If At First You Don’t Succeed, Pretend it Never Happened.

That’s my philosophy. NaNo? Success? Pshh. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t going to do that. Oh my last post? I was OBVIOUSLY sleep deprived when I wrote that. Pay no attention to that.

It’s sad but true. Lately, I feel like a quitter. I’ve never had so many pulls on my mental energy at the same time. I have to prioritize. Some things fall.

I hate that.

So I pretend I wasn’t trying to juggle them in the first place. Is that not healthy? Oh well. It’s how I cope. AND it’s kind of how I feel about my blog. I used to be really good at it. Now it just gets left alone, gathering proverbial dust whilst I go about my days. The thing is, I LOVE reading other people’s blogs, but rarely do I have the time to go through them all, comment, and make my own post!

So can we pretend I never sucked at it? Can we go back to the glory days, when I posted three times a week? At least in our heads?

I can! Woot! I’m the best blogger ever!

oh and HAPPY DECEMBER!

Danger Zone

I make it a point to never talk about Politics. Literally to the extent that if someone brings it up, I’ll zip my lips, wait until they’re done expressing their opinion, nod, and change the subject. I don’t know why, but it makes me very uncomfortable. Maybe because I’m not a full fledged member of either party, maybe because I don’t take the time to educate myself enough to feel like I’m entitled to an opinion. Or maybe just because it makes me uncomfortable.

But I was watching the debate last night (I missed the first half due to bedtime for the babies), but I couldn’t help feeling more and more unsure the more they said. I agree with some of BOTH of their ideas.

And then, as a daughter of my die-hard conspiracy theorist parents, I couldn’t help but think, how much of this is true? I was reminded of high school elections where the candidates make all these outrageous promises (think soda in the water fountains) which they’ll never deliver on.

(Then I remember that I was Vice President Junior and Senior year…ahem…moving on..)

But what I ended up thinking was, does it even matter? Does it matter what I think? I live in Utah. Our vote is decided regardless of what I do. Seriously. (Don’t get me started on the electoral college). So what difference does it make which man wins? What are THEY going to do to make MY life better?

Unless it’s a bigger tax return this year, (or student loan forgiveness… PLEASE????) the answer is, they’re not going to DIRECTLY impact my family life so much. And after all this contemplation, I had an epiphany of sorts. Which might seem obvious to some of you out there who are wiser than me, but to me it was a revelation.

I am the president that matters. I am president of my house. (Don’t worry, my husband would agree). I’m in charge of keeping my home a safe, prosperous environment. I have to manage our economy, and balance our budget. I’m in charge of educating my girls so they’re ready for a lifetime of success. I have to instill a moral compass in them that leads them to make the best decisions and provide them with every opportunity to succeed in the scary, scary world that is outside our sovereign territory.

Duh.

But still. It comforted me to an extent. I may not have power over who rules our country. I’ll never have any say in what America does to Iran, or how we look to the national community. But I CAN control my house. I CAN influence my children, my neighborhood, and my surrounding community. I can be an example of what’s right, and good, and fair. And hope and pray that America does the same.

So I still don’t know who I’m voting for. I’ll make a confession; I’m 28 and never voted. I suffer from a severe and unrelenting case of apathy. But I really want to vote this year. It’s not just about me anymore.  I just hope I can make up my mind before November.

(Now I know some of you will probably disagree with what I’ve said. And that’s fine. But I just thought I’d write this down. Mostly for my own sake. So if you feel the need to comment, I just ask that we keep it respectful. I know how politics make people. Hence the inherent need I have to avoid it. )

Happy Tuesday!

TGIF!

This has been an incredibly long week. Not in the “this-week-has-been-so-awesome-it-feels-like-it-will-never-end” way but in the “tissues-are-piling-up-and-I-can’t-taste-anything-but-cough-drops” way. I am under full attack by a fall cold. Boo.

But that's not going to stop me from ranting (see above) and RAAAVING!

RANT: My daughter decided sleeping through the night is optional this week. Not cool.

RAVE: It didn’t help that I stayed up till midnight one night watching a version of Sense and Sensibility I’ve never seen. I love love LOVE the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet movie, but this one was really good too.

Available here

It’s more of a mini-series so it’s like four really long episodes. So I started it at 8:30 not realizing the commitment I was making, but I couldn’t very well turn it off right before Marianne finds out about Willoughby!

