I haven't been on here in over a year. These past few months have been stressful with my hours at work being cut. The good news is, the hours are slowly starting to pick up again. The bad news is, I might not be able to get an apartment in the fall. I was really hoping that I could move out and finally have my own place. If I got a roommate, it might not be as much of a problem, but I really want to have my own place instead of just a bedroom.

I mentioned in my last entry that I recently moved back in with my mom because I didn't want to live with my dad, his girlfriend, and her kid who is only two. Turns out, my moving happened just in time because they got evicted last week. But that's not the reason for this entry.

My dad actually married her. I don't know when the wedding was but I'm assuming that it was within the last few weeks and it was most likely a "Oh, look there's the courthouse! Lets go get married!" type of wedding. He didn't even tell me that he was going to marry her or was thinking about marrying her.

I found out about it last week from my mom who heard about it from my aunt who read about it in the paper. Great way to find out about your own father's wedding, isn't it?

I don't think the marriage is going to last. His wife is only using him. She's a manipulative control freak and my dad is easy to control. He's one of those people who can't say no to anything. Which explains why he's drinking again, has been in jail twice in the past four months, and has in a sense given up everything that is important to him including his own family.

I know without even asking him that the marriage was her idea even though he cares about her more than she does about him. And he's going to learn the hard way that she's not as committed as he thinks she is. Once she finds someone else to use, she'll be out of his life as fast as she was in it and there's nothing he can do about it because he's the one who made the choice to marry her and ignore all the warnings that she's no good for him.

I've had a rough couple of months, but I'm finally able to refocus on my writing. Including, updating this journal.
I just moved back in with my mom because I can't afford my own place yet and I wasn't going to live with my dad, his girlfriend and her two year old kid. Two months with them was more than enough. My dad and I are barely speaking to each other as a result of his new relationship. I have nothing nice to say about his girlfriend and I think my dad could do better. But things are better now that I'm back at my mom's. I wish I could have my own place, but this is better than where I was.

After almost two and a half years at my job, I finally got a promotion. So now instead of being a crew member, I am now a team leader or unit trainer depending on which title you think sounds better. Now, I can tell the crew members what to do. But, unlike the managers, I can't write anyone up if they don't do their jobs.

I do have to say that I do like having a black shirt better than the green ones I had to wear as a crew member. Sure, they're the same style, but the black shirts look better and a little more professional.

With the promotion also comes a raise which means more money. Add to that the fact that I'm getting more hours since I volunteered to close six nights a week; I should be getting some decent pay checks now.

For the past few weeks, I've had a bit of writer's block. It was hard to think of stuff to write even though I wanted to and anything I did write needed to be rewritten because it didn't sound right.

Fortunately, I no longer have writer's block. I've updated a few stories and am in the process of starting a new one even though I'm not sure when I'll start posting it because I want to focus on the other two stories that I have in progress. It starts three months after where 'Make My Car Tuff' left off. I'm not sure if I want to call it a sequel, though since it has nothing to do with 'Make My Car Tuff'. It's still in Steve's POV only this time he'll be going to Vietnam so there will be several new characters who still need names.

I've been sick since Thursday morning. I haven't had anything to eat since Thursday night and I've lost so much fluid that I lost around six or seven pounds. I had the same thing a few years ago, but it only lasted a day. This is three days now and I'm ready for it to be over. I want to be able to eat without wondering how I'm going to feel once I'm done. Of course the fact that I worked all three days probably doesn't help much. Especially when things get busy and you're trying to keep up. It's bad enough being sick, but to add the stress of dealing with difficult customers who ask the dumbest questions doesn't help.

I've been working on the second chapter to my story, 'The Meek one' for a few weeks now and nothing I've come up with sounds right. i've rewritten it at least four times and it never seems to work out. I want it to focus on Johnny and Dally. But, I don't know what I should have them do. At first, I was going to have them go to Buck's but, I'm not sure if that would work. Then, I was going to do something with the Shephards, but I realized that won't work either. At least not yet. So, now I'm trying to think of something else. Maybe I'll just have them stay at the vacant lot or wander around the streets because they have nothing better to do.

I just posted the third story in my series about Soda and his daughter Brianna on ff.net. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I guess a day early isn't bad. It's the first story in the series that will have Brianna's POV and I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to say since I know from experience that the characters like to take control of the story. All I have to do is write down what they tell me. So, this story could be a lot of fun to write because I'll have a five year old character telling me her point of view on things.

