People are weird!

I know, I say that like it's a new thing but people are weird. These past couple of days have been just filled with weirdness. Odd people everywhere, which made for some truly interesting people watching.


Take the guy waiting for his wife in the Bed, Bath & Beyond. He was at the front, right near the check out, chillin' on the patio set they had on display. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Yeah, until he whips out his nail clippers and goes to town on his fingernails. Right there in the store. Snip. Snip. Snip. I pictured his sharp, dirty clipping zinging everywhere. *shudder* I sent him a look (to which he was oblivious) and hurried away from the display of Tervis tumblers, afraid that somehow one of his nails might wing its way into my eye.


On my drive home, while sitting at a stoplight, I saw this guy walking down the street with a can of Budweiser hanging from his neck. On a big gold chain. Is this a new fashion statement I'm unaware of? Maybe he was just thirsty and didn't want to to hold his 40 when he wasn't drinking it. I suppose a big blue can hanging from a gold chain is more attractive than those hat sipper thingies. On second thought...no. No, it's not.


Then today in the waiting room at the doctor's (Btw, yay for no more cast, no more stitches!! I'm able to type again! Finger healing!), this woman who was in front of me at the receptionist's was chatting away with a friend and, completely out of the blue, she asked, "Do you think, when you turn around and see a ghost and scream that the ghost is scared, too? I mean, do you think it jumps when it sees you?" There was a beat of silence in the entire office as we all processed what she said. But, being Southerners (Shut up. I know I'm a transplant but I certainly wasn't going to say anything.) we merely smiled and said nothing.


Holy cow, don't you just love people? So flippin' weird.

One-handed wonder...don't forget the thumb!

So, since surgery on Thursday and my left hand and wrist is all casted up (thank goodness I'm right-handed!), making all but my thumb unusable, I've learned a few things.


One: It's hard to wash your hair one-handed. Or put it up in a ponytail when it gets too skanky.


Two: It's hard to put on a back-clasp bra one-handed. And I don't have any front-clasp bras. Oh well. It's a perfect excuse to go bra-less (What? It's summer, I'm not teaching, my dogs don't care...perfect timing and an awesome excuse!).


Three: I can't imagine life without both of my hands, and I have gained even more respect for those who have to function without a limb permanently.


Four: Since it's hard to type too long with just a thumb (thumb cramp!), I'm having to go old-school and actually hand-write parts of my draft #2. Gasp! The horror! But I bought pretty pens. Colorful ones. And highlighters. And sticky notes. Yay for satisfying an office supply addiction.


And, I'm working on my TBR pile, whittling it down. I just finished HEXED by Kevin Hearne, which I LOVED -- seriously, if you like urban fantasy or Jim Butcher, you'll love Hearne's The Iron Druid series.

Nature in all her glory

Wow. Have you seen these absolutely amazing photos? 

They totally look fake, don't they? Actually, they're from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, which spewed ash into the air and created its own lightning storm. 

Photos like this remind me what a completely wild and gorgeous and dangerous world we live in and get my creative juices flowing.

It settled down after a bit but, holy cow, what a light show!

Credit for the photos goes to AFP and The Age (Australia). They have a bunch more pictures, if you're interested.

GREEEEEEN with Jealousy

Do you have writerly jealousy? I do. And so do so many others. Recently, Maggie Stiefvater tweeted a link to The Rumpus and a question posed by An Awful Jealous Person (she also wrote a great post HERE and follow-up HERE). This Awful Jealous Person wanted to know Why not me? Why were this Person's friends and acquaintances finding success and the Person wasn't? And how should this Person deal with the jealousy that comes with others' sucess?


While the whole thing is a bit tongue-in-cheek, it comes awfully close to the truth. While we're happy when someone close to us has success, there's also a bite of jealousy, especially if they're successful in our chosen endeavor like writing. I know that whenever I read about someone younger than me getting published, a Tweep or fellow blogger finding an agent, or a friend's book hitting the shelves, jealousy nips at my heels. Sure, I'm happy for them, especially when I know I'll soon be able to read their books, but that durned jealousy dogs my steps.


Of course, I have to say that jealousy has a positive effect on me because it

KEEPS ME WRITING. 

And that's the absolute, most important thing that we KEEP WRITING. We can't let jealousy overwhelm us or bring us down. Instead, it should spur us on, pushing us to get that novel done, to send it out to agents or even to jump in and self-publish it.


So, as Dory says, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." (Though I'm sure she meant, "Just keep writing, just keep writing." If she had opposable thumbs, that is.)