Adventures at the End of a Year

Can you believe it? Winter break has finally arrived!

I've been trying to take it easy. A possible second cold may be coming - my glands are swollen without explanation, so I'm trying to nap it off in the hopes of a fluke. I never get more than one cold a semester, especially when the first one happens so late to begin with (how can I catch another cold when I just got over the one from November? Well, let's hope it's a really good fluke.

Due to the looming vacation in a few days, I may not be able to blog again until the new year. So here's what's been going on lately. Boy, December is full of events!

Home Away From Home

Her father's clever way to add Piper to the fridge.

When the semester ends, I have a tradition of visiting my best friend in Lakeland. That small town is full of nostalgia; I had spent all four of my undergrad years at school there and every little inch of it (it seems) holds some kind of memory.

After college, my friend ended staying there, getting a job, then later marrying and having her first child.

The baby is new - and last Saturday, I met little Piper for the first time.

I'm not shy about my feelings towards kids: they scare me. I get really uncomfortable around them, I don't know how to act, and that makes for a lot of squirming and awkwardness... on my part. But there's something different about meeting youngins that belong to family and friends. I fell in love with Piper when I first saw her. Like her parents, she radiates calm (and at only a few months old too - wow!). She has big, luminous eyes like her mother and chubby cheeks like her father. She also likes to fart and laugh about it. Piper snatched my fingers up in a vise-grip and even sneakily took my bracelet with her during a quick diaper change.

My friend and I snacked on blue chips while enjoying the bright morning. We reminisced, as we always do, about our college lives - it's strange to think that, here we are, finally away from the dorms and sticky mosquito weather on campus. All the while, Piper happily stared at us with her intense gaze. I cracked a smile and she laughed.

The kitchen fridge was covered in words. I wandered into the room with it's little window overlooking the backyard, the "Bless This Cook" apron draped over the cleaning bottle, and the spices all lined up on a shelf like soldiers. There were poems all over the fridge, small chunks of phrases, but still just enough unused words for me to make my mark:

Weird and obscure? Check.

New Fantasyland 

So. Who hasn't heard the news about New Fantasyland? Over the pat few years, Disney has worked on expanding Fantasyland to include actual castles, more rides, and Princess-themed restaurants and entertainment.

When I went yesterday, only half of New Fantasyland was open, so I'm afraid I don't have too much to report. I went on The Little Mermaid ride - it was beautiful. The line itself is great too, though, because the interior is designed to look like Ariel's treasure cave. While waiting on line, you can help tiny animated crabs clean up the place after another storm blew through and messed up the treasure (at least, that's what animatronic  Scuttle claims when you're far enough in line to see him).

You board sea shells against a painted sunset backdrop (very, very pretty) and watch as the movie flies by in a flurry of animatronic moments. My shell got stuck at the scene where Eric and Ariel are about to almost-kiss in the boat - the workmanship on ride, down to those tiny details, are truly marvelous.

1000 Figment Fans

Guys, it's been two years since I joined Figment (and, uh, since Figment.com came into being). It's been such a long journey.

I remember finishing my first semester in graduate school, utterly frazzled by teaching for the first time and still getting used to the hectic lifestyle of higher education. As I unearthed myself from a pile of grading, Figment.com glowed - bright and squeaky-new - like an oasis. I knew that Figment would allow me to have fun with my writing and to experiment, outside of workshop, with the kinds of plots and structures that I wanted.

Birdcage Girl was born and very slowly, I began to make friends and read some fantastic work by other talented writers on the site.

But never did I think, way back then, that I would ever reach a thousand followers.

I remember celebrating one hundred followers - readers who liked my work enough to keep track of me - and the feeling that comes with gaining more readers never gets old. I'm honored and thankful to have so many lovely readers.

With that said, 1,004 fans, I'll do my best to continue spinning strange stories for you. Hold on tight.

The Next Installment of Lookout

Last week, the new issue of Tripod Cat came out.

If you've been keeping up, you've already listened to part one of my serial, Lookout. You've been introduced to the seaside town of Helium and quiet, eagle-eyed Lorelei who won the summer job of being strapped to a cloud as a lookout for the beach.

In this new installment, you'll be introduced to Sculley, a wind-peddler who has arrived in Helium with his uncle for a mysterious purpose. And he's a bit of a ladies' man (that's what he'd like you to think).

All issues of Tripod Cat are free; you can listen to them (and both installments of Lookout) via iTunes.

