Roller punks

The only thing more enjoyable than holiday shopping and parking is dealing with unruly kids on roller shoes while doing said shopping. Am I the only grouchy adult that despises those shoes? I can't understand why parents let kids use them in public, especially inside stores or on crowded sidewalks. I'm sure I would have loved them when I was 13, but my mom would have whooped my arse if I rolled around in the store on them. And why, oh why, are so many people out Christmas shopping. The official Christmas shopping season doesn't begin for another week, people. Oh.

Hippety hop

After much arm-twisting, husband took me for a date last night. We haven't had a proper date for awhile, and I bought cute new shoes a few weeks ago that I longed to wear. (Sexy high-heeled mary janes.) I dressed up in my new shoes, favorite jeans, and a cute new shirt. Dinner and a movie was on the menu. We went to our favorite Indian restaurant, where the food is always tasty, but unfortunately the cute new shoes had already done their work. Did I mention that I have a bad hip? At my age? Well, I do. It gets 'stuck' so to speak, and I have difficulties walking when this happens. Usually this occurs when I wear heels for a long period of time, or if I sit too long. Road trips are a nightmare. My doctor has done an x-ray and an MRI, but so far we don't know what is wrong. So back to dinner. I had just finished a lovely chicken tikka with husband and went to use the restroom. When I got up to wash my hands, my hip stuck. I could barely stand to wash my hands or walk out the door. Embarrassed, I didn't know what to do because I had a whole restaurant to traverse to meet my husband outside, and I could barely walk in my cute hobbly heels. I opened the door and slowly took two steps forward leaning on the wall as I moved, assessing the long walk ahead, and luckily hubby, who stood waiting just outside the restaurant, recognized the hobble in my step and ran in to give me his arm to lean on so I could hobble out. Luckily, being a practical girl, I keep a pair of old running shoes in my trunk with clean socks, just in case. (I once ran out of gas and had to walk 3 miles to my house in cute shoes and learned my lesson.) I limped to the car leaning on my snickering husband and changed into sneakers, which unfortunately ruined my outfit, but they were more comfortable on the walk over to the theater and sitting for another two hours. I eventually walked enough to get it 'unstuck' so I could properly function in public.

Incidentally, we watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age and I thought Cate Blanchett did a wonderful job again. My sympathies were with the queen as she depicted her - her maid shagged Clive Owen and she only received one tiny little snog. Bah Humbug. Ah well, I was able to watch him, so I shouldn't complain.

Oh yes, and the Red Sox won the World Series! Quite the weekend and only 5 days until we leave for DC.

Cobblers in the Glass Ceiling

I'm feeling recovered from yesterday's roadblock after a long conversation with the Husband--the poor patient man has this talk every month or two in different variations--and two very encouraging emails from dear friends. I can't guarantee I won't panic again soon, but the anxiety has passed for today at least. Ironically enough the morning news featured a new book, The Anti 9-to-5 Guide, this morning that cheered me up in exactly the opposite way that yesterday's book discussion sent me into a panic. The book has career advice for women trying to escape the "cube" and I suspect will be interesting to quite a few of my friends as well. The writer discussed how women's opportunities are still limited by the glass ceiling, having children, etc., and how little flexibility there is in the office environment, which is pushing many women to leave the office and start their own business ventures. She left the office herself in her mid-twenties and is now a freelance writer and editor. (Hurrah! Two points for me.) Now why couldn't that book have been featured yesterday? It would have saved me some worrying.

My danskos should be done today. Cross your fingers that the cobbler was able to salvage them. If so, he will be my new go-to guy for shoes. I didn't even know that cobblers were still around a few years ago, I thought they just remained as the cute elves in old fairytales. But a friend I met at work has her boot heels re-done every few years and introduced me to a cobbler by my old work (now a bit of a drive). My only regret is that I threw away so many shoes in the past that could have been saved if I'd only known cobblers were real shoe-miracle workers.

