Skye Forbes, Urban Fantasy author

2011-10-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. Since then, I've moved from Oregon to California, started a new job, had my appendix out, and written a novella. Yeah, that kind of busy.

You can buy Misdirection in print or e-format here or here, if you haven't yet. :)

I hope I'll be back more regularly in the future, but for now, here's the synopsis of the novella I wrote while recuperating from surgery:

The Hindenburg gave her the powers, a Superman comic gave her the goal.

Brigitta Bayer had her life changed the day Tristan saved her from death by fire on the Hindenburg in 1937. In World War II, she learns of superheroes and vows to become one. As she slowly ages through the 20^th century, she has time to figure out what to do with her newfound powers over fire. When the unimaginable happens on September 11, 2001, the answer is obvious. Help. And so is born Ember, the first superhero the world has ever seen, outside of comic books.

Misdirection has a release date!

2011-05-10T09:54:00.001-07:00

My romantic suspense novel, being released under the pseudonym Melinda Skye, has a release date!

On June 22, you will be able to purchase Misdirection from Awe Struck Publishing or from other online retailers, like Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Hooray!

We did it!!

2011-05-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

For more info, check out my other blog at http://blog.melindaskye.com

Sonja thinks I'm awesome!

2011-04-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

The Veronica Mars script as discussed here: http://blog.skyeforbes.com/2011/03/in-other-writing-news.html is well underway. Well, we may be a little behind, but what we have is pretty darn awesome.

Here's Sonja discussing it: http://sonjafoust.com/2011/04/12/20-write-a-movie-script-in-spite-of-me/

Yeah, I'm pretty much only posting it because she attributes all the hard work to me. Heh. I need the ego boost :)

New Writer's Group - We're Evil

2011-04-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

So, I was asked to be a part of the Evil League of Evil Writers, and of course I accepted. The site launches today with an interview with the incredible Lilith Saintcrow (whom I have had the pleasure of meeting several times).

My first blog post goes up in a week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Check us out: http://www.evilleagueofevilwriters.com/

And yes, the timing will make it difficult to convince anyone we're serious, but we are!

In other writing news

2011-03-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

Not only do I have that awesome cover, but the incredible, brilliant Sonja Foust (can you tell she's one of my best friends?) and I are going to be doing ScriptFrenzy in April. Starting tomorrow, we'll be working on a screenplay - yep. 30 days to do 100 pages. Kind of like NaNoWriMo, but a screenplay instead.

We've worked out ... some ... of the plot and I'm geared up to begin bright and early tomorrow. Okay, let's be honest. I'll probably get started around the crack of noon. But it's going to be awesome.

Also, because she is incredibly talented as well as a genius, Sonja has created a movie poster for us already. Check it out:

Yeah, that's right. We're writing the screenplay for Veronica Mars, the movie. We didn't like the end of the TV series, so we're creating our own version that wraps everything up, just the way we like it. (Happily, in case you hadn't guessed from two romance novelists doing the writing!)

So stick around. If we're feeling particularly inspired, you can follow us on Twitter: Skye and Sonja - we may just start sharing our gems of wisdom.

Check it out!

2011-03-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

The cover of my novel Misdirection, coming out in June from Awe-Struck Publishing - I love it!! This novel is a romantic suspense novel, written under the pen name Melinda Skye.

Facebook fan pages!

2011-01-30T14:47:00.001-08:00

I've decided that to be truly hip and with it as an author requires setting up Facebook fan pages. So now, you can "Like" me as Skye Forbes, author of urban fantasy novels, or as Melinda Skye, author of the upcoming romantic suspense novel Misdirection.

I've set up a link (or hopefully I have) to link straight from this blog to the Facebook fan page for Skye Forbes. If not, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Skye-Forbes/121789761226096?ref=ts

For Melinda Skye, you can either visit the Melinda Skye website when it's up (http://melindaskye.com/) or go here now: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-Skye/183651181667364?ref=ts

There isn't much there now - I have the blurb for Misdirection up in several chunks at the Melinda Skye site, but that's about it. At least I'm prepared!

Thanks for your support!

Huge thanks

2011-01-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have to say a huge THANK YOU! to Stump'd Design, who created the amazing artwork for my website. They also pulled together most the site, despite my annoying habit of refusing to respond to emails for weeks (perhaps months) on end.

They did an incredible job with the site - I think it looks incredible! Soon, because they are amazing, they will be putting up my official author site for Melinda Skye - the name I'm going to be published under for my romantic suspense novel, Misdirection. You can learn more about that later!

But in the meantime, if you need any graphic design/website stuff, I highly recommend Stump'd Design (http://www.stumpdesign.com). Seriously. Check them out!

Also: I'm going to try and do a new feature of including what I'm currently reading. These days, I'm a little busy, so I'm getting through fewer books than I would like, but right now, in my purse:

Website redesign

2011-01-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

Check it out! My website is all new and spiffy! The old site was great, but I threw it together in about 15 minutes and it needed updating. Also, it was way too cheerful for my urban fantasy series, so now I'm going slightly darker.

I hope to have a website up for Melinda Skye soon - since I have a book coming out in June under that pen name.

In the meantime, check out the new site and let me know what you think!

Skye

Wedding update

2008-03-15T18:28:00.001-07:00

I know I've been total crap about posting but adding wedding planning to my already busy lifestyle means that i have no free time. None. Ever.

But here's an update on the wedding front. We've picked a date, June 13, 2009. And we've picked a location, the gorgeous Garden Vineyards in Hillsboro Oregon. And we've got the world's best wedding planner helping us out with all the details.

As they become available, I'll put them up on our website: http://skyeandcraig.com/, so check it out and keep up there, if not here.

I'm engaged!

2008-01-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

Yep! Craig asked me to marry him and I said yes! This was Monday night, Jan. 21.

Here's the ring - it's amazing! Love love love it.

More details on the whole proposal later...

Vacation, thank god

2007-12-27T11:04:00.001-08:00

I'm finally done with finals, but i was so busy afterwards getting ready for Christmas and vacation that i haven't had a chance to relax the way i thought i would. Still, I'm headed to Hawaii later today, and then it's time for real relaxation...

I'll sip a pina colada for anyone who wants me to :) I'm dedicated like that...

see you in the new year!

Finals

2007-12-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

One down, three to go.

Schedule:

12/14 - Property 8:30am-12:00
12/17 - Con Law 8:30 am - 11:00
12/20 - Contracts 8:30am-12:00

Yep, the con law final is on my birthday. Sucky!

Eeee! Snow.

2007-12-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

It's snowing here in Portland and of course our husky is a snow dog, so i took her out to enjoy it.

She seems rather unimpressed. But i was all excited!

Oh yeah, i have a blog

2007-11-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

I'm just so busy. But you probably already knew that.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving! Will post pictures after.

