Sunday, July 15, 2007

MUSES & MORE!

Well, busy day, busy weekend! Lots to share, in no particular order:

An impromptu date with hubby;
a day with Swishy!;
a new muse;
a LOTTERY contest winner;
my first YouTube video attempt;
an ear-piercing incident;
and more!

First and foremost! A winner has been drawn for Pat's Contest!

And it was completely legit as you can see by the photos:
List of Entrants--

Swish was here, and it’s so random that we get home from our day’s activities (summed up later below) and I need to call Pat to discuss the contest, cuz you know me, we’re all about the biznez.

Special DA BEARS hat used for drawing winner's name:


When Pat answers the phone, she has no idea that Swish is here; and up to this point, I have no idea if Pat has had the pleasure of learning about Swish at all. But, Pat answers, and she tells me she is practically crying because she was reading Swish’s car rental incident, so I start cracking up and say, “Swish is RIGHT HERE in the room with me!” How random is that? So, we have a teleconference on speaker and I decide that, “Hey! Swish should draw the name of the winner to be completely, utterly fair in this contest!”

Entries then placed in the hat--


So, she does, and… drumroll please….

Are you ready?

And the winner is…

Oops, I’m so bad at trying to pull a teaser on you, but this is the deal, you will have to check over at Pat's Blog Monday morning to see who the lucky winner is. Don’t worry, Monday is not that far off!

Anyway, if you didn’t win, you can still BE A WINNER and go out and purchase Lottery on August 2 when it makes its debut in a bookstore near you! You. Will. Not. Be. Disappointed. At. All. Promise! Perry L. Crandall with think, "That is so cool!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next Up: As promised, Swishy's ear-piercing experience!

Still Life Swish's New Ears:


That's all cute and great, but does that tell the story? Nah! What's even better is that I combined Swishy's ear piercing with my first foray into YouTube, unbeknownst to her, because I opted for the video option on my camera...so without further adieu…we bring you…

SWISHY GETS HER EARS PIERCED,YOUTUBE STYLE:

NOTE: Unless you are REALLY, REALLY weird, you have just tilted your head to the left, right?

Ta-Da! What do you think of THAT?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(For those of you tired of reading, because I realize this is an extremely long post that may have been better fit to be THREE SEPARATE POSTS, feel free to quit reading and come back tomorrow to read about the muses! But if you choose to continue reading, you may want to take a potty break, go grab a latte, or a hunk of chocolate, and come back when you feel like it!)

So, Swish and I then go to B&N, our most favorite place in the world, and we peruse the New Fiction section, browse through the acknowledgment pages of books we are interested in and of authors we know or want to know, and we promise one another that we will acknowledge each other when our books come out. We also promise each other that we will have a good draft of our second novels DONE by October 31, 2007. Yes, maybe it sounds far away, but it’s really only 3½ months away and even just one page a day isn’t going to cut this deadline, and CRIPES! Get this! There’s already Halloween and Thanksgiving crap out at TJ Maxx and More Homegoods store… NO LIE!

And we know this because after our visit to B&N, we both got a little bit depressed because we want OUR books on the shelves and we decide we need more motivation! More inspiration! More butt-kicking!

We decide we need a muse! We need a duo muse! We need something to inspire us to be the writers we dream of, and we need something to have on hand, all the time so we can look at it, and feel the muse, and write, write, write!

So, at the first store, I find this really funky wooden artifact thingy that really, from far away looks like it could double as a rounded pile of wooden poop. (Damn, I should have taken a photo of it at the store.) But upon closer inspection, I realized it was a wooden carving of some dude in a yoga pose that was part child’s pose, part “I’m-a-dog-and-can-lick-myself” pose. I liked it. It was unique, it was funny, it would fit nicely on the desk, and it was cheap.

But, there was only one of these, and Swish and I agreed we needed two of an identical item, exact, in order to get our muses in sync so we can revel in the wonderment of a book seeing the light of day in the not-so-distant future.

So, this muse was not to be.

Then, we found some obscure Fourth of July paperweights, that while also cheap and “matchy-matchy,” just didn’t hold the musey-vibe we were searching for. We knew we had to discover something together, and it had to be a muse item that would jump out at the two of us, and we had to KNOW it was the perfect muse for us.

After searching through some antiquey-looking magnifying glasses (which we liked but they didn’t match), some froggy statues and boxes, more paperweights, an Uncle Sam thingamagig, we left and went to a different store, sure our muse would show itself to us, just like a muse should do so.

