It’s January 5, 2012 in Southern California, so naturally it’s 80 degrees. Last year, we didn’t have much of a summer. Maybe we won’t have a winter either.
My street is still a mess from the wind storms that blew through here the first week of December. Giant palm fronds clog up the gutters in front of our house. An apt metaphor for my writer’s block.
Well, not really. At night, after both children are asleep, I have been tempted to write, but even more drawn to watch “Game of Thrones.” I blame Jessica of “The 24 Year Age Gap” (Blogspot) because she brought it up in her blog and I had nothing to watch and I figured, “Okay, I’ll try the first episode…”
Three weeks later, I’ve watched all ten episodes, read all 700 plus pages of the first novel and am about 350 pages into the second. I’ve taken to calling Odie “Milord.” Meanwhile, he is obsessed with “Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim.” Every time I say “I got my husband Skyrim for his birthday” I feel like I’m confessing something dirty.
I want you to know that I’m not going to be one of those writers who starts a blog, gets you hooked, then stops writing. I have been let down by many such bitches in my life, and I will not join their ranks.
The winds came roaring through the first week of December and blew all my mojo away. Yesterday, Odie set a desk up in front of the windows in our living room, scooted the Pack N Play up beside it, and made me a work space. I love him so. I feel inspired. I have a work space now. I used to write in my TV watching, reading and nursing space. Since I can’t see the TV from my new desk, I feel confident that I can get work done.
And speaking of Odie setting up my work space, I have learned the best way to get him to do something is to ask him to do something else. I have been nagging him wife-style to help me make our second bedroom into a play room for about a year. I was going to do it behind his back, but he found the boxes and asked me what they were for, and the only thing I lie about in this relationship is my weight.
If I have a plan, Odie has a different one. We never agree on the way things ought to be and we are both convinced the other is wrong. Even when I think there is no possible way he could disagree with a plan of mine, like putting up curtains to replace the fitted sheet we have hanging from the horizontal blinds, he finds a way. Why would we spend money on curtains when we don’t have shelves in the garage? How can we possibly clean out the junk room and make it a play room until we have shelves in the garage? You know what would help make us organized?
Were you about to say “shelves in the garage”? You’re wrong. It’s a giant toolbox (I’m just kidding. It’s shelves in the garage).
It’s gotten to the point where whenever Odie asks me a question, that’s my answer.
“You know where we should go for dinner?”
“To get shelves for the garage?”
“You know what I want to buy for Viva?”
“Shelves for the garage?”
He knows I’m mocking him, which I guess is mean. But I’m on target here.
So I nag about the playroom until he cleans the kitchen. Because the man is a procrastinator and he will do everything except the thing he has to do. Even if the thing he has to do is easier and more fun, it’s still the thing he “has to” do and not what he “wants to do.” He will do three hours of yard work because I asked him to install curtain rods.
I’m going to pressure him to put up some shelves in the garage tomorrow, because I really need the laundry done.
The Friendly Pedant by Mrs. Odie 
I’ve been having difficulty getting the husband to help with anything while I’m 8 months pregnant, he finally asked that I make him a list each day of things I need doing, that way he won’t be able to forget. The problem now is that if it’s not on the list it doesn’t get done at all, even the things he used to do anyway don’t get done unless they are on the list. I swear, husbands make bad roommates!
I am not allowed to make lists. If I handed Odie a “honey-do” list, he would hand me divorce papers.
OMG isn’t it excellent! I thought I was a fast reader, but you’ve got me beat in the reading department. I bought the first book last week and still have probably 250 pages to go. Probably because I only read at night in bed which means I only finish as many pages as I get to before I fall asleep. Sometimes that’s not many. LOL. I’m already looking forward to the second one. I actually decided to go back and rewatch episodes 7-10 because although I thought I was keeping up with the story line pretty well while watching, now that I’ve read I realized I missed some pretty crucial parts of the show. Plus some episodes I’d watch while folding laundry and GoT is really not the kind of show that you can pay half attention to because you will really miss a lot. So far my favorite story lines are Daenarys’ and Tyrian’s. I admit, I pretty much skim the Jon Snow chapters in the book. Blah, blah, Wall, Bastard, I get it. I hated Sansa at first BUT in the show when she told Joffrey maybe her brother would bring her HIS head on a stake, I started to have hope for her. Maybe she won’t be such a useless bag of hair after all.
I do read quickly. My Nook helps because I don’t have to worry about turning on a light or waking a baby with the shuffle of turning pages. Since I’m breastfeeding, I’m often up in the middle of the night, and that’s what I do: read.
OMG, it is soooo good! People have asked me for months if I watch it and I resisted it because after watching “The Tudors,” I felt like I’d lost my taste for graphic violence, realistic torture, and horrific rape scenes (all of which I assumed GoT would feature). I was at a place in my life where I couldn’t take it. Then, the Zoloft kicked in, and stuff didn’t get to me as much. I’m not saying I now make a big bowl of popcorn and enjoy rape, but I’m not haunted like I was. I can get some distance from what I see on TV if it’s fiction.
It was truly the fact that you were hooked in that I tried it. A while back, you wrote a hilarious diatribe against “True Blood,” and agreed with every word, so I figured I could trust your review of this show. I can’t wait until the new season. Literally. I couldn’t wait, so I’m reading the books! I agree about Jon Snow, except that it gets more interesting (moderately) in the second book.
Mrs. Odie,
I have missed you so. From the drama at Mcknutcase to the snow (read vomit) covered Small Things all sanity has been lost from the Blogosphere in your absence. Blogs are my guilty pleasure. Reading blogs is how I decompress after a hard days work. And you my friend are one of my favorites. I save you until the end and savor you with a steaming cup of rich, dark hot chocolate lovingly spiked with cherry vodka of course. So welcome back old friend. You even make shelves for the garage hilarious!
That sounds delicious. I’ve never even heard of cherry vodka. Than again, I’ve been pregnant or nursing since August of 2008, so I haven’t had a proper drink in ages.
Hello, I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months now and I wanted to comment to tell you how much I enjoy it! This last post especially hit home for me. My husband doesn’t like it when I “nag” him but yet if I don’t remind him it doesn’t get done. Too funny. I wanted to let you know, I appreciate your blog, it is a nice dose of funny / truth in the middle of my stressful day.
I’m so glad that you took the time to write a comment. Thank you! You brightened my day.
Game of Thrones is my guilty pleasure. Guilty because I have to watch it after my son goes to bed. (Ummmm….the first time we meet Catelyn Stark’s sister :O ).
Anyway, what is this “asking your husband to do things” concept? I’m always asking my husband to NOT do things. It’s much cheaper that way.
So, I just realized that looks like a big happy smile. Um, no….
A six year old nursing is the least objectionable image for a kid to see! Didn’t the first few minutes show dead people including children? Then there’s a beheading and a child being thrown to his presumed death. And isit just me or did anyone else snort, “That is not a lactating breast!” All pert and tiny nippled.
But oh, hell yeah, it is definitely a when-the-kids-are-in-bed show. I’m even more worried about season two because I just finished “Clash of Kings.” Whole lotta raping in that one. I hope they keep those images to a minimum.
Only 6? I thought he was a lot older than that. Anyway, I was just using that as an example. For some reason, that scene was more shocking than others to me.
I’m trying to hold out on reading any of the books past the first one. I don’t want to spoil watching the series. 🙂
“I want you to know that I’m not going to be one of those writers who starts a blog, gets you hooked, then stops writing. I have been let down by many such bitches in my life, and I will not join their ranks.”
Guilty as charged. My apologies and I will try not to do it again since I have now resolved to write again. But it was a resolution, and we both know how those go.