Winter Vacation Plans 

With all these exciting events still swirling around in my head, it's hard to keep track what's to come: family vacation. The thing is, we don't really go anywhere during winter break. Disney is always a must, but other than that, we usually sleep in late and recover from the semester's stresses, including preparing for the next semester to come. I know that sounds boring (besides the Disney part), but it's been the standard for a few years now. 

This year is different.

On Thursday morning, we're going to pack out suitcases in the car and head out for a two-week whirlwind adventure: we'll be in Miami to meet cousins and admire the Art Deco buildings, then off to St. Augustine to climb a lighthouse and search for ghosts on a tour. Lastly, we'll be back at good old Disney, exploring this year's holiday decorations at the hotels, drinking more LeFou's Brew, and exploring the Boardwalk's nightlife for the first time.

With that said, I still don't have a fancy phone. I'll be taking photographs, but my posts will have to wait until I get back. When I find Wi-Fi along the way, I'll do my best to check in!

If I can't reach you in time, make sure you have a Merry Christmas and a relaxing, exhilarating break!

On Death and Workshopping

"That's okay. It's the end of the semester, after all."

I think I said the above phrase at least twenty times last week. It's one of those things you say to soothe the people around you - kind of like saying "I'm sorry" when someone dies.

The act of speaking these words means that you've already let your shoulders sag.

This is the end of the semester and we're moving steadily to its final breath.

Tug on your seat beat. Hold onto the safety bar.

A windy afternoon

On Thursday, my professor decided that we'd spend the entirety of our three-hour class workshopping in small groups. We all brought our tentative final projects in, printing enough copies for everyone in our respective groups. 

The class I'm taking is called Illness Narrative. As you might guess from the title, we learn about all things that fall under the loose term of "illness." I've read poetry, essays, and fiction on topics ranging from the common cold to cancer, ranging from tear-jerking sadness to snorting laughter. The nice part about the class is that all of us, regardless of genre, are able to experiment with different forms and topics - something that is, for the most part, rare to do at the graduate level since you always want to put forth your best. 

I've written some weird stuff for this class. A small piece about eyelashes that, amazingly, had been published in the same semester, and two essays where I wrote about my harrowing experience at Disney with sugar-free dessert and my lifelong, though recently ending, battle with my giant pores, haha. And lastly, the short story I workshopped on Thursday. 

It's a humorous story inspired by the unit we did on the five senses. I gave my main character a heightened sense of taste, a cape-wearing nemesis, and three hairless cats. But I didn't know how to end the story. 

"I don't care where we go," said one of my group mates, "just so long as we're outside. I'm done." 

That's the end-of-the-semester-weariness talking, but we all agreed that some fresh air would be a nice change from the arctic classroom we all usually sat in. The groups all split up and we found a table in the new park, right behind the campus library. 

The park is pretty nice (though, to be honest, the space would have made a better extra row of parking - we need more parking on campus. Gads). There's a fountain that sprayed us with mist whenever the wind picked up. A girl passed out on the only swing set and fell asleep to the music pounding through her ear buds and the gentle motion of the swing. The wind found every little hole in my knit sweater. 

For the first twenty minutes, I used my hands as paperweights as we talked about our other classes, funny teaching stories, and complaining about the usual writing stuff (like lack of sleep and abundance of rejections).

Our stories were riddled with fatigue. 

"Your characters need to talk more here. Add some good puns to stick with your theme."

"Okay," I said. A pause. "Wait. Can you give me an example?"

Maybe it was the wind, or the fresh air, that made my mind so slow. I gave my group mates a drowsy smile and scratched down a few notes.

The Grand Tour 

While taking this class, I'm constantly reminded of the Death and Dying class I took back in college. At the time, I thought it was a great class to take as one of my final electives. If I wanted to be a writer, I'd only benefit from facing death head on - or, at least, in the form of a few multiple choice tests throughout a semester. 

So I took Death and Dying.  

The class was full of all different majors, people with tragic lives and people, like me, who are relatively cheerful. There were tears in during certain lessons. Every Tuesday, our professor started class with by reading us Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. During our "Death and the Media" unit, I (unsuccessfully) tried to convince the class that The Hush Sound's "Medicine Man" music video had to do with death.... and I say unsuccessful, because, for some reason, the deep and complicated story line of the video somehow went over their heads. I don't know. You tell me.

Next came the field trips. 

There was the funeral home: the tissue boxes were beautifully designed (that's how you know they were probably expensive), eagles were a common decoration for the caskets and urns, and the building was furnished, yes, with dark-wood, vintage furniture.