I have to tell you, the Drewser is being so cute right now. He's fast asleep and must be having a good dream because he's doing a little "purr/growl" that is unbelievably adorable! I admit I would miss having a little "writer dog" if I went back to the office...

Doggie Faux Pas

Drew has now committed the two cardinal sins of the Michaelis' household: destroying shoes and destroying books. I posted a few weeks ago about how he chewed my Danskos. Today I left him alone for another mommy separation session and returned to find little bits of paper all over the floor. Like confetti, but not so cheerful. Before I left I cleaned up everything in his chewing/sight line, but I had left Eldest on the coffee table. He's never tried to get anything up there until now. Somehow he managed to get the book down on the floor, which was a feat in and of itself considering that it's half his size. The book, luckily, didn't receive too much damage, just some chewing on the top of the spine, but the book sleeve didn't fair so well. He tore it to bits. Yet he managed to leave the bookmark in place. I was so mad because I love book sleeves and this one was pretty cool looking. I guess I should be happy the book survived, but I'm still irked. What made me even more mad is that I went to the pet store and got him a new toy and treats. Spoiled brat. Ironically, I left Drew alone today because I found a new cobbler nearby that got rave reviews online, so I wanted to see if he could fix my Danskos. He can. They won't be as good as new, but they'll be wearable and it'll save me from having to pay another $110 for new ones. I swear the dog knew what my mission was and though Ha! I'll teach you to ever leave me again, mommy. I wonder if Borders has any extra sleeves?

On a brighter note, I got a package yesterday and a new one today containing a total of four new books and two new CDs! Woo hoo. Two Philip Roth's (Portnoy's Complaint and The Plot Against America), two Helene Hanff's (84, Charing Cross Road and its sequel The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street), plus the new Joss Stone CD and the new Amy Winehouse CD. I am very excited and will be sure to not leave them on the coffee table!

It could be worse, I guess:

Back from Vegas

Where to begin? I suppose I should start with one of my brilliant ideas: saving $20 by walking from the airport to our hotel. On the map it's about a mile, which is no problem (and a big overcharge for a taxi!), but unfortunately what our map didn't tell us is that the airfield lay between our exit and the hotel, so we had to walk all the way around it. We probably ended up walking 3 miles, which still isn't so far, but I was wearing my first flipflops of the season, and dragging a small bag around, so that took its toll. After passing some very sketchy areas and being followed by two guys in all black wearing white bandanas, we finally got to the strip and our hotel. Unfortunately, I tore up my feet in that walk, and they killed me the remainder of the trip.

The Hofbrauhaus was great. Adam had a hobbit-in-the-Prancing Pony moment: "It comes in liters?! I'm getting one!" Two liters later and he was feeling full, happy, and as some of you probably found out, very chatty. Though not quite so chatty at 3:30am. I drank two .3 liters of Hofbrau Dunkel myself and was very proud because I don't like beer and that is the most I've ever drank...for those who need ounces, that's 20 ounces total. Not bad, Ang, not bad.

Best of Vegas:

My favorite casino theme: Paris Las Vegas.
Where I would stay if I could afford to stay in style: The Bellagio.
Best Buffet: Paris Las Vegas, by far.
Best drink: It's a toss between the Raspberry 'Rita at Margaritaville (It's five o'clock somewhere...and it was 5:30 there) and the Eiffel Tower Piña Colada.

Worst of Vegas:

Smoking in Casinos. It made me nauseous, it's been awhile since I've been somewhere you can legally smoke indoors.
It's not cheap anymore!
The thwack, thwack of street peddlers passing out cards of nudy girls. And their "Girls Direct to You" tshirts.
Wearing 3-4 bandaids per foot per day. Ouch.

Alright Alright

Okay, sorry for no post yesterday. I miss one day and I'm already getting hate mail! Okay, I got one email asking what happened, but still. Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, and I was going to post last night, but the Husband was using my computer, so it was a no go.