Beeeeeeeeeeeee-yu-ti-ful ring

2007-10-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

That Craig gave me... It's a right hand promise ring - with a sapphire in the middle and two diamonds on the sides - brushed white gold. I'm such a lucky girl to have a guy who knows exactly what i think is pretty :)

Buy my book!

2007-10-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I suck at posting. You try law school and tell me how much free time YOU have. :) Anyways, my bestest buddy Sonja is a genius and made me a banner for my new book, Battle for Valhalla. Can't post anywhere else on my website yet because my new computer isn't set up for web design yet (will be soon) and I'm too lazy to go use my other computer :) But i'll be updating my webpage soon.

For now, though... admire the beauteousness that is my new banner.

A little friendly promotion...

2007-09-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, check out Craig's sister Melissa's new blog:

http://chshoneybee.wordpress.com/

She's a librarian! And nothing goes better than librarians and writers! :)

The move has been made!

2007-09-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say that we're finally in our new house! It's wonderful and great and all.. but there's an awful lot of unpacking to do now! :) Still, totally worth it. The first week was a little rough, since i hadn't unpacked the closet, so finding clothes for school every day was a challenge. But once I got over that hurdle (and unpacked it all today) that's a whole lot better. And Craig broke down the huge pile o boxes in the garage. Yep, our garage. :)

Actually, the move went really smoothly- we gave in to necessity and hired a couple of guys to help us- they were really great. Cheerful, efficient, and carried all the heavy stuff for us! Plus both my parents and my brother came out to help, so it was great to see them. Family friends pitched in and we made short work of it all and the pizza dinner afterward.

Got to love family help! Makes life so much easier. Gotta go- unpacking calls... (and so does the puppy!)

A new addition to the family!

2007-09-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Tifa! (pronounced Tee-fa)

She's a two month old Siberian Husky puppy who were are proud to be owned by. :) Yes, potty training isn't as fun as it sounds (and that's saying something) but she's just so darn cute that we can't get enough.

So owning a house and starting law school wasn't enough for us, we had to get a puppy too. At least we know we won't be bored! And now, I'm sure you've had enough of my chatting and just want to see more pics.

Cuteness overload, yes?

Vive la France!

2007-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

So, if you weren't aware, i was in France for the past week or so. It was, as expected, fabulous. I'll maybe post more on it later, but i just wanted to show you all why it was so wonderful.

First, a little background. My parents rented a villa in the south of France, near Avignon, in a little town called Le Thor. We were told that there was cat on the property, but for the first few days we were there, we saw a black and white cat occasionally, but it ran off every time it saw us, so we figured it was feral. Once it even snuck into the kitchen and ate some of our cheese :) Anyways, then one night, we were sitting out on the terrace and having dinner and a black and white kitty showed up and started meowing at us. I, of course, started petting it and discovered it was skin and bones. So i fed it. And it snarfed like i have never seen a cat snarf before. This poor thing was starving. So i kept feeding it.

And the cat was black and white with a cute little black mustache, so we name it Adolph (yeah, as in Hitler, but don't worry, we're not Nazis).

Cute kitty, huh?

Then a couple days later, i discovered Adolph was living in a little storage room. And that Adolph wasn't a boy kitty, but a girl kitty. So her name changed to Eva. And then we discovered that Eva was a mommy!

Even cuter kitty, n'est-ce pas?

And then we soon discovered that there were three adorable little kittens in all. The one above is named Helmut (because it's German and he looks like he's wearing a helmet. Oh, and he seems to need one... not the brightest kitty ever). the second one, with a more black face is named Tom Selleck (or Magnum PI, depending on your point of view) because of Tom's luxurious black mustache. And the third, who's much shyer than the other two, but looks a lot like Tom S, is named Adolph. In honor of his mummy's first name.

Here's the cutest video ever! (the one i'm playing with, mostly, is Tom S. Helmut also makes an appearance - he has the white eyes. And later, you even get to see the shy Adolph)

Parlez-vous France?

2007-08-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

I'm headed out of town, lucky me! If you need me, I'll be in the south of France for a week!

Now if i can just remember how that whole French thing goes, I'll be doing a lot better. And to think i used to be mostly fluent. :)

See you in a week or two!

I'm done!

2007-07-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

I just finished my WIP... work in progress, for those of you not paying attention. But it's not in progress anymore! Because it's DONE!

:)

Okay, so it's a rough draft and it needs to be edited. But still, getting a draft done is something i haven't done in... oh, 4 years.

So hoorah to me!

The eyeball is back, baby. And it's going to Dallas.

2007-07-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hooray! The doctor says my eyeball is "beautiful" and my life can get back to normal. So, a word for the wise: Even if you break a lot (okay, all) the rules, your eyeball will still heal. So I'm normal again... or as normal as i ever was.

Which means that it's time for CONFERENCE!! the RWA National Conference, that is. I'll be in Dallas for the next few days learning more about the wonderful world of romance novel publishing. It's my 5th year going. Yep, that makes me an old timer.

Cruise on by So 5 to hear me complain about my roommate :) Whom i really really love.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack

2007-06-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, my eyeball works again. Sort of. Whatever.

If you didn't get an email with my new phone number, email me. I just forgot to send it to you.

Super lame eye problem...

2007-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah, i get the sucky weird illnesses. Softball sized ovarian cyst? I'll take one. Hole in the retina? I'll take two! Yeah. Seriously, who gets holes in their retinas? I do, apparently.

I went to the eye doctor the other day to get my contacts prescription updated, which is fine. And then the optometrist is like, oh, let's dilate your eyes so i can check for problems. And of course, i'm like "Sure! Why not?" So she dilates the eyes and finds a hole in my freaking retina! Which means i'm risk for a detached retina which is Bad News.

So she sends me to a retinal specialist who dilates my eyes again (twice in one week, joy) and he checks and finds another one in the other eye. Which had healed itself. So i really only have a problem in one eye, but it's still Bad News. Now i have to have a procedure on my eye where they laser around the hole to seal it to the layer behind so it can't detach.

Oh, yeah, and the really Bad News? After the procedure, i can't lift anything, strain anything, or read or use my computer for 3 WEEKS! How in the world am i supposed to survive without books or email for 3 weeks? The answer... I can't. I just plain can't. I'll go stark raving nuts before my time is up.

And did i mention that this has to happen right in the middle of moving to Oregon? So i'm sticking my poor boyfriend not only with a broken girlfriend but also all the moving stuff. I at least managed to put off the procedure until after we will have packed and loaded everything, which means he'll have to unload it all by himself. Poor guy. He should find himself a non-broken girl.

The only upside that i can see is that I'll be living the dream. Yep, that's right, just call me Skye the Pirate. I get to wear an eyepatch! When I asked the nurse if i could color it black and put a skull and crossbones on it, she looked a little confused, but said it was okay.

