Updates and stuff
Things have been...good, I guess? There has been some stress, there have been some good things. I guess it all just averages out to normal.
So, I got tested at the doctor, because the first thing they said when they looked at my symptoms was "Ooh, we need to check your thyroid." Surprisingly, it was 100% normal. I am not diabetic, my iron levels are fine, I am not anemic, etc. All very good news but just a little frustrating, since I just want to find the reason why I feel crappy. The next step is possibly a sleep study and some testing around fibromyalgia. I have been feeling a little better the last couple of weeks but still just kind of ache everywhere and want to fall asleep all the time.
Work is keeping me busy. Extracurricular work is keeping me busy too. I may not have shared this, but outside of my "real job" I am the Associate Editor for So New Publishing, which is a really small publishing house. Right now we're wrapping up a fiction contest where people submitted novellas. The winner gets a published version of their novella among other things. I've been reading through entries sorting things into maybe and no piles. The maybe pile has all the people I kind of like, and the no pile is pretty clear after only a few paragraphs, though I do make myself go through the whole thing. I have a few left to read, and then we can announce the winner. I am also an Assistant Fiction Editor at 42opus.com, an online literary magazine, and I went through all my August submissions last week.
It's always interesting to read other people's work, especially work that they consider publishable. It has not only been fun to do, but it has made me get over my fear of putting my work out there for possible rejection. This week I submitted two short stories to two different established online literary magazines, and one has already been accepted. :-) It goes up on Six Sentences (a really cool online mag that takes only stories written in exactly six sentences!) on September 9. I am a huge fan of that site (one of the 101 Best Sites for Writers according to Writer's Digest!) and very excited to have my own work up there.
Last night was kind of awesome...I won tickets to the Elvis Costello concert at Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie. I had NO idea he was coming into town, which is usually the way. I swear, I need to see if he has some kind of email newsletter or something. I have missed him probably the last 5 or 6 times he has been in town, not even knowing he was here until he was already gone. I *love* Elvis Costello, so the fact that I hadn't seen him live until last night was kind of a sore point. However, the Dallas Observer gave me two tickets and a parking pass. I took Kelly with me and we had a BLAST. Elvis was even better in person than I had anticipated, and I hold him in high enough regard that I had some pretty high expectations. He was promoting his newest album "Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane" which has a very country/roots rock/bluegrass feel to it. The backing band was AMAZING and I can say that I loved every single song they played.
He played a ton of new versions of stuff off his very first album, My Aim is True, which is my #1 desert island record. I was not expecting that so it was a very pleasant surprise. He played all but one of my favorites: Mystery Dance, Blame it on Cain, Alison (during which I kind of had trouble not crying at one point, not gonna lie...it is probably his best known song, which surprised me that he'd play it since I'm sure he is sick of it, but the arrangement with the band was sweet and gentle and I was just so HAPPY at that moment!), (Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes. If he had played Watching the Detectives I am pretty sure my head might have exploded.
He also played all my favorites from the new album as well. Not a ton of stuff from in between, but he did also play Everyday I Write the Book, which always makes me think of yaycoffee now and it's for a reason I can't even remember. LOL I am kind of kicking myself for not buying the concert poster, which was actually GORGEOUS (and it had a bird on it, which goes with my bird art obsession) but I didn't want to spend $15.00 on it. I hope I can find it on eBay.
I am excited for fall TV. Glee makes me so happy I cannot even explain it to other people. Maybe it's just because I have lived that (though show choir was not nearly so unpopular, and we didn't get to do totally awesome pop songs...we did dance like fiends though, no jazz squares for us!) and I know how great it feels being a part of a musical group like that when things just click and come together and it's so fun and sounds so good. I miss that a LOT. Seeing a great musician like Elvis Costello playing with a bunch of amazing guys who are so in tune and look like they are having the time of their lives made me miss that too. Nothing is as fun as being up on stage jamming out. I am trying to play guitar more and do some songwriting again because I miss those things. I need more music in my life that isn't on my iPod.
