Game Night.... Not.

Three. Count em.  One, Two, Three days in a row.
To quote one Ron Stoppable, "Boo-yah!"

I am up in the Mountains with my family currently.
Like, we're staying in a cabin. In the woods. There are other houses around us so it's not super creepy, but it's still pretty isolated.  But the cabin/house thing is huge.  And has awesome furnishings.  I posted a picture of the bed I'm sleeping in on twitter last night.  Mega-awesome.
We're up here, all eleven of us, because we're celebrating my mom's and grandma's birthday as well as Easter.  Which is today.
pause thought.
HAPPY EASTER!!!!  Jesus loves you. :) Very much.  He loves me too, which is awesome because I know I don't deserve it.  The whole grace thing blows my mind.  So yeah.  Jesus really loves you.  Just in case you needed reminding or didn't already know.  Yay!
unpause thought.
So it's a family mini vacation of sorts.  And so for the whole weekend we're just spending time together as a family.  For Grandma essentially.  However, today I got quite frustrated due to the fact our 'family time' is really just us involved with various electronic gadgets in different corners of the house.  We have ipads, computers, nooks, xbox, television, and ipods.  And then if we weren't on those we were napping or reading (the reading was really just me and Tabitha... we kind of do that alot).  We did manage to get out of the house for about three-ish hours and visit the little town about five miles away.  And even then half of us were on our phones.  It's a face palm moment everyone.
Then tonight occurred.  We eat this awesome dinner, my favorite meal actually- spaghetti with brown butter and Mizithra- it's a dish from the Spaghetti factory that my mom perfected.  My goodness it is beyond delicious.  Anyway, afterwards we have cake; people open presents.  All that jazz.  And then I'm expecting to play some games.  It's tradition after all.  There's nothing we like to do more than play some good old card games... or at least something.  But what did we all do instead?
Sat in front of the television and watched YouTube clips.  Not. Even. Joking.
All eleven of us.

I mentioned playing games.  I even chose one and said we should totally play!  And a few people nodded and then we went back to watching clips.
I wanted. to pull out. my hair.
So today is a new day.  I WILL play games with my family.  I don't care if it's just me and Grandma sitting at the table playing go-fish.  It's going to happen darn it.
That is pretty much all for now I guess.  I do want to add that both sides of my family, I'm with my dad's side currently, play board/card games together.  We enjoy it.  But I will say that my mother's side of the family .... well we would never ever ever ever have sat down in front of the TV and watched anything.  We would be duking it out over cards or some wacky game where you have to name three state capitals in five seconds or something.  And it can get a bit intense, because we have a healthy amount of competition running through our veins.  So sometimes things like this almost happen:

So as crazy as it seems.  That's what I want tomorrow.  Fun, laugh out loud, family games.  And if not I'm willing to purchase water balloons and throw 'em at everyone.
Just saying.
Thanks for reading, and again, Happy Easter!!!

Right? Rite? Wright!

Whoa. Wait a second.  Two blogs back to back?  One day apart?  Has the world fallen into complete chaos, disarray, and all out madness?
No. It has not.
However, I am in a better mood!  Exciting right?

Today's blog is not about my feelings though.  Well, not entirely.  Maybe a teeny bit, because everything I do, I do with feeling.  Dramatic feeling usually.  Okay, getting to the point.

This blog is about the fact I love to write.  I LOVE writing.  I have since wayyy back when.  In fact I found this notebook I wrote a story in back in third grade.  It was completely awful and I'm incredibly grateful I never let anyone read it.  But I have always had a passion for writing in spite of not always being very good at it.

I love writing so much that I am interested in pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing.  Who knows where to at this point... and really that doesn't much matter to me.  It's an option and I plan on looking into it whether it be here in San Diego or somewhere else... kind of.

