So. Very. Tired. Driving Sucks.

In the past two days, I have probably driven almost 400 miles.  I have had two long trips (1+ hours) and a bunch of teeny tiny short ones around the town.  Let me tell you, I'm not usually the one who drives anywhere.  Not necessarily because I don't enjoy it - I do.  My husband doesn't think I'm a good driver. 

Yes, he makes the unoriginal jokes about Female drivers, but he doesn't truly think that women can't drive.  Just me.  He doesn't tease me about it.  He doesn't turn white at the thought of me driving.  He just doesn't think I'm all that great.

Honestly, I may not be.   I'm not horrible, by any means!  I just get a little lost sometimes.  Both figuratively and literally.  I get a little anxious in heavy traffic, and don't even think about talking to me in the rain!  The rain issue is mostly because of the drivers in Florida.  It is the rainiest state I have ever been in, yet nobody seems to know how to drive in it.  It's ridiculous! 

Rain is not a new concept, People!

You would think the cities would shut down if they could....

Anyway, all this driving, and rain, and added stress has taken it's toll.  I have walked around like a zombie for the past two days, and I don't think it will change until Saturday when I can finally rest! 

To top it all off...  My husband's ex-girlfriend is coming to visit with her daughter.  I have NO idea what to do with them, or entertain them with.  Especially when I feel like Death warmed over!  It's going to be a long two days... I'll tell you that much!

Not in the Mood

Today is a critical day.  I am not in the mood to write.  Not a single word.  But I will not let that stop me!

Sure, the post will be less than stellar, but I know that if I skip today I will guarantee the following:

• I will disappoint myself and my goal for 30 posts in 30 days;
• I will be less likely to write again tomorrow - whether or not I'm in the mood;
• I will probably lose focus and not even visit the NaNoBloMo website to visit other blogs.

I don't want that, as I have made it so much farther than in previous attempts.  (Well, there have only been two - but they were valiant efforts!)


I don't have much time left at work, which is great.  I have to stop at the library on my way home to return some DVDs, but that shouldn't take all that long - I hope.  Maybe I'll pick up one or two for fun.  At the moment, all I want to do right now is go home, make dinner and read a bit before going to bed.  I have a strange feeling that my husband isn't happy with me.  I haven't spoken to him all day, but when I just tried to call him, his phone was down.  (We are waiting on some money to come in before we can pay it.)

I could be overreacting - it's not something I am unaccustomed to doing, but I hate that feeling.  It makes me unhappy.. Now that I think of it, that's probably the reason I have no desire to write today.  Huh... Whoulda thunk it?  I guess now I just need to get off this pity party train and BE HAPPY!  I can't let one person bring me down - even if it's my hubby!  I guess writing today was a good idea!

We'll Be Okay

We’ll be okay.

Today was an early day.  I think it was about 7:13 am when the dogs started barking to go outside.  It’s funny – they don’t do that when they sleep in our room.  Anyway, Beans decided she wanted out, and the whole house was going to know it.  I volunteered to go get them, and let my husband sleep.  I figured, I could run downstairs, let the dogs out, and get back up and into bed before I officially woke up. 

Unfortunately, I guess my kindness was misunderstood because when I got up stairs, the husband had the idea to give all four dogs a bath.  So much for getting a few more minutes of rest…

So, to be a good wife, I decided that since he is taking care of the dogs, I would take care of him and make breakfast.  Pancakes, grits and Cuban coffee.  Not exactly the dish I would have liked, but it’s what we had.  I don’t care much for grits, and I was afraid they would be absolutely disgusting without butter, but it turns out that a little salt and some maple syrup do wonders! 

By 9am we were on a roll with the cleaning – as was the plan.  I think we did a little something in each and every room we have – Florida room and yard included! 

It is now almost 6pm and I am on my last legs.  I drank two energy drinks throughout the day, and that was probably my demise.  I hope to make it to dinner…  The soup is on, so at least I have that going for me. 

