Saturday Night Freeze, Christmas Letter Time, and Miscellaneous Stuff

On Saturday night I froze my butt off. Well, actually I didn’t freeze my butt for part of the night. I sat on this thing called a Lava Seat. Claimed to stay warm for 6 hours. I don’t know what planet’s six hours it was, but not Earth’s. It barely worked for 2 hours. At least my butt was toasty warm during that small time, but sure would have liked it to be warm for the whole length of the football game. But back to Saturday night…

The temps hovered in the mid thirties. Wind chill (and boy, was it windy) brought it down to feeling like the mid twenties. Snow was forecasted (and I was prepared—I went out and bought me some snow boots!), but we were spared that (except at 2am—I noticed a dusting when I woke up coughing). Still… even sitting outside in the cold, wearing layers, covered in a blanket, and huddling in my coat was worth seeing the Wayne Warriors win!!

Yep! Next game is Saturday against Colerain for the Division I Region 2 Final. Winner of that game goes to the State Finals. I want it to be US!!! I want to win it all!!! And I want it to be warmer!!!!!

Greedy, aren’t I?

And if you haven’t noticed with that little hint above, I still have my cold. My husband got this cold and was sick for only three days. THREE DAYS! It’s not fair, I tell you. NOT. FAIR.

Even so, I’m thinking I’m good enough to go to the fitness center today. And my knee feels great. It didn’t even react to the cold weather Saturday night. Doesn’t mean I can go overboard. I’m still afraid I’ll do something wrong. But I have my doctor appointment next week, so hopefully I’ll find out what my limits are.

Yesterday I realized I needed to write my annual Christmas letter. I thought it might be hard (because it’s always hard), but for some reason it came easier this year. I started it with the story about Boris the spider (see this blog post HERE). Figured if I started it with a funny story, maybe my annual letter wouldn’t feel so wooden (or braggy). We’ll see. I didn’t get much feedback on the Christmas short story I included in last year’s letter, except a couple of people said they’d rather hear what was going on in my life, so since that was the ONLY feedback I got, I figured I’d go back to that. Who knew my life was interesting? I certainly didn’t.

I turned on my old laptop last night thinking I could update it to Windows 10 (and be able to check it out without ruining my current laptop), but I found out later that I can’t get a free update to Windows 10 from Vista. That figures. Now I feel like I went through all these updates for nothing. The last time I had turned on that laptop was back in January, so yeah, lots of updates. Plus, I forgot how slow that laptop is. I may not like my new laptop, but at least it’s faster than the old one.

Of course, it doesn’t seem like it’s THAT much faster at times. Buying this laptop was a mistake, but I’m stuck with it for now. If I find out I hate Windows 10 and Word 2003 doesn’t work on it, I may consider getting an Apple laptop. I’m getting kind of sick of Microsoft. But I’ll definitely try one out at the Apple store first. No more impulse buys for me!

Well, lookee there. I thought I wouldn’t have anything to post today and I managed to write stuff. Don’t you love these mish-mash Mondays?

So… How was your weekend? Do anything fun?

Have a great Monday.

Stacy

Weekend Update

Did you have a good weekend? Did you? Did you? Well I did!!!

Three down, two to go! Wayne High School is another step closer to the State Championship game. Their win on Saturday puts them in Mason (OH) next for the Division I, Region 2 final. I can’t wait to cheer them on. And I really hope I’m cheering them on Dec 6th at the Horseshoe (that would be the field OSU plays at). I’ve never been there before. The other two times I’ve seen Wayne make it to State (and lose, dang it!), they played in Canton. Allllll the way on the other side of the state! So glad they moved the game to someplace more central.

* * * *

I’m still debating on what I’ll put in my Christmas letter this year. I did pull out the old Christmas story I’d written a few years ago and polished it (kind of needed it!). Mainly, I had to make sure it would fit on one page (okay, one piece of paper—I print on both sides). Lucky me, it fit. I still have time to decide. It’s not like I have the Christmas cards ready to mail.

Which reminds me: BUY CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!

Am I pathetic or what? Don’t answer that!

* * * *

Today I begin reading Blind Temptation (again) to make sure I didn’t screw anything up before sending it off to my editor. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Why? Because I really love this story.

When I was writing the first draft, I worried I had nothing. That the story was junk. Heck, I did the same thing while writing the first draft of Ghostly Liaison and I really love that story, too. I do it ALL THE TIME, it seems. I have to keep reminding myself of that, too, because I’m having such a hard time with Ghostly Interlude. I need to just write the darn thing. And I will. As soon as Blind Temptation is sent off.

But for now, I’m going to enjoy Blind Temptation and hope to GOD my editor does, too!

So…Did you have a good weekend? Did you? Did you? Please share!

Stacy

Oh Crap

As I sit here figuring out what to blog about (my mind is empty in that regard, let me tell you!), I realized something horrifying:

I need to write my annual Christmas letter!!!

I can’t even write a post. How the heck am I going to write a whole letter? Especially a letter that doesn’t sound like bragging.

I mean, there’s a fine line between sharing and bragging, right? And apparently it’s really easy to cross (as I’ve learned a few years ago—the accusation still stings, too).

I know form letters aren’t personal. They aren’t really meant to be, now are they—thus the “form” in form letters. But I like to tell people what I’ve been up to, since I get the feeling they don’t follow my blog (don’t see them posting any comments anyway). Hey, maybe I should just send everyone a Christmas story and leave it at that. Think that would go over well?

Hmmm… I might have to give that a try.

So… What have you freaked out about lately?

Stacy

Christmas Letters

Last year I debated on whether or not to send out my Christmas letter. I sent it out and stated it might be my last one. I even directed my recipients to my blog to vote in a poll. I don’t think anyone voted on the blog (too long ago, my memory isn't THAT great), but no one said to stop. So I didn’t. I wrote another one this year.

Best response I got was in a Christmas card this year from a cousin: “The Christmas letter lives. Yae!”

So I’ll try and ignore the negative comments. Not that I’ve had any since two years ago. As long as at least one person likes my letters (and I know it’s more than one), then I’ll continue to write them.

I mean, it’s just a letter, right? People can toss them if they want. I’m not FORCING them to read.

I just have to keep telling myself that.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Letters

Do you like receiving Christmas letters (or Christmas form letters)?

Yeah, I know – Halloween isn’t even here yet. What’s this about Christmas letters! Well, I’ll tell you.

Every year I’ve sent out a letter with our Christmas cards (yes, one of those form letters). Of course, I usually wait until the last minute to compose one. This year I’m wondering if I want to send one out at all.

You see, one family member requested I no longer send the letter to her. She fell on bad times and didn’t appreciate hearing about how good our life was (well, I wasn’t about to share the bad/sad parts of our life – it is a Christmas letter – good cheer and all that).

I know I shouldn’t let one person spoil it for everyone else, but since I never received any feedback before that one, I’m now wondering if everyone feels the same.

Do you send out Christmas letters? What information do you share? And is there a way to share without sounding like you’re bragging? This inquiring mind wants to know!

Thanks!