At Least I Had a Nice View

Boo. The Red Wings lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It was a great series, a great playoffs, and now I'm looking forward to a summer full of fútbol.

Not.

I supposed I should congratulate the Penguins since I have a lot of friends who are fans... consider this your congratulations. :P

Trash Talk

I love sports -- playing, watching, discussing -- but I've never been much of a trash talker. It seems like anytime I get a little cocky, karma decides I need to be knocked down a peg and my team always loses. Even with pool (billiards). I learned to play in high school (side effect of a boarding school with little to do on the weekends) but I don't usually tell people that I know how to play. I don't say I'm bad, I just don't say anything and let my behind the back double rail combos speak for themselves. (I'm exaggerating a bit.)(sort of.) I always figure that if I start gloating, I'll immediately lose.

This doesn't mean I sit quietly if someone else trash talks me. Oh no. I'm quick to defend myself then. I remember walking around during the intermission of a Blackhawk v Red Wings game in Chicago, proudly wearing my Detroit jersey, and various people yelled at me as I walked through the concourse. Detroit had won the Stanley Cup the previous year (so this much have been '03) and I answered them all with a quick "whose got the Cup?" They all shut up after that.

I swear I'm going somewhere with all this.

The Red Wings just lost their second game in a row and now the Finals series is tied 2-2. (I'm writing this Thursday night.) I always post something about the games on Facebook, but I avoid any real back and forth. I'm just not that kind of person. I suppose it helps that my team has kicked some serious butt over the past eleven years, but I just don't get the people who feel the need to belittle their opponent to make themselves feel better. What's the point?

Well, I've discovered a need for trash talk.

My edits are moving along slower than I'd like. I'm averaging a chapter a day, and at this rate it'll take me an entire month to get through this draft. Unacceptable. I've bumped it to two chapters a day and now I'm past the halfway mark, which I'm happier with, but I can't tell you how many times I catch myself slacking off, checking things online and what not. Quitting Messenger seems to help (then I don't get email notifications) but I still check things too often.

Another thing I keep bumping up against is the writer mantra to let yourself write crap. I'm a firm believer in not editing yourself during the first draft, and I've even allowed myself to skip over sections on subsequent drafts. The problem is I'm at the end of the line -- it's finally time to fix those things that are only halfway there: finding the perfect word, capturing the mood in the exact same way I envision it, cutting out nonessential scenes. And this is where the trash talking comes in.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to berate myself to sit back down and not move until I figure out exactly what I'm trying to say. "It's now or never," I tell myself. "No one else is going to do this for you. If you have any hope of getting published you need to put in the work NOW." I'm not much of a trash talker, I know, but it seems to be effective. I'm not cutting myself any slack, and I can see a difference. I'm getting results. Seems trash talk might have it's place.

But I still won't tell you your team sucks.

(Even if they really do.)

Déja Vu!

I mentioned a couple days ago that we're watching a lot of playoff sports right now, but I don't think I made you fully aware JUST HOW MUCH sports are dominating our lives right now. Since we're in the conference finals for basketball there's a game on every night, and we're also trying to see all the Red Wings hockey games. I'm a bad hockey fan and haven't been watching the other series so basketball is winning out.

The Red Wings played Chicago for the Western Conference Championship and they won last night! Woot! It was a fun series since the majority of my friends are back in Chicago and the two teams have a rivalry that goes waaaaaaaaay back. After the way Chicago embarrassed themselves Sunday afternoon, I was happy to see they played a good game and forced the third overtime of the series. Well done.

(Sorry if you're not a sports fan -- I need to get this out of my system.)

Saturday is game one of the Stanley Cup Finals and for the second year in a row we'll be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Let the trash talking begin!

(That means you, Melissa.)

Oh, and lest I neglect my husband, congrats to Barcelona on winning the Champions League final against Manchester United! I'm cheering for Nadal at Roland Garros, but Ibis likes Ferderer. Grr...

Like I said, lots of sports...

Tennis Question

We've been watching a lot of tennis since our satellite arrived, and I've noticed something I hope you all can help me with:

Why, as players advance rounds, do they continue wearing the same outfits?

I'm sure they wash them, so it's not a hygiene issue, but is it for luck? Superstition? I know it can't be a rule. You must wear the same outfit for the duration of Wimbledon so we can keep track of everyone. Nadal even wore the same green outfit two tournaments in a row. (He looked very nice in it, so I'm not complaining. Just curious.)

