Family Day ‘09

Oh dear friendlies.

Today was Family Day.

Umm, some back story? (warning: impending info dump)

Every year around my parents’ anniversary (Feb. 10th for those in the know) the way we celebrate it is a family tradition unoriginally called “Family Day.” Gifts are exchanged, recently there’s been cake, and we spend the day doing something fun and family-ish. Sea World was a few years back. We used to go up to the “high country” or just do a board game day when we lived in Arizona. 

This year, what with our new house and all, it was Ikea. (Note: my sister is currently putting her desk together.)

YES, FRIENDLIES, WE CELEBRATED MY PARENTS’ 26TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY WITH A TRIP TO IKEA.

So that was fun. I got a cute ugly monster poster THAT I LOVE.

See? Adorable.

My sister (helpfully) said it looks like it should be a little boy’s room. Umm, thanks.

Anyway.

What I really want to talk about are the gifts because I’m sure I’ll share with you a picture of my room when I get it finished (I also got a book case! woo!).

Let’s talk about THE PREZZIE. The one me and the Lovely spent all that time working on and that we were SO SO SO excited about. I guess I can unveil it now, now that my parents have opened it.

It was a book from Blurb – a history of our family from the time Mom and Dad got married. Pages of me and Taylor and our parents and cousins and grandparents – important events, stories, etc. Even a recipe.

It was quite something. It made my mom cry. My dad said it surprised him – apparently he’d been gearing up for something really stupid. He said he thought it was going to be a magnet-holder or something.

I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A MAGNET-HOLDER.

So there was that funness. It was proclaimed the “best Family Day present ever.”

And then there was THE SURPRISE.

OH. MY. GOSH.

Months ago (months and months and months ago), my sister told me she had a “surprise” for me. She kept telling me this, mentioning it every couple weeks and never giving me any hints to when I would get it or what it was.

Naturally, I got annoyed. You would too if someone kept telling you they had a surprise for you BUT YOU NEVER GOT IT.

I decided there was no surprise. She was just talking.

Then tonight, after all the prezzies had been opened and we’d had cake (YUM cake), her eyes suddenly lit up and she said, “OH MY GOSH I HAD NOTHER PRESENT FOR YOU! Remember the surprise I was going to give you??” And thus began a duck hunt (is that a phrase? it should be) of her looking for this surprise in the few yet-to-be-unpacked boxes from the move.

It was a manilla envelope.

I opened it up.

It was a bunch of pages of notebook paper, bound together in page protectors, with her handwriting on them.

“Letters,” she said. “I wrote you a letter every day for the first term of freshman year.”

OHMYGOSH.

Best. Gift. EVER.

Seriously.

Don’t I have the greatest sister in the world? Aren’t you jealous?

BE JEALOUS.

Best of Fifty

Let’s discuss my 365 project for a moment.

I started it the first of this year, as a way to:

improve my limited photography skills,

take note of my days in a different way,

have a pictorial journal/journey of my year,

see what happened.

Now I’ve passed Day 50, and while many of the pictures are lame snapshots, some taken in bad light with photo booth, there are a lot that I like. My photography skills are still pretty much nonexistent, but here you go…

THE BEST OF THE FIRST FIFTY.

This is day five, and I still think it’s one of the best – maybe the best. I took the picture in the back of a tiny closet… I was sitting down and the hand above me was already touching the ceiling. It was an awkward picture to take trying to set up the camera and get more than just my face in the frame.

Day thirteen, another one that I think turned out way good. (And I’m inside the same closet! Haha.) This was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, and it also turned out much better than expected. I love it now.

Day twenty-four. I like the colors in it, and how the “lightbulb” filter turned out. I’m not sure how good it is by others’s standards, but I think it’s nice.

Day twenty-five! This was for a “geek” theme, and I think that’s probably one of the biggest reasons I like it – showing off my Psychology-Today-obsessed side. I like the colors too – the contrast and black and white. Oh, and my pose, how most of my face is covered with the magazine.

Day thirty-four, my crazyface picture. I put a bunch of spiking gel in my hair and made a bunch of crazy faces. I find it funny.

