Friday Fun

Happy Friday, Imaginarians!! We made it through the week and I managed to write a few more paragraphs, which makes two whole pages into my newest creation. My good mood is also due to the fact that I am participating in my first blog hop since my absence. Michael Di Gesu is hosting The Coffee Hop, in which we describe what makes us want/need/desire that cup of amazing goodness each day.







My addiction isn't so much coffee as it is caffeine. Oh my God do I have an addiction. I alone, have a billion dollar habit. It is monstrous. I require gallons throughout the day to keep me functioning until I come alive at night like a vampire. Drink it, chug it, sip it or mainline it through an IV. Before I have my first hit, I very much resemble one of the walkers from my favorite show, The Walking Dead.

I can't think, I can't speak English and if you come near me, I'll likely chomp on you. Be warned before you approach me at anytime before High Noon. Wave a hand first. If I blink and growl, stay away or shove some caffeine into my zombie-esque hands.

Go visit the other participants of this hop. We're having a great time and there's some real Colombian coffee at stake.

So anyone got any big plans for the weekend? I'm hoping to get some writing done and watch some movies I have not seen from last year. Oh before I go, I watched the Oscar nominations yesterday and Bad Grandpa received a nomination for Best Makeup and Hair. This is so unbelievably awesome and the big surprise, no nomination for American Hustle in spite of Bradley Cooper's tremendous perm curlers. Johnny Knoxville can officially and forever say he starred in an Academy Award nominated film. Fucking brilliant! I highly recommend this film, it was the funniest damn movie of last year. It was so much better than The Heat, which I found spectacularly unfunny. Not one chuckle or hint of a smile from me through the entire two hours. Yikes! I also recommend We're The Millers for lots of laughs.

Have a great weekend and a terrific time hanging out at The Coffee Hop.

Hump Day

Hey Imaginarians, it's Hump Day and nothing much has been going on. I did meet with my crit partners for the first time in months and we did get a lot of stuff read, plus we had a terrific time talking as we had a lot to catch up on. I also managed to write a few paragraphs, not much, but I'm getting back into writing at least.

I want to say thank you to all of you who have stuck by this blog and me. I could not ask for a better group of  friends and supporters. I'm making my way to all of you, its just taking me longer than I thought.Coming back is hard and I still have my dark moments.

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I totally did nothing but watch old movies, then the Golden Globes. I watched Arsenic and Old Lace as well as The Thing From Another Planet, plus a Bob Hope classic, Bachelor In Paradise. It was a day for total relaxation around here. And yes, that means I did not watch football. I just don't care about any of the teams this season. I will watch the championship games and the Super Bowl, but these other playoff games were meh. I burned out my enthusiasm after watching the Packers lose at home in a close shave.

I can't wait for the Oscar noms tomorrow. I'm really hoping Leonardo DiCaprio gets a nom because he deserves it for his wildly brilliant performance in Wolf Of Wall Street. Loved that movie, it was so wrong it was epic. And most uses of the F word in a three hour period. Over 500 times. Now that is creative usage of a very versatile word, which also happens to be one of my favorites. I haven't seen it used so creatively since Goodfellas.

Happy Friday And What I Learned from 2013

Whoo hoo, it's Friday, my favorite day of the week. It seems it takes forever to get here sometimes, doesn't it? Do you all have big plans for the weekend? I'm hoping to get some writing done and catch up on American Horror Story because I missed the last four eps, so shhhh...No Spoilers! ;)

I can't believe 2013 is over. The year ended on such a downer, but I did have an amazing time and learned alot, good, bad and ugly. Here are just a few of those lessons...


I learned one of my favorite TV shows, Sons of Anarchy, has some of the stoopidest, most ignorant fans out there. Example, recently a dedicated fan site posed the question "Since the show is coming into its last season, who do you think will die?" Me: "Everyone. This is Hamlet set in a motorcycle club according to Kurt Sutter [the creator] and everyone died in Shakespeare's play." Ignoramus Fan: "Shut the fuck up U dum cow. This is about Jax and the mc and guns and shit,  not a story some old dude wrote like 40 years ago. Git fucked u bitch."  Ah the intelligent discourse to be found on the internet.

