Hello, NaNoWriMo….

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The goal? 50,000 words in 30 days.

Am I crazy for doing this? Abso-freaking-lutely. And yet, every year, I willingly and intentionally subject myself to the insanity. It's time to dive in again, people. It might even get a little ugly.

Why, yes. This is a lovely NaNo badge, is it not?

Clearly, blogging and I have taken some time apart after the A to Z Challenge. Maybe documenting my NaNo experiences will help me get back on track? We'll see…

Here are two links about keeping yourself on track, if you decide you want to venture into the wild realm of NaNo:

Abby Annis wrote a great article and is sharing an awesome spreadsheet.

Over at The Writing Cafe, discussion is about avoiding some of those distractions, like the internet.

Happy writing!

FAF: Traveling again!

I'm sitting at gate B-70 at Dulles International Airport, waiting for time to speed up so I can board my flight.

Today, I am *that* passenger. You know the one - sniffly, coughing, the "oh please don't get me sick" passenger. I am not contagious. That was days ago. No, I am in the lingering phase of mild congestion and coughing that just will not go away. I have done Zicam, water, tissues, echinacea, cold medicine, steam, and sleep. Still it lingers!

I suddenly have such sympathy for past *those* passengers. Perhaps I could have been more compassionate? Perhaps I could have suppressed the murderous glares? Now I am receiving them.

It's truly a pity that we aren't able to extend greater kindnesses to our fellow traveling companions. We don't know their stories - hell, that's half the fun (cause then you can make up stories in your head about the people sitting around you). Would it kill us to spare a little goodwill?

I won't get you sick, fellow passengers, I assure you. So stop looking at me like that, I can't help the cough.

FAF: Mercury Retrograde

Let us speak for a moment about Mercury Retrograde, shall we? Mercury went into retrograde on Wednesday, 26 June 2013. What does that mean? Rather than totally type it all out again, I refer you to John Marani's first post on the topic back in 2011. Suffice it to say, all kinds of communication goes sideways. Things do not happen as planned. People get screwed. Electronics die. It blows.

My brother John eloquently described Mercury Retrograde and its fuckery thus far, or at least how it has impacted him, J Sunny, and their beautiful Momo.

Allow me to share some of my joyful experiences. First, let me say that I was born with Mercury in retrograde in my natal chart. This means, typically, that I am not quite as impacted by the hell that is Mercury in retrograde. Typically.

Let me be clear. Mercury rules the sign of Gemini (my sign). I have the utmost respect and affection for Mercury. He can kick some serious ass when He goes into retrograde. You can't *not* respect that. Day one of Mercury Retrograde was not pretty. It was especially not pretty because I spent it at work, where we do nothing but communicate all. freaking. day. Half the staff couldn't access Outlook, which isn't good because we do a lot of coordinating with outside treatment providers via email. Phone calls got disconnected, group was chaotic, and staff ran around like chickens with our heads cut off as we tried to figure out WHAT THE FUCK was going on.

First we're scrambling to get a refill of a medication. We ask the treating psychiatrist to fax prescriptions to the pharmacy. Excellent, got that done. The pharmacy calls to get the insurance info. Fantastic, check that off. Then the client comes and says that she doesn't want the medication filled at our pharmacy, because she doesn't like the medication that comes from our pharmacy, because it doesn't work.

I'm sorry, say what now?

Yes, we actually had to call and have the refills cancelled. Then we had to call the psychiatrist back and explain the situation, so that the psychiatrist could call the refills in to the client's preferred pharmacy. That was like an hour of telephone tag and voice mails and cursing at the sound of the call being dropped.

Day one, people. Day one.

::headdesk::

Free for All Friday: Birthdays, Sabbats, and more

Blessed Litha to you all! May this longest day illuminate the important things in your life and help you see where changes must occur.

So, as I mentioned in Wednesday's Writing post, it was also my birthday. YAY!

However, being the do-what-I-want-for-the-most-part kind of person I am, I have been celebrating more or less all week. Yup, a week long birthday celebration. Gotta love it.

Tuesday was the awesome Melissa Etheridge concert.

Wednesday was my actual birthday; I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then enjoyed the Litha Ritual at 13 Magickal Moons.

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my sister, Riz, for a good chunk of the afternoon and then I had dinner with my mom at Travinia. That was a very yummy place.

Today, I am chillaxin' because it's Litha. I am enjoying the Lord's day and the sunshine and blue skies.

Tomorrow, friends are coming over for food and festivities to celebrate my birthday.

Not bad, I know!

All in all, 32 is looking to be a great year!

Free for All Friday: Vanity

During the A to Z Challenge, I shared with you all my feelings about jewelry.

Mostly I think I expressed my affection for shiny things. Which is totally true, because I am almost as bad as a racoon or a magpie. Ooooh shiny. (An expression I loved in Firefly, by the way).

