Writing and Gridlock and Such
I keep wondering why no one comments on my LJ posts anymore, and then I remember it's because the LJ posts I've been writing have been in my head only; I never actually get the chance to commit them to keyboard, and thus no one can comment on them. Which is a shame, because seriously, I've been writing some absolutely brilliant LJ posts lately. You'd laugh, you'd cry, you'd heap chocolate and flowers and all the good things upon me.
Or you'd just roll your eyes and keep scrolling. You know, whichever.
Most of my writing concentration in the last week has been on the Original Omegaverse, because mildred_bobbin has agreed to read it while on her massively long plane trip to the States, so that she can tell me what is wrong with it. (She is very good at that, and I mean that in the best possible way. She and my husband are excellent at helping fill in plot holes, except Bill has a propensity for coming up wth bizarre and ridiculous ways of doing it, and Mildred just solves the problem. Both methods are equally useful, in certain circumstances.) Except I have to have the "finished" story to her by tomorrow, and on Wednesday, I found a plot twist I'd forgotten about, and I've spent the last three days writing and rewriting to work it out. It's done now, but it means I didn't get the chance to finish writing the fifth and final part of the story, and I still have to edit the fourth part to take into account all the changes I have now written.
So that's today's project. I also have to bake a cake, but that's not exactly a hardship. I'm ignoring all the suggestions garnered on Tumblr (which were for chocolate) and I'm making a Burnt Sugar Cake, because the recipe sounds yummy and I have nearly all the ingredients I need. The only one I'm missing is the cream cheese for the frosting, but I'm tempted to do chocolate instead anyway. Because chocolate. (Do you really need another reason?)
In other news, I have a cough that I can't seem to shake. It's a weird one - I don't have a fever or a runny nose or a sore throat, just this stupid cough that starts with a tickle in the throat and is much worse at night than it is during the day, and no amount of cough syrup seems to stop it, and if I get going, I sound like I'm about to hack up a furball (and it feels sometimes like I'm going to throw up). And it's a totally non-productive cough 95% of the time, too. Weird, weird, weird. If it isn't better by tomorrow, I'm going to the doctor, because I really, really do not want this thing at Gridlock, and hopefully they can give me something lovely and prescription that will stop it and let me get some sleep.
Andrew ended up spending the whole day at preschool on Friday, because for some reason he got it in his head that they do MASSIVELY FUN THINGS in the afternoon and he wanted to experience them. It was a very nice day, Charlie napped and I wrote and it was like a preview of coming attractions for when he's in all-day kindergarten in the fall. Around 3pm I started missing Andrew quite a lot so we went to pick him up at 4, and he says he had a good time, but he doesn't want to stay all day again.
(Oh, and insurance has been sorted - in that they have agreed to pay out for his therapy for the rest of the year, but have also flat out said that they refuse to cover it for next year at all, because it's in their system that Andrew has been diagnosed with developmental delay. Which is not true, according to the therapist, but we're going to save that argument for next year, and in the meantime, make sure he gets to use every single one of the 90 visits insurance has said they will pay for before the year is up. Even if I end up paying for a couple out of pocket, I don't want to risk that insurance gets out of paying for a single one.)
Charlie is nearly sitting up on his own. I mean, if you fold him over double and balance him super well, and don't count past five, he can totally do it. I keep pointing out crawling babies and telling him that if he keeps up with Tummy Time, that will someday be him, but I don't think he believes me. He is extremely good at closed-mouth disapproving stares.
(I am going to print out pictures of both of them and fill up a little brag book, and if anyone even mentions babies to me at Gridlock, they are going to be forced to sit down and look at it and admire them. On the other hand, I can leave a few pages blank and use them to store the cross-stitched people, and then when people want to see those, we can find the pictures of the boys and I can say, "MY HOW DID THOSE GET THERE." And then I still get to show them off. I am way sneaky.)
Speaking of which, I took another look at the updated schedule and it's not quite so sparse on things I want to attend, although there do seem to be a few spots where things I'd like to see are double-booked, usually against stomething I want to do. (The craft swap thing on Sunday morning, for instance, is at the same time as the novel-writing panel. Boo!) But I can attend Peter Blau story hour now, and that's good enough for me. I probably will end up leaving a bit early on Sunday - most of the stuff I want to do then is done by 2 or 3 - which is fine because it'll get me home by dinnertime, as I suspect I'll be missing the boys pretty hard by then anyway. (And if traffic is super good, maybe a side-trip to IKEA, because IKEA.)
Anyway, the current plan is to arrive on Friday night, around 10pm. Saturday morning I'll run out and do whatever grocery shopping I need to do for Hamford After Dark (and anyone who wants to accompany me is welcome to do so; maybe we'll find breakfast while we're at it). I definitely want to attend all the writing workshops, and Peter Blau's story hour, and obviously I'm going to be talking food at Hamford, but beyond that I'm sort of open for panels, so we'll see what grabs me. Or doesn't. I'll find a nice brightly-lit spot and cross-stitch the rest of my people. :)
I'm determined to have a good time - I'm not overly worried about it, except that I had such a good time last year, and I'm worried that this year won't measure up. Except this is very likely going to be the last fandom event I'll attend for the next few years, since we're going back overseas next summer, so I'd like to at least make sure I don't regret going.
