I finally found out why I haven't been able to upload this fic on my site Purple Passions and it has something to do with FireFox not being compatible with my sitebuilder or something. Until I figure it all out, I thought I would go ahead and post this here as a kind of closure.

I'm pretty certain this is the last Anita Blake fic I will write. I'm working on other things including an original piece that is taking up most of my creative time and energy now. So, for all you ABVH fans still lurking around here, enjoy. I hope.



ST. LOUIS’ OWN JIM MORRISON

BeElleGee

Rated PG--violence

Summary: Her birthdays are hard enough for Anita to deal with, but this birthday in particular fills her with dread.

Disclaimer: All characters and situations presented in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series belongs to author Laurell K. Hamilton. No profit is being made from this bit of fic.


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Anita could hardly stand to open her eyes this morning but she forced herself to out of necessity and found on the surface, this morning wasn’t any different than any other morning.

The sun shined and a soft caressing breeze billowed into the bedroom through her partially opened window. Birds were chattering loudly in the trees outside, muffling the very domestic sounds emanating from her kitchen down the hall. Anita could smell strong coffee brewing along with something cinnamon baking in the oven.( read more )

April 22 will mark my 20th wedding anniversary. A life milestone in some circles so we're having a get-together with friends the following Saturday. My brother may fly down for the occasion and a visit. Should be fun.

My husband has presented me with the best anniversary gift ever. He procured two tickets to Nine Inch Nails, who'll be performing in West Palm Beach on May 8th.

I love that man.

Lord, I was rereading my resolutions from the previous post. Not going well at all. I don't think I've accomplished any and here it is just February. Sad.

I took this past week off so I could work in my yard and get my house painted. That didn't happen for a number of reasons. Money was definitely an issue. I broke my glasses and of course they couldn't be fixed and I ended up having to buy a new pair. Bifocals at that. Then my car had a flat tire the Saturday before last and it turned out all the tires were in bad shape so I had to buy four new ones. My little cat had an appointment at the vet to get his teeth cleaned and that turned out to be a major event with him having to stay the night and the vet having to run a bunch of tests and all. On top of all that, I really couldn't get motivated and then the weather wasn't exactly cooperating.

I did get some puttering-kind of stuff done inside the house and I did get the landscaping and reworking done in the yard I wanted to.

Valentine's Day was kind of a bust since hubby had to work most of the day and then we really didn't have any money for gifts or a dinner. Oh well.

Yesterday was nice though. I accompanied him to work and took Buddy. While JC finished up what he didn't get to Saturday, I walked Buddy around the campus turtle ponds. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves on the banks and Buddy almost fell into the drink darting after one.

Last night we went to Satellite Beach to have dinner at Tony's place. (Tony was the best man at our wedding btw.) JC's cousin, Anna, was staying there visiting from Virginia too. Well, Tony has an oceanside condo with a private beach so we spent some time roaming the sand looking for shells and taking pictures in the surf. Very romantic. Tony and Anna cooked a wonderful Cuban meat dish which I'm not even going to try to spell, with black beans and rice. I ate till I thought I was going to pop. It was all so good. We polished off a couple bottles of red wine and a chocolate cheese cake before calling it a night. Really nice time.

Today wasn't productive at all. I had to cancel my chiropractor appointment since my insurance company has been harassing me about going lately and threatening not to pay my claims. Lori canceled lunch with me 'cause she's sick. Claudia never called me about going to the movies tonight so I'm thinking she changed her mind. Oh well. I did while away a couple of hours at Petsmart this afternoon. Good sales going on there.

Back to the grind tomorrow. All good things must come to an end.

I figured I better get these down somewhere so I can refer to them often. Some of my resolutions have become annual. Every year I try (to little avail) to accomplish a few of these, but I've also added some new ones this year.

Annual resolutions include: lose weight--a pound a week or five pounds a month, keep in touch with friends and family better, read more, get online more.

New new year's resolutions include: keep my yard up better, exercise more, write a chapter a week, train Buddy, paint the house.

Today was rather productive. I managed to get the last of the Christmas decorations down. I can't find where I placed all the things I had up before Christmas. Knowing me they're all in a nice safe place--so safe I have yet to discover it. The outdoor lights were the big project today. I got the tree down yesterday before heading to work. I also mowed my yard, trimmed the bushes, and gave everything a good watering. A good start on my resolutions. We'll see how I'm doing a month or so from now.

