Hope you have a fantastic day!!

Okay, I'm posting this a week late but I went to see Twilight on its opening night with four other people from work. I don't usually see movies on opening night but I figured, "why not?"

I read the book and didn't dislike it but I didn't love it either and I was interested to see how the movie turned out. I have to say that 1.) the movie was better than the book; 2.) I don't see the hype for this book; and 3.) being in a theater with that many teen-age girls was an experience.

1.) The movie was better than the book because it cut out all of the teen-angst scenes that I didn't like it the book. Either Stephanie Meyer didn't remember what it was like to be a teen-age girl or she was one heck of a whiny teen-age girl because I certainly didn't need that much hitting over the head to know Bella didn't want to go to the dance and Bella is clumsy. It was like every sentence for four chapters discussed one of those two topics. I got it. The movie cut to the chase and stream-lined the drivel. The movie also added a fight scene to the end, not the cop-out in the book. How on earth did Stephanie Meyer's editor not send her back the manuscript and ask her to add in the missing fight scene. Luckily, the movie beefed it up and got it just right.

2.) I still don't understand the hype. Now, Mortal Instruments, on the other hand, ROCKS!

3.) As soon as the lights started to dim, 300 teen-age girls went, "EEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!" I said to the person with me, "They do realize this is a movie and not a live performance, right?" LOL Then as each male character came on the screen, we were treated to another round of, "EEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!" It was kind of cute and made me laugh. As the credits were finishing, I heard one little girl say to another little girl, "Are you crying? Me too!" Oh goodness, it wasn't THAT touching! LOL But I have to say that the interactive theater surround sound did add to my enjoyment of the movie. It was all very cute. Plus, now I know what it was like to be at a Beatles concert in 1964.

Tomorrow is the final day of Nanowrimo 2008. I topped 50K and now it's time to start editing. Anyone else have totals to share?

I passed 20K at the half-way point and am still chugging along. I was so excited of how into my writing I was the other night. I was typing a scene where a character has to cry and I started to cry as I wrote it. I'm at not quite 30K now. How are others doing??

Nanowrimo would go so much better if this little thing called work was in the way. Sure, I don't work on the weekends but because of work, I have so many things I can only do on the weekends and that cuts into my writing time. Now I'm all geared up to write full force and it's bedtime to get ready for work! Anyone out there hit the 3400 words for this weekend? I did my best but fell slightly under.

Nanowrimo has stared! Have you?

Anyone participating this year?

I watch a lot of movies, I admit it. I LOVE movies and movie theaters and the whole experience. I think I saw 20-25 movies this year thus far and I enjoyed most of them. The movie I liked the LEAST was probably "Tropic Thunder." It just wasn't very funny and, in fact, some parts were really boring. I liked the shots of the helicopters flying the most.

As for my personal favorites this summer (and it's just my opinion):

5. THE DARK KNIGHT - Heath Ledger rocked. The truck flipping over scene was cool too.
4. GET SMART - I was pleasantly surprised that such a stupid show spawned such a cute movie.
3. MAMMA MIA - ABBA rules! The sing-along version was a blast. I went twice!
2. GHOST TOWN - lovely little film that made me laugh and cry.
1. IRON MAN - Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark. Cool movie with killer performances.

Honorable mentions: Mummy 3 and Journey to the Center of the Earth -- a very good year for the very hot Brendan Fraser.

I can't believe my long weekend is also over. I went to the doctor on Friday morning and since I had the whole day off of work (since I'm still getting over this cold/flu thing), so I stopped at the Farmer's Market on the way home. I picked up some hot peppers, sweet peppers, garlic, and the most delicious Honeycrisp apples. I love apples.

Saturday, I was back in the manager's office of my apartment building. I put an application in for another apt. in my building that will be coming available in two months from now. It's only $90 more a month and yet it's 300 more square feet of space and a balcony. I just hate the timing. I wanted to move to a larger apt. this summer when I had time off of work and people to help me. Now I will have to try to do this with less help in the winter and I don't know how much time I'm going to be able to get off of work to do it in. Argh!