On the day we visited the local cemetery, a downpour of thick, blinding Florida ran ruined the trip - but we drove over there anyway, finding our professor standing in the rain under an umbrella. He told us to drive through the cemetery instead - and the only way to do that was to take the funeral procession route. Yep. Awkward.

Lastly, we got lost looking for the giant church seen from the highway that was hosting a guest speaker, talking about the stages of grief. We arrived late and had to be escorted by stern, suited men to our seats. It was strange and I felt happy that I'd never been in a place like that before then (or ever since). Whew.

It was a strange semester, haha. And yet another semester is just about to end, another one that held the theme of another bittersweet topic.

I went home after workshop, watched some Food Network shows, and dreamed about banana cream pies and bacon.  

Publication News:

There's a tiny bit of death in this piece. It's more than wonderful to start the new month off with a publication. Luna Station Quarterly released their annual drabble issue today and my drabble, "Octopus Girls," can be found inside!

For those of you who don't know, a drabble is an extremely small work of fiction, usually ranging in the 100-150 word area. I guess you could say it's like reading little pieces of candy. Whether it's bitter, sour, spicy, or comfortably sweet, the story stays on your tongue for only a moment before evaporating.

You might like this story if you:

• Only have a few seconds to read something
• Have unruly hair
• Daydream about a love affair with a handsome sailor 

By the way, for the Figgies out there: Linna Lee also had her drabble "Hold Fast" published here. It's a brilliant little piece!

As winter gets darker and colder (yay!), what are you feeling nostalgic about? If you're still in school, how are you preparing to finish out the semester? And if you have crazy hair like me and those octopus girls, whatever do you do to tame it? :)

Things You Do When You're Sick

No doubt, being sick stinks.

I've managed to avoid the waves of stomach flu's and strep throats that strike like lightning through campus. With only three weeks left of the semester, I had thought that I made it out just fine. Until Sunday. I woke up with a sore throat and a clogged nose.

Whenever I'm sick, I usually pretend that I'm not - mostly because I can't afford to let my deadlines pass or save my work until the last minute. There's never a good time to get sick, especially when you're in graduate school. If you blink, you'll find a new stack of papers to grade, another short story due, and more revisions waiting for your red pen.

Highly Appropriate

The longer I stare at the computer, the more powerful my headache becomes. It's not like this always happens - I guess runny noses and glowing computer screens don't mesh well. So if I've been behind on Figment, now you know why. Hopefully I'll feel better by next week. Yeah, I'm sure I will.

The meantime, I do my work in tiny increments, take naps, and try not to look at my computer very often. My Wreck-It Ralph art book finally arrived so I've been sneezing all over the drool-worthy pages of conceptual art and candy models. I'll have to Lysol the book before letting anyone else look at it, haha.

I'm going to leave you with some photos from the art book - just the cute little cheering squad extras from Sugar Rush. You don't get a good look at these little guys during the movie, but they are completely adorable.

Have a great Thanksgiving and be thankful that you have working taste buds and noses to enjoy the meal with (I can smell, thank goodness).

101 Fan Clubers

The theme of this post is most definitely celebration. The spinning vortex that is November has been sending me into a tailspin, but I wanted very much to grab onto something solid for a moment and post about this amazing thing:

*rubs eyes* Am I dreaming? No? Hurrah! It's official: my figment fan club has reached 101 members!

This is totally a big deal. Yes, I do have a lot of followers, but for someone to enjoy my writing enough to join the group does matter a lot to me. We all know what the figment groups are like; it's hard to check updates, new comments, etc., when there's no notification system. No matter what group you join, you're left in the dark (unless you have a shameless habit of checking the groups every four minutes... in which case, not many people are like that. Trust me).

So 101 fans... thank you. Thank you so much. And while I'm at it, a hearty thank you to fellow figgie Ben Chapman who created the group way back in '11 and the admins and mods that continue to look cool, haha.

You guys give me the honey glows something awful.

To celebrate, I rearranged my schedule in order to try (and it's working so far) to write, write, write and post. As much as I love the feedback on Tread Softly, I know what you all really want is more Boys & Bees - hence, the new chapter.

We're getting to a tipping point in the story. There's the looming circus, the dead-end clues, the mysterious helper and Hedda's secret... gah! Well, cool your heels. I'm writing when I can, but until then.. here's a formspring question to tide you over.

