I had a dream that Bobby Flay was wooing me with succulent grilled meats and vinaigrettes. He wanted to date me and I was having none of it, so he kept cooking for me and trying to win me over. I’m now starting to wonder if I’m watching too much Food Network. Is that possible?
September 9, 2009
The Expansion of My Mind
I’ve been pondering my knowledge lately. It’s true that I have quite a few irons in Ye Olde Fire, but there are things I want to learn. I’m going to endeavor to learn ‘em.
PhD in History and New Media
This is the biggest one. My application is due by Jan and I’ll know if I’m accepted in March’ish of 2010. I need to write 3 statements and pick a paper to send them, finish my history dept application and get it all signed and sealed. And pay. This is priority Numero Uno in the next two months.
Take Better Pictures
I got into photography because I thought it would fill a creativity void in my life. I never realized how important math and numbers are. Fstops, depth of field, choosing a lens depending on how far away from your subject you plan to be.. it all confuses me and I think I need to improve. Practice and classes – I have it planned and must make the time.
Photoshop
Likewise, I need a little schooling in Photoshop CS4. I can hack my way around, but actual knowledge is all powerful. So yeah, this too.
Culinary Classes
I’d love to take a couple of cooking classes.. specifically, I’d love to do a week at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY. They also have certificate programs. This is one of those cases where I wish I were independently wealthy.. this’ll take money and time, both of which seem to be at a premium right now.
Novel
God, I’d love to finish this. I’ve about three and a half chapters in and I’ve written myself into a corner. I’m so far in, I need an actual outline to tell me where to go next. I just can’t bring myself to marinate on the outline. Other things will take priority, but I really think I have the beginnings of a decent story. So at some point, I’ll get back to this.
Scary. But I have general categories of stuff I’d like to accomplish.. that’s a start right?
September 8, 2009
Who Me?
I realized it, of course. None of you even had to say anything. I’m overcomplicating things. I’ve never really (ever) had a direction for this thing and I have no idea why I feel compelled to state something finite. I mean, when I do, it just gets me in trouble.*
So instead, I shall try to renew my dedication to you all by continuing to tell you the random, humorous and bizarre stories that come out of my own life. Because there are some. I just need to write them down. That’s the hard part. Actually doing it. And I have to start visiting YOUR blogs again too. Because I’ve been a selfish bitch. I’m all whiney and complaining, “Why hasn’t anyone visited me??”
Well it’s because I’ve said nothing of substance in months and I haven’t said anything on your blogs either. Because here in Bloggyland, we give and we take. And I’ve done no giving. So I will be a better BlogFriend.
And I’ll get my ass in that seat and turn on my clunky laptop at home. I’ll do it, I promise. Just you watch.
* Witness the past several months, when I set out to blog only about my experiences writing a novel. I barely blogged anything.
August 27, 2009
Blog Interrupted
Whoa. Hey. Where’d she go?
Sorry folks. I’ve run out of steam and am currently pondering what I want this blog to be. I’ll return with a new direction and focus in September.
Thanks for sticking in there.
July 9, 2009
A Room of One’s Own
I have a perfectly good writing space. It’s a smallish desk, complete with laptop (old and clunky, but it runs), printer, Poe figurine (see above pic) and various and sundry dictionaries, thesari, etc. The chair is comfy and I have a great ergonomic keyboard.
But I don’t use it.
I have a dozen reasons why and frankly, none of them are very good.
The computer is slow to boot up and shut down and I have a very old version of Open Office running on it. The desk is located in the corner of our already-cluttered bedroom, almost in my closet. The chair sits on carpeting without one of those really handy plastic thingamajigs that allow you to easily roll your chair in and out. The small desk is piled, PILED, with papers and stuff that I have yet to file.
I have a dozen reasons I don’t use my desk and none of them are particularly good. None are dealbreakers. Lately, when I do write, I sit at the dining room table with my work laptop (which is supa fast) and a flash drive and move things to and fro with relative ease. But then the TV is on and the kids are eating and the dining room table is just not a good place to craft a novel. But then I think that if Janet Evanovich could do it, why can’t I?
