Noodles

A lot has happened since I last wrote in June!  (Technically I wrote in July, but that was just an FAQ for my Edge Series trilogy, WHICH I FINISHED.)  So let’s just dive right in, shall we?

In mid-July, Theo and I went down to spend the weekend in Atlanta for our second year of Atlanta Comic Con!  His highlight was meeting Steve Downes, who voices Master Chief from the Halo series, Theo’s favorite video game.  It was adorable.  We attended the Q&A panel for Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter series, and I got to meet her afterward, get an autograph on my copy of Chamber of Secrets, and get a selfie with her!  I talked to her about the short film she directed, Medusa’s Ankles, which stars my favorite actor, Jason Isaacs, and it was wonderful.  We also got to have dinner with my sister and brother, Sarah and Jesse, and then we spent the rest of the evening with my mom, brother Jackson, and sister Mary.  It was lovely.

Later that month, Theo and I spent the day down in Huntsville, Alabama at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  It was super nifty and fun, and before that, we had breakfast with my wonderful, amazing, glorious ex-coworker, Becky!  She and I were cashiers together at Honda, and I was devastated when she moved down to live in Alabama, though I was pleased she would be happier living closer to her family.  Still.  She’s the best coworker I ever had.  She brought me orange juice one morning when she knew I was sick.  She’s quite literally the sweetest person I have ever had the luck of knowing.

In early August, the guys who mow our lawn accidentally sent a rock from our gravel driveway into the back passenger window of my car, shattering it.  That was fun.  But luckily they’re insured, so it was paid for in full, and it was totally fixed by the following Monday.  But still.  That was a fun time.

A little later, I received acceptance to attend Middle Tennessee State University this Spring to study to be a graphic designer!  (A little more on that later.)

Late August was something I had been looking forward to for a while: the Titanic Conference!  I had been trying to go for two years, but I was never able to manage it.  I drove out on Thursday morning to Pigeon Forge, spent some time at the museum, and then headed over to the meet-and-greet that evening.  I talked to a few people that night, but my anxiety got the best of me, and I struggled to really do much other than sit there like a lump.  The next day, after the first couple of sessions, I had lunch at Shoney’s with three dudes, and we talked about the ship, and it was glorious.  That night, we had a fancy dinner at the museum, and I met Rachel, who is a positively glorious human.  We spent the dinner talking about everything from Titanic to Dungeons and Dragons, and later we drove back to the hotel together, and we hung out until the wee hours of the morning with the Titanic: Honor and Glory team.  It was awesome.  Sad part is, she and her husband live in Arizona.  Which is far and gives me the sads.

At the end of the month, I turned twenty-eight.  Ugh.  But then right after, Theo and I went back down to Atlanta for this year’s iteration of Dragon Con!  We only attended on Saturday last year, but this year we were there for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Saturday was pretty much spent just waiting to get into David Tennant’s Q&A panel, which was hilarious and lots of fun.  We then got to meet him briefly and take our photo with him later that day!

The next day, Lauren flew down from Wisconsin!  It was her first con ever, so we started it off with a bang by meeting Dan Fogler, who plays Jacob in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  She got an autograph and spoke to him for a little bit, and then we went over to meet Rodger Bumpass, who voices Squidward in SpongeBob SquarePants.  (I met him last year at Atlanta Comic Con, so I didn’t really say anything and just watched.)  We also went to a really cool panel with four YA authors about the “fandom genre,” which is basically novels that center around some sort of fandom, like comic cons, TV shows, book series, etc.  (The most popular one is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.)  The best part was that a friend of mine, Lindsay Ribar, was one of the panelists.  We met via Facebook a while back after I discovered a super old website she had made on Angelfire dedicated to Bruno Pelletier.  Amazed that there was an American fan whose favorite song was also my favorite song, and who was also a writer, I messaged her on Facebook and we became friends.  (Her books are awesome, and you should go read them.)

The next day we spent most of the day in the Vendors area, where Lauren got a super adorable hat, and I got a stuffed bear named Lumi.  (Because what else do you get at a comic con?)

After the con, Lauren drove back up to Tennessee with us to spend a week just hanging out!  We perused Murfreesboro, spending lots and lots of time at Starbucks, reading and writing; we did some shopping, drank even more coffee; and went up to Nashville at one point for a dinner.  A good time was had by all!

