This Blog updates every Monday with what's going on in the day-to-day personal life of Lauren R. Tharp. For what's going on in Lauren's professional life, please visit her official website at littlezotz.com
I don't really have anything to report this week. More of "the usual."
I went skating with my parents on Saturday. Showed them my 3DS and they each took a picture of themselves which was converted into a Mii. Here's the result:
That's about it!
This week's entry on my Pro Blog is a bit of a wacky one, so be sure to check that out this Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about next week!
Last week I launched my first e-book, The Newbie Writer's Guide, on my website and a bunch of other places (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, WP Pro Business, etc.). Other than that, my week was filled with endless work. But, since I can't really talk about the writing I was doing for that "endless work" (and you probably don't want to hear the details anyway), let's skip to what I did over the weekend!
All in pictures!
We walked around the local mall and talked with a cool guy at the comic book store:
A very serious sandwich. (Don't you just love his shirt??)
Corned beef & pickles with mayonnaise
We had a marathon viewing of probably the most amazing anime I've ever seen:
We watched all 37 episodes almost in one sitting!
And Robert played with his new best friend (I won a teddy bear out of a crane machine at the skating rink on the 13th--Robert immediately claimed it as his own when I came home):
That's Death Note in the background
He loves that bear so much.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd...that's it. The weekend went by much too fast! Ah, well. It's the work days that get me the pay days, if you know what I mean. ;) Got another busy week of writing ahead of me!
All right, I can hear you all now... "What horrible thing happened to you this time, Lauren?" To which I say "har har." I know a lot of terrible things have been happening to me, but jeez. Also...I got bit by a spider and my index finger swelled to twice its normal size. But I can tell that you don't want to hear about that.
You want to know about this!
My exact facial expression all week.
That's right. I got a new phone. Jealous?
All right, I know that I'm years late on jumping on the smart phone bandwagon, but I finally switched over. And it's wonderful. It's really cut down on my stress (I don't have to panic wondering if any clients have written to me--and I don't have to keep dragging out my laptop to find out!). In fact, it's so great, that I'm planning to write a Blog post about it on my professional Blog. It's only been a couple of days, but I already feel that everyone in my line of work should have one of these babies!
Mostly, I was just super excited that I get to text people again! It had been too long.
Other than that, I went skating on Saturday, wrote a ton of posts for my Pro Blog, and I cleaned Robert's litter box. In fact, I cleaned it so well that he got confused and thought it was a bed:
You protest, but I know you love the cat pics. Don't lie.
Oh yeah. And this Wednesday (8/17/11) is going to be my one year anniversary of being a professional writer! I'm going to have an extra special Blog post on my website to celebrate! Here's a sneak peek at the accompanying art:
As you can see, it's not coloured in. You'll have to visit my website on the 17th to see the final version! ;)
This weekend marked my first days off since July 30th. And, yes, I spent most of my days off writing. PROOF that I love what I do. Hah!
That's all I've got for now. Be sure to head over to my Official Website on August 17th for the launch of The Newbie Writer's Guide! I can't wait!
Also, many thanks to everyone who checked in on me when my mouth was in such terrible pain. The gross part is finally over and the pain part has diminished greatly. If all continues to go well, I'll be back up to snuff by my next entry! <3
As you know from last week's post, I recently got 1/4th of a new tooth from the dentist on the 29th of last month. It was great! However, when I came back in on the 1st of this month to get my required cleaning... Not so great.
The hygienist was the worst hygienist I've ever had the misfortune of encountering. She was very inept with her prodding while creating my periodontal chart--using unnecessarily excessive force and a bad attitude!--and she didn't even perform the cleaning! She claimed she was "overbooked" and didn't "have time" to do the cleaning I was scheduled for. She ordered that I buy some $20 mouthwash and come back again in two weeks when she felt more like dealing with me. (What??). Anyway, foolishly perhaps, I did what I was told.
What followed that visit was a full list of horrors occurring in my mouth. I won't go into details because it's super gross, but needless to say I've been in a LOT of pain since that day. I finally broke down and called the dentist's "emergency" line over the weekend...and they said they'd see me on Monday (today).
The doc's diagnosis...?
That's right. I was told to "deal with it" and was sent home.
More specifically, I was told that the $20 mouthwash that the stupid hygienist made me buy had created a horrific allergic reaction in my mouth and that there was "nothing we can do about it." I was told that I just have to "wait a week or two for the body to heal itself." Then they tried to scam me into seeing an outrageously expensive "specialist" and still wanted me to come back for my scheduled cleaning on the 18th (the appointment the hygienist would have "had time" for). Needless to say I said "No, thank you" and not only refused to see their "specialist" but cancelled my appointment for the 18th. Forget that!!
My original dentist might be 5 towns away from where I live now, but at least he never destroyed my mouth and said "oh well" afterward! Once I'm healed up in "a week or two," I'll be heading to him. (Maybe this is what I get from straying from my loyalty to my dentist? ...But he wasn't open on Friday when my tooth broke! I didn't mean it!)
Anyway, here are a couple of great Harry Potter (and Twilight) related pictures Ramiro found for me on the Internet to cheer me up:
So that's pretty much been my week: Pain, pain, and more pain. And work, work, and more work. I recently took on a second "real" job ("real" as in it's another writing job with regular hours & a payroll and stuff like my writing job with WTR) for the month of August. Plus I'm still writing dog articles and working on my own projects on the side.
Speaking of which...
I wrote an e-book on how to do what I do! :) I had so much trouble figuring everything out when I first left my "day job" to become a professional writer, I figured I'd write it all down so others wouldn't have to go through what I did. It's going to be available for sale on my website on August 17, 2011. Ramiro designed the cover!
