn't like it.

for 'daily doses of the dead' car drives and stories from back in your day.

for making sure we know how much you and mom love both of us.

for never telling me that being a writer was a burnt out dream.

Easter Sunday 2012 - the day Padre got baptized!

for giving us faith.

for reminding all of us that God has our backs.

for never giving up even though I know some days you want to.

for always being open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

high-sign.

love you, padre.

Music Monday: The Vinyl Haul

I went on an album search the other day in my parents' attic. My Padre has probably over 700 records or at least that was his last count years ago. I go over and borrow them because as he's told me many of times the only way they'll actually be mine is when he's 'kicked the bucket' and since I'm kinda partial to my Padre, I'm quite fine with just borrowing them. As my mom likes to throw in some of those were hers too and he's not the keeper of the records :)

This haul includes: 

The B-52's: Cosmic Thing

Blondie: Parallel Lines

Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy, Volume 4, and Master of Reality

Madonna: Like a Virgin

Prince: 1999

Cheech and Chong's Greatest Hits

The Eagles: Hotel California

Aerosmith

There has been a lot of dancing in the mornings, busting out the air guitar, and rocking out like a complete fool. I heart me some vinyl!

Why Snow White and the Huntsman ticked me off.

Before I go into my spill here, just know that if you read this post I will ruin this movie for you. If you don't want me to ruin the movie for you then you should probably stop reading this right now.

I love fairy tales. I've been on a massive fantasy type kick too. Every time I saw the trailer for the movie, I knew it was going to be awesome.

And then it turned out it kinda wasn't.

You have to know this about me and movies. I just want to be entertained. You can have missing plot holes, cheesy moments, and most of the time I don't care. This is a girl who loves her Lifetime and cheesy B movies for crying out loud. But this one just ticked me off. Is it because I was going in thinking it was goign to be all sorts of epic? Probably so. So this is my ranty post where I will probably not make much sense. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Right at the beginning with the narrator the fairy tale lover inside of me was giddy. The sets were spot on, I felt like I was in the era and as the story started I was in awe of how they portrayed the evil Queen. Charlize Theron freaking rocked that part, y'all! From the facial expressions to the wardrobe to her overall performance I was like CHYEA!! You are wicked as hell.

The effects for this movie were no doubt stunning. They totally nailed it with that. I have been on this massive kick of fantasy type things lately and one is Game of Thrones. I just finished season one before I watched this so in the back of my head I kept thinking when it came to the Queen: Please oh please no incest with your creepy looking brother. I cannot handle that with my 12-year-old niece sitting beside me. Thankfully that line was never crossed. (I don't care how things rolled back in those days, the whole 'pure bloodline' concept is skeezy.)

One of these days a fly is gonna zip into that hanging mouth of hers.

And then Snow White. I'm not a big Kristen Stewart fan. She's kind of like a Jodi Foster to me - not my cup of tea. I guess her acting as improved some, but sweet bejeez she needs to stop pulling a Corey Haim and learn to close her mouth in scenes. It doesn't ALWAYS need to be hanging open. BUT I told myself to be open minded because I really, really wanted to love this movie.

Just like every other girl on the block, I adore Chris Hemsworth so him being the Huntsman was perfection. Seriously how fantastic is he?! If you disagree with me, we probably shouldn't be friends. He just has that charisma about him, and I have a serious thing for rugged looking guys. His entrance of getting his drunken butt kicked around had me cracking up.

So let's fast forward to Snow's escape from the castle, running through the dark woods - which was creepy and again awesome effects - and pairing up with the Huntsman, I was really enjoying the movie. As I sat there watching this adventure they were put through from constantly having to escape the Creepy Brother to all the scenes with the Queen and how she was aging to meeting the dwarfs who were probably a top favorite part of mine, something started to nag at me and I couldn't quite place it until I realized Snow White kinda sucked. Not just because it was Kristen playing her. What kind of personality is this girl supposed to have when most of her scenes involve her grunting and breathing?? I know she was on the run a lot, but it seems that's all she did! A friend of mine said she sounded worse than Darth Vader, and I'm going to have to agree with this one. It was so annoying!

