Not much to talk about today. I've finished the 7th book in The Outlander series finally (it only took 9 months!), and did a little research and found that the author, Diana Gabaldon is in the process of writing an 8th book, so I guess I have to do something in the meantime to tide myself over. I think I'm going to to go through the entire Patricia Cornwell/Dr. Kay Scarpetta series again and then it will be onto The Clan of the Cave Bear series which I tried starting once but couldn't get into.
I really like the prospect of having such an incredible and wide variety of books to look forward to reading. It helps mix up the monotony of daily life, and it's nice to not know what to expect, and it's wonderful to get lost in another time and place with drama of new and different characters.
Anyway, the point of me saying that is to express my new-found boredom at work today. I brought the first two books of the Scarpetta series with me, but just haven't worked up the energy to get going on the first one yet. My mom has suggested I read a book called The Discovery of Witches, which I started the day I gave plasma last week. It is interesting, no doubt, with witches and vampires and daemons and humans, but I'm not sure I want to move on to a single book, and not a series.
Either way, I've been trying to keep myself busy by surfing the net, and without facebook to hang out on all day long, it leaves me a bit short and so I've had to be kind of creative. I've looked at new places to live and I've researched in detail possible new vehicles to replace my car which I fear may be getting close to the end of it's life with me. I've been searching for new cars for awhile, and my dream car is a Jeep Wrangler 4-door with a soft top and power everything, but I simply cannot afford that. So I've looked at Jettas and I'm thinking of the Subaru WRX. I know my parents are not keen on the idea of me buying foreign (they're Chevy people), but a girl wants what a girl wants. I want something sporty, with 4 doors and power everything, that gets good mileage and front-wheel drive for the winter. It's gotta be either black, dark blue, or purple. And I'd have to finance it, so I'm looking at anything after 2008. It looks like I'd get a better deal if I sold my car privately to get retail value on it instead of trading it in, but that would require me to have a back-up vehicle which I don't have, so that may be out of the question. But we're talking a $2K difference in what I'd be getting for it, so it might be worth the trouble. I've found that the Jetta has fun extras I hadn't thought about, like heated seats and heated side mirrors, so right now that's what I am leaning towards. As though I have an extra $400 a month to spend on a car payment right now!
But it's fun to dream. And it's not entirely fantastic - once I get caught up on my bills and go back to school, I'll be saving an extra $200 on insurance and student loan payments monthly, so it could actually work.
I'm also trying to load up on H2O in preparation for my trip to the plasma center tomorrow. I'm eating well today (Cheerios to help lower my cholesterol and a Lean Cuisine for lunch), and I'm already up to 60oz of water. When I tried to donate blood unsuccessfully, the tech suggested I drink about 100oz of water in the 24 hours in order to facilitate easier donation from my tiny-ass veins. He might have just been blowing smoke up my ass and came up with a nice, round number, but I figure, more water can't possibly hurt. So I'll be continuing to hydrate for the rest of the day.
I plan to get up around 7am to go donate (sell? Donate is not the proper verbiage for that because I am being monetarily compensated for my blood plasma), so that I still have plenty of daytime left with which to nap or read or clean or whatever. After work today I am going to go get a burrito from Chipotle (YUM!) and go eat it while my family eats pizza (typical Friday meal), and then I'm going to go to bed a little early so that waking up early tomorrow isn't quite so painful. Even though it's Friday, and the end to a VERY long week, I can't drink tonight if I want to donate tomorrow. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my chances of donating successfully and I would really prefer if it didn't take 6 damn hours again, although I am trying to be prepared for that possibility.
When I woke up this morning, I turned on the live coverage of the Royal Wedding, which I missed most of, but The Kiss (proper noun) was scheduled for 6:25am sharp, and so I got to see that bit, even though that's what most of the news pictures are of. It was quite romantic, and Kate Middleton looked oh, so pretty, and her gown was very simply and classic and gorgeous. She looked exactly as I would imagine a Disney princess to look. Obviously in all the run-up to the big event involved a whole lot of comparison to previous royal weddings, and after seeing Prince Charles and Diana's wedding video, Prince William and Kate looked so much more at ease and so much happier than Diana and Charles did. That gave me some comfort, although I don't know why. I think watching the coverage of such a magnanimous event before work today set my mood on a very tranquil and comforted path for the day, because I've felt that way all day long. It might be the first wedding I haven't been enormously jealous of since I was like 18.
When I got to work, I watched a bunch of new trailers, which is perhaps one of my top three favorite things in the entire universe to do, and many of them are for movies that were presented at Sundance, so they're independent and low-budget and tend to be a little more heartfelt and twisted emotionally, and it got me thinking about the book I want to write and the screenplay I want to adapt out of it and the movie it will make. Which then got me motivated to actually get started on it, which I did. Nothing fancy or complicated; I only started making a list of events that I want to include in the story. And I think after all this time, I've decided what I want the whole thing to look like. It's going to make a great movie - that much I can tell you now. It's going to be "based on true events," and while it's nothing considerably adventurous, I think it's an emotionally exciting story that other people might find interesting. I'm going to use my family as the main focus, and use all the same events and situations as part of the storyline and plot points, but I'm going to have to exaggerate some things and change some things so that it's not exactly the same. But it feels really good to have gotten started on it. Once I get the list done, I will be able to pick and sort through it and then include details later. The dialogue is probably going to be the most difficult part for me, and so I will work on that last.
It was yesterday, when I was researching Diana Gabaldon that I really put together how lucrative writing a book (or several books, in her case) can be. And that's not just my aim, here. I want the story of my life to be able to affect others in the world in a positive way, and I think this might be a good place to start.
