I’ve been writing

Posted on June 15, 2011 by pamsteinke

I’ve been bad about blogging…but I have been writing!

Yep, to all those friends who have told me, over the years, that I ought to write a book…I’ve started.  Last November, my brother, Porter, told me about a writing challenge he was participating in . The goal was to write like 50,000 words by the end of the month.  Which averages out to like 18,000 a day. I had wanted to participate then, but it was October 26th and I just didn’t have the time to do my research and get ready to write by November 1st.

I had the germ of an idea one day while reading one of my young adult novels.  So I started researching and kind of forming the framework. But then I had a dream one night that provided more of a whole story. Upon further reflection that story took precedence and it’s the one I am currently working on.  I’m only about 40-50 pages in and it still needs a whole lot of work, but it’s flowing a lot easier than I ever imagined…so far. I just hope that continues!

The whole thing kind of reminds me of my Mom. I remember when I was younger, my Mom read a lot. The joke between Mom and Dad was that Mom was going to write a book, but she felt she needed to read a WHOLE LOT before she’d be ready to tackle writing. I don’t know if the writing was an excuse to read more, or not but I agree that you do need to read a whole lot before you can tackle writing.

PS – I did, finally, manage to remember to ask Porter about last November and the writing challenge.  He met his goal of 50,000 words and that equates to about 80% of the story written, but he hasn’t touched it since November 30th.  He did share with me the premise(s) of the story and I hope he does finish it up cuz I’d love to read it.  He’s the really talented writer in the family!

Filed under: Books!!! | 1 Comment »

“But Honey, It’s Part of my Job”

Posted on May 24, 2011 by pamsteinke

Porter, correct and forgive me if my memories are mistaken.

Way back when, my little brother, Porter, was a video games editor and writer for Amazon.com. Part of his job was to play all the new video games that were coming out and he would write about them on Amazon. With that said, Porter had every video games system on the market, as well as all the latest and greatest games to go with them.  He also had a built in excuse when his wife would get a bit perturbed with the amount of time he spent playing said video game, “But honey, it’s my job!”.  I remember he and I talking about this when my family was visiting his home for one of the first times. The story came out as he was setting up my then, 4 year old son with some video games to play with while we were there.

At the time I remember chuckling at the convenience of that excuse…oh how the tables have turned! Porter no longer works for Amazon, and probably only plays video games when he and my son are together…but I, on the other hand, find myself frequently using his “convenient excuse” whenever I want to read rather than do laundry, dishes, or other household chores! OK, Po, the shoes is on the other foot, you can start kicking me with it. LOL! Love ya lil brother!

Filed under: Books!!!, Family, Video Games, Work | 1 Comment »

Started another blog

Posted on May 20, 2011 by pamsteinke

Yep…I don’t have enough to do!  But with all the reading I am doing and all the books I’m writing reviews for I figured I should create a separate blog. Check it out.

http://novelgoddess.blogspot.com/

Filed under: Blogging, Books!!! | Leave a Comment »

I survived!!!!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by pamsteinke

Yesterday, Brian’s darling niece, Danielle, turned 21! God, talk about making a person feel old.

So the plan was to all meet up at Scorpion’s bar, the only bar open on Sundays, at 8 pm.  Thankfully we pretty much had the bar all to ourselves. From 8 to 10pm it was mostly family…which made for a good time. Then some of Danielle’s friends started trickling in.  Justin, who lives across the street from me and also works with me at the grocery store, dropped in to celebrate his birthday as well.  Justin tried to make it his personal mission to get me drunk…which failed! As I told him, I was twice his age and I learned my limitations LONG ago as well as the fact that I don’t recover from binge drinking like I used to.  I don’t know how trashed he ended up, I just know Bri and I went home and went to bed a little after 10pm and everyone was still going strong.

I am feelin for Danielle today, I suspect she is in miserable shape. The guys were looking for the most obnoxious drinks to buy her…including this birthday trough which held 4 different bottles of beer which she proceeded to drink with a straw! I think I was getting sick just watching her! I’m sure it was an interesting night for everyone…I’m just glad I had the foresight to know my limit and go home to bed!

