Actually, the weather has been pretty nice the last few days--aside from the atrocious ferocity of the wind. I have an extended weekend coming up so that I can move to the house I'll be house-sitting at the next year and a half-rent free! Whoop! My commute is about to triple, but free is free.

Taekwondo is still taking up quite a bit of my time. My boyfriend has been in India for the past couple of weeks so I've spent that time reading and writing fanfiction...fun fun. My friends that have read my novel liked it--yay!

This month marks a year since Jackie's death and Adam's anniversary will be in June. It's amazing how much more I think of them now that they're gone compared to when I saw them a handfull of times a year. When they say you don't miss someone until they're gone it's quite true. I've taken a lot more chances in my life this past year doing things I would have considered wreckless previously because I realize just how precarious life really is.

Yesterday is over. Tomorrow doesn't exist. All we have is now.

Guess what!? That novel I wrote: Heart of a Wolf is finally available. So if you're interested in reading about werewolves and such things check it out and enjoy!

Here is the website:
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~53875.aspx

Don't you love Halloween? I love dressing up and playing with the kids and encouraging the rampant use of imagination.

This year my boyfriend and I are going Asian to a couple of costume parties. I've got a lovely outfit I picked up in Chinatown while I was at a RA Salvatore book signing in Boston with Pam. And Harman will be donning the Taekwondo uniform, borrowing my sword from Toledo, and wearing a coolie hat and going by the name of 'Jin' (Samurai Champloo).

I'm in charge of planning my high school's reunion next summer, so that's been an interesting process these past couple of weeks.

All in all, life is going pretty well. Next month marks my second year at my current job and I've no intention of leaving anytime soon. My schedule this afternoon looks awful, but thank the Lord I don't have any patients tomorrow as I'll be at a conference all day! Yay!

Woke up this morning to the news that a childhood friend of mine died in a motorcycle accident--his 27th birthday was a month from now. To compound this, his sister died in a car accident two months ago. I love that family dearly and this is probably the most tragic event I've ever experienced.

I'm still seeing patients, but when asked 'how are you?' casually I wonder. Do you really want to know? Sometimes it is best to ignore the 'how are you' in greeting we so casually call out. 'Good morning. How are you?' Answer: "It is morning. I'm here."

It's a real bummer and I've nothing of substance I can say to the family. I sent the remaining son, one of my best friends, a text this morning expressing my concern and love for the family. While that's a nice thought, does it make much of a difference? Perhaps not now, but if you didn't call or write or see the wounded party that would be selfish and callous.

So...while it may not make the pain go away sometimes it helps just to know that people care about you and won't abandon you even when life seems to crumble.

There's a poem about Footsteps in the Sand. It's one of my favorites and it's times like these that I find the true beauty in those words and can visual the single footsteps as you're being carried through those horribly rough events.

Lets101 Quizzes - Quizzes for Fun

Nothing too exciting today. I move in two weeks so I've been accumulating the necessities I'll need since my roommate took off to move into their house. I'll be in Spain this time next month--woohoo!

I went to my first Hockey game last night--and there was a decisive lack of a flying V--I was a bit disappointed by that.

Writing news: I'm making sporadic updates on Loss of Self and Absolution. I finished my novel and am waiting for my artist's sketches to be finished before sumbitting it and having it self-published. I don't want to play the game of seeking a publisher. I prefer to avoid rejection in all forms whenever possible.

I started reading a series: Rogue Angel. OMG! It's so awesome! Action packed and educational, who'd have thought?

You ever have one of those days where you expect no guests, plan on sitting around your apartment in your PJs reading or watching movies, maybe do the laundry and some housecleaning?

That was yesterday.

So...when there was a rather loud knock on my front door, I assumed it was my brother, crawled off my couch and opened the door without thinking...

Except it wasn't my brother.

It was my old crush! And he was dressed quite nicely. And I had on a skimpy tank-top that barely covered my mid-section and some daisey dukes--looked a bit racey. I was just glad that I bothered to brush my teeth and throw my hair in a messy ponytail!

