Dawn Olmo

My friend Jennifer took this pictures.  I love them. Zoe Madeline is 3 weeks old in these shots.

On the 9th of March, I had a ton of contractions, but they petered out as soon as I got to the birth center. On the 10th, I went to my appointment and my blood pressure was pretty high. Turns out, it had been pretty high. My blood pressure is not normally high, but had been for the last three weeks. I didn’t know that. I didn’t want to die (You can die from pre-eclampsia) or wait for symptoms to worsen. Plus, I was already at 4 cm dilation.

So on Wednesday, March 11th I went in to the birth center to get things rolling. I had my first contraction at 3:15pm and at 6:13pm Zoe Madeline was born weighing 6lbs 6oz and 19.25 inches long.

She is adorable, by the way.

In case anyone missed it–this baby that is due in March (on the 17th) is going to be MY FIFTH FARKING GIRL.

Just, you know, in case you wondered.

I decided to blog, but only have 2 minutes. We are frying up a turkey, it’s nearly done.

I did NaNoWriMo again this year (have since 2003 or 2002) once again, I didn’t finish lol.  I was going strong during the first week, got up to 12,344 words, but then I got sick and then I got to making excuses as to why I couldn’t do it that night, etc. etc. until I just quit.

I will finish the book, eventually.  I know everything that will happen.

Times up!

There was ocean and wind and hot tubs and a lot of driving.  It was wonderful.

The Oregon Coast is beautiful, but cold.  I wasn’t expecting that.

I took some good pictures, but mostly I walked all over the place until my legs threatened to collapse in protest.

Two pink lines say
new life fills the womb.

Click me! It’s a picture

Going on Vacation this Saturday, really can not wait.  I hope we have a good time.  I’m upset that I’ll miss Jenai’s cooking.

This is my baby. It’s dark. I blame the camera (want to buy me a new one?) and photobucket. It’s not this dark on my computer…

Cheyenne Jackson was a friend of mine from High School. He always was into acting and had a great voice. I have to say that while all the girls lusted after him, I never did. Sure, I thought he was cute and hot and all that, but to me, he was always just a friend. I never thought of him in any other way. I thought about his older brother in lustful ways. OMG, did I ever. Well, I thought of A LOT of guys in other ways, but never him. So, when I was told he was gay (in a shocking voice, as though it was a horrible thing) I just nodded and said, “I thought so.” It was just something I’d always wondered about him… The person who told me said, “He always went out with the most beautiful girls in school, but always broke up with them when it got too real.” Or something close to that, maybe she said intimate, but this girl isn’t the smartest kid in kindergarten, so I could be wrong. I thought back to all the girls I’d known about, and really, she was way too liberal with the word beautiful. This is my catty side coming out, of course, but one of the girls he dated was really really skinny. She looked like a reanimated skeleton. She would not have been beautiful if she’d had fat under that skin, or muscle. I feel mean saying that, because she was beautiful inside, I suppose, though I never got to know her well. Anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. I love his website (http://cheyennejackson.com) and wonder who keeps it up. I doubt it is him. So, yeah. Ok. Whatever Dawn, let’s get back on track.

Anyway, I dvr’d the early show last friday, cuz he was on it. Damn them waiting until the end of the show to show Xanadu and Cheyenne. But it was neat seeing him on my TV, when before I’d only seen him in my classes, or on stage at school. I was supposed to play his mother in Bye Bye Birdie, but my stepmom was being whorey and didn’t want to drive to Newport everyday to pick me up so another girl took the part. I’m not bitter. Really. I left Newport after 10th grade, so I missed any other performances he may have been in…

So it was awesome. Yvonne said, “This looks gay.” And then I found this on YouTube and laughed my ass off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAFpdQ6ZAfA

I love Nathan Lane. I’m a bit jealous of Cheyenne, I’ll have to admit it. Such a jerk!

I’m kidding. He’s never been a jerk. I just wish he’d hurry it up and make it big so that the few things I have from him could be worth something lol. Not that I’d sell the picture of me he drew, or the signature book he said “You can too sing!” in (see, he was always nice) but it’d be nice to frame lol.

Well. Anyway, just wanted to share. It’s too bad they were all wearing those fakey underwear. If i was more into broadway and youtube, I’d know who this cubby bernstein fella was. I’m not, and I don’t care, really, so I’m not going to bother looking into it.

On a different note, I finally get a chance to read for pleasure and I can’t find any books that interest me. There is this one that Theresa at the S. Hill hastings recommended, it says, “Awe inspiring!” on the cover. It is called, Across the Face of the World and not even half-through the book I have found a sentence with the title’s name in it. I don’t know if the title was the author’s idea, or if it was the editor’s idea. It doesn’t matter… it was a bad one, plus I have not been inspired to awe. I’ve been inspired to, “Ahhh this is crap,” but that’s it. The writing is horrible (it feels like something that was never edited for clarity) and the storyline is the same storyline you can find in ANY fantasy book. It is like the author liked the ideas from all the books he’s read and tried to incorporate them into one book. It keeps pissing me off. I keep reading it, hoping that maybe it will get better. I am starting to give up hope.

It makes me wonder if it is because I’ve been ruined by all these creative writing classes, or if it’s really bad. Then I remember The Name of the Wind and realize that no, it isn’t that. The Name of the Wind is an awesome book. I fell in love with it… so in all likelihood, it’s a horrible book.

Um… baby is cruising and crawling. Today she stood up next to the table without holding on. It won’t be long before she’s walkin’. Yay. She is into EVERYTHING. Her favorite thing to do is to take things out of things. If it’s in a box, she empties it, a bag… empty. Anything she gets her hands on, empty. I’ve also moved her to yvonne’s room and moved Yvonne to the girls’s room, and she is sleeping all night long. Yay! I get sleep. It is nice.

I’m bored out of my mind.

Haven’t had the chance to read the whole thing yet, but I will. Until then, this is what I’m talking about:

Link (Or you can click on the title)

Blurb:

6. Harshness and critique

This is an unending debate. Let me begin with what I consider to be absolutely unacceptable: personal attacks, racial comments, sexist remarks, and other such idiocy. This is called rudeness. Rudeness is bad. It is different from harshness, because harshness usually has a point and if taken in the right way, can work wonders.

Now, should you be harsh? No, I don’t think so. Firm is better than harsh, but a very fine line separates these two. My rule so far is: if you can’t take someone giving you a critique that is harsh, you certainly shouldn’t be offering a harsh critique to someone else. This said, I would say that harsh critique is acceptable. “Go read a book,” is critique and good critique at that, no matter how much it stings. I would suggest not phrasing it in the same way, and in the event that you feel it is necessary to gear the writer towards better writers, suggest it carefully. Ask what kind of books they read, how often they read, and so on. Suggest books that you think can help them.

A couple of things to consider:

The maturity of the writer: It is important for you to know beforehand whether the writer is capable of taking your criticism or not. Since this is hard to gauge over the Internet (unless you are already familiar with the person whose writing you are critiquing), it is safer to avoid harshness of any kind.

We’re talking about deviantART: There are no moderators who will come swooping down to defend your harsh critique. There are GDs, staff members, and other influential types, yes, but the vastness of the site prevents them from noticing every little quibble.

In conclusion, be honest and firm; try not to be harsh, unless absolutely necessary.

Extra reading:
A discussion at *Amberlouie’s journal about harshness in critique; this is my rather personal opinion on the matter

Now this is from deviantart.com and yes, it’s based on critiques there, however a lot of it can be digested and diverted into other areas of life. Email critique, blog critique, one on one critique… grad school critique.

Chris. You are mean.