And, it appeared.

After scouring through the shelves of obscurity that is the Home Goods section of TJ Maxx, she showed herself to us.

Allow me to introduce to you, “The-muse-that-will-help-us-finish-our-second-novels-to-get-us-to-publication”…

Muses Musing:


Swish and Me with our Muses, INSPIRED!

Got any ideas for names for our muses? Would love to hear them!


“Peace UP! Cuz Peace DOWN is just lame.”

PS… How many of you caught on that I did not discuss my impromptu morning ‘date’ with hubby? Let’s just say I owned up to a Father’s Day gift he’d been patiently waiting for, and call it at that.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post was just too much fun!! What a great weekend you had. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Muses I think they are just perfect and are just what both of you needed to get that little extra push. The pictures were great, you can see the fun beaming off my computer screen!! Can't wait until both of your books are out.

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

Thanks Eileen-I hope we have books coming out someday--we want to go on the Swishy-Manic Book Tour! Our first stop has to be to see Jenster in NYC though--we promised her! LOL!

Aren't the Muses sooo cute!?

JsTzznU said...

Hey MM!

The Utube was perfect! So unexpected by Swishy! Like Eleen, it looks like you too had a blast! I have enjoyed your writing for a long time now.

Eeryday is like.. what will she post today!

Thanks!
Terry

xxxx said...

HA! You know what I forgot? The Wendy's guy who thought Manic Mommy was Manic Hottie!

Dude! It's 3:30 a.m.! And I'm still freaking up! So I have to go to bed but I will talk to you tomorrow!

(I totally ate the ice cream. HA!)

la bellina mammina said...

That's it - Swishy and Manic - the names for your muses. They're cute. And it sounds like you two had so much fun!

Stephanie J. Blake said...

How fun! I think you should name the muses Virgina and Woolf.

Your post inspired me to write about my muses...

Oh, and don't ya love it when the Wendy's guy thinks you are hot? Our Taco Bell drive-thru guy thinks I am, so I pick up a chalupa every once in a while, just for the pick-me-up!

Patti said...

hahahah...i did have to tilt my head but so worth it!

and you two are having all the fun.

Angel said...

Thelma and Louise!!

You guys have sooo much fun together and you're both so cute!

Andie said...

You guys are so adorable. Looks like you had a blast!

B. said...

I tagged you, so go to my blog and see what you need to do!

The Anti-Wife said...

Glad you're finally happy again. No more cranky Manic!

Pause said...

Love the video but why is Swish sideway? Is that an artistic thing?

TTQ said...

We finally got to hear Swishy's contagious laugh! Those were second or third holes right? Or was she that brave for the very very very first time eva?

kim said...

The doubler was...I was nervous.

Travis Erwin said...

I think that youtube video may have been fuled by a bit of wine.

As for you muse call her Princess Thabto.

Why thabto?

Two Heads Are Better Than One

Jenster said...

I'm assuming it's the universal standard (with the possible twist) Father's Day present.

Love the pictures, love the video (especially loved the video), love the muses...

What a great weekend!!

XYZinn said...

Uhhhh...HELLO!! You forgot to mention your phone call to me! Nice friend you are!! :)
P.S. I am watching the BB feed as we speak (or as I write).

MaNiC MoMMy™ said...

XYZinn---I didn't know YOU are Swish's friend!!! COOL!

Barbie Jo Mahoney said...

What a great post! I've been MIA from bloggerland but hoping to get back!

You and Swish sound a lot like Kari and I! too much fun. I haven't blogged yet, but you need to check out Kari's blog about our experience at Nationals. You guys sooo should have been there!!

Now THAT would have been something to blog about.... or maybe not!

Alicia said...

Great clip!

Joanne Rendell said...

hi stephanie, i've been totally bad at keeping up with blog life. but just got to your post and loved it. the clip is great, although gave me a crick in my neck!

Maddy said...

Humor - what would we do without it.
Cheers
p.s. I wasn't able to get your email address on your profile to work - have you changed it recently?

Hello from Julia said...

Everyone needs a muse!

Here's a little game I agreed to play. I have tagged you :) But I promise, I'll never do it again!

http://3for365.blogspot.com/2007/07/bonus-game-jeu-juego.html

Senor Beavis said...

Boo not visiting Chicago. Hooray beer!