LIFE

Well, I’ve been coming here on an almost daily basis to keep track of how my weight is doing, but I’m not really keeping up with my promise to revive thathobbitlady to all its former glory. So yes, I’m losing weight…great! But what about everything else?

WEDDING
Here is a picture of my life at the moment. The big news, of course, is that Russ and I have set the date for the wedding, and it’s only five weeks away now! I recently found not one but TWO beautiful dresses that were incredibly reduced (each originally priced $160, on sale for $28!) but I have chosen one so that I can begin to plan my “colors.” And the color(s) will be red, with perhaps some touches of silver.

The wedding will be at Russ’ parents’ house, and there will only be about 25 guests, so not very large or elaborate at all, but that’s just fine with me, because to me “large and elaborate” mean more stress and more money. No need to go there. Even so, I find that I tend to spend a good deal of my spare time looking in stores and on-line at wedding cakes, decorations, flowers, etc. It’s a lot of fun. I have a checklist, and I think we’ll be able to pull this off on time with a minimum amount of commotion.

WORK
Other than this, I go to work five days a week. The job is good, tho they don’t keep me as busy as I was in my old job. Last week I cleaned out my office and my desk pretty good, and that felt good. Yeah, not much to report here. It’s a paycheck.

RUSS
Evenings and weekends I get to hang out with Russ. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get tired of this guy. We have so much in common, and the best part is that he really listens to me and really cares about me.

There’s this thing that he’s always doing, I can’t think of a specific example, but he did it just this weekend again, and it still always amazes me. We’ll be having a conversation, and suddenly he’ll bring in something I said in a PREVIOUS conversation, something that has bearing on the current conversation, that fits right in with what we’re talking about, and it just always surprises me when he makes the oh-so-obvious connection.. He listens, he stores information about me, obviously thinks about it, and is able to bring it forth again at exactly the right moment! And not only that, but he usually does it in a very witty way. It’s like when you read an article in a magazine, and the cute comment that was made in the lead paragraph gets mentioned or alluded to in the final paragraph, and it just kind of ties the whole thing together. It’s like that. Should I be amazed by this? I don’t know, but I am.

STORIES
Well, moving on, there’s not much more to say. As my profile states, I live a very simple life. If there is any real “excitement” in my life, it comes to me in fiction, either in the stories I write, books I read, or the movies and TV shows I watch. Russ and I watch a number of TV shows together. Right now we’re in the middle of Firefly, the fifth season of Smallville, and the first season of Gilmore Girls. Soon we are hoping to get back to Lost and 24, and pick up Monk and/or Northern Exposure.

Currently I’m working on reading the last Harry Potter book. It’s a doozy! And I’m also dabbling now and then in The Cat Who books. I’ve also discovered the “Myth” series by Robert Asprin, which is highly entertaining. So yes, plenty of reading to keep me busy.

NANO
I am also already looking forward to this year’s NaNo. Several months ago I dusted off this story idea that’s actually had hanging around in my brain for many, many years now (probably for as long as Beatrice was stuck in my head before I made the decision to bring her story to life, which is…oh…twenty years or so???).

I’ve taken some notes, have some of the main characters names figured out. My plan is to spend all of October refining and expanding these notes till when Nov 1 rolls around, I’ll be chomping at the bit to get started. I don’t want to waste any time once I get started on the narrative trying to figure out DETAILS that can be determined now. Names, notes, timelines, character profiles, why not? It’s completely legal to plan out all these things in advance. The only thing you can’t do is write any of the actual story before Nov 1.

Well, that’s all for now. Next time I write, maybe I will have more info about how the wedding plans are proceeding.