This makes me wish I was an astronaut. I’d love to have a view like this this firsthand.
Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
A Trip Around the World
Sunday, February 12th, 2012First Days – Atlanta
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012I have a couple of first day stories from Atlanta.
First day in the condo. It was chaos. Pandemonium. Comcast came out to install my cable. This was the day my new mattress was being delivered. And the guy who was going to replace the window called and wanted to come out, too.
We had one lawn chair at this point. No other furniture of any sort. I was up and down off the floor multiple times, including lying on my stomach next to the Comcast tech as we tried to get my internet hookup to work. Late that night, after sitting on the floor chatting with friends and watching MLB Network, I tried to get up and felt my knee pop. The pain as excruciating for days afterward.
Not a great beginning in my new city.
First day at work. It was chaos. Luckily, I’d made a trial run to the office the day before and knew GPS was correctly guiding me in. What I didn’t know was that I’d arrive amid a mechanic shift change which meant hundreds and hundreds of people coming in to the Tech Ops area. I sat in line, waiting to turn in to the building.
I’m just grateful that I was down in December for a meeting and learned where my department was located. I even managed to find it again without getting lost. None of my boxes had made it from Minneapolis even though I’d had them ready to go ten days early. It’s tough to work without your stuff.
But people in my department came by to say hello and I even got a couple of welcome hugs. My boss came by to make sure I had everything I needed and my boss’s boss stopped by to thank me for relocating. Later that week, we were treated to a welcome to Atlanta lunch.
This was a great beginning to my new job location.
I Miss My Cargo Space
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012In December, mere weeks before I had to move to Atlanta, my beloved Explorer decided it needed a lot of expensive repair work done. Since it was a 1998, I opted to buy a new car instead and went with the Edge. I call it my James Bond car. With all the high tech electronics on it (especially for someone who was driving a 1998), it can only be a spymobile. I swear the only thing missing is the hidden missile launcher.
I do like my Edge. A lot. Really. But there are definitely things I miss about the Explorer. And when I was packing up to leave Minnesota, the cargo space was a huge factor. Things I was planning to pack to take along, things like a vacuum cleaner, suddenly didn’t fit and I needed to buy new down here.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, my day job was relocated from Minneapolis to Atlanta. I chose to relocate with my job, but because of how difficult it is to sell a house in MN in the winter, most of my stuff is still up north and will stay there until I do sell my house and I officially move. Right now, I’m officially a commuter between the two cities.
I did make sure there was room for the important things like my computers. There was no way I was leaving those behind. But my couch? Still in MN.
Some of the lighter things, like my storage containers will get shipped down via UPS or the USPS. Other things that are too bulky or two heavy or not cost effective to ship will have to wait. I even had to leave my blankets and duvet behind because there just wasn’t room in the Edge. As it stood, we were smashed into the vehicle. If only the Explorer could have hung on another few months.
The Big Move
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012I made it to Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been here two weeks now–one getting setup and one where I actually went to work at my day job.
Things still feel pretty unreal, you know? Like I’m on some kind of extended vacation. My parents are still down here and that adds to the vacation feel. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take before it sinks in that this is more than an extended stay in the south. Maybe once my parents have returned to Minnesota and I’m here alone for a while.
I can say I definitely like the weather here better than Minneapolis, although it’s been kind of bipolar. One day the high will be in the 60s, the next it’s in the 40s. I did wear short sleeves to work four out of five days last week. Short sleeves. In JANUARY! Wild!
The one thing I dislike–okay more than dislike, hate–is the driving. OMG, it’s like commuting through the middle of the Indianapolis 500! People, I have out of state plates, I’m driving in the right hand lane (a lane I rarely, if ever, used in Minneapolis), give me a break and stop tailgating me. I don’t know where I’m going even with GPS. To add to my fun, the commute is about double what I had in Minneapolis. Totally not cool.
On the plus side, most of the people I’ve talked to have been very nice. We’ll disregard the two mechanics I talked to in the elevator at work who pretended I didn’t exist. They’re probably not from around here anyway, right?
In other words, like anywhere you live, there are pluses and minuses in Atlanta. I’ll probably have more to say later, but so far, so good.
Missed It
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012Because of my move from Minneapolis to Atlanta, I haven’t been able to write for the last couple of months. There’s just been too much to do and I didn’t get it all done before I had to leave. At first, it was nice to have the time off from writing since I rarely take a break, but now I’m straining at the tether. I want to write. I want to take time to think about my stories and work out details. Want, but can’t.
The week before I left Minnesota, I opened a file and made an attempt to work, but my thoughts were too scattered and I couldn’t focus enough to get words down. This isn’t unexpected because I dealt with it the same thing the other few times I’ve tried to write while I have been deep in relocation mode. It was disappointing, though.
