NS October 31st, 2007

So the two Halloween parties on Saturday went well. The kiddie one in the afternoon kicked off at 3pm and we had four children show up with their parent(s). Two were dressed as pumpkins, one as a spider and one as a witch. TNC was a cat, because she loves cats.

I finally (FINALLY!) finished painting the dining room and got it decorated in time. Not too bad if I do say so myself!

The kids had a good time, I think. They ran around the garden and played with toys and sticker sets I gave them. We had some snacks (french bread with roasted tomato hummus, pretzels, chocolate cake, spooky marshmallows and a few other Halloween sweets) and apple juice and then I handed out little treat bags as they left. All in all, it went really well and I didn’t feel stressed.

Phase II of the day consisted of cleaning up from that party, putting away the kiddie stuff and bringing out the booze, then getting into our costumes. A friend (L) came over early to help me get ready and I borrowed some of her accessories. We had a great time dressing me up as a beauty pageant contestant, complete with tiara, elbow-length gloves, huge sparkly earrings and a white sash. The costume was supposed to have a tongue-in-cheek air about it since I planned on intertwining some fake hair into the tiara with some blood to make it look like I’d ripped it off someone else’s head and write on the white sash “Runner Up” but then cross it out and write ‘Winner’ in blood. However, the fake hair kept falling out and, being British and not as acclimatised to beauty contests as us Yanks, not many of the guests ‘got it’ straight away and I kept having to explain it. I finally gave up and took the fake hair out and just started walking around saying “World Peace” and blinking a lot.

L pretending to beat the crap out of me with her bat

A strange group shot

Me, doing my best ‘psycho beauty queen’ imitation

No wonder the next door neighbours declined our invitation due to the fact that “they’re Christian.” If they’d seen us acting like this they’d have surely been throwing holy water over the fence and shielding their child’s eyes from looking directly at us, lest we kidnap him and sacrifice his prepubescent self on an altar in the middle of the giant salt pentagram in our garden.

If this holiday isn’t about roasting babies and being added to your neighbours’ prayer circle list, I don’t know what is. Happy Halloween everyone!!

• Banal Breakdown , Friends , Photos
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NS October 30th, 2007

No, not Halloween. November. Otherwise known around here as NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and also my own personal Get Freelance Career Started Or Die Month. Oh, and I have another (unpaid – boo! But I still love ya, gals) feature to write for The F Word. So essentially, for the duration of the next month, I will be writingwritingwriting, organising, submitting, blogging, editing, typing, updating, revising, researching, interviewing, networking and querying, not to mention a fair bit of pacing, crying, stressing, whining and undoubtedly drinking.

Fasten your seatbelts because if I’m going to embark on this crazy ride, I’m bringing you all with me. Air bags may deploy occasionally, hitting you square in the face, rendering you unconscious, but you’ll probably make it out okay. Whether I do or not remains to be seen. Wish me luck!

Now. To keep myself on task, I have made up a torturous to-do list for the next two weeks and want to post it here so that I can’t pretend I never wrote it and therefore can pretend it doesn’t exist. My deadline to get all of this done is Sunday November 11th.

• Check if library has good periodical section. If not, find out if any others nearby do
• Email two fellow freelancers to ask two specific questions
• Find more online magazines and their submission policies
• Find local/London/free mags and their submission policies
• Go through the giant stack of national women’s glossies sitting on my living room floor
• Join NUJ (National Union of Journalists) and Women Writers Network
• Order more resource books from Amazon
• Organise filing cabinet, computer files and work area
• Create spreadsheets to keep track of submissions
• Find sites where I can locate experts to interview on various subjects
• Research British media and copyright laws
• Buy printer
• Set myself up as self-employed for tax purposes
• Arrange visits to check out local daycares for Noble Child (considering putting her in for two half-days a week)
• Match existing ideas with 2-3 publications each and write queries
• Blog every day

I need you, my blogging biznitches, to keep me on track and what better way to achieve this than by promising to do something and asking you to encourage me through the beautiful art that is nagging. According to my husband I am a master nag so let me give you a few helpful tips:

• Be persistent. A true nag never lets something go
• Be vocal. Whispering isn’t going to spur your prey into action, fearing for life and limb
• Be repetitive. The person in need of direction often ignores first, second, third and even fourth reminders. Don’t be afraid to go double digits on their ass

I will give a progress report in a week. Let up, already!

• Career
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NS October 29th, 2007

Ugh. I walked by our local library today and noticed that over the weekend some person (or, undoubtedly, persons) had set fire to a nearby recycling bin and pushed it up against the library parking lot’s ticket machine, melting it down to almost nothing. Two weeks ago they had to get a new sign because some vandals spray painted obscene words in large green letters on the original one. Last week, as I was cutting through the parking lot on my way back from the shops, I saw a group of 8-10 year-old kids standing outside smoking cigarettes, kicking the door and throwing litter around. Thankfully, just as I was walking by, two cops showed up and started making their way towards them so I can only hope that they were run out of there quickly.

It’s just so sad though, that kids as young as that think they are being ‘cool’ by ruining public property and scaring people off by being offensive and intimidating. I know that a certain amount of bad behaviour is to be expected but not at this level, this magnitude and at such a young age. Where’s the respect? It really fires me up, not only to see these kids being so horrible but to know that they are doing it for attention they obviously never get at home. It’s such an odd combination of anger, disgust, pity, sadness and hopelessness and I don’t know what I can do to help them or help the problem. I suppose all I can do is raise my daughter to treat people and things with the respect they deserve and hope that she goes out into the world with a strong sense of right and wrong that will guide her in her actions and how she influences the world around her.

I wonder what the parents of these kids wish for at night.

• Parenting 101 , Public Service Announcements
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NS October 25th, 2007

This video makes me want to puke