What’s Been Going On

There was supposed to be a review today, one for a Greek mythology inspired book with a whole lot of family complications. But the publication date was pushed back and I somehow don’t have another review to fill this space. Originally, I was going to leave it alone and just post the next part in Sisters of String and Glass, but then the thoughts started to build in my head.

I’m going to take a leaf out of Lisa’s (of Boondock Ramblings) book. Not literally, because she’s publishing her sixth novel next month and I can’t imagine the kind of chaos that would cause if I took a page (but if you’re interested in Christian women’s fiction/romance set in a small town and happy endings and just overall stories that will make you feel warm and cozy, you have to check out her blog). No, I mean she does these periodic posts called Randomly Thinking that I absolutely love to read. The things people think about are endlessly fun to read about. This isn’t a true Randomly Thinking style post, at least not in the sense Lisa does hers. I’m just going to chatter on here about what’s been going on and some passing thoughts that have struck me as interesting.

It’s Moving Time?

First of all, I must say a huge apology to everyone who has been leaving comments on my posts. I’m endlessly behind, but I’m slowly chipping away at them. I thought it was difficult to manage this space while basically teaching my 4 year old and 7 year old (the latter is doing an online school, so it’s not so bad), but throw in trying to get a house in the seller’s market we’re stuck in? Not only is our area just plain hard to get a house in, but everyone seems to want a house. It’s not fun, and it’s very time consuming, but we really need to move. Evening and afternoons and weekends have already been eaten up by this, and we’ve only just started.

Fortunately, the actual moving, whenever that will be, shouldn’t be too bad. We’ll be moving into our 7th home in 12 years, and done with the cross-country moving for a while. Actually, I think this will be the closest move we’ll be making. No freeways for the first time! I’m excited because, if all goes well, we’ll only need to drive the moving truck 10-20 minutes. Definitely a first. And the only challenging thing about packing up is making sure the 4 year old knows she can’t unpack anything until the box is in our new home. I’m trying not to think of what kind of chaos that will cause.

Anyways, all this is just to say house hunting right now, and especially where I am, really sucks. And my posts will likely be thrown up in the air to land where they will at some point. Planning past April just isn’t happening.

I Have to Stop Writing These Fairy Tale Inspired Stories

The other day, I wrote a line into Sisters of String and Glass. If you’ve been reading along, I have two kingdoms at war with each other. Well, I’m finally at the part where it’s winding down and the two leaders are sitting to talk things over. It struck me that I’m writing about a conflict between, basically, one mad woman trying to take over the neighboring kingdom. If that at all sounds kind of familiar…nevermind. I’m going to go curl up in a ball.

And then I remembered that, when I was writing Queen of the Garden of Girls, the pandemic struck. In that story, my main characters are essentially locked up in a manor and have no access to the outside world. It was both extremely difficult and scarily easy to finish writing that one since I got the unique perspective of what it was like to not really be allowed out in the world.

Luckily, I’ve decided to give this fairy tale series a rest and start on something new after I finish Sisters. I don’t want to know what I would end up writing, and whether I’d see a real world event that echoes it. It’s bad enough I call myself a Cassandra (after the Trojan princess who had the gift of prophecy, but was cursed to never be believed, but that’s another story because I really can’t figure out how my brain has chosen to function, but it’s given me some frustrating problems). I don’t need what I write to find a link to the real world. I write fantasy to escape the real world. Stop chasing me!

Keep Your Car Chases Away From Where I Live

It’s no secret I live in LA County. It’s mentioned all over in my Safer at Home journals (that I have seemingly abandoned). Anyone from around here must know/remember the infamous car chases. I’m ashamed to say my husband and I will stop everything just to watch them on TV. They’re kind of addictive. The local news stations will go back and forth on them. For some periods of time, they’ll air them all. Others, we’ll just get the highlights.

But I noticed something interesting: a lot of them happen or go through my general area. There was an absolutely terrible and horrifying one that occurred one mile from where I live. I suppose I was wondering where all those sirens were going. Anyways, my general area seems to be a popular area for people running from the police. Seriously, please stop. I’m getting jumpy, always warning my husband to be on the lookout for speeding cars when he has to work late.

It’s March and Southern California Has Already Cycled Us Through All the Seasons

Last thing I want to mention, because I kind of find it funny?

Some of the bloggers I follow have discussed weather a bit. So I’ve left comments about the weather here in SoCal. It’s gotten me thinking a lot about weather lately. Our weather can’t figure out what it’s supposed to be, or what the season is supposed to be. One week it’s freezing with daytime temperatures slipping into the 50s, and the next we’re at nearly 100 as our high. But it feels like spring and fall because the days will be warm (on those days with summer-like temperatures) and the nights will be freezing. We’re up and down and all over the place and now I wonder if I think Christmas is around the corner because we’ve basically gone through all the seasons on repeat for the past 2.5 months and not just because my 4 year old is asking about Christmas.

Sadly, we’re not getting much rain with those cold temperatures. There’s been a good amount of snow, but nothing to really get us out of the severe drought that’s lingered for as long as I can remember. Oh, yes, I do remember those days when my mom would tell us to turn off the water or wouldn’t let us play with it because we were in a drought. We are, though, getting plenty of winds. I live in a valley and it always seems to be windy here. Which isn’t fun because the winds bring severe allergies to my oldest. At least none of the trees we can see from our windows have fallen over.

In Closing…

I hope your March has been going a lot better. We’re jumping forward an hour this weekend and I am not ready for that chaos. I am, though, very much ready to curl up and go to sleep. It’s times like these that I wish I could be a cat.