Gar!

The Big Move

2007-05-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that most of you know that Craig and I are moving, but it seems like for so long it's been an elusive concept. Never really seeming to happen. But now, it's really happening.

First of all, we're moving to PORTLAND. Yes, we told most of you that we were moving to Denver, but i picked Lewis and Clark Law School instead, since i liked the school better.

We've got an apartment in Lake Oswego, and our move-in date is JUNE 16. We've already got a moving truck scheduled and our cars are going to be shipped out. It's really going to happen this time.

The very tentative schedule is this:

June 5 - pack up everything we own
June 7 - send our cars on their way
June 9th - fly out to CA (we have a cool organ concert we're going to)
June 14 - fly back NC, pick up cats and remaining things
June 16 or 17 - fly with cats to Oregon
June 18 - stuff arrives in Oregon, unload/move in

Fear not, North Carolinians. This isn't the end.

We'll be back in NC on July 3rd to help celebrate our friends' wedding- Mike and Sonja are getting married on 7/7/07. So we'll be here for that. Then Craig goes back to OR on July 9th, and I stay here in NC until the 11th, at which point i go to Dallas for the RWA National Conference (and hopefully sell my book). Then on the 15th, I head back to OR. Which is where we'll be (probably) until school starts for me on August 23rd.

So that's the plan as it stands right now. If you have any questions or want to volunteer to help us move out or in, email me :)

Also, everyone in NC should plan on attending on last big party at the PC to say goodbye. More about that later!

The move is on...

2007-05-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

We booked a moving truck, which means that this moving thing is getting serious. Our truck shows up here on June 5, and then we have 2 days to pack it. And then it takes our stuff away and magically reappears at our new Oregon apartment on June 18. Magical, no?

So, that's the plan. We still don't know what we're doing with our cars, but we'll figure it out. Also, we're going to have a huge party before we leave. If you're in NC, i expect you to attend...

I see famous people!

2007-05-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Go check out my blog about my recent celebrity activity!

http://so5girls.blogspot.com

I'm way more entertaining over there anyways :)

Happily lost in the world of internet research

2007-05-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm supposed to be researching my book. But check out what I came across!

What's your Viking name?

Mine is:

Your Viking Name is...
Ósk Shieldsmasher

(Well, actually, that wouldn't really be your name -- since you're female, your name would be something like "Ósk Björnsdottir". But this is the twenty-first century, and you want to be known for who you are, not for who your father was, right? Right.)

Your Viking Personality: You're a fearsome Viking, but you aren't completely uncivilized. The other Vikings make fun of you for that. You have a thirst for battle, and tend to strike first and think later. You might be able to hold your own on the battlefield, but you're no "berserker".

You might grumble a bit at the lack of amenities on board a Viking longboat, but you can handle it. Other Vikings tolerate your presence, though they're not quite sure if they can trust you to fight dirty.

You have a fairly pragmatic attitude towards life, and tend not to expend effort in areas where it would be wasted. Other people tend to think of you as manipulative and conniving.

Excitement on the writing front!

2007-04-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just received this via email...

"Your submission to Ellora's Cave Publishing has been read by our initial editorial reviewer. She felt it showed strong potential and has placed it in queue for an acquiring editor to consider. An editor will contact you if interested in seeing more of the story. Unfortunately, we are very backlogged and that step can take an additional six to twelve months or more. We do want to give every submission the attention it deserves.

Sincerely,
Submissions Review, Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc."

Pretty cool!
Except, you know, the whole 6 to 12 month waiting time. But since they told me it was going to be 2 months before they responded to my initial query and it only took them 10 or 11 days to get back to me, I'm staying positive.

As Sonja would say... SQUEE!

Website!

2007-04-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello out there in blogland!

I'm sure you've already noticed the stylish new design of my blog. Of course, this redesign is due to the unveiling of my new website! www.skyeforbes.com

Please note the site works best viewed with Firefox (still working out the IE bugs)

Let me know what you think!

Apparently my fans are clamoring...

2007-04-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

for me to update my blog. Which I am now doing. However, I have nothing to report. So this will be just a short blog post to say: I have nothing to say.

That is all.

Also,

2007-03-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

Buy Sonja's Book!!

Alright. I think I know...

2007-03-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

what I'm going to do. I'm going to stick with Lewis and Clark. So I'm still going to Portland. :) Really, what it came down to was the fact that when I was making the decision in the first place, I wasn't even thinking about CU Boulder. I was deciding between L&C and University of Denver (DU). So then when the money came along, it really shouldn't make that much of a difference, right? I mean, just because it's free, doesn't mean I should attend a school I'm not that interested in. Right? Right?!?!

So it's still off to Portland for me... hi ho, hi ho...

Aaaaaaaaargh!

2007-03-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so right after I posted the bit about how I was going to go to Lewis and Clark and yay I had made a decision, I got home to find, in the mail, an offer from Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, offering me a free ride in terms of tuition. A FREE RIDE!!! That's a freaking lot of money, people. I mean, yeah, Lewis and Clark is giving me $15,000 a year for 3 years, but that still leaves $10,000 of tuition unaccounted for. CU Boulder is willing to pay for it all!

Now what do I do?

Who won the pool?

2007-03-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

Anyone who placed their bets on Lewis and Clark in Portland, OR should be collecting their money right about now. Yep, that's right, I finally made a decision. It was hovering between University of Denver and Lewis and Clark for a long time, and I finally just sucked it up and accepted my seat at Lewis and Clark.

So, for all you Oregonians out there... I'll see you soon. For all you Coloradoans, sorry! But i'll come visit! :)

It'll be good to be back on the west coast again. And no, I don't know when we're moving yet, so don't ask. I'll post that when I know :)

Email subscriptions

2007-02-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hi all of you out there in reader land...

Now you can subscribe to my blog via email. Which is great! Of course, you're thinking, I've had the email subscription thing up for a while and it hasn't been working. But now it is! Before I accidentally was using the So 5 email subscription, so if you tried to subscribe to me, it just added you to the So 5 blog subscription. Which isn't bad, since I'm WAY wittier over there. But now if you want to pay attention only to me... you can!

Head over to the right and add your email address into my subscription link. And like the Borg, you'll be assimilated.

:) Happy reading

Want to know where I'm going to school?

2007-02-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Yeah, me too. I've finished all my touring and still have no idea where I want to go. Well, I do have an idea, but I'm keeping mum until I can figure it all out myself. There's always the Craig factor and the living factor to, well, factor in.

So keep tuning in. Eventually I'll make a decision...

The final count is in...

2007-02-17T23:42:00.000-08:00

7 out of 8 law schools want me. I actually haven't heard officially from U of O, but the admissions guy (while polishing my shoes with his tongue) basically told me I was in and to "please please please come" (okay, not a DIRECT quote).

