In Which Far Too Much Happens, and the Post is Belated

Where in the realms of earth, sky, and sea do I begin? My week (or two of them, really) has been so incredibly complicated and busy that I am nearly exhausted. But most of what happened is good news, so fret not, dear readers.

Let me begin with the reason I didn't post LAST week. I was chaperoning a group of guys for the University of Idaho's youth journalism conference thingy. I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but it seemed to be an intensive workshop where the kids learned to write journalistic story leads, took photos, wrote and produced video interviews, that sort of thing. It was really nifty stuff, and I'm sorry I missed out on most of it. I was mostly just there in the evenings to make sure the guys didn't go down to the girls' floor.

On that note, Daniel and Aaron, you guys were awesome. I hope to see you again sometime. On an unrelated note, Daniel writes short stories, a few of which he was kind enough to let me critique. Look up his 'A Western Story' on DeviantArt here.

So it was on to the weekend, and I thought I had spent my 'week off' from book-related things well. Not relaxing as I had hoped, but doing something worthwhile. Unfortunately, my house disintegrated that weekend. Two of my friends have left the house, at least temporarily. Stephen is home to Missouri, recuperating from a breakup wherein his girlfriend cheated on him and destroyed his entire world. Amanda has taken off back to her home in Sandpoint, as there are more jobs available in that tourist town than in Moscow. I gave Amanda a ride home, and Stephen a ride to the airport. I will miss both of them this summer.

However, on a more positive note, my airplane-piloting, grease-monkey, outdoorsy girl cousin just got married this weekend. It was an awesome ceremony held in an aircraft hangar. And I got to ride a Segway. They are way cool. You kind of stand on one and lean forward, and it just GOES!

Also, no one really badgered me about how I should be married already because Hayley is four months younger than I. Thank you to everyone who didn't badger me. My last relationship ended poorly, and I'm not inclined to start another so soon.

So this last week, after dropping Stephen off, has consisted of trying to work out bills and their appropriate payments (as Amanda, who was taking care of these things, is gone), and trying to work out the awful tangle they're in. So far I've nailed down the city bills, found the missing rent money, and discovered that our rental company is very unforgiving when it comes to getting these things straightened out. Also, found out that after rent and bills, I don't have nearly enough money for the Oregon Christian Fiction Writer's Conference. I suppose most of my next paycheck will go toward that.

I'm planning on a trip home next week for a day or two to meet one of my fans and talk shop with someone about making an honest-to-goodness AUTHOR WEBSITE for me. Not that the blog's too shabby or anything, but it'd be nice to have a place for people to send me fan mail. And post comments, questions, and the like. Which, I've noticed, no one really does on here. Insert frowny sad face here.

That's all the news in fits of print. Enjoy your day. I'm off to work graveyard shift tonight... insert another sad face. Ah well. At least it'll help with the whole complicated money thing.