This was day forty-seven, it was a copycat of America’s Next Top Model challenge, and I chose to copy this picture (a high school cliche “bookworm” shot) for obvious reasons. Books and nerdiness are awesome components of any day. The shot I copied is this one:

And this is day forty-nine, a very recent shot but one I love. It’s the first of my 30 Days, 30 Secrets project, and I took the shot in the tub (obviously), with that lovely sign. I ended up loving the colors and light. (Most of my best photos are processed, obviously, sometimes heavily because I go a little process/edit-happy.) Basically I adore the mood of it.

Ah.

You guys, I am really loving this 365 project. I’ve wanted to get into photography for a long time, but I just have a snapshot camera and I’m not really serious enough to get myself set up with film or a “real” photographer’s camera. So basically my tools are the camera, whatever I can find nearby to use for a makeshift tripod, and the editing on Picnik. 

I don’t think I can explain my feelings about this project and experience the way I’d like to just yet. I’ll try to someday, but for now just know… I love this experience.

In Which I Am A Nutter

We all have our weird things, right?

Like some people don’t like garbage bags and some can’t stand wooden spoons.

Me?

Well, okay, so. You know how when you put something in the microwave it gets hot? Then when it’s done being fried with radiation or whatever it is that happens, the microwave BEEPS?

Yes. Well.

I CANNOT STAND IT.

Sometimes I stand by the microwave, waiting for whatever’s in it to be done so I can open the door BEFORE IT BEEPS. If someone else in the house uses the microwave I yell at them as soon as it beeps to TAKE IT OUT TAKE IT OUT MAKE IT STOP!!!

You see, I have Beeping Microwave Sonar.

The microwave is downstairs in the kitchen and my room is upstairs, on the opposite side of the house, yet I can always hear the microwave when it beeps. Kitchen, living room, bedroom – wherever I am. I hear it. And something inside me gets incredibly annoyed and I feel like if it doesn’t stop I might break out in hives.

I’ve never actually had hives. But I imagine they feel like how hearing the microwave beep sounds. IE. they make you want to explode in pain and/or frustration. If the beeping doesn’t STOP, and QUICKLY, I start to go swiftly insane.

I do things like yell at whoever is closer to the microwave than me/whoever is using the microwave/whoever is around. And block my ears/go “lalalalalala” to block out the noise. And grit my teeth in anger.

So yeah. I’m weird about the microwave beeping.

But that’s not the only microwave-related thing that turns me into a nervous wreck.

The other thing is when people stop the microwave before it’s done going and then they don’t hit the clear button and the time left is still there instead of, um, the actual time.

This makes me a nutter.

I freak out for a moment, saying things like, “AM I THE ONLY ONE THIS DRIVES CRAZY???” (apparently I am). I hurry over and hit the clear button, then I FIND whoever used the microwave last and give them a stern talking-to.

They tell me I have problems.

Maybe they’re right. I have microwave-related problems.

BUT ALL PROBLEMS COULD BE AVOIDED IF PEOPLE JUST STOPPED THE INCESSANT BEEPING AND CLEARED THE SCREEN PLEASE.

Name Angst Galore

I will not burden you all with my name angst. Instead I will just consult my handy dandy 50,001 Best Baby Names book.

Changing your protag’s name 20k into the novel is GREAT FUN. /sarcasm

Now, I have some rules for naming my important characters.

1.  No friends’ names.
2. No names that immediately make me think of someone else that I know.
3. No names of people I hate really don’t like.
4. No names that, if I used them, people in my life would think I named the character after someone I know.

Under the first point there are many names. There will never be a character named: Michelle, Taylor, Brad/Bradley, Madi/Madison, Ashley, Sarah, Erika, Jocelyn, etc etc etc.

Under the second point there are names of people I know and have known for a while and who, though we’re not particularly close, I still have a strong name-person association with. Names like: Keegan, Kelsey, Lee, etc etc.

Under the third point there are only three names. I’m not going to tell you what they are but let’s just say that it is really really difficult to get put on my bad list. Generally I like people. 