Anyone have any insight?

Red Wings Win!

I don't talk about sports much here but I am a big fan. My favorite is hockey and the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup last night for the fourth time in eleven years. Can we say dyna– maybe it's too early for that.

Game 5 was such a let-down, with the Penguins tying it up with less than a minute to go, and they almost repeated with only a few seconds left last night. BUT, the Wings showed why they deserve the cup and Osgood held on to the lead.



I went to the parade in Detroit in '98 and I wish I could go again this year. Ugh, so exciting!



I borrowed these images from the Detroit Free Press. Click on if you care to join the celebration!

The Sky Looks Beautiful

We've been busy the past couple days tackling home projects and I didn't have anything blog-worthy to write about. Well, I did run over a pigeon but aren't they supposed to get out of the way when you approach them at five miles per hour? I felt bad but it was gone when I returned and I figure the local dogs had a nice meal.

I was on the roof this afternoon and took a picture where you can actually see the bay. Nice day, eh? If you look closely you can just make out the water. Trust me, it's there. At the base of the mountains. Still don't see it? Between the yellow-orange building and the other with a bit of green. Hey, I didn't promise a good view.



But the REAL reason for this post and what I'm super excited about it THIS:


Tomorrow is exactly one year since we moved into our condo and it's taken us that long to break down and get a satellite. The Wings game starts in less than an hour so I better get moving. I have a lot of channels to search through!

PS - That black container behind the satellite dish stores the water. Most roofs in Mexico have them and when they are empty, we run out of water.

Heaven

Last night we went back to the salsa club, but not to dance. They have several flat-screen TVs and always have sports playing, so I finally got to watch an NHL game. Hockey is my favorite sport but it's not very popular here in the land of sand and palm trees. We've seen a lot of basketball but I've been anxious to see my Detroit Red Wings.

While there were a lot of people in the restaurant, the bar was empty and we settled into our seats, directly between the Red Wings game to our right and the Detroit Pistons on our left. I don't know what genius did the scheduling, but the two Detroit teams' games have been at the exact same time. Even the halftimes/intermissions have been coordinated. I nearly got whiplash trying to watch both games.

As I sipped my drink, my body moved to the salsa music and I realized I was in heaven. My two teams in front of me, my handsome husband at my side, and a live salsa band five feet away. When the hockey game ended the bartender switched the TV to the Cubs game and when I told one of the waiters that's where we used to live, he smiled and said they were really spoiling me.

Unfortunately both Detroit teams lost, so maybe I shouldn't have watched. (I'm superstitious like that.) We only danced one song but it was a fast one, and fairly long, and we managed to draw attention from the tourists. The blond kid was playing with the band again, this time with a proper Mexican-style shirt, so I've decided he must live here.

Ibis has today off so we're spending the day poolside at my girlfriend's house. I go there at least once a week but because of his work schedule he's yet to swim at her place. I guess there are a few nice things about living in Mexico...

What to My Wondering Nose Should Appear?

I woke up this morning to a different smell. An odor that hadn't touched me in months. I went to the window and it didn't register until I saw water pooled on the neighbor's roof and the basketball court at the nearby school.

It rained!

The air smells fresh! No more scents of garbage and dirt and animals lingering in the air. Now it smells like a rain forest. The sun has barely come out and I'm a little concerned how hot it'll get in a couple hours, but for now... heaven.

I also managed to write a bit last night. Not nearly as much as I'd hoped but I'm quite pleased with what I came up with. I'm still getting used to this fiction-writing thing and the pleasure that comes with it. Watching your characters do things you never expected and being able to make things up like pulling ideas from a hat. Today I'll go this way. I don't want to say I felt boxed in with my memoir, but this is a whole new ball game.

Speaking of which, go Red Wings!

I Was Spit At!

*snicker* Not really. Colby from Spittin' Out Words Like a Llama tagged me with a meme and seeing how I never got around to the one Amy tagged me with a week or so ago, I figured I'd settle down and gitter done.

The rules are simple: Post six things about yourself (I'm assuming unknown or odd things or this wouldn't be a very interesting meme) then tag six more people. I may skip that last part because I hate chain letters and while I don't mind this, I choose to not perpetuate the madness.

Here goes!