We have yet to find the missing items from Friday night.  (We are missing an ID, a debit card and $20.  I am really frustrated by that, because I can picture every moment from that night, yet I cannot figure out where any of it was lost.  I assume they fell out of my pocket, but it could only have happened in one place – and they didn’t find it…   sigh.

I can only hope that I happened to put everything in a place where I wouldn’t lose them – and then forgot where that was.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

Tomorrow begins another week.  Thankfully, next week is only three days.  I could use the vacation, and my husband will be working some shifts, since we can use the money.  It will be a nice, peaceful Thanksgiving.  I am very much looking forward to it.

Until then, I will trudge along through the week and continue my search for more income.  As I do every week. 

Failure Never Feels Good

It’s official.  NaNoWriMo is going to be a wash for another year.  I had it all worked out – word goals broken out by weeks and days, time scheduled where I would be alone with nothing but myself, my laptop and a cup of coffee – be it at the local Panera (where other NaNoWriMo participants spend their Sunday mornings), or in my back yard, and the desire to create something.  Anything.  What was missing?

A story. 

Yep.  I have no idea what I want to write.  I just know that I want to write something.  I always have, now that I think about it.  Yet the storyline eludes me.  I want it to be unique, special, but I can’t think of anything other than the same old story we see in just about every movie and in every book.  Love, loss, redemption – they’re all overdone.  The only hope we have is to put our own personal twist into it. 

I have tried to start with a character.  Just one – and make that character come to life in my mind.  Give him or her a story all their own by explaining what made them come to be.  What events gave them the characteristics they have and why they are where they are.  But rather than focus on the one, I tend to get ahead of myself and begin other  projects.  I don’t have ADD or anything – but I feel like if I don’t switch around, I never will. 

I was lucky enough to win a blog contest a while back, and the prize was a copy of The 3 A.M. Epiphany – which is a fantastic collection of writing exercises all put together in one book.  I think that I may finally break it out and actually use it.  Foreign concept, right?  I know!

Once a week, I could pick an exercise and work it into my blog as a special post.  Just to see what happens.  Maybe, just a possibility, by next year – I could be in a much better position to begin NaNoWriMo and, dare I say it – Finish it???

Until then…  One can only hope!

Friday. Overrated?

Probably.  Okay, it's the last day of the work week, and you can stay up (or out) later than you would from Sunday to Thursday, but what is the real draw to Friday?

Is it the idea of the weekend?  The mystery of not knowing what might happen?  The unpredictability of not having a set routine (or constraints) that you have Monday through Friday?

For me, Friday is all about relaxing.  It's like the beginning of a mini-vacation, at home.  I guess the buzz word is now 'stay cation' but I hate that term and prefer not to use it.  Well, hate may be a strong word.  I strongly dislike it. How's that for you?

It's day 12 of NaNoBloMo.  I am posting daily - but at what cost?  ::Insert Smiley Here::  I haven't written anything of real value - though I do think I will go back eventually and rewrite a few things here and there.  So I do have a couple of good jumping off points.  I think my post on Monday will be a summary.  Yeah, a mid-month review of how things are going and where I want to be.

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy my Friday and roll with the punches.  Hasta la vista!

Have you Heard? Florida SUCKS!

Our Tax Dollars at Work

Besides being close to bankruptcy and having some serious whackjobs in offices around the Central Florida area - the State Agencies are the hardest SOBs to get any information from! 

Okay, so I may be posting this more emotionally than rationally, but really?  I think that most government workers have either been lobotomized, or ate paint chips as children.  Lots and lots of paint chips.  The lead based ones.  Not the fancy acrylic they have nowadays.

I am doing my best to understand a few things that I have seen over the past couple of months.  The first is the reasoning behind Unemployment.  Not the fundamentals, but the logic behind who gets it and who does not.  Why give it to someone who is perfectly capable of finding a job, but doesn't want to get off the sofa because he makes more money sitting on his rump?  Why deny the person who is going to school to better himself while looking for work (part time or otherwise) to help pay bills?  I don't know if this is just a Florida thing, but the fact that it goes on at all just makes me ill.  Mentally and physically!

