Category: Stuff About Me

Lazing About

If you can call running around like a chicken with my head cut off “lazing.” Alas, this is what happens when you postpone all your errands and procrastinate on anything on the To-Do list that isn’t associated with Finishing the Damn Book until you finish the damn book. Now, the To-Do list is getting payback. The list is an entire 8 x 11 page long, 10 pt. Times New Roman. That’s some humongoid list. And that was where I stopped. I wasn’t making a two-page list. The other stuff is in my head, however. It’s weekend stuff. It doesn’t merit a list.

However, I am taking the time to refill the well, too. Yesterday was my father’s birthday, and I enjoyed a leisurely two hours visiting with the oldster, my mom, and the Little Pisser. Today, I’m having lunch with a couple of old writing buddies (as in I’ve known them forever) that I used to meet with once a month, but now we’re lucky if we manage once a year. And this weekend I’ll enjoy an outing with both sisters and my niece.

I’ve also had a lot of fun experimenting with my new camera. Although I’m not much of a gardener, I’ve discovered I love strapping on the extra-super-duper zoom lens and taking pictures of flowers. I’ll post a few over the next couple of weeks. Here’s a taste, a blossom from my mom’s pink peony tree:

f_pink_peony

Who Loves Ya, 13?

I had a different post planned for today, but then I glanced at the calendar and realized—it’s Friday the 13th! And, guess what? We get another Friday the 13th in March, mwahaha.

Thirteen is my favorite number. It has to be. My birthday is January 13th, which, if you continue counting after December (and who wouldn’t?) is the 13th day of the 13th month. As I was lamenting to someone the other day, sadly, though, I was not born at 1 p.m., which would have made me a 13th hour, 13th day, 13th month baby. Nope, I was born in the evening. Irritation sets in!

For years, I thought I was born on a Friday the 13th, because my father was working out of town, only coming home twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday. My mother assured me that I was born Friday the 13th. The year I was 13, I found out, however, that I was born on a Wednesday. Yes, I’m a child of woe, which pretty much describes my adolescence and can account for all the characters who came to foul ends in my teenage short stories.

I have a brother and a sister born on the so-called “lucky” dates of 7 and 11, so you can imagine the ribbing I received over the years that I was born on the supposedly unlucky date of us three. Now, as an adult, I’m closest to the sibling who was born on a plain ol’ nothing fancy date. That’ll teach the other two.

How do feel about Friday the 13th? Are you superstititious? Do you avoid all things 13? Will you not read my books now that you’ve found out I love 13?

Celebrity Birthdays

I had a birthday Tuesday. Yes, I’m nearly officially old. Next year I really will be officially old, but for now I’m just practicing. Well, “old” to me is actually 80, so I have a few decades left until I’m geriatric old—lots of time to practice!

I like to read an annual horoscope for my birthday, but we don’t get a newspaper Tuesday, so I was forced to google. I didn’t find an annual horoscope, because I got sidetracked discovering that I share the same birthday as Patrick Dempsey, who is currently enjoying a fresh burst of fame as Dr. McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy, one of my Thursday night must-watch TV shows (the other is ER—yes, I love doctor shows, but ER has requested a DNR order this season, sob). Ooh, how exciting—P.D.’s cute, talented, and he has hair!

So then, of course, I had to google more extensively, and thanks to starpulse.com, I found out I also share birthdays with:

  • William Hung (that guy who sang She Bang during American Idol auditions years ago, back when I didn’t watch A.I. but his singing was plastered all over TV-land)
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Nicole Eggert (was in Baywatch, which I never watched, so I don’t really know who she is, but she sounds like a good egg, heh, heh)
  • Penelope Ann Miller (recognize the name, but that’s it)
  • Trace Adkins (yes, I knew there was a reason he nearly won Celebrity Apprentice last year!)
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus (which explains why her Seinfeld-era Elaine dance is strangely similar to my chicken imitations)
  • Trevor Rabin (a guitarist with a band named Yes I can’t recall ever listening to, but at least he’s musical)
  • Richard Moll (it says he was born in 1943 and is a voice actor, so I don’t think this is the same Richard Moll who was on Night Court, a show I adored)
  • Rip Taylor (Oh, my God, why does that fit so well? And why couldn’t I have gotten Red Skelton? I loved Red Skelton as a kid)
  • Charles Nelson Reilly (of game show fame, like the old Hollywood Squares, and another, um, unique personality)
  • Robert Stack (now deceased, but they listed him anyway).

