M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 21

Goals the Week Before Christmas

The programs are OVER, now I can enjoy Christmas!

1) Do my shopping. I know what I’m getting almost everyone on my list. I have bought 3 presents only.

2) Go see The Hobbit. STILL haven’t seen Catching Fire. Why do these movies need to be so LONG?

3) Day with Mom.

4) Retirement dinner for a dear friend

5) Make something for our annual Christmas breakfast.

6) Finish my novella. This is looking unlikely, as the story is bigger than I planned. I’ll meet the word count I estimated, but the story won’t be over that quickly.

7) Exercise. Since the shows are over, no more dancing at school. Need to keep the weight off that I lost.

So, busy week ahead!

Sons of Anarchy–or, Why Nooks Can Be Evil. (Also, Spoilers!)

So, my latest obsession is Sons of Anarchy. My VP last year told me that I would like it, since I love Justified. I put off watching it, but then saw Pacific Rim, which stars Charlie Hunnam from SoA and started last Saturday.

I’ve watched the first two seasons in a week. I’m on the third season now. Would have been more if a) I was home more or b) I’d watch with Fred. But I know he’ll call me on my Charlie Hunnam crush, so I watch when he’s not around, and on my Nook in the back room in the morning before school. Sometimes before my nap, instead of reading.

The premise is following an outlaw motorcycle gang in Northern CA. The main character–at least, purportedly–is Jax, the Vice President of the “club.” He’s the son of one of the founding members, the step-son of the current president. If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you know father/son relationships fascinate me. In the pilot episode, Jax finds his dead father’s writings, about how he founded the club, how the club lost its way. Jax is determined to get the club to turn away from gun-running, but he’s not above kicking some ass.

So these are bad people, but the writing…damn. I love Opie, the big biker who’s just out of jail, trying to appease his wife and the mother of his kids. She’s outside of the club–she’s not one of the “old ladies” who hangs out in the clubhouse. She wants him out of the club, but it’s not so easy. Opie’s dad Piney is a founding member, and his best friend is Jax. Opie feels torn between his club family and his real family.

I like the sheriff, who’s in the club’s pocket. He looks the other way, but he’s got a thing for the president’s wife Gemma, who’s been his friend since high school. And he’s dying of cancer. He wants to retire, but the president won’t let him.

I like the deputy, Hale, who loves Jax’s high school sweetheart Tara, who’s a straight cop and hates that the sheriff is letting the club get away with everything.

I find Jax sympathetic, most of the time. In the pilot, his junkie ex-wife overdoses and goes into labor. He won’t go see his son because he’s afraid the baby will die. But he bonds with the baby, and his high school sweetheart Tara, a doctor now, as he tries to change the club from the inside. Also, damn. Just saying.

But my favorite character is Gemma, the matriarch, the wife of the president (who I loathe), Jax’s mother. She’s tough and vulnerable, and Katey Sagal plays her in a way that takes my breath away. She’s a “fierce mother,” who does anything her family, including the club, needs. She stays at the hospital with the baby, is ready to raise him if her son can’t. When she’s attacked and keeps it a secret from her husband and son, it’s to protect them. When she reveals the truth, it’s to bring them together, and she had me sobbing.

I about died when Stephen King guest-starred. How cool would it be to be such a famous author that you can ask to be on your favorite show?

I love this show like crazy, but there have been a few questions, like why Opie never questioned who killed his wife. Like why the club would put everyone associated with the club on lockdown to protect them when the club fought against another club, but let Gemma and Tara leave with the baby. It seems to me they would be the most vulnerable. And then Gemma makes a choice that I didn’t understand.

Usually the writing is tight, a study in cause and effect. If you pull this string, that happens, and everything’s connected. Brilliant, most of the time. My husband won’t watch. He says he doesn’t need to watch shows with so much tension. No one at work watches, either. My former vice principal was the one who wanted me to watch it, but he’s moved to another school. Do any of you watch it?

Goals for the Last Week of the Crazy

 

Last week was just not good. Not good. Not. Good. Incredibly stressful on more than one front. The only thing keeping me sane was working on my new story, which I LOVE. One more Christmas program and then I can take it easy the last week before Christmas break.

This week:

1) Finish up the Christmas program. At least everything is decorated, the playlist is made, the kids seem to know the dances better than the kids last week.

2) Write.

3) Cook more.

4) Day with Mom–I’m taking Friday off and we’re going to Fredericksburg. I’ve been needing to run away for a few weeks now–first chance!

Okay, maybe it doesn’t look crazy, but it will be inside my head until this show is DONE.

Goals for the Next Week of Crazy

 

I usually don’t mind going back after Thanksgiving. It’s only a few weeks until Christmas, and I do fun things with the kids.

Not this year. This year, I have 2 Christmas programs, one this week with half the school, next week with the other half. To that end, I am practicing, all day every day, on the stage in the cafeteria. Class after class. On Wednesday, I’m going to run through the whole show. Thursday night is the first show, then Friday I’ll start practicing with the other groups.

Oy.

So I won’t be in my room At All this week. I’ll be directing over kids eating breakfast, over kids eating lunch.

And then there’s the performance. All on me. Except the decorations. And Cindi is working with the narrators. Or she will be. She BETTER be.

Oy.

Good thing the beer fridge is stocked.

So, this week:

1) Breakfast duty

2) Make a playlist of the songs for practice.

3) Survive program #1

4) Write (need to keep sane somehow!)

I know I shouldn’t stress so much, but I’m gonna, anyway.

