I gotta laugh…

So, I had this wonderful blog post all thought out and ready to go. I’d noodled out some notes and everything. Now, I can’t find my notes and while that normally wouldn’t be much of a problem, apparently with this particular post, I did one of those open-cranium, bleed-thoughts, promptly-forget-everything-because-it’s-all-on-the-napkin sort of things.

I betcha it was sheer brilliance on that napkin. Uh huh. Oh yeah. And then I probably used it to wipe up after lunch. Nice.

But I’m sure that happens to everyone, so I’ll do my best to get on with what I was going to post about…well, some of it, anyway.

The main part of the post was going to be a little more on Leeloo and the can-can dress I made. But, while I snapped a few shots of the stockings I was going to describe, I didn’t actually upload them, so there’s nothing I can do about that part of the post. I’m not using the computer right now where those currently reside, so the Leeloo stockings are just gonna hafta wait a little bit.

Another part of the post is about yoga. I’d gotten busy and had gone to maybe three classes over the last five months where generally, I go to three or four classes per week–sometimes more. But yesterday, I realized I had some time to spare and was coincidentally wondering where one of my favorite teachers went after she left the studio I’d been going to… So I Googled her name.

And discovered that she’d opened her own studio about five minutes from my house!!!!!! Yippie yippie yay!!!! And I love the name of it: Just Breathe Yoga Studio. Part of my joy toward the name comes from the Drew Barrymore movie Ever After which I so adore. Danielle says, “Just breathe” when she arrives at the masque and that line has stuck with me. The rest of the joy comes from what is actually going through my mind while I’m in handstand or candlestick or some days even triangle or warrior 2. It’s amazing how just about anything gets easier when you Just Breathe.

So, I’m back in regular yoga practice and feeling better already.

The rest of the post was about something sort of odd that I’ve always wanted to do, but I’m almost afraid to admit the real numbers… I’ve started photographing my entire wardrobe and am posting the images to Flickr so that it’s searchable when I’m mid-bargain-hunting and can’t remember whether my pair of 80s, pointy black pumps are leather or suede. Recently, I’ve found great deals at thrift stores and then once I got them home, had to immediately re-donate because I already own something similar to what I bought.

Through this inventorying process, I also end up with total amounts of things I have and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. For instance, I now know I own 105 purses. And while when I’m trying to find one to match an outfit, I feel like that’s too few and I never have quite the right one, I also know that that’s a lot of freakin’ purses, so I’m gonna hafta cull. The hard part is figuring out where to start.

Now, I’m going to make myself another cup of tea–probably some sort of oolong–and ponder which of my 257 pairs of shoes needs to be re-donated. I know, I know, that’s a lot of freakin’ shoes, too, but the scary thing is that the only ones that I seem to have collected similar pairs of are rubber-soled, beige leather, lace-up shoes from the 70s. I have 5 that are similar. WTF?!?!?! I would’ve expected to see more black flats from the 80s, but I’ve only got 3 of those. The rest are reasonably unique and therefore difficult to part with.

I’ve only just begun photographing garments. I’m sure I’ll post highlights here as I get up the nerve. Some I own solely to amaze and astound guests when they come over for parties. Seriously. Friends request certain outfits sometimes…and New Year’s has been legendary because I change outfits several times throughout the event. Other than Halloween, there are very few times I can wear a pink herringbone polyester pantsuit or white M.C. Hammer pants with a matching half-shirt. And even fewer times those outfits would be requested of me. But I have them. And I’m not afraid to wear them.

In fact, just the other day I wore a gray and beige large herringbone, polyester pantsuit–complete with one of the largest butterfly collars I own!–to the grocery store with Jason. I’m not convinced he was amused by my outfit, but he was definitely amused by the odd looks I was getting. I, of course, remained oblivious.

A Spot of Tea

I’m not a coffee drinker. Sorry, don’t pelt me with rotten fruit. I just don’t like the way coffee tastes.

And would you believe I still get chided for not knowing that ‘coffee cake’ does not have a lick of coffee in it because I’d avoided it simply because of its name? Yeah, I was 27 when I learned that coffee cake doesn’t necessarily have coffee in it. You see, I sooooo dislike the taste of coffee that I was unwilling to take a chance on something with coffee as part of its name. I just don’t like the taste of coffee.

