Pathways to Romance

I Talk But Nobody Listens

2006-03-22T12:37:00.000-05:00

Nothing pisses me off more than having to repeat myself over and over and over....

I got rid of my home phone because the long distance was killing me and I got a cell phone. Well, I also have a cell phone for work. I don't carry them both with me all the time (what a pain in the ass!). If it's during business hours, M-F, I carry the work cell (work pays for it and I have to reimburse them for personal calls on the cell). I have told my parents no less than a dozen times to call my work cell during work hours.

I call my mother to see if there is anything I can pick up for her at Wal-Mart and she tells me no. I get home and there's a message on my home cell that she needs something. So I call her back and tell her I just got the message and I've already been shopping. So she says, "I never know which cell to call."

Jayzus!!! So I tell her, again, to call the business cell during??? Everyone, say it with me, "BUSINESS HOURS!!!!!!" And the thing that cracks me up the most? We all have the same cell provider -- cover your bets and call both! It doesn't cost you anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know it sounds petty, but my parents are 58 not 98, so why can't they remember where to call? Especially if you think the thing I need to pick up for you is important!!!!!

Okay rant over. I feel better now.

My Ex's Birthday

2006-03-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

It's terrible when you just want certain dates to disappear from your memory and each year they sneak up on you and bite you in the ass. My last "serious" boyfriend's b-day is March 14th -- I'll call him K. It's a random enough date, but I just can't seem to erase it. Honestly, most of the time it's hard to erase any of him from my memory. LOL

I remember other past boyfriends birthdays without much emotion. I even remember my ex-fiance's and that guy was an ass and I don't feel anything when I remember the date. But, K's birthday still brings about a little sadness. I'm a firm believer that time does not heal all wounds. There have been 2 boyfriends and 6 years since K. Plenty of time. It just sucks.

What's a Girl to Do?

2006-03-06T19:16:00.000-05:00

I’m feeling a little frustrated with my life. I just don’t get why I can’t be happy with what I’m doing. I have a pretty good life. I own my place, I have a great job and I have a great relationship with my family and friends. But for some reason, I’m feeling restless and a tad bored. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not dating anyone at the moment or if I just need to shake something up.

My job is fun, but not terribly challenging and I wonder if it’s time for me to move on. It has a lot more pros than cons. Really the only con is that I’m bored with it. Maybe I should just start small and get a hobby!

I just hate this gnawing feeling that there’s more out there that I could be doing/experiencing, “if only.” It’s really hard to know what is the right thing to do. As you can see, I’m also the type of person who over analyzes everything trying to make sure I don’t make a mistake – which logically, I know is impossible. A risk taker I’m not. :o)

WTF? At the Oscars

2006-03-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, talk about some don'ts, there were a few at the Oscars last night. Here are my faves:

Could the damn bow be any bigger? Charlize Theron is a beautiful woman -- most of the time. This color is just wrong, the style is just wrong and the bow -- My God The Bow! -- is too hideous for words. Come on Charlize, you could (and have) done much better than this.

Keira, where did you find the bauble? This necklace has waaaaay to much going on. Maybe it was beautiful in person, but this thing looks like a rainbow gone wrong. A tip for next year -- leave this one in the vault!

This dress just screams black widow spider. And just who is this chick. It's never a good sign for a star when somebody has to go look them up at IMDB. Ahhh, she's in some movie called Tsotsi. Well, that cleared things right on up for me. Moving on!

Poor Michelle Williams. She finally gets out from under that Dawson's Creek shadow with the hit, Brokeback Mountain and she comes dressed like this. I don't know which is worse, the mustardy yellow of the dress or her fire engine red lipstick. Together it just spells "Fashion Disaster!"

And the worst dressed prize goes to Zandra Rhodes. Who? Yeah, me too. She's a designer. Wow, that's pretty freakin' scary! Her website has more scary photos of her too.

St. Patty's Day Celebrations

2006-03-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

There's one great thing about having your birthday on St. Patrick's day -- rarely do you have to twist friends' arms to go out drinking. But I don't do the green beer. That is absolutely the grossest thing ever. I can barely tolerate 'regular' beer and I'm certainly not going to drink something that looks like a science experiment gone horribly wrong.

I'm not sure what I want to do this year. Maybe I'll try out DC 101's annual Kegs and Eggs celebration at Lulu's in DC. I'm not usually a morning drinker, but I guess I could make a change for this year. I love that it's on a Friday this year. My boss has been gracious enough to approve a vacation day (Thanks, Andy!) so the sky's the limit.