Christmas Decorating Overload

This morning I got my Christmas decorations out. Let me put it this way–I didn’t schedule writing time for today because I knew it would be an endeavor. I take down my Thanksgiving decorations, and some of my usual decorations. I have 3 totes of decorations, a hall closet, and 3 kitchen cabinets, as well as the top of the pantry. I have 2 sets of plates, 2 sets of glasses, more mugs than you could drink out of in a month. I have serving bowls, 2 cookie jars, a pitcher and platters, even silverware. I have stuffed animals, a ton of nutcrackers, a huge Santa collection, snowmen, reindeer, ornaments that I put in various baskets and more.

 

The thing is, I get attached to my decorations. As I was putting ornaments on the tree, I could remember where I got almost every one. The angel I got from my former student teacher. The patchwork heart from a writer friend. The little snowman ornament I got as a thank you for being on the SARA board. The ornament I bought for Josh at the Mall of America. The ornament I bought at the St. Pius Arts and Crafts fair the year we got married.

I’ll never forget my first Christmas in this house. I wanted Christmas dishes but couldn’t find any I could afford. One evening, my mom and grandmother rang the doorbell and handed me Target bags with Christmas dishes they bought for me.

I have glasses that we used to buy at Long John Silver’s. We’d go every week so we could collect a set. To this day, Christmas makes me crave Long John Silver’s.

What about you? Do you get over-attached to your Christmas decorations?

Goals the Week of THANKSGIVING VACATION (OMG I Thought It Would Never Get Here!)

I’m on va-ca-tion! I’m on va-ca-tion! I am on vacation!! I thought it would never get here. It’s a week and I don’t know how I’ll do everything, so I’m going to structure my list by day instead of for the whole week. In here, sometime, we’re getting Josh a car. He’s been a good sport about being without, but as it gets colder, he needs a dependable vehicle. I also want to get some reading done, maybe once the revisions are done. And do some TiVo watching. And of course spend time with Josh when he comes down.

Sunday–

1) grocery store

2) revisions

3) start a new book! WOOT!

Monday–

1) Write a blurb

2) send out requests for reviews

3) revisions

4) work on new book! WOOT!

5) Facebook party for my friend Tori

6) make cranberry sauce

Tuesday–

1) Finish revisions

2) Work on new book–WOOT!

3) Go see a movie!

4) Facebook party for my friend Autumn Piper

Wednesday

1) Breakfast with a friend

2) Work on new book–WOOT!

Thursday

1) Thanksgiving at Mom’s

2) Work on new book–WOOT!

Friday

1) Decorate for Christmas. This is a big endeavor, which includes the tree and getting out my dishes, etc.

2) Work on new book–WOOT!

3) Maybe another movie

Saturday

1) Work on new book–WOOT!

At some point, I’ll be working on edits from my editor, too, so there’s that. Good thing Christmas is coming, because I’m going to need another vacation!

Goals the Week Before Thanksgiving

Hallelujah–one more week until vacation! Seems long this time and you can tell. People are getting on each other’s nerves and the kids are rowdy. Last week was officially the longest week of the year. No, I have no proof, but believe me.

This week:

1) An arts and crafts show and dinner with Mom and Baby Brother

2) online release party for my western historical Christmas party in the anthology

3) update my website and send out a newsletter

4) Revising

5) Two guest blogs

6) Cooking

7) Exercising

Hey, I can do this! Also, we’re studying Hanukkah this week, so the kids will play dreidel in class.

Goals the Week of Man of Steel on DVD

By 10:30 AM tomorrow, I should be sane again, for a little while. My kids perform second in the district Veteran’s Day program, after the colors and the invocation and the recognition of the veterans who attend. Then it’s my old school, then me. After that I can relax. I’m taking a half-day to come home, pick up a comfort lunch, and relax, before I dive full-time into preparation for the Christmas program. I’m ahead of the game on that, and not alone, so not as stressed about that.

This week I’m doing Thanksgiving activities with my kids so I can do Hanukkah with them next week. Then after Thanksgiving, 2 weeks of rehearsal, then we can do FUN Christmas songs.

So. This week.

1) Veteran’s Day program

2) Faculty meeting

3) Watch Man of Steel a time or two.

4) Write write write write write! I want to finish the book this week so I can revise it next, so I can start a new book on Thanksgiving break.

Goals the Second Week of Pass the Valium

Okay, carnival survived, and we spent 12 hours yesterday either in Austin or traveling back. The game was a BLAST–a while new world for me, and I want to go to the next home game, too. We got to see Josh (we couldn’t sit together because he has season passes with the seniors) and took him to dinner, then drove home. I showered and went straight to bed and slept 10 hours!

Next up:

1) Turn in United Way money.

2) Practice for Veteran’s Day program, both at school and by taking the kids to the venue to practice on that stage.

3) Practice for Christmas program

4) Faculty meeting. Again.

5) Write? Please…please…please!

6) Our blog tour for Swept Away for Christmas starts as well. I think we have a stop every day for the next TWENTY days.

Goals the First Week of Pass the Valium

Oh, how I used to love Halloween. Love love love. Before carnivals and end-of-grading-period and United Way and Veteran’s Day. Yup, loved it.

This week:

1) Faculty meeting. Again.

2) Carnival. Sob.

3) Character parade at school, so need to dig out my Music Teacher from the Black Lagoon costume.

4) My first UT football game.

5) Wrap up United Way. I feel like I’m a teacher trying to get late assignments from everyone before grades are due. We have had 100% participation for 4 years and I don’t want to break the streak.

6) Write? Please?

7) Practice for Veteran’s Day and Christmas program.