Under the fourth point: self-explanatory.

But with all these rules, there are a lot of names I can’t use.

Some of them I really like.

One of them, lately, I really really like for this particular character, but since I can’t use it (it falls under three of the above categories), the character’s name is June UNTIL OTHERWISE NOTIFIED.

…sigh.

Do any of you other writers have such issues? Or am I just neurotic and extra-special weird?

Songs of a Bygone Era

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you are missing out.

Either that or you now think I’m crazy.

Anyway. Let’s transition from THAT weirdness.

Today I was searching in my purse for a slip of paper that I lost (and never found, sadly), and I came upon a reminder of bygone days. A ticket stub from what feels like eons ago but was really only a few months back. I dropped the ticket stub as if it were on fire, remembering when I’d gone to see the movie with some people months ago.

It’s sad when the people you know become the people you knew.

Sometimes when I talk to my grandma on the phone she’ll ask if I still keep in touch with some old friends from back home. And though I remember being best friends with those girls, remember staying over at their house or them staying over at my house, sometimes I don’t immediately remember who she’s talking about. They’ve faded so much from my memory and my life, their identities replaced by cardboard cut-outs marked “too-perfect” and “not-quite-as-perfect.” I don’t know those people anymore and they don’t know me.

But I haven’t seen them in years. So that happens.

What’s worse is that all the ties I’ve made recently seem to have been severed as well, and how BLIND am I? How blind to others’ faults, to their shortcomings, to the things they don’t tell me that ruin everything?

“I feel so stupid,” I told my dad. “I feel like I chose to trust the worst possible people, and if I thought they were good, how am I supposed to know from now on? Who’s good and who I shouldn’t be around? Why am I so stupid?” I felt betrayed not only by others, but by myself. For being stupid, for being what I saw as naive and childish.

“You’re not stupid, and you don’t know,” he told me. “You never know. You just have to go by what you see and take people as they come.”

I sighed. It would have helped, I thought, if everyone were just honest. Geez.

But they aren’t, and I am and sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who is and it kind of sucks, but now I see that my dad is right. I’m not that stupid and I’m not that naive. I’m just honest and trusting and genuine and I expect the world to meet me with the same straight-forwardness I meet it with, but that doesn’t always work. Sometimes people aren’t used to that. More often than not honesty and trust are lacking, and that is not my fault, which is what I have to keep telling myself because I don’t want to become bitter and jaded – one of those people that has a general distrust and dislike of everything and everyone.

It’s sad sometimes, but I’d rather be honest, trusting, generally peaceful and happy and occasionally get hurt than lie and be distrustful and bitter to protect myself.

Why We Fall Apart

((You can read my happier post if you like.))

To the person who found my blog by searching for “reasons why best friends fall apart”:

I don’t know.

I don’t know why best friends fall apart, I don’t know why friends fall apart at all. I don’t know why or how the people you know become people you knew and I don’t know how to stop it from happening, though I’ve tried. I don’t know why people do stupid things that hurt themselves and others, that ruin relationships and make those who care for them wonder what it’s even for. I don’t know why people have such a hard time saying what they mean and I don’t know how to stop it when you feel yourself drifting away from someone you love.

I know that I once lost a best friend because her mom didn’t like me.

I know that I almost lost a best friend because we fought about hugging.

I know that it hurts to feel betrayed and lied to and not have any idea what to do about it. I know how it is to care about people who don’t seem to care back, and to cry over things that maybe shouldn’t matter. I know what it’s like to get one story from your friend and another story from someone else she talked to. I know how it feels to be pushed and pushed and pushed…

and I know we reach limits where we cannot be pushed anymore.

I know what it is to miss someone, to wonder what you did wrong and how you could have changed things. But sometimes it’s not your fault; sometimes it’s the other person. And then sometimes it’s nobody’s fault. Something friendships just crumble and there’s really nothing anyone can say to make it any better or make it go away.

———————————————

PS. LONG-DISTANCE FRIENDSHIPS SUCK.

PPS. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY TAKE PLACE OVER FACEBOOK.

