My First Mardi Gras

Yes, I know that technically, Mardi Gras isn't until Tuesday (And it's a paid holiday here-can you believe that?), but I went to my first big parade yesterday. It was Endymion, and the theme was "Tales of Sleep and Dreams". Kid Rock was the Grand Marshall.

First of all, I wasn't in the French Quarter. We were on Canal street, not too far from where the parade started, and in a family-friendly area. Nevertheless....one of the first people I saw was a guy in a long-sleeved pink t-shirt wearing a silver miniskirt. A silver lame miniskirt. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what else he was wearing. He could have had on stilettos, I just don't know. I couldn't get past the skirt. It was cute, actually, I just never imagined a guy wearing it. But hey, to each their own. He was definitely working his own style.

I've never seen so many people in one place before. The sidewalks were full of people standing, sitting, dancing, drinking. The median of the road was full of people (and ladders). The balconies and porches were full. People everywhere. And everybody was so nice and friendly, even when strangers crowded in on top of them.

The floats were gorgeous. Twenty-six of them, and some of them were double-deckers that were 3 trailers (18-wheeler trailers) long. My personal favorite was the Wizard of Oz float. And the people on the floats were dressed up as the characters! How can you not love that?

And people are crazy-serious about the beads! I didn't see many shoving matches, but a few. It's hard not to get caught up in all the excitement. It was a lot of fun. But next year, I want to try out Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street...I hear that's where the real fun is.

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Stasis

Not much going one here. Still trying to do to much (What else is new?) The new job is going well. The weather has been cold this week, but should be warming up this weekend. I'm trying to do my taxes, which results in wanting to pull my hair out and scream. Oh, and Mardi Gras season has started, which means lots of parades, beads, and King cakes. Other than that, everything is the same old, same old.

I'm working my way through the HTTS class, and getting some interesting things from it. I finished one novel swap, and got a really useful crit out of it (Thanks, Dale!). And now I have a second swap lined up on the 2YN story. I'm really looking forward to it. That's about all for now.

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How It's Going

Well, it's going. Not spectacularly well, but not horribly, either. I'm making progress on some of my goals, but I've also taken on three new projects that should help me with them: I'm working on a novel swap/crit right now, I have one lined up starting when I finish this one, and I joined Holly Lisle's How To Think Sideways class. Now, the novel swaps will be done in a few months, but the class is a year-long endeavor. I've only received the first lesson so far, but I've been reading posts from people much farther along in the class, and I'm really excited about it.

So far, I've read ten books this year. Not a bad start on that goal. I haven't actually managed to listen to one of my Japanese lessons yet, but I've been reading over the notes I took last year, and I'm hoping to listen to the lesson this morning before work. I've been working out 5 times a week. No actual running, just building up my endurance.

The two novel swaps are with the Atlantis story, and the 2YN story, so that will help me get them polished up and all shiny. I'm two chapters into the werewolf story, but it's un-outlined, and that's giving me problems. Plus, I decided to use it for the HTTS class, so I'm sort of holding off on writing it right now. I want to use the techniques in the class on it. So far, I've tried clustering, which is something I've never done before, and came up with a few interesting ideas.

And that's all for now.

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2009: Or, The Year of Audacious Goals

While I'm satisfied with what I accomplished in 2008, I'm not entirely happy with it. There were several things that I didn't get done that I really wanted to. But…that's okay. No matter how much I try, I can't always do everything. It's the trying that's the important part. This year, I made a list of things that I wanted to write or edit, and really thought about whether or not I could do them. And I think I can. So, I made all of them my goals for this year. They are all in the notebook I keep for monthly goals, and I've planned out what I'm going to work on in each month (I can't help it, I'm OCD about planning stuff like that).

I want to either finish, or write first drafts for six stories:
-Zombie story (finish)
-Werewolf story
-Witches II
-2YN II
-Ash's story
-Mena's story

I want to edit five stories:
-Tempest of Angels
-Werewolf story
-Zombie story
-Witches II
-2YN II

I want to polish three stories:
-2YN
-Witches
-Atlantis story

I want to start subbing two stories:
-2YN
-Atlantis story

My personal goals:
-Read 165 books.
-Learn one Japanese lesson per month.
-Start a professional website (I sort of gave up on this one last year, but I'm giving it another go this year).
-Run 5 miles in less than an hour.
-Do 10 pull-ups.

And to top it all off, I want to write 300,000 new words this year. Now, this might sound like the most audacious goal of all, considering my word count goal for 2008 was 250,000, and I only wrote 163,000 words. But I've set individual word count goals for each of the stories that I intend to write, and if I hit those goals, the 300k will be no problem at all.

So, what are everyone else's goals?

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What I Did in 2008

I set myself five personal goals in 2008. Some of them I blew off along the way. Some of them I accomplished.

1) Read 150 books. Done on 12/2. Actually read 154 books.

2) Run 2 miles in less than 25 minutes. Done on 7/1. But only done once.

3) Use CDs to start learning Japanese. Not done, or, at least only done a teensy bit.

4) Start website. Not done even a little bit.

5) Eat meat less than 3 times a week (or, rather, any meat except seafood). Done. I haven't had any meat except seafood since 1/05/08, and I don't see any signs of that stopping anytime soon.

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

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Colors of the City

My brother and his family were in town this weekend, so we took them to the French Quarter Saturday night. I haven't been down there in a very long time (at night, anyway), and I'd forgotten quite how colorful it is. The street performers are the best part. We saw a group of breakdancers that were really good. Quite athletic. The mimes were good, too. Actually, that's just amazing to me. One guy, dressed all in white, with a fake dog on a leash, froze while he was "walking" across the street. He had both arms stretched out like he was in mid-stride, and one of his feet was halfway off the ground. He just stayed that way, for at least fifteen minutes. I can't even imagine the amount of muscle control and discipline that would take. I would have fallen over after roughly 30 seconds.

Then, of course, we took them to Cafe du Monde to have beignets and coffee. The step-kids were less than impressed. (Of course, they wouldn't stop texting on their cell phones long enough to see anything, either. My step-nephew even missed the stripper storming out of the club in a g-string and heels, and you would think a 17-year-old boy would have caught that.)

I'd have to say the most interesting thing we saw was the guy with pink hair wearing a skirt and fishnet stockings. Now, if you're going to wear fishnets, shouldn't they at least be in good shape? I think so. I pointed this out to my youngest brother later, and he said: "He was wearing fishnets? I couldn't get past the pink hair." Just goes to show what catches people's eyes is entirely different sometimes. Another example is the girl we saw who looked like Bondage Barbie. I noticed her boots, which were really cool. They came to her knees and had all sorts of buckles and straps. My mother, on the other hand, thought she looked like a prostitute. I just liked her boots.

I can't wait to start researching the story I'm going to set in the Quarter. That's going to be the most fun research ever.

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