I know this movie was never supposed to be a love story. It's a dark tale and that's cool. I will roll with that. But c'mon - where was the connection between them? You have these two out on a quest to get back to that duke or whatever he was's castle and you can't even throw a few small get-to-know-one-another-semi-deep-type of conversations in? And a lot of this didn't really hit me-hit me until after William joined them and the scene with the poison apple happened. (I did like that scene, Sam Claflin fooled me for about five seconds thinking he was on the Queen's side until she showed her face.) Afterwards where Snow's dead and William goes into kiss her, I'm thinking he needs to be the one that brings her back to life. I know she's been with the Huntsman, but their relationship was flat. At least William and her had this childhood connection and the constant longing to see one another again.

Obviously she didn't wake up when he kissed her. Fine, whatever. It wouldn't be called Snow White and the Huntsman if it wasn't going to be centered around them. So I was cool with that with it until my half drunken man goes to visit Snow's corpse. Him telling her about his wife, how her death ruined him showed a lot for his character so I was a bit aww over him, but then he throws in how Snow reminded him of his dead wife, Sarah. *insert my shaking head here* Whoever put this script together showed us absloutely nothing between these two that would make this statement believable.

Okay, fine, whatever. His kiss wakes her up, she shows up in the middle of the place while everyone isn't freaking out as much as I assumed they would have been and declares they take back the kingdom! Hoorah! Time for the epic battle scene BUT wait a second....you want me to believable that Snow White, who has been locked away in a freaking tower most of her life, can suddenly throw on some armor, grab a sword, and lead people into battle? I did have to get up and pee at one point, did I miss something here? If it's that easy to just charge a bunch of trained knights then maybe I should take up slicin' and dicin'.

But you know what? I could have overlooked all of this. No seriously, I really could have. Like I said, I'm a Lifetime movie watcher, I'm used to the main points being skimmed over. But it was the last let's say five minutes of the movie that just ticked me off to no end.  The fact that there was absolutely no mention at all how that man's lips of magic woke her up from the freaking dead. No "Hey, by the way, Huntsman, thanks for smoochin' me and bringing me back to life so I could use the blessing from the crazy looking dear who turned into butterflies to restore my father's kingdom. Pretty sure I'll be keeping your pretty face around just in case someone tries to poison me." He didn't even get a thank you or a pat on the back! Instead at the very end where I think something great is going to happen like the acknowledgement of it or maybe even a together type of scene, he walks into the room where Snow has been looking for him the entire scene and she just stands there staring at him with her big ole' teeth and the doors shut!!

Lame. As. Hell. Seriously. I didn't expect a wedding or anything, but who thought those final minutes was a great idea for an ending? I've heard the original ending involved the Huntsman dying. I think I may have preferred that now. I also heard there is a talk of a sequel, but it seems pointless to me.

And that is my peace about this movie. What did you think of it?

Perks of Being a Wallflower Trailer!!

Guuyysss.

I am so ridiculously excited about this!

Back in my sophomore year of high school, ya know about oh many years ago, I was in the stage of wanting to rebel against nothing, wanting to find something, and live in every moment. 

And I did.

In between those moments this book came along and it pretty much made more sense to me than any subject I could have learned. I can still remember reciting the poem on page 70 in front of my class where as luck would have it the assistant principal just so happened to be sitting in on. His face was stunned, a bit speechless. But my teacher, Mr. Lawson, he grinned because he knew what it was all about. 

Yea, he was one of those teachers. 

I knew the movie was being made and I jumped for joy. Seeing the trailer, I have this overwhelming squeeze going through me. The cast looks perfect. I can't even tell you the last time I read this, but I'm definitely going to be doing another one, quite possibly my 30th time reading it, before I go see the movie.  

What book hit you in high school? 

currently.

