Ups and Downs

First, the ups:

It's Megan Hart's birthday!

I'm lucky I sent her a gift and card early in the week, because I talked to her multiple times today, even discussing some adult entertainment in celebration, without putting together that TODAY is the actual day.

Anyway, all is right with my world now. It always feels off between December and March, until we're the same age again.

The Supernatural Sweet Sixteen voting is going on right now! Scroll down a little bit for part one and part two. I thought things would be more difficult, but it was actually easier for me this round.

I got something good in the mail today, and took care of some things that I expected to be really slow but weren't. I wrote 1300 words on my new novella, "Letting Go," scheduled for release later this year, and did some revisions on Behind the Scenes that should have me done with all the major changes. Now it's just tweaking all the references to stuff that's no longer there, or different.

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Now, the downs. I wish the ups were as high as the downs were low.

In the "PIA but unimportant in the face of things" category...my husband got hit by another driver (sorry, his CAR got hit) a few weeks ago. Our body shop is backed up so that's not repaired yet. Last week I backed into our neighbor's parked car an messed up the rear bumper. While the estimator was here today, I was standing there looking at the car and noticed some scratches. And more scratches. And MORE scratches, with a big crease over the rear tire. It's like someone squeezed a shopping cart into too small a space, and dug the paint off the doors and quarterpanel all the way down the side of the car. That repair is going to cost twice as much as the bumper! Poor car.

In the "the car totally doesn't matter category," the Iraq war has now done its job on my family. I found out my cousin was killed on Saturday. All-too-common story, roadside bomb. He was a medic, too, which for some reason always seems worse.

He's a second cousin and I haven't seen him for about 17 years, I think, but I looked at his oh-so-familiar face and remembered babysitting him when we were kids, and my heart broke. I can't imagine the pain his mother and sisters are enduring.

I shall say no more, lest I break my no-politics rule for this blog. I pray for everyone over there, and everyone who has loved ones in danger spots of any type.