This is quite possibly going to be my longest entry in months. So strap in if you intend to read (and don't say I didn't warn you!). Don't worry though: I'll include lots of pictures. And some videos!
Here's what I did last week:
Monday & Tuesday
(July 25th & 26th)
I worked Monday-Friday, but on my off time, Ramiro and I watched a cute cartoon show on Netflix called Home Movies. I highly recommend it. The first season is a bit hard to watch due to the Squigglevision (I found myself thinking of it as a radio show and only looking up when one of the characters said "Look at that!"), but the remaining seasons were animated with Flash and are much easier on the eyes.
This was my favorite part in the whole show:
That song is also Ramiro's new ringtone.
Wednesday
(July 27th)
After I got off from work on Wednesday, Paris stopped by for a visit. She gave me a pen:
It's a black pen that has a cat's head on top. When you push down on the cat's head, the eyes light up and it meows. Guess who loves my new pen!
That's Robert--under utmost supervision--playing with my new pen. He LOVES that thing. He's woken me up at 6am two mornings in a row now because he was trying to steal it. I keep having to find new places to hide it. ~_~ I guess he thinks that because it looks like he does that it must belong to him. Maybe? I don't know how cats think...
Also, on Wednesday night, I bit into a particularly tough piece of meat and pain went shooting up through my face. I thought I had a piece of meat wedged up between my teeth, but when I went to floss it out, there was nothing there. Not to mention the floss went in a lot more easily than normal. I knew something was horribly wrong, but I fooled myself into believing that if I used enough hot salt water rinses and stayed off of that side that I'd be okay. Boy, was I wrong. But I'll get into that later.
Thursday
(July 28th)
Thursday was Ramiro's birthday! Woo! Sarahe (his sister) bought him this fancy cake:
Very pretty. And I hear it tasted good too. I haven't eaten any sugar (except from fruit) in 3 years now thanks to my Hypoglycemia, so I didn't get to try any for myself. I liked the polka dots though. :)
Ramiro had a very laid back birthday. Just the way he likes it. And with the help of Tylenol and soup, I was able to handle the pain in my tooth (even though Ramiro offered to take me to the dentist, I didn't want to on his birthday!!) and tough it out until...
Friday
(July 29th)
On Friday morning, I took a bite of cereal and screamed. The pain was immense! I was crying. That's when Ramiro put his foot down and said, "That's it. You're going to the dentist."
I called my dentist. Gone on Fridays. I called Ramiro's dentist. Gone on Fridays. Finally, I called Sarahe's dentist. He was willing to see me! Thank goodness. I was so grateful.
I hadn't been to the dentist since 1999. And I'd never had any problems with my teeth (except of the retainer/braces variety). This was my very first toothache! I've been through a lot of pain in my life, but this was definitely "up there" on the pain scale. It made me feel a bit closer to Ramiro in a way. He's had all sorts of problems with his teeth. (I was also really happy to have him "coach" me through this--having someone who really knows what you're going through is a big help).
Want to know what I did?? Okay, check this out... You know how your molars have four points to them? Here's what happened to mine:
I broke off the cusp on my second-to-last upper-left back molar! My tooth broke on that piece of meat! Can you believe that? How random.
The doc was able to build me a new cusp. That part of my tooth is now made out of a glass/quartz/resin composite. I have a fancy tooth!
The doc was also very impressed with my teeth. I had zero cavities (man, I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that...) and he said that other than that one tooth, the rest of my teeth looked really strong/good. Like I said: Random!
After I got out of the dentist's chair, I felt SO much better. I felt great!
Our friend Ray was supposed to come over that day after I got off from work. Ramiro offered to cancel with him, but I was like "Naaaaaaaaaaaah! I feel great! Let's do it!" So we had Ray come over as planned.
And then the painkillers wore off. ~_~
I felt really sore and somewhat nauseous. I ended up having to take a nap. (Sorry, Ray). I felt really cruddy. It's nice to have friends that you can take an "I feel so horrible right now" nap around and they understand. haha. Fortunately, I woke up again before he left and we all watched a movie and joked around together.
Saturday
(July 30th)
On Saturday morning, I gave Ramiro a cool haircut. And then we went out on a date. He looked very handsome:
That's him sitting across from me at Fuddruckers. I had a bit of trouble eating my meal (I always get a cheddar cheeseburger with no bun and sweet potato fries) 'cause I was still having trouble opening my mouth wide enough to get bites of food into it. My tooth is fine now, but my mouth/jaw is still sore from where they injected the painkillers! Despite the pain, my meal was delicious.
Then we went to see Harry Potter 7: Part 2 at the movie theater next door to the Fudds. Now, I hate to be one of "those" people, but... The book was better. I don't know. My friends on Facebook are probably going to get on my case about this ("Blasphemy!"), but I really didn't think that the final movie lived up to its hype. It felt lacking somehow. I expected to be bawling all over the place (like with the book!), but I was just kinda "eh."
My dad was there too (he's the one taking the picture), but he doesn't skate.
Here's a picture of me skating on one foot:
I was already starting to put my foot down when Dad snapped the picture, but I still look pretty baller, right? (Humor me. That's pretty much the only skating trick I can pull off).
Sunday
(July 31st - Harry Potter's birthday!)
I finished writing/editing my first e-book. Well, the first e-book with my name on it (I've ghostwritten a couple). That's right: I've been writing an e-book. That was my big "secret" project that I was hinting at in my past couple of posts. It's called The Newbie Writer's Guide and it's going to be released for sale on my website on August 17, 2011 (my one year anniversary of becoming a professional writer). You heard it here first! ;)
And that's what's been happening in the life of Lauren R. Tharp. Thanks for stopping by! See you next Monday!