Filed under: Birthdays | 1 Comment »

Blubbering Idiot

Posted on May 13, 2011 by pamsteinke

It’s Friday the 13th and the day started out like a typical Friday the 13th, including over sleeping and being a bit late for work.

Here is where the blubbering idiot part comes in.  I stopped to pick up the mail because I knew I had a bunch of new books waiting for me…that, in itself, is cause for a Christmas-like glee in me. But what I found in my personal mailbox was more like a Christmas Miracle.

Our tax bill to the feds and the state is, in my small world, equivalent to the national war debt. And let this serve as a caveat for you should you ever decide to prematurely pull money out of your 401K…

I pulled money out of my 401K to pay some bills. When I requested the money my fund administrator took 20% off the top for the feds. What I didn’t know was that the feds were going to penalize me another 20% of the gross at tax time and the state took 10% of the gross to penalize me.  So 50% of the money I took out ended up going to the two governments…I was under the mistaken impression that the 20% taken at the time the funds were withdrawn was going to be the extent of it.  I was WRONG!!!

So back to my Miracle.  I’d been stressing since discovering how much our tax bill was going to be. We decided to file an extension and have an accountant go over it and make sure I didn’t screw-up anywhere, plus it would give me time to sell all my photography equipment to cover the bill. My photography equipment was the only thing I could think of that might get us close to covering the bill.

OK, here is the Miracle part…today in the mail was a check for about 80% of my tax bill! It came from the bank that we did business with in Las Vegas before we moved a couple of years ago. The explanation accompanying the bill says it’s a credit balance refund found in a final audit of an account we closed a few years ago.  Which means I don’t have to sell my equipment.  Just thinking about it makes me start crying all over again.  What can I say, I’m a blubbering idiot and an emotional basket case!

Filed under: Photography, Wierd & Wonderful | Leave a Comment »

What’s for Lunch

Posted on May 5, 2011 by pamsteinke

The nice thing about going to school in a really small region like Mott/Regent school district is that the lunch room actually makes the lunches for scratch. My son, for the most part, loves what the school offers for lunch…today, however, is a different story.  Here is a copy of the lunches scheduled for this week, cut from the New England Herald newspaper.  Needless to say, I sent a lunch with David today.

Filed under: Wierd & Wonderful | 1 Comment »

Peeve

Posted on May 4, 2011 by pamsteinke

peeve [peev]  – noun

1. a source of annoyance or irritation: Tardiness is one of mygreatest peeves.
2. an annoyed or irritated mood: to be in a peeve.
To those who have known me a loonngg time, it will not come as a surprise that I tend to be a bit opinionated.  Now, seeing the move to ND as a new start/clean slate/fresh page…I wanted to take advantage and start off on the right foot with my new neighbors and not show that side of me right off the bat.  Well, to my ND neighbors…batten down the hatches, cuz the real me is comin out. Ah…on second thought, I edited my original thoughts and toned them down anyway. LOL
If you haven’t guessed already…I’m peeved this morning.  I stopped by the C store for a little liquid refreshment, as I usually do, before heading off to work.  As I came out the C store and walk to where I parked (south side of the building) I see a truck parked in the middle of nowhere, basically. The truck was not pulled up to the curb, as a normal person would have done.  It was basically parked behind the handicapped spot.  By parked behind the handicapped spot, I mean that this “person” was parked in such a way that s/he wouldn’t get a ticket for actually parking in the handicapped spot, but there was no way a legitimate handicapped person could park there either.
WHAT THE F*CK KIND OF MESSED-UP LOGIC IS THAT? There were other spots available at the actual curb…Hell, most people drive right up and park alongside the door to the store. By parking so far behind the spot in question it’s not like they were actually “closer” to the door. So why go there?
Oh well…I’m sure I will never know what the thought process was behind that one…It just struck me at very wierd!

Filed under: Observations | Leave a Comment »

Sweet Surprise!

Posted on May 2, 2011 by pamsteinke

I went to get the mail today…That’s the challenge of having a PO Box, I don’t get there every day. More like once a week.  So after dinner tonight, Brian pulled into the Post Office so we could get the mail, but also to inspect the damage done to the roof in Saturday’s high winds.  Bricks from the roof littered the sidewalk around the building…so glad I wasn’t standing there when those bricks rained down!

