Busy Girl....

Soooo.......VERY productive weekend here - let's see.

We went to Pottery Barn outlet on Saturday - found the PERFECT little bookcase/cabinet for our dvds/videos/games - but the dang thing REFUSED to fit in the car. Sooo....had to take it back, and we figured that we could rent a van and pick it up on Sunday.  So - well and good.  Then we went to pierOne, and found these two GORGEOUS bookshelves - very funky looking (black & cherrywood) and got two of them. Me & C had a bit of a tiff about whether to shove them in the car and take them home immeadiately, or whether to wait til we had the van. I reeeeallllllyyyy wanted to do as UTTERLY little as possible on Sunday, and so I stomped and pouted and ended up convincing the guys at pierOne to fit both of them into the car - and I have to admit, putting them in the van would have been much easier, but I'm glad that it ended up that way because after unpacking all of our books on Sat. night, I realized that we STILL needed at least one more small bookshelf  - and I had seen one at Pottery Barn that would work perfectly.

Went to the UHaul place Sunday, picked up a van, went BACK to Pottery Barn, picked up the cabinet and found another set of bookshelves - also snagged a kingsize down comforter (as I have been accused and found guilty of being a blanket hog) shoved it all in the van. Went to HomeDepot to pick up some other little things, swung by the grocery store (does EVERYONE shop on Sunday???) got home, unloaded the van, took it BACK to the UHaul place, and finally settled back in the house.  And I'm thrilled to say that the downstairs is now FULLY unpacked. Once we get all of the empty boxes out of there, it might actually feel kinda homey. We still need furniture, as we are working with just a futon bed and an old ottaman as sitting stuff (besides the dining room set and the kitchen stools - but they don't really count) so those will hoefully be our next big ticket item. I madly want a papasan from pierOne to go in the library (has a better reading chair EVER been  invented???) but - *le sigh* that's going to have to wait.

I'm sad to say, I hardly got any relaxation in - unless unpacking counts (which it SOOO doesn't) so I guess that'll have to wait till next weekend. I'm doing my nails tonight though - hook or CROOK!

Ah! Also are going to finally get our wireless internet installed this week - next I just need to figure out what to do with my poor laptop - the screen is TOTALLY dead, and I really don't want to spend 400 just to fix it - but then, that will be much cheaper than having to buy a whole new one. And I really DO like the laptop - despite the drama that I've had with it.

Oh! Also went to the bookclub - it seems VERY cool. There are actually two published authors that are members - I have a sidenote about that in a bit - and several others (including myself) who are trying to actually finish something that might be publishing worthy. The poetic member who I had talked to through the yahoogroup didn't make the meeting - which was good, as I only had a rough draft of my poems printed out - I really need to go back through them and polish them up a bit. Reading them again after so long - I'm still rather pleased with what I've got  - even some of the old ones are still in really good shape - but they do need a little gloss.
Now - sidenote. One of the things that has ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS irked me about the African American publishing world is that it seems like most of the books are ALWAYS centered around three things - relationships, money, and family - and tend to be in a 'trashy' novel format. Not even really 'romance' genre, but rather - "Drama Queen" genre. Stuff like "Tynesha hated her baby's daddy Devon, but found herself falling in love with his best friend Shane, who is actually her mothers child that was given up for adoption 25 years ago. How will this story of love and redemption play out in the mean streets of Baltimore??" *gag* I mean - yes....could possibly be a compelling story - but it seems like most of them are - well........not good. I haven't read either of the books from the authors in the group - but they both fall into that genre (one with a lil Church thrown in) and  - *sigh* it's just - frustrating for me. I've always known that even if I do write a 'trashy' novel, it's going to be more like a Regency Romance that like THAT.  I feel like a LOT of black authors sell themselves short by focusing only on one 'narrow' aspect of the AfAm experience - like they segregate themselves - writing books that will most likely only interest blacks rather than writing boks for general enjoyment. Also - that market is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO saturated with that 'style' of book - after a while, I'm sure even the publishers think that it's getting kinda old. I might be wrong - but *shakes head* I doubt it. Or maybe I'm just snobby about books. I am excited about the Book of The Month for May though - it's a Pearl Clege book, and while Pearl can be a little oatmeally to get through - she tends to write SO beautifully.

Hmmm....... I think that's it for now. Nothing too exciting planned for the week - getting all those damn boxes out of the house (just talked to C - they are LEAVING AS I TYPE!!! YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!), vacuuming the floors, cleaning the wood floors downstairs, cleaning out the car, finishing unpacking the books/magazines upstairs, *thinks* hmm.... that might be about it for now.
Can I do a little dance of joy that the boxes are leaving/leaving/leaving??? The house might be decent enough soon for me to take pictures and post!!! Besides the fact that the house is going to feel about 8 times bigger. *dancedancedance*

I'm SUCH a homebody. Okay - done for real for now - going to write a 'Path to Tommorow' entry in a sec - got good news there too!

Ciao kitlings!