Yes, the only lame school to not recognize my genius is University of Washington, but to be honest, i could care less. I mean, now i don't have to visit the school, which will leave more time for partying with my friends in Seattle :)

And another one bites the dust!

2007-02-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Just got an email acceptance letter from University of Denver. They love me too :) No scholarship this time, though, so perhaps I'm losing my touch...

Even more good news!

2007-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

By this point, all of my loyal subscribers are like, yeah, yeah, we get it. You've got a lot of good news. But i don't care. I'm going to share it with you anyways.

This time, the large envelope came from Lewis and Clark Law school in Portland Oregon. I got in there undergrad and decided not to go because of a few factors, but their law school is ranked number 1 in Environmental Law, which is what I think i'm interested in. So that's exciting. And, even more exciting, they also offered me a scholarship of $15,000 a year, renewable.

Hooray for me, even if you guys are tired of doing the happy dance for me. :)

More good news!

2007-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

My alma mater Willamette University (rhymes with dammit) has decided they really do love me! Not only did they let me into their law school, but they also offered me a scholarship to come back. A $24,000 a year scholarship, to be exact. A renewable one. Which is pretty badass, if i do say so myself.

Go me!

Fabio!

2007-01-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

Fabio!

If you love Fabio as much as ... well, okay, no one loves Fabio. But if you want to hear my heartrending tale of heartache and triumph in the LA airport (starring Fabio), cruise on over to my other blog, So 5, and check it out:

I love Fabio!

Good news!

2007-01-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

Congratulations are in order to me!

I got into UC Boulder Law School! It has been, thus far, my top choice, which makes it even more exciting that it was the first one that I heard back from, not to mention that I got in!! Anyways, I'm still not sure I'll definitely go there, but it's looking likely.

Eeek! I guess that means now I have to go to law school!

Oh well. Check it out... http://www.colorado.edu/law/

Man, i hate it when I feel pressure to post

2006-12-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

Now that i'm posting regularly on the So 5 girls blog, I have to go to that page to see what's going on (since Feedburner hates me). And Sonja, darling girl that she is, made the sidebar show our own personal blogs. And it's depressing to look at it and realize that MY blog headline never changes, because i'm too lazy, while Sonja changes hers daily. Yes, i'm a slacker. :)

Anywho, it's Christmas eve and while i should be helping my parents wrap Christmas presents for the low low price of $50 an hour, I decided to post to my faithful blog readers instead. Of which i'm pretty sure there are none. But who knows. Perhaps Sonja can tell me how to check and see if anyone loves me enough to subscribe to my blog. (i did provide a nice link on the sidebar now!)

So, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good day. :)

Last Day at Work!

2006-12-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's sort of my last day at work. Except, you know, not really. But I like to pretend.

Of course, I'm so valuable around here that I was forced to set up my own going away party (and combine it with holiday treats), so really, it's not that exciting.

But i did eat a company funded bear claw. So all is good in the world. :)

Here I am!

2006-12-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, so i moved over here so normal people could comment on my posts. Because I'm a comment whore.

At any rate... if you're not doing anything else, you should check out my new dueling blog with Sonja at http://so5girls.blogspot.com

That's pretty much all that I feel like writing now (since it took a year and a day to get all the old posts transferred over... and some of them still aren't right, so i'm going to fix them now...

Bored at work

2006-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Chris. :) I figured you should get your own post since you're the person who bugs me about not blogging the most...

:)

Writing?

2006-07-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

What writing? (you'll note i've lowered my goal number) :)

I'm famous! But only in New Jersey...

2006-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, I think you should check me out. :)

Skye is awesome

I'm back to writing again!

2006-05-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm totally jacking this idea from Sonja but i'm just thrilled to be writing again.

She and I are not sure what the creature is, but feel free to guess for yourself. And check back up to see if i ever finish the darn thing...

Because Joanna is so cool... and I have the day off!

2006-05-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Generic much?

Your Birthdate: December 17

You tend to find yourself lucky - both in business and in life.
And while being wealthy is nice, you enjoy sharing your abundance with others.
You put your luck to good use: you are very ambitious and goal oriented.
Often times, you get over excited and take on more than you can manage.

Your strength: Your ability to make your own luck

Your weakness: Thinking you can do it all

Your power color: Bronze

Your power symbol: Half Moon

Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What?

Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Deer

Animal You Were in a Past Life: Panda

You are a fun-seeker - an adventurous, risk-taker.
While you are spontaneous, you are not very rational.

The Animal Personality Test

Okay, this one is actually right. :)

Your Theme Song is Groove is in the Heart by Dee-lite

"We're going to dance
And have some fun"

For you, life should be one huge party...
And even though it's not, you tend to dance your troubles away!

What's Your Theme Song?

I was hoping for French Crueller. But i love any kind of donut, so i'm okay with this, even though i'm plain. :)

You Are a Glazed Donut

Okay, you know that you're plain - and you're cool with that.
You prefer not to let anything distract from your sweetness.
Your appeal is understated yet universal. Everyone dig you.
And in a pinch, you'll probably get eaten.

What Donut Are You?

And one last perfect one...

You Are In a Crunch Ice Cream

The perfect combo: a completely nuts person who likes to be touched

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

My guest blog elsewhere

2006-02-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Sonja is super fabulous and asked me to write a guest blog for her. So go there! Read it, revel in the deep emotional places it takes you to and enjoy. Also, please comment. You don't have to be a registered user to comment on hers, unlike mine.

Click here for Skye's super awesome guest blog

Me and Craig

2005-11-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

For you demanding people... Me and Craig (yes, i'm in hooker makeup, i know, it's from the dance showcase)

Craig looks very suspicious of the camera, but that's because he's not used to my family taking 4 million photos. :)

Maggie, the wonderful

2005-11-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

I just feel this sums up my whole life... courtesy of the ever fabulous Maggie.

in case you can't read it...

Skye: I can dance like the stars!
Yuriy: I am overwhelmed by her effervescent personality as well as her skill and precision on the dance floor

:)

Showcase!