I left Drew home alone again yesterday so I could run some pre trip errands. I was gone for an hour, and although he's still really whiny, he did pretty good. Although, he did tear down his bell and rip the arms off (that hold it on the doorknob). I figured out how to fix it, but being really crafty and all, it's still sitting on the counter because I need to sew it back together. Hmm. If you know me, you'll know this is a bigger problem than it seems. I do have a sewing machine, but I've never used it so I'm not even sure it works and if it does I'm not sure how. I know the cord was missing for awhile, and then it was found, but where I've put it may be a mystery. (I didn't buy the machine, if you are wondering, it was given to me by my grandma.) I've used my mom's and my mother-in-law's before, but I had them coaching so that was different. For instance, I don't even know how to thread the machine. Doesn't seem too hard, but I wouldn't put it past myself to screw it up. I may venture to pull down the machine this afternoon and see if I can't figure this out. (It's better than testing it on the seam hole in one of my favorite shirts that's been waiting since September, right? Usually I just pay to get that stuff done, but last time I was lucky and my bf's mama helped me out.) For now, Drew hits the doorstopper and it makes an annoying "thwack" whenever he needs to go, so we'll see how long I can stand that before the machine comes down. Wish me luck.

Bought some new "practical" shoes yesterday...I've been searching for black t-strap wedges for ages and finally found some basic comfy ones. (wedges=comfort and height! Hurrah!) As usual I second-guessed myself as soon as I got out of the store, so I'll be wearing them around the house today to make sure I like them. Stupid buyer's remorse. I was sad though because I found this gorgeous pair of heels weeks ago, but they didn't have my size and I didn't have money so I went back yesterday with b'day money to see if they'd got any new shipments (nope), then I went to another store and still no heels. I don't wear heels much these days because they bother my hips too much, but these were comfy, a fabulous color, peep toe, and would match all my nice dresses for the four weddings I have this summer. I must find them! I MUST!

Novel writing and shoes

Yesterday was my first post in a long, long while. It seems no one reads the blog, and since I am now using it as a forum to do non-novel-related writing, I thought it might be more distracting rather than helpful to update it regularly. But alas, I feel the need to have a regular non-novel writing pursuit, so here I am again.

Speaking of the novel, I'm sure it's time for an update. I did not successfully complete NaNoWriMo, but that's no matter since I did get some productive writing done--which was the actual point--and because my main inhibitors were buying our condo and getting our dog, which are two very good excuses. Not to mention the fact that writing 50,000 words in one month is bloody difficult and more than a little bit insane. What was I thinking? I did come up with a tentative, though likely permanent, title for the novel: At the End of Silence, which I rather like. Last week I wrote a draft of the section that really touches on the title, but like most of the writing it is in a very rough form right now. I do actually have more words than my little word-tracker claims, but much of it is in notebooks untyped, so I refuse to actually count those words by hand. I update whenever I type up new sections. I have been writing mostly long-hand because I seem to feel more creative, and because it prevents me from delving into the editing immediately, though I'd like to switch to writing on my laptop because it is more efficient.

On a non-writing related subject, Drew for the first time decided to do the horrible doggy-habit of chewing on shoes. We've never had this problem, but today while I was in the shower, he decided to chew on my danskos. My favorite, most expensive pair of shoes. Not the cheap $15 Payless shoes sitting right next to them. Or the $10 pair of slippers next to those. No, my favorite, I-wear-every-single-day-outside-of-summer shoes. And I can't afford more right now. Grr. I was so mad I started crying, which made him upset because he doesn't like it when I cry. Well, that sure showed him, didn't it! *sigh* It doesn't help that I came down with a nasty little cold and sore throat last night either. He has impeccable timing. Luckily, the sweet husband came home for lunch bearing chicken noodle soup, sprite, and a promise to take the shoes to the cobbler because he thinks they are fixable. Drew is lucky daddy stepped in, or I might have traded him in for a cat! J/K, of course.