Then Saturday night, since I was still feeling sick, I decided to go to bed early. I went into the bathroom and started washing my make-up off and just as I was doing that....*ring* *ring* *ring* ..... the building-wide fire alarm went off and I had to get a jacket and shoes and take off down the stairs. We wound up spending over an hour and half outside while the firemen took care of everything. Seven fire trucks responded. It turns out someone burned food while they were cooking and didn't notify the front desk and it caused all of the alarms to go off and the whole building had to be evacuated. So annoying. At least it wasn't a big fire. Thank God.

Today - Sunday - I'm just trying to get some looooong overdue writing done. Wish me luck.

Check this out! I'm not a Star Trek fan but the new movie looks very cool.
Pic from my friend, Kelli:

I've been so busy that I haven't posted since August (gasp!!!!) and I've lost an interesting LJ friend over it. Oh well.

I've been working 12 hour days but loving it. I work in a great office with great people and the day goes by quite quickly because there are so many interesting and diverse things to do. That said, my six days off recently was awesome! Well...as awesome as time off with the flu can be.

I felt sick last Wednesday so I was glad I had some vacation time set for the long Columbus Day weekend. Well, Thursday was worse (congestion and sore throat et al.), I went to get bloodwork for an upcoming dr. appt. then hit the road up to see my grandmother in PA. Friday was a day of errands but the DMV (to accompany my mom to get her driver's license renewed) was the most amazing stop - we were in and out in 15 minutes!

Saturday was my mother's birthday (Happy Birthday Mommy) and we had a great family lunch and outing. I felt pretty good on Saturday but got sick again on Sunday.

Monday we drove back to WDC via Gettysburg and wanted to stop at visit Devil's Den and Little Big Top but nooooo. I don't know if the battlefield roads got re-directed or what but we went in circles for an hour and never located the spot we wanted - so off we went.

I was too sick for work on Tuesday and spent the day sleeping. I pulled myself out of bed for two days of work but now I'm looking forward to the three day weekend. I plan to get a lot of writing down and will post some of it here shortly.

I finally got a vacation day off of work to do something other than go to the doctor's office. LOL

It was wonderful - I slept in late (until 0845), went shopping (bought three new shorts, two new necklaces, and the cutest little decorative ottoman for my living room), played on the computer, watched some TV, answered email, and now I'm heading down to the pool to swim and get some sun. I love days like this although they are few and far between. :-)

It feels like it's been forever since I last posted.

I had quite an interesting adventure coming back from Germany. Basically, I got to the Frankfurt International Airport to find that, due to a computer glitch, my tickets were cancelled and I was turned away from the Lufthansa counter and sent to United (being that it was the main American airline and it appeared to Lufthansa that the united computer may have caused the error.) Luckily, I arrived at the airport four hours before my flight because it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to get things straightened. Good thing the flight was then delayed by an hour because I had TWO security checks to go through and apparently everyone in front of me was in no hurry to catach a plane because they all moved forward slower than zombies. At one point the security line I was in was halted because some idiot child was trying to stick his fingers under the conveyor belt and the parents just said, "Timmy, move your hand." Then they would look away and continue talking. Then after the angry German airport employee asked them again to move their child's hand, they said...softly...."Timmy, move your hand." Finally I interjected, "Kid! MOVE. YOUR. HAND! Some of us have three minutes to get from gate 52 to gate one!" But, in the end, despite being waitlisted for the waitlist, I beg, pleaded, and smoozed my way onto the flight. I think it helped when I said, "My bags are on that flight and by law, if you don't get me on the plane, you have to stop it to get my bags off. Thank you." Nine hours later, both myself and my bags landed at Dulles.

In the several weeks since then, I have been overwhelmed with work and trying (in vain) to fit in as much writing as possible on the 21 projects that are playing like mini-movies in my end. I am getting geared up and excited for NaNoWriMo in two short months.

I finally made it to Rome!!!

Three days filled with some of the best and worst moments of my whole 42 days (thus far) in Europe.

So I arrive in Rome (having come from 62 degree Frankfurt) and I discover that Rome is 900 degrees (okay, 92 but it felt like 900). I guess this long sleeve shirt was the wrong idea....

After hearing all of the horror stories about cab drivers from 20 people, I decided that public transportation was my best option. To begin with, I've heard that the trains in Italy never run on time. Well, I don't know know what they were talking about because every train I needed was exact to the minute. They weren't crowded which is good for everyone involved because if you shove me on purpose, I shove back. :-) But there was none of that.