So my eyes widened and I shut the door in his face. After recomposing myself I opened it again and said he could wait in the den before rushing off to my room to put on some half-way decent clothes. Awkward.

Why couldn't he have announced his coming over?!? Who knows...maybe he enjoyed the eyeful.

I can't believe a month has already passed in the new year. Time slips by like sand through the hour glass. I've gotten a few new addictions since I last posted...mostly I went wild at discountanimedvd's website and bought half their stock.

I love Blood +! Haji x Saya were just so awesome! Mostly Haji and his cello-playing bad-assness. You gotta love the musicians. I bought Fushigi Yuugi box-set, thought I should contribute to that artist's funds since I had copies of the entire series downloaded. Then I discovered that artist is doing a prequel to the series which is WAY better (Genbu Kaiden)! Naruto's latest manga has me on the edge of my seat, Inuyasha is still going but I'm optimistic it will eventually have an ending I'm just glad that Sesshoumaru has his arm back!, and Bleach was cool when it focused on Byakuya but now I'm bored again.

Non-anime related news: still working at my original post-graduation job. I like it for the most part, but I don't know that I want to be in medicine forever which means I need to be more active in my writing so I can live off the royalties for my work, right? I'm going to Cancun next weekend for a friend's wedding and then to Vegas at the first of March. The reason for the latter is this: http://www.phantomlasvegas.com/ and http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/default.htm

I'm reading Destiny by Elizabeth Hayden--I don't like the heroine, but I love Achmed--the sort of hero/antagonist.

I love Halloween--it's a real fun holiday. I bought candy for the kids...but I ate it myself. *shrugs* Oh well, maybe I can offer them some dental floss?

I finished Heart of a Wolf! Woo! I submitted it to a contest on Amazon for breakthrough novel...so hopefully it doesn't get rejected on some technicality and gets some good eyes to check it out.


There is something called: National Novel Writing Month. Where authors sign up and try to make a goal of writing a 50K novel during the month of November. I'm signed up for that under belledaynight if any of you are interested in partaking in the experience feel free to 'friend' me. I'll be working on Fire and Ice.

Otherwise, not a lot going on. Working, traveling, playing Bleach videogames on the Wii, reading the most up-to-date Naruto mangas, watching Heroes on Monday nights and Avatar on Fridays. That's pretty much how I spend my week.

And...summer draws to an end. I really like Autumn but its a shame to see the end of happy-fun summertime. Animefest was on Labor day and that was pretty fun. I bought a wallscroll of Itachi and Sasuke from Naruto. I really don't want Itachi to die!!! Ah well...when you do evil things you don't generally get the happy ending though.

Wednesday I'm flying out to Toronto and then New York for a few days to visit some friends I've not seen in ages. Mostly I have a passport and I want to use it by golly!

I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I went to one of those mid-night parties at Barnes and Noble - a very interesting experience! I guess it falls in the same field as picking up the Lord of the Ring movies at 12:01 whenever they came out a few years back. John XII Hawk's sequel to The Traveler - Dark River - was pretty good. Right now I'm reading the Vampire Earth series by EE Knight.

My Nintendo Wii was delivered on Thursday evening. Very dangerous with all that arm-swinging! I'm waiting for the Bleach game to come out on the 9th, it's supposed to be very good.

This morning I've been able to take a breather! Not running around trying to see an over-booking of patients since the doctor is back. *Cheers!*

I saw Transformers yesterday...It was great!

Book Recommendations:
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight (I'll be reading New Moon this weekend and rooting for the Werewolf)
Tess Gerritsen's Mephesto Club & Gravity
Janet Evanovich's Lean Mean Thirteen (though it's not as good as 12)

So...my friend has wigged out on going to the UK this October, wants to postpone for the Spring. I guess I can live with that...October is rainy season there, Americans are hated abroad, and there have been a lot of terrorist bombings.

So...I thought about doing a Medical Mission trip to Brazil...but I saw that movie Turista...and it freaked me out. I don't want to get kidnapped! And English is really the only language I speak.

My plan now...is visiting some old friends in NY! And hopping the train to visit Canada while I'm in the area! ^_^

I'm crossing my fingers that THIS actually happens. ^_^