Books to the ceiling,/ Books to the sky,/ My pile of books is a mile high./ How I love them! How I need them!/ I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel


It's funny how I feel the need to post something - anything - so that I can put up a fun quote. ^^; I guess it's been a while since I've given you an update, though, so I might as well.

My trip was lovely. The weather was beautiful, I played with my niece (who's still afraid of me at first, every time), and it was fun to just chill and hang out with my mom/dad/brothers. I loved being home more than usual, even, because the emphasis was on "B's home!" instead of "Everyone's home!" It was nice to feel loved and appreciated. I'm back to work for a week, and heading home again probably Saturday for Christmas break.

I even got some creative work done, about 2000 words over the weekend - inspired by The War of Art, which I'll talk about more when my hard copy arrives and I can make references - but not on Muse. I worked on the story that this is from, starting at the beginning. I've been needing a high-fantasy outlet, and it's feeling good.

Also, since this post starts out about books, I might as well mention that I've listened to 3 (and a half) Miles Vorkosigan books, and loved them. (The half is Cetaganda, which I'm only partway through, but which so far I don't particularly care for. I just don't like the planet, like, at all. My brother assures me that it picks up, though.) And I've also listened to the first book (and a half) of the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, and I'm enjoying them, too. I'm on the second book.

Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.
- Frank Zappa

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
- Redd Foxx


I'm in sunny Arizona now - my surprise worked out quite well. I left for the airport after work, and it took me an hour and a half to make the 45-minute trip, for no real reason. No snow or ice on the road, no construction.. but just for fun, three times in the trip traffic had slowed down to stop-and-go for stretches of a few miles. *mutters* I got to the airport half an hour before my flight was supposed to leave, and when I got my boarding pass, it said that my flight had been delayed about 15 minutes. I whirled through security and discovered at the gate that my fwe'd been delayed another ten. The plane had just arrived and the previous flight's passengers were just getting off.

Thank heaven for small favors. <3

Anyway, my little brother picked me up in Phoenix, and I got to hang out with my bros for half an hour or so before my parents came home from Dad's office Christmas party. (Two of the four were surprised. The other two had been informed.) My mom, instead of depositing her purse in the kitchen right away, headed toward her bedroom - so my dad snagged her elbow and guided her back toward the kitchen, where I was. When she saw me, her mouth fell open for a good several seconds. She said, "How did you get here?!" (I told her, "I flew" while flapping my hands a bit.) And she came over and hugged me for about three minutes, and I think she was crying a little. I couldn't exactly tell what was going on outside the death grip.

This morning I went to the temple with my dad - the Mesa Temple is really beautiful inside.. Outside, it doesn't look like much (the reflection pool is rather nice, though), but the inside has gorgeous stone and detail work, and lots of mural paintings on the wall. The decor is all golds and creams and rich dusty purples and pinks. I was surprised that I hadn't seen it before.

When we got home, I played with my niece, Amira, who my mom babysits a couple days a week while my sister works. (OH! She's just woken up from her nap!) She was afraid of me for a couple hours, but she warmed up to me. (Looks like her nap erased all of that - she's scared of me again. ;_;) She's adorable and a lot of fun, though. She got into cupboards and played with tupperware while my brother and I played Guitar Hero for a while. Tomorrow's her First birthday party!

I'm back in town, btw. Got back Sunday night, late. It was a nice trip and I'm really really glad I went. I'll give you a recap when I have the time.

Looking forward to watching more Supernatural tonight. I think my LJ icons need updating, to reflect what I'm about these days. (It's sad to think that mostly I'm "about" various TV shows.. I comfort myself with the excuse that it's about pretty people (art) and fun storytelling (writing), but it doesn't seem to hold up well in regular company. My brother sure got sick of hearing about SPN this weekend, though he enjoyed the two episodes I downloaded to show him..)

This morning was rough. I almost called in sick, or at least to come in a couple hours late. But I didn't have a fever (I was slightly chilled, actually), so I told myself I didn't have an excuse. Turns out two of my coworkers (one of them being my art director, who gave me a hug yesterday) are out sick today. I hope this morning's trouble was my system fighting it off and not some precursor..


