Computer-less Weekend

I had one of the best weekends ever and part of the reason was that I decided to take the entire weekend off from writing. It’s rare that I do this. As a freelance writer, you are always thinking about where the next job is coming from. This is true even when you’re really busy. The last few months I’ve been doing the cold calling, LOI, and job boards again hard. The good news is that I’ve started quite a few new jobs, one of which was through a job board, one was through cold calling, and one from someone that contacted me years ago and at the time I was just plain too busy to commit.

I knew this week would be overwhelmingly busy, so I stayed off of the computer. I just needed a mental break. I didn’t even work on my novel this weekend.

Instead, I had fun. Went to dinner with some lovely friends of ours, went to a big rummage sale/flea market type of deal, caught up on TV, goofed around, and even went to a movie. (This frugal girl does open her purse occasionally.) After catching up from the weekend, here are a few thoughts I have, stuff I found, and whatever else has popped into my brain now that I’ve had time to de-computer-ize.

Fringe Rocks

Fringe is seriously the best show on TV right now. I love how they are answering the questions, love the details that are included, and love that fact that they did this without dragging this show out for a jillion seasons. One of our local radio stations has this dude on every week talking about Lost, and the way he is describing this show makes me seriously not want to watch it. Since we didn’t catch it right from the beginning, the plan was to watch immediately after it finished. Now, we might even wait longer than that because of that one uber-geek. In the meantime, though, I am so happy with Fringe. DH keeps pausing it and commenting on how glad he is that they are answering this question, or how that detail is included. I agree. Love J. J. Abrams.

Bret Michaels Rocks More

I fall more and more in love with Bret Michaels every week. I blab about Bret quite a bit on my diabetes blog, mainly because he’s had Type 1 diabetes for 40 years now, but I need to mention him here as well. The dude has raised over $140,000 (so far) for diabetes on Celebrity Apprentice, and now he’s in the top two! Did you think he’d be in top two? He was the dark horse of the competition. I love when people who are underestimated prove that they have the goods and Bret has done that on Celebrity Apprentice. I think back to the first week, when he knew the other team would chose him to be project manager because “they’re gonna think I’ve been high since I was in the 3rd grade, so they are totally picking me.” They chose him because they thought he was weak, and now he’s in the finale. I’m REALLY curious as to how the finale will play out now with Bret’s brain injury. The filming finished months ago, but the finale is always live. Will Trump have a heart and “hire” Bret? Will he view the brain injury like he does crying and the common cold (you’re weak – you’re FIGH-arrrrd!)? Will Bret even be well enough to be at the finale? Can Trump hire him if he isn’t? We’ll find out on Sunday. Go Bret!

Robin Hood Is Awesome, Except for One Thing

I saw Robin Hood this weekend, and have to say, I loved it! Except, that is, for one thing. I can’t tell you what that is (don’t want to ruin the movie in case you haven’t seen it yet), but if you’ve seen it and want to email me, we can see if we both thought the same thing. When this certain thing happened, I rolled my eyes and said, “It was so good up until now!”

Now that I’ve had some time to absorb it, I can tell you that even with the one thing I didn’t like the movie was great. Beautifully shot (so see it on the big screen), well acted, and great writing. Bravo, Ridley Scot! Also, after you see the movie, check out the History Channel’s feature on Robin Hood because it’s very, very good.

Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Is One Funny Chick

I “met” Diane a few years ago. (And when I say “met,” what I mean is that I’ve never actually met her – but only “know” her from the online world. And when I say “know” I mean we worked together at an online mag with about a jillion other writers. But hey, she is my Facebook friend!) What I’ve found from reading Diane’s writing is that she makes me laugh so hard sometimes I almost want to wet my pants. I’m sure she’d be honored to know that. You need to check out her writing, like this blog post about Mother’s Day.

Ami Hendrickson’s Cool Stuff Post

Ami Hendrickson is another author I “met” online (which means again that I’ve never actually met her) and after I wrote my “Cool Stuff If It Happened” post she wrote one about skydiving, seeing the Earth from space, and getting a personal tour of the Vatican archives…. wow, that’s some list!

Oprah Needs to Have Me On Her Show

Oh, I know every author says this, but this weekend DH was stomping around here announcing my name like the Big O does (welcooommmmme Cherrrrrrrrriiiiiiiieeeee Burbaaaaaaaaaaach.) It was beyond hilarious. I actually had to ask him to stop at one point so I could catch my breath. DH believes that Oprah needs to read my poetry book Father’s Eyes because it will appeal to her survival sensibilities and love of poetry, and my diabetes book 21 Simple Things You Can Do To Help Someone With Diabetes because it’s a book about “why people shouldn’t be stupid.” Can you tell why I love this man?

All in all, I’m glad I was off the computer for a bit, and did find that I have that much more energy to tackle my new writing gigs. Hope you had a good weekend, too!