CAUTION: Woman In Progress

I'm wearing black today. No, I'm not in mourning...just letting my dark tendencies show today in honor of Halloween. lol I love Halloween mostly just because I love candy and being scared. Put the two together and I'm close to Heaven. My sisters think I'm nuts because I love spooking myself. Sis1 refuses to watch scary movies and Sis2, while she'll indulge me in watching some I'm too scared to watch alone, just doesn't understand the fascination I have with being scared. Ever since I was a child, I've always loved scaring myself silly with ghost stories, vampire tales and the like. I still get chills when someone does the ol' "I love. To bite. Your neck!" routine. (even though it's goofy and I totally laugh at it. lol) And though I basically think they're silly, that doesn't mean I wouldn't run screaming in terror if a werewolf came snarling at me. Just last night I spent two hours watching TLC's special "Possessed ...

A little something to leave you with for the weekend... I love all things supernaturally scary. Okay...anything ghostly scary. I don't like movies or books about exorcisms because...shudder...that's just tooooooo beyond my ability to not have nightmares. And no, I don't like Chucky movies or Nightmare on Elm Street. I barely survived Pet Cemetary without severe traumatizations. I did and DO, however, love a good ghostly scarey movie or story. The Sixth Sense gave me chills, The Others made me scream out loud. House on Haunted Hill was just...well, it had it's moments...cheese factor aside. So in honor of the imminent approach of All Hallow's Eve I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite ghostly websites. Once upon a time I visited these about as often as I checked my email. While my interest and their fun ghost stories hasn't waned, time just doesn't allow it anymore. But...just for you, here they are. Check them out...If you dare.... hehe The Sh...

Blech! I hate waking up with a headache. Just what did I do in my sleep to put me in such a state? Must have had some wicked partying dreams. LOL The blare of the alarm clock wasn't appreciated either. Blinding pain would be an accurate description of that little episode. Needless to say, I smacked that SOB and curled up in a fetal position for about 9 minutes before the blasted thing went off again. Oh the inhumanity! Why Lord? Why? I finally stumbled out of bed with a hiss and a groan and staggered into the bathroom. Oh, how I wish I could've call in dead right then. My boss, however, is on vacation and I have to cover for her. Life is so unfair. I still considered calling in anyway and letting the rest of the office cover for ME. It's not like I haven't had to cover for a bunch of others before. Ever hear of returning the favor? But noooooo. I'd be the villain and would likely catch hell once my boss came back from vacation. An Aleve and a hot shower got me into ...

Well, well, well. The madness continues. hehehe I wrote six pages last night and realized that I had actually written four pages the night before instead of the two I reported. What can I say? I don't pay much attention to the minor details. lol I still think that what I'm writing these days sucks but I'm not going to stop. It can't be as bad as I think, can it? And didn't I say I was going to stop thinking negatively anyway? ;-) I'm really enjoying it. Probably the most annoying thing is having to wait and let my computer boot up. It takes forever. I need to take it to the computer doctor for a "physical." lol What's really difficult for me, and I'm trying to overcome it, is the self-editing as I write. Someone else once told me that they experienced the same problem. It held them up from finishing anything and wasn't really necessary anyway. I'm trying so hard not to do that but the temptation is strong. I always want to go back and r...

Good news!!! I wrote two pages last night!! Whooo Hoooo! Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been writing again for Drifters for a couple of weeks now but this is different. This is an actual manuscript!! I was printing out some pictures for my sister and decided to read through a couple of MS's that I have stored on my laptop. It had been quite a while since I've even looked at my WIPs let alone actually added to them. I have one, of course, that I keep in my office at work so that I can work on it during down periods. Haven't touched it in a while either. So while I was playing around on my laptop, I rediscovered this WIP that I started about a year or more ago. I had already written the prologue and the first chapter and had started on the second chapter. So, I printed it out and read through it doing a little editing here and there and you know what? I may be biased but, it wasn't half bad stuff! I forgot for a moment that I was reading something that I had actually writte...

Very cool how accurate these things can be, huh? lol Your element is Water. You have a calm aura around you and are in tune with the world around. You observe it but rarely interfere. Because of your shy and timid nature you will not have so many friends in your life. But then again, large crowds aren't your thing anyway. You are comfortable on your own and are reserved to others who you don't know or know very little of. You know everyone out there does not want to be your friend, and knowing that is good. However, people who don't know you that well thinks that you are cold and distant since you don't want to talk to them. Although you mean no harm, you can't always be perfectly understood in the world. No one can. Life in general are you quite serene with even if there are some things you don't like. Your love-life is not so full of boys/girls, but if you flirted more with the ones you were interested in I'm sure something would happen. The hobbies you ch...