2005-11-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

pictures from Friday's dance showcase, courtesy of the lovely and talented sonja.

aren't i pretty? i mean, hooker makeup and all? :)

that's the dress. cool, eh? and i already owned it, so i didn't have to shell out the big bucks. I got this dress when i went to england for brit lit, after i graduated high school. good thinking ahead on my part, i gotta say. :)

the beginning pose. I was so nervous i was shaking. I'm not big on the whole "public" thing :) people kept yelling my name, so i was kind of laughing too -- ah, it's good to have friends.

the first move. everyone was shocked when i pulled out the gun. I ditch it a few steps later in the dance, but i kept it hidden when i walked out, so unless you knew it was coming, me pulling out the gun was a big surprise. The reason for the gun? well, the showcase was a cha cha, performed to Madonna's Die Another Day, the James Bond theme song from the most recent movie. So we went with a James Bond theme. :) Too cool for words, i know.

this photo cracks me up. It's a pose, right after i've ditched the gun and trust me, my neck is NOT supposed to be sticking out that way :) We call it "turtle neck" in the biz (don't i sound like such a pro?) anyways, Yuriy's always telling me to watch my body, which is Ukrainian for "make sure your posture is good and you don't look like a turtle, you moron" :) but my lines are nice here... and my hand styling is all pro, baby.

um, Yuriy's such a ham. :)

more pics...

i kind of look like i'm doing a disco move here, but i'm not. i swear. that was Karen's performance, not mine :) i'm actually pushing Yuriy away.

one of the last moves...

this is us walking off... you can tell by the giant grin on my face. SO happy to be done :)

so, that's it. I have a bunch more pictures of Sunday's performance, but i haven't got those with me right now, so i'll post them later.
:)
Skye aka Bond, Jane Bond.

Craig

2005-11-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

Because everyone complained, a better picture of Craig. You can actually see his face in this one. :)

Halloween!

2005-11-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

Halloween- my favoritest holiday. I mean, a whole day devoted to gluttony and self-delusion. Well, okay, that's not what i like about it. I like the dressing up part :) I also like carving pumpkins.

Here's my pumpkin from this year... i tried to be more creative than usual.

Of course, i think it i turned out fabulously...

And for Halloween this year, i was two different versions of Rainbow Brite (if you don't know who that is, you're obviously not a girl from the 80s)

First, the modest version... It was a last minute change before the dance party i had to go to... i figured i'd keep the dance studio oblivious to what i really am :)

And i totally went all out with it too.

I had ribbons in my hair...

Fantastic shoes....

And i even painted my nails and toenails every different color of the rainbow...

Of course, then there was the much more risque version... with all the trappings above, of course.

it was kind of short...

So i had to keep adjusting my leg warmers...

But still. awesome costume, n'est-ce pas?

Bryn took my idea for a costume... He's Gulliver, from Gulliver's Travels. He has little lego people tied to ropes (you know, Lilliputians... Gulliver got tied down, but got away) :)

and just in case not every one was quite as literary as his little sister, he wore a name tag that said "Hello, my name is Gulliver"

All in all, good Halloween. I went to two parties with Craig... he's the guy hiding behind the chandelier in this photo...

He was a doctor... you can see he's holding his lab coat in his hand. :) (last photo by Sonja, from her awesome party)

Lots of fun... I met a Punky Brewster, and we had an 80s fabulous moment :) I didn't go to Chapel Hill, but had a jolly good time anyways.

There, happy now? Halloween pictures for all to see...

More dance photos

2005-10-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

new dance photos from an exhibition i did

photos courtesy of my fabulous friend Sonja

Me, being goofy

2005-10-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

me, being goofy. just wanted to share that with the world. :)

woah. just went back and looked at it after posting it. being goofy GIANT sized. too lazy to resize it tho, so oh well.

ha ha! finally fixed it. now i'm vaguely normal sized

skye

Photos from said Honduras trip

2005-06-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry that was such a hassle. But here they are! (at least some of them, that is...)

that's patrick in front of his house... see? not a hut or anything. Although, occasionally there's no water :)

some of the countryside- yeah, it's blurry, but i took it from a moving car. so sue me. isn't it pretty?

the view from our doorway at the B&B in Copan Ruinas. Looks like we were suffering, right?

Me with my backpack. bet you guys didn't think i could look so awesomely outdoorsy, did you?

A gratuitous picture of Patrick without his shirt on. :)

I told you we took a lot of butterfly pictures :)

Patrick, hunting butterflies

pretty much the only wildlife we saw. other than bugs. :)

we are here. at the copan ruinas.

pretty mayan ruins...

me, with pretty mayan ruins

Patrick, thinking about the pretty mayan ruins

look! we really were there together!

and the only other picture that proves it!

My Honduras trip!

2005-06-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

My Honduras trip!! (i'll post pictures sometime, i swear)

My trip to Honduras began way before the butt crack of dawn- my flight left at 6:15 or something insane like that, so i was up at 4 something... Totally sucked. But that's okay. I drove myself, so as not to inflect that kind of pain on anyone else i knew- and Bryn picked up the car the next day so it all worked out.

As soon as i got on the plane to Miami- I fell asleep. I mean, who wouldn't? Thanks to flying so often, I'd booked exit row seats in advance, so i had plenty of leg room, which was freaking awesome. :)

Once i woke up, i started reading a book that Sonja had lent me- It's by one of the writers in our local chapter, so that was interesting- first book i'd read from someone i actually knew really well -- i've met quite a few of the writers that i read, but this was different. Plus it was a bookcrossing book (www.bookcrossing.com) so i could leave it when i was done with it, which was nice, so that i didn't have to lug around a ton of books.

I should point out at this time how reasonably i packed. I _only_ had a backpack (hiker's pack, mind you, but still only a backpack) and when i left, it was about 1/3 full of the stuff that Patrick had asked me to bring. I mean, i was packing a coffee bean grinder and 2 pounds of Starbucks coffee... does it sound like he's living a rough life while in the Peace Corps? I think not.

So i had to hang out in the Miami airport for about 4 hours- no biggie. I found a Starbucks, and read my book. Which i finished and left in the airport when i caught the next flight.

The next flight was also uneventful, save the person sitting next to me was reading a book called "Jesus, CEO" so i was worried that 1) she'd try and convert me and 2) Jesus was a CEO?!?! I must have misread the Bible somewhere along the way. You can't trust those new fangled translations, i guess. :)

Anyways, got off the plane, and through customs with no problems... Although at the airport i did encounter the first instance of something that happend throughout the trip... The customs officer referred to me by my middle name... which was a little weird... and having had sometime to think about it, i'd guess that my middle name (Melinda) is easier for them to pronounce, since it is spanish anyways, instead of my first name which always gives non english speakers trouble. Anywho, no biggie. I'm pretty aware of what my middle name is, so being called that wasn't a hardship.

Patrick met me at the airport in Teguc (what locals call the capital of Honduras- short for Tegucigulpa - which is pronounced differently than most of you probably learned)- he gave me a quick hug, which confused me at first, but i figure now that i was probably jabbing him (or hugging, you know) right where his stitches were, so i just have to say "Sorry Pat!" :) I didn't mean to hurt you.