Now the question is how long will it take to get settled enough in Atlanta to have time again? Not just time to write, but time to deal with all the email and other details that I’ve let slide because I had other, more critical issues on the To Do List. Those decks need to be cleared, too.
What’s really making me crazy is that my characters aren’t talking to me. None of them. I’m used to running scenes to fall asleep. I’m used to running scenes when I get bored. This quiet is weird.
I know it’s stress. My mind is whirling with details and even if I try to concentrate, it doesn’t take long before my thoughts return to what I need to do or what I should be doing. I’m looking forward to calmness, to being able to hear the voices again. I want to spend time with my characters, no matter how frustrating they can be. I wonder how long it will take for my mind to settle in? Today will be my second day reporting to my job in my new home city. It can’t be too much longer now. I hope.
Bridesmaids
Sunday, January 8th, 2012Bridesmaids stars Kristen Wiig as Annie Walker. The story is about a woman who is maid of honor for her best friend’s wedding and ends up in a competition with another bridesmaid.
Annie is one messed up woman. She’s working as a clerk in a jewelry store, a job she’s bad at and has no interest in. She’s sharing an apartment with a British brother and sister. She lets some guy regularly use her for sex and feels crummy about it afterward. (He calls her his number 3 f**k buddy.) She drives a crummy car and her taillights are out.
But things really start to go downhill for her when her best friend gets engaged and asks her to be her maid of honor. The friend also asks a group of other women to be bridesmaids, including a rich woman whose relationship with the bride makes Annie feel threatened. What follows next is a series of events where the two women try to outdo each other.
The movie was supposed to be a comedy and I’d heard good things about it, but I didn’t think most of it was funny at all. I found Annie to be Too Stupid To Live for most of the movie and feel she brought most of her problems on herself. She acts like a complete idiot throughout the entire movie, and when she flips out at the shower–screaming at others, breaking a giant cookie and having it fall on top of her, taking her to the ground, getting messy in the chocolate fountain–the bride kicks her out of the wedding. I don’t blame her.
Annie also meets this really great guy during the course of the movie and after sleeping with him, acts like a complete idiot, hurts him, and alienates him as well
Annie wasn’t the only idiot, though; all the bridesmaids acted bizarrely. More than one time while I watched the movie, I’d mutter who acts like this?
There were a few moments that kept me watching, but in all honesty they were few and far between. At the end, when Annie finally smartened up, things improved greatly, but the movie was already pretty much a loss for me by then.
Not recommended.
Atlanta Or Bust
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012If everything went as planned, I should be in Atlanta, Georgia as you’re reading this. I’m writing this post 6 days ahead of my move and I’m torn between panic and excitement. Mostly panic.
I’m trying to look on the bright side about moving. The weather should be much, much better in Atlanta than it is in Minneapolis. I’m tired of the cold and snow. I’m tired of wearing hats and scarves and mittens and heavy winter jackets and boots. Although, wow, I saw the cutest pair of winter boots online last night and nearly ordered them–until I remembered that I won’t need them in my new home.
The other plus is that Atlanta is headquarters for my airline, so the odds of having to move again are incredibly low. Also, being our major hub, it will be more convenient for traveling. More non-stop destinations there.
Right now, though, I’m frantic about how much I have left to do and how little time I have to do it in. I’m worried about finding my way around a new city when I still get lost in the city in which I grew up. And I’m especially worried about leaving my parents alone in Minnesota. If they need me, it will take hours to fly home.
Future blog posts will no doubt talk about my adventures in Atlanta. I’m sure I’ll be doing lots of things y’all can laugh about.
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 25th, 2011Merry Christmas and thank you to all my readers!
The James Bond Car and Publishing
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011One final James Bond car post and then I’ll find something else to talk about. I promise.
When I wrote In the Midnight Hour, I gave Ryne (my heroine) keyless entry. In my mind (and in the scene), she opened the doors to her vehicle by pressing the button on her key fob. As I proofread a test print of the book, everything was fine. Then, months later, I got my author copies. My keyless entry had been changed to keys entry.
This bugged me. A lot. It still bugs me.
My guess, and this is only a guess, is that whoever did the proofread of the galleys for the publisher lives in New York City and doesn’t own a car. I can’t see how else that would have been changed. The thing that’s so frustrating is that at the time I didn’t have that feature on my SUV and I had to research to find out that keyless entry was called keyless entry.
Fast forward to my James Bond car. Can you imagine if I wrote a character with a car like this? One that responds to voice commands, automatically hooks my cell phone into the system as soon as I get in the car, and has a remote start? I can’t help but wonder what these features would be changed to. 
Let me close by saying I love copy editors and I’ve been lucky to have really good ones on all my books. I’m grateful for all the mistakes they find and fix.
