Summer's finally here.

[katernater]

So, after living here for seven months I finally discovered that the apartment complex had a pool. (I really should have been tipped off earlier: seeing people wandering the cul-de-sacs with pool towels around their necks was clearly not just a sign that terrycloth was en vogue this summer.) I tracked it down and spent some time there this afternoon. I also discovered that, despite the best intentions of all the sunscreen in the world, a pale white girl of Anglo-Irish descent will still get a sunburn if she stays outside for more than an hour. (Warning: wince-inducing sunburn picture at the link.) It doesn't feel all that bad now, but I've stocked up on aloe for the foreseeable future. My legs, actually, feel the crankiest. They have had very limited sun exposure yet this summer and they are always prone to pinkening whenever I go out into the sun. Of course, the first burn of the summer is usually the worst. I tend to get one which, with repeated exposure to the elements, eventually evens out into a relatively pleasant-looking tan for the rest of the season.

I went out yesterday afternoon and bought a huge corkboard to use to start storyboarding my novel. As you can see, there's not much there yet:



I've got this very ambitious, color-coded index card system going on in my head. Yellow cards are for character names and details, pink cards are for plot timeline, and green and orange cards (of which there are none) are for two other very important categories which I haven't thought of yet. I took a notepad and a pen to bed with me last night and actually woke up this morning with some things scribbled in it that I don't remember writing. Apparently my creativity can run on autopilot while the rest of me sleeps. It's like Skynet in here or something.