Tag: Star Wars

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rebellions are built on hope

Star Wars Celebration 2022 is now in the rear view mirror and I’ve had a few days to reflect on the experience.

For starters, I’m glad I went. Despite the terror, I had a great time. I got to meet a couple of authors I admire, got a tattoo, got to meet Ewan McGregor and Billy Lourd.

Me and Ewan McGregor

We saw lots of great costumes, spent too much money, got to participate in a lightsaber meetup or two (with a Santa Jedi!!), and took some awesome photos.

There were fireworks over Galaxy’s Edge, rides on the Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler’s Run, and drinks at Oga’s Cantina.

There were a few panic attacks, but most of the folks around me were awesome. As expected, the ADA access stuff was a total shit show the first day, but by midday Friday they seemed to have it sorted, aside from the whole lack of seating available for those of us who find standing for long periods difficult.

By the end of each day I was exhausted and in a ridiculous amount of pain, but I survived and had an amazing time. To cap the joy of the weekend, I took my brother and niece to see Steve Carlson play at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood on Saturday night. It was a joy!

I’m still processing pictures from that show, and I took hardly any on the big camera at Celebration. Mostly I just used my phone for that.

Anyway, it’s back to the real world now. The day job is calling my name. I hope your week is/has been fantastic, Readers. I’m off to my coffee and some documents that want my attention.

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prepping for a convention when you’re agoraphobic

So, Star Wars Celebration. We leave after midnight on Wednesday to drive down to LA. To say that my anxiety is off the charts is an understatement.

The last few days in Rockaway Beach, and the few days off between that and leaving have been helpful, but as we get closer, my anxiety climbs.

One of my coping mechanisms is to make sure that I can control all the things that can be controlled. This means many different things: lots of lists for making sure I don’t forget anything, planning routes (even though google maps is my copilot), knowing as much info as possible, etc.

It also means ensuring that I have the things on hand I need to cope: Xanax (hopefully, getting a new prescription since I moved has been work), having my camera with enough battery/memory cards for the time I’ll be there, etc. I plan on requesting ADA support so I can have access to the quiet rooms if needed, and to cut down on the number of people I need to stand in line with for things.

I will also have my brother and his oldest (adult) child with me, who both have never been to anything like this before, so I’ll have caring duties to attend, which always lets me get outside my own head.

Don’t get me wrong, I am SO excited for this, despite the fact that I have never attempted so huge a convention before. It’s just that running right along that excitement is absolute terror. I have probably thought about every possible thing that could go wrong…and invented a hundred more.

So here, let me share some pics from my time at the ocean last week.

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

Anyway, I’ll have a full report for you when I get back, Readers. Stay safe and sane and kind.

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let us chill

This is the first of two short weeks for me on the day job. This week, I’m driving up to the Oregon coast to hang out with friends I haven’t seen in 3 years or more. I anticipate a lot of talking, a lot of laughing and a lot of relaxing.

I’m only taking my tablet for keeping up with the world outside, mostly because I’m awaiting some edits from an editor that I’d like to see as soon as they come in. I’m likely bringing a book or two since I’m an early riser and a nice quiet cup of coffee with a book is appealing to me.

The following weekend will not be as quiet or relaxing, as I head to Anaheim for Star Wars Celebration. I am absolutely terrified for multiple reasons, not the least of which is my agoraphobia. I’ve never attempted such a big convention before. I’m going with my brother and his oldest kid (who is not a kid anymore) so I have assistance and also care taking to do (as kid also has crowd issues) which helps me cope. Then there’s the whole pandemic thing. I haven’t been in a crowd more than five people since this whole thing started.

There’s going to be thousands.

We also have Disney After Dark tickets for that Friday night and tickets to see a friend at a music venue in Hollywood that Saturday night, so…it’s going to be a long, stressful, but awesome weekend. There is a lot I’m looking forward to! And costumes! I do love getting to dress up!

Needless to say, these activities will cut into some of the stuff I do on the regular, like posting my Word of the Day and other such fun, but I’m sure I’ll come home with tales to tell.

I hope the weekend has treated you with kindness, Readers! I’m off to finish my coffee and start my packing.