But I’m definitely not Janet Evanovich and since I work and write at night, I don’t have the luxury of a quiet house to write in during the day. By the time I sit down, crack my knuckles, dig out my note cards and get down to business, someone is cleaning up the kitchen or making popcorn, or doing something infinitely more interesting than starting a new scene or finishing a bit of dialogue.
It’s maddening and I think I just need to suck it up, clean off my desk, get a plastic thingamajig, defrag the disk in my old machine and get to work.
Because excuses are for wienies and really, it’s about self-discipline, not space. I’m definitely lacking in the former.. not the latter.
June 29, 2009
Eat Your Way Through New Orleans
I promised my friend Kristy that I’d keep a food journal during my recent trip to New Orleans. I was lucky enough to have a travel companion who likes to walk as much as I do and I even ran two mornings, so I actually feel like I balanced all the eating with some good exercise. We probably walked a total of 7 hours over 4 days.. it was quite nice.
But I digress.. on to the food!
Acme Oyster House – Iberville St., French Q.
Classic, down home Cajun cooking. I recommend the grilled oyster appetizer and the crawfish etouffee. Delicious. They put oysters on the half shell on the grill, top them with garlic butter and Romano cheese and serve it with French bread. You can get six or twelve.. definitely enough for a full meal. The etouffee was very good, though I’m not well-versed in them. The restaurant is loud and bar-like and considering most of the restaurants in the French Quarter rank higher on the pricey scale, it was a nice first choice.
Emeril’s New Orleans – Tchoupitoulas St., Warehouse District
Emeril has three restaurants in New Orleans. We chose this one because it happened to be in the same neighborhood as our hotel. You definitely need reservations, so call ahead. If you’re willing to sit down to dinner at six, when they open, you’ll probably have no trouble getting a table. Beyond that, it’s packed.
I had the BBQ shrimp appetizer, a mixed spinach salad and the redfish. I’m told both the BBQ shrimp and the redfish have been on the menu since they opened. I can attest that they both are delicious. The bbq sauce has a nice zing you’d expect from Emeril and the redfish was perfectly cooked. For dessert, I had the lemon torte, but they also have a dessert cheese menu, which looked quite nice. It’s pricey, so be prepared. They have a nice wine list and our waiter, Dimitrious, was phenomenal.
Some random diner – Decatur St., across from the French Market
We ate here for breakfast one morning when the line at Cafe Du Monde was too long. They’re a diner, so the whole menu is fair game all day. They have the standards, eggs, pancakes, french toast, but I had a muffaletta.. piled with olive tapenade, cheese and meats, fries on the side. Awesome breakfast! They don’t use Heinz ketchup and since there’s no other ketchup brand in my book, I doused mine with Tabasco for a kick. Made it all better!
Cafe Du Monde – Decatur St., French Market
A classic and a must. Hot beignets and cafe au lait on ice. Consistently amazing. Just don’t wear black, because the powdered sugar goes everywhere.
Creole Skillet – Julia St., Warehouse District
Our final meal was Sunday Brunch. The French onion soup, with a bit of a kick, was covered in cheese. I also had the seafood crepes filled with crawfish and shrimp. The crepes were a bit dense for my liking and the sauce was a little bland. Salt, pepper and a couple shots of Tabasco fixed it. I ended up eating the middles out of two of the three crepes.
Bottom line: The only thing I didn’t eat was an oyster Po Boy, which is going to be first on the list if I ever return. You’d better bring some walking shoes, because you really will eat your way through town. Even the sub-standard restaurants serve good food. And if worse comes to worse, there’s Tabasco on every table. And Tabasco can pretty much fix anything.
June 21, 2009
All Because of Rock Band
Hannah: Erin, what is your favorite band ever?
