I hit 5k total this morning.

I will shoot for another 3k tonight. If I get into a good groove it shouldn't be that hard. It actually hasn't been that hard to write when I sit down to it so far. I usually get what I need to get as a daily writing total, but the problem is that I started a few days behind, so at this point I am still playing catch-up pretty hard.

I also need to get some thread for my sewing for the quilt, and I need to put my quilt pieces together. That is my homework for this week. Laying out the pieces to be ready to quilt them together in class next weekend. I actually think that I might buy some more fat quarters and make another one soon.

Shooting for 5,000 tonight

There is a write in downtown, and my friend Sally is at it, but I just didn't feel like seeing people. There is a large mug of peppermint tea steeping on a coaster next to me. I have had some root beer and some clementine izze.

The cat keeps alternately attacking and licking my toes.

I am at two and a half right now, so if I can get to 5k before I head to bed I will be well on my way to reasonably catching up.

Then I have quilting homework. But it mostly is just to set things out and have them ready for when we do the quilting quilting later.

Oddly nervous

About my quilting class that starts tonight. And I really shouldn't be. I know how to sew, and it is a class for basic quilting. It is called quilting 101, but I am nervous about meeting strangers and being late (I have checked my calendar and the class web posting like 18 times each to be sure that it really does start at 6:45 tonight). I have all my stuff, well all the stuff they said we need to bring to the first class, but what if I need other stuff (duh! they would've asked for it)?

But also, after visiting the quilting store to pick out my fabrics (which you can view on the internet here, I am now a little nervous about the class itself. Not that it won't teach me at least the basics of a totally awesome skill, I am sure it will, but that it might be mroe judgy pants than I will like.

I bought 14 pieces instead of the 12 required and I had a good idea of what kind of quilt it was going to be before I went shopping. I first looked for a cool piece of fabric to be my starter/inspiration and then picked fabrics I liked that went with it both by color and pattern, then I picked more and put some back until I had twelve that looked good together but getting to twelve was hard, so I went with fourteen since in all likelihood the next day I was going to hate one of my picks or more.

Then I brought them up front to pay, and mentioned that I was in the class starting tomorrow, and the woman behind the counter looked at mine and said, (instructor's name) is probably going to make you change some of those out since they are all blues.

"Umm, WHA?" I thought. I mean I get that the instructor will know a ton more than me about quilting. But I have taken multiple design courses, and done many papers and projects using color theory, and sewn for a couple DOZEN years (and won awards doing it). So clearly I have no choice of fabric. Now, I am deciding that I need to keep an open mind and see what the instructor says because maybe this lady just used a poor choice of words on a day when I am sleep deprived and cranky (seriously this week do not mess with me or Chrissy or shit gonna turn ugly, ya'll). Maybe.


********
Amended to note I might be an ass because well I was supposed to pick BOLD, BIG patterns and bright colors. I don't mind the ignoring the bright colors because I did pick a large spectrum of blues even though they aren't super crazy. However, I did kind of ignore the big patterns. Whoops. OK, so that helped me figure out what to pull from my 14. I pulled the two smallest patterns.

NaNoWriting

I have almost 2000 words as of not quite a few hours in the Chicago Public Library Lincoln Park branch.

I also bought a bunch of fat quarters for my very first ever quilt which I am making starting tomorrow with my quilting class. I also paid a few bills and made Sam an appointment for his haircut, so all in all pretty productive day AND I had some Mexican food with delicious and cinnamony horchata.

Also, apparently if you google "chase sucks" I am the fourth-ish thing that pops up. Weird.

Crapariffic week

I feel like this week or so has been out to get me. Although I think in reality it is just a slightly below average week. Or rather a perfectly normal week with a few hiccups that I am reading as giant freaking cavernous holes because my sinus medicine is making it harder for me to fall asleep and as a result I am now pretty freaking sleep deprived, so that the perfectly acceptable response to my current day is to crawl under my desk and have a good cry.

