Okay, as far as the social season goes, Memorial Day weekend is over, so summer is here (even though we really have 3.5+ weeks until it's OFFICIALLY here...I know, I'm obnoxiously pedantic about this).
But JEEBUS it's hot. High 80s, with an AccuWeather "RealFeel" of 98, is too bleeping hot for May in Pennsylvania. My husband's worried about our trip to Orlando in the middle of summer. I told him it can't be much worse.
So where have I been for the past two weeks?
RETREAT!
Central PA Romance Writers had our ninth annual All About Me retreat last weekend. It was just as awesome as the 8 that came before, if you don't count the post-wedding screaming in the parking lot until 1:30 in the morning. The retreat venue was much fuller this year than last year, which is absolutely fine, as long as people aren't screaming "give me my f'in phone" for twenty minutes. Or puking in front of the hang-out bench.
But whatever! I got over 14,000 words written, submitted a short story proposal, and made great progress on Sunroper. I took a walk with friends I don't see often enough, and we laughed like crazy during our cocktail party and end-of-retreat game night. A bunch of new members came, and I'm hoping the regulars who missed it will be back next year. It's our tenth, so it should be EPIC.
Then I came home. And was hit by...
EDITS!
The oh-so-fantastic Kerri-Leigh Grady hit me with my second round of edits on Heavy Metal. I spent all weekend on them and only have 146 pages to go. The problem is that my freelance clients hit me at the same time (they missed me while I was gone), so I've been doing a lot of proofreading every day.
But that's okay! All work and no play gives you crazy!brain, so I made sure to slip in a few fun things. Like...
SOCCER! AND TV! AND MOVIES! Caution: Spoilers!
The Harrisburg City Islanders are doing great! They won in round 2 of the Lamar Hunt Open Cup, and this week host the New England Revolution—I'm super-excited to see them in person! Then on Friday night, in a hard-played game, they beat one of the top teams in the division, handing them their first defeat. Wahoo!
I caught up on a few shows. Revenge had a really good season finale, giving us some answers but opening up new avenues to explore. I'm fall heavier in love with Nolan every day. The one thing I didn't like was Amanda coming back pregnant just when Emily was going to tell Jack everything. That's a convenient and overused conflict.
Awake held me pretty strongly, too. It didn't pull me when I wasn't watching it, but when I was, I was hooked hard. The Inception-like ending was a little disappointing, though. I don't always like it when the writers leave things to the viewers' imaginations. Yeah, then we get to decide it's whatever we want it to be, but this one leaned too heavily in the wrong direction, so I can't do that. Still, strong acting, strong story right up to the end.
I thought Awake and The Firm were tighter shows than Touch, so I feel bad that Touch beat both out for a second season, even though Awake would have been hard to sustain for much longer, and The Firm was on a different network so they weren't competing. I still have a couple of episodes left of both of those.
But we're soon back to Summer TV! Remember when it used to suck? We have the rest of the final season of Eureka to go, and Franklin & Bash starts next week, with Falling Skies the week after, and Covert Affairs, Leverage, and Alphas not far behind!
I get to watch one or two episodes of something a night, most nights. We've also been squeezing in some weekend movies. I'm talking about The Avengers at Everybody Needs a Little Romance tomorrow (Tuesday), but suffice to say I saw it twice, and so did both Jim and Number One.
Dark Shadows was disappointing—slow and far less funny than in the trailer, with a weakish plot and haphazard characterization. But Men in Black 3 didn't disappoint! Josh Brolin and Will Smith were fantastic, and the story had a poignant twist at the end that shocked me. I have to go back and watch the original now.
There are a bunch of movies out this summer I can't wait to see, but right now, Magic Mike is the frontrunner. :)
So what have you been up to?
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