I have to mention the spiral ham hubby fixed last night. I got it for $1.29 per pound at the ol' grocery store due to the fact the meat department over-ordered them for the holidays and now have to get rid of them. So I picked up this normally $30.00 ham for $10.00. I have to say, it was the best ham I've ever had in my entire life. I stuffed myself. So much for the weight resolution. ( I walked Buddy for a good half hour this afternoon for damage control.) LOL

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a safe, happy, healthy new year!

My computer has been so disagreeable lately I don't even want to get on it anymore. I've got DSL but you'd think I had dial-up as pages take up to five minutes to load. Sometimes they never load, but after five minutes, I'm usually so pissed off I give up and walk away. I can barely open my emails let alone update my webpages. Oh, it's been defragged and de-virused and all that, but it only helped a little.

I'm about ready to just tell everyone if you want to talk to me--call or use snail mail. I'm about ready to shut everything down, close it all up, and bid my online friends that are left farewell. I've pretty much lost track of people anyway. I can never seem to catch any "buddies" online and even when I do--even if it's family, they don't respond. I really don't get any emails except spam and junk and stupid chain letters now, so why bother? No one actually writes to me anymore.

Every once in awhile, things works the way it's supposed to and I can actually read my email and hear from family and friends, and check out some favorite sites and have fun online. Like today. So I keep going, hoping the next time I get online it will work as good.

This cold weather is miserable. It's too early in the season for these temperatures. Normally we don't dip into the 30's and 40's until around January. I'm ready for it to warm up. Hopefully next week will be back to normal.

Back to normal in a lot of respects actually. Inventory is over. The "Grand Opening" is over. BTW, what a joke. Today we are being visited (supposedly) by the company CEO. He was a no-show the last time he was supposed to come by. Tomorrow it will all be over and I'll be very happy to just concentrate on the upcoming holidays. JC and I are off to Ocala this weekend for the Thanksgiving family dinner. We're taking Buddy with us so that should be fun.

Hard to believe there's actually a commercial (two really)that I wish were longer and on more often but there is. And these commercials are so cool, I'm moved to urge others to take note of them.

I'm talking about the Residence commercials. It's for a hotel chain. In the first one I saw, a woman comes back to her hotel room (apparently from a meeting or convention or whatnot) and sheds her business suit jacket and then proceeds to mount a countertop with one hand and perform amazing, gravity-defying acrobatics with an apple balanced on her foot. It's hard to explain it well enough to do it justice, but I had to watch it a few times to make sure there wasn't any computer animation or special effects going on.

The second one I caught has a woman returning to her hotel room and performing her gravity-defying feats between two curtains. This one is impressive but I liked the first one better.

I know. I'm easily amused.

Hubby and I celebrated last night with champagne and peppermint ice cream. We both stayed up way too late considering we both had to go to work in the morning. But damn, it was worth it!

We are still sorting through cds. We still have cds to sort through, but we have gotten rid of two bookcases worth, plus three cd towers already. The downsizing has spilled over into other areas of the house too. The fewer bookcases, the fewer surfaces I have for the odd bric-a-brac. So I've been getting rid of a lot of that kind of thing. I'm enjoying having fewer bookcases in the house--as it's a lot less cluttered-looking, so I started going through my books today too. I've got my library down to two bookcases. It was a painful process, but I persevered. Another bookcase down. The remaining three consist of JC's books but he wasn't up to sorting through cds and books today. That's fine. We make a little more progress every weekend.

I wish I had tomorrow off. I want to stay home and play. I am finding myself with more free time lately and that's always a good thing. Things are looking up at work where I'm not having to put in the odd ten hour shift anymore and I'm getting over my cold?/strange illness too where I don't just want to lay around and sleep all the time either. Yes, I'm definitely feeling better and ready to go out and do something fun this weekend.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love having a dog? He's such a good little dog and he's absolutely no trouble. John and I just love him to pieces.

As it is, I promised little Buddy that I'd take him to the park today before I go to work. Poor little guy has been stuck inside all week because of the rain. It'll be nice for both of us to feel a little sunshine on our skins. I've already lost my summer tan even though it still feels like summer out there. Still in the upper 80's and still humid as hell.

