I’ve made a bracelet for my little sister for her wedding. Terrible sentence, I know, but I’m too lazy to rewrite it.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It’s three-stranded, and it really didn’t take that much time to complete. It was the last one I made (I’ve made two sets of earrings and three double-strand bracelets for the bridesmaids and myself), and I think I was “in the zone,” if such a thing exists for crafting and beading and such.

So, here are a couple of photos of the final product. The pictures aren’t that great (they were taken without any natural light), but they give you a general idea.

How I spent July 16th (from 11 PM-1 AM)

This is the first time since we moved to MI over two years ago that the power went out. It was out for two hours. Just so you know, it’s eerily quiet here when there’s no power. And dark. Spooky….

Thankfully, I was raised in rural MN, where the power goes out constantly, so I knew exactly where the flashlight was and where the matches were and where the candles were located. Modern technology (a.k.a. my laptop) kept me entertained with “Scrubs,” and all was well. I would have read, but damn, it’s hard to read by candlelight, and my eyes are bad enough already.

My life is thrilling, I know.

Wedding season is bearing down upon me like…I dunno…like a bridezilla whose cake order has been screwed up?

Bad analogy, but you get the point. We have two weddings this year–one at the beginning of August (little sister) and one at the mid-end of September (hubby’s best friend). I’m the matron of honor, and the hubby is a groomsman. Then, in January, the hubby’s other best friend is getting married. Wedding no. 1 and 2 are in MN, and no. 3 is in SD. And we live in MI. You can do the mileage math.

Thank goodness for Amtrak.

As much as we love our family and friends, couldn’t you all just have waited one more year to get married? Not that one year will guarantee we’ll be any closer, but at least we could put off all this traveling until then. Or y’all could have spread them out more. Or something?!

Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem traveling great distances to reach family and friends, and we’d do anything for our loved ones, but seriously, three in 6 months? Oy.

Riddle me this:

How is it that someone as talented as Joss Whedon doesn’t have a show on TV right now, besides those that are in reruns?

Just isn’t right.

You all need to go watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. If you’re a Joss Whedon fan (“Serenity,” “Firefly,” “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer”) or a Neil Patrick Harris fan or a Nathan Fillion fan, or just a fan of funny stuff that’s FREE (until July 20th), check it out immediately. The third installment will be available on the 19th (which is probably when you’re going to read this), and all three will be available for free viewing until the 20th. After the 20th, you will have to pay a nominal fee to view them, so go now and see them for FREE! So worth the time. Seriously. Go now. You won’t be sorry.

Unavailable

So, I plan on being unavailable tomorrow. I really have to buckle down and get this reading completed for my MA project. I’ve been collecting resources and evaluating them, but only just a little. I went to my local library and the university library, and I’m totally stocked up for a day full of reading and research.

I am also going to finish all my work for my two independent study classes. Though my prof won’t let me get out of writing the screenplay, he said I can have all the time I need to finish it. I’m not going to worry about completing it before the end of the summer. I’ll have it done by December, but the beautiful thing is is I don’t need those credits to graduate, so I can get my degree this summer (if I decide to push it and complete my project by August; it might be waiting until December, too) and not have the class technically finished until December. Sweetness, eh?

And I don’t really need the credits from those independent study classes, either, but I just want to get them out of my hair. They’ve been hanging over my head for nearly a year, and it’s about time the damn things are out of the way. It’ll also help put the focus back on my MA project.

The interviews are coming along really well for my project; almost all of the children’s nonfiction writers agreed to be interviewed, and I have two responses from editors, with another one (from the EIC!!) coming in early next week. I also have another one in the works, but that’s all dependent upon the editor. I hope to have all these completed by the end of next week. Woohoo! One step closer….

I know I’ve been massively boring lately, but I’m really pleased with the direction all my work is going in. It’s funny how everything starts to fall into place once I finally get my tail in gear and get down to work. I like being organized; I generally am very organized. But I get distracted easily. And with my little sister’s wedding fast approaching (August 8th) and the hubby’s best friend’s shortly thereafter (September 20th), it’s imperative that I get my work finished before the wedding craziness starts.

So, if you are in need of contacting me tomorrow, you’re going to have to either call or e-mail me today, or call or e-mail me on Monday. Or try contacting me tomorrow, and just waiting until Monday to hear back. I will, of course, check my messages (phone) periodically, just in case something important occurs. Not that I think it will. I just don’t need to be missing something. Because I’m just too damn nosy to miss out.

I’ve been editing scripts lately, and I have to admit, it is a ton of fun. I really, really enjoy reading and responding to them. I’ve never really worked with scripts before (these are for TV, not film, though the skills/knowledge translate easily), and I’m really happy my prof is “making” me do this for an independent study credit.

I’m going to try to convince him to have me edit another dozen of these suckers in place of writing a script myself. It might sound like a cop-out to my writer friends, and even to my editor friends, but honestly, I think I could do a lot more good editing than I will writing a crappy script, just to get the credit. It would never see the light of day beyond my prof’s desk, and is it really worth it? I’m not so sure.

Perhaps that’s why I like editing these so much–the author gets immediate and definite feedback, and though they have every right to dismiss any of my comments like any of my other clients, they can visualize the changes in their head because a script is meant to be seen, not read. And that is very cool.

Absolutely the best (I’ve found so far…) pens for editing (if you edit in pen).

I’ve yet to find an acceptable colored pencil.

Plus, there’s something powerful about editing in pen. Something definite. Something more.

I am so excited.

I will be attending Taming of the Shrew, Caesar & Cleopatra, and Hamlet at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival at the end of August with my lovely friend, Erin, who will be coming in all the way from MN, just for this event.

We’re staying at a Bed and Breakfast, and it’s going to be so much fun, and I just can’t wait. Can you feel how excited I am? It’s crazy.

I guess if I can’t make it to England to see it in Shakespeare’s theater, I can do the next best thing.

I am so stoked for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. I love love love the books. They are fantastic.