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the dark side slump

I’ve been meaning to write for days, weeks even. My muse seems to have fled the building, taking all of my creativity and such with her, so it’s been a dry month or so. I managed to mostly do a poem a day for April, only missing a couple of days due to either migraines or other impairment.

I celebrated Star Wars Day yesterday and I’m starting to get excited/anxious about Celebration at the end of the month. Between here and there I have a lot of work and such. I continue to love my day job and working from home continues to be the best thing ever.

I have taken up a new creative hobby in acrylic paint pouring. I’m decorating my house, one abstract masterpiece at a time! It is, however, incredibly addictive and I’m running out of wall space! I’m sure I’ll find someone to gift/sell them to.

I have a lot of thoughts about the current political situation, but I’ll save those for another day.

For this Sith Holy Day (Revenge of the 5th), I have some Death Wish Coffee in my Death Wish Coffee cup, a ton of work meetings on tap, and a kitty who thinks I should play hooky and snuggle her.

I hope you are all safe and sane (ish) and wish you good coffee and tasty foods.

Photo by TOMMY VAN KESSEL on Unsplash

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gonna have a star war!!

This has not been the best week for me mentally. Between the bad air quality and the ongoing public health crisis and all of the election hoopla, and the fact that I should have been at Disneyland last weekend, I was feeling pretty down for the better part of the week.

The air is marginally better yesterday and today, and a series of workplace wins has helped me feel a little bit more myself. We’re almost up to September, which is my birthday month, and that’s usually a pick me up.

Add to that some Star Wars related news in that the only video game I play with any regularity, the SIMS 4, is releasing a “Journey to Batuu” game pack in time for my birthday, and we’re planning a Star Wars related photoshoot with my family sometime soon, and that’s got me feeling a little more like me.

I’m hoping that the weather stays nice and the smoke stays away enough to get my house cleaner than it has been this weekend. It’s been hard to do physical work when I can’t breathe for the heat and smoke.

But now I can see that my software update is finished so I should get myself back to work. Stay safe, Readers! And happy almost weekend.

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does it matter that it’s Friday?

Happy Friday, Readers!  I meant to post earlier in the week, but I have actual, paying work at the moment, so my attention has been on that.

How are you coping?  I’ve had a few bad days, but between work on The Blood Witch and working in my container garden, I’ve found ways to keep my head up.  I hope you can say the same.

I’ve also been indulging in two of my favorite things, Star Wars and Supernatural.  I find it soothing to re-watch something I am so familiar with.

Today though I feel beat up and sore all over, probably from trying to do too much with very heavy stuff last night (ordered a bunch of soup and it all came in one box…like we’re talking 16 cans of soup. I’d have been better off taking a few cans out at a time, but no…like an idiot I tried to move the whole box).  I’m hoping a hot shower can help me feel a little better.

Aside from that, I’m going to try to finish up these edits I’m getting paid to do, if the website ever comes back up. Right now I’m just getting a blank page.  I assume no one in the support team is currently online.

And, maybe some work on the book.  Depends on how long my beat up body can tolerate the office chair.

I hope your Friday is filled with good things!  Remember, kindness matters.  Please be kind to yourself too.

Cover Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

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The thing about being a woman of a certain age is that, while much of life is certainly so much better than it was in your 20s (more money & stability, no need to please everyone around you, etc), there comes with age this one particularly unpleasant symptom.  And for someone who has always run a little hotter than everyone around me, when I say that I’m having a hot flash, please understand that isn’t just me being dramatic.

Heaven knows I can be dramatic, but this kind of hot is no joke.

Having returned from my days at Disney with some sort of sinus infection/cold, I’m sitting here at my computer trying to determine if this is a hot flash, or a fever.  Of course, I can’t find my thermometer to check, and I have no desire to leave the house to get a new one, so I will continue to wonder.

Still, the trip to Disneyland with my 24 year old niece was worth a few days of being less than fully healthy.  It was the thing I needed to release some stress and included some amazing character interactions in Galaxy’s Edge (complete with massive Chewbacca hugs that just made life worth living) and getting to ride the new Rise of the Resistance ride twice.

I got to ride roller coasters and other rides, which is something I haven’t done in 20 something years due to my size.  We flew the Millenium Falcon, had drinks at Oga’s Cantina, and ran around Batuu hacking our way through the Play Disney App’s games.

