It was a long night at rehearsal. I spent all yesterday running errands, prepping for the beginning of the challenge and for Rachel's wedding shower. I tried a new brand of vitamins since the store I stopped by didn't have New Chapter. I also found wrist weights (three pounds) at Wal-Mart that strap on, making you look somewhat like a dog with arm warmers but which makes you have to work just that much harder while on your walk. It seemed a good place to start for building up arms with no muscles whatsoever.
I hadn't counted on rehearsal to help with the arm-strengthening goal. Let me tell you, a four and a half hour rehearsal, the majority of which is spent in dance, is enough to fill any exercise demand for the day. We started with warm ups and stretching. Then moved into - THE DANCE.
Now. I'm playing an Eygyptian in this scene but since that wouldn't be interesting enough on it's own, they decided to make Pharoe into Elvis Presley. Which means the dance combines the Egyption movements you see on the tomb walls - and 50's bop-sho-bopping. (Photo by pufferfish_76 on Flickr)
The bop-sho-bopping is the easy part. I have a new respect for Egyptians. To see what I mean, you can try this at home. Hold you arms straight out from your shoulder. Keep them level. Now bend them at the elbow to go up. Keep that straight . Now move your wrist like you're holding a tray - or two trays in this case. See? Not too bad.
Now hold it for eight counts.
Ready for the next?
Keep that position but move your arms down so that your palms are facing the floor. Got it?
Good. Now point your fingers toward your waist. Hold THAT for eight counts.
Okay, so now you get the general idea about how much it hurts to hold your wrists like that. Great. Now do it for three hours while bouncing and doing jazz squares.
That was me at rehearsal last night. Did I mention I forgot to bring my water?
So I get out just before 10 and run home to find the house full of people getting ready to leave for the girl's pageant this week. I drink water to make up the lack, then manage to be in bed (with a house full of people) by 10:30. So I'm not that far off-schedule.
And I lay there until midnight, wondering how I'm going to get up at 6:00 and wishing it was already 6:00. I have a good chat with God about helping me overcome resentment with certain people, then wonder what colors I would have painted Palacios if I had stayed - then just get homesick.
I fall asleep after taking an herbal drink thing. Should try that earlier tonight.
And I dream about all those people I was chatting with God with. Only in my dream, I'm not upset with them. THEY'RE upset with me. Which makes me distressed, pleading forgiveness that doesn't come.
So when I wake at 5:30, I'm hardly feeling cheery. But I still have 30 minutes. If I don't dwell on that too much, I might make it back to sleep. Maybe.
Or you could read your Bible now, before you go on a walk and get busy making breakfast.
It's amazing how the Lord speaks in the morning.
I peek at the ceiling. Or I could try to snag a bit more sleep so I can make it all day without walking in a haze.
You know you're just going to lay here anyway.
Eh. Good point. Besides, I spent all night praying to God to help me clean up my life. The least I can do now is um - obey Him?
So I flick on my light, blink against the painful rays and note that it's not even slightly light outside. I get through a few Psalms which I mostly enjoy except for the occasional time when my eye looses it's place or tries to read half closed. I'm just finishing up with Val texts.
You about reeeaaady?
Yep. I've been awake. I'll call as soon as I get outside. I reply, pround that I'm awake and already aware of a new day.
Kay. I'M PACING THE DRIVE!
Oh. Wow. I'm not THAT ready. So I change into a pair of shorts, find my shoes, slip my new pedametor in my pocket to measure the distances I've been walking forever without knowing.
And call. We chat. I'm bemoaning that it's still dark out, while her eyes are being irritated by the sun. She's worried about loose dogs and I'm noticing that all of ours are asleep or still locked up with their owners. Somewhere I smell a dog - and a skunk. Glad I missed that one.
Forty minutes and over two miles later, I'm heading back into the house where I have told everyone I'm making breakfast this morning.
Well, actually, I asked Pee-Wee who's visiting if there was breakfast foods he wasn't allowed to have. Pop ventures for biscuts and gravy and sausage. Rocky hears "breakfast" and asks what time, delighted to hear I'm starting it at seven. And after I go to bed, Lauren texts to tell me she's planning on coming too!
Which is great. Except there's one little problem. There's no Bisquick. There's no canned biscuts. And there's no sausage. Which leaves gravy but that's not going to make the cut on it's own. There IS however, pancake mix. I have a tradition with pancakes.
The first four crumble. The next few are under done. Then I finally get into a routine and ge them turning out decently - but only after wearing my temper thin and muttering a few words I try very hard not to use and usually fail. You think I wouldn't, since I'm listening to a sermon on God's glory working through us to overcome sin. Ahem. I guess I'm still a work in progress. And the cabinet doors keep catching the cord and yanking the headphones out of my ears.
But I get bacon and pancakes going, remembering after I get the dishwasher cleaned out, reloaded and the delicate stuff handwashed, that I promised Pee-Wee eggs since that was all he wanted. So I make eggs.
