Class Cancelled

Just confirmed that my Get Published! The Ins & Outs of Magazine Submissions class for Saturday is indeed cancelled.  There was one bright spot, however.  The college administrator said she called the one person who'd signed up and the woman was terribly upset that the class wasn't going to run.  Cheers me up in a weird sort of way.

I'm still convinced there' s a great market out there for the class.  I can't even count how many people I run into who, when I tell them I'm a writer, launch into the "I've always wanted to be a writer and here are my ideas" speech. The writers are out there...I just need to do a better job marketing to them.

Blair is working this Saturday so I'll still make use of the time and get some work done.  I have an article for The Toastmaster magazine due at month's end that I've done a ton of research for but haven't written word one.  It's just a matter of getting started.  Looking at all the research and trying to figure out who to structure the article is overwhelming.  What I'll do on Saturday is give myself a "play day" with the material, meaning I don't have to construct the article, but can just write random bits that may or may not find their way in.  It's funny that I KNOW I'm tricking myself into writing the article and yet the trick works every time.  Apparently I'm not too bright.

Sherlock Holmes I Am

Blair and I have a running joke that he is incapable of surprising me.  I always find out ahead of time.  For example, we were cleaning house Wednesday night and I wanted to tidy up the pile of CD's sitting out. 

"Where are the CD cases to these?" I asked. 

"In the car in the middle section between the seats," he replied.

I went out to the car and looked in the middle section but the cases weren't there.  I popped the trunk, figuring they might be in there.  They weren't, but I discovered something better.

I came back into the house waving the Wal-Mart bag that contained the newest Harry Potter video.  "Look what I found!" I said.

He grimaced.  "That was supposed to be a surprise for us to watch this weekend. Why were you in the trunk?"

I kissed him.  "Because I rule, that's why."

THEN, after we were done cleaning, he brought me 2 Dove dark chocolate candy pieces.  I LOVE dark chocolate and am not to be trusted around it so I usually have him hide candy from me. 

But the next day while Blair was at work, I was craving chocolate.  I figured he had bought a bag of it.  But where would it be?  I checked a few obvious places like the closet and dresser drawer.  Nothing.  Then I applied my Vulcan-logic.

He's much taller than me, so the hiding place would be somewhere high, where I couldn't easily reach.  But not high enough that he'd need a ladder to get to it.  Plus, he brought me the candy right after we finished cleaning.  Which led me to the top shelf in the bathroom closet where--BINGO!--I found the bag of candy.

I had it laying on the kitchen countertop when he got home. 

"How did you find that??" he sputtered.

I shrugged.  "I'm just that good."

Now if I could only find those missing CD cases...

"Crow" - Yoga Pose

While blow-drying my hair a few minutes ago I raised my left arm and saw a series of light green and purple bruises on the inside fleshy part of the arm.  I raised my other arm and saw the exact same thing.  It looked like someone had grabbed me and pressed their fingers into my arms.  What was going on?

Then I remembered--crow.  Crow is a pose in yoga where you place both palms flat on the floor, place your knees inside your armpits, then lean forward and raise your feet, balancing your entire body on both palms.  I'm not quite able to keep my knees in my armpits just yet so they dig into the backs of my arms, hence the bruises.  BUT, I held the pose for about 7 seconds today with my feet high off the ground so I am most excited.  Crow rocks!

Our instructor promised we'd try headstands next week.  Aaaiieee.  I tried to do one against a wall this morning and now have to figure out how to repair major plaster damage from where my feet slammed into the wall.  The noise sent the cats running...it was not a pretty sight.

Someday I'm sure all this yoga training will kick in and I'll be as graceful as the wind.  Until then, I'm carrying drywall paste around with me to repair the damages.

Land Tycoons

We just bought more land.  A big chunk (well, big for our neighborhood - maybe an acre?) of land behind and just to the left of our house went up for sale this week.  Blair has had his eye on it for awhile now.  My eye, however, was not.

Blair wanted to buy the land to protect our property. I saw no need for such a move as we already bought a section of land behind our house to protect the itsy-bitsy plot of land we started out with.  As it stands, we NEVER go into our backyard except to mow.  The mosquitoes are knee deep and you take your life in your hands walking through there after dusk.  I won't do it without an emergency blood transfusion bag in my purse.

So it seemed silly to me to purchase more land that we could not use.  Blair saw it differently.  Our conversation went something like this:

Him: "I want to buy that land behind our house."

Me: "No."

Him: "It's cheap."

Me: "No."

Him: "It would protect our land."

Me: "No."

Him: "What if someone buys it and puts a junky car lot out there?"

Me: "There's already a junky car lot just up the street and that doesn't bother us.  Props to him for expanding."

Him: "What if apartment housing goes up?"

Me: "There's already apartment housing next to this piece you want to buy.  Seems to me you're just moving us closer."

Him: "But--"

Me: "No."

Him: "Ah--"

Me: "No."

Long Pause

Him: "How about because I want it and it would make me feel great to have it?"

Oooh, he's tricky!  He never asks for anything and now I see why.  He's been saving up for this moment.  He indulges me and indulges me and it's all been a plot so he can have this mosquitoe-infested land of his dreams. But he looks so cute.

"Okay," I say.

"Great." He smiles.  He really is cute.

I'll just buy a lot of bug spray.