Midnight Sun

Okay so I've read Twilight again, and have finished New Moon, again. And I'm browsing my more-than-once-a-day websites to watch the trailers for Twilight. YES, PEOPLE, I'm obsessed! MUCH! And as I started out on Yahoo, I noticed a story about how the author, Stephenie Meyer was going put her story, titled, Midnight Sun, on hold indefinitely. I remember seeing that a couple of days ago, just the mention of the book but was so blinded by what I was seeking (the trailers) that I totally ignored it. Well, upon finding the Yahoo story today, I read it and discovered that she was writing an adaptation to Twilight from Edward Cullens' point of view! I'm sure some of you have known that for some time. I'm just getting into this series so every wound is still fresh for me. I find out that someone she trusted leaked the 264 page draft onto the internet. Now she's so upset that she says she won't finish it at all!!! I'm so upset that I think I'll jump out in front of an out-of-control van on black ice (you have to have read the books to get that reference). I'm so desperate for her to finish this book the way she had intended. I was talking to my husband about it and he got my hopes up a little by mentioning it could just be a publicity stunt. A lot of people claim that stuff is stolen and the idea gets so much more hype than it would have generated on it's release date. She gave a few drafts to trusted people and one of them leaked it. If she doesn't decide to finish it, then that person should damned to eternal hell. Cause that's what I'm living right now having read the draft and desperately wanting to finish. If she doesn't finish it, it would be a HUGE mistake on her part. Obviously, Edward is the favorite and every girl I know, including myself, are hopelessly in love with him. OF COURSE I'D BUY THE BOOK WHETHER IT WAS LEAKED OR NOT! Also, I'd want her to write all 4 books from Edward's perspective. It's interesting to know one side of the story of a damned love affair but to know the other side is totally refreshing. It's a she said he said idea that I'm totally in love with. You know what Bella Swan's thinking through the whole book but you know Edward is editing his thoughts to her. But you never get the full story. I love that I can see his infatuation for her and sooner than her obsession starts for him. I never knew that! But please, for the love of all that is holy, if you love Edward and Bella as much as me, please, PLEASE don't read the draft until you've read the 4 books. There are some spoilers in there. I was super pleased to have read them after I'd read all the books. If I'd of read the draft before I finished all the books, there wouldn't have been as much mystery and I wouldn't have felt as deeply as the characters felt. The writing is so compelling that I felt they were real and was having a hard time remembering that they're fictional.

So if you feel as strongly as I do about her finishing her adaptation and if you'd like to see her do the rest of the books from Edward's point of view, please voice your opinion. I beg you! For my sanity and her pocketbook, she needs to finish this book and I BEG, BEG, BEG her to adapt the other 3 books to Edward's thoughts!

Thanks for listening to me vent!

Ciao

Twilight

So I've been super absorbed in reading the Twilight series the past week and a half. I've read all 4 books and in 5 days! I'm almost finished with book 1 again and about to restart book 2. This obsession has my sleep schedule in chaos. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I haven't checked my email since I started reading on Saturday, August 23rd. That's literally, all I've been doing, is reading. The writing is so good and the action is so tense that I start feeling what the characters are feeling. It's crazy how a book can get you so worked up and make you cry at the same time. Bella and Edward are the lead characters and their love for one another is over the top. And I might add, that he's the hottest vampire to ever walk this earth! Now I'm dying for the movie just to see the book come to life. I can tell by the trailer that quite a few things have been changed but nonetheless it's still my book in live action. It's an addiction like meth. Read it once and you're hooked. I've been begging everyone I know to read the books so I can talk to somebody about them. So far, I've been successful. 3 friends are reading them and from what they've been texting me all weekend, they seem to love them. I knew they would. This series isn't for the guys, that's for sure. They might enjoy the movie more since it's such a romance novel about forbidden love between a human and a vampire. But, the action scenes should be good if they're done well. Okay, enough talking about the books. Back to reading them!!

Ciao!

I'm Harry disappointed!

So I've been having this internal countdown till Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince comes out to theaters. November 21st sounded great to me. Not too far away. Now, I read a story on Yahoo News that the release date has been pushed back to July 17! JULY 17th? OF 2009???!!! Good Lord, they're killing me. I've already read book 6 and 7 and have started book 6 again and I'm more than half way through. I'm gonna drive off a cliff. I can't believe I have to wait that long. I guess the only positive thing is I'll have summer Fridays at that point and won't have to take vacation to go see it.

