She's done.

So yeah, I finished my novel.

Weird.

Christina Vs. The Barista II

Me: I'd like a Dark Hot Chocolate with two shots of caramel.**
Barista: Uuhhhhh, did you want a Cocoa Carmella?
Me: Is it the same as a dark hot chocolate with two shots of caramel?
Barista: I don't know.
Me: Ok, then I'll have a Dark Hot Chocolate with two shots of caramel.
Barista: *Consults with other barista*
Barista 2: Uhm, did you want a Cocoa Carmella?

Me: Is that the same as a Dark Hot Chocolate with two shots of caramel?
Barista 2: Uhm, its like a shot of chocolate and a shot of caramel.
Me: Is that the same amount of shots I'd get with a Dark Hot Chocolate with two caramel shots?
Barista 2: No.
Me: *Through clenched teeth* I'd like a Dark Hot Chocolate with a double shot of caramel. I'm fine with whatever you have to call it to get those things into a cup and then serve it to me. 
Barista 2: *Gives me a look like I'm a crazy person while she makes my drink, mumbling.*
Me: *Weeps*

The most frustrating thing is that every single time I go, we have this conversation and every time, I ask them to clarify how much chocolate and caramel you get in the two different drinks, since the menu doesn't tell me. They refuse to answer me. So instead we have to fight every single time.

Howdy

Hey Party People! I'm sorry I've been a ghost lately. I'm in the last stretch of my novel. I gave myself a deadline to finish it by the 26th of October, so I'll have a few days to prep before NaNoWriMo. Ahhhhh! Its scary. I have two measly weeks to finish it and instead of writing, I'm looking up pictures of shirtless Dean Winchester. Oops.

Anyhow, I'm not doing a traditional NaNoWriMo this year. Instead, I'm going to use the deadlines to get my new novel off the ground. I want both of them finished before I start querying for agents next year. If I do things the way I want to, I'll have a third or fourth one in my back pocket by the time I get the first one published. I hate the pressure of deadlines, so I'd like to have some wiggle room.

In other news, my blog is getting yet another overhaul. You'll notice a deterioration in the attractiveness of it for a little while. I'm playing with some ideas and I have hired someone who knows code better than I do to get the heavy lifting done. The test site looks amazing and we'll hopefully be finished by the end of the month. Just in time for NaNoWriMo and for me to fall off the face of the earth again. Ah well.

The rest of life is good. Good food, lovely husband. First episode of the of the new season of Supernatural is already on Hulu which brings me endless joy. SHIRTLESS DEAN! I'm easy to please.

IWSG: Of Workshops and Writing Careers

insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

I want to be a published author.

I am already a writer, but being published is the next step. As my manuscript is winding down (I'm in the third act), I'm realizing more and more, that I need to get out there and start my writing career.

So I joined a local writing association, which has been wonderful. I love the energy and the fantastic mix of people. I've gone to monthly writing workshops which have been fantastic. The last one was so good. It was all about figuring out how to get unstuck in your story. It was great and I had some epiphanies about my book that are going to make it much better. I also paid a wad of cash to attend a writing conference where I get two, count them two, workshops with Donald Maas. One is a two-hour generalized workshop about writing and the other is a four-hour advanced workshop where we'll be working on our manuscripts. My manuscript will be in the same room as Donald Maas!

If you read his name and got as excited as I did, you're a huge nerd. Its okay. Admitting it is the first step. 

In other news, I just finished chapter twenty-five and it took some turns I wasn't expecting but I like them. I'm elbow deep in angst and my characters are running from their feelings and its awesome. I wrote some scenes in the last five chapters that make me so proud to do what I'm doing.

I'm now no longer working with an outline, so I'm not sure where my story is going to go, now. But I suppose that's part of the fun.

That's all.

Oh wait. I started scenes for two different followup novels. Yep.  I killed it in September! Productivity rules!

And those are words you never think you'll grow up to say.

What's in the box?

Those of you who actually read my under-rated bon-mots on the Book of Face can probably tell that I've had a challenging week. Bunches of little, silly things that aren't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I had good thing happen too! I entered a contest through Rite Aid, where I submitted a picture-a-day of my eyeshadow and I won a prize! So many exclamation points!!! 

Not pictured: Goop's head.

I had to fill out a shady looking form that came from a shady looking email address and I became convinced that I'd been scammed. They never told me what I won. They never stated that I actually did win. All the correspondence said, "You may be a winner". So a week after I turned in my shady form, I received a suspicious-looking box on my porch. When I opened it, there was a pretty, white box inside of that. And at that point,I have to tell you, I was very concerned that it might be Gwyneth Paltrow's head. Because my brain is a scary place and Se7en is an awesome movie. 

I'm glad to say, it wasn't. Instead, it was full of drugstore eye makeup! Whoo! I'm always excited about free stuff, but this does present a certain challenge. I'm pretty particular about my eye makeup since I'm sensitive to most mascaras and eyeliners and straight up allergic to all foundations. My eyes itch and swell if I use the wrong eye makeup, so I have to be careful. When it comes to drugstore products, the expensive stuff is generally the worst for me. The big names like Revlon, Covergirl, Maybelline, Rimmel and Milani are usually products I stay away from, with very few exceptions. I'd say most of L'Oriel too, except I like the HIP eye shadows a lot. But I digress. With that exception, the rest of those brand's eyeshadows are garbage. When it comes to drug stores, the cheaper stuff is usually better both in terms of color payoff and quality. I really like the cheap-y LA Colors eyeshadows. The color is vivid, though they are a bit itchy for me. I adore E.L.F. eyeshadow palettes. Their eyeshadow does not itch and has nice color payoff and blend-ability. NYX Pearl Eyeshadow and Jesse's Girl Eye Dusts are both fantastic. Great colors, great staying power and marvelous prices. Wet n' Wild is hit or miss, but when its hit, it's pretty good. 