But it isn't even really all that bad. My shoes started rejecting their soles as I walked around yesterday which was weird but not too awful as it wasn't raining and I got everywhere that I needed to be just fine. There is some stupidity at work because as I put it to someone else the office dickhead has all of a sudden looked down at the shovel in his hand, looked back up at the sky, and decided to be pissed at the dirt since he found himself at the bottom of a big big hole. And I am on the periphery of it because well I went and did the things that were a part of my job as they were asked of me and dickhead doesn't like them even if he fought for them in the first place.

Added on is of course the fact that the new plan is not working out all neat and clean and perfect, so Sam has lately made some stupid choices. Choices that involve me ending up having a harder time falling asleep and getting less sleep, and all I want is some really good rest and for my life to be just a bit easier. I mean I probably shouldn't complain too much because I have a lovely home, a wonderful pet, I am well cared for, I have a decent steady job and paycheck, good health, and my fiancee loves me and I love him, so I know I have it much much better than so many other people who have big holes in many of those places. But I would really like to go a whole month without feeling like I need to break down and cry at work. A whole month without a ton of stress and worry.

All right, pity party over. Let's go back to work and hope that I can rustle up and attitude adjustment.

NaNoWriMo

Ok, I signed up I did it. I have no idea how I will write a novel, be in a show and take a quilting class that includes me making a quilt BUT I will try. I also have not started nor have I any ideas on what I will write about. So there is that. Jim, Sally, I hope you are happy.

Hollow-dinner Party

We decided to have a few people over for some mildly scary movies tonight. By that we mean for sure some "Shawn of the Dead" and then maybe some thrillers like "Dead Again" or some Hitchcock that are all politely on demand with Netflix, so we can stream them through the Roku player. Which means that we have been up all day doing tasks (and I was extra good and got up and did an exercise video!) including some cleaning and quite a bit of shopping and prepping for the cooking.

Our initially hoping to plan towards spooky but now planned towards snacky menu includes:

A black bean soup (seasoned with bacon) that Sam is preparing
A tray of veggies (focused around carrots and orange bell peppers for the holiday-me
Some Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and a ranch dip (both store bought or mix)-me
Chocolate Chunk and Spiced Nut cookies-Sam
Gorgonzola, Honey, Pear Bruchetta (super easy and delicious from Giada)-me
And Sam is simmering some hot spiced cider that is making the house smell awesome!!

Also since it is a movie night we have a ton of microwave popcorn ready to be fresh hot popped and since it is Halloween there is a bowl full of candy even though we do not get trick-or-treat-ers in our building.

It will only be about six of us in total, but it should be a very nice night!

Nice Skin, it seems like

All September and some of the beginning of October I was suffering from annoying skin. It wasn't bad, and I didn't have acne or anything but it wasn't cool. I felt like I could never get my face clean and it just was icky skin.

Then I heard about this face cleaning brush that uses all fancy sonic movement like the fancy sonic toothbrush, but it was super expensive and I had no idea if it worked. Then a fun blogger (who is the sister of my coworker) started blogging that she was using it at Broke Ass Bride and that it was great. And around that time I got a big gift card to one of the few places you can buy it, so it would only cost me about $40 instead of $160 (including tax) for the baby version of it.

So I got it, but I was super nervous. And I have been using it for three weeks or maybe a bit more, and my skin is fixed. It is back to what it used to be or even better. It is soft and smooth and just feels amazing. Now I would be that part of my improvement is due to buying a big fancy expensive thing making me be a lot more serious about my whole skin regimen. Now I for sure cleanse with toner and moisturizer and am much more diligent about cleaning two times a day. That is part of the improvement (likely) but not all of it. This machine is awesome.

If you are serious about your skin or are having major skin issues or just have a crap ton of money to blow, I would suggest this. I have a Clarisonic Mia face cleaner thingy . Mine is white and not the totally lame pink one. I am not super fond of their cleanser that comes with it, so I bought a milk cleanser from Bliss Labs and I use either drug store witch hazel as my toner or one by H2O+ and during the day I moisturize with a Eucerin one with like a 30 spf and at night I use H20+ hydrater and now I have a lovely, lovely face with beautiful skin.

I did not receive any sort of payment or free shit for this post (although lord I wish I would have).