Since I was there last in September, I’ve read the book Black Spire, and that gave me a whole new appreciation of the park, and really informed some of our interactions with the “locals” including one guy at Oga’s that just really got into his role.

Of course, all good things must end, and we eventually left LA for the long drive north, a drive made all the longer by traffic problems that included a big rig fire on the Grapevine that burned the hillside and left nothing of the truck but some bits of metal.

That got me home too late to even consider going in to the office on Thursday, and I woke up with the cold/sinus infection on Friday morning, so I worked from home both days.  For today, I’m going to take it easy, going light on the chores, and probably not even getting much writing done since my brain is having trouble getting words to push through the sludge of congestion.

I think it might be a good day to settle in with my giant TV and surround sound to watch movies and get caught up on TV.  Happy Sunday, Readers!  I leave you with one of my favorite shots from Disney, on board the Millenium Falcon in my Han Solo Disneybound.

 

Han Solo on the Falcon

Header Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash

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with my head in the clouds…

Why is it that the week before any vacation or big plans is longer than any other week of the year?  It’s not even all that big a deal, really.  As a Christmas gift to myself, I got myself a Disneyland season pass, so with Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr day, I’m taking my oldest niece down to LA to go play on Batuu.  But oh, my this week is taking forever.

My very first thought after the alarm went off this morning was “Oh, F**k, it’s only Wednesday.

And it isn’t like I don’t have stuff to do.  Work is…if not busy, at least there is work I can actually do something with.  Writing is proceeding, if a bit slowly.  I have a to do list a mile long for around the house.

But, my head is already on approach to Batuu.  LOL

In other news, the first book in the Shades and Shadows series was made into an audio book, but the narration is terrible and I was never consulted by the narrator, so I’m not advocating that anyone actually purchase it.  I am working with my publisher to get this fixed and hopefully we will come to an agreement that pleases us both.

In the meantime, if you have read any of my books, I would be ever so grateful for a review on Amazon / Goodreads, etc.  I have been very lax at self promotion of late, and every review helps, even if you just rate the book or leave a tiny note like “I enjoyed this book”.  Believe it or not, it really helps.

On that note, I should get back to my coffee and my day job.

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Today’s the day!  It’s Star Wars day!  I have a ticket to see The Rise of Skywalker at 5pm tonight.  I am super excited, and also fairly anxious.  I mean, this story has been a part of my life since I was 9 years old.  It has helped to shape who I am as a story teller, as a writer.  It has helped shape me, how I look at the world around me, how I stand up for what I believe in, how I resist and rebel.

It will also be the final movie to have Carrie Fisher in it.  I’m excited to see what they have done with the footage they were able to piece together, but I know that I’m going to be a weepy, crying mess of a geek right from the start.  In fact, I tear up just thinking about it.

In other Star Wars news, there is a very talented lady in the Phillipines who creates portraits from a picture you provide, but she makes you into a Star Wars character.  I asked her to draw me as General Organa, as we first see her in The Force Awakens. This was the result:

me as leia.jpg

Isn’t it fabulous?  Her name is Danielle Balanga, and you can find her on Facebook.

With that, I should get myself back to work on the day job.  And my coffee.  Always my coffee.  I shall leave you with this, dearest Readers:

MTFBWY

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leaving on a jet plane

Finishing up the packing for my trip tomorrow and trying to resist the urge to pack every Star Wars t-shirt I own.  After my bit of a buying spree lately, that’s a LOT of t-shirts.  I think I could get through most of a month without having to wash anything…and I still have a few coming.

My obsession has gotten a little bit out of control of late.

Yesterday I had my ME day in preparation of the trip…got my mani/pedi, got my hair cut and dyed…bought new clothes that I didn’t actually NEED.

But I found a denim jacket that will be PERFECT for my Star Wars patches/pins.  Did I mention my obsession?  LOL.

I’ll try to remember to post all about the early part of the conference on Wednesday.  And tell you all about any MUST HAVE books I stumble across.  There’s always a few dozen…or more.

In the meantime, I’m off to heat up more water for some more Death Wish coffee to help power me through this early Sunday morning.  Y’all be kind and have a beautiful day!

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash