Bar Night

When my cousin Karen still lived in Ventura we used to go out about once a month and drink and talk.  Our usual haunts were a selection of dive bars, most frequently the now closed Oxnard bar Sandpiper.  When she moved to Colorado we had to figure out a way to continue this tradtion.  We decided that getting on the phone and doing shots together was the way to accomplish this.  So now, about once a month or so we do bar night. 

So, today was bar night, or more correctly bar afternoon.  As usual it was a couple of hours of great conversation and laughs.  This is often a better source of therapy for me than actual therapy!  Thanks Karen!!!

Well, once again a new week is upon us and I have accomplished very little.  My plan for the week is to get through all of my notes and start writing my last chapter.  Tuesday is writing day, so I should get a lot done.  I have a meeting with my thesis adviser on Thursday so I have to get busy! 

Along with thesis writing I have editing to do for our book project.  If you want to follow that process see our other blog at A Tale of Two Authors. 

What a Day!

Wow!  What a day!  It was both long and amazing.  Jeff and I left the house early this morning with plans for a very busy day.  Our first stops were for coffee and Jeff’s allergy shots.  Then off to drop his car off for maintenance.  After dropping the car off we went to the Simi Mall and returned the boots I bought for myself last week.  I had planned on just returning them for credit on my poor tired credit card, but found another pair to buy!  You can always tell it is going to be a great day when you start out buying new shoes… new shoes make everything wonderful!

Ok, now that all of this busy work was done, we were ready to head off to Ventura for part one of our fabulous day…. a viewing of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds on the big screen.  Dear reader, any of you who know me well know that this is very exciting for me.  I am a huge Hitchcock fan.  My favorite being, Rebecca of course.  Just about any Hitchcock movie will do, however.  Shadow of a Doubt, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble With Harry, North By Northwest, Psycho… the list goes on and on.  And so, Jeff and I drove to Ventura, ate a little lunch, drank a little coffee and then ventured into the dark theater to enjoy The Birds.  Could this day get any better you ask?? Well, of course it could!

After the movie, we headed back toward Moorpark to pick up Maggie for dinner and our weekly try at movie trivia.  This was the first time Jeff was getting to meet some of my trivia mates.  Now, there is a group of us who have been attending movie trivia faithfully for months, trying to win the cash prize and premier movie tickets.  We have won second place a couple of times… free movie tickets, but alas we wanted the tickets and the cash…. So, my friends, the trivia gods were with us tonight!! We were on fire!  After five rounds of questions and a lot of laughs, we finally did it!  We won first prize!  Now will we ever be able to do it again?  Who knows?  The best part is hanging out with friends and having a great time.

Ok, so now here it is 2:30 am and I am wide awake.  Perhaps I should drag out my notes and write while sleep eludes me.  Tonight what I should do and want to do are two very different things.  I should work.  I want to play with the new mini laptop and watch cartoons.  The want is beating the hell out of the should tonight.  So, I will play tonight and then get up tomorrow and write.  I have done very little work so far this week.  Today was totally necessary to my sanity.  It was great to spend the whole day out with Jeff.  Normally when he has time off we do a whole lot of nothing.  Today it was nice to just go do something fun together.  It reminded me a little of the days long ago when we started dating.

So, enough of my mindless chatter. Perhaps I can crank out something a little more coherent tomorrow.  Thanks for sticking with me anyway.

One more random thought…. my friend Michael called someone “twatwaffle” today.  This one little word has had me giggling all day!  I think it is my new favorite word!  Thanks Michael!

Distractions, Distractions

Ok, so last week I motored through my chapter three… This week…nothing!  Well, that is not entirely true.  I spent some time yesterday going over all of the three chapters I have written…moving things around, finalizing footnotes, fixing the huge number of typos…that sort of thing.  And while it doesn’t seem like work, these things must be done sometime, so why not now??

My biggest distractions today were my new little mini laptop arriving and politics.  Yes, I got sucked into the political maelstrom today.  I finally had to go to my happy place, which is watching episodes of the animated series Futurama.  This show just makes me happy.  The other distraction was my new little laptop.  This was an early Christmas gift from my wonderful hubby, Jeff.  Of course, it will be so much more fun once he gets me all connected to our home network and I can get online.  Dear readers, my hubby is paranoid and has that network locked down so tight, I could never connect myself! 

Anyway, the laptop is going to be an amazing tool for my writing.  Its tiny enough to slip in my little bag I carry to Starbucks.  The battery lasts a ridiculous amount of time, so I don’t have to plug in!  It is truly a beautiful thing. 

So, tomorrow I am goofing off and going to see a screening of Hitchcock’s The Birds with Jeff and Maggie and then going to our weekly trivia date in the evening, so no writing getting done tomorrow either.  I do have a meeting with my thesis advisor thursday.  I am hoping she will be amazed at the 50+ pages I have cranked out in the last month. 

Hopefully the next time I check in I will have more accomplished!  Be sure to check out the blog for our book series at A Tale of Two Authors. 

