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Captain's Log, Stardate 05.21.2005

I was supposed to accompany my husband to a youth group outing tonight to see Star Wars III. My husband, the darling man, said I didn't have to go because almost all the kids will be accompanied by their parents tonight. So instead I get to stay home and write.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I hate going to movie theaters. I have very definitive reasons why:

1) I always have to use the bathroom in the middle. No exceptions. For Lord of the Rings, I had to go twice. It doesn't matter if I go 3 times in the half hour before the movie starts, or if I don't drink anything the hour before and inside the theater.

2) Because I have to go to the bathroom, I have to make sure I get a seat at the end of a row, which stinks in terms of viewing the screen. When a theater is packed, like tonight will be, getting an end seat becomes ten times more difficult. Since I get motion sickness easily, I can't sit in the very front row and I need to find that all-important end seat in the rows at the back half of the theater.

3) Even before I tore my ACL, my knee ached when I sat for too long. My knee was always stiff and painful when I got up to use the bathroom, and at the end of the movie. Since the surgery, I haven't gone to a theater to test how bad it is. I can't think that reconstructive surgery would improve things.

My article "Writing Styles: Confessions of a Plotter Who Used to Be a Pantser" appeared in Spirit-Led Writer today. I'm totally stoked. It's the same article that appeared in the ACFW newsletter last month. These article publishing credits are so rare for me because I don't write many articles and don't have the writing experience to say anything unique or credible anyway.

Writing: Finished my suspense proposal, now I just need my friends to finish critting my manuscript so I can send it to my agent. Now I also have time to look over other peoples' writing--I've been meaning to get to Pammer's stuff for WEEKS (sorry about that, Pams), and Squirly just sent me her awesome military ops romance, Ominous Code. Woohoo! I also hope to get more serious on my Hawaii Chicklit. I really want to bust my butt and shoot for a July 1st deadline.

Diet: Had a birthday party today and didn't do too bad. Managed not to stuff myself on appetizers and limited myself to one hamburger. I also went running with the dog, although it was so flippin' hot I thought I'd die before we were halfway. My scale still says I haven't lost any poundage, but I tried on some pants today and can now button a pair of khakis I couldn't button last week.

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