It's Not Friday, but...

--I'm hopelessly behind, so:

1. I've consumed more calories and alcohol in the month of June than I have all year. Partly because in the past week alone I've eaten out 5 times. Twice in one day.

2. I had a wonderful time on the dinner cruise Thursday night, and the weather was great except for the fact there was NO sun whatsoever and my pics turned out like crap. I got a plaque congratulating me for 25 years of "association." Not that I care for the word "service." In fact I hate when patients say, "I've gotten such good service." You don't get "good service" in a hospital, you get--I hope--good care. If I'm not in a crabby mood, that is, because sixteen new admissions dumped onto my shift within a forty-five minute span.

3. People are buying my book! I'm nowhere near anybody's bestseller list, lol. I'm not even in the ballpark, and the ballpark's not even in the same county. But people are reading it! One little girl told her mom she liked the book much better than (two VERY well-known teen bestsellers which shall remain unnamed). Can you even imagine what a thrill that is? Forget the so-called official reviews. THIS is what I so love to hear. :)

4. I have business cards now. I put off getting them for months. I ordered them from VISTA PRINT--full color and very reasonable. The background is a closeup of a stringed instrument (I thought was a cello, but then I noticed the chin piece) and there's the title of my book, my name, publisher, contact information, and a special blurb for the Class of 2k7. Pam will be happy to know I no longer have to sign I-Hop napkins.

5. Today I revised at Borders from 9:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. I added a new character, which may or may not be a good thing--a frighteningly handsome Arabic boy in Shawna's art class. Good because he may add a romantic zing. Bad because I don't need to "up" the word count. I need a cool Arabic name, not the usual Ahmed or Mohammed.

6. Paris, Paris, Paris, Paris, Paris, blah-blah-bla-a-ah, oh, SHUT UP ABOUT PARIS! By the way, did you get a load of the CRAP she got to munch on behind bars? I thought you were supposed to, like, suffer in jail. French vanilla coffee? Toffee peanuts? OK, think about this: once you get past the strip search, you get a private cell, you're only allowed out of it once a day, and you get coffee, granola bars, and banana nut muffins. JUST THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH WRITING YOU'D GET DONE!

7. I found a massive, mangy, creepy gray furball squished into my family room carpet. It sat there for days because I thought it was a sock. How could that much fur fall off one single cat? And why do I have to be the one to, ick, actually touch it?

8. Grandma likes to stroll around outside, and they got concerned because she'll even take a walk down the street. Well, when they told her not to go outside alone anymore, she totally flipped! Cussed 'em out, threw her walker, carried on and on, not to mention the nine screeching messages she left on my machine. I said let her go out for now. I mean, sheesh, she's been walking outside by herself for a year. Is it worth the aggravation? Physically she can do it, but I think they're a bit afraid she won't come back--or, more like, won't remember her way back. Sigh. So I'm still mulling this over.

9. I've been off for a week. Back to work on Monday. Or is it Tuesday? I should probably find out.

10. There is no number 10 other than to say I'm trying really, really hard to catch up on everyone's blogs!