In order to really grasp the extent of my jewerly addiction and how vain I am, allow me to paint you a picture.

It's a nice, quiet evening at home. You've had your dinner, you've brushed your teeth. Tomorrow you return to work. Most people have a "night before work" routine - packing lunch, picking out clothes, grabbing a book for the commute. My mother, for example, still irons her clothes as part of her routine. Then she does something critical - she picks the jewelry that will go with her outfit.

Being me, I must be contrary. I pick my jewelry first. That's right, I go pawing through my drawers of jewelry until I find a set that I have decided MUST BE WORN. MUST, I tell you. Now that I've found THE SET for the next day, I start shoving hangers around in my closet until I find something that will work with it. Assbackwards, but it's my method. Besides, it ensures that I look fabulous(!) and it shows my excellent taste in bling.

What's your routine? 

Free for All Friday

Can we just have a WTF moment, please?

I joined some coworkers and friends for a happy hour to celebrate a coworker's promotion to another program. We go to this great place called San Antonio's (go, if you've never been cause it's tasty, tasty food).

We're having a great time, socializing and laughing. We talked about traveling abroad, dream travel destinations, and how sad we were that the coworker is leaving us. SNIFFLE!!!!

At some point, the conversation turned to astrology - my sign means this; oh, you're a this so you must be like this; that kind of thing. I mentioned that astrology is more than one's sun sign, that you have to take into consideration the rising sign, the moon sign, and the relationship among the planets and their position in the stars (see, John, I can talk mildly intelligently about the topic now!) and all that jazz.

A friend of the coworker's, whom I met for the first time last night, asked me if I was "into all that astrology stuff." I told her I like to learn, that I've learned a lot from my dear friend and brother who has studied astrology for nigh on forever and has been a tarot reader for 20 years. She had an odd expression on her face and just said "Oh." Then it came up that I am a practicing witch.

I kid you not, she put her hands up and said, "Oh, that's too much for me. No thanks."

Crazy stupid woman say what?

I let it go, because it was clearly not worth a discussion. Her nonverbals were SCREAMING "OMG OMG I'M AFEARED NOW." Yes, I just used "afeared." Deal.

It does sometimes still astonish me how closed-minded and reactive people can be about this topic. This was a fairly well educated person. And yet...

Like I said, a WTF moment.

Happy Friday?

Free for All Friday: Moving and Cleaning

Also known as "I love my sister but I must be crazy."

So welcome to the new schedule of posts here at Lyre's Musings! In honor of our first Free for All Friday, I have a fantastic rant for you.

Last weekend I helped one of my sisters move. Now, I've been helping her off and on over the last month with packing in preparation of said move. I didn't think we'd survive. :-) She got a late start and, boy, I thought there'd be packing right up until the last minute. By some miracle, she got most of the packing done in advance. Her husband, well. I love my brother-in-law, but woah. He has many, many talents. Packing is not one of them.

So, Saturday is "U-haul brings belongings from townhouse in Pville to apt in Woodbridge" day. Being the good sister I am, I managed to be available (with some help from my supervisor who needed someone to switch from Sat night to Tues day for coverage and asked me first). The plan, according to my brother-in-law, was for my sister and I to stay inside the apartment and direct incoming boxes/items and/or move boxes/items to their designated places. This is one of many reasons I absolutely love my brother-in-law. Allow me to delegate and NOT have to lug boxes out of the U-haul and up the stairs? HELL YES. No prob, Bob.

Things are plugging along fairly nicely and then it's after 7pm and the U-Haul is empty. My sister needs to take my brother-in-law's nephews back to Pville. Ugh. She also has to return the U-haul. Double Ugh. Plus, her cats (my fur nieces and nephews) are still in Pville and she really wants to bring them back to the apt. She's been up and moving since 7am. Does she need sleep? Desperately. But she goes and does all of that, leaving me to help unpack.

Love is letting your sister set up your altar for you so it's done. Love is also using that trust to set up the altar in a way that your sister will be happy. Needless to say, it took me an hour to unpack all the altar supplies and another 30 minutes to set it up in a way that would make her happy. Then I started unpacking the bedroom stuff, so that her room was more the master bedroom and less of a room with a ton of shit in it. As a military brat, I have moved more times than I care to remember. Bedrooms and kitchen were always the first to be unpacked. In that order. She came back, cats in tow, and we set them free in the apartment to explore.

She cried when she saw her bedroom. Boy, did I have moment of "Crap! She doesn't like something! I can fix it, I can fix it!" Fortunately, it was a good kind of cry.

The next two days were clean the townhouse so that they'd get the security deposit back.  Want good exercise? Scrub the hell out of a townhouse - kitchens, bathrooms. My arms ached for days afterwards. Good workout, though, I guess.

The most important thing is that my sister (and brother-in-law and fur nieces and nephew) are back in Woodbridge and I don't have to drive over an hour to see them. :-)

Happy Friday!