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My Cup Runneth Over...

and it's spilling all over the furniture.

I'd like to say I'm speaking metaphorically, but, sadly, the dog growled at the cat, who took three leaps: one from the sofa to the coffee table, then the coffee table to the chair--where the other dog is--then onto the end table, where she went skidding off and knocked my glass of grape juice over.

It's 10:00 at night when I'm writing this--do you know how much I DON'T want to get up and clean up the grape juice.

(Chat amongst yourselves; I'll be back. Grape juice does stain after all.)

I'm back. The cat is sufficiently chastised from the barrage of words that frothed from my tight lips (and she does look somewhat similar to this picture, only Pagan is black and doesn't have a smushed face) and the dogs are grinning that they aren't the ones getting in trouble.

And this is just the last five minutes of my life.

I started a day job the other day. For the past almost 2 years I had been laid off from my day job, but one of the guys from the old job started at a new company, needed someone to help out, thought of me, and called. I couldn't say no, so now I'm working part time there and trying to figure out how I did this before. You know, work, write, food shop, pay bills, get the kids ready for back to school (which is then going to morph into nagging to get homework done and making lunches), keep up the family unit, clean the house (okay, let's be real... that doesn't happen even when I don't have a part time job), etc. etc., live my life.

There just aren't enough hours in the day. I think I figured out why vampires are so popular these days--everyone wants to be able to stay up all night to get everything they need to do done. I wouldn't mind not having to sleep...

But I must, and tomorrow it starts all over again, though Fridays are my day home, so I'll be writing. And getting promo ready for a conference in two weeks, and checking in on two blogs I'm on (this one included), and figuring out when we'll get the oil changed in 2 cars, and when to get one kid's hair cut for school pictures--and the pictures I get taken because I don't like school pictures, and take them all shopping for shoes, and run to the local store for birdseed because I enjoy feeding half the state of Pennsylvania's sparrow population outside my office window...

You know how the proverbial "they" say that if you want something done, ask a busy person? Please don't ask me. I've got enough on my plate as it is.

Oops, no I don't. The dog growled at the cat again, and now my DINNER (yes, I'm eating dinner at 10 - that being busy thing, you know) is on the floor.

Sigh...

Off to clean up yet another mess.

Here's hoping when this posts tomorrow morning, life will be a little less hectic. Of course, that only means that I'll have time to figure out what I'm making for all the Labor Day parties this weekend. We have one Friday night, one Saturday and one Sunday.

And that's actually a great thing to have your cup runneth over with: friends. How about you - what are you going to be doing this weekend?

Comments

  1. Writing!!! I LOVE animals, but after reading your post, I'm glad I'm without right now!!! I have enough stress and work to do! :) I'll be finishing final line edits on Wolf Fever and getting in my word count for The Wolf and the SEAL for the 3 day weekend! I'm going in early and worked last weekend, so will be leaving early today to get more writing in, hopefully!

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  2. My heart goes out to you. In the three years following the day my daughter moved out, I got something like 12 MS written, but all that busyness and seeming chaos you're enduring is the very grist for the writing mill that will make your work emotionally compelling to your readers. Be it hero or heroine, you can write knowledgeably about despair, exhaustion, isolation in a crowd, conflicted priorities, a sense of inadequacy, AND about the unstoppable determination to do right by the people (and beasts) you love. Wiping up grape juice is all about the love and all about the writing. It IS.

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  3. Hi Judi,

    Wow, maybe it's good that I only have one cat. We've thought about getting another, but he's so used to being an 'only cat' he'd freak out...and probably knock over all kinds of stuff.

    Today I'm cleaning the house for our family reunion, which I'll be hosting Sunday. Since I blog tomorrow, you'll hear more about that.

    Cindy

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  4. What am I doing this weekend? I'm finishing revisions for SEALed Forever.And I'll be chained to the computer until I do.

    I remember well the chaos of a houseful of dogs and cats. I had one dog who didn't have to DO anything. He could just stand there and his tail could wreck a living room. I miss him.

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  5. Congrats on the new job, but the time! We all need more of it!
    I'll be at my night job all weekend, and, of course, my son is coming home from college for the holiday. I might get to see him, briefly...

    I only have cats in the house now, so there aren't too many messes. Just the occasional hairball.

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  6. morning! Yes, I slept in. I needed it. And no messes! Yay! (Did I mention the kids forgot to put the dogs in the kitchen the night before - as well as forgetting to let them out before going to bed, so you can guess the mess I was faced with yesterday morning... poor dogs were so upset they hadn't gone out and could roam the downstairs that the mess was less than, um, solid, shall we say? Sigh. It's never ending.

    So far, though, today, it's just me and the animals - everyone else in the house is getting a head start on the holiday.

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  7. I got a good chuckle from this. But I so sympathize. Seems I have more messes lately than I know what to do with. But it's not my dog. It's me. I'm getting clumsier.

    My son is on not one, but two, football teams, and we thought we had to drive two hours for a scrimmage with another team, but it was canceled because of the weather. Thank goodness. Still have a scrimmage, but it's only 30 minutes away. So I'll be writing, at home or at the game. I just got my new battery for my laptop and I'm ready to finish these edits.

