Thursday, March 26, 2015

Changes In the Rain

It was cloudy and unusually warm and humid for this time of year when I started work. I have no idea why we were so busy...or why we had so many people call out. Warm temperatures aside, this was hardly the kind of day you'd want to spend on a blanket at the Jersey Shore. We were so short on help for a lot of the day, I ended up staying an hour. One man even complained loudly about it, yelling to everyone around him that we were horrible because we couldn't be bothered to hire help. (Uh, we did. It just didn't come in.)

I worked on writing for an hour when I finally got home. I also came to a conclusion while going over the websites for AG Collectors and AG Playthings. I think I've had quite enough of the American Girl fandom. While no one's ever said anything really mean to me, I'm tired of the complaining over sales, how the dolls and the time periods they represent should be depicted, what the clothes they wear and the things they hold are made of, and how one side of the fan base snipes at the other. I will continue to post on the Ever After High/Monster High message board I belong to, to read doll blogs and websites, to collect things for my dolls, and to post photos of them at my blog. I'm going to take a hiatus from American Girl message boards until the late August release of Josefina's new wardrobe and the 50's doll. We'll see how I feel then.

The assignment was to write a short story based around an event that changed you or someone who changed you, preferably set during a holiday. I had a hard time choosing an event! I finally based the story around Christmas 1990. We moved across town on New Year's Day 1991, and because of this, our Christmas was very simple. We only had a few presents, we had a small table-top tree strung with cranberry-popcorn ropes and a hand-made glitter-covered star, and we otherwise didn't decorate. Thankfully, the next time we moved, four years later, it was in the fall. My two subsequent moves on my own were in early February. They were all well away from any major holidays.

It also reminded me of how different we were from other families. I still don't know anyone else outside of the military who grew up moving from house to house because they couldn't afford the rent or Dad fought with the shady friend who owned the house. Even Lauren never lived in more than two or three houses her entire life.

We were supposed to let the writing "cool" for a while. I put on a Wonder Woman episode while having leftover chili for dinner and making Banana Spice Muffins. "Knockout" is one of the more interesting early second season episodes. Diana Prince finds herself dealing with a former LA cop-turned-terrorist who has kidnapped Steve. The terrorists are going to hijack a business conference for major companies in LA...if Wonder Woman doesn't stop them first!

Oh, and it's been raining on and off all day. Thankfully, it waited to start until well after I got to work, and took a break while I was on my way home. (In fact, the sun was trying to come out at that point.) It started up again later in the night, and has been off and on since. There's a possibility it'll mix with a little snow tomorrow. Once again, I doubt it'll stick...and if it does, it won't be around for more than a day or two.

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