Then go to clean my room. Put on make up and do hair that's now dry from the bath after the walk. Fairly pleased with myself. And remembering I forgot to water the garden and if I don't do it soon, it's going to be too hot. So I water the garden and hunt for squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. And water the garden some more. Head back up and start on my writing.
Which i do with write-or-die software so I can keep track of time and word count at the same time. It flows, a little roughtly but fairly steadily. But I forgot to put that I can save or get out of it before the time is up. And I finish the scene which means that the next part is editing pre-written text. I copy the text, then hit CNT-ALT-DEL to get out of the program. Well - that's what I entended to do. Instead, I just hit delete and the entire text poofs out of sight.
Oh dear. Well, at least I copied it. I close out the program and pull up the doc and hit "Paste".... and nothing happens. Oh. Dear. Well, maybe it's in the backup file.
Then, my dear friends, in true Lindsey fashion, the entire computer shuts off.
Just like that. The fan was running. I only had two programs going. I hadn't been on it very long. And poof! It's gone.
I restart it. It pulls up. I try to find the doc. And POOF!
It's gone again.
So I give it what it wants and let it have a break while I listen to another sermon on women in ministry and unity in Christ and stuff more of those little round tool cloths with Hershy kisses. Adding "Kisses" to my "Snack section" for what Lindsey eats all day.
As soon as I've hunted down more ribbon and finished off the 15 circles in that package, I tentitively pull up the computer.
I rewrite what I already wrote - hopefully better the second time, SAVE it, then copy and paste it into the doc.
Next part. I've given up on timing while editing. It's too hard to keep track of starts and stops. But the idea is that I put a good chunk of effort into each document so this week I'm not going to worry over exact times. Just getting back into the swing of things.
I erase the important but very cheesy part about Kael praying while getting ready to do exciting stuff that his fans will swoon over. Then set out to rewrite it with greater depth and less cheesiness. And bang... the wave of sleepiness hits me.
I convince myself that contrary to popular belief, that coffee I made for breakfast isn't going to do a thing except make me jittery and more prone to pacing the house than writing.
So I decide to blog while I have the chance since rehearsal has a way of creeping up and running until bedtime and then return to writing. Perhaps after doing a million jumping jacks or something to get oxygen to my brain.
Anyone have any suggestions?
UPDATE:
I pulled out my trusty alphasmart thinking as long as I was writing new material, I may as well save the computer as much as possible. Only to find it was already noon! I'd been snacking on left over pancakes and bacon and wasn't hungry yet so I wrote the scene for Kael and (Joy!) Remarr came in. While that was uploading to the computer, I just warmed up some of the beans left over from last night. And read a chapter of "The Shadow Within" by Karen Hancock. (Which all of you should read her books!) Then declared myself done for the day on "The Captive."
About that time, there was a crash, the clange of brass and a breathless string of jibberish from the living room. I left my work in mid-sentance, thinking someone fell down the stairs. In the living room, I found Pop trying to hold a sofa-type chair that had fallen on it's back with Pee-Wee in it.
I rushed over and helped Pop haul it back upright, only to find that Pee-Wee had hit his head either on the wall by the fireplace or the candle stick holder on the way down. Which explained the crash and the brass and the surprised gibberish. He said it must be the candle holder that hit it since it didn't really hurt but it looked painful enough to me and made me remember hauling my grandma off the driveway when she tumbled down and got the blow that ruined the rest of her life.
Assured that he would tell me if he started feeling sick, after trying to force ice and aspirin on him, I returned to work on advertising for an hour. The first thing I had to do was log into my domain name company to get things straightened out so this website I paid for actually shows up. It doesn't like me at all and always gives me a hard time, saying my email and password doesn't exist until poof! It magically realizes I do exist and lets me into the system. After I sent my stuff to the man to prove I was Lindsey Renee Backen and I've needed my site fixed for two months, I set about on my other tasks. Writing an article for the newspaper in Goliad. I had no clue where to start. Do I write it from the author's POV or like a book review or what? I read a few other book reviews, still came up blank and started working on the poster instead. I got the poster done, wondering if I could put it at the Sugar Shack and leave copies there for Rocky to make available. And IS it in the local bookstore? They said they were ordering some. I don't know of they ever came in.
And how do I get it out farther?
This led to a series of trying to make a professional business card - with no luck. Then looking into flyers, door hangers and wondering if it would be more effective to go door-to-door or mail them out and if that would matter if they weren't easily available. So should I go set up a booth at the carwash or the snow cone place my relatives own? Is it legal to sell them on the streets? Would it be cost effective to print up sample chapters to give away and if so, should I go for a professional look like you would make a program for the play? In the end of the hour, I have a flyer to show for my efforts. I'm still waiting to hear back about the website.
And these were my ideas.
- Write newspaper article to send to local papers
- Get postcards to mail out to homes?
- Door hangers
- Set up a booth near the Sugar Shack and sell to people waiting in line.
- Leave copies with Rocky at the Sugar Shack
- Put up posters around town with the summery and where they can purchase
- Produce and hand out sample chapters
- Set up another book signing at
- Set up another book signing at Kiro Java
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