Working for the Weekend

Usually I don’t do much thesis work on weekends.  Its just to distracting around here with Jeff home, the tv blaring all day, Miss Agatha kitten excited that her daddy is home…blah, blah, blah.  Today, Jeff and Agatha have been napping most of the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to proof read my first three chapters.  My goodness, my typing has gotten so sloppy since I stopped working in an office!  Thank goodness for my mom, who will catch all of the silly typos I didn’t catch on this read through. 

At this point in my thesis journey, I am pretty happy with what I have written.  One more chapter to go and I will be for the most part finished.  I will still have to write my introduction and conclusion, but that part should be fairly easy.  My problem with this last chapter (which is actually my chapter two) is that it is the technical, medical stuff that to me, is just not as interesting as the stories about the people.  I must just power through it though.  It can be so easy to get bogged down by all of the epidemiology, etiology etc. 

So, Maggie and I will have our writing date on Tuesday this week and I will power through it.  I have to say again that the writing dates truly keep me focused and on task.  The fun thing about this week is that I may have a new computer to write with.  Jeff so kindly bought me my Christmas present a few months early so I would have it for finishing up my thesis.  It is an HP mini.  Small, light, ridiculously long battery life compared to my laptop which dies in a little more than an hour!! Yahoo!  New toy to play with. 

So, now that I have proofed 60+ pages, I am taking the rest of the weekend off. I am going to relax on my couch and watch movies with my hubby or read, read, read!!!

For the adventures of Maggie and myself on our book series, be sure to check out A Tale of Two Authors

Jury Duty

So, I had jury duty today in Ventura.  Not really a big deal, just a long drive and a pretty early morning for those of us who regularly stay up until the wee hours reading.  On the good side of this venture today, sitting in the jury assembly room today gave me another day out of the house to work on my thesis. 

Of course, as soon as I got all settled in, I was called to a court room as a prospective juror.  I have to say I am lucky sometimes that I grew up in a Law Enforcement family.  My grandfather was a magistrate,  my dad a federal agent and my brother is a police officer.  Just those three facts made the judge dismiss me!  So back down to the assembly room I went and got to work. 

Today I started going through all of my notes to oragnize my info for my second chapter which is on yellow fever symptoms, treatments and cures as well as about Southern doctors in the 19th century.  I got a fair amount of work done, so all in all it was a very successful day!!

Sixty-one Pages!!!

Yes, I wrote already once today, but I am just so excited, I had to blog again!  i just finished typing in my third chapter for my thesis… I am at 61 pages!  When I left California in mid-June for my visit back home to Virginia, I had a grand total of ten pages done.  So, in a relatively short span of time I have cranked out another 51 pages.  For those of you who know me well, you will know that procrastination tends to rule my life where writing is concerned and then BAM!!! I will crank out a paper in no time.  The thesis is really no different for me apparently!

How on earth does one conquer this pesky little demon of the writing world.  When I finally figure that out I will report in and let you know!  As it stands, I guess I will just continue to do what I do and get it done somehow.

i do have to send a special thanks out to my friend Maggie.  her enthusiasm for our joint project is just infectious.  She gets me moving on Wednesday mornings and out of my house… off to the Starbucks, filled with coffee and writing. Thanks Maggie!!!

Shameless Plug

Be sure to look at the blog for the book series!

http://ataleoftwoauthors.com

Just a Little Rambling

Hello, my friends!  I have been meaning to do this for a long time… Just write down thoughts… Right now my thoughts are focused on two things…. My thesis and our book series.  I have been laboring over this thesis for a couple of years now…far too long actually.  But, it is finally coming together.  After three years of traveling to Natchez, Miss to do research and perhaps a year’s worth of procrastination, I have three of four chapterrs completed.  It is looking like I may actually graduate in Decemeber as planned!!! The two things that have really pushed me to write recently are my latest trip to my mom’s in Virginia and my weekly writing dates with my friend Maggie. 

I find that when I try to work at home I am easily distracted by…well by just about everything.  I find it especially hard to write when I am home with Jeff on the weekends.  Just getting out of my normal habitat (or habitrail as my friend Gerhard would call it) got me writing again.  My mom works very hard on the family history and I guess I would have to say, she is my biggest inspiration.  In the six weeks I was in Virginia, I completed my first chapter and got a very good start on my second. 

Upon returning home, I struck a deal with my dear friend Maggie that I would help her get a young adult book series off the ground.  What an amazing plan!  I have had so much fun going over plot points and character sketches and book outlines with her.  I am a bit of a ruthless editor, so that also falls under my job title.  He point here is… This has gotten me so excited to write again and get the thesis done so I can have fun being creative. 

As it stands, we get together at least one day a week and work all day, usually at the local Starbucks… Yes, we are those people sitting in the coffee shop all day writing!  Since I returned to California in July, I have cranked out two more chapters of my thesis and am now officially three quarters finished. 

Andso, this blog, for the moment serves as my sounding board for my thesis writing process…of course you may get some rants and random nonsense as well.  To follow our book writing exploits check out http://ataleoftwoauthors.com