READING: Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It's all Netflix's fault. Last week I had to have a procedure done and the whole weekend I was in bed so I put in the first disc of season one. Oh man, did I become hooked! Only problem was it was the mail-in type. Wal-Mart didn't have it so I downloaded it to my Kindle. It's long, but I am loving it! I ended up finishing watching the first season and now I cannot wait to read more of the series because it'll be for-freaking-ever before season 2 comes out on DVD.

WATCHING: Since Game of Thrones is all watched up I have went back to my regular scheduled programmed trashed reality TV which includes Jerseylicious, Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding. Don't judge me. All my fall shows are over with and this week all my good summer shows start.


ANTICIPATING: News of my new job! I am really hoping by next week when I call the position has opened up.

LAUGHING ABOUT:  When I was at my parents' house earlier. My mother has this ability to pretend listen. She asked me how some health stuff was going and then averted her eyes back to The Real McCoy or whatever the heck was on and in mid-sentence I say something like, ".....so then I gave birth to a bunch of dragons and became the Queen." She goes, "Oh that's not...YOU DID WHAT?!"

LISTENING TO:  I hit repeat on this song a couple times while at the walking park earlier (clocked in 2.5 miles!) It pretty much describes how my mind has been feeling lately.

EATING: Gluten-free yogurt pretzels as I type. Let's say my diet is getting healthier and I'm slowly feeling better because of it. I just wished I would have done this a few weeks ago since I have plans this weekend that may not happen :(

 
WORKING ON: Since I'm on this big fantasy kick I have been working on Fairy Tale Novel again. I busted out a little over 23K last week on it. I have a better understanding of my characters and am loving them. It's a great feeling to have. Just ask any writer.

WISHING: By the end of the month to feel completely and utterly fine again where I don't have to worry about going places. I'm tired of being a hermit!! Been there, done that and I don't want a repeat.

Currently is over at Sometimes Sweet. I have seen it here, there, and everywhere on blogs and finally decided to join in! 

Going Gluten-Free - HELP!

Over the past week I've had a few tests and one procedure done to start ruling out what all could be causing me to have such bad stomach problems for the past year. I was diagnosed with IBS or what I like to call DIMB (Demon In Mah Belly). That wasn't new news. I got that when I was a teen, but it had always just went in small phases. The constant feeling like crap is having me at my wit's end not to mention embarrassing at times. I have to cancel going out with friends or even going to the movies is sometimes a challenge.

I've been ruled out of colon polyps, cancerous colon options (THANK GOD!), Chrone's Disease, and Celiac's Disease. I still haven't gotten all my biopsy results back, but the more I researched, the more I convinced myself that going gluten free might be a good idea. I'm on Day 8 of being pretty much G-Free and I've noticed a BIG difference with how I've felt. I'm also taking a fiber supplement and having to buy that at the store made me feel like I'm 70 instead of 27.

The fallback to going G-Free is that it's kind of a pain in the butt especially for someone who lives in a very small town where one little section of the grocery store has about 20 items. I'm heading to Springfield in a few days with a cooler in my backseat just so I can go to Hy-Vee and stock up on grocery items. That's a 60 mile drive mind you, but if it makes me feel better than I am all for it. I also ordered a couple cookbooks from Amazon to help me adapt to this new lifestyle. It's crazy to think for the past 2 months my symptoms were a constant me wanting to curl in a ball and die and out of the 8 days, the past 3 of them I have felt normal again.

Here's where I'm reaching out to the interwebs and anyone who happens to read this half-arse blog of mine. Any recommendations on some good brand products to check out? I know some of that stuff taste like cardboard crap, and I do have a budget to maintain and this stuff ain't cheap. Or do you have some awesome websites that show some good recipes? I know quick and easy isn't going to be the best option. Since sometimes I always feel like I'm in a hurry having to spend more than 10 minutes in the kitchen is going to take some time getting used to. Not to mention the fact that I LOVE BREAD AND I CAN LONGER EAT IT!! So far most gluten-free bread taste like well...crap.

Any suggestions, advice, or whatever you can throw my way into getting into the new lifestyle would be GREATLY appreciated!