Success!

Maybe?

Last night I did an experiment! Mostly because I was tired, but really because I've been wanting to do this since Brandon left. I didn't put Dexter in his crate last night. We were planning on not doing that until he was a year old but I was really tired of him asking to be let out in the middle of the night. Sooo... I left him out!

He growled asking if he could go on the bed (he's so nice, he doesn't just jump up. Good training on our part!). I let him jump up and he got comfy and fell asleep. Then I feel asleep! It was weird at times because he would be trying to push me off... but really, it wasn't bad. We both woke up around 6am and I was very surprised that he hadn't even gotten up once during the night. He just slept calmly on the bed.

So I know I shouldn't be teaching him that the bed in his bed, but I'm so glad he didn't even get up once during the night. When he got up at 6am he went down to chew on a rawhide I had brought to the bedroom. It was a nice night!

Tsunami?

Non-existant!

I got woken up around 4:30am by my phone ringing... I get excited, thinking it must be Brandon! and then see that it's my friend Michelle. I automatically start worrying because why would she call at this time? When I answer she asks if I've seen the news (no, sleeping) and then mentions that there was an earthquake and they were evacuating the coastline because of a tsunami. Could she, another friend Ashley, her neighbor Mandy (with her mother, 6 year old and 1 month old daughters), and 2 dogs, come over?

Sure!

So I'm up, organizing, watching news... there was a pretty large earthquake in Chile (right near where one of my Mormon friends is doing a mission! Yikes!) and it triggered a tsunami warning in Hawaii, among other places. Already by 5am there are cars on the roads, people evacuating, gas stations full, lines in grocery stores, wow! I'm not panicking though.

My friends arrive and we start watching the news. When the news gets old, we watched random TV shows. Then we'd switch back to the news to see if anything is happening. It was mostly a morning of waiting. I gave them food, drink and accommodations and they were all so grateful!

The tsunami was due at 11:05am on the Big Island. We waited, then waited, then waited. By 11:45am we were hungry, and seeing as nothing was happening, we walked over to the PX to grab some lunch. There were tons of people there, mostly people who got evacuated, waiting outside or eating lunch. When we got home we watched some more news and after an hour or so discovered that the tsunami warning was cancelled and they could go home.

Anti-climactic.

I'm happy, though. I got to speak to Brandon finally! He called me on someone else's phone and then used his own when it was charged. Two calls from him! It was hard to talk because it kept breaking up though. Oh well. Also, my friend's houses weren't destroyed, which is good. Disaster averted!

Bleh, I'm lonely!

I just want to talk to Brandon! I'm usually ok during our separations but geez, this sucks this time. I've been spoiled every separation we have because we get to talk all the time... this time he called me a couple nights and then it's like nothing. No warning or anything. He would text me and say "Busy day!" and hardly anything after that. Yesterday I heard from him a couple of times... and then today all I heard from him was at 12:45am when he said he just got... somewhere... and is only going to get 2 hours of sleep. I miss my husband! I just have to suck it up, I guess. I think his phone is dead too because none of my texts are getting through. Hopefully I hear from him soon!

Exhausted!

It seems my sleep dilemmas have disappeared for the time being. Other than still being woken up early by my lovely dog and cat, I've been so exhausted by the time I go to sleep. It's a combination of getting up early and keeping really busy.

Socializing wears me down! Tuesday I spent much of the afternoon with my friend Michelle at the dog beach and then at lunch. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with her again at Petco, Ross and Target... and then spent the night with my new friend Courtney at her house watching TV and eating homemade pizza. Granted, I love it and am grateful for all the socializing. But geez, I'm getting tired! I'm not 16 anymore, lol.

I got Dexter groomed yesterday and now his front paws are all dirty again. Useless lol.

Other news... haven't heard Brandon's voice for a couple days. He's been super busy. I've hardly gotten texts from him! He texted me in the middle of the night and surprisingly my body woke me up. I answered him but he never read it. I'm sure his phone is either dead or off now. Oh well, that's the life. I've gone longer without hearing his voice. Not that I like it!