I must make a Murtagh list because there is definitely shit I am too old for. Like riding my once beloved Tilt-A Whirl. I was so excited at the Festival of the Lakes this past summer. I got on the Tilt-A-Whirl with my nephew and sister. We got a great car that spun like mad. Sadly, when the ride was over, I nearly fell half a dozen times before I managed to stagger down the stairs and off the ride. Thankfully, I did not embarrass myself by yakking all over. I was, however, dizzy for the next two hours. A sad, sad, day for me.

Apparently, I am broke enough for the Federal Government to be on Medicaid, but still make too much money according to the State of Illinois, who denied me the coverage.

One of my local movie theaters has the first showing of the day for $5. Methinks that I will be seeing a lot more features at 9:00 AM on Saturdays.

I learned how to use a Smartphone. Yes!

2013 was also a year of reunions. I also reconnected with a couple of very old friends. We had been MIA from each other' lives for 15 years and thanks to Facebook, we got back together and have hung out several times.

Last year was also a great one for movies and while I'm not going to compile a whole list, some of my faves were The Hobbit 2, Thor 2, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, Fast 6, World War Z and God, help me, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. I have a very juvenile sense of humor.

One of the highlights of the year was me getting to drive a 2013 Dodge Challenger. I learned I do love to go very, very fast.

So what stood out from 2013 for you? Have a terrific weekend and I'll be be back on Monday. It sure feels good to say that.

Happy New Year, IWSG And Where The Hell Have I Been

Hello Imaginarians and Happy 2014!! Greetings from Chiberia. That's our new name around here. Yesterday we were officially colder than some parts of Antarctica. I haven't gone outside since Sunday afternoon when I trekked through thigh high drifts to clear a path from house to garage. I had to shovel in layers because the snow was so heavy and deep. Five, that's right five, scoops per square foot of snow. Made it all the way to the garage and around the side to the big door, only to discover a downhill ski run where my driveway should have been. My neighbor across the street came over and stood atop one of the drifts to avoid a passing snowmobiler (yes, they could ride snowmobiles on my sidewalk), then asked me if I needed help shoveling. Just then, her father stopped his snow blower and said "She ain't gettin that with a shovel." Bless them, they cleared our driveway so we can now get out. Chicagoans rock!

I hope these last months have seen you blessed and well. I've been gone so long I feel like it's been a hundred years. I have missed you all terribly. My absence was only going to be for a few weeks to finish some writing, but I got laid off, fell into a depression and got a respiratory infection. I got no writing done either. I've been miserable and I'm only now starting to come out of it. What a way to start a new year.

How fortuitous that my return has coincided with the Insecure Writers Support Group. My deepest apologies to Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh and the rest of you for being a very bad group member and not participating these last couple of months. I really needed to be part of this, be inspired by you all and yet, I shut myself out. In fact, I had disengaged from all creativity. I've been so depressed I could not put sentences together for a simple paragraph, not even stir myself to color or make a bracelet. Nothing. I became really isolated, doing only basic chores at home, looked for work and screwed around on Facebook and Twitter. And sleeping, God I slept twelve hours a day sometimes. I was and still am, a mess, but thanks to one of the sweetest friends ever, Michael Di Gesu, I am starting to get it together. He forced me out when I would have remained at home in my shell. I am more grateful to him than I can say. Thank you, Michael, you are the best.

It's amazing how deep you can fall into the dark and so fast, you don't even realize it. Creative spirits are especially vulnerable, I think to this creeping awfulness. I was to the point where I no longer cared about writing another word. I still haven't written, but I'm at least thinking about my writing again. I'm also going to be blogging again. One foot in front of the other starts the journey. It's a new year with new possibilities.