Speaking of vacation, I'm frantically putting together the booklet for our cruise. I'm trying to hurry before summer ends so we can have a party to discuss it and play some Wii. But I'm also wanting to maybe use it as a portfolio piece. I'm so close to being finished though. I hope to be done or close to done by the end of this weekend.

Greyson recently was referred to the Benton County Sunshine School for developmental testing. He was actually doing really well and he didn't qualify for therapy. That's great news! Now we don't have to worry whether his motor skills were lacking or if his speech was behind. He's perfectly normal and is above average in some developmental things. High five little man!

I've had this itch to write on my story some more. I'm sure it's because of the reading I'm doing and the writing Mike's doing on his story. Erin at work has been talking about how in love with the Twilight Series she and her friends are. I went ahead and ordered the first book so it should be here soon and I'll get to see what all the buzz is about. I love vampire stuff. Bela Lagosi is my favorite old school vampire. He's classy and old time handsome. Even though he got the shaft in Hollywood, he's still a great.

Jennifer had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago and that was great. It felt good to get some of that crap out of the house and the garage. The whole sale made just over $1100. Of course Jennifer made just over $700 of that and the rest was split by me, Regina, Jonathan and Coco. So that was nice. We got $169 of it. I feel like there's more we could purge from the house. It still feels cramped. We just have a lot of stuff. A lot of it is frames, I mean, how can you throw out frames, especially when they have photos in them? What can you do.

Still haven't finished our flower bed out front. We've been really busy and the heat has been unbelievable. Well, I guess it's more the humidity. But still, we couldn't move at the garage sale without sweat rolling off our entire bodies. It was f-in hot! It's been nice the past week. Some rain and cloudy days, with temps in the mid to high 80's. I'll take it, it's a nice change and makes me crave fall weather and Coldplay.

Alright, till later.

Ciao!

Like the refrigerator

So I keep checking all my friend's blogs as if they make hourly updates. What a weird obsession I have with their blogs. It's like going to the fridge and standing there wondering what to snack on. Then you come back 2 hours later still looking for something and see all the same stuff as if something magical happened and there's new food. Man, we're all fighting this cold thing going around. That's the last thing I want in this house since little man is always sick.

I'm real excited. I did some searching on Facebook and MySpace the past few days and found a couple of my old best friends from grade school and high school/college. It's so strange to talk to them about what's been going on in your life and theirs, because at some point, it seems as if there wasn't all this time that's passed since then. So that was fun to find them finally. I always get excited when people find me that I haven't seen in years. It's been fun talking about the old days and seeing old photos and cracking up at the styles back then. Plus those are more people that may want to go on the group cruise next fall! HECK YES!

Gotta go, it's late and my medicine has made me sleepy.

Ciao!

Bosses who don't care

Something really funny that I laugh about a lot...one of my old bosses once told me on the way to a photoshoot that she hated this one piece of art that she had to translate into a store guide for the WM associates. I don't remember how we started talking about it now, but I'm guessing we were discussing the person she thought did it and I guess she had issues with her. Anyway, she's going on about how this one seasonal sign was so terrible and how it was the worst thing she'd ever seen. I asked what it looked like and she started describing something that immediately I recalled. BECAUSE IT WAS MINE! She thought someone else had done it and apparently she has no respect for this person. So I laughed along with her never saying a word about how it was mine. It was my first sign I'd ever built for the U.S. stores. I worked in WM International at the time. The U.S. side needed help so I offered to do one of the seasonal signs. It was for June. Well, nothing happens in June as far as a celebratory theme. So I even came up with the theme of "Midsummer Savings". All of WM's signing needed a savings message. Shall I describe the art of such horrifying design? I shall. It was dark purples and blues that emulated dusk, right as the lightening bugs come out. There were trees in flat shadow colors of navy blues ranging in different sizes and shades to give depth perception. Then I had little lightening bugs that had a soft fluorescent green glow to look as if the night were full of these little glowing insects. When you looked at it, it made you instantly hear crickets chirping and quite wind blowing. I loved it then and I love it now. I still wish I had the artwork. That was probably created in Illustrator 3 or 5. Some really old version. So I never admitted that I did it instead of this other person. I didn't want her to feel like an asshole. Feeling like one and looking like one are two different things. So I just sit back and laugh because when I tell certain people that story, they laugh and are confused because they liked it too. But what do we know. We're only artists that actually graduated with Graphic Design degrees. And all that trashing comes from a person without one. What is this world coming to, I tell ya! Maybe it was because she had to start in a department that did nothing but boring store guides. I'd be pretty bitter, too. I was once told by an arrogant WM Buyer that "everybody wants to be the buyer". Really? Well, asshole, everybody wants to be the art director, too. So stick that up your...

