It started out with our annual Fourth of July Blow Stuph Up party, which was a huge success. I firedanced, played Rockband and my inner pyro got to come out any blow off mortars. Then we had a weekend visit from our friend Drakino. We took him to the gorge and to St. Helens. I cohosted another class, Divination for the Curious, which was a lot of fun and attended a concert by Ayria and Project Pitchfork.

This weekend kicks off the “even crazier” period of July. We’re going camping this weekend. Then on Tuesday I head out to the Oregon coast to attend a Tarot Intensive hosted by my friend Katrina. I’m very much looking to both camping excursions. I drive home late Friday night only to turn around once more Saturday morning to tour Tillamook with Kender, and his parents. We’ll continue heading south along the coast till we hit Lincoln City where we’ll join my family who’s flying out Friday. Neither of our parents have ever met, so this is going to be a fun and wild ride.

We’ll spend the night, and our anniversary, at the coast and then head back Sunday with my family in tow. For the final days in July, I’ll be showing my family all the changes Portland’s done since their last visit.

I’m taking every little “free moment” to breathe and remember to enjoy this moment. If I didn’t enjoy being busy, then I wouldn’t be doing all this. Of course, I figure I’ll sleep when the end of this month comes. Or in August. *gryn* In any case, wish me lots of energy and fun!

Images of my past scroll in my mind as they intertwine with the pictures dancing across the tv screen. Tears flow down my face as I wonder when my prose and the vivid worlds they create will touch the imaginations of others in this way.

Well, I thought I clicked on the first of 3 empty lists… and then… realized to my horror… that the first thing that got deleted was my SIX FREEKING PAGE amazon wishlist that I had since 2000 or so. Everything gone. Never to return.

Needless to say, I now have a clean slate to fill. Anyone got any pagan, tarot, paper arts, young adult, fantasy/scifi, or horror books, DVDs, or industrial/techno CDs you’d like to recommend? Comment away and I’ll link them up to my new “Massiv Wish List”. This is your chance to help influence my book habit in 2009.

I dislike getting sick. Most of the time, when I do feel a cold coming on, I zap it pretty quickly. As an asthmatic, it’s Really Not Good(tm) to let something into the chest. It’s like getting dumped in the ocean and being forced to tread water. Plague’s not only zapped my energy but stolen my smart brain cells as well.

Today is the first day where, despite coughing and zapped energy, that I feel normal. So I’m going to slowly reintegrate myself back into human society. I’ll try not to over do it though, as I can still barely wander around without my chest wanting to spew a lung.

Ugh. My week in review after the cut…

Tonight I have a GEM meeting. It’s my turn to lead, and I’m taking participants through a Tarot Alive session. I planned on getting a guided meditation written… still don’t have one, that’s one thing I will get done today. At least I was smart enough to add my workshop to the group wiki before the Plague hit. I have a rough idea of how tonight’s going to work.

Also meeting with Taylor before GEM to discuss my writer, Shon and his book. I’ve been looking forward to talking about our initial meeting and figuring out what my next steps are to support him.

The following are things that didn’t get done. I plan on gaining ground on them over the weekend and next week:

• Editing TOUCHED. Got as far as keeping the file open on this computer.
• Progress on tarot school homework. Got assignment 1 done Sunday and then, when Plague hit and I lost all my energy, all I did was review the lesson and stare at the 5 cards I’m supposed to work with. I want to get the next two to three assignments completed soon. I don’t want to forget all that I’m supposed to do!
• Revising CA hardware manual. I scheduled time to go to kender’s office Monday. Well, that didn’t happen. kender brought home the device in question, thinking that I could get the work done at home. I didn’t. Do I get props for looking at it?
• Reading a book and reviewing it for DIYP. I pulled the book off the book shelf and looked at it. Flipped through the pages even, before I set it down again to go nappy.

Okay, time to wrap this up and move onto something else. Like another post.

It struck me while I was thinking of the current novel-revision-in-progress. The first novel I’d like to see published. I was thinking about the conflict (or lack there of) that was in the novel. You see, the tension is more internal, and not only that but I don’t present it in a way that a reader would know there’s tension. I know I need to get some conflict in there, to raise the stakes, but I wasn’t sure how or what I needed to do.

Thankfully, my muse gave me a pretty nifty resolution, in the form of a new scene to write. I’ve also known that I’ll be needing to write a bit more in the book, to lengthen the middle but I wasn’t really settled on what to do. So last night I jotted down some notes about how our intrepid heros meet a living representative of the plague they’re trying to save a world from. In the form of a dragon. A misty plague dragon.

I’m excited. Here’s hoping that this inspiration helps me work on the book.