Also, something is wrong with my right foot. I think it's just my plantar fasciitis but it's killing me. When I wake up in the morning I limp real bad and can hardly make it down the stairs. I've forgone working out on my Wii Active because that calls for me to be standing up or jumping or running in place and my foot can't handle it in the morning. I'm contemplating going to the doctor's, but what are they going to say? Take an X-ray and see nothing? I dunno. It's been hurting since Brandon left and I went to the dog beach and ran on the beach... maybe I got a stress fracture. It's not as bad as the first stress fracture I got. Geez, my feet are so dumb!

And lastly, with all this stuff going on, I've had difficulty concentrating. I can write for a bit but when I sit down to read, I just can't! All my brain wants to do is watch TV or play games - something mindless. I need to buck down, there's 3/4 books I'm trying to read right now.

I'm feeling good, thanks!

The last month or month and a half I've been feeling kind of depressed at times. I don't know why, I just felt out of it, not wanting to do anything, just blue. I still did what I needed to do and felt happy most of the day. Something was missing. I think I've discovered it!

I'm a social person by nature, but this staying at home and writing thing didn't offer me many chances to interact with people other than my husband or the cashier at the grocery store. However, I've joined a spouses club and have already made a couple friends through it. One of those ladies lives right down the street from me - wonderful! I've also made friends with the wives of a couple officers my husband works with. It's been great.

Yesterday I went on a walk with the girls I met through the spouses club. It was great! Today I spent a few hours at the dog beach and having lunch with a friend of mine. I just feel good. I guess I need friends and I need that interaction. Granted, I don't need it all the time, I do like my alone time, but with Brandon gone it's nice to have others to talk to. I hope we all become good friends!

So if you were to ask me how I'm feeling... well, I'm feeling good, thanks!

My Writing Website

I've finally worked a bit on www.chantalmshelstad.com. Please check it out!

I figured I needed to do SOMETHING with it because I did buy the domain name and all... I finally sat down to figure out the layout, theme, pages, etc. It was actually easier than I expected. I'm still tweaking it and messing with it and the theme might change sometime (though I do like the arrangement of this one), but it's still pretty good so far. Tell me what you think. :)

Books & Boredom

Currently I'm reading "On Writing" by Stephen King. It's a good book with some good advice from a good author. I'm soaking it all in and trying to remember all the little tips he has thrown in there. Almost done with it too!

Next up will be "Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer" about, you guessed it, editing. I need all the help I can get! I have some foundations and idea of what I need to do for editing my novel but there is still so much I need to find out. This book was written by real book editors so I can be assured that the tips are well worth it. It's come highly recommended.

Another book I'm reading is Andy Adams's "The Log of a Cowboy." It was written in 1903 and is basically a semi-autobiographical story about the authors time driving cattle through the western plains. I'm reading it for research for my next novel, though it's actually quite interesting. It's set in the same time of my novel so I'll be using it as my main reference.

I think I might start reading another fiction book sometime soon...

Anyway, since Brandon's been gone my day has been filled with boredom. I try to stretch out everything I have to do so I fill the hours so it's rather hard sometimes! I have a thing planned for every day this week but most days it'll only take an hour or so at the most. The rest of my hours are spent writing, researching, TV and movie watching, dog playing and internet surfing.

Last Thursday I was at my second Spouse's Club luncheon. It's nice! I met a nice girl there and we're sort of becoming friends. I joined a few clubs (Book Club, Adventure Club, Wine Club). The Adventure Club is meeting on Friday for an easy hike and I'll definitely be going. It's nice to get out of the house!

Today I might go down to Borders and Old Navy... I've been wanting to go to Borders to do some research and wander around a bit but I'm wary about going on a weekend. I think I'll go anyway. The Farmer's Market is open today too but I don't know if I really need to go... might be fun though!