I’m still wary of the stuff.

It’s no secret that I’m a weirdo and my dislike of coffee is certainly a contributing factor. I like the way coffee smells, just not the way it tastes.

So it’s a damn good thing I fell in love with tea in high school.

At first, I mooched off Mom’s Lipton. Then I learned there was more than one brand in restaurants and they taste a little different from Lipton, but pretty close. Then a boyfriend of mine introduced me to oolong…but I thought it was a little weird. I drank it, but I still preferred that Lipton kind of taste.

Then, tea played a little role in the 11-day courtship following meeting my husband. He’s a coffee drinker, but he likes tea as well. That was one of the things we talked about on our first date, actually. Tea. And that Lipton had made a cold brew version for iced tea. The day after our date, I mailed him some…just ’cause I like him. I knew he was ‘the one’ for me from the getgo and I somehow knew he’d appreciate the gesture. He did…I got a phone call from him shortly after. Yay!!

Since then, we’ve visited the Chinatown here in LA. We’d wandered into Ten Ren Tea and a whole new world of teas opened up and swallowed me! I couldn’t get enough. I discovered that the reason teas taste different is because there are different types and processes and growing regions and estates. I surfed the web for more and more and more and more information.

Until I got bored reading about it all and decided that I just wanna drink the stuff. I tend toward oolongs and greens, but love a good black tea now and then. I like varietals and single origins, but don’t infuse ’em with them fruits and berries or any other non-tea leaf. Nope, not for me. I’m apparently a purist.

I’ve since discovered Wing Hop Fung for teas as well. They’ve got a huge variety and they give free samples. Plus, if you want to try one, they’ll brew it up right there and see if you like it enough to buy.

A few months back, they gave me a little sample of a mystery tea. It was in a little green pouch and while there was no Chinese on it, there was also no English…just a number. Hmmm… A whole day went by until the curiosity was unbearable. I brewed it up and good golly, I was hooked on this mysterious 1222 and had to go get more.

Next time I was there, I brought the pouch with me so I wouldn’t forget the number and hunted through the aisles of huge glass jars until I found the number I was looking for. But that couldn’t be right… The tea I loved couldn’t possibly have ginseng in it. Ginseng tastes horrible. Every time I try a ginseng tea, I wanna gag. How could the mystery tea I loved so much be infused–with ginseng no less–and still taste good? It must’ve been a mistake. I pulled off the lid and sniffed. That was the stuff all right. So I got a quarter pound of it and am enjoying it even as I write this post. Yum.

In Second Life, my avatar, Twyla Briggs, drinks it non-stop. I even modified the script so she’d sip more often than every 15 seconds. I can’t help it. I love the stuff. I love the way it tastes and wish I could drink it all the time.

I’ve turned into such a tea snob. I’ll drink that cheap-o, thrift-o, get-it-anywhere-snore Lipton because it’s still tea and I still love it, but I’ve come to prefer loose leaf teas. Their flavor is much brighter. I bring my own (sometimes including my self-warming pot because hotel coffee makers flavor the water too much) when I go on vacation. And since there’s almost always hot water available when I’m on movie sets, I bring my own there as well.

So, there you have it. My one vice. I don’t drink, smoke or do any kind of drugs…except snooty, caffeinated teas. Just another of my eccentricities. In fact, I think it’s my most expensive! Well, as far as food or drink is concerned…

Locus Anyone?

Sorry, I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve been so busy that I’m already this far in to 2006 and I haven’t found the time to have a cup of tea at Peet’s coffee. I’ve written at least a chunk of all of my books there. Jen and I have plotted several, but yet this year has started off with such a loud and crazy bang, I haven’t had a cup of tea there.

I’m hoping that’ll change…but not until tomorrow. I’ve got waaaaay too much stuff I gotta get done today.

Over the weekend, Jason had a signing at our local Barnes & Noble. That was good. I was too busy to do more than drop by for a little while, but I did drop by. It’s showing support, and hey I get to check out the bargain racks.

But what I was most interested in, they didn’t have. The latest Locus Magazine. I’ve heard that there’s a picture of Jason and I in it, but I haven’t seen it yet and I’m dying to! I think it might be in one of my loud get-ups and I wanna post it to my website.