The best part of Lauren’s visit was on Tuesday, the day after we got back from Atlanta, when we drove the five-and-a-half hours to St. Louis to surprise Kat!  I had been coordinating with Kat’s fiancé for months about surprising her, and we pulled it off!  Kat was stunned, to say the least.  We got lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, as per our tradition, and hung out at the Galleria for several hours, just like old times, before Lauren and I headed back to Tennessee, arriving at about eleven or midnight.  It was magical and 110% worth it.

About a week or so ago, Theo and I changed our plans for next spring/summer.  We’re not going to Disney World in April . . . we’re going to London in May!  We’re both so unbelievably excited.  We got tickets on Virgin Atlantic for an amazing price – about 33% cheaper than going to Disney World.  Granted, the Disney tickets included the hotel and dining plan, but still.  WEE!  So far, we’ve decided that we want to see as much as the UK as we can in a week, so we’re not just gonna stay in London the whole time.  My main priorities are going down to Southampton and hopefully up to Scotland, while Theo really wants to go to Derbyshire, where his family is from.  I would also really like to take the Eurostar over to Paris for a day!  EEEEE!!!

Now.  Back to the thing about me going back to school.  So I’ve always known I wanted to go back to school.  I know I can’t spend the rest of my life in data entry.  I just can’t.  After gaining some experience with Adobe InDesign and falling in love with it, Lauren suggested that I actively pursue graphic design.  And I loved this idea, so I applied and was accepted.  I even toured the art department and met one of the graphic design professors.

However, there was always this voice in the back of my mind asking if this was really what I wanted.  Did I want to spend another three or so years in school to have a completely different career track?  Yeah, I’m good at InDesign, but I’m not great at drawing, and who knows if I would be good at the rest?  In the end, the decision not to study graphic design wasn’t out of a fear of failure, but of a realization that there’s something I want to do more: teach!

Teaching has been in the back of my mind since I got my degree in French four years ago.  Sometimes I thought I didn’t want to teach, other times I did.  Now I’ve decided that I really think I do.  I know it’ll be incredibly difficult, draining—emotionally, mentally, and physically—and that there’ll be days when all I want to do is quit.  But I really, really want to give this a go.  I want to make something out of myself, and I want to make a difference in the lives of others.  I don’t have delusions of being that one teacher for every student, the one who changed their lives, and who made them love school.  But I want to do my best to help.  (I also want to spread my love of French and/or English.)

So that’s what I’ve been doing as of late: figuring out what the heck I’m going to do in the spring!  I’m not 100% sure what I want to teach.  Obviously, French would be the easiest option, in that I would just need to do MTSU’s post baccalaureate program to get my teaching licensure, but I’m not sure I want to teach high school.  I really want to teach middle school, since I love that age, but that would mean finishing my English degree in addition to the teaching preparation.  I’ve also begun considering elementary age, so who the heck knows!  I’m trying to take things one step at a time!  Wish me luck!

In the last bit of news, my mom and I saw LeAnn Rimes tonight!  LeAnn was the first favorite singer I ever had, and I remember playing the crap out of her cassette for her first album, Blue.  In addition, my grandma and I have oodles of fun singing Blue whenever we're together!  The concert was AMAZING!

"The Edge Series" FAQ

I've finished my trilogy!  Now that I'm done, I realized that I get a lot of questions about it, so I thought it might be fun to write out a sort of FAQ.  Let's go!

1. What's it about?

The Titanic.

2. The movie or the ship?

Both, but mainly the ship and characters of my own invention or adaptation.

3. Are you obsessed with Jack and Rose?

Not at all.  I love the movie, but I don't care about their romance; I focus on the stories you see in the background.

4. Will you try to get published?

No.

5. Will you self-publish?

No.

6. Why not?

Because, for one thing, I'm using characters from the movie, and it would take a lot of effort to take them out of it.  For another, I also use real people who actually existed not that long ago, and I don't believe it would be appropriate to profit off of their lives, especially a fictionalized version, when their descendants are still around and actively working to preserve their memories.

7. Oh.

Yeah.

8. Titanic sucks.

Shut up, Jesse.

9. How long have you been working on the trilogy?

About five years.  The first book took the longest and I wrote the final two in a span of about six months.

10. Can I read it?

Sure.  I'd like to get it (or at least the first book) printed eventually, just for my own enjoyment, so let me know if you'd like a copy.

10a. How much will that cost?

I won't charge anything, except maybe shipping.