Or you'd just roll your eyes and keep scrolling. You know, whichever.
Most of my writing concentration in the last week has been on the Original Omegaverse, because mildred_bobbin has agreed to read it while on her massively long plane trip to the States, so that she can tell me what is wrong with it. (She is very good at that, and I mean that in the best possible way. She and my husband are excellent at helping fill in plot holes, except Bill has a propensity for coming up wth bizarre and ridiculous ways of doing it, and Mildred just solves the problem. Both methods are equally useful, in certain circumstances.) Except I have to have the "finished" story to her by tomorrow, and on Wednesday, I found a plot twist I'd forgotten about, and I've spent the last three days writing and rewriting to work it out. It's done now, but it means I didn't get the chance to finish writing the fifth and final part of the story, and I still have to edit the fourth part to take into account all the changes I have now written.
So that's today's project. I also have to bake a cake, but that's not exactly a hardship. I'm ignoring all the suggestions garnered on Tumblr (which were for chocolate) and I'm making a Burnt Sugar Cake, because the recipe sounds yummy and I have nearly all the ingredients I need. The only one I'm missing is the cream cheese for the frosting, but I'm tempted to do chocolate instead anyway. Because chocolate. (Do you really need another reason?)
In other news, I have a cough that I can't seem to shake. It's a weird one - I don't have a fever or a runny nose or a sore throat, just this stupid cough that starts with a tickle in the throat and is much worse at night than it is during the day, and no amount of cough syrup seems to stop it, and if I get going, I sound like I'm about to hack up a furball (and it feels sometimes like I'm going to throw up). And it's a totally non-productive cough 95% of the time, too. Weird, weird, weird. If it isn't better by tomorrow, I'm going to the doctor, because I really, really do not want this thing at Gridlock, and hopefully they can give me something lovely and prescription that will stop it and let me get some sleep.
Andrew ended up spending the whole day at preschool on Friday, because for some reason he got it in his head that they do MASSIVELY FUN THINGS in the afternoon and he wanted to experience them. It was a very nice day, Charlie napped and I wrote and it was like a preview of coming attractions for when he's in all-day kindergarten in the fall. Around 3pm I started missing Andrew quite a lot so we went to pick him up at 4, and he says he had a good time, but he doesn't want to stay all day again.
(Oh, and insurance has been sorted - in that they have agreed to pay out for his therapy for the rest of the year, but have also flat out said that they refuse to cover it for next year at all, because it's in their system that Andrew has been diagnosed with developmental delay. Which is not true, according to the therapist, but we're going to save that argument for next year, and in the meantime, make sure he gets to use every single one of the 90 visits insurance has said they will pay for before the year is up. Even if I end up paying for a couple out of pocket, I don't want to risk that insurance gets out of paying for a single one.)
Charlie is nearly sitting up on his own. I mean, if you fold him over double and balance him super well, and don't count past five, he can totally do it. I keep pointing out crawling babies and telling him that if he keeps up with Tummy Time, that will someday be him, but I don't think he believes me. He is extremely good at closed-mouth disapproving stares.
(I am going to print out pictures of both of them and fill up a little brag book, and if anyone even mentions babies to me at Gridlock, they are going to be forced to sit down and look at it and admire them. On the other hand, I can leave a few pages blank and use them to store the cross-stitched people, and then when people want to see those, we can find the pictures of the boys and I can say, "MY HOW DID THOSE GET THERE." And then I still get to show them off. I am way sneaky.)
Speaking of which, I took another look at the updated schedule and it's not quite so sparse on things I want to attend, although there do seem to be a few spots where things I'd like to see are double-booked, usually against stomething I want to do. (The craft swap thing on Sunday morning, for instance, is at the same time as the novel-writing panel. Boo!) But I can attend Peter Blau story hour now, and that's good enough for me. I probably will end up leaving a bit early on Sunday - most of the stuff I want to do then is done by 2 or 3 - which is fine because it'll get me home by dinnertime, as I suspect I'll be missing the boys pretty hard by then anyway. (And if traffic is super good, maybe a side-trip to IKEA, because IKEA.)
Anyway, the current plan is to arrive on Friday night, around 10pm. Saturday morning I'll run out and do whatever grocery shopping I need to do for Hamford After Dark (and anyone who wants to accompany me is welcome to do so; maybe we'll find breakfast while we're at it). I definitely want to attend all the writing workshops, and Peter Blau's story hour, and obviously I'm going to be talking food at Hamford, but beyond that I'm sort of open for panels, so we'll see what grabs me. Or doesn't. I'll find a nice brightly-lit spot and cross-stitch the rest of my people. :)
I'm determined to have a good time - I'm not overly worried about it, except that I had such a good time last year, and I'm worried that this year won't measure up. Except this is very likely going to be the last fandom event I'll attend for the next few years, since we're going back overseas next summer, so I'd like to at least make sure I don't regret going.