The second is Food Stamps.  These people make applicants jump through hoops, do lots of paperwork and then give a family $16 A MONTH??  Seriously - $16 a month for food.  No joke.  Sounds like one though, doesn't it?  Well, I guess that will be enough to make Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches for lunch every day.  Well, till the bread runs out.  That just seems like a lot of time and man hours wasted for such a minimal amount of money to be distributed.  I'm sure the person who approved such a total had to have laughed - even if it was just on the inside. 

Maybe I'm in the wrong field.  Maybe I should be the one giggling at others' misfortunes.  Maybe I should hand over hundreds of dollars to people so that they don't want to find work.  Sigh... 

What a Fantastic Weekend

I will say, that even though it was my birthday, I had a great time!

We did go to the Halifax Art Festival - which was a lot of fun.  The weather was beautiful - almost chilly, cloudless and crisp.  There were dogs everywhere, which made me wish we had brought one of our dogs.  Unfortunately, they would probably lay down ever thirty steps...  However, they would definitely be some of the cutest there!  I didn't see ONE Basset or Bull!  I was rather surprised.

We enjoyed a movie about 13 foot land sloths, 9 foot armadillos, and the wars and bloodshed that took place in the Daytona area throughout history.  It was interesting to learn a little about where our street names came from, what some buildings used to be, and the like.  I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Anyway, that was Saturday. 

Sunday, we picked up a 3 foot Monitor Lizard from a friend of mine.  Lizard-sitting is uninteresting, to say the least.  However, it's cold, and he (Dino) is quite lethargic in such weather.  I think we may have to find an electric blanket to warm him up and get him a little more active!

And now, the countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 begins...  

My Own Grand-pa

It's Friday. Well, it is right now as I write. You are reading this on Sunday. Or at least, you should be. Yesterday was my birthday (Saturday, not Thursday) and I'm hoping I did something fun!

It's also Homecoming weekend at THE U! And I'm quite sad to be missing it - again. I miss my friends, the football games, the band, my Sorority brothers and sisters (yes, we were a co-ed sorority. It was an honor sorority - not social. But we did know how to party!), and even the campus! I have missed out on Homecoming weekend for one reason or another for years. I think I have been to maybe 3. Sigh.

Anyway, we just don't have the cash to drive to Miami and hang out. So, again, I will watch the game on television, wearing my Hurricanes jersey and reminiscing.

However! A sorority brother of mine lives up here, too! He isn't going either, and may come into town to visit. That could be fun! My husband and I are going to go to the local art festival, so he and his wife may meet us there. I'm looking forward to it! I also think it's neat because it will be my birthday and all. I like to remember that he bought me my first cold and frosty beverage on my 21st birthday! A margarita. Which is funny, because I am not a margarita drinker. But it was delicious on that day!

Welcome NaBloPoMo!

Since it is now November 2nd, and I have yet to post anything on this blog, I thought that today would be a perfect beginning. Albeit a day late...

I think I am going to use this blog as a personal area where I can vent and be me, while my true NaBloPoMo posts can be found at my other blog. I think it will also be a good way to see all of the fine differences between Wordpress and Blogspot blogs. I am sure there are nuances to both that I will love, but who will win out?

A bit about me - I have tried over and over to blog. I get all excited about it, I post like crazy, and I peter out... I don't know why, but I get to a point where I don't feel like I want to write anything, or that anything I do want to write is interesting enough to be read. Yes, even by complete strangers.

This is my third attempt at 'Daria's Blog' and, as you may have guessed, my name is Daria. I tried on Wordpress.com, then hosted it as dariasblog.com and when I let that expire (stupid me), I tried to go back to the WP blog. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what my login information is over there, and their 'customer service' won't even think about helping me. (Way to go!) I have ranted about that for quite a while now, but I figure I will eventually copy some of the posts over to here. We'll, see...

In the meantime, I will probably post bits and pieces of me throughout the month. If you have made it this far, and enjoy my writing, I invite you to comment. Even more importantly, I invite you to return. Enjoy the journey...