Then we grabbed a taxi to the Peace Corps office- according to Patrick, you have to tell the taxi driver to take you to the red building - the Red Building. :) The office is right across the street. I used the bathroom (you guys didn't know you'd be getting this much detail, did you? Don't worry, i'll get more vague soon) and learned of the plumbing in Honduras- it was one of the few "Third World" things that really sticks out... You can't flush toilet paper down the toilet... which i'd actually figured would be the case ahead of time, since i've had to do that before, but still, it was the whole country instead of just parts of it. Crazy. Anywho, there's a trash basket next to every toilet -- but yes, there were toilets. Honduras really doesn't seem that "provincial" -- i never had to use an outhouse or anything like that, and although you couldn't drink the water, there was plenty of filtered water to go around.

Right, so we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near the peace corps office, and then went to Patrick's optometrist -- he'd gotten sunglasses that weren't actually sunglasses, so he went to complain about that. Then we caught a bus up to a small town in the hills above Teguc called Santa Lucia. Well, technically, we caught a bus to the turnoff to Santa Lucia and then caught a jalon (spanish for hitchhiking) to Santa Lucia. It's the "yuppie suburb" according to Patrick... and it's where he did his peace corps training... they've since moved the training center, but it was the cutest town. We stayed at the only hotel there- a "resort spa" which was awesome. Hotel Santa Lucia -- It was down this road and was secluded... they gave us our own cabin, which had a porch that over looked a valley -- so nice. I was tempted to stay there forever, but Patrick convinced me we had to move on.

We wandered around the town a little bit, then had dinner at our hotel -- we weren't that hungry, so we split something, which was pretty much our method for the rest of the trip. Then, after dinner, we were told that they let the guard dogs out, so if we wanted to leave our room, we should let them know first. :) We didn't leave our room, just in case. But we hung out, watched CSI -- poor Patrick is deprived of good TV.

The next morning, we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, wandered back to town -- saw Patrick's host mom briefly... they chatted. I should say here that, in case you're wondering, i understand a whole lot of spanish. If i know the context, i can pretty much follow a conversation... there's still some vocab i don't know, but for the most part i had no troubles with comprehension. However, whenever i try and speak more than a few words of spanish, it comes out French. Which does no one any good. :) So i mostly kept my mouth shut and let Patrick do the talking... he claims he can't speak Spanish, but he really does very well.

Then we saw the church in Santa Lucia- which was closed up- another strange coincidence we encountered throughout the trip- apparently there'd been a memo that i was coming and they shut down all the churches. :) Then we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the road to catch either a bus or a jalon back to Teguc.

That's basically how you get around in Honduras- most people don't own cars, so you either ride one of the many buses that runs between towns- they're all old american school buses, too, which is funny- i saw a Berkeley County School District one and a couple others -- but most of them have painted over the school district stuff... but they're still yellow and a whole lot like my childhood. Unfortunately, they weren't comfortable when i rode the bus to junior high, and i've only gotten taller since then, so they aren't the best method of transportation, but very convenient. Hitchhiking (or catching a jalon) is also really great- it's very easy- if you're walking down a road, just stick out your hand and chances are they'll stop and you can tell them where you're going and hop in the back of their pickup truck. Way fun. :) They were especially willing to pick up two gringos walking along, since i think they were convinced we didn't know any better than to try and walk to our destinations. :)

Anyways, this very nice lady in a Mitsubishi SUV picked us up and drove us into Teguc, which was great because 1) she was nice, 2) she turned around to pick us up, 3) she took us further than we expected and 4) the car was air conditioned. We stopped at a market to pick up a few groceries and then caught a taxi that has a set route to the bus station on the other side of Teguc- because they have a set route they're cheaper, but they pack you in with as many other people as will fit in a taxi, so it was a little crowded- on the way there, i was in the middle seat and some Honduran lady was next to me and near the open window- at one point we stopped in the "rough" part of town for traffic, and some guy leaned through the window and grabbed her 20 lempira bill out of her hand. It was the only sign of crime or violence i saw the entire time i was there, despite the warnings of the state dept.

Lempiras are the currency- there's 18.8 to the dollar-- which makes everything pretty inexpensive, so that was kind of nice.

Anyways, we got to the bus station, caught a bus to Comayagua -- we walked to go see the church there, but it was also closed. So we stopped at another grocery store, and then headed back to the bus place... there aren't that many "bus stations" per se, but there are places where the buses stop. There's usually locals with water and snacks that they can sell you through the window - and we caught a bus to La Paz, and switched to a bus to Marcala there.

Marcala is Patrick's site- he lives there and has an office there. A lot of his work is down out in the campo (the countryside) but he's based in Marcala. It's a fair sized town- 10,000 people or so, and at a higher elevation, so it's slightly cooler there.

The weather wasn't that bad, to be honest... it's probably a little warmer than NC in the summer, but we have them beat on humidity... oh, wait... that's not a good thing...

Hmm... i should speed things up... look at how much i've written and i'm only on the second day...

Okay, so in Marcala- we got in, dropped our stuff off at Patrick's house- then went into town for a meal- he showed me how high the river had gotten during their recent hurricane (which had everyone freaked out because they were slammed by Mitch in 1996, but this one turned out to be a minor tropical storm, at best) -- we ate and then grabbed a mattress from Logan's (another peace corps volunteer in Marcala's) house and then went back to Patrick's place.

The next day, we went into Patrick's office so he could make a phone call- and i got to see what it is that he does. Basically (and i know i'm going to butcher this explanation, so if you're reading this Patrick, i'm sorry) he works on the Water and Sanitation project and since he's a civil engineer, they have him designing water projects for communities that have a water source but don't have anyway to get water to their homes. So he goes out into the campo, and does a topo study (that's a study of the topography- the land elevations, for those of you who aren't "in" with the "lingo") :) Then he heads back to the office, and has this super cool excel spreadsheet in which he inputs the data he collects in the topo study and poof, a water project plan appears. :) Pretty neat, eh?

Marcala is a pretty neat little town- Patrick showed me the central park- He and Lacy (Lacey?) are working on a project to make it nicer- they're going to paint and change the lampposts and put an octagonal tourist kiosk in the park, so that's pretty cool. He also showed me a spot where he wants to put together a proposal to tidy up and get a guy to paint a mural near a basketball court, so he's definitely helping the town out.

Then we had this great plan in which we were going to go up to this waterfall area that Patrick had heard about, so we changed into our swimsuits, put on our hiking boots, and headed out to catch a jalon, but as we were standing there waiting, there was thunder and lightning and it started raining. So we headed back to his place to wait out the storm- we hung out reading... but basically, we ran out of day before we ran out of storm, so i never did get to see the waterfalls.

