Michele Lee

This year instead of resolutions or even goals I’m giving myself quests. Progress is inching, but satisfactory so far.

Today I worked on Unfucking My Den, that is my quest to live a cleaner, more organized life. I cleaned out my fridge, went through my Tupperware and tossed that which was lidless, broken or generally useless. Part of why I avoid this is because I love picking up little dollar store cooking devices, you know shaped silicon bakeware for muffins or pancakes, cookie cutters, little stamps for putting writing on toast, and going through this stuff makes me really want to bake, and realize how much of this stuff I’ve never used. Also it reminds me of the stuff I still want to do, like more canning this year.

Quest two is I Am More Than a Cardboard Cut-out of a Person. I went grovery shopping today and got healthful food. I actually love healthful food, but I spent twice as much today on just Jason and I as I usually spend in a week on all four of us. And I totally snatched up the clearance and “oh shit this is about to expire” stuff. I also got some neat stack able lunch containers which will hopefully help me eat better rather than in my usual insert-frozen-meal-into-lunchbox. I even made myself a salad, sand which and fruit cup meal for tomorrow with said lunch containers. Also I had a nap, since it was my day off and I was tired.

Quest three is I Know I Was Supposed to Send This in Last Month….aka, my MonsterLibrarian/Reading Bites work. I’m working on updating our vampire ya list, add zombie and were-critter versions, wrote a review of Christopher Pike’s Final Friends series, and worked on getting all our ML archive reviews up on Reading Bites as well. Progress!

Almost last is I Am Too a Real Writer. I worked on edits as prep for a submission and went through my files to reorganize my To Edit, In Progress and Circulating folders. Also I’m stopping by here before bed.

Finally is my Friends, Family, Other, you know spend time with and enjoy what I have. I failed to walk the dogs today (it was seriously cold) but I remembered to buy kitty litter. I gamed with some friends, cuddled with the kids, picked up afterwards and gave the dogs some positive attention too.

Not a bad day, but nothing got completely done. Progress, I tell myself, that’s the important bit.

Not the 100 books a year I try to read. For some reason Good reads says I read 76, which is odd because usually it’s behind my other list because Good reads doesn’t typically include magazines. But here’s my list.

Books Read 2012

January
1. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
2. Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
3. Blood Fruit, edited by James EM Rasmussen
4. Night World v 1 by L.J. Smith
5. Night World v 2 by L.J. Smith
6. Zombie Writing! Edited by Armand Rosamilia
7. An Occupation of Angels by Lavie Tidhar
8. Goosebumps: Stay Out of the Basement by R.L. Stine
9. Katana by Cole Gibsen

February
10. Night World v 3 by LJ Smith
11. Dead Girl’s Blog by Donna Burgess
12. Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke
13. Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass
14. As Fate Would Have it by Michael Louis Cavillo
15. Katja from the Punk Band by Simon Logan

March
16. Magic & Misery by Lincoln Crisler
17. Black Jack Derringer: The Complete Collection by K.H. Koehler
18. Goosebumps: Say Cheese and Die by RL Stine
19. Mercy Thompson: Homecoming
20. Mercy Thompson: Moon Called volume 1
21. Baby Mouse: Queen of the World
22. Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block
23. The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Wren Wright
24. Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

April
25. Cinema of Shadows by Michael West
26. Switchblade Goddess by Lucy A Snyder
27. The Everything Puppy Book
28. A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins
29. Vacation by Matthew Costillo
30. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
31. Broods of Fenrir by Coral Moore
32. Zombie Hospital by Angela Verdenius
33. Sideshow PI: The Devil’s Garden

May
34. Angel: Old Friends
35. Lasher by Anne Rice
36. The Witches by Roald Dahl
37. Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane
38. Magic Gifts by Ilona Andrews
39. Codex Necromantik by Greg X. Graves
40. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

June
41. Commedia della Morte by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
42. Strange Angels by Lili Saintcrow
43. Gwen by Stacy Ataree

July
44. Marvel 1602
45. The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis
46. Beast Within 2: Predator and Prey edited by Jennifer Brozek
47. Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane

August
48. Marked by PC Cast
49. Buffy: predator and prey
50. Devil’s Punch by Ann Aguirre
51. Betrayed by PC Cast
52. Chosen by PC Cast

September
53. Untamed by PC Cast
54. Hunted by PC Cast
55. Zee Bee & Bee by David James Keaton
56. Tempted by PC Cast
57. Burned by PC Cast

October
58. The Girl with Glass Eyes by Berenice Wakefield
59. Tower of the Forgotten by Sara M. Harvey
60. Dueling Minds ed by Brian James Freeman
61. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #1 Eight Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
62. Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

November
63. Shadow’s Fall by Diane Sylvan
64. Tyler’s Third Act by Mick Garris
65. Mary on Horseback by Rosemary Wells
66. Awakened by PC Cast
67. Destined by PC Cast

December
68. Hidden by P.C. Cast
69. Ship of Souls by Zetta Elliot
70. Dark water by Catherine Fisher
71. Dark Visions by LJ Smith

Like the boycotting of Walmart I have mixed feelings about shopping on Thanksgiving/Black Friday. I work retail, and have for a while. I’ve been incredibly lucky in not having to deal directly with nasty crowds and I absolutely believe the people boycotting have good intentions in mind.

But we tend to forget the bits that fall through the cracks. Like the many years working on Thanksgiving (which was catered) and Christmas (ditto) that gave Jason and I the extra money to afford a holiday. Like last year when I worked at a dog kennel and working on the holidays meant 1) time and a half 2) a potluck! and 3) making sure dogs without their families were taken care of.

As a family we celebrate Yule on the 21st not Christmas on the 25th. In part this meant we didn’t miss our Christmas. We are more likely to get the 21st off. Thanksgiving is not a huge affair because  Jason and I both live apart from our extended families so aren’t likely to get to see them on the holiday anyway (especially when you add in that Jason works third shift and needs to spend a chunk of the day sleeping.)

Way back when I did go to the big family gatherings slipping away to Walmart or Steak n’ Shake was a way to escape the inflated tension of the gathering. Some people have debilitating social anxiety. Some people have terrible families that they are NOT safe around. One person in my Facebook feed today went to the holiday dinner where they were asked not to make a science about a relative with finger-shaped bruises sitting next to her belligerent husband. Sometimes it’s just better not to spend time with the family. Sometimes we need a place to escape to so we can keep pretending to be the commercial version of ourselves.

Sometimes we don’t celebrate the same holidays, or the sacrifice is one we’re willing to make. Of course, sometimes the boss says you work or you get fired too. And sometimes you’re completely willing to work and someone throws a book at you because they can’t use their coupon on top of the Black Friday deal.

Seems to me a good option would be employers giving retail and food service workers holiday pay on Black Friday. And capitalizing on the people who celebrate on different days or in different ways so the people who do want a traditional holiday can have their chance at one.

So, working or not, shopping or not, I hope you have a great holiday (or Thursday) and remember to actually pass on that holiday feeling of happiness, benevolence and joy especially to the joes working the crappy minimum wage jobs that make your lives easier.