Then again, with the amount of time I don’t have lately, perhaps it won’t get posted until the end of the year!

I’m actually looking forward to some free time just so I can update my website. I’ve got lots more stuff that can go up.

Hopefully, my Locus Magazine will arrive in my mailbox today. If not, guess I’ll sigh and pout some more.

Tea and Stunt Driving School

Shortly, I’ll be posting some pics of a lovely high tea I had with some Ellora’s Cave authors and editors. My goodness what a fantastic time I had. The tea and…and…bunch of food I don’t remember what it was called, but it sure tasted divine…were almost as wonderful as the company.

I got to hang out with Jen (believe it or not, we rarely get together for other than signings…we’ve both been incredibly busy writing), Donna (Final Line Editor at Ellora’s Cave), Heather (Ellora’s Cave Editor) and authors: Maggie Casper, Beverly Havlir, Sylvia Day and Lena Matthews. What a fun crew we were!

And lucky for me, I get to go see many of them again tomorrow…

Oh, and special thanks to Heather for giving me a copy of Ellora’s Cave Legendary Tails Volume IV in which Ashleigh Raine’s story, Orgasm Fairy is first up. I was particularly glad to see it because the story opens with a bad erotic poetry reading for which I wrote the bad erotic poetry. I don’t know why I have a knack for cringingly bad poetry, but I do. And to see “Fertilizing The Petals Of Bliss” in print–on page one no less!–was truly amazing. I’ll cherish that memory forever.

That was a lovely tea party.

And now on to how Santa (namely Jason) smiled upon me this Christmas…

I’d thought he might’ve had ulterior motives or perhaps too much procrastination, but he swears he was being thoughtful and y’know, I gotta believe him.

Before I get into details, let me first say that in my family, we more often than not put one or two ridiculous things on our Christmas List. I recall my mom asking for a Corvette, myself for a million dollars when I was in high school…stuff we want but would most likely not get for Christmas from someone.

Well, I’ve had “Stunt Driving School” on my list for a couple years now. Yeah, I want it like crazy, but come on…like I’m really gonna find it under the tree on Christmas morning.

And then there’s Jason…who said he’d looked at my list and wondered what of everything on that list would I never, ever expect.

So…I’M GOING TO STUNT DRIVING SCHOOL AND I’M IN UTTER SHOCK AND AMAZEMENT!

I would say that I nearly fell outta my chair when I looked at the certificate, but Jason almost fell out of his chair for me… See, it was a recliner and he didn’t know that until his feet flew up in the air and his eyes were as wide as saucers. I couldn’t stop laughing at the team effort. I bet if I’d been sitting in a chair, I probably would’ve fallen out of it.

I really, really, really, really, really, really wanna be a stunt driver. Even if I only get to do it once, I wanna do it. Even if I only get to go to the class, I wanna do it. I want the experience. I mean, you read my driving stories an entry or two ago… Isn’t it obvious, I dig driving and wanna do more of it…in crazy situations?!?!

Well…I’M GOING TO STUNT DRIVING SCHOOL!!!!!

I dunno when yet. I gotta look at the schedule and stuff, but still. I’m sure there’ll be an entry or two about it here.

And now, I need to get back to work. I’ve got writing to do!!!!!

(and tea to drink!)

Good golly I’m back

I had a fantastic vacation. Came home sick with a cold, but happy as a clam.

I’ve been back a day and I’ve already managed to ruin a new skirt… This was a replacement for the one I ruined last month after RWA National. Perhaps this is the real reason I shop at thrift stores…every time ‘spend the money’ for something new, it’s never as good as it should be. And what’s the fun of shopping if the funky, unique blue shirt you like is available in fifteen sizes. Doesn’t that mean it’s not really unique and one-of-a-kind? There’s fifteen in the store–add up how many stores–that’s a lot of people wearing your unique shirt, huh?

Whoa, I digressed there, didn’t I? Let’s just attribute it to my head cold. I feel like my head is normal size, but somehow someone shoved a bowling ball into it. Good golly, I just want this cold to drain away!

So, I made a surprising discovery today. It should seem like a ‘well duh’ kind of thing for part of it, but I did find the rest of it fascinating to say the least.