Last night, I watched the new Rob Lowe movie 'A Perfect Day' on TNT. I really enjoyed the movie from beginning to end. Sure, I liked it because Rob was in it, but it was good in general, too. For me, it was believable. I could relate to it since I have dreams of writing a novel and getting it published someday. But, some of the comments I've read from people who also read the movie are kind of unfair in my opinion. I mean, I happened to like the ending which some people seem to have a problem with. I think the whole movie was well done. Rob did a good job as always. Maybe some of these people should watch the movie again with more of an open mind instead of expecting things to happen.

Usually, I can get along with my coworkers and have no problems with them. But, there's one girl at my job that gets on my last nerve. She's late a lot and always wants to leave early even though she whines about needing more hours. All she does is complain about the other employees or about how the fries look. When she complained about the fries not being done once when I made them, I told her that if she didn't like it, she could drop her own fries. After all, I've been working there for two years and she's only been there two months. A few days ago, she showed up an hour late and actually got upset when she couldn't leave an hour early. Then, she complained when another coworker called in to say that he'd be late. Like, it's okay for her to be late but no one else? The managers all know I don't like working with her. It's even gotten to a point where I've asked the manager on duty to send her home. It's not like we need her. She would rather sit around doing nothing anyway. What's the point of getting a job if you don't want to do the work and only want to be at home anyway? There are people out there who need a job that would actually do the job. So, why in the world do we have to put up with someone who obviously doesn't care about her job at all?

Yes, I know others have their own list of pet peeves. But this is my list.
1. The same theme over and over again. Is it really so hard to be creative and come up with an original story? Do we really have to read the same story with name changes by different people?
2. Darry talking to Ponyboy like he's two. Ponyboy is fourteen, there is no reason to have Darry acting like he's younger or having Ponyboy act like a two year old. And considering that some of the people who write these stories are around fourteen or fifteen, they should know that no fourteen year old acts like a small child.
3. Suicidal Ponyboy. Okay, I've read some of these that are actually really good. But, I don't think Ponyboy was depressed. Especially to the point of having suicidal thoughts. This is one theme that seems to be over done.
4. Always having Ponyboy speak in baby talk when the story has him at a younger age. If he's supposed to be two, maybe three that's one thing. But if he's in grade school, have him talk like a normal person, not a toddler who is learning to talk.
5. Time travel so the author can be with the greasers. I agree with others that Hahukum Konn is the only one so far that has written a decent time travel story. Otherwise, it just seems unrealistic because no research was done.

For the record, I would like to say that I don't like secret shops and I think they are pointless. Why do employers need complete strangers telling them what kind of employees they have? And where I work, the secret shoppers always seem to lie about one thing or another.For example, we got shopped this week and supposedly I took their order. But I wasn't even on the register at the time I supposedly took the order. One of the managers was. Also, they said a coworker was in drive-thru and she wasn't even there yet and wasn't in drive-thru when she was. Also, it sounds like they said no manager was present. Um, there were two managers working and one took their order because I know I didn't so, how can they say there was no manager? And this happens almost every month when we get shopped. What's the point of it? They're never honest about the shops and I think it's unfair to have to explain why the shop was bad when all of us at my job know that the shoppers usually lie about something.

Last night, I finished decorating my Christmas tree and watched 'The Christmas Shoes' which I bought because it has Rob Lowe in it. It was a good movie. A little better than the production of the story that my church put on a few years ago. The movie was easier to follow and made more sense. Plus, I was able to see the whole thing. When I saw the production at church, I saw mainly the head of the person in front of me.

Anyway, I've noticed that a few new people have started submitting stories to the Outsiders section of ff.net, and on Lowe-Impact.com, a few young teenagers have been leaving messages for Rob. Well, this has me thinking, I know Rob Lowe has two kids who are both around the age where kids usually read 'The Outsiders' in school. Can any of you imagine what it must be like to be the child of one of those actors, watching that movie in class and having girls drool over your father and possibly even asking you about him? It's probably something you'd have to get used to, but still, it's probably rough to be in a situation like that.

I started out the month hoping that I'd be able to write a novel for nanowrimo. However, due to extra hours at work and getting sick with a cold, I only have around 15,000 words done. There's no way I'll be able to make the 50,000 word goal. Maybe next year will work out better.

Also, the story line isn't working out the way I hoped it would. To be honest, I can do better. So, I'll probably end up deleting it anyway.