Anyway, that's that. I'm doing my best to keep my mind occupied and off other, less positive things and I seem to be doing well. I don't like having to spend the extra day at work, but I think once I get the money from it, being here will make more sense. Also, I don't feel so hopeless and helpless now that I'm living without facebook. I could keep this up for awhile. I like it.
I really like the prospect of having such an incredible and wide variety of books to look forward to reading. It helps mix up the monotony of daily life, and it's nice to not know what to expect, and it's wonderful to get lost in another time and place with drama of new and different characters.
Anyway, the point of me saying that is to express my new-found boredom at work today. I brought the first two books of the Scarpetta series with me, but just haven't worked up the energy to get going on the first one yet. My mom has suggested I read a book called The Discovery of Witches, which I started the day I gave plasma last week. It is interesting, no doubt, with witches and vampires and daemons and humans, but I'm not sure I want to move on to a single book, and not a series.
Either way, I've been trying to keep myself busy by surfing the net, and without facebook to hang out on all day long, it leaves me a bit short and so I've had to be kind of creative. I've looked at new places to live and I've researched in detail possible new vehicles to replace my car which I fear may be getting close to the end of it's life with me. I've been searching for new cars for awhile, and my dream car is a Jeep Wrangler 4-door with a soft top and power everything, but I simply cannot afford that. So I've looked at Jettas and I'm thinking of the Subaru WRX. I know my parents are not keen on the idea of me buying foreign (they're Chevy people), but a girl wants what a girl wants. I want something sporty, with 4 doors and power everything, that gets good mileage and front-wheel drive for the winter. It's gotta be either black, dark blue, or purple. And I'd have to finance it, so I'm looking at anything after 2008. It looks like I'd get a better deal if I sold my car privately to get retail value on it instead of trading it in, but that would require me to have a back-up vehicle which I don't have, so that may be out of the question. But we're talking a $2K difference in what I'd be getting for it, so it might be worth the trouble. I've found that the Jetta has fun extras I hadn't thought about, like heated seats and heated side mirrors, so right now that's what I am leaning towards. As though I have an extra $400 a month to spend on a car payment right now!
But it's fun to dream. And it's not entirely fantastic - once I get caught up on my bills and go back to school, I'll be saving an extra $200 on insurance and student loan payments monthly, so it could actually work.
I'm also trying to load up on H2O in preparation for my trip to the plasma center tomorrow. I'm eating well today (Cheerios to help lower my cholesterol and a Lean Cuisine for lunch), and I'm already up to 60oz of water. When I tried to donate blood unsuccessfully, the tech suggested I drink about 100oz of water in the 24 hours in order to facilitate easier donation from my tiny-ass veins. He might have just been blowing smoke up my ass and came up with a nice, round number, but I figure, more water can't possibly hurt. So I'll be continuing to hydrate for the rest of the day.
I plan to get up around 7am to go donate (sell? Donate is not the proper verbiage for that because I am being monetarily compensated for my blood plasma), so that I still have plenty of daytime left with which to nap or read or clean or whatever. After work today I am going to go get a burrito from Chipotle (YUM!) and go eat it while my family eats pizza (typical Friday meal), and then I'm going to go to bed a little early so that waking up early tomorrow isn't quite so painful. Even though it's Friday, and the end to a VERY long week, I can't drink tonight if I want to donate tomorrow. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my chances of donating successfully and I would really prefer if it didn't take 6 damn hours again, although I am trying to be prepared for that possibility.
When I woke up this morning, I turned on the live coverage of the Royal Wedding, which I missed most of, but The Kiss (proper noun) was scheduled for 6:25am sharp, and so I got to see that bit, even though that's what most of the news pictures are of. It was quite romantic, and Kate Middleton looked oh, so pretty, and her gown was very simply and classic and gorgeous. She looked exactly as I would imagine a Disney princess to look. Obviously in all the run-up to the big event involved a whole lot of comparison to previous royal weddings, and after seeing Prince Charles and Diana's wedding video, Prince William and Kate looked so much more at ease and so much happier than Diana and Charles did. That gave me some comfort, although I don't know why. I think watching the coverage of such a magnanimous event before work today set my mood on a very tranquil and comforted path for the day, because I've felt that way all day long. It might be the first wedding I haven't been enormously jealous of since I was like 18.
When I got to work, I watched a bunch of new trailers, which is perhaps one of my top three favorite things in the entire universe to do, and many of them are for movies that were presented at Sundance, so they're independent and low-budget and tend to be a little more heartfelt and twisted emotionally, and it got me thinking about the book I want to write and the screenplay I want to adapt out of it and the movie it will make. Which then got me motivated to actually get started on it, which I did. Nothing fancy or complicated; I only started making a list of events that I want to include in the story. And I think after all this time, I've decided what I want the whole thing to look like. It's going to make a great movie - that much I can tell you now. It's going to be "based on true events," and while it's nothing considerably adventurous, I think it's an emotionally exciting story that other people might find interesting. I'm going to use my family as the main focus, and use all the same events and situations as part of the storyline and plot points, but I'm going to have to exaggerate some things and change some things so that it's not exactly the same. But it feels really good to have gotten started on it. Once I get the list done, I will be able to pick and sort through it and then include details later. The dialogue is probably going to be the most difficult part for me, and so I will work on that last.
It was yesterday, when I was researching Diana Gabaldon that I really put together how lucrative writing a book (or several books, in her case) can be. And that's not just my aim, here. I want the story of my life to be able to affect others in the world in a positive way, and I think this might be a good place to start.
Anyway, that's that. I'm doing my best to keep my mind occupied and off other, less positive things and I seem to be doing well. I don't like having to spend the extra day at work, but I think once I get the money from it, being here will make more sense. Also, I don't feel so hopeless and helpless now that I'm living without facebook. I could keep this up for awhile. I like it.
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