Also, I did something interesting the other day. After finishing Artslam, life got busier again and I ended up taking time off from doing Muse stuff. I've been caught up in other stuff and hardly even thought about Muse, so of course the momentum is gone. But the other day I was annoyed with my screensaver, and on a whim changed from the default to "My Pictures slideshow" and moved all my Artslam pictures into the folder. And now every time my screensaver turns on, I get an unexpected jolt of delight and enthusiasm from seeing random Muse drawings come up. :)

I still haven't gotten around to much planning or writing in several months, and I'm not sure what's holding me up, except that I feel like I still have no time lately. Will reexamine. Listening to Stackpole's "The Secrets" podcast is pretty inspiring right now, though.


PS~ LOVE this weather. Rainy and cool and definitely becoming sweet, sweet autumn... Summer, get thee hence! Thy days are numbered!

So Grandpa's funeral is going to be on Saturday, and my brother and I are planning to drive out to California on Thursday and come back on Sunday. It's about 14 hours drive, as far as we can estimate - they live on the coast about 4 hours north of Sacramento. My parents are flying out on Thursday also (we would have liked to fly, but tickets are close to $400 :(), and my sister and brother-in-law and my baby niece are going to be in San Francisco already for his sister's wedding. That's convenient, at least. I'm glad that we adult grandkids are making the effort to come, even though we don't have much of a relationship with them; I guess it speaks of our loyalty to our mother.

I'm doing okay.. it's hard to talk about it, even though I've really only seen him a handful of times in my life, but otherwise I'm okay. I worry more about my mom, who says she's okay, but has trouble stringing thoughts together and finishing sentences when she talks about it, and I worry about what my grandma's going to live on now. Maybe I can help her out a little.

On the bright side, I'm going to spend a couple days on the coast of northern California; it's bound to be beautiful this time of year. Between the scenery and the family I haven't seen in forever, I'm glad to have something worth bringing my new camera for.

I'm also glad my brother's going, because that means we can both keep to our exercise schedule (more or less) - I've been worried about traveling while on this program, because we share equipment and stuff. And I'm glad that Hulu will have all my shows (Mentalist and Vampire Diaries both start on Thursday) so I don't have to worry about missing them due to the trip. Small things, but things to be grateful for nonetheless.

My grandpa died today. My mom's dad, in California, who I haven't seen in many years and don't know very well.. I'm not crushed, but I am sad. Particularly because my mom had just asked me a few days ago whether I'd have enough time off over Christmas for us to spend it with her parents, and I said I'd love to. I would have liked to know them better.

I don't know what happened - I caught the news from my brother, who heard from my mom, who heard from my aunt, and my brother didn't know - but I know he was pretty sick and doing poorly. We'd been more concerned about my dad's dad, in Wyoming, because he's been in really bad shape, too. I hadn't heard any news about my mom's dad in a while.

Anyway, I just felt like I should share. This is the first grandparent I've lost (except for my dad's mom, who died when I was a baby - but he remarried soon afterwards, so I've always had four grandparents). I think I'd like to go to his funeral if possible - I imagine it'll be sometime in the next week or so, but I don't think they've made arrangements yet - I'd love to see my grandma, cousins, and aunts/uncles from her side of the family, and I'm sure my mom could use the support.

Quote for the day:

The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.
- William Faulkner



Also, my little sister just called and told me that her boyfriend opened his mission call last night. He's going to Ghana. How cool is that? XD

Also, my mom should be in Spain by now. Apparently she hasn't called anyone to tell them she landed safely - I hope she's alright.. :( I don't see any articles about plane crashes in Madrid or Malaga, so she's probably fine. Maybe she's just having phone trouble and can't figure it out. *crosses fingers*

My family is on their way to Disneyland. Without me. ;_; Stupid work..

eillwony, say hi if you see them..


***

Tomorrow marks the start of artslam, 92 days of Muse drawings. (Like NaNoWriMo, but for 3 months, and picture.) Any suggestions on subject?

So most of you probably haven't heard, but I'm leaving today (any time now, as soon as my brother comes) for a surprise visit home.