Ciao!

Looks like this is the start of a new business

So I think I'm finally starting something here. Janet's got me all in a tizzy trying to help her get a new idea she has up and running. And because of that I've finally named my business and created my logo. So I got that goin' for me. Again with that line. I laugh every time! Anyway, I love it and am now on my way to getting a website started next week with the help of Janet. I'm more than illiterate when it comes to that kind of stuff.

So stay tuned. More developments will be underway.

Ciao!

Commence with the Rain

So the rain started last night. It's supposed to last till Friday or so. Can't rely too much on the weathermen. But we'll see. So it's dark in the office today. I don't like turning the lights on. Too bright. So I choose to use a desk lamp. It's 9:35 in the morning and I still haven't turned it on. But at least I've had my first cup of coffee so far! So I got that goin for me. (That last line is for my movie buff friends). I laugh everytime I hear or see that line. So with the dark and rainy day, I'm listening to Coldplay. Normally they're a band I listen to in the winter. They're the perfect snow and cold day sound. Maybe that's the meaning behind the name. Weird. Anyway. Work has been scary slow here the past two months. My co-worker left for Saatchi. I'm the only artist left. So basically, I'm kind of like the Creative Director/Sr. Art Director/Art Director/Graphic Designer/Production Artist and anything else in between. I'm not complaining at all. Just stating facts. I actually am loving it here. I'm really rooting for the underdog here in hoping that my job stays the course. Mike and I were actually joking, but not, about me having to mow grass at my job, but when your boss says that to you in a business meeting...  I know, it's very scary. Especially since I'm the only one carrying Greyson on insurance until Mike's starts in September. My boss told me yesterday that we signed on 3 new jobs which is good. And he reminded me that he still wants to hire me another artist. I know he does. I just hope the work keeps coming so his business can keep truckin'. I love my job, my people, my boss, the work I get to do. Everything about it. Although I recently had to deal with a buyer's assistant and a guy that use to be a buyer's assistant at WM. What a joy that was. I'm only reminded why working at WM made me stressed out. I really HATED my experiences with those kinds of people. The learnings I take with me are invaluable though. You just can't get good experience like that anywhere else, I'm convinced. It's sad that the few buyers that are a joy to work with get mixed up in that mix. The rest of the world is so much easier after you leave. And when you hear people complaining about their situations, all I can say is "it's STILL better than Wal-Mart!"

My friends and I have been dying to start our own thing. One of them has a huge craft room and we always say that we need to have craft day someday and we never do. I've decided that we're going to have craft day if it kills us! We'd all like to sell things on Etsy and Elsewares. We'd all love that if that were our business everyday vs. dealing with the everyday business or art and how subjective it is. Now we could make things and if you don't like it, then don't buy it. So there! Karla makes awesome necklaces and lanyards, I want to make plush characters. Regina wants to make something but isn't sure what yet. As for Jennifer, I'm not sure what she wants to do, but she'd be happy doing it. I'd also like to do cards. I know I've been talking about this for years now. But the fact is, I'm lazy. Honestly, I can't start a business being lazy. So there that is out in the open.

I was just reading my friend Brian's blog and he always inspires me to write on mine. Whether I follow through on that or not is another thing. LOL! Again with the laziness. That seems to be that crutch for something broken that I can't quite heal fully. Hmmmm, maybe that's why they call it a crutch. How genius of a word with such a meaning. Besides the point, Brian mentioned that he'd gone through a bunch of old photos of his times here in Arkansas. Those were the good ole days. I miss them but then again, I don't. I'm enjoying my time in the now and look forward to the future. Greyson is getting so big now. I can't believe that it's July and he'll be 2 in November already. People always say it goes by fast. It seems really slow while you're thinking that and them BAM! it's gone by in a flash. It's so hard to believe that he use to be so little and now he's up and running. And as cute as can be, I might add. But of course I'm biased.

So, it's now 10:00 and I should be getting to work. Unfortunately, there's no work to do at this very moment. It's a whole lot of waiting. Luckily the days go by fast with the hours we work here. Now if I were at WM, I'd be dying! Well, gotta go, I just got an important job asked of me. I have to make some sweet tea! Don't laugh. Sweet tea is a staple here!

Ciao!