A Tragic Comedy

Reasons I have to get my family the hell out of this apartment:

1. The drunk behind me called the police two days ago because my baby was crying at bedtime and woke him up. The cop knocked on my door, asked if anyone was being spanked in here and then took my name when I said no. End of story, but how annoying and embarassing. Every neighbor I have sat on their porch and watched it happen. And every one asked what happened when I saw them the next day.

2. This guy lives two doors down from me and is the apartment maintence dude. Nice, eh? My only concession was that when I put in my former Las Vegas zip code I got this. Check out how many of those have a non-compliant status. There are six or seven total offenders in all of Ely, all are compliant. How lucky were we to find an apartment within 100 yards of one?

3. There appears to be a skunk in our neighborhood. A real one, as in little woodland creature. Two nights in a row I've smelled the lovely aroma. Someone's dog must have been sprayed. Not mine, thank God for small favors.

4. Turns out I need more than 100 square feet of perosonal space to be happy. Four hundred square feet just isn't enough for three kids, two adults, two kitties and a dog. Go figure.

5. Everyday, starting at about 10 a.m., every apartment but ours has at least one person sitting on the stoop drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. Apparently we are the only family where the husband actually has a job. I'm not joking. The rest of the men congregate and get drunk. The sex offender, the weird school bus driver (ok, he has a job. But should he really be drinking beer at 10 a.m.? I think not), the jackass who got mad when Nick knocked on their door and looked through the little window because "me and Tami were doin' stuff, ya'know?", the nasty drunk behind me who called the cops on Ruby--the list goes on. The booze it up while their wives work.

Who would have guessed that by far my best neighbor is the kid next door who has a zillion friends over everyday. He clears them out by ten because he knows my baby has to sleep, and he yells at them if they peel into the parking lot too fast. And he has a job. The older guys need to take notes.

We're looking at two places to rent this weekend. Both have 900 square feet and two bedrooms, but at this point that sounds like heaven. One has a basement that you have to go outside to get into, which has a bedroom in it. The rest of the basement is unfinished, but that gives us three bedrooms if Adrienne is brave enough to sleep down there.

Wish us luck.

Behold the Queen of Purple Prose (HA)

Dear Shaunta,

Your submission to Ellora's Cave Publishing has been read by our initial editorial reviewer. She felt it showed potential and has placed it in queue for an acquiring editor to consider. An editor will contact you if interested in seeing more of the story.

So it's a 15,000-word short-story and not a novel, and the publisher is online and not in Borders. But...hello! My very first second look for fiction.

I saw on their website that they have this monthly series based around birthstones set for next year, and I thought--what a great way to get some fiction experience. I'll write a story for them every month and see how it goes. At the least, I'd end up with a good 180,000 fiction words under my belt. I've just finished story number two, and it was already easier to write (and read) than number one.

This was my first submission to them, so I guess my plan to take the erotica world by storm is right on track *wink*

Still in the apartment from hell

The sellers of the house we're trying to buy decided not to give us the extra time we need to close the loan.

So we went and looked at some more houses and found one that we really like that costs $65,000 less. Of course, the minte we decided we loved it, the realtor called and said that the sellers of the first house changed their mind.

So no we have to decide by this morning which house to buy. The first one is more expensive, but so close to work and everything else. Plus it has a half acre. The second house is eleven miles away in the next town, which has nothing but houses and a grocery store.

Damn. I'm so tired of making decisions. I just want to buy a house and be done with it.

Summer Starts Tommorw

I've spent the last two weeks planning a kick-ass summer for 100 rural Nevada chicklets. Our program starts tomorrow and I'm so excited!

The only public swimming pool within 100 miles of here is actually more of a swimming hole right out of Mayberry. It's a lake, fed by a hot springs so it's deliciously warm, with little guppies swimming in it. It has a diving board and two slides, and is only missing a rope for Tom Sawyer to swing in on to be perfect. It's surrounded by beautiful big trees.

So we'll swim every Monday and Wednesday, bowl on Tuesdays, have theme days on Thursdays (omg, we made a dozen fake swords out of pool noddles, dowels and duct tape for renaissance day...fun!)and field trips on Fridays. We're going to Garnet Hill this week, where you can just pick garnets right up off the ground.

I broke down and weighed myself yesterday. I've pretty much maintained my weight. If i'd stuck with my Super Foods plan and skipped the zillion Big Macs, I'm sure I would have lost--but I'm not complaining.

I think all the activity and sun and limited access to food will be good for me this summer.

I've decided to try to post more pictures, starting tomorrow. My blog is so boring to look at!

Night Drive

It was about 85 degrees last night, and probably ten degrees hotter and STUFFY in our tiny apartment. So after dinner, Kevin and Ruby and I (the big kids are in Vegas with their dad this week) went on a drive.

There is a scenic loop here that goes through the Humbolt National forest. We'd never been on it before, so it seemed like a good idea. And it was. Absolutely stunning. There is a big stand of White Pines that you drive through, and I swear it's like a fairy tale. Huge, tall white trunks. Some of you are probably from a place that has more than sagebrush as the local vegetation, but seeing big tall trees is rare for us out here.

At one point we came around a corner and saw a SUV parked at the start of a sideroad leading up to a campground. Next to it, maybe two feet away from it, was the most perfect, huge buck. Seriously, like Bambi's daddy. It was just standing there and for a minute I thought it must be a statue marking the entrance to the campground. Then it moved a few feet from us, and just stopped and stared. It had gigantic antlers and I am sick that I didn't bring my camera. Just sick.

We also saw a baby deer and some rabbits and chipmunks. I saw a hawk, too. And many, many cows. Right on the side of the road, like a cow-country safari. Two baby cows ran along side us for a little bit.

I really do love living in Nevada. I was born a California girl, but I love the mountains and the wide sky. I love the fresh air and the cool breeze as soon as the sun goes down. I love that there are unadulterated places here. I imagined last night what it would be like to be a pioneer coming over a pass and finding those mountains and valleys. The road we drove was a dirt road with grooves, like a wagon train might make. Amazing.

Hard Habits to Break

I have some really bad habits that have contributed to my weighing over 300 pounds.

1. Somewhere along the way, I stopped moving. I never walk anywhere, even short distances. I ask my kids to get up and do things so I don't have to. I'm not lazy, but it hurts to move too much so I avoid it.

2. I eat when I'm unhappy or under stress. Especially sweet foods.

3. I give up when I feel like being healthy is too much work.

So I figure I need some new habits, and I plan on adding on every week during this summer.

My first is taking my vitamins. Every. Single. Day. I need them, especially the B and iron pills. Without them I'm sluggish and tired, because I'm anemic. There is no excuse for me not taking them.

Some other habits I want to work on are:

Drinking fresh juice once a day
Taking a walk every night
Giving up fast food
Replacing soda with water
Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day
Cutting out all refined grains
Cutting back on processed foods

I'm also going to stop weighing myself. I'm not even going to step on the scale now, to see my starting point. This is not about weight. It's about feeling good and being strong enough to handle my life.