What are the school's uniforms on B&B? and if they don't wear uniforms, what do Hedda and Lorabeth usually wear?

Clothing. Yes. This is the perfect opportunity to create some visuals. In terms of the apiology school's uniforms, the descriptions have shown up within the early chapters of Boys & Bees. The colors are mostly black and yellow, though I think the combination isn't so jarring with majority of the uniform being black. The boys and girls have different uniforms. The girls wear yellow cardigans with black blouses underneath, a plaid skirt, and knee-high stockings. The shoes shoe be black, but Lorabeth wears her beat-up boots with her uniform while other girls have nice new shoes. The boys wear black cardigans with yellow collared shirts underneath, black pants, and yellow socks. Very charming, haha.

Lorabeth Frisch

I would say that Lorabeth is a uniform-wearing girl. She barely remembers to change out of her uniform, save for the weekends (when her dirt-encrusted skirts and cardigans have piled up for the wash). Lorabeth doesn't have much clothing, fashion being a thing that doesn't matter to her. 

Her clothes are boyish, like the pants and suspenders combo she wore the day after the fire. In the latest chapter, Lorabeth unearths an old dress in the back of her closet - her mother probably picked it out for her. When I saw the collar, I thought it was perfect for bees to hide under, haha. 

Hedda Sparling

Unlike Lorabeth, Hedda is very feminine with (likely expensive clothing in soft shades of pink, cream, and other pastels. Any trinkets she has are far from tacky; her jewelry is subtle, usually with thin chains and small charms. Hedda basically wears dresses and skirts - it makes me wonder if she would ever borrow Lorabeth's pants if she had to.

I included that poster in the collage, saying "A true love story never ends" because we're still guessing what kind of feelings Hedda has in terms of love and boys. Maybe she does have hope for love - but why would she need hope when every guy has a crush on her? Heh, we'll find out.

This is Halloween

At this very moment, children are running around in the dark with their trash bags and pumpkin-shaped  totes. Drool runs down their chins as they bite into tiny pieces of chocolate - double-checked first by cautious parents.

It's crazy out there. It's Halloween.

Excuse me while I plug my ears. I'm not on candy duty, but the doorbell keeps ringing and my dog, Misty, is barking up a storm.

When I went to school today, I wore a simple costume - a T-shirt that's designed to look like I'm wearing Sailor Moon's top - the sailor collar, ribbon, and imperial silver crystal brooch. Ironically, it wasn't as popular as the Pikachu shirt I've worn the past two years (but then again, I barely left my office today. That might have to do with it).

This month has both dragged and skittered and I'm actually surprised that it's still October as I write my blog post.

Things I've Done

Somehow, I've managed to find time to make lovely-eyes at a few early Christmas presents. In an earlier blog post, I mentioned how I've been putting off ordering a burgundy Modcloth coat. Well... I'm still successful at that, but I ended up falling in love with another coat - the one to the right, called A Thrill in the Air by Knitted Dove.

After crawling my way through a difficult end to the month, I decided to indulge a little and went with this one. Why? Unlike the other coat, this one has reasonably long sleeves, a Penelope-like design, a detachable collar (so it'll look like a dress), and the neckline is high enough that I won't have to depend on a turtleneck or scarf to stay warm.

Yes. I've thought about this, haha.

When you're up early like I am, it's actually nicely chilly. When winter break comes, and I head into colder Florida places, it'll be nice to have something warm and fun to wear.

I squeezed three books into the mix too! I've finished The Diviners (and I hoping it becomes a movie because I really want to see it visually) and The Fault in Our Stars (it's about time, right? I'm presenting on this book tomorrow). I just started The Elementals by, like, my favorite author Francesca Lia Block (she's tied with Mervyn Peake). Block' newest book sings differently than her other work, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's just really wonderful to be reading something new (how many times have I re-read her books? Gads).

NaNoWriMo

Who's participating this year?!

I'm going to do my best, though this is probably going to be my busiest November yet. Ah, graduating year - endless surprises.

My main goal for this month is to make at least a 25k dent in Birdcage Girl's sequel, A Horse to the Moon. My thesis work has set me back in terms of working on it so far, so I'm happy to finally crack my knuckles over this one. Because I'm still searching for agents, you guys won't see anything new from AHM - but never fear! For the month of November only, I'll be posting another manuscript of mine called Tread Softly. I haven't written the last couple chapters... and if I'm honest, I'll need to revise what I do have along the way. It's about time!

What are you writing this month?