It's getting cold and I need something to warm me up...

It's Florida but it's bloody well 35 freaking degrees out! And it sure as shit feels like it too. This evening I decided to take a nice long walk down to retail central (Best Buy) in order to buy myself some movies. Merry X-Mas to me, yay! In keeping with my still unabated lust for Jake Gyllenhaal, I bought Bubble Boy and the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko. (Shout out to Monkey--if you EVER see JG in LA, you MUST get his autograph or a stealthy photo for me!) I also bought: Quills, Spiderman 2, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Starsky and Hutch (for slashiness of course), and Resident Evil: Apocalypse (it was only $7.99 and I love crappy horror movies, especially with chicks kicking ass! So shush.). Since I'm a lowly pedestrian (remember, grad student=no money) I had to walk there, which takes about 35-40 minutes from my apartment. It was nice and brisk when I left the house at 6:00 but by the time I got to Best Buy and I'd looked around and bought my stuff it was after 8:00 before I started heading back. By then it was really freaking cold. I hadn't dressed appropriately either--t-shirt and fleece pullover. The instant I got home I made myself a much needed cup of hot chocolate. Mmmm! And then, I put on Bubble Boy. I hadn't seen it before, but it was surprisingly funny and cute. JG is just too adorable in it. I became rather transfixed by his gorgeous eyes (so blue, so dreamy!) and those succulent lips that are just asking to be kissed, alas most likely by Kirsten Dunst. Lucky wench.

I decided I deserved some new movies after I got bad news this morning. My dad, step-mom, and the two youngest kids were coming to visit me for a few days but now it turns out my little brother has pneumonia and they aren't going to be able to come. This really bummed me out but I hope my brother gets better soon. I've had pneumonia and it's terrible. My step-mom was talking about scrambling to buy me a last minute ticket to come home for a few days so I wouldn't be alone the whole holiday. Unfortunately it isn't going to work out. Firstly, I don't want them to pay an outrageous fee to fly me home for a couple of days. And secondly, I can't really afford to be around someone with pneumonia. Respiratory ailments plague my family and I'm especially susceptible to those kinds of infections. The chances of me contracting pneumonia from my brother are inordinately high. I don't have any real medical insurace at the moment (the university doesn't give two shits about grad students' health) and I have to be functional to teach in January. So I thanked them for the offer but told them it wouldn't be wise. They were understandably sad. But I am too. It's going to be kind of crappy staying here alone but now I have some fun movies to watch at least.

I need to be working on my novel. Although, I did run the whole plot for a different book I'm working on by my current critique partner (and my romance book swap buddy) who was very excited about my ideas and offered some helpful perspective in terms of developing my whole narrative mythos (which is sort of crucial to paranormal stories). She's going to get a mad shout out in the acknowledgements of that one whenver it hits the stands someday.

So I have one literary agent with the first 30 pages of novel #1 and another with the first three chapters. By now they are most likely out of the loop for the holidays so I know I can't expect to hear anything until January, but here's to hoping! Talk about a fantastic way to start the New Year...I wish! We'll see. I'm feeling optimistic. Or at least I'm making myself feel optimistic. I do not accept defeat. I'm rather tenacious and intractable when it comes to my professional dreams and aspirations. And I've always managed to achieve what I've set out to do so far. Now if only I could have the same kind of focus, dedication, and go-getter gusto when it comes to my love life.

My experience with post-doc science boy (who was quite cute but way too invested in spending his free time roughing it in the wild) left me feeling rather disheartened. He was the best prospect I've had for longer than I care to admit and he just left me cold. Plus, his cologne was hideously strong and mildly peppery, which gave me a terrible headache. Whatever happened to plain old soap and deodorant folks? Or if you feel so inclined to delve into the aromatic scents, be sparing! Don't take a bath in your imposter perfume collection. Yuck! So anyway, two days ago I was taking another long walk (need alternate exercise outlet now that the university gym is closed until January) and I was accosted by a strange little man. Now I don't mean this to be hugely disparaging, but he was a good head shorter than me. I had to look down. That's typically a hard turn-off for me to ignore. I mean, a guy doesn't need to be a hulking behemoth or anything, but he needs to at least be at eye level with me.

So this guy, who was riding his bike but got off, follows me and starts chatting me up. He was being very nice and not overtly pervy or anything so I decided to be civil. He's apparently studying tax law (Ha! Monkey will get a kick out of this!) and he's an international student. I'm not sure where he's from originally, but he told me his name is Majid (?). Anyhoo, we had a nice chat but he just wasn't generating any chemistry from me. This might be due to the fact that not only is he considerably shorter than me, but also wiry thin. I'm sorry, but if I think I can quite literally pick a guy up and fling him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, well...I just don't want to go there. I have fears that I would break him. And it quite frankly doesn't turn me on. But it was nice getting some attention from an interested guy.

Okay, enough of my random musings. I'm off to work on novel #2.