So I get into Termini (the main train station) and the directions I had to my hotel said it was two blocks from the train station - and it was - just not THAT train station. I couldn't find the hotel at first so I decided to go find the Trevi Fountain....*sigh* Okay, more bad directions. I walked and walked and walked ....and walked....and walked...and discovered that Rome is all uphill or upstairs. There is no downhill. So as I walk up this one hill (did I mention it was 9000 degrees?), I see people looking over a railing so I go to look over the railing too. And I find I am on top of the Spanish steps. "Oh thank God, I don't have to walk up them!" I say. "Don't thank me yet," says God. (God is referring to a later incident where the subway escalator is broken and I will have to carry my luggage up 172 steps (I counted.) )

I go down the Spanish steps (which are under construction so my pics aren't that great), I finally wander aimlessly (carrying my overnight bag) to the Trevi Fountain, where I sit and eat some pizza. Then I throw my coins in, make my wish, and trek back out. Along the way, I ask a priest, two separate police officers, and a pizza shop owner for directions to my hotel. They all send me 9-10-11-12 blocks in opposite directions. After walking ALL of central Rome, I find visitor information and the girl puts me on the 175 bus...but neglects to mention they don't announce the stops....and so I overshoot my stop. I stagger back in the right direction, go into a McDonald's for a Coke Light, and the lady tells me to go down the street and it's the second left. No, it wasn't. So I drag myself into a gift shop and ask the Chinese guy there and he gives me the right directions. Five hours of staggering in the heat - seriously FIVE hours - and I get to my hotel. (At least the 11 euro train/bus/subway pass came in handy). It's nice and clean and that's all that's important. I wasn't crazy about the test tube shower but at least it had A/C.

I go back out and get to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. When I came up out of the Colesseo Subway Station and saw the Colesseum for the first time, I started crying. Yeah....I know....history geek. I walked the whole hill/forum trying to stay away from other people before I picked up a rock and started hitting them for their stupidity. LOL I was too hot and tired to hear things like, "When did Alexander the Great live here?", "Imagine this (the Colesseum) is a million years old!", "What kind of machines did they use to cut all this rock?", and "Look at the hallways in that palace." Oh...my...God!

Saturday night dinner was very good. I had spinach ravioli in white saffron sauce.

Sunday - I went to the Panthenon, the Victor Emmanuele II monument, crossed the river, then back to the Colesseum (I found the elevator amusing). I was half-expecting to hear someone ask if it was original. Then I went to the Vatican and inadvertently got into a religious procession - which worked out fine because I got into a back section of the Basilica. I see a crowd and start walking with them. Suddenly a bunch of priests carrying a gold cross walk out in front and the crowd starts following them. So I walk with them. Everyone starts singing. We go up the stairs and enter the Basilica and then I notice all the tourists are behind barriers and the guards are escorting this procession into a back chapel. Well, I can't get out now so I keep walking with them. We get to our destination and the guards put up a velvet rope behind us to keep other tourists out. Ooookay. Well, I enjoyed the service.

Then as I head to the Sistine Chapel, I found out it had just closed. No! So I tried to run down that way to see if I could still finangle my way in. And then the sunstroke hit me. I knew I was hot and getting sunburned but I didn't realize it was sunstroke until I'm running down the street and I suddenly turn ice cold, start convulsing inside (shaking outside), and go down on one knee. Lovely. I pull myself back up, never get to he Sistine Chapel, and head back to my hotel. Just in time. I was sick ALL night and couldn't get up until 8:15 Monday morning. I wanted to but my convulsing organs said, "No, stay one in place!" Shoot.

Monday - I did get out eventually and went to the Church of Mary of the Angels and Martyrs, which was built on and in the Diocletan Baths. I headed back to the airport without incident (depsite it now being about 90,000 degrees out). And then my plane took off 2 hours late. I never thought I would be so happy to get to Germany. LOL The funny part is that I've become so used to business class travel that flying in economy this trip, it made me laugh to be served a cheese sandwich and a Twix bar. :-) :-)

In all, I took 400 pictures in two days and managed to fit 12 rosaries, four crucifixes, five necklaces, three books, and a small centurion statue in my carry-on (which weighed 17 lbs on the return flight - they weighed it). :-) :-)

17 May was my last full Saturday in Germany (I had plans for the next two) so I took my friend Lila's advice and went to see Heidelberg. (She had her prom there!) It was the fastest and easiest of my German train trips. One straight shot (53 minutes) from the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to the Heidelberg Bahnhof so I didn't have any marathon runs to do this time from train platform to train platform. It was a really beautiful day: warm but not too hot, rain clouds but no rain, and a slight breeze.

