Blog: Down with the sickness

This past week, Dwayne and I both came down with the same cold symptoms within hours of each other. From what I know about virus incubation periods and such, it would seem that we were exposed at the same time. In the twelve years that we've been together, I don't think this has ever happened! Usually, if one of us gets sick, the other might become sick after several days or not at all.

At first, I thought it was going to be kind of fun. I mean, not that being sick can ever be fun! But we'd get to share our misery, which means that we'd get to be all bonded while hanging out being weak and stuff. It even started out great with a joint trip to the drug store to pick up Puffs Plus tissues, throat lozenges, vitamin C, and other cold symptom remedies. Whoo hoo!

Things pretty much went downhill from there, though. These days of illness happen to have occurred during my time off from my day job, so I've stayed home and worked on my manuscript as much as I could tolerate being upright. Dwayne, however, has been working his regular job, doing a side job, gallivanting off to make a major purchase, and meeting a friend for a movie.

I'm coughing and sneezing and snotty and feverish and he's acting like this is just an average week. When I say, "ARE YOU REALLY EVEN SICK AT ALL," he's like, "Of course, I am. *weak cough* I just have things that I have to do."

I have things to do, too. But I can't because I'm, you know, too busy being sick and miserable and stuff.

I mean, seriously.

Bleh.

Blog: Death Cab for Cutie at the Showbox Sodo

Tuesday was an ordinary morning. I got up, got ready for work, and got a call that my sister was at the hospital having her baby.

Well, okay. That last part wasn't so ordinary.

Before heading to the hospital, I decided to go into the office for a few hours to get my work done so I could be free the rest of the day to visit my newborn nephew. In the car on the way to the park & ride that morning, I happened to be have the radio tuned to the station that happened to have members of Death Cab for Cutie on the air, announcing a surprise benefit show at a small(ish) venue to take place on Wednesday--the following day! Tickets were going on sale in exactly ten minutes, and I was pulling into at the park & ride with no computer access! 

I called Dwayne. He was working on the golf course and didn't have a computer available, either, so I asked him to try to get online to buy us tickets using his phone. (I have a Blackberry. It's great for many, many things, but not for loading blogs--which happened to be the place one had to go for the tickets.) He said he'd try, but he didn't seem very optimistic. I rode the bus to work, and felt a little down and frustrated. We've been wanting to see Death Cab for years, but I am (mostly) opposed to arena/stadium shows. It's hard to get in to see these guys at smaller venues around Seattle. This show would have been perfect for us! If only we would have been able to get the tiiiiiiiickets before it sold out!

Then I got a text from Dwayne saying that he was able to get them and we were going.

And last night, WE DID GO.

It was Death Cab's first time playing live in about two years, so there were a few funny things that happened, making it even more fun. There's a great recap of how it all went down here and the list all the songs they played, if you're interested. We got to hear them for two full hours playing songs from old to new, including several from the forthcoming "Codes and Keys."

When I'm seeing a band whose catalog I am super familiar with, I like to try to predict which songs they'll choose to perform--specifically the first song, the "last" song, and the encore songs. This time, I got the first song right: "The New Year," which was very exciting for me, considering that they have over 80 songs to choose from. During the encore, I very much expected to hear "We Looked Like Giants" (even though I have no idea if they ever play that live), but they ended with two others from Transatlaticism instead: the title track and "Title and Registration." I was little disappointed because "We Looked Like Giants" is kind of my favorite and also one of my least-favorite Death Cab songs. I was very curious how I would feel about it, hearing it live.

In all, it was a great first show for us long-time Death Cab fans to check out. I told Dwayne that we can never see them again, but who knows. Maybe the stars will align the next time they play a surprise show at a club in Seattle and we'll happen to find out about it just in time!

FYI: I wore my boots with three-inch heels as an experiment to see if being 5'7" at a concert instead of 5'4" made a difference in how well I could see the band. Things were swell until a girl who was 5'8" (and who smelled either like super-skunky weed or super-skunky armpits) pushed right in front of me with her boyfriend who was 5'10." Whenever I was able to maneuver my head just so so that her head wasn't blocking everything, I did, in fact, see the band pretty well. However, my toes fell asleep from me being on my feet for 3 hours. I haven't yet decided if it was worth it. If I was going to see a band with a few openers (which is much more typical), I don't think I could tolerate the boots all night if I had to stand the whole time.

Blog: The Help Write Now Charity Auction

Help Write Now is a writing community auction to benefit Southern storm relief. What this means is that authors, bloggers, editors, agents, and others have made donations--either of items or of their time--and the proceeds from these donations will be added to the Red Cross's general disaster relief fund. 

Each day, new donated items are listed. They are on day 8 right now and there are lots of great choices for writers and readers alike!  I've offered up a signed and personalized copy of Freefall. Bidding for this item started this morning and will be open for three days.

I've also spotted lots of signed books, new ARCs, Skype interviews, manuscript critiques, and artwork. The link to the full auction is here, and you can click the tabs to learn more about who is running things and how it all works. So check it out! Maybe you'll find a great gift for someone else or for yourself!

Blog: A happy memory of a song

At this moment, I can't write about The Happiest Time because if put a lot of thought into this and try to quantify it, I will never end up posting anything. And that would defeat the purpose of a blog Writer's Block prompt, yes?

So this is about A Happy Time. The song was "Luka" by Suzanne Vega (probably not Vincent Vega's cousin). It might seem like an odd choice since the lyrics are about a boy who is being abused. I didn't fully grasp that at the time, though. Also, I'd assumed that Luka was the name of the woman performing it.

I was around ten years old when "Luka" came out and I remember singing along with the radio and my Aunt Tracy, who was 23 at the time. I didn't have a great singing voice, but I'd belt it out with a lot of sincerity and she'd laugh. Whenever I think of this song, it always takes me back to that summer and spending time with my super-cool aunt. :-)

"My name is Luka. I live on the second floor. . . "

Blog: This ISN'T a blog about why I haven't been blogging frequently.

I regularly see posts online where a blogger will say, "I'm so sorry I haven't been posting lately!"

Then they go on to explain their absence and/or resolve to post more frequently.

When I come across those posts, I always think, It's really okay! You don't have to explain yourself. If you want to blog more, just do it. If you can't, don't. 

Now that my own blogging has been less frequent in the past few months, I understand why so many people feel the need to apologize or make promises. I'm not going to do that, though! Instead, here's a picture I just took of myself with my new slightly-red hair color. I'm not wearing makeup and the photos is taken at a strange angle. I do my best, you know?

Also, here's a list of things I could have written about recently, but didn't for whatever reason:

 1. Everything I love about "Longview" by Green Day, and the one thing I don't love.
 2. Grieving, death, and moving on.
 3. Ongoing debates regarding publishing/YA writing/book blogging that have gone way beyond driving me up the wall.
 4. Dwayne's ongoing Porsche Discussion.
 5. Every minute detail of my day-to-day frustrations and triumphs in drafting LIVE THROUGH THIS.
 6. The dream I had in which I was a teenager with a boyfriend who became very, very confused when an adult male author kissed me.
 7. Reading and the joy it doesn't bring me sometimes.
 8. The book I keep obsessing over and saying that I want to buy, but that I continue to not buy because I don't feel that I have time to read it.
 9. The Norman Rockwell art exhibit that I saw at the Tacoma Art Museum.
10. The 9-year-old restaurant gift certificate that we finally used yesterday.
11. My new dress that might or might not make my hips look big.
12. Why I'm hooked on Justified.

Ta-ta for now!