1) Mexico has made me an angry person. I've always been optimistic and considered myself to have a sunny disposition, but after being here for a year my temper is right on the edge. I get road rage, sidewalk rage, grocery store rage, stupid person honking his horn for 20 minutes for no apparent reason rage, and on and on. I don't get angry at the beach so maybe I should go there more often.

2) I love pickles but any other pickled item makes me gag. I can't even have them near me or it ruins my entire meal. It's quite common for restaurants here to serve a side of pickled vegetables - carrots, radishes, jalapeños - with your meal and I can't even watch if someone decides to eat them. *shudder* Forget picking them out of food, I'd rather eat crackers.

3) I drink a lot of water. A LOT. Since we have to drink bottled water and I keep a pitcher in the fridge I can better track how much I drink in a day. I knew I was getting my eight 8 oz. glasses but turns out it's much more than that. At least a gallon, possibly a gallon and a half. Now I'm trying to force myself to drink other things from time to time so I don't get that weird problem marathoners get when they drink too much H2O and their sodium levels drop.

4) My sister's three children have all followed in my footsteps and play (or played) lacrosse. I was on the team in high school and before moving to the east coast I'd never even seen a game. It's still not very popular in the Midwest but apparently I was just so cool they all wanted to try. (Not really, but I can dream.)

5) When I'm out in public I like to imagine what's going on with everyone I see: where they're from, their relationship to the people they're with, what they're talking about, that sort of thing. It drives Ibis crazy but now that I've gotten more serious about this writing thing I just tell him it's all "research."

***

I'm not going to tag anyone but if you're in need of content, please join the fun! Let me know if you do the meme.

Hitting the Links

I discovered two interesting things today.

First, Danica Patrick finally won an Indy race on her 50th attempt. While I hate that the reporter (or more likely the captioner) couldn't resist noting her looks, this is a huge accomplishment.

Second, a post on Absolute Write directed me towards a new blog, Query Shark. I'm being a poor researcher because I forget who's doing the work, but I believe it's an agent and he/she critiques queries! You just send yours in and it may or may not appear. Either way I think it's a wonderful tool for writers looking to find an agent.

On a side note, my headache has finally gone away. Now we can crack open the bottle of wine we've been saving for a special occasion. Since we didn't get approval in Juarez we'll just celebrate Ibis returning home safely.

That is all. :)

Elbows

Can we discuss elbows for a moment? I understand their importance. Without them we'd have three-foot long, unbending appendages sticking our from our shoulders. Eating (among other things) would be much more difficult. Typing would require binoculars because we'd have to sit much further away from the monitor. Standard font sizes would have to be bigger. The mouse might be finger operated.

I could do this all day.

My complaint with my elbows is lately they seem obsessed with rushing up and greeting every pointy, sharp or really hard surface that I encounter. I've hit my funny bone at least three times in the past week. This morning I cracked one elbow on the corner of the medicine cabinet mirror, then an hour later drilled the other into the edge of the washing machine.

This wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't already have two chipped elbows. Not like chipped-beef, that's just gross. Mine still look whole but each has a small bit of bone where it shouldn't be. The first incident occurred during my first game of roller hockey. I hadn't figured out how to stop without that annoying pencil eraser brake on the back and slammed into a man much larger than me. My torso remained where it was but my legs shot out from under me and I landed on my hip, knee and elbow. I was wearing knee pads and my hips have natural padding, but my elbow didn't fare very well. (I fell down a flight of hard-wood stairs a couple days later, fortunately my elbow wasn't hurt worse.)

The second happened couple years later in the shower. Nothing exciting; I brought my arm down on the windowsill and it's never been the same since. And before you ask, I know. Why was there a window in the shower? I think it was the developers' way of increasing natural lighting. Whatever.

The only time the chipped elbows bother me is when I try to lean on anything. Countertops, bars, tables... that sort of thing. And when I run into pointy, sharp and really hard objects.

Ouch.

Hooray!

I just finished editing the last two chapters. This doesn't mean I'm done, just that they're presentable for my beta readers. I'm sure they appreciate it.

Starting tomorrow, it's back to writing. I have big goals for this coming week - I need to rework my introduction and write my conclusion. I figure the introduction should come first since I have another beta reader lined up to start soon. Then I can be working on the conclusion while my readers catch up to me.

My bicycle incident the other night inspired ideas for the ending, so those thoughts are brewing, too. I'm really excited about what I plan to do. I've debated whether I should end our story before we know anything from immigration or wait until they make a decision. I'm an impatient person so of course my inclination is to just finish the thing, but I wanted to take time to think about it so I make the best decision for the story.