I read that the good stuff (old town, the castle, etc) was a 25-30 minute walk from the train station and that the famous university was right past the old town. However, I had no idea whatsoever which direction to walk in and I wasn't going to attempt to go in the wrong direction and not realize it for 30 minutes....so I hopped on a passing bus that said it's destination was, "Universityplatz." Sounds good to me. It was a short ride (10 minutes) but twisty/turny. Good thing I didn't try to walk it. God knows where I would be right now. LOL

I got off at the Bismarckplatz stop. And there I was: at the base of the longest shopping street in all of Germany. Both sides of this lovely cobblestone street were lined with shops and eateries (and some hotels). I wish I had made plans to stay overnight! I bought magnets for the office, postcards, and two new purses. Yeah, I know - I don't need new purses! LOL

I didn't see a castle right away so I just kept walking towards the mountain (since that's where castles usually are, right?) Well, I finally got to the base of the mountain and lo and behold, there wayyyyy above me was the castle. There was a sign that I could walk up the mountain (25 minutes again) or for 5 euro, I could take a trolley. Hello, Trolley! (Now realize it had just taken me 45 minutes to walk uphill to this point. It's like the whole country is one big stairmaster.) I also wanted to try the trolley (the "funicular") because it had been built in 1802 and was supposed to be an engineering marvel...or something like that. It was very fun.

The castle was lovely. It's all in ruins (destroyed twice by the French, lastly in the 30 Years War in 1648). In 1754, they went to rebuild it and as soon as they started, it was struck by lightning and the remaining parts of the castle burned and the germans took that as a sign from God to not rebuild. (That, or a sign to put up a lightning rod, but ok....) Then in the early 1900's, they did rebuild one of the buildings that contained the chapel (which was the only room never destroyed and left to look like it did in 1648). So I get to the castle, took a million pics, had to go to the bathroom and saw a sign marked "WC" that pointed towards the moat....well, I thought, "The looks interesting." Luckily, the bathroom was a few feet shy of the moat.

I had to pay three euro to get onto the castle grounds, and that included entrance to the apothacary museum. It was then an additional four euro to get *inside* the castle, but that included a guided tour in my choice of english or german. Hmmm...which one shall I pick? ;-) The tour was just one hour but we got to see some neat inner-rooms and it was cool to get pointed at by people who didn't know there was a guided tour and you could see them pointing in a "how did they get IN there?" manner. lol The tour guide lady opened each door with a key and then locked it behind us (they are serious when they say "no unescorted access" and it made me feel like I was in "The Others" for a moment - remember how Nicole Kidman locked and unlocked each door when she went from room to room?). I said to myself, "she literally has the keys to the castle" - oh I amuse myself. haha

When it was time to leave, I went back downhill and got the train back to Frankfurt while it was still light out. In all, it was a very nice day.

Hello from Rothenburg. Wow, this place is beautiful for history buffs like me. (Yes, the pic I put up is from Paris....but well, I don't have any pics from Germany uploaded yet!) I took a chance and let myself get talked into going to a medieval city 2.5 hours away from Frankfurt. It was three trains which were fast and easy except for the 3 minutes (yes, 3 minute!) connections between them. Talk about running like a fiend off of one train, down a flight of stairs, through a walkway, up a flight of stairs and then onto another train that was about to pull out! I did this twice this morning. Sure, the connections were supposed to be 11 minutes apart but tell that to whomever was driving my trains. LOL

The walled medieval city is great. It's better than colonial Williamsburg. If any of you are history people, you will appreciate this part: they are doing a weekend of historical reenactments and there are 100's of role players around. I just finished a history walk that was very interesting. But my luck is that my camera battery stared dying. I did bring a spare battery with me (thank goodness) but that is back in my hotel room in Frankfurt. I'm spending the night in a B&B here in Rothenburg in a 500 year old building. It just better NOT be haunted. I'm too tired for that crap tonight. LOL