Or as I like to call it, my weekend review. ;-) Yes, my friends, it's that time of week again where I bore you with the infinite tedious details of my weekend. Sit back, relax and load up on some caffeine. hehe I have a crap car. It's a '91 so it isn't exactly ancient but, well, it isn't new either. I've had it for nearly 6 years and have had to put some kind of work in it each year. This year it was the starter, a fan and a sensor that I had to have replaced. Last year it was the breaks, two tires and an alignment. Well, the first time I ever drove the hour or more to Sis2's new home was when the fan and the sensor bit the dust leaving me at a truck stop some 7 miles or so from my sister's home. Despite the fact that the guy who worked on it for me was a total and complete hottie, I'm still a bit traumatized by this experience. There is nothing more frightening to youngish single woman who hates to drive anyway than to be forced to pull over in str...

hehehe I borrowed this from Shady's Journal . (the hostess/owner of Lost Destinations> I had a lot of fun with this. :-) Her instructions were... go to google and type "your name needs" (obviously replacing your name with ummm, well, YOUR name. And use the quotations) Here's what I got...and can I just say...I never knew there were so many "Jana's" in the world? lol And I forgot to use the quotations so these don't all look like they were supposed to. Oh, and I added my own little comments on there, too. They're in ( ). hehehe Jana needs to follow up. (I'm working on it! Jeez! The pressure! And why am I always the one following??) Jana needs psychotropic medications (I'm sure there are many who would agree...) ...the last thing Jana needs is more trouble--especially man trouble. (Hey! I could use some man trouble! Don't suck all the joy out of life! lol) Jana needs 5 additional incorrect answers (Oh boy...as if I don't ge...

I'm ROFLOL here. I just took this quiz about "What happened to you as a child" and the answer is just toooo funny...and scary enough...it's very very close to the truth. hehehehehe As a child... Your parents would let you run around naked in your backyard How did it mess you up? You say 'that's hot' more than 3 times a day Take'>http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=45">Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

My pal Heather tagged me to blog for joy . I really didn't think I'd have much luck with this since it seems I don't tend to write many happy thoughts. lol Wonder of wonders, I actually found two entries. Here were Heather's instructions... THE SEARCH FOR JOY Search your blog for the word "joy" used in the context of "happiness." If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below. joy=amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation,exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor,gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment,mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonder If your weblog does not include a built-in search engine, then you can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a c...

Got this from one of my fave sites to visit. Lost Destinations. A very cool and totally fun place indeed. ;-) What Scooby Villain Are You? It's" not advisable to annoy you, seeing as how you are an ancient ghostly voodoo shaman and everything. You are Mamba Zombie.

Now that the fun stuff has been posted...lol Not much going on with me these days. I've just been chilling out and watching the rest of the world. It's fun to people watch sometimes. For a long time I never understood what some folks got out of people watching. When I was a kid whenever my grandparents would take us to the mall Granny would always be the one taking us from store to store. Pa-Paw would merely make his rounds at the book store and then park himself on a bench in the hall and people watch. We always made fun of him for his choice of activity and I never understood what he found so interesting about watching a bunch of strangers. Now that I'm older I've figured out the entertainment value. My buddies/co-workers Brenda and Betty and I go for coffee breaks in the snack shop at least once a day. The snack shop is fronted by three huge picture windows that face the main hub of campus, the drill field. The outside part of the window is tinted and acts as more of...

Okay, so I borrowed this from Heather's blog. hehehe Thanks, Trix. ;) I'm rather impressed with my results. Very cool. .:Mercury:. "Your personality often has two sides. You have no trouble taking things in stride, but you like a peaceful balance in your life. You have a lot of creativity, especially when it comes to the written word. You are a great communicator and are very open to new ideas. You also have a strong desire to learn." . : : Which Astrological Planet are You? : : . [10 Gorgeous Pics!] brought to you by Quizilla

Ah...a four day weekend. Nice. Relaxing. Time away from the rush of work and worry, right? Nah...lol Oh, it wasn't bad just hectic. So here's a play by play. Grab some popcorn, strap yourself in and make sure you have a pillow handy to catch your head when you fall asleep. It's gonna be a long one, bay-bee! hehe Thursday: I took a couple of days of personal leave from work because a) Sis1 and Emmy were coming that afternoon to spend the weekend b) I had some cleaning and stuff to do and c) I have the personal time built up and dag-gummit I'm gonna use some of it just because. Emmy's school was on fall break last week (yes...they got a whole friggen week!!) so Sis1 decided this would be a good time to come and spend some quality time with the family. I knew I would be held captive for the duration of her stay so I took off all day Thursday just to have some "me" time to prepair. I'm very protective and selfish of my "me" time and instead of pu...

