So, I admit, I’m soon to hit a big round number birthday and I’ve never been camping.

Why?

Everyone always says, “Uh, I don’t think I want to go camping with you.” (Incidentally, it’s the same with skiing which is why I’ve never done that either).

So what if I’m a big chicken?

Anyway, the hubby and I are taking a big road trip vacation at the end of the month and I finally convinced him that we should camp for part of it.

So the other night (when it was super hot in the house) we escaped to the air conditioning of Target and bought all of our camping supplies - tent, sleeping bags, air mattress (what, I’m not a savage), etc. And for the cost of one night in a hotel we’ll be spending several nights sleeping under the stars - unless the bears get us first.

They picked On Writing.

Which means I get to read it for the second time this year. But that’s good ’cause no matter how many times I read it I still walk away with something else great.

My house is clean, mostly. I’ve got snacks (though I have to run to the store this morning to get fresh bagels) and drinks and coffee.

I’m ready for my bookclub!!

I’ve decided on 3 books to suggest.

1. The Game by Neil Strauss.

This is the one about Pick Up artists. It’s a fascinating book but I’m not sure my bookclub will go for it. Plus it’s equally timely because VH1 is showing The Pick Up Artist staring Mystery who is one of the main “characters” of the book.

2. On Writing by Stephen King

We’re supposed to pick books that speak to us and well, that one does. The hubby has read it but I don’t know how much non-writers get out of it.

Still, if we’re a bookclub it might be nice to read a book about the other side of writing.

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is kind of my saftey book if the other two fizzle. I’ve read it before (though I’ve read all of them before which is the poin to my picking a book) but I haven’t read it since I moved to the North Shore of Long Island. And that’s where it takes place.

So I’ll let you know which book they pick!

So we went to the pig roast yesterday. I was kind of expecting pieces of a pork or maybe like a pig in the ground or something.

But it was a pig on a spit and even though it was quite dead it was roasting on a spit and…staring at me. So I did eat any of the pig. It was too…headed.

Still, it was a very nice party. There was a bluegrass band and storyteller and then when we were leaving there was a Greatful Dead Tribute band.

And the weather couldn’t have been nicer. It’s been crazy-ass hot around here but yesterday the humidity finally broke and it was a lovely day.

This week is mostly writing.

I’m hosting my bookclub on Wednesday - we’re doing it in the morning ’cause everyone either is a stay at home mom, works from home or is off for the summer. Plus, since I’m hosting and don’t have air conditioning it’s cooler in my house during the day.

But it’s my turn to pick a book and I still haven’t decided what book I’m going to suggest. I’ll probably come up with a couple and let them choose (that’s what most people seem to do).

Anybody have any suggestions for what I should suggest for my next months’ book club?

*sigh*

Have I mentioned I’m freaking hot?

I’m running out of errands that allow me to hang out in a cool place for a little while. I suppose I could head off to Starbucks and judge some contest entries today.

My plans for the weekend are going to be trying to stay cool and…well, that’s about it.

Actually that’s not true, we’re going to a pig roast on Saturday.

Apparently one of the hubsters co-workers does this annually, but this will be our first one. I’ve never been to a pig roast before, but it definitely sounds like fun.

Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

I haven’t really done anything since my 46 page marathon the other day. Except sit in my house and swealter.

See, I rent the house I live in and it doesn’t have air conditioning - that’s not true, it does have a window air conditioner but it’s the window right by my desk and it’s where all the bugs come in (it’s not a good seal around the air conditioner at all) and it’s still covered over with plastic from the winter.

Anyway, no airconditioner + hotter than hell here = one cranky couple in the house.

Yesterday when the hubby got home it was 88 in the house. I don’t think it was even that hot outside!!

So, I’m swealtering away the summer here. We moved in the middle of August last year which means we’re coming up on a year in the house. I don’t remember it being this hot when we moved here last year so I’m hping the misery will soon come to an end.

In the meantime, you’ll find me in front of a fan somewhere.

Today I’m off to try to find one of those flippy chair things that flips out to lay flat so I can lounge on that in front of the fan.

Hows’ the weather in your neck of the woods?

Remember that 28 pages I wrote last week and thought was incredible?

Yesterday I did 46 pages.

By the time I went to bed last night I was ready to cry. 46 pages is a lot. It’s…it’s probably not a healthy amount of pages.

But I finished the Xmas story I was working on. Now I just have to edit it and then figure out what I’m going to do with it. It ended up at 91 pages, which yes, means I wrote HALF of it yesterday. And I didn’t even think there was that much left to write when I started yesterday!!

So, I don’t think there will be any writing today. I’ve got some contest entries to judge and probably some other stuff to do (need to check those lists). Besides, if I try to write anymore my eyes might actually start to bleed.

At least that’s what it feels like.

I need to rest now.

So, I admit, usually I am the queen of lists. I mean, I’ve usually got 4 or 5 going at one time for various things.

But I think I’ve mentioned that I don’t really have much to do ever since I got back from Nationals. Well, I haven’t actually had a list since then either.

In some ways I feel naked not making lists.

In other ways it’s kind of refreshing - well, refreshing until I realize that there’s something I haven’t done.

But today heralds the restart of list making. I’ve just got too many little things to do. Nothing major really, just a bunch of little crap, but important enough that I need to write it down so I don’t forget.

*Sigh.*

So, yesterday I went to the post office (if I owe you a package, it went out yesterday).

I walk in, and immediately my phone starts ringing, I had to put all my stuff on the floor (there was a line and I wasn’t close to the counter) and then shut the phone up. I was behind two firemen which is always good, though they seemed a bit young. Two people in front of me was a woman with a long skinny box (maybe a yard x a foot x 2in).

She goes up to the counter, plops it in front of the clerk and wants to mail it. What is it?

A FREAKING MACHINE GUN!!!

The postal woman took a step back (as would I) and said, “uh, is that really what’s in the box.” Cool as a cucumber, like she tries to do this every day, she said “yes.” Postal woman (sounding like she thought the woman was crazy). “Uh, we can’t mail that.”

Cause, you know, you see freaking machine guns in the mail all the time - especially ones not hiding their identity at all. I mean, there was a picture of said machine gun on the box. It wasn’t even wrapped in brown paper or anything.

I think she would have to answer yes to the “is there anything liquid, perishable or POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS.”

Now, I admit I abhor guns in every shape and form. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to have a gun but especially not a FREAKING MACHINE GUN!! In the mail!!!

I wish I was able to find out where in the hell she was trying to send it, but alas I wasn’t able.

I just…who in the hell tries to mail a FREAKING MACHINE GUN?

OK, so guess how much I wrote yesterda?

You’re never going to guess. The hubby guessed 0 pages (he can bite me).

Ready for this - 28 pages!!!

I haven’t written that much…in like the past month probably!!

As much as I didn’t really get much out of Nationals this year, being there did send me home with this incredible desire to write. I’d kind of forgotten why I write. It hadn’t been fun for awhile, but I think that’s because I was just forcing myself.

Now I’m actually working on things that I really love. Stories that I want to tell about characters that I really love.

I was working on one of them but then last night I woke up with this great idea for a novella. So I started writing that today figuring I could get a major page count - and I did. If things keep going this well I could finish the novella by next week and then move back to my single title.

Squee, I’m starting to remember why I love writing!!