Well, I don’t know, these folks share some mighty fine company, don’t you think?

What celebrities are born on your birthday? It’s far too easy to find out, I discovered. Just plug “celebrity birthdays DATE” and you’ll get a whole spate of sites.

I’ve Gone Bi

Focal, that is. Heh, heh.

After test-wearing three different pairs, I finally ordered my first package of bifocal contact lenses. Well, the box says they’re “multi” focal, but, in my case, they’re just bi. Like my glasses.

I’ve been putting off this decision, but I finally couldn’t stand it anymore. I had reached the point where I was wearing reading glasses over my contact lenses. And then the reading in my right eye took a nosedive while the reading in my left eye wasn’t as bad. So then I had to buy TWO pairs of reading glasses and have my optician swap the right lens out of the weaker pair.

I was quite happy for awhile. However, attending RWA National in San Francisco this summer, I discovered it’s one thing to walk around with your reading glasses on top of your head in the privacy of your own home. But when one is at a conference and one wishes to look less librarian-esque, shall we say, one tends to keep her reading glasses in her purse.

Oh, who are we kidding? “One” is me.

The problem occurred during editor/agent appointments and workshops when I realized I was constantly reaching for the damn glasses. Once back home, I noticed it was getting more and more difficult to even read the grocery list without my reading glasses.

So I had two choices. (1) Finally get laser surgery, or (2) Go bi. I decided to try the bi. Phew! It worked. I still have some kinks to work out. My right eye is primarily doing the distance seeing, and my left eye is primarily doing the reading seeing. My optician was surprised that I wanted less distance in my left eye, but I didn’t see the point in going bi if I still had to wear reading glasses over contacts that cost twice as much as my old ones.

I hear it takes about six months to grow accustomed to laser eye surgery when one eye is done for distance and the other for reading. In my case, with the contact lenses, it’s more a matter of if I remember I’m wearing bifocal contacts, then my eyes screw up. If I just go with the flow, they know what to do.

Yes, someday I will finally give in and have laser eye surgery. However, for now, I still suffer Clockwork Orange-like nightmares when I so much as think about it. Shudder. Am I a wimp?

What’s Your Blogging Personality?

First things first, if you’re looking for my Box ‘O Books Holiday Give-Away, scroll down.

Second things second… Ever taken a Myers-Briggs or other personality quiz? How accurate do you find them? According to every version of Myers-Briggs I’ve taken, I’m an INFJ, which is pretty darn accurate. But now, look, you can ID your blog personality, too!  I found the Typealyzer courtesy of Marilyn Brant’s blog, who found it courtesy of Jenny Crusie’s blog.

According to the Typealyzer, the author of Muse Interrupted(which some might say is me, while others ascertain that it’s Elle Muse) is a “Doer.” Here’s the blippy, complete with a cute illustration:

ESTP – The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical outdoor activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Hmmm, okay, this is sort of me, if you count sitting at a desk and playing with your pen as “action-filled work,” although I can’t say I’ve engaged in physical outdoor activities on purpose since I was a child. As a child, yes, I was outside all the time, and I considered myself a tomboy until I began to participate in team sports and discovered that I possess no physical coordination whatsoever. Once, after getting hit in the face with a softball, I struck out something like 30 times in a row at softball practice. The coach thought he could outlast my fear! Silly man. Let me state here, though, that I didn’t strike out out of fear, I struck out out of crappy hand-eye coordination. The crappy hand-eye coordination was the same reason I didn’t catch the ground ball that smacked my glasses.

As for that picture of the little girl…she looks like me as a kid, except I didn’t have boobs when I was 7! I barely had boobs when I was 17. Is it just me, or does she possess a rather curvy upper body compared to her face and height?

So, what’s your blogging personality? Plug your blog URL into the Typealyzer website and find out. Then report back to me. Because I just can’t sit still until I know!

By the way, for those interested, Jennifer Crusie is a Doer and Marilyn Brant is an Artist.