What do you guys do for St. Pat's? Growing up in an Irish family means there's a lot to be eaten and drank -- at least for us. Do you have any annual traditions? Now that it's harder to get everyone together, our family has a pact that we'll all have a Guinness and toast the family sometime during the day.

Bridezilla Has Reared Her Ugly Head!

2006-03-01T19:39:00.000-05:00

I love my friend -- we'll call her Marnie-- I do. If I didn't I would have never agreed to be in her wedding. I'm usually pretty laid back, so I'm the go to girl to bounce ideas off of. I don't mind saying if something doesn't sound like a good idea and I'm the first one to back you up on a good decision too. But let me be clear on this. I have been in 8 freaking weddings, coordinated 6 bridal showers and 8 bachelorette parties. I don't need reminders, I don't need how-to's. What I need is for you to chill out and let the wedding party do their thing. We have got it covered! We will make sure it's a weekend you are available. We will not surprise you with a shower, we will make sure everyone important is invited. I promise!! The wedding is 6 months away and we are not going to wait until the week before to cram in all the festivities. And if your getting heat from your mom for details, tell her to chill too. Sheesh! What is usually fun, is getting tedious and it's too soon in the game for this.

Remember how we were in K's wedding together and she drove us nuts with "make sure you have blue ribbons for your hair -- no, no, yellow ones -- I mean, pink!" until we just wanted to strangle her? Well, Marnie, we're dangerously close to that point. I love you, take a load off!

Will He Ever Just Go Away?

2006-02-28T19:50:00.000-05:00

I can't begin to tell you how excited I was that Howard Stern was going to Sirius Radio. Finally, he would be off my airwaves! WoooHoooo! I used to think that Stern was creative and funny, but now he's just a hack who loves to say "fuck" and I thought with his move I might not be subjected to his antics. Well, I was wrong.

Seems CBS just can't let him go without a few more jabs. They're suing him for breach of contract. They're pissed because Stern used so much air time to degrade CBS and talk up Sirius. I don't blame them. But guess what? You asshats let him go on and on, ad nauseum, for over a month! If you had your panties in a twist about it, why didn't you just yank him or better yet, tell him to shut the hell up? I honestly don't feel sorry for either party. Please, CBS let Stern R.I.P.!!!!!

Are You Kidding Me???

2006-02-28T17:06:00.000-05:00

Nick Lachey is a cheap bastard. Not only has he asked for spousal support, but now he wants a judge to believe his timeline regarding the separation so he can get half of the $850,000 Jessica got for a concert she performed in Cinnci on Dec. 5th. She says they split Dec. 13th, he says Nov. 23rd. For someone who didn't know what the hell Chicken of the Sea was, she sure has become a bit more savvy since then. And Nick -- for God's sake -- it's only $425,000. GET. A. LIFE.

I'm Never Good at Keeping This Up

2006-02-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

Boy, I'm sure doing a bang-up job on my resolution to really work with this blog. So, I guess starting now is better than just fading into oblivion. I've decided that this blog is going to be about anything and everything I want to post about. I had originally said I wanted it to be about my writing but I just don't want to discuss my writing! So, this might be a bit of everything and a little of nothing.

Exercise IS My Friend

2006-01-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

That's what I'm going to keep saying to myself as I struggle through these aerobics tapes. Since I can't get all the way through a 25 minute workout all at once, I workout twice a day and each day, I make myself workout 2 minutes more. So far, it's Denise Austin in the morning and Kathy Ireland in the evening. I need to step up into DVDs soon for my workouts because my tapes are getting worn from rewinding and fast forwarding. (I've had the tapes a loooong time!)

Here's my question though. I know that doing toning exercises with light weights is also very good for you, but do you do it before an aerobic workout, after or even on separate days? I guess I'll have to do some internet searching on this.

Three days down this week and four to go!!!!

Audio Books and Little Pet Peeves

2005-11-14T20:41:00.000-05:00

I believe that writers tend to forget that using 'said' in dialogue is perfectly acceptable. We don't always have to use screamed, wondered, gasped, etc. Most times, 'said' works perfectly well and it doesn't interrupt the flow. Well, I may have had a small change of heart. Reading dialogue with a lot of 'saids' is easy and it works, listening to it on audio is a whole other ball of wax.

