Hangin' in the ER

It's Monday, May 16, 2005 ...

2005 is turning out to be a banner year for the Powers-Douglas clan of two (plus 2 cats, a fish and a frog). Last week my husband started getting a weird pressure/pain sensation in his chest and tingling in his left arm, and it was off to the ER we went. Fortunately he was not having a heart attack or anything like that. What is going on, we don't know yet. They did a bunch of tests that day, and the next day he had to go in for a stress test. Then the weekend hit, and there we were. Waiting for something to happen and hoping it wouldn't. But since we'd just had a scare of major yikes, we didn't travel out of town for our friend's graduation as planned (sorry, Toni). We actually didn't do too much. We didn't even go to the movies as I had wanted to do. It was sit back and try to relax time. But then Monday came (today), and our family doctor hasn't even received anything from the hospital yet. We still know nothing. Accept that we're getting stressed because we don't know anything.

So the weekend was an odd one. The one thing I had really wanted to do was go to the movies. I used to go to the movies at least once a week. When I was in high school there were even times when I saw three movies in the theater in one day. I'm not joking! THREE! I was a rabid movie fiend. Now I'm lucky if I see three movies in 6 months. It stinks! And there were at least three movies I really want to see out. "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Unleashed" and "Crash." I'm holding out for a weeknight this week. We'll see how that works. I need some time to get absorbed into something on a really large screen that can dwarf everything else running through my mind. Time to decompress.

Now for the good news ...

THE BOOK CHAPTERS ARE DONE!!!!!! THE INTRODUCTION IS DONE!!!!!!!

The end of the writing process for "Cemetery Walk" is almost completely done! The book is with my editor/proofers. I'm finishing the last details as well as the photo selection and cutlines. Ahh, it's such a good thing. It will go to the publisher at the end of this month. To quote young Anakin Skywalk in "Phantom Menace," I say, "Yippeeee!"


MAGAZINE UPDATE

All is well on the "Epitaphs" front. I'm doing stuff here and there, and will hit it full steam when the book is out of my hands. Ad space is selling well. Submissions are great. Keep them both coming! The magazine is going to rock!!!


BOOK PROMO STUFF

I put in extra hours on book promotion stuff tonight and didn't end up seeing my husband until 7:30 p.m., which he was not thrilled about. I thought he was just hungry. But he did tell me later during dinner (delicious garlic shrimp at China Wok II) that he's worried that I'm working too much. It took me by surprise. I didn't think he really noticed. Not that he's not a devoted husband; he is. But he works on stuff all the time. I figured that if I wasn't working on projects all the time that he would think I was lazy! Well, I guess I know differently now.

But I did get my first promotion postcards designed tonight. I'm currently trying to load the artwork into this blog post but am failing miserably.

I also started a "new line" of stuff for TheCemeteryClub.com store called "Death Becomes You." It features death- and cemetery-related quotes. Fun stuff. The funny thing is that while I knew it was not a really original name for deathly things (most obviously the movie "Death Becomes Her" beat me to it by a number of years), I got an e-mail from the woman who owns BlueLips.com yesterday (the day I set up the new items). Her Web site used to be called--you guessed it--Death Becomes You. So it's a matter of "stealing" from someone without even being aware of stealing from someone. Please don't think me a total dork, Toni! (Everyone, be sure to check out BlueLips.com, it's a great site.)


Well, while I'm trying to pour out my soul and upload a photo here, Shakespeare won't leave me alone. No, the playwrite is not jumping in my lap ... my cat is. She is totally co-dependent. I created a monster 5 years ago, and now we are practically conjoined twins whenever I am home. She is quite jealous of the computer and hates when I type for long periods of time or surf. She also doesn't like it when I spend too much time in front of the bathroom mirror washing my face or something. She thinks that the time I spend doing these things would be much better spent holding her. She is also jealous of our fish tank. It's out of her viewing range for the most part, and she doesn't really know what it is. What she does know is that I will stand in front of it (it's on top of the hutch of our desk) and talk to it occasionally. If she actually knew there was a living being inside the tank (that would be my betta fish Simon LeBon, who is awesome, incidentally), she would probably figure out a way to get into the tank and eat him. Not gonna happen, Shakespeare, you brat.

Hmmm. If I could figure out how to get the photos to upload, I'd put a pic of Shakespeare and Simon LeBon on here. And India, our other cat. And Ghost, my little albino clawed frog I have in a small tank at work. It's the life aquatic with Minda Zissou.

Well, I'm going to post this and then look into the pic issue again.

Good night, all!

Minda

www.TheCemeteryClub.com