I'm just going to go back to writing my fan fictions for ff.net. I haven't lost my inspiration for that I just haven't been able to update much this month because of my pathetic attempt at writing the novel. But I should be getting back on track with my updates and hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll be posting a new story or two.

I always seem to get ideas for new Outsiders fan fictions and never seem to have enough time to write all of them. Here are some of those ideas:

1.) Soda's Little Princess- Yes, it's the third in the series about Soda and his daughter, Brianna. In this story, Brianna is five and starting kindergarten. It's the first in the series that will have Brianna's POV included.

2.) Through The Father's Eyes- Each character will have one chapter devoted to him in this story. I got the idea because I realized that the greasers are basically fatherless in the book and being a Christian, I want to try to explore what God would have to say about each of the greasers and about His role as the Father that will always be there for them.

3.) Untitled- I haven't come up with a title yet, but I want to do a story about why Soda got the idea that he was dumb. Will most likely take place several months before the book and will include the parents at least in the beginning of the story.

That's it for now. I don't know when I'll get around to writing them. But, I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out when I do start writing them.

Okay, so I'm a youth leader at my church and we have two services on Wednesday nights. Middle school has their service first and then the high schoolers have theirs next.

Anyway, during the middle school service, I'm behind the merchandise counter, and no I don't have any new merchandise yet. But during the high school service, I'm watching the sanctuary doors, making sure kids aren't holding them open, people don't try to use the bathroom during the service, (I'm usually pretty relaxed on that one as long as they do go to the bathroom and come right back), and making sure the middle schoolers aren't peeking in the windows and causing a distraction. Of course that last one would be easier if we covered the windows so they wouldn't be able to see in.

Actually, I wouldn't mind it so much if it was a quick peek and they'd go do something else which is what most of them do. But there are a few who just stare and wave at any high schooler who will look. And part of me wants to tell them that it's the same service they just sat through and to go play some of the games, but I know I can't. I'm too nice. Even if it does bug me.

Then, there's also the issue of other leaders deciding that they're going to watch the doors, like I'm not doing my job or something. And that bugs me because there really isn't any set rules when it comes to the doors. No one ever said that students couldn't go in and out those doors. If there was one, I'd know about it. So, how can I be doing it wrong if there was no instructions for the job in the first place? I've even watched the ushers on Sunday mornings and they do the same thing that I do. Maybe I'm over reacting a little on this, but when people act like I'm not doing my job right, I feel like I'm being disrespected and I don't like it. And if there is supposed to be a certain way I'm supposed to do things, then someone needs to let me know.

I'm a day behind on my novel for nanowrimo. All because I agreed to work at another location of my store the other day when I was about to leave work. So I ended up working twelve hours and didn't get a chance to write on that day. Other than that, I'm doing better than I thought I would. The characters are starting to take control of the story. And I like it that way because the story seems to flow easier once the characters take over. At least that's my experience with writing. It also helps the characters seem more realistic since it's them telling the story instead of me. I just do the writing.

Yesterday while I was reading through a forum, I came across a link for The Outsiders television series petition. I used to check the petition regularly because I want to see the series released on dvd, but a year or so ago I couldn't get the petition to come up. Now, I can see how it's doing again. It's hard to believe that I signed it three years ago. And people are still signing it. Hopefully, this petition will help the series get it's dvd release and I can once again enjoy the television series that first introduced me to the characters I have come to love so much.

In just over two days, I'll be starting my novel for national novel writing month. When I first signed up to do it, I thought that I'd put my stories for fanfiction.net on hold for the month of November. But, I think I'll continue updating those even though I'll also be writing the novel. Besides, I kind of want to finish "Daddy's Little Girl" around Christmas. (Yes, I'm actually greaserfreak. Kelsdream is my pen name for nanowrimo.)
Anyway, I'm excited about writing a novel. I'm not sure if I can write 50,000 words in a month, but that's okay. Although, I figure I can come pretty close if I stay focused and work on it everyday.

Next week I can finally start writing my novel for the national novel writing month. I've been looking forward to doing this for a year now. The name of my novel is 'Outcasts' because I think it goes with what the novel will be about.
My main character's name is Keith and he'll be telling the story. Basically, the novel is about how a group of teens try to find where they fit in only to be treated like outcasts. Eventually, they find a place to belong in the school Bible club where they end up discovering that they're supposed to be outcasts in this world.
That's the best summary I can come up with for now. I know where I want the story to go, but no idea how I'm going to get there. I don't even know if I'll make the 50,000 word goal by the end of the month, but it'll be interesting to see if I can do it.