PPPS. AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

1, 2, 3 … 6

So I wasn’t exactly tagged for this SIX HAPPY THINGS meme, but I saw it over on this blog I just discovered and figured, hey, howzabout I steal it? So I am.

Basically you’re supposed to list six things that make you happy. I feel like I did a much longer list a while back.

But anyway.

1. My cat, Waldo. This despite the fact that she is completely nutters and should probably be in an institution of some sort. She still makes me smile.

2. Football. I don’t understand everything about the game, but I love it so. This includes: the Cardinals, the Chargers, my old high school team (even though I was only there for frosh year), the Dolphins, Superbowl, and Friday Night Lights, the TV show.

3. Flickr. Many (many many) of my 365s are pure crap, but there are a few good ones that I really like.

4. The view out my window overlooking the cul-de-sac, which kind of looks brilliantly beautiful at night.

5. Country music. It sounds like home. Right now I’m loving Rodney Atkins’ new song. If you haven’t heard it yet, WHAT IS STOPPING YOU?

6. YouTube. Especially the greats, like vlogbrothers or charlieissocoollike, but also the INADVERTENTLY FUNNY. (Note: Warning: picture of Michael Jackson appears in this video.)

Wow. Linkasplosion, eh? Haha.

I’m not going to tag anyone since I myself wasn’t tagged for it and besides that I know SOME PEOPLE REALLY REALLY HATE MEMES. (Not me. I love them!) But if you want to do this, just comment so I can read your list too please!

That last sentence was awkward. I don’t feel like fixing it. Use your wonderful imaginations to rearrange the words/fix the grammar/punctuation so it makes more sense.

OH AND ALSO: FOR ANYONE WHO SAW THE LAST EPISODE OF THE OFFICE – DO YOU THINK ANGELA MIGHT BE PART CAT? OR IS SHE JUST DISTURBED?

Otter Pops and Such

Hello internets.

I am drinking green Gatorade. It tastes like melted green Otter Pops. (And if you don’t know what Otter Pops are, then get thee to Wikipedia right this second, because THAT is just inexcusable.)

Also, I realize I should be continuing with Editpalooza, but I’m running into a small problem. Well, actually a few small problems.

The first is that IT IS QUITE THE DAUNTING TASK.

The second is that I went from Microsoft Word to Scrivener with this book, which is fairly backwards, and now the formatting is confusing me just a tad.

NO EXCUSES JORDYN, GET THEE TO THE EDITPALOOZA ROOM!!! (Note: I don’t have an actual Editpalooza room. It’s pretty much just me on my bed with the laptop on my lap.)

Oy.

Okay okay okay. I’ll make myself edit. Although sometimes reading my writing is… painful. Even when it’s good. (I probably shouldn’t admit that.)

To Do List:

Today I need to:

* do all my homework. I didn’t get any of it done this weekend and I have classes tomorrow.

* make that stupid appointment to get my teeth cleaned. You know that scene in 1984 where they go into the little rooms and are tortured in the worst possible way for them personally? Yeah. For me that’s the dentist’s office.

* clean my room. I’ve barely been in it these last few days and yet it seems to have exploded.

* if I get all that done, work on polishing/editing the one novel. The one that still has about three different titles hanging in the air. I know last time I sent out queries for it it went fine and I hadn’t polished it all up like I am now, but really I want it to be as close to perfect before I do Round 2. And I want to do Round 2 soon so… I have some work ahead of me. Luckily this work may include Starbucks, which is lovely.

* take my 365.

25 Conference Things

The conference, right?

You want to hear about the conference.

Well. Okay. But the only way I can think of to do that is to do that whole Facebook-meme-esque thing that’s been going around like the plague and list 25 things about the conference for your reading pleasure. 

So. Without further ado… 25 Things About the Conference: (oh, and if by chance you came to my blog FROM the conference, ie. I gave you my card or we exchanged info… welcome! Yay! Comment! Lemme know you’re here! Share your thoughts on the conference!)