After my ghostly flirtation the day got better. Friday morning was spent entertaining Emmy while Sis1 made French toast. Yes. My sister made me French toast. I was bowled over too. lol It was really good, too. Thanks to my foresight, we had whip cream to put on it too. Yum-O. Emmy was a little disgusted that we weren't having pancakes, though. She is a pancake fiend and I truly believe that given the choice she would eat them breakfast, lunch and supper. The rest of the day was spent shopping and eating. Emmy ditched us at lunch to go back to work with her Gran (my BIL's stepmom) so Sis1 were on our own for the rest of the day and night. She took it as an opportunity to run my legs off. We went shopping at Cato and she let me spend $40 on two shirts and some new lounge pants while she didn't buy a single thing. We weren't shopping for me dangit. lol But, at least I got two new blouses on clearance and some warm lounge pants for this winter. Then she dragged me back to ...

LOL, so no, I'm not kickin' any butts or taking any names. I just like that phrase. hehehe I had typed up a blog post full of rants and craziness but thankfully for ya'll, I've deleted it. I figured it wouldn't serve anyone any good for me to gripe, yell, scream and act silly over stuff that I can't change so instead I've decided to make a list of the stuff I can change. I'm starting out small with just five. What can I say? I get overwhelmed quickly. ;-) Five things I can change about my life 1. My attitude. Instead of seeing the bad parts of my life and dwelling on them so darn much, I can start looking at the good stuff in my life. I have a great life. It'll never be written about and will never inspire a movie based on me but it's a good, honest, fulfilling life. I should remember that. 2. My self-esteem. I'm not as hideous as I think I am. When someone gives me a compliment it doesn't have to mean that they want something or are j...

Okay, so what do those three things have in common? Nothing really besides the fact that at least two of the subjects are driving me nuts. Squirrels. Well, cute, fuzzy, playful little creatures. Besides the whole cross/don't cross the street routine that causes many a car to swerve, they are normally one of my favorite creatures to watch. They're cute and have the best sense of play that I think I've ever seen in an animal. I sit on my front porch many times and watch them chase each other up one side of a tree and down anothers, hopping and flying all over the place. Sometimes I swear I can almost hear one or the other of them yelling "Tag! You're it!" before racing off to another tree. The first time I heard one of them scamper across the tin roof of my house, I nearly fell out of my chair. To weigh so little they sure make a lot of racket. But, my days of feeling friendly are over. One has invaded my house. No, I don't have a furry half crazed squirrel ...

I borrowed this from AJ's blog who got it from Jaci's blog . I thought it was fun and thought provoking so I figured, what the heck...;-) 7 things to do before I die: 1. Sing on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium 2. Comfortably wear a size 16 3. Be romance book kissed by a wonderful, sexy, gorgeous, kind man 4. Sip coffee at a sidewalk cafe in Paris 5. Be published. 6. Own a lacy red bra 7. Build my dream home. 7 things I can do: 1. Make perfectly round, perfectly golden pancakes...after the fifth crazy-shaped, over browned pancake. hehe 2. Make people laugh (and mean to do so) 3. Program my VCR, Stereo and any other electronic entertainment equipment 4. Sing passably well 5. Write with some modicum of talent 6. Color inside the lines 7. Set a pretty table 7 things I can't do: 1. Walk in stilletos 2. a Cart Wheel 3. Change the oil in my car (I CAN check the oil, though. So there. :-p~~) 4. French braid hair 5. Speak in groups/crowds/public 6. spell worth a darn 7. attract d...