One funny story about Patrick's place is that the water is somewhat unreliable... so we got in the first day- sweaty and gross (you try wearing tons of sunscreen, bug spray, then hiking and riding buses in the heat) and Patrick gallantly offered to let me shower first. I said it was okay, that he could go first. So he did, and then when it was my turn, there was no water... it wasn't that he'd used it up, just that it was gone. :) So i had to wait a couple hours for my shower, all the while thinking that being polite will get you no where :)

So the night after our aborted waterfall trip- we headed over to Logan's house (he was elsewhere- maybe in the states visiting people) and used his kitchen to cook a meal... Patrick was like "hey, can you help cook?" and then basically chopped vegetables while i did everything else. I was glad to "help" :) I'd sent him some spices and curries in a package several months ago, but which had arrived about a week before i did. Honduran food is somewhat plain, so Patrick was craving spice... and, man, did he get it. We made saffron rice, which was pretty good, then there was this "hot" curry... we put in vegetables and tofu, and it was so spicy it practically made me cry... but Patrick was happy, so that was good... we got to listen to music really loudly since Logan doesn't have any neighbors- and there was this evangelical church nearby in which they were singing and being loud, so we drowned them out with Metallica and other hard rock. :)

Then, when we were done eating, we tried to wash up, but Logan's water had gone off for the night, so we decided to come back the next morning before we left and do it then.

The next morning, however, the water still wasn't back on, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that Patrick remembered to go by Logan's and do the dishes before he got back, because the place smelled like curry. :) We headed out- catching a jalon with a nice man to La Esperanza- they have a new road going in, but it's not ready yet, so we had to take the old road, and it was quite a bumpy ride. From there we caught a jalon in a big commercial truck with a bunch of other people to ... i want to say San Juan, but i'm not sure that's right ... and from there another jalon to Gracias - where we actually saw the inside of the first church - and then had lunch at this cool restaurant. Then we went to see the castle there- and saw some guys taking pictures there that Patrick swears he kept seeing for days afterwards at a couple different towns - and then we grabbed a bus to Santa Rosa de Copan.

We got in - and decided to stay at "the nicest hotel in Santa Rosa" Hotel Elvir -- which turned out to have a rooftop pool, which we planned to make use of but never actually did... so we dropped our stuff off, showered and changed... then i turned my clothes over to a laundromat- i didn't take that much stuff and when you're getting as hot and gross as i was, i needed to do laundry. :) we checked out email and then headed out to wander around and see the town. The only truly touristy thing to do in Santa Rosa is to visit the cigar factory - they have tours, but we were half an hour away from the closing time, so we figured we'd pass. We found their central park, which had this awesome two story gazebo thing in the middle, and we sat up top and watched a storm roll in -- Patrick was very impressed with their park, and i could see him revamping plans in his head so that now Marcala might wind up with at two story tourist kiosk. :)

Then we found this restaurant that Patrick had been to before - Flamingos- a peace corps person had taken a bunch of them there, but Patrick was sick,so he hadn't eaten- so we went back... it was really good! we were the only ones in our section for quite a while, and we drank wine and chatted - we do this question thing-- which always leads to really interesting conversations and, occasionally, revelations about ourselves. In the course of this, we managed to down two bottles of wine, so it's fair to say that we more stumbled than walked back to the hotel.

Once there, we managed to have a conversation about us and what we meant to each other- (Pat, if you're reading this, sorry i'm sharing it with the world, but a lot of people want to know...) and if you are a person who doesn't want to know, skip to the next paragraph. We talked and basically came to the decision that 1) we love each other but we're not _in_ love with each other and 2) we can't imagine our lives without each other in them. Patrick is a best friend and twin brother rolled into one for me... and i can't imagine not having him around. Admittedly, a large portion of this decision was not mine, but i respect what we decided and am glad just to have him in my life. If you want more details, email me.

Alright, moving on. The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (feeling not as bad as we both had expected), and then we picked up the laundry and headed out... we'd read in the guidebook we had that there was a coffee factory in Santa Rosa that did tours, so we took a taxi there -- but in a fairly entertaining way, they'd never heard that they did tours. I mean, it was in the book, but everyone we talked to was pretty confused and kept passing us off to other people. Eventually, some guy was willing to show us around, so he showed up the huge mountains of bags of beans that came in... showed us the drying room, the sorting machines, and the whole works. Then they showed us the roasting place- they don't roast the stuff that leaves the country. I didn't get a whole lot out of his tour because 1) the vocab was way out of my league and 2) it was really loud and i couldn't hear him most of the time. But they let us buy some coffee- (Mom and Dad- that's where your beans came from- straight from the factory)

So after that, we headed to the bus stop and caught a bus to Copan Ruinas, which is a town that is fueled by tourism... it's near the border to Guatamala and had huge Mayan ruins, so there were quite a few gringos there... All the rest of the trip, Patrick and i were pretty much the only gringos we saw... lots of people would stare at me, Patrick says it's because they've never seen such a tall woman, but i suspect that my blond hair and pale skin didn't hurt either. :) For some reason, the only english word that most of the Honduren~os know is "bye" or "goodbye" or sometimes "bye bye" which was pretty entertaining, since they braver ones would yell that at us as we walked by.

Anyways, there were plenty of tourists in Copan. We stayed at a bed and breakfast owned by a Honduran/American couple - Casa de Cafe - - it was really nice - we had a fan in our room, which was pretty exciting. And they had hammocks in the backyard, so we instantly formulated a plan to stay a night long and spend a day relaxing in hammocks.

The first afternoon, after we'd cleaned up, we went to lunch at a restaurant run by a Dutch couple that advertised homemade bread... they got our order wrong, but the bread was good. :)

Then we headed out to a butterfly exhibit that had been started by a former peace corps volunteer from california- he raises them... so that was pretty cool. Patrick and i spent quite a while there, stalking the butterflies, trying to get good pictures. For some reason, they aren't well trained and despite our commands, refused to land on us. Who knows why :)

Funnily enough, my camera- i had taken it along, but pretty much forgot about it until Copan- i have a couple pictures before that, but not many, so the majority of the pictures i took in Honduras are of butterflies. And, to be honest, Patrick took most of those. :) Oh well.

That night, we went to a restaurant on the recommendation of the b&b owners called Twisted Tanyas. We actually met Tanya- she was really awesome (and British)- and invited us to drink with her the next night (that would be Sunday, if you're keeping track) -- the food was excellent and the restaurant amazing- open air, with curtains...