    Oh, cogratulations on the job.

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  8. Judi, Judi, Judi! (channel Bobby Sherman here)! You poor thing. It's a good thing you've got that sense of humor to save you from being a grump. I was missing my old cat yesterday and really wishing I had one again, so I'm sure my husband will thank you for getting that thought out of my head! Two dogs are enough.
    Grace, I love what you said. We should all print that out and hang it on our refrigerators - so true!
    This weekend I'm writing. nd preparing a workshop for a conference, and working on the blog tour, and meeting my writing group. Nice!

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  9. Bobby Sherman said it, too? I know it's attributed to Cary Grant, but interestingly enough, he never said it. I have a newspaper interview with him somewhere where he says he never said that. So when did Bobby Sherman say it? I had a big crush on him growing up.

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  10. Doing what I can to stay cool. We're having mega triple digits and even with A/C running what seems constantly, it feels way too warm.

    Even worse? Grape juice on light colored carpet! Or Barney deciding to throw up everywhere.

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  11. Oh Judi, I'm sorry about you're messy fuzzies. When we got home from two weeks vacation going to RWA we discovered the 3 cats had been displeased with our absence - and took it out on our carpet. We just got a quote to replace the carpet downstairs. Sigh.

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  12. Judy, too funny! Sounds like you and I have a lot more in common than just the fact that we'll end up being shelved next to each other in the "Fen" section of the romance aisle!

    I, too, was laid off last December, which happened just a few weeks before my three-book deal came through with Sourcebooks. Since then, I've been focusing on book stuff and applying for jobs and thinking "how did I used to balance ALL OF THIS?!"

    Oh, and we also have the pets in common. Two dogs, three cats. Is it possible we're sisters? :)

    Tawna

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  13. Linda, I'm hearing you. Any sort of pet bodily fluids are not appreciated.

    Amanda - ouch! Amazing how you don't get to enjoy that added expense to your vacation costs...

    Tawna - I'll have to check with my mom. Or my dad, actually... *waggles eyebrows. Anything's possible. LOL

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  14. I feel your pain, darlin'. Now that I'm back to work after having the summer off, I can't get caught up with all the stuff I have to get done at home and with my writing. So that's what I'm doing this weekend. Trying to get caught up on chores and author-y stuff. I've got promo and copy edits and final touches on a draft and writing new words. Four different books all in different stages! The promo is actually killing me, but I'm having fun finding pictures of my heroes and posting them on my blog. It's just time consuming and cutting into the time I need for say, using the potty and combing my hair.

    I'm off to take a short nap, so I can function enough to work on revisions, line editing, writing and promo. I'm tired after working all day. At least, I didn't have to clean up any spilled grape juice. I think I'd just declare the stains on the rug "artistic" and "trendy" and let it dry that way. Good job, cleaning it up, Judi!

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  15. Judi, I hear you! Yes these things happen frequently in my house. And busy? I've been busier this week than a randy bull in a herd of heifers--without all the fun. I have NO idea where the week went. It seems like I woke up Monday morning and blur whip past my eyes and it now FRIDAY!! Sheesh. I'm glad to say, I have a list of things that had to be done and almost everything was checked off.

    Like you, I'm saying, PLEASE don't ask me to do anything else. The minutes left over are REALLY needed to sleep...

    Does Pagan know you showed this pics? And I'm thinking at least one of the girls were as innocent as she appears....

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  16. I hear you! I have learned to say no to some things because I just get so run down and stressed when I'm way too busy. I even say no to parties sometimes so I can have some quiet time at home (and save on the babysitting).

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  17. OMG! Judi. That is so funny, I'm almost crying.

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  18. oh, goody, Lydia, you can cry with me. Seriously the mess yesterday morning as I was trying to get out the door to go to work... I wanted to cry. So did the dogs, poor dears. They knew they'd done wrong, but short of waking us up, they had no choice. Poor babies.

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  19. Oh, Judi, I messed up! He was singing about JULIE - but I had a friend named Judy in Junior High who swore he was singing her name. I guess we hear what we want to hear! Anyway, this cheesy video of teen stud Bobby Sherman is bound to cheer you up. So just THINK Judi.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsMONykezJM

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  20. Thanks for that Joanne. I just got lost in the 70s for a while - Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy, Andy Gibb, Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett... it was like an issue of Tiger Beat come to life! :)

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  21. Sorry I'm late in responding Judi - My cup runneth over to... This weekend we have all the kids home and I'm working and praying DH gets the living room finished finally. We just got back from Home Depot where we bought a medallion for the center of the decagon tray ceiling, he pulled down the 100 year-old pocket door (what cool hardware) and is going to try to fix it, sand it and put it back up before painting the whole place. Ah to have everyone locked out of my office, finally! I'd take that over parties any day!

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  22. Attempting home improvement, it's looking more like home destruction at this point. Though to be fair, we are no where near being a DIY Diaster, yet.

    Can I exchange my weekend for someone less insane? Please. I'll throw in several bottles of wine or liquor.

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  23. I loved this post, Judi. It sure seems like I never have quite enough hours in the day either. :}

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