Seems I only manage to get outside to mow anymore though JC and I have been talking about one last fling to Daytona Beach. I was hoping for this coming weekend, but he's been on this cleaning kick lately and has been tearing into his "studio" and downsizing his collection of cd's. I'm hard-pressed to deter him although I'd much rather spend my weekends basking on a beach than sorting through stacks of music.

The job he was offered in the Carolinas seems to be out of the question for now. The housing market and current credit freeze has made the thought of selling and buying a new house too scary. Besides, the guy never came up with anymore money so the move would be lateral at best. One of JC's favorite sayings is "it wasn't meant to be" and in this case, I think he's entirely right.

I'm one of the luckier ones though. At least I've still got a house and a job and health insurance and all that. I'm not about to rock any boats at this point.

When asked what piece of advice I could offer someone interested in writing fanfiction (or anything at all for that matter) I more often than not say, write what you want to read.

I was reminded of that same piece of advice just this past weekend and found it still rings true. Especially for me. All my fanfictions and original stories are scenarios I created because I simply wanted to read them. And I apparently still do.

While doing some fall house cleaning and downsizing, I pried open the cedar chest where I store all the hard copies of my old fanfictions and whiled away a good part of the weekend and today curled up on my sofa, re-reading some of my favorites. Some of these stories I haven't looked at since I wrote them way back when but found myself really enjoying them now.

There was my first Anita Blake fic and my very first slash fic--which was an ABVH fic too. Tons of those have been posted or published online but tons hadn't. They were fun to read. I found all my Tarzan fics too. God I LOVED that show and those fics brought back great memories of it. Then there was the Phantom Menace novella that hailed my return to writing fanfiction after some ten years of not. I wrote more SW prequel fics than anything. All those great new characters to play with. The prequel movies even spawned my first Star Wars slash which was inspired by Revenge of the Sith. Jedi are just too sexy lol. (See, writing slash fics is something I swore never to get into ages ago. Now I write and read it more than any other kind of fic. Go figure.) I even re-read some of the really old, often lame, Beauty and the Beast stories from the 80's. Most of those were published in fanzines. Most of those I'd completely forgotten about.

It's funny to see how the older I got the more detailed the plots and the sex in the fics got. Thankfully the writing style definitely improved over time. The stories got longer the longer I stayed with a fandom, and there's a noticeable point in my writing where I learned to properly write points of view.

Makes me itch to write something again. Now all I need is a fandom.

(Cue sad violin music)

Everybody is walking around with this air of resignation. The look in people's eyes is one of imminent doom. Oh yes they are preparing: gathering up gallon jugs of water, canned goods, batteries. It's coming. It's coming. One of them anyway and looks like the worse one at sea is heading right at us.

As if T.S. Fay wasn't bad enough. 60mph winds with torrents of rain that flooded everybody out and bouncing around Florida like a pinball. Totally screwed up my vacation away this year. JC and I were so worried about the animals and the house, we spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone to friends and co-workers and watching the Weather Channel in the hotel room.

We even managed to catch the outer bands of Hurricane Gustav as it crossed the Gulf. That was a big ass storm.

You could see T.S. Hanna's outer band clouds on the horizon yesterday. Tropical storm clouds look like they are rising out of the earth towards the sky; just these solid puffy towers of clouds. Odd clouds.

It's windy and dreary out today. Rain showers on and off. Hanna's beginning to turn up the coast.

I'm taking Buddy to the beach tomorrow to see the reported 18 foot surf. Wow. There goes the beach....

And H.Ike's a fucking category four storm. We're all biting our lower lips over this one. Hoping.

Okay! Here he is! http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/BeElleGee/016000032.jpg

His name is Buddy, (that's the name that was given to him and he answers to it so JC and I decided not to change it) and he's a three year old Boston terrier. He's had a rough start in life but he's got a good home now being a welcome addition to our family.

A week ago, John and I finally got a call from a no-kill shelter in Vero asking us if we'd like to make an appointment to see some of the dogs there. As it turned out, John and I had our eyes on a Maltese puppy there and made an appointment that night to view that dog and a couple of others--a poodle and a Chihuahua.

When we arrived, the lady who runs the shelter regretfully informed us that the Maltese pup had been adopted out earlier that day, but she still had the other dogs we were interested in. As it turned out, we saw the poodle first and liked her