I think I have, and I've decided to conclude it now. This also leaves room for a sequel. ;)

Now I'm off to watch football all afternoon. Bring on the Victoria's and go Pats & Packers!

I've Been Hit!

I am the latest victim in what can best be described as Blog Tag. Janna from Something She Wrote tagged me, and now I'm supposed to share five weird or otherwise unknown things about myself. Since my audience is a mix of people who've known me my entire life and those who don't even know what my voice sounds like, this may not be ground-breaking news for all of you.

1. I can salsa dance. Quite well, in fact. Strangers have come up and asked us if we A) are professionals (lol) or B) give lessons. We've tried giving lessons to his family but end up bickering about the best way to demonstrate a step, or "No, that's too confusing," and nothing much gets accomplished.

I started back in 2000 and met Ibis a few months later. He was in another relationship so we were friends long before our first date. For our first dance at our wedding we surprised everyone and danced to a country song, saving the salsa for later.


2. I am 5'1" and was a starter on my high school basketball team. I think that has more to do with the size of my school than my ability to dunk, but it was fun and I wouldn't trade that experience for all the public schools out there.

I went to a small boarding school with a total of 100 students. There were 25 people in my graduating class and only 30 girls in the entire school, so being among the five best players wasn't all that difficult.


3. I am a lotion and chapstick freak. I must have them with me - or close by - at all times. I can get through daily errands without lotion, and I often replace chapstick for a moisturizing lip gloss, but I'd claw my eyes out if I had to go an entire day without them.


4. I'm a little compulsive. I'm a neat-freak, worry-wart, counting-thing-in-threes type of person. I can't stand to let dishes sit in the sink for longer than it takes to eat a meal. I usually start washing them while Ibis brings the food to the table, and you can bet any I don't get to are soaking while we eat.

We don't have screens on the windows so a lot of dust comes in throughout the day. Now I sweep every morning after my run and before my shower. This is a new one for me - I don't mind sweeping but floors really aren't my thing. Until now.

My husband is a normal man and doesn't like putting his clothes away the moment they leave his body, so I do lighten up with his stuff. As long as it's all in one area (the guest bedroom) I try to leave him alone.

I do carry anti-bacterial gel with me, but we are in Mexico and things get pretty dirty. I've gotten better about compulsively doing things, but it's always in the back of my head.


5. I was once buried my a snowplow. My best friend Kris and I were in second grade (I think) and were enjoying one of about nine snowdays we had that year. We were walking from her house to mine and saw a huge snowplow off in the distance. Its spray covered the street and we ran back and forth as it came closer, not able to tell which side of the street it was on. (She tells the story that we WANTED the snow to hit us - I beg to differ) When it was too late to get out of the way we dove into the closest yard, our heads nestled between a row of pine trees, and the snow buried us. She thought I was dead for a minute but I was just contemplating life. ;)


Jenna, you're the only one I'm tagging because I don't know many bloggers and the few I do know have already played. I can't wait to read what you have to say!

Now that I've scared you all off, I need to go find my Chapstick.

Fancy Meeting You Here

As I posted earlier, Friday I was 'told' I'd be teaching an English class starting today. The more I thought about it the more my nerves took over and by Sunday night I could barely hold my food down. I know this isn't a huge deal, but the thought of walking into a classroom full of teenagers that speak a language I only half understand makes me a tad, ahem, witchy.

The teacher's guidebook was no help. One example of possessive pronouns stated: this is my parrot and that cage is its. And we wonder why kids don't learn to speak proper English in school.

By the time we went out I'd flat out told him I wouldn't do it. Something about me taking a stand against him making committments for me without discussing it first. As soon as I said 'No' the nausea was gone and I felt more like myself, but that didn't mean we'd resolved our problem.

Anyways, last night we tried a new bar to watch Game 4 and while we were chatting with the owner, in walked his Candian wife. Blond hair, blue eyes, my color skin. I leaned over to Ibis, "She could teach the class." I meant it as a joke, but we started talking with her and before long Ibis popped the question.

Turns out she's lived here five years and has taught English all over town. She seemed almost happy to help, just like that. Go figure. We chatted during the game, even watched the last couple innings on her cell phone (being Mexico, they turned the channel for a futbol game) and I think I can say we have new friends.

Olé!