Monday is a German holiday so I get to sleep in and (hopefully) do some writing. I brought my Neo word processor with me on this trip because I thought the 2.5 hour train ride was straight through but no....it was 70 minutes on a *packed* train where someone else was in my seat and wouldn't move so I took someone else' seat and luckily there was no hassle....then *run* to a 43 minute train...then *run* to a 14 minute train. So I lugged that word processor with me all this way and never wound up turning it on. At least it only weighs two pounds. The bad part is that I have to carry in my bag all day tomorrow since I have to check out at 1030 am and the train back (first of the three) doesn't leave until 5pm. Oh well. Maybe I can get something accomplished tonight. It's not like I can watch German TV. :-)

What's great is that this B&B here in Rothenburg has free internet!! Free! Can't pass that up since I have been paying $7.50 an hour when I use it at the hotel in Frankfurt. One computer only but it was available just now as I walked by so I had to take advantage of that! Oh - AND they have an American keyboard which is so much better than the German keyboard that has letters are all in the wrong places! :-) :-) :-)

I have been working looooong days (sometimes from 8am until 9pm and last Friday, I was at work from 8am until 1130 pm) so I am really looking forward to the three-day weekend. Now before any of you fellow Americans get too excited, I´m talking German holiday weekend! So the thought of the day was: what is the best way to spend a 3-day weekend? Someone at work insisted that I had to try the medieval walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. I figuerd there would be no way I could get an hotel room at the recommended place: Hotel Gerberhaus on such short notice but that if I did, then it was meant to be. Well, I did. So I guess this was meant to be.

Hotel Gerberhaus looks charming and was very reasonable: 65 euro (about $95) for the night´s stay and breakfast buffet in the morning. However, I just realized I have no idea how to get from the train station TO Gerberhaus.... so my plan du jour is to get from the train station to the Main Square of town (supposedly a 10 minute walk) and go into the English-speaking tourist office there and have them give me directions. Wish me luck!!

I´m not going to have computer access again until Monday so Happy Mother´s Day to Trystan830, Eresh, Loyalminion, Nebraska_Artist and to anyone else I missed. Happy Mother´s Day to my Mom too (even though she doesn´t have internet access right now!)

I love being in Europe. If it's one thing the Europeans have down pat, it's the public transportation system. You can go anywhere safely, cheaply, and efficiently day/night/holiady/weekend. I wish American public transportation was this good and this all-encompassing.

Last Saturday - April 26 - I took the train to Cologne, Germany and bought souvenirs for the family back home: Cologne! Very cool. Lit candles in the cathedral and then went shopping. Bought myself a new shirt.

This past Saturday - May 03 - spent the day sight-seeing and shopping for more souvenirs in Frankfurt. Worked until very late on Friday night (11:30) so I slept in on Saturday and made no real plans. But I did buy chocolates for everyone!

Yesterday - Sunday, May 04 - after church I took a stroll through the empty Frankfurt steets and came across a little festival in a small platz (like a plaza). I had homemade potato pancakes with applesauce while I listened to some guy on stage singing Elvis songs in broken English. The Elvis stuff wasn't bad but he absoluetly murdered "American Pie" - he was singing it about 400x slower than it was written. He almost had a back-up singer ...me! I wanted to jump on stage and snap my fingers and sing faster and get the song back up to speed. LOL

I did manage to book a trip to Rome for later in the month. More on that to come.

Going to Italy has been my dream. However it has been a dream stifled by my lack of funding. LOL. So here I am in Germany thinking: A. why is the computer keyboard so different? I cant find what I want to type ... LOL and B.) Rome is only a two hour plane ride away. So I want to try for it. There is a 3-day weekend coming up for the May 12 German holiday and that might be my opportunity. So why am I having such a hard time finding information on how to get there and where to stay?? *sigh*

As Eresh stated in one of her postings, Cash Cab is a great game show. Apparently the Germans think so too. They have a version called Quiz Taxi. The premise is the same but the German version is actually more of a proper game show in that if zyou win a 'Red Light challenge' you get money AND you get back one of your free shout outs if you had already used it up. PLUS, whoever on the street helps in a shout out gets a boardgame version of the game as a prize. Who knew they could make the only really cool game show on TV even cooler? Now if only I had some idea of what the heck they were saying.... :-)