not your ordinary princess: karaoke

Showing posts with label karaoke. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2011

a string of thoughts

I'm feeling a little down tonight. I have a lot on my mind. Mostly things of an extremely personal nature that I just don't feel comfortable sharing here for all the world to see.

One thing I am struggling with is forgiveness. I found myself in a place tonight where I'm constantly going over the things that have happened the past few years where I was really hurt. I keep playing them over and over in my mind and now it feels like the wounds are fresh and new again. I'm trying desperately to find something, anything, that will get my head out of this cycle.

I tried to do yoga tonight. I really wanted to go a full session since I ate a ridiculous amount of calories today. I put in the DVD and started the work out but I just couldn't pull myself together. I couldn't concentrate or get my breathing right or my posture. Those things are really important when doing yoga. If you're not concentrating on the poses, breathing, and posture you can REALLY hurt yourself.

I am super excited to get up and start over tomorrow. I plan on going to bed early tonight so that I can get up early and get my day started. I want to get up, do my yoga (I find it easier to do in the mornings), get a shower and then I have plans to meet my very good friend, Melissa, for coffee in the morning at Barnes and Noble.

After that I have stupid work. But alas it's only a 7 hour shift and then I have the WHOLE weekend off! I am SUPER excited about that!!

Karaoke both nights this weekend and I am totally ready to rock it. :)

lindsayallison

Sunday, February 6, 2011

the ups and downs of life

Yesterday was certainly...interesting, to say the least.

Yesterday morning wasn't terrible. I got to sleep in before I had to go to work. I had spent the night at a friend's house and had to go back home for my uniform. Then I found out that my mom was sick and she wasn't sure if it was bronchitis or the flu, so I asked my friend if I could stay for a few days while she got over it. I definitely don't want to get sick and miss any time at work.

On my way to work, I'm sitting at a stoplight and I see a homeless man on the corner. I looked over at him and realized that I had a few bucks in cash in my wallet. I looked up and realized that the light was still red and we weren't moving at all so I quickly reached in my wallet, rolled my window down and called out to him. He asked God to bless me as he took the two dollars I gave to him.

A smile immediately came on my face and I turned my attention to the cars in front of me. I happened to glance up in my rearview mirror and see that the car behind me was also giving money to the homeless man. My smile got even bigger! How cool is that? One person does one good thing (even as small as two dollars) and it's a ripple. Someone sees it and thinks, "Hey! I can spare a few extra dollars too!"

That definitely put me in a good mood going into work.

Unfortunately the good mood didn't last. :(

Work has been a mess lately. We have had a REALLY hard time finding people who are willing to work hard and get the job done. I don't want to get too much into some of the other problems because I don't want to publicly trash people because that's just not good form. But let's just say there is one person who works for the same company I do that makes my job much more difficult (unnecessarily, I might add). This person is causing me great amounts of stress and unfortunately lashed out at me last night, causing my good mood to turn.

I was quite upset on my dinner break last night. But my bestest friend in the whole world heard I wasn't having a good day so he brought me a candy bar on my break. :) That put a smile back on my face and I was able to get through the rest of the night with a fairly even mood.

I think it's interesting how things can turn around so many times in one day. I went out to karaoke last night and am glad that I did. I got to see an old friend I hadn't seen since October. I had a great time and my sisters even came out for a little bit!

Now, I'm off to have lunch with my family and then spend the rest of my day relaxing and preparing for the six day work week I have coming up.

lindsayallison

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What I'm Reading...

Here is the complete honest truth: I have not read a novel in some time. I have a pile of books I want to read. Most are old titles of Karen Hawkins (What did you expect?) that have been collecting dust and diet coke cans for a couple of months.

As I bought three more books today, I realized that I need to actually read these things. It’s important for writers to spend time reading as well. You have to be caught up on what the market is trending, what readers are reading, and what is making and impact and what isn’t.

I have been so bad about this. It’s appalling really.

I used to bring a book with me to work to read during my lunch break. It was great. THEN I got a smart phone and started spending time on that during lunch instead of reading. I think this needs to stop. I really need to spend my time appropriately and reading some of these novels I keep spending money on.

So that’s the new plan then. I am going to pick up that novel I’ve started three times and keep putting down and actually finish it. I think it’s also time that I expand my favorite authors list. I need to read more than two authors on a regular basis I think.

What I'm Working On...

I have been working on lots of different things lately.

January I was working on some old projects that I don't care to spend a lot of time talking about.

As part of a writing group that was formed during last year's National Novel Writing Month, I was part of a writing challenge for the month of February. We came up with a 20K challenge. Yes, that's right. We wanted to write 20,000 words in the little month of February.

I spent most of February working on THE novel, "The Curious Tales of Lost Girls." This novel is a dark piece and it's really hard to get these words out. So the fact that this thing is about half done is quite a huge relief to me at the moment. I have a love/hate relationship with this novel at the moment.

Because it's so dark, that once I completed the 20K, I moved on. I edited/revised an old short story entitled, "Far Away." You can find the short story in its entirety posted on this blog. It's a sappy, romantic piece that I wrote a couple of years ago. I am so pleased with the final product.

After that I moved on to a "novellette" that I started a couple of years ago called "Home for the Holidays." I am happy that it's finished. I am NOT happy with the words it contains. It's currently a piece of crap and so I will let it simmer for a bit before I start the editing/revising process on that one.

Now that March has started, the group has come up with another challenge. Short stories from writing prompts! One per week! I'm currently finishing an old short story (it only had 400 words) while I let my "real" short story for this week form in my head. The first one is another sappy, romantic one about soulmates.

I haven't completely decided on what this new short story is going to be about yet. The writing prompt was "It's 1969, you're 17 and normally quiet and reserved. How did you spend your summer vacation?" I think the title is going to just be "1969". I like the simplicity of it. I know I want to write about a young woman, but I'm not sure where to go beyond that. There was so much going on that year! But what to throw her into?

Character of the Month

Kallista James has been on her own for pretty much her entire life. When Kallista was born, her parents had not been ready for a child. They had been very young and wanted to continue their partying ways, so they did.

At the age of five years old, Kallista met the girl who would become her lifelong best friend, Jade Bennett. It didn’t take long before Jade’s parents realized Kallista’s home life left something to be desired and they took her under their wing. Kallista flourished like never before in the Bennett household. She was close with the whole family, including Jade’s older brother, Chris.

When Kallista was sixteen, her parents were killed in a car accident. In a moment of intense grief, she found comfort with Chris. After sharing an intense kiss, Chris confesses his feelings for her. Before the teenagers can explore their feelings, a fight with his parents sends Chris packing, swearing never to return.

Kallista moved on. She dedicated herself to her schoolwork and to her photography. After graduation, she made a name for herself as a photographer. When she goes home for a summer vacation, she finds herself face to face Chris once more. Now all the feelings she thought she was over have resurfaced and she must find a way to deal with them and him before disaster strikes.