Let me just say, while most of the characters are well-cast I had problems with two of them. First Colonel Brandon, who was fine but no Alan Rickman. Let’s be honest. Oh that voice.

And second was Willoughby himself. Not handsome in my opinion. At least not the dashing-sweep-you-off-your-feet kind of handsome. (Today my current writing device of choice is the HIPHEN apparently. Oh well).

RANT: Seriously, with the laundry! Why doesn’t it ever end???

RAVE: I have more friends joining me on the Sims Social on Facebook. It’s so fun! Anyone else want to join? You can find me on facebook as Kadie Kinney and then we can be friends and our Simselves can visit each other. Woot.

RANT: Cough drops just aren’t good. They’re nasty. And no matter how many times I brush my teeth, the menthol just won’t go away.

RAVE: My critique partner Ruth is awesome. She gave me a great list of edits to do and a comprehensive list of her overall thoughts. I couldn’t ask for a better CP.

And last of all,

RAVE: I get to have breakfast with some wonderful ladies this morning, which is why I’m up so dang early. I’m excited. And this makes me have to change out of yoga pants for the first time this week. This is a good thing.

There you have it. I’m glad my rants are shorter than my raves. That’s good right?

Happy Friday all!

Friday Rants and Raves

As most of you have seen, I've kind of obliterated my previous blogging schedule. I felt too pigeon-holed. Like if I wanted to talk about writing it HAD to be on a Wednesday, etc. Then I felt like if I wanted to talk about nothing in general...I couldn't.

Like how I totally did that to myself?

Anyway, so I've been thinking about not having set topics on each day, but just maybe having set days. Who knows? EXCEPT for Fridays. I want Fridays to have the above title; Rants and Raves. And here's how it's going to go:

RANT: My allergies are KILLING me. Hello? It's September! September = Fall. Fall = Allergies disappear. Or not. I hate not being able to breathe unless I take my Zyrtec. Sigh.

RAVE: My little girl helped me grocery shop this week. It was probably the cutest thing ever. Usually I just make her sit in the cart. This time I let her pick out her own yogurt, and shut the freezer doors every time we opened them. That was her favorite part. Every time she'd slam a door she'd say "Allright!" and give me a high five. Best grocery shopping. Ever.

RANT: Laundry. 'Nuff said.

RAVE: This platform campaign from Rachel Harrie's blog has been AMAZING! I can't believe how many wonderful people have stopped by to say hi and how many writers are secret gamers too! I knew I wasn't alone! I can't wait to get to know each and every one of you better!

RANTAVE: I read a book this week called ANGEL BURN by L.A. Weatherly.
Look how cool the cover is:

Anyway, I don't really want to talk about the events of the book, but rather the feelings I had when reading it: 

• The style of writing was pretty cool. It switched between two main characters, but whenever it was the girl character (Willow) she spoke in first person. Whenever it was the boy character (Alex) it was told in third person. I thought that was a really interesting way to differentiate between the mains and give them a distinct voice. I mentally jotted that down. 
• The premise was disturbing at first and it took me awhile to get over it. Basically Angels are infiltrating the Earth and feeding off of humans to survive, causing humans to get sick and die. I had a hard time with this. I started substituting the word "angel" for "demon" which made me feel better. It made me think though, how one word could ruin a book for someone and how careful we need to be. 
• The tension between Willow and Alex was great. I kept waiting for them to finally kiss or SOMETHING. Boy it was built up. But when they finally did, I found it was overdone. Five pages of "I love you so much" gets old. Sorry. 
• THE ENDING! Made me so mad!!! It's like the author wanted a sequel so bad she made them fail their mission (which was supposed to be the climax of the book) and then they ran away with nothing being resolved! All I saw in those last few chapters was "I need a sequel, so we're wrapping this one up whether it works or not." In my opinion, it didn't. 

See what I mean about the Rantave? I half liked it half hated it. But it did teach me a lot about writing. It made me question my MS1 and if I ended it unsatisfactorily because I know I want there to be a sequel. I will definitely be looking more closely at that. 

So that's it. Random things that I want to rant and / or rave about. There will be no formula. You'll just have to bear with me. Any Rants or Raves from you all for this week? 

Happy Friday!