Another week has passed. Another week I'll never have to live again. :-) No, it has't been horrific or terrible. I didn't dip down into any terrible lows and for the first time in a while I just...was. Today I feel a sense of accomplishment. After 2.5 years, I finally finished the collection I'd been working on for so long. I probably could have finished it far sooner but you know me...I'm a procrastinator. lol No, not all that time was procrastination. Much of it was me getting discouraged and spending a lot of time staring in dispair at the giant mess that I was assigned to make sense of. Well, folks...I finally made sense of it. I'm happy. My supervisor's happy. I know of at least one patron who will be happy when she discovers that it's complete. And if you've ever slaved over a disheartening project before, you can imagine the utter sense of relief that I felt when I shelved that last box and stared around at my newly emptied cubicle. Of course,...

Procrastination. It isn't just a way to avoid work. There are reasons, I tell you, REASONS, to procrastinate. So, I've taken it upon myself to enlighten those dogooders who would chastise us procrastinators. Here are the top ten reasons why I procrastinate. 10. That book in my bag will get lonely if I don't spend a good portion of time with it on a daily basis. No unread book ever went home happy. 9. I can't work unless I have memorized all the lyrics to Faith Hill's new song so that I can sing it to myself while I work. 8. My nails don't look this good without a little effort. My projects wouldn't appreciate me coming to them with ugly nails! 7. Everyone else is doing it. 6. A girl gets thirsty and the water fountain water is nasty. The snackshop is the only place to retrieve refreshment and to get to it I must go downstairs and take at least two friends with me. 5. Are Jessica and Nick breaking up? I have to keep abreast of the latest reports. Life can...

Okay, so I totally suck at doing book reviews. Book reports in school? Just as sucky. Oh, I know, I know. I can talk about my books forever. Thing is, I'm terrible at giving pertinent detail and useful information. I tend to forget the finer points of a book/movie/whatever when telling about them. Not good for someone who one day hopes to make a living being a storyteller. But after reading this particular book, I thought, hey. It's worth a shot, right? So here goes. My first book review. If it doesn't make sense just pretend it did, okay? Please? Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner Thank God for Amazon's handy dandy little recommendation feature. If not for that, I may never have discovered the wonderfulness that is Jennifer Weiner. I first discovered her sometime about three years ago while searching for a particular RDI book and Good In Bed popped up as a recommendation. After reading the blurb and several people's reviews and heck, let's be honest, the tit...

Ok so April tagged me and it sounded fun. I figured I'd play along. Here's how you play! 1. Delve into your blog archive. 2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas.. 5. Tag five people to do the same. My 23rd post, 5th sentence: My sisters DID both make it to town this weekend though. My interpretation: I think this means I put far too much emphasis on my sisters' place in my life and I think the subtext is that I have a tendancy to doubt my sisters' dependability in my life. Oy vey! Families are a pain in the butt! I don't really have anyone other than Kaitlin, Donna and Heather to tag so if ya'll are reading this and want to play, go for it!

My pal, Kaitlin, borrowed this from Romancing the Blog and I liked it so well that I'm borrowing it from her. Hope ya don't mind, Kaitlin! ;-) Question 1: What romance, if any, can you quote passages from? Oh wow....hmmm...well, I don't think I can actually quote from one, but like Kaitlin said in her answer, there are some books that I can just glance at the cover and tell you a brief synopsis of the story. I may not even remember character names but I remember the plot lines. These are the ones that I know for sure are keepers because if I can still remember the plot line just by the cover, I KNOW it was a good book. :-) Question 2: What subjects/treatments/pet peeves make you angry? Well, I really get prickly and disgusted at some of the category romances that feature really boorish overbearing neanderthal heros who mistreat the heroine throughout the book and the heroine is such a wimp that she finds him irresistable and in the end she falls at his feet because he tells...

Oy! I could use a nap or a major jolt of caffein right now. Aren't weekends supposed to be for resting? lol Nah, I had a blast. Here's the rundown: Friday, the day we all look forward to with glee. The last day of the week and the beginning of the weekend. Well, this Friday was just...blech! September had to wring out the very last drop of crap that it could just to make sure I didn't forget what a bitch it was/is. Okay, remember the self-healing plumbing. Wasn't so self-healing after all. What it was is a big pain in my backside. It started acting up again last week but again, I put off having it worked on earlier in the week leaving me Friday getting it fixed. I had promised Sis1 that I'd have it fixed by the time she got here Friday evening. Well, I called my landlord who gave me a beleagered go ahead. (I think he thinks I sabatoge the dang thing just to bug him. lol) then called the RotoRooter folks and talked to a woman. Now, being a woman I don't generally...