So anyway…I pulled out the mail and found a key to the oversize boxes that the postal employees put stuff in that won’t fit in your box.  I went over to box 1 and found an Amazon box. I opened it assuming it was something for the library even though the key was in my personal mailbox.

I opened the Amazon box to find a copy of a new book I had been coveting! Now, I know I didn’t order it…so I looked at the packing slip…and there was the sweetest note from my very dear friend, Kristy.

“It’s so nice to have someone to share my love of books with”

AWWWWWWW!!!!!! How sweet is that???? Now you know why I love Kristy…she is one of the sweetest people I know…and she’ll kill me for posting that on the internet and ruining her rep!

Kristy and I hang out on goodreads.com exchanging ideas about books we want to read and discussing our thoughts on the books we do read…we also have an unofficial competition over who will read the most books this year…she has 2 small children and enjoys running marathons, thus handicapping herself in the reading department.

Kristy, I love that we share the same tastes in books and can share them with each other. It was so sweet of you to send me “City of Fallen Angels”…I love it and love you too dear friend. So glad you are part of my life.

Filed under: Books!!!, Friends | 2 Comments »

Dates

Posted on May 2, 2011 by pamsteinke

My beloved husband is not one for remembering dates. We are lucky if he can remember his own birthdate!!

Today is a big date in our lives…not that he can remember it.  Had it not been for a gentle reminder from, I think, his Mother…he wouldn’t have even remembered that this particular date was in the month of May.

Last Thursday he says to me, “Hey, our anniversary is coming up”. I laughed and said, “OK, who reminded you?”. He smiled kind of sheepishly and then started rattling of dates. “Is it the 15th?”. That is his nieces birthday.  “The 30th?”. Wrong again…that’s my Mom’s birthday. “I know it’s the 28th!”…that would be my Dad’s birthday and my parent’s Anniversary. “Try Monday”, I say. “Oh! You know I suck at dates.”…yes, dear, I know.

I don’t hold it against him in any way.  There are just some things you learn after 19 years of wedded bliss…Brian can’t remember dates and he also can not program household electronics! However, put him in front of a quarter million dollar CNC machine and he can program it to build you a house and make a killer cup of coffee.

It has been 19 years married and 22 together and I can honestly say that I love him so much more today than I did the day I married him. We’ve grown into our relationship in a way that only can happen with time and maturity.  And we can still manage to surprise each other once in a while…like he did me the other night…but that’s a story for a different day.

To my darling hubby, Bri-guy, thank you for our life, thank you for your unconditional love, you are truly a wonderful guy and I thank God for you every day. Here is to at least 19 more years. I love you!

Filed under: All About Pam, Anniversary | 1 Comment »

Prom Weekend

Posted on April 18, 2011 by pamsteinke

It was Prom Night here in Mott on Saturday. Seeing all the kids running around in their formal wear brought back so many memories!

My prom was May 17th, 1985…many, many years ago. My prom was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, it was for seniors and their date, and it was a dinner and dance. There was no official after party. My friends and I rented a limo and cruised around Hollywood till dawn.

Prom in Mott is very different…the prom was in the gym. The Junior class along with parents host and decorate the gym for the prom. The prom is for the Juniors and Seniors and their dates…lots of freshman and sophomores go as dates. Practically the whole town shows up prior to the dance to see the attendees parade through the gym in their formal wear. The same people who put on the Prom also host an after-party.

It’s interesting how the proximity to hotels and convention centers changes the Prom options.  The prom that occurs in Mott is more like the proms I always heard of via books and television but it wasn’t my personal experience.  What I see here in Mott is probably more the “norm” with the vast majority of the country, and honestly it amazes me what the kids and parents here in Mott are able to accomplish. I’m thinking that I would rather have had my prom here…but that’s all water under the bridge as they say.

David will be in High School sooner rather than later and I will be looking forward to prom season when the time does come.

Filed under: All About Pam | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »

  •  

    June 2012
    S M T W T F S
    « May    
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930

  • Archives

  • Category Cloud

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 213 other followers