Me: Oh man, that’s a really tough question. But I suppose if the criteria for a “favorite band ever” is that I can listen to a majority of their albums start to finish, I’d have to say The Police. But that’s a really tough question because it depends on my mood.
Hannah: Hmmm (Singing) Roxane, you don’t have to turn on the red light.
June 18, 2009
Research
I have to research the West Virginia felony arrest procedures and Circuit court system and I keep singing the “Jubilation T. Cornpone” number from L’il Abner.
Don’t ask me why.
June 15, 2009
Antennae Are Superior to Eyeballs: A Treatise
I went to the opthamologist today to have my eyes checked.
My grandfather, who was a wonderful human being, infected most of my family with Granular Corneal Dystrophy. If it sounds like a horrible degenerative disease, it’s because it is. It’s a funny looking eye disease – like someone took orange and red crayons and colored the surface of my cornea with little dots. When light shines through the dots, I’m blinded. Night driving and really bright sunshine on snow are the worst, but lights on a rainy night are pretty bad too. Most of the aunts and uncles have had cornea transplants and I think all but two cousins have it as well. Not pretty.
Anyway, this is a long preamble to the real story and that is that I saw a specialist today to make sure my eyeballs are on the up and up. I go to the optometrist every year. I’m not afraid of eye exams. I hate the puff of air, but I manage.
So when the eye doctor tech numbed my eyes and told me he was going to test for glaucoma, I thought, piece of cake.
Um, yeah.
They don’t do the puff of air. They put your chin in a contraption, tell you to look at a black disc and then attempt to touch your eyeball with a blue glowing cone. And that’s where I get off the train.
He says, don’t worry you won’t feel anything. Open wide and try not to blink.
Of course, the first thing I do IS blink and then I feel my eyelashes hit the glowing blue cone. And then my head explodes. I break out into a cold sweat, the tunnel vision starts and I almost pass out in the contraption. He never does touch my eye. But like a nice little helper, he does fetch me some water.
Rick, who is there to drive me home, tries to get me to focus on anything but the blue cone that is rapidly approaching my eyeball, to no avail. Think about your book, he says. (Now as an aside, that would normally work, but since the only thing I could think of was the dead body of my victim splayed out on the ME’s table, it didn’t really help..)
I decided that I’d rather have antennae, instead of eyeballs, which are viscous and weird and probably really gross when they’re not in your head. Rick does not agree.
I am happy to report that I did not pass out and that the doctor did successfully administer the test. He held my eyelids open so that they wouldn’t touch the cone and send me into shock.
This, my friends, is the difference between a seasoned doctor and an eye doctor tech who is afraid to touch you. Whatever, I’m a dork. I just don’t want someone touching my eyeball.
But you could touch my antennae. I’d let you.
June 12, 2009
So Far Behind
What the heck happened to the week? I had grand plans of writing every night and it never happened. I have a critique meeting next weekend and have nothing to submit. I need to get some self-discipline.
So.. I’ve decided to apply for my PhD. Not like I have nothing else to do in my life, but my reasons are three fold:
1. I’m now ready to go back to school. I’m going to apply to GMU’s program in History and New Media. So it’s somewhat career relevant.
2. I really don’t want to have to take the GRE again and I want to at least apply before my scores are 10 years old.
3. The application deadline is Jan 15th. I want to submit the first three chapters of my book to a contest that has a deadline of November. If I am accepted to the program, I won’t be able to start until Sept 2010 because of the way the school year works. (You still with me through my logic flow??) SO that means that if I can get at least half the book done by December (nice goal – I’ve got almost 3 chapters now) and then the rest done by the time I enter school (positive thinking) then I’ll have my novel done AND be a PhD student. This will allow me to shop it around without worrying about how I’m going to fill the time (which can take upwards of 6 months) while I wait to hear back from prospective agents.
In essence, I’m giving myself externally imposed deadlines.
Then if I sell the book and they want another, I’ve got a nice little dilemma. But I can’t get too far ahead of myself. First I have to find the time to write the damn thing!