So, I got tested at the doctor, because the first thing they said when they looked at my symptoms was "Ooh, we need to check your thyroid." Surprisingly, it was 100% normal. I am not diabetic, my iron levels are fine, I am not anemic, etc. All very good news but just a little frustrating, since I just want to find the reason why I feel crappy. The next step is possibly a sleep study and some testing around fibromyalgia. I have been feeling a little better the last couple of weeks but still just kind of ache everywhere and want to fall asleep all the time.
Work is keeping me busy. Extracurricular work is keeping me busy too. I may not have shared this, but outside of my "real job" I am the Associate Editor for So New Publishing, which is a really small publishing house. Right now we're wrapping up a fiction contest where people submitted novellas. The winner gets a published version of their novella among other things. I've been reading through entries sorting things into maybe and no piles. The maybe pile has all the people I kind of like, and the no pile is pretty clear after only a few paragraphs, though I do make myself go through the whole thing. I have a few left to read, and then we can announce the winner. I am also an Assistant Fiction Editor at 42opus.com, an online literary magazine, and I went through all my August submissions last week.
It's always interesting to read other people's work, especially work that they consider publishable. It has not only been fun to do, but it has made me get over my fear of putting my work out there for possible rejection. This week I submitted two short stories to two different established online literary magazines, and one has already been accepted. :-) It goes up on Six Sentences (a really cool online mag that takes only stories written in exactly six sentences!) on September 9. I am a huge fan of that site (one of the 101 Best Sites for Writers according to Writer's Digest!) and very excited to have my own work up there.
Last night was kind of awesome...I won tickets to the Elvis Costello concert at Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie. I had NO idea he was coming into town, which is usually the way. I swear, I need to see if he has some kind of email newsletter or something. I have missed him probably the last 5 or 6 times he has been in town, not even knowing he was here until he was already gone. I *love* Elvis Costello, so the fact that I hadn't seen him live until last night was kind of a sore point. However, the Dallas Observer gave me two tickets and a parking pass. I took Kelly with me and we had a BLAST. Elvis was even better in person than I had anticipated, and I hold him in high enough regard that I had some pretty high expectations. He was promoting his newest album "Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane" which has a very country/roots rock/bluegrass feel to it. The backing band was AMAZING and I can say that I loved every single song they played.
He played a ton of new versions of stuff off his very first album, My Aim is True, which is my #1 desert island record. I was not expecting that so it was a very pleasant surprise. He played all but one of my favorites: Mystery Dance, Blame it on Cain, Alison (during which I kind of had trouble not crying at one point, not gonna lie...it is probably his best known song, which surprised me that he'd play it since I'm sure he is sick of it, but the arrangement with the band was sweet and gentle and I was just so HAPPY at that moment!), (Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes. If he had played Watching the Detectives I am pretty sure my head might have exploded.
He also played all my favorites from the new album as well. Not a ton of stuff from in between, but he did also play Everyday I Write the Book, which always makes me think of yaycoffee now and it's for a reason I can't even remember. LOL I am kind of kicking myself for not buying the concert poster, which was actually GORGEOUS (and it had a bird on it, which goes with my bird art obsession) but I didn't want to spend $15.00 on it. I hope I can find it on eBay.
I am excited for fall TV. Glee makes me so happy I cannot even explain it to other people. Maybe it's just because I have lived that (though show choir was not nearly so unpopular, and we didn't get to do totally awesome pop songs...we did dance like fiends though, no jazz squares for us!) and I know how great it feels being a part of a musical group like that when things just click and come together and it's so fun and sounds so good. I miss that a LOT. Seeing a great musician like Elvis Costello playing with a bunch of amazing guys who are so in tune and look like they are having the time of their lives made me miss that too. Nothing is as fun as being up on stage jamming out. I am trying to play guitar more and do some songwriting again because I miss those things. I need more music in my life that isn't on my iPod.