11. What's it really about?

It's about a young woman named Cate Alton, who is traveling as a first class passenger aboard Titanic.  Her father is the ship's first officer, William Murdoch.  After being introduced by him, she falls in love with the ship's sixth officer, James Moody.  Unfortunately, due to societal expectations, officer regulations, and a father not very much wanting his colleague to court his daughter, they have to work hard to be together.  Then, of course, there's the fact that they're on Titanic.

12. What characters from the movie are in it?

Cal, the movie's villain, is the only one who really makes extensive appearances.

13. Why do you like Titanic so much?

I don't know.  I've always felt a connection to the ship.  It's extremely difficult to explain.

14. What are you going to do now?

I'm going to Disney World!

(For real, though.)

Holy cheese puffs

I'm actually writing this before the month is over instead of retroactively changing the date because I'm weirdly anal about such things.  Wow.

What happened during the months of May and June, you may ask?  (Even if you don't ask, I'm still going to tell you.)

Well, the main thing would be that I flew up to Quebec City to spend a long weekend with my lovely friend, Karen.  We rented an AirBNB apartment and touristed ourselves into oblivion - walking through Vieux-Quebec, trudging up hills, and gorging ourselves on poutine.  Because obviously.  On Saturday night, we went to see Bruno Pelletier in concert (does this shock anyone) and were able to go visit with him for a bit during the intermission.  It was awesome.

The day after I got back, Theo and I went to see Shinedown at the Ryman.  Actually, a couple days before I flew up to Quebec, my mom and I saw Eddie Izzard, also at the Ryman.  So I pretty much just lived in Nashville for the weekend.

In June, Theo and I went to Knoxville for our friend, Brandy's, wedding.  It was quite lovely!  It made me wish it was our wedding day again.  I also spent the whole time drooling over Theo in his suit, because that's just the kind of person I am.

The following weekend, we went down to Georgia to spend some time with my family!  We got lunch at KFC (at the BIG CHICKEN) before going to my mom, sister's, and brother's apartment to swim for the afternoon.  Theo and I did not wear sun screen because we are stupid.  We swam, burnt, and had a jolly time.  That evening, we went to my sister Sarah's house to have one jumbo sleepover.  It was great!

Aaaand that's about it.  Oh, yeah.  One other thing.

We're going to Disney World!!

Okay, so it's not until April 2020.  (According to my countdown app, its 293 days away.)  But this kind of vacation requires lots of planning and obsession.  And that's what I'm doing!  I'm so excited.

In a couple weekends, we're going back down to Georgia for the Atlanta Comic Con.  I also have Independence Day off work, which is SUPER EXCITING, since I already have Wednesdays off due to working four ten-hour days a week, so that's two days off during the week!  WOO!  August will be filled with lots of stuff, like the Titanic Conference, which I may or may not attend, Dragon Con down in Atlanta (for which Lauren will be joining us during the last two days), aaaand my birthday!  So hopefully that's enough to keep my mind off of Disney World.

But I doubt it.

I'm not great at this

So April wasn't the best month, which probably explains my totally, not fake entry that I just so happened to post at the literal last minute of April so as not to ruin my "one post a month" streak.

To be quite honest, April sucked.

On April 11, we made the heart-wrenching decision for Elvira, one of our guinea pigs, to be put to sleep.  She had lost nearly half her body weight, in spite of eating often, and was clearly not doing well.  The vet believes she was suffering from either pneumonia or cancer, and after four previous unsuccessful rounds of different medications, we knew it was time.  It was the most difficult decision we've ever had to make, but we knew it had to be done for her sake.  We stayed with her the whole time, petting her and telling her how much we loved her.  The other three guinea pigs seem to be okay; luckily, they have each other, although there are occasional times where a guinea pig will grieve severely to the point where medical intervention is needed.  Early the following week, we picked up her ashes in a beautiful box with her name inscribed on it, along with, to our surprise, a lock of her long hair that the vet or one of her assistants had cut off for us.  Though we only had her for just over a year, we're immensely grateful for the time we got to spend with our lovely Mistress of Darkness.

Elvira Bellatrix
2015 - April 11, 2019

On April 15, the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire.  Some of you may wonder why this would affect me, but I was pretty devastated.  Notre-Dame changed my life, though I've never seen it in person.  Without it, I never would have met several amazing people, including my two best friends.  The Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and the musical Notre-Dame de Paris would never have been made, and I never would have discovered the music of Bruno Pelletier.  If I hadn't discovered his music, I never would have met Lauren and Kat, nor would I have started teaching myself French.  If I hadn't met Lauren and Kat, I never would have gone to Truman, and if I hadn't fallen in love with French, I never would have gotten a Bachelor's degree in it.  If I hadn't gotten my B.A., I never would have spent a year living in Montréal.  Who knows what my life would be like if, in my senior year of high school, my art history teacher never talked about Gothic architecture and, in passing, mentioned Quasimodo sliding along the buttresses in the movie?

