This is Halloween! Everybody Scream!
Although I do love Halloween, I am pretty much not participating this year. I managed to put up a few decorations, and that's it. I made a half-hearted attempt to put together a Greta Garbo costume, which mostly involved me looking up Greta Garbo's life history and a bunch of photos, and knowing someone who has a cloche hat. Which ... didn't ever make it onto my head. So, there's that. We went to a friend's Halloween/house warming party on Saturday, but due to general exhaustion (maybe I should have dressed as that?) I didn't make it out of bed until about an hour and a half before the party started. So I just admired the general splendor and silliness of everyone else's costumes. Which is what I'm doing today, too. Those people who went all out - I salute you. Me, I am old and tired.
We did watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" on Sunday. Scott contends that it is only an xmas movie, because Halloween is only there for the first part. But come on, it's HALLOWEEN TOWN, all about characters who live Halloween all year long! I contend that it counts for both holidays. Plus I just like it. And I'm more likely to want to watch that than something truly scary. The truly scary is too much for me at the best of times. Lately, the times, they have not been awful, but have been stressful, and I find myself unable to take even relatively normal crime drama for long. If there's screaming and torture and squick, I can't watch at all. My stress level is just too high, and I don't need it. (This does not count in my own writing, of course. I can be as cruel as I like to those characters. Why? I have no idea. Fictional people I create? Torture away! ALL THE FEELS! ALL THE HEARTBREAK AND LOSS! ALL THE SCREAMING! Fictional people that other people create? Oh, god, please only happy times. I cannot take the screaming. More kissing, less crying, that's what I say. It may be that controlling how it turns out is a factor.) So ... yes, stressed. And slightly sick a lot. And starting to maybe fray a little. I like sitting in bed reading romance novels and not doing ANYTHING ELSE lately, is what I'm saying.
HOWEVER, today there has been some good news! FINALLY! Our foster/adopt paperwork, which has been in limbo basically since July, has finally gone all the way through, and we are that much closer to being licensed as foster parents! Yay! We have two more interviews to get to, which includes the final inspection of our house, which we will try to set up quickly. (One interview is already set up for us for this Friday.)
Other good news is that my knee is healing, if slowly. I see the dr for a follow up on Saturday, and the physical therapist says I should be able to start going back to dance soon. So YAY! Because I have been getting more and more depressed, not dancing. I will have to be careful to control how excited I am, so I don't reinjure, because I will be SO HAPPY when I get back to class. Dancers, you have been warned. I might get extra huggy and giggly and talk really fast.
My novel, which had kind of been at a desperate trickle, is flowing a little better in the rewrite now. I am making a story board to help with figuring out what new scenes go where, what gets cut, and how it all flows better. I think it will help. But I have a pretty good idea of how this major change ... majorly changes things, now. Sort of. A lot of scenes are changing order, which is complicated. I will really need my super-cool editor to help me make sure I'm not referencing things that don't happen, or happening out of order. But the whole will be so much stronger. I feel good about the change.
And we had some other intermediate good news going on today, so it kind of feels like, OK, I don't have to contract an ulcer, things are looking up. I am choosing optimism. No, I am. So LESS STRESS FOR ME! Hooray! I think I'll celebrate by turning on my purple pumpkin lamp tonight and eating some chocolate.
(This happy brought to you with the full realization that once we are licensed and have kids in the house, I will have a whole new level of stress to stress about. I know. Shut up. I get to have this.)
We did watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" on Sunday. Scott contends that it is only an xmas movie, because Halloween is only there for the first part. But come on, it's HALLOWEEN TOWN, all about characters who live Halloween all year long! I contend that it counts for both holidays. Plus I just like it. And I'm more likely to want to watch that than something truly scary. The truly scary is too much for me at the best of times. Lately, the times, they have not been awful, but have been stressful, and I find myself unable to take even relatively normal crime drama for long. If there's screaming and torture and squick, I can't watch at all. My stress level is just too high, and I don't need it. (This does not count in my own writing, of course. I can be as cruel as I like to those characters. Why? I have no idea. Fictional people I create? Torture away! ALL THE FEELS! ALL THE HEARTBREAK AND LOSS! ALL THE SCREAMING! Fictional people that other people create? Oh, god, please only happy times. I cannot take the screaming. More kissing, less crying, that's what I say. It may be that controlling how it turns out is a factor.) So ... yes, stressed. And slightly sick a lot. And starting to maybe fray a little. I like sitting in bed reading romance novels and not doing ANYTHING ELSE lately, is what I'm saying.
HOWEVER, today there has been some good news! FINALLY! Our foster/adopt paperwork, which has been in limbo basically since July, has finally gone all the way through, and we are that much closer to being licensed as foster parents! Yay! We have two more interviews to get to, which includes the final inspection of our house, which we will try to set up quickly. (One interview is already set up for us for this Friday.)
Other good news is that my knee is healing, if slowly. I see the dr for a follow up on Saturday, and the physical therapist says I should be able to start going back to dance soon. So YAY! Because I have been getting more and more depressed, not dancing. I will have to be careful to control how excited I am, so I don't reinjure, because I will be SO HAPPY when I get back to class. Dancers, you have been warned. I might get extra huggy and giggly and talk really fast.
My novel, which had kind of been at a desperate trickle, is flowing a little better in the rewrite now. I am making a story board to help with figuring out what new scenes go where, what gets cut, and how it all flows better. I think it will help. But I have a pretty good idea of how this major change ... majorly changes things, now. Sort of. A lot of scenes are changing order, which is complicated. I will really need my super-cool editor to help me make sure I'm not referencing things that don't happen, or happening out of order. But the whole will be so much stronger. I feel good about the change.
And we had some other intermediate good news going on today, so it kind of feels like, OK, I don't have to contract an ulcer, things are looking up. I am choosing optimism. No, I am. So LESS STRESS FOR ME! Hooray! I think I'll celebrate by turning on my purple pumpkin lamp tonight and eating some chocolate.
(This happy brought to you with the full realization that once we are licensed and have kids in the house, I will have a whole new level of stress to stress about. I know. Shut up. I get to have this.)