Here's one of my problems:  I have never, in all my years of writing, actually finished a story.  I think I finished a few Creative Non-Fiction stories, but those don't count seeing as they're based on actual events and therefore already have an ending.  I don't have to make one up.  My fiction stories are another matter entirely.
Here's another problem: I frequently have writer's block.  One of my professors always said that, "Writer's block is a lie, a myth, something people tell themselves to make their laziness okay."  Which, granted, kind of makes sense.  HOWEVER, I do believe that when you've sat down at a computer or in front of a journal and have been able to write for hours on end without thinking of food, water, or life beyond the page, any other kind of writing just sucks.  So when I have to stare at a blank page for over twenty minutes until I can write a single solitary word I get discouraged and declare writer's block.  It kind of feels like this:

With these in mind, I must now prepare a portfolio of my writings to send in with my application to any grad school I apply to.  Remember problem numero uno?  Yeah, I don't have much to send to anyone.  This brings me to my MAIN point.  My boyfriend (Michael, in case we all forgot or thought I'd gotten a different one.  Which I guess could have happened since I never update this blog, but it definitely hasn't.  Same awesome Michael) has helped me come up with an amazing writing exercise to help combat my issue with writer's block.

The premise:
Start with seven characters, seven places, seven objectives, and seven genres.  Then use a randomizer and you get seven different story scenarios.  Some could be awesome.  Some could be beyond crap, like my most recent one (I may have chosen to name a character Barnabus.

I know. I know.  Not my best life choice.  I think Michael thinks that's the main reason I had such a tough time with this story.  I think it was the genre.  'fable'  If you do this exercise DO NOT use fable.  It is dreadful.  dee-red-full).
The catch:
You only get one week to start the story.  It should be at minimum five pages long.  Then when the week is over, you start the next one.  So after seven weeks you have seven different stories.
The part that I don't really understand quite yet/I have to sway Michael to see it my way:
I think I should then go back and work on the stories I really connected with.  As an example, my first story I came up with ended up being over ten pages long and I could have gone on but I had to start on the next story.  I think I want to go right back to that story and start really fleshing it out and working it. Because although I have the start of seven stories I have the capacity to actually finish that one.  And maybe others as the weeks progress.  So yeah, that part is still up in the air... Because I think I'm supposed to work on them for a week each again... but I don't think I necessarily want to do that.  I digress.

This all occurred due to Michael's help.  And I think he gets quite a kick out of getting on me and making sure I keep up with my work.  I'm a pretty lucky gal.  No sass, I'm serious.  I'm super lucky.

Well, ladies and gentleman.  I am off to start a new story.  Say a little prayer that this one goes a bit smoother than the last one.  Maybe I'll post a snippet of a story on here some day.  Wouldn't that be a treat? Okay.  I think I'm done now.  Have one awesome day!  And as always, thanks for reading.

right. cool. ugh.

I have started to write this blog at least seven different times over the past couple of months.  And it usually always starts the same... with this quote:

"Who doesn't drink coffee? I mean it's just coffee. You have it with breakfast... or when you're sitting in a cafe pretending to write a novel. It's not a drink; it's a hug." ~Kenzi, Lost Girl. 

It's an awesome, and very true quote indeed.  And usually it would be a good opening for a light hearted up-beat kind of blog that I had every intention of writing... the last seven or so times I attempted to put this together at least.  I even planned on maybe writing the longest blog ever and color coordinate the text with certain subjects so that way you could just skip to what you actually cared/wanted to read about.  However, I decided against that for now.  Particularly because I'm just not in the mood.  

And let's be honest... I highly doubt you would open up a blog that looked like it was longer than the Great Wall of China and think, "oh boy... this should be the best thing I've ever read in my life and I'm going to read every word even when she goes on her never ending rants or is less funny than she thinks she is."  Yeah... So I'm just saving us all the trouble.  What I will share with you today is how I feel, about myself.  Truly some inspiring stuff coming up.  And it will all be in picture format.  It'll be about the most fun you've had in the last twenty minutes or so, I promise.

How I feel:



Pretty great huh?  You have to admit that Box guy is quite cute, though not why I picked it.  Well, maybe a little why I picked it.
Also. Totally not doing that 'new' thing every week for 52 weeks thing anymore.  We should all know by now how awful I am with the goals I set.  I pretty much suck at all of them.
Sorry to be a debbie downer.
Sorry to anyone named Debbie... it's a lovely name... and you're probably not a downer at all.  
I must get back to work.

PS there is a bright side to all this.  I get to see my family soon.  Get my mind off of things I have zero control over.  It should be fun.  
PPS it's my mom's birthday, so at the very least go and fill up her Facebook page with so many happy birthdays she doesn't know what to do with herself.  
PPPS HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM.  Wish I could be with you.  I know that would make me feel a ton better.  
PPPPS That first picture is a Pygmy Hippo.  Not to be confused with a regular Hippo.