Notre-Dame came to symbolize so much for me.  It truly did help to change and shape my life.  So to see part of it go up in flames (and on the day Titanic sank, no less) was horrible.  But I'm ecstatic that they'll rebuild.  I'm glad it's not lost forever.

April 22 is also what would have been my brother Michael's 28th birthday.  I was unable to go down to Georgia (nor have I been able to go down at all this year, actually), which made it even harder.

But good things happened, too.  The final Avengers film, Endgame, came out and proved itself to be an absolutely amazing culmination of twenty-one (or is twenty-two?) films.  I've seen it three times and I think it's safe to say I'm addicted.  It's an incredible film.

On April 28, I finished the second novel of my series, The Way Back Home.  With 111,645 words, it's longer than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and, if printed as a paperback, would be about 450 pages or so.  I've already started on the third novel, so I'm not quite sure what I'll do when I've finished that one.

In late April, early May, Theo flew (for the first time ever!) to Las Vegas to spend several days there at a conference for work.  He had fun.  I was jealous.

And later this week, I'll be flying up to Québec City to spend a long weekend with my lovely friend, Karen.  It shall be magical.

Oops.

My bad.

This was definitely posted in March

In case you're wondering, I most certainly am NOT writing this on April 1 and changing the date and time to make it look like it was written on March 31 so I don't already break my "one-post-a-month" streak.  So quit asking!

Anyway.

What's new with me?  The last we heard of my tale, I had just had a septoplasty and was super stoked to be able to breathe.  So... can I breathe?

The surgery worked for the most part, but I still struggle here and there with, ironically, the nostril that never really had the problem in the first place.  A couple of people have suggested that I go back to my doctor to get it checked out, but after the expense of the first visit and just the camera to look up in there, not to mention the surgery itself, I think I'll pass.  Because America.

In other news, our lovely guinea pig, Elvira, has been sick for a month-and-a-half, and we don't know why.  $300, two vet visits, four different medications, and an x-ray later, and we're still not sure what it is.  We've ruled out a URI, allergies, pneumonia, and heart problems.  What's odd is that usually when a guinea pig is sick, they'll stop eating, drinking, and doing, well, anything.  But Elvira eats and drinks, but she's got the constant snuffles and she's lost a significant bit of weight (in spite of eating).  It has been suggested to us that she has some form of cancer, in which case there's not really much for us to do other than watch her, love her, and make sure she's not suffering.

In more other news, in mid-February, I bought a plane ticket to go up to Québec City to see Bruno Pelletier in concert.  (Who's shocked?  Are you shocked?  It's my twelfth concert of his.  Don't be shocked.)  My darling, lovely friend, Karen, is going to fly up from New Jersey to attend the show with me, and it is going to be magical.  Even more magical will be the fact that I'm spending more than twenty-five hours there.  This time it'll be about forty-eight!

In about mid-March, I drove out to Missouri to see my two bestest friends in the whole, wide world.  Merriment was made.  There was a lot of laughing, hanging out, and drinking.

In the last bit of news, I just purchased tickets for my mom and me to go see Eddie Izzard in Nashville.  It's the same tour that Theo and I saw last year, but it's hilarious, and my mom has never seen Eddie, so it'll be super fun.  I'm stoked.

Noodles.

Septoplasty Fun

One thing I didn't know would be happening when I posted my first blog entry of the year was that I would be undergoing surgery!  Many of you (I'm not even sure how many "of you" are reading this) know that I've had breathing issues for about seven years now.  In very early January 2012, during the Christmas break of my freshman year at Truman, I had a cold.  The weird thing was that I never seemed to get over it--ever since then, for every single night I've needed to use Breathe Right strips on my nose to help me sleep.  Every night for seven years, otherwise I would get very little to no sleep.  A trip to my PCP didn't help, as he didn't have the right equipment to give my nose a good look to see what was going on.  And then I didn't have insurance for a long time, so I tried to just deal with it.  And let me just say: Breathe Right strips are expensive.  To get the brand name ones, often the only ones that work, they're about $12 for 26 strips.  So that's just over a dollar for two strips, so let's round around and say that it's $14 for a month's worth of Breathe Right strips every night for seven years.