Then that night we crashed at the hotel and sometime during the night, the power went off. And with the power, the water. So the whole town was without water or power for most of Sunday... We got up, discovered this, and then had breakfast that the b&b provided. Mmm... fruit (it was mango season and we saw literally a billion mangos for sale everywhere. okay, probably not literally, but they were everywhere... and i was just glad to eat fruit that wasn't mangos)... Anyways, then we headed out to the ruins... which were pretty darn spectacular. Unfortunately, i wasn't feeling spectacular- headache, that sort of thing, and it was the hottest day by far that we'd encountered. It was easily in the high 90s and out at the ruins there wasn't much relief from the sun. So we wandered about, climbed a lot of stairs (man, those Mayans were fond of their stairs), avoided the throngs of tourists, and took some pictures. We had tried to get there early to avoid the heat, but that didn't work, so we ended up heading back into town after only a couple hours to get out of the heat. We went to another restaurant that was recommended, but it was so hot and dark it was hard to enjoy. The power was still out, and i wandered past the kitchen at one point and spotted that they were cooking by the light of one candle... :) so then we headed back to the hotel where we staked our claim on two hammocks and spent the afternoon reading. Two new couples showed up that afternoon-- both were sort of peeved about the lack of power and water, being hot and tired as we were, but it's easy to be philosophical about such things when you're in a hammock with a good book. :)

We did learn that the power outage had been scheduled and was due to turn back on at 3, which didn't quite happen, but we did have power and water in time for dinner. So we showered and relaxed and then headed to a pizza place in town owned by a guy from Houston -- it had started to rain during the afternoon, so we grabbed our rain gear and marched off to dinner- tasty pizza. Of course, during dinner, it became a massive thunderstorm and just after we finished eating, the power went out in the city. :) again. But not on purpose this time. And let me tell you, when the power goes out there, it is DARK. :) the pizza place had a generator and a couple other buildings did too... so we left the pizza place, then went to Tanya's other bar -- and had a couple drinks. Then we decided to adventure back to the hotel...

Imagine this... it's pouring down rain, totally pitch black, and the streets are either cobblestones or dirt and running with rivers of water. It was an adventure. We were holding hands, picking our way carefully through the town, navigating by the glimpses we could see of the roads during the flashes of lightning... i'm sure you get the picture. the absurdity of it hit us and we were giggling and this older honduran woman came out to see what we were doing... i'm pretty sure she thought the two gringos were crazy, but we had a good time. And no one died... :)

Once we made it back- completely soaked (we didn't quite manage to miss a few of the larger puddles) and back in our rooms, we were dismayed at how hot and humid it still was... so Patrick wound up sleeping on the floor since we were sharing a bed and we didn't even want to think about the possibility of touching each other accidentally. I tell you, i don't know how that country has a birthrate at all... :)

The next morning power and water still hadn't come back on, so we had breakfast, then the couple gave us a 5 gallon jug of filtered water to use for everything, so we made due. Then we decided we needed a picture of the two of us, and got a couple taken (and by couple i actually mean just 2) and then wandered past Tanya's bar, which was serving coffee- so we grabbed a couple iced coffees (which made Patrick tickled pink) and then headed for the bus station.

We'd decided to splurge on the trip back to Teguc, because if we took the school buses, it would have been a 8 or 9 hour ride, since they stop to pick up anyone on the side of the road, plus they're wicked uncomfortable, so we'd decided to use the luxury bus service- it's my understanding that they only go to a few of the bigger cities, but they're really nice- they are the touring buses that we have here in the states- air conditioned, nice seats that recline, you get to watch a movie, and they don't stop for anything. So we grabbed one of those and rode it to San Pedro Sula... where we got off and had to wait an hour for our next bus... we sat in the waiting room and there was this movie showing -- it was like an after school special about gambling, or something... it was about this lady who was addicted to slot machines and how she started embezzling from her company to pay for it and her kids kept getting into trouble... very emotional... we were watching it because there wasn't anything else to do, and at this one dramatic scene, a guy behind us goes "she's gonna sell her children" and all the gringos in the room cracked up. Interestingly enough, as much fun of it as we made, when we got to Teguc, there's a casino right next to the hotel we stayed at and i was like, No, Casino Bad! so apparently it worked after all.

We caught the bus to Teguc- the first bus had "The Notebook" showing on it, which i didn't watch because i knew it would make me cry, and the second bus showed "I am David" or something random like that-- i'd never heard of it, and my impression from the first few minutes was that it was about prisoners of war or something, so i passed on watching it. Plus i'd gotten a really bad headache, so i napped.

In Teguc, we stayed at the Hotel Maya -- it used to be the nicest in town, but apparently there are some american chain hotels there now and it no longer holds that rank - but it was still pretty nice. It had a pool, which again we were going to use, but didn't.

We went to an italian restaurant (Tre Fratelli - which i was interested to note had a couple of restaurants in CA as well) for dinner- tasty tasty. Had steak with balsamic reduction sauce- which i picked and Patrick approved of.

Then back to the hotel for some American TV watching... :) we got to see a couple of old late night shows- Funny stuff, especially since it was totally out of date.

The next morning we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel, then went to the peace corps office and checked email- and then went back to Patrick's optometrist -- and picked up the real sunglasses at that point. Although they weren't that great- they were those transition lenses that are supposed to darken outside, but they never really got that dark, so i'm betting that patrick will have to make at least another couple trips to the optometrist to get what he wants.

Then we ... hmm... i feel like we had lunch, but can't remember for the life of me where we would have eaten... maybe we didn't. Maybe we just went straight to the airport. I checked in, browsed in a tourist shop in the airport -- although i'd already picked out some souvenirs for people in Copan Ruinas -- decided i didn't need anything and then had to go through security and back to my real life.

It was really sad to leave Patrick- I miss him when he's not around, but i loved my trip to Honduras and would gladly go back. I'm hoping to visit him again next spring and hopefully we'll go to the Bay Islands (everyone's heard of Roatan, right?) and maybe do some scuba diving.

So, in summary (not that any of you are still concious after reading this massive epic) i had a great time- it was awesome to see Patrick- amazing to see Honduras- which is beautiful and marvelous and much more impressive than i had expected (which is horrible but true) -- i highly recommend everyone go.

If you have any questions email me, but i understand if you never want me to email anything ever again, given how long this one was. :) But hey, you know me, i'm a writer. I can't help it.

Dance-y dance-y

2005-05-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

So, I'm posting pictures of me dancing... yes, i do ballroom. Yes, that cute guy dancing with me is my teacher... Yuriy. Ukrainian and straight (as far as i can tell... but with his accent we aren't the BEST at understanding each other...unless we're talking about dance) I adore him, in case you can't tell.

one of the posed ones... therefore, one of the only good ones. i look goofy in candid dance photos, apparently

the waltz... I look so serious because it's a serious dance. And, oh yeah, i suck. I'm much better at the latin dances -- i think that's because i'm good at shaking my booty (sonja, check out my vulcan death grip... guess i learned from the best of them...)

he's dipping me... he was showing off for the photographer. :) But hey, dipping is dipping. :) Good times. Doesn't Yuriy look like he's going to drop me?

i picked this one because although you can't really see my face -- check out my rack! :)

2005-05-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

Ta da! I have a blog. But i really only created it so i could post a comment and give someone a warm fuzzy that they really needed.