Royalty Schmoyalty -- I'm Queen!

Ahem, Her Majesty, Queen Amy Pippa Kennedy Fossenton of Bloomingtonford!

Yes, that's me. Destined to be queen -- I knew it. And now I'm vindicated. Except, except I would rather be a princess. I mean, Princess Pippa does have a ring to it, yes? Although she sounds like a precosious 4 year old and not a rascally 52 year old. Dang.

Here's the thing:in fiction, princesses get to have the adventures, queens get to be wicked and set the rules -- sounds way too much like real life.

See, when I could have been a princess, I didn't realize the excellent adventures I could have. I was limited by my own young, uninformed brain. Now, that I've lived life and understand all that is open to princesses, I'm not deemed princess material -- I'd like a do over.

That's not going to happen. So I can't have princess adventures, alright, well, I set the rules (remember?) so I can totally bend them -- don't want to be a dowager before I see that I could have been having these other adventures as queen, but didn't see it until I had become olderish...sheesh.

It could have become a viscious circle, but now it's a Crown. A bright shiny crown. Anytime is the right time for adventures. Adventures aren't just for princesses, they're for queens too. Even wicked ones.

What's your new adventure going to be?

Sunshine, Lollipops, and Bludgeoning Everywhere...

"What are we watching?" my husband asks.
"The Killing," I say.
He gives me the look, yeah, that one, and says, "You know, for someone who's all bunnies and rainbows you tend to go to the dark side...a lot. Why do you like this stuff?"

A valid question. And a true statement. I'm not dark...but, I love dark. Really, really dark. Don't get me wrong, I read and watch funny and light too. Yet sometimes, I don't just want the protagonist to be brooding, I want them broken. One of my favorite series features a serial killer as the protagonist.

Yeah. Dark. Maybe if a person's all rainbows, she needs some gore to even it all out.

You'd think with all that dark-love, I'd be writing it too...well, you'd be wrong. I've tried, and everytime I tried to write dark, some character cracked a joke, or smirked, or kvetched. Seriously. My characters would rather die laughing, than snear as they kill someone.

I used to try to fight it, hadn't I learned not to fight the me that is me? I keep re-learning that lesson. So, now I know, I write light. And that's okay. It's a balance, right?

Please tell me you have opposites in your personality too. And then tell me what they are.

Tracker Jacker

There is something in me that hates keeping track. I'm part of a writing loop group -- which is, suprisingly, nothing like a loup garou -- we keep track of each day we meet our writing goals, once we hit 100 days in a row there is great rejoicing in the land and such.

I have never hit 100 days -- I'm sure I've done it, but I won't keep track. Can't keep track -- I've tried calenders using stickers, and smiley faces, and well, I've tried those two things...and I can't keep track. When I try to keep track I stop writing.

So, I've decided to embrace it. Which is what I do when I can't get rid of an annoying thing about myself, or others -- I embrace it. I seem to write more consistently when I don't keep track (kind of like a diet, when I say I'm going on a diet, I crave the donuts!)

It's almost as if I have to trick myself into things. If I don't think about writing, or having to keep track of writing -- I write. The minute I set up a schedule and put times on a calender, I may as well turn on the TV and veg. 'Cause, nothing's getting done.

I can trick myself into getting an inordinant amount of stuff done. If I don't schedule them or prepare for them, I just do them. Sounds ridiculously easy. And it is. I trick myself into exercising by staying in my PJs and not thinking about it -- sometimes the preparation for something makes my brain think it's actually done it. Stupid brain.

What do you trick yourself into doing?

Span(gles) of Attention

I joke about having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) a lot, yet I know it's not a deficit at all -- in fact, it's the opposite, more of a plethora of attention. And I'd prefer it to be called a theory rather than a disorder, but, I suppose chaos theory would be too much, right?

So, here I am with Attention Plethora disorder, thinking about all my interests which are legion. I write, not always well, but I like to consider myself a "writer," I garden, I make jewelry, I sew (sort of). My interests are varied. Ah, Varied Attention Plethora Disorder.

I'm thinking lots of creative (and I hate to lump myself in with that moniker, only because I would never say, "I'm a creative type." But, what are you gonna do?)folk have lots of other creative interests and maybe get waylaid by them.

Sometimes I dream of having all my interests surrounding me in a tangable way. I could leave out all my notes on what I'm writing, I could have all my beads and wire and detritus of collagable materials out, I could line up all my seeds and sketch a pattern for my garden...

As it stands, my interests get in the way of each other, vying for my attention. If I decide to leave one for the other, I first have to pack-up all signs of one and then unpack what I need for the other. Half my day is spent with this. That's not a part of my disorder -- that's my husband's disorder:all is good and right with the world when I don't see crap all over. Kind of a mouthful, but I try to help him with it by not leaving crap all over. He tries to help me with mine by saying, "Can't you concentrate on one thing at a time?"

Err, no.

I'm still left with:

Varied
Attention
Plethora
Interest
Disorder

VAPID...Oh, that's why I look like I'm staring off into space without a though in my head. D'oh!

What are your varied interests and how do you balance them?