Well, not a total surprise.. my dad and my sisters know. My brother told my dad in case something happened to us on the way (smart), and also because my dad just bought a car to replace my brother's, which is dying. So we're making the switch this weekend. (I am a little sad not to take my car, after we put all that work into it so it would drive nice..) He also told my little sister (I'm still not sure why), who then told my older sister and her husband.

The real point is to keep it a surprise from my mom. We were going to surprise her for Mother's Day, but it turned out that both of us needed to be here that weekend, so we postponed it.

Anyway, it'll be fun. I'm excited not to be at work.

This dragon thing was getting old, but they keep coming out with new eggs, and I can't seem to stop. Kind of like World of Warcraft. -_- (pudges, maybe I'll bequeath to you one of these later, if you haven't gotten any yet.)




As far as news... I am sick. I caught my brother's sinus thing, and have been sick for two days now. I can't sleep at night for lack of breathing capability, and I'm tired and headachy and my nose is raw, my throat is sore, and my voice is raspy, and it's gotten so bad that today my mom had one of the doctors in the ward call me in a prescription for an antibiotic. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Plans are to drive back to Utah on Monday or Tuesday next week - later than I expected. I hope it won't be a big deal.

In the meantime, I've been doing more Muse planning; still no drawing, sadly, but several of my characters have actual names now. Even surnames! And I'm learning more about the background in how things work, which is helpful for me following my own rules.

Also, I spent about eleven hours (over two days) playing Rock Band with my sibs, before I got sick. Our band, Snickelfritz (in honor of our darling mother - it's one of her favorite nicknames for us children), has more than 500,000 fans, and I can now successfully sing a great number of Rock Band songs. I used to have to only do songs I knew; I'm over that now. Unfortunately, now I can't get those songs out of my head. >_<

Also also, my "Dr. Horrible" DVD came, and my little brothers watched it with me.. I think I've created a monster/s - it's rare these last few days for some Dr. Horrible song or other NOT to be playing or sung around the house. ^^;;;

And on a last - cheery - note, I finished reading the first book of the Bartimaeus trilogy, and it was delightful. I can't wait to get my hands on the second one, when I get back to Provo.

Wow, it's not even 10 yet? The day is moving slowly. But it's been a while since I made a post about real life, so let's see..

( Life, Work, Family, Muse, SCA, Sick, Church )

Well, I have one and a half tapes left in the Eye of the World audiobook, which I need to finish today before I leave at 3, so I'd better get off the internet and get to work. If you made it this far in my entry, I salute you.

With dragons.

We left Sunday for Wyoming about noonish, and I drove the whole way. It wasn't bad. I'm learning to get over my driving issues - but these were highways, not freeways, so it was different. And there wasn't a lot of traffic. Anyway, it was a pleasant drive, and we only got turned around a couple of times, and only very briefly. Star Valley is just as beautiful as I remember. I love the feeling of the mountains so close (one thing I love about Provo, too).

( Wyoming Trip Report )

Julia, now that I know how close the route goes to Logan, I'd definitely love to visit sometime. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you to arrange it for this time, but I'd never driven up before so I was a little nervous anyway. Hopefully I'll go again this summer, maybe over a weekend, and bring my camp chair and some paints.. (I really need to sit down and paint.. What am I so afraid of???)

So, in other news.. I was home alone yesterday evening, and after getting frustrated at WoW for killing me so much, I ended up writing. I wrote about 1100 words in a scene of book 3 (which doesn't help me much for getting book 1 done, but at least I got the scene down and out of my head), and it was.. interesting. I'd never written a kissing scene before, but it just wouldn't go away. However, I think I'm not going to post it to illustar, at least until I can get some context written so that it will be meaningful. At this point all the build-up and background is only in my head, so it wouldn't be very significant to anyone else. Sorry. ^^; The main character is sort of nameless, as is book 3 itself, but I did some name testing last night, and I may have found one for her. What do you think of Ambrea? She's the real-world girl of the book, and her elf costar is Anselan. That's not too close, is it? Ambrea and Anselan? I may keep it.