Y'all.  That's approximately $1,176.  I have spent over a thousand dollars in breathing strips over the past seven years.  $14 a month doesn't sound like a lot until you add it all up, especially when you realize that for the majority of those seven years, I was making barely any money and was in school.  Bruh.

So what changed, you may ask?  Well, in January of this year, I noticed that my general congestion was getting much worse.  I tried everything: allergy meds, cold meds, you name it; nothing worked.  It got to the point where I couldn't be on the phones occasionally at work because I was so clogged that the person on the other end couldn't understand me.  I couldn't sleep at night, even with the strips.  I started getting nasal spray, but I didn't want to become dependent on it.  So, finally, one day I made the decision to find an otarhinolaryngologist  (say that ten times fast) in Brentwood, where I work.  I knew it would likely be weeks before I could get in, but I knew I had to get the process started.  So imagine my surprise when they said they'd had a cancellation for the very next morning!

I visited Dr. Huber (whom I totally recommend), and he knew from the very moment he looked up my poor, exhausted nose that I had a very badly deviated septum.  He used a special camera to look for polyps and things, but he knew immediately that I would need a septoplasty: surgery to correct the deviated septum.  A look online told me that the recovery would be brutal, but I was willing and ready to be able to breathe again.

The surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, February 5.  It went by extremely quickly: one minute I was scooting onto the surgical table and the next minute I was waking up in recovery.  Theo took very good care of me and stayed home for the rest of the day to help me and keep an eye on me.  The next couple days were no fun, but my mom helped me out immensely, as well.  It's now Day Four after the surgery, and I'm still not back to normal, but I'm a hell of a lot better than I was.  I can't wait until I'm able to breathe freely!  There's still some congestion, and I constantly have to drown myself with saline irrigations, but it's all worth it!  I'm so stoked to feel better.  I have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Huber on Monday, and then I'll be back at work that day.  Until then, I'm still trying to take it easy!  WOO for breathing!

2019 Incoming

New year, new me?  New year, new blog?  Not quite.  I had considered starting an all-new blog, but decided against it in the end.  I did change the URL, however, and I ask that everyone (all two of you) reading this not share it with anyone else.  I would prefer that only people on my Facebook friends list be able to access this blog, as that's the only place I'm sharing it.  Obviously, I can't prevent anyone from sharing it, but hey.  As unlikely as it is, if someone asks you to share it with them and they're not on my friends list, just ask me first.  The extreme option would be to make the blog private and only accessible to those whose e-mail I've added to a list, but that's super excessive.  So, hey, don't share, please?

Anyway, now that that's over with.

It's 2019!  It's almost time for the twenties.  I'm turning twenty-eight this year.  Gah.  2018 was not a good one.  I can easily say it was the worst year of my life.  I lost my brother at the end of 2017 and I lost a good friend in November.  But a lot of good things happened, too.  We adopted two new guinea pigs, Elvira and Marigold; Theo and I saw Eddie Izzard in Chattanooga; I drove up to Columbus, Ohio to see Bruno Pelletier's second American performance; I bought a new car, a 2018 Honda CR-V; my sister, Sarah, and I got tattoos together in honor of Michael's twenty-seventh birthday; Lauren and Kat came to visit me; my mom and I met the Property Brothers, Jonathan and Drew Scott; Theo and I went to the Atlanta Comic Con and I met Rodger Bumpass, Jim Cummings, Matt Lewis, and Sean Astin; Emily and I drove up to Michigan to spend time with our family; Theo and I went to Dragon Con and I met Tom Kenny, Victor Garber, Craig Parker, Tara Strong, and Jason Isaacs; Theo and I went to the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge; Kat came to Nashville and we saw Idina Menzel and Josh Groban together; I chopped my hair off and dyed it red; I went down to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios with Kat, Lauren, and Liz; I left Honda and started a new job in Brentwood.  Listing all that stuff, I do realize that a lot of great stuff happened, but it's hard to focus on that in light of what else I went through.  But hey, now I'm just hoping that 2019 will be amazing.

Lots of good things should be happening this year.  We're going to try to sell our house and buy a new one.  We're seeing both Shinedown and Disturbed in concert.  Who knows what else will happen?  Hopefully good things!  I'll try to go back to posting at least once a month in this blog, but we'll see how that works.