Sadly the majority of what I received were the big name brands, but what do you want for free? Wanna see what I got?

Score!

Here's my haul. I'm thinking of starting a weekly post, maybe Superficial Saturday, or Profoundly Shallow Saturday, where I'll do short posts that review makeup, starting with the various products I won. Now, I must warn you, I'm no makeup expert and I have super sensitive skin, so take whatever I say with big grains of margarita salt. Then drink the margarita. Then drink another. Then try to put on liquid eyeliner and take pictures. Then send them to me, because that shit would be hilarious.

What drugstore eye makeup do you swear by? 

Leave me a comment below.

Christina Vs. The Barista

Via Flickr member: owlpacino

Me: I'd like a small, dark hot chocolate with a shot of caramel.**
Barista: Frozen, iced or hot?
Me: Uhm, what?
Barista: Frozen, iced or hot hot chocolate.
Me: A small, dark HOT chocolate.
Barista: *gives me a look* Which kind?
Me: *through clenched teeth* Hot. Hot. Chocolate.

After paying...

Me: Oh, I'm sorry, did you give me my receipt?
Barista: Uhm, no. *He looks away from me and then glances back like he forgot I was there.* Did you, like, want one or something?
Me: ...

Some days, I just can't with people.

On the plus side, my hot chocolate was delicious.

 
**Don't you judge me. I had a long day.

Babies and Yelling and Cussing... Oh My!

 Shit got real at the Max & Erma's tonight. Lansing, bastion of etiquette that it is, gave me my second favorite restaurant fight, ever. The first, being the time a girl jumped into the Rally's walk-up window and got into a fight with the grill cook (her cousin) whom she accused of stealing her weed. It was scary, but also absurdly hilarious. Spatulas were used as weapons. Tomatoes were thrown. Then the cook threatened her with a kitchen knife. There was weave hair in every condiment container. The police showed up, the girl fled and the next day the cook told me that the girl found her missing weed and apologized, so everything was cool.

In the ghetttttoooo.

Anyhow, this isn't about that fight. Tonight, a young mother was at M&E's with her mom and her son, in the middle section. The son was shrill and would periodically shriek. She was doing her best to calm him and she seemed like a decent mama, though she looked hood-as-fuck. Now, I don't really care for kids, but I know they holler and there's not much you can do about a toddler when you're in the middle of your meal.

A big family sat at the far end of the room. They were dressed nicely and had a newborn with them. How do I know that? Because instead of approaching the girl like a human being, someone at their table shrieked at her from across the restaurant, "Oh. My. God. Could you stop that child from screaming? We have a newborn and he's trying to sleep and your kid keeps waking him up!"

Good luck getting this outta your head.

Hood Mama, clearly pissed, said, "I'm sorry, he's two. Sometimes they make noise." She started working overtime, ignoring her meal, to keep the kid entertained. It worked. But I looked at my hubs and said, "There is no way he's not going yell again and when he does, it's gonna get ugly in here. I can feel it."

Sure as shit, he shrieked and the woman yelled, "Oh. My. God, that's it! This is ridiculous! We have a newborn! Blah-blah-blah entitlement!" Ok, I made up that last sentence. But it was there in subtext. Hood Mama had about two Tequila drinks in her at this point and apparently Tequila does NOT make her clothes fall off. It did however give her Hulk-rage. She yelled, "Excuse me? He's two. They make noise!" The family yelled something else that I missed and Hood Mama stood up and yelled, "Are you fucking kidding me with this? He's a little kid. Why don't you mind your business?" The section went dead hushed. Then someone started yelling about her cussing in front of kids and she yelled back at them to shut up.

Then an old lady from a completely different table, marched up and got about six inches from Hood Mama's face and said, "Don't you ever speak like that in public to anybody! Don't you ever!" Hood Mama's eyes flashed fire and she went quiet and said, "You need to back outta face and mind your business. I don't know you. You got no business in my personal space." Then Hood Mama's mama saw which way the wind was blowing, so she got between then and ordered the old lady to go sit down. The old lady said she was getting the manager and Hood Mama was like, "Yeah, you better! Cuz all I'm trying to do is eat my meal!"

So the old lady and her group stormed out. The waitstaff only caught the part where the girl swore so they didn't know what the eff happened. The manager came over and talked to Hood Mama, who was embarrassed and in tears at this point. I think the manager scolded her. The girl apologized. The other family got up and walked out, and no one made eye contact with anyone. I'm sure they got their meal comped, which is BS.

When Hood Mama was packing up, she apologized to the people who remained in the section. I went up to her and I offered her a hug and she took it. She told me she'd had a few drinks, otherwise she wouldn't have said that. Yeah, I don't really believe that. I told her that I wished she hadn't swore (sworn?), but that those people were rude and they should have approached her like adults and not yelled across the restaurant. I told her to have a better night and not to swear in front of her kid anymore. She was actually very nice. Her mom came up and talked to me for a minute, very upset about the woman yelling in her daughter's face. Then they left.

Not as good as the Rally's Weave Throw Down, but still an interesting night.

Now you might think I was wrong to side with Hood Mama but as the wise Agent Jay once said, don't start none, won't be none. The other family lost the high ground as soon as they started shouting across the restaurant. Also, it's not a library. It's not a nursery. It's a restaurant. They are sometimes noisy. This is about civility. If you give it, you might get it. If you don't bother with it, then a Hood Mama is gonna cuss you out and you'll probably deserve it.

I don't care if this isn't the best meme to end my post. I laughed for five minutes when I saw it.