My local and favorite coffee shop [where I drink snooty tea while writing my novels] is having a month-long promotion where they’re giving away free tea between the hours of 1 and 3.

I’m sick. I’m grumpy. I’m looney.

…But I’m not gonna pass up free tea and an environment that might help me clear the headgoo away and get a scene written so I figure all’s gonna be great.

I get there and I’m still miserable! I grimace at my laptop. I sip my snooty tea. Grimace again.

Maybe the novel wasn’t gonna get attention, but my journal…oh my journal needed to hear exactly how fed up I was with being sick. Oh yes.

My journal got an earful…er…screenful.

But that’s not the fascinating thing about all this. See, I’d happened to look at the clock when I started writing. (I rarely ever do.) It was 2:19. By the time I’d looked again, it was 3:11, just after I’d received a short phone call.

Yawn…get to the good stuff, right?

Well, I kept writing until 3:19 rolled around and I discovered that in an hour, I was capable of writing at least 2300 words.

2300 words.

All it required was passion.

2300 words. That’s a book in roughly 2 days if I didn’t stop to eat, sleep or take a wiz.

And all that was required was passion and my laptop? Wow! It was like I saw my life with a new set of eyes. I’d previously thought I wrote about a thousand words an hour, so sometimes, if I didn’t quite have an hour, I wasn’t quite motivated to write because when I write, I like to WRITE.

But now that I know what I can get done in an hour, I’m wondering why the hell I’d made any excuse ever. Sure, if the passion isn’t quite as high, my productivity will go down, but coming down from 2300 words in an hour, I’m sorry, that’s not enough to care about.

I’ve got another hour before Jason gets home…guess I should go write something, huh?

web woes and happy endings

I spent a large portion of my weekend grumbling at my computer. Sure, there’s a beautiful placeholder up at www.rinaslayter.com, but for some reason, the website I’m building behind it is aggravating me.

See, I’m not a programmer. I really don’t know how to build websites. I use ingenuity, patience and determination to figure stuff out and have mostly learned enough to be dangerous. When my other two websites were handed to me [www.fictionados.com and www.ashleighraine.com], the hardest stuff had already been done. Yeah, I went in and tweaked some code, but the rest has all been duplicating and modifying pages, not building them from a blank screen.

I’m adventurous. I love a little [or a lot] of challenge, but I’m experiencing frustration at the current creation of my website. The sad part is that I’ve got a ton of text formatted and ready to go. All I gotta do is drop it into a site, but if that site won’t come together…well…you understand my frustration.

I did get the homepage together. It’s mostly empty, but all the links work. I did get one subpage together. It’s got my bio on it and all the links work. But as for the aforementioned stack of content ready to drop in…Absolutely nada.

Yeah, I probably bit off more than I could chew in thinking I’d have the thing together enough to input text, but that has NEVER stopped me before. I always think big.

And I usually make my goals.

One of my prior employers was called as a reference. He said, “Rina often bites off more than she can chew, takes on huge projects and when they get into crunch time, she works her ass off to make sure they’re done on time.”

And that is so true about me even though up until that point, I’d never realized it. I don’t think I’ve EVER missed a deadline. If I did, it wasn’t a big enough infraction that I remember it right now.

My background is in theatre. The show must go on. That’s where I learned to be early on a deadline. My lighting designs were always turned in a week early, hung as soon after that as possible and my cues were always written and loaded into the light board before technical rehearsals. It made for a better show because the hard part was done and I could focus on editing, tweaking, making the show truly shine. [sorry about the bad lighting pun]

I’m just glad the only deadline for my website was my own personal goal. If there’d been an outside force asking for the site, I doubt I would’ve gotten any sleep at all last night!

Oh well. I’m happy with my progress and look forward to my next head-banging, hair-ripping-out, grumping, tea-drinking-marathon installment of work on my website because I can’t wait to toot my horn about it being up and running!!!!!

I gotta get used to this whole horn tooting thing. So I’m starting small.

…But after I go on a week’s vacation to stay in haunted California hotels…

See ya when I get back! Maybe I’ll have rinaslayter.com up shortly afterward. Or at least that’s my personal deadline.

Thankfully, “shortly afterward” is a vague amount of time!!!!!!