1. Pretty sure I was one of the youngest writers there. This was expected and not nearly as weird/awkward as I thought it might be.
2. It’s somewhat nerve-wracking talking to agents and editors. One of the first people I talked to was a guy seated at the Young Adult table the first night and I didn’t notice at first that he was one of the speakers, and there’s no point to that story except that agents and editors are easy to talk to as long as you aren’t crazy. (I mean crazy in a bad way, because we’re all crazy.)
3. Following point number 2… I did get the chance to meet and talk to quite a few agents and editors. The YA genre seemed to be highly represented and it was awesome talking to people who are involved in publishing. Not only talking about what I’m working on, but just about books in general. John Green, Sarah Dessen, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and the YA genre as a whole. It was so fun.
4. My cute little cards were a success. Yay! (I was quite worried about this, truth be told, but everyone seemed to like them.)
5. On Saturday I left my mom’s jacket (that I was borrowing) in rooms I’d just left at least three times. Finally I had to run out to my car and lock the jacket in the trunk to keep myself from losing it. This did mean freezing for the rest of the day.
6. Aside from today (Sunday) it was raining the whole weekend. Must have been fun for the people who came out here specifically for this conference and were expecting the usual Southern Cal weather of sunshine.
7. I took notes like mad.
8. The Agents’ Panel I sat in on was one of the greatest parts of the conference. A lot of the submissions information I knew or could have easily found online, but it was good hearing the agents talk about what they like/don’t like and actually getting the chance to ask questions and talk to one of them afterwards.
9. Have decided my title (still) needs work. Oy. Apparently title matters. And I happen to, uh… kind of suck at titles.
10. I went to an on-the-spot first three pages critique. My pages weren’t read but I did learn you shouldn’t confuse the reader during the first few page. Like, you really have to establish who the character is and set the scene instead of just jumping into something that’s going to be explained later because people won’t read long enough to find out what happens. (Which, I know, I know, sounds really obvious, but it’s all the more clear when you hear first pages read aloud without any preamble as to the story.)
11. I met a lot of people! I have eleven business cards sitting here from writers and publishing professionals, including a few that were conducting the sessions I was in. Plus I’ve got contact or website information for four more people written in my notebook. Um, wow?
12. I knew the answers to questions I didn’t know I knew the answers to… if that makes any sense. A few people asked me why I write Young Adult and I KNEW WHY!!! I was pleasantly surprised at myself.
13. I had the thought, after it was all done, that all of my family and much of my friends (all of my friends except those I’ve met through RED) would have been bored to death at the conference. But for me it was insanely fun.
14. Okay … what did I go to sessions on? Umm…. how to get the most out of the conference, how to “find” the story, grammar, internet marketing, voice in YA, ingredients for plot, and how to make your first novel successful. In case you were wondering.
15. I saw a lot of the same people in a lot of my sessions, and they weren’t necessarily the people who write in the same genre as I do. One of them was writing literary fiction, another trying to find an agent for his thriller, another working on a nonfiction parenting book. I found that interesting.
16. They had writing books on sale. I resisted buying any.
17. But I did go to Barnes & Noble and (finally!) buy a copy of MT Anderson’s Feed, so maybe this point negates the previous one?
18. At one point the lights went out.
19. Then they came back on.
20. Five minutes later they went out again. It was interesting. People were basically eating in the dark and talking in the dark and using their cellphones to see. Some of us just went into the hallway near the windows for a while.
21. THERE ARE ACTUALLY AGENCIES ON THE WEST COAST. Nice!
22. Thanks to my grammar workshop, I now know the difference between blond and blonde, a while and awhile, and I know that ellipses have spaces before and after them. Woo! I knew I needed that grammar workshop.
23. I think it went well.
24. It’s surprisingly difficult to list this many things. I’m watching Toddly00 on YouTube if anyone is interested in that bit of news that has nothing at all to do with the conference.
25. I’ll leave this spot open for your questions.

BUT. One of the suggestions at the internet marketing session was to have a Facebook. And actually friend people/get to know people/network through it. Which means I now have a public Facebook. Jordyn Turney. Friend me!

Aaaand there you have it. My last name is officially on the interwebz. I trust you will not use this information for evil.