I'm currently listening to Bad Business by Robert B. Parker and he uses a lot of 'saids' in his dialogue and several times, it's pulled me out of the story. I don't know if it's because sometimes the reader, Joe Mantegna, seems to pause during a dialogue exchange with several 'saids' in them or not. What a double edged sword! I know you can't please all the people all the time, but it's something to keep in mind. You may like the simplicity of 'said,' but if you're hoping/planning to have the book made into an audio, it might be a problem.

Happy 230th Birthday to all US Marines

2005-11-10T20:35:00.000-05:00

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to bear the title
Of United States Marines.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job --
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

To RWA or Not To RWA

2005-11-09T20:46:00.000-05:00

I've been writing for a while now and I believe I'm ready for the next level -- getting outside input. I'm a little unsure about how to find a critique partner. I have plenty of friends who have volunteered, but we all know what happens when good friends try to do this -- If they can bring themselves to honestly critique the work, somehow hurt feelings always get involved, so I'd love to have a stranger start reading my material.

I have been looking into RWA and I've been searching the net for the pros and cons and wow are there a lot! It does sound like they can be quite the asset for the beginner and well, that's what I am. I also think I might get quite a bit out of local chapter meetings. At least I won't have people look at me strangely and say "You write what?" after I announce I write romance stories. From the way some people scrunch their nose up you'd think I'd just brought out the "F" word in polite company.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm open to outside influences! :o)

NaNoWriMo

2005-11-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm having fun participating in NaNoWriMo. It's a great challenge that I tell myself has to come first, even before my favorite TV shows! One great thing about NaNoWriMo is that it promotes quantity. Sometimes I get so bogged down in the editing and perfecting of what I recently wrote, that I lose my momentum. Intellectually I know I should wait until the end to edit, but strike one comes from having a need for perfection (my own interpretation of it) and the second is using that need to procrastinate. Now, I don't have the luxury of editing. In order to make the 50,000 word goal, I have to write and keep on writing. Good luck to anyone else working on this crazy endeavor!

To The Limit - Cindy Gerard

2005-11-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

To the Limit by Cindy Gerard is the second in The Bodyguards series. This story focuses on Eve Garrett and former high school love interest Tyler McClain. Eve has been contacted by Tiffany Clayborne, a girl who Eve used to protect back when she was part of the Secret Service. Tiffany has become a wild child -- looking for love in all the wrong places -- and has inadvertently hooked up with the wrong "boyfriend of the week," and when Tiffany fails to meet Eve at a time and place Tiff chose, Eve knows something is terribly wrong. To top everything else off, it seems there is someone after Eve who would love to see her dead, so when Eve runs into Mac it just seems like her day can't get much better. Mac has been hired by Tiffany's reclusive billionaire father to find and bring her home. One catch? He cannot, under any circumstances, work with Eve or he won't be paid his fee. But he's intrigued by the woman Eve has become and can't help but feel that old high school pull.

I really love this series by Cindy Gerard. I enjoy her uber-alpha male heroes and her kick-butt heroines. I don't think I could read the books back to back, because I think it would be hard to differentiate between the heroes -- they're that much alike -- but I do love reading them as soon as they hit the shelves. Eve is no fragile flower. She grew up with 3 over-achieving brothers and learned early on to hold her own. Mac still has his moments when he's a complete jerk, but thankfully Eve doesn't just simper and take the abuse -- she calls him out on it. My favorite thing about Gerard's books is that the dialogue is snappy and current and very believable. The pace never slows down, which makes going to bed in the middle of the story difficult. At one point about mid-way through, I did have the feeling of "enough." The cat and mouse game was getting a bit old and just missing Tiffany in a city was getting to be predictable, but Gerard threw some changes in the mix for Eve and Mac personally that kept me reading and got me over the slight aggravation.

This is a wonderful read for all those who love the traditional alpha-male stories. If that's not your cup of tea, then you might want to skip this series.

Overall, this story was a B+ and I'm waiting anxiously for
To The Brink, Vol. 3!

New Look! New Blog!

2005-11-01T08:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jane over at Design-a-Blog I have this beautiful layout. Thank you, Jane!!!

This blog is to explore the world of Romance. Ultimately, I'm a hopeful writer working at being published in the future, but this blog will also look at romance in the world -- be it in movies, books, music or of course, in daily life. Please feel free to comment and visit often!