Melonade

You may have heard the joke that there's really only one fruitcake in the world, and it just keeps getting passed around every Christmas season.

As I was carrying yet another cardboard box this afternoon, I thought the same might be true of cardboard boxes. Not that there is just one, as I currently have several scattered throughout my house, but that their numbers are fewer than we might think because we keep using the same ones over and over. I didn't have to buy a single box; I got them from offices and friends' offices, and after we empty them this weekend, my sister's friend is going to take all the good ones so she can use them to pack. Who knows how far the boxes will travel before they become too broken down and re-taped to be used again?

I'm moving tomorrow. After a few months of thinking about and planning for the moment, it's finally arrived. I will spend the rest of the evening packing, because my genius plan to be finished a week ago somehow didn't happen. I'm debatin whether or not I can/should go without sleep tonight, if the need arises.

I'm looking forward to getting back to writing. I've really missed it the last couple of weeks.

It's been a rough week all around. Writing's been kind of slow and not consisting of progress that word counts can measure. Instead of adding, I've been cutting a lot of fluff this week. Sure, it means better quality, but the quantity is down by several hundred or even a couple thousand words. I know it shouldn't mean a lot, but it's somewhat disheartening. I can see the end, but I just don't know how to get there. And I think I've actually put up a few obstacles for myself. Plus, I've still got lots of packing to do in the next 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to being in the new place, but the transition is rough.

Trying to soothe myself with movies of the literary ilk this week. Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, etc. If you can't read books, at least watch TV that's book-related, right?

If you haven't heard of KC Clifford or been lucky enough to hear her music, I am sad for you. Her music is AMAZING! Sadly, I do not have enough words to describe it.

But what I can offer you is your own taste of KC! At her last concert at the Blue Door in OKC, she recorded a live CD (woo hoo!) and taped a song for a little thing called YouTube. You may have heard of it. My friends and I are in the second row on the right, singin' along.



This is only a teeny, tiny slice of the greatness that is KC. Ooh, I cannot wait for the live CD!

Rock Band was a major success, people. I'm not sure how many folks we crammed into Blake's house, but it must have shattered the non-holiday record. There is even video evidence of the shindig on Stephen's facebook page, because it would be difficult to believe how much fun we were having if you weren't there to see it.

The morning after Rock Band was a killer. I woke up Saturday morning (and by that I mean 10:30 after going to sleep around 2:30) with the kind of headache that makes me want to stay in bed. I pounded out a few hundred words on the story before giving up and spending a few hours on the couch watching Some Assembly Required on the Discovery Channel and learned how to make Tennesse whiskey & barrels, cat's eye marbles, cheese, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. Informative and entertaining. Just how I like my TV to be.

Please forgive me; I just laughed (heartily) at my own joke.

Co-worker (looking at coffeepot, toaster over): Do we not have a microwave?
Me: (pointing to the other side of the kitchen) We do, it's over here by itself.
Co-worker: Oh.
Me: It didn't play well with the other appliances.

The worst part was that I started laughing somewhere in the middle of the word "appliances" because I realized what I was about to say, and I almost ruined the whole thing. But my co-worker laughed just as heartily at the same time, so I didn't feel as bad. It turns out that I work in a pretty funny office. They are beginning to see that I can keep up.


I'm a little nerdy when it comes to grammar. I haven't figured out how to look at something without proofreading it at the same time- that goes for TV commercials, websites, song lyrics, and anything in print. If I see it, I see what's wrong with it. On one hand I think it's good that I know this stuff because someone out there doesn't, and needs to, and I might be able to help them. On the other hand I think, "Why don't people know this stuff? And who is letting these people write when they don't know how?"

I don't know why I'm such a grammar geek. I remember that in middle and high I could finish my English assignments before most kids could crack open their books. Finding this website the other day made me very happy. Now I may not remember any algebra or calculus or understand most scientific stuff, but grammar made sense to me.

Language, to me, is a lot about respect. The way you speak to your grandmother and the way you talk about the jerk who just cut you off in traffic are probably very different. It's not just about what you say, it's about how you're saying it. And that rolls over into how you write it, too. If you're not taking the time to make sure you're putting out something that is correct, how much do you respect the people who have to wade through your mistakes?

I was editing some text for a newsletter this morning, and it almost gave me fits. The basic rules of capitalization are simple; capitalize the first word of a sentence, titles and proper names. I know you can find documents from a few hundred years back in which every "important" word gets the same treatment, but we got away from that. At least, I thought we had. There were capitals everywhere! Between the capitals and the unnecessary commas, I spent most of the morning on a job that could have taken an hour or two. Arg.

I'm not saying I am mistake-free. I tend to add letters to words that don't need them, and I always have to think about words like 'sentence' and 'independence' when I type them. But for a girl who is a fan of prescriptive grammar, it's hard to live in a world of text message shortcuts and disregard for basic grammar rules. We don't let people go around believing that 5+7 is cupcake. Why should this be any different?

But enough of that. Tonight we're having a devo to kick off the MRCC 24 hours of prayer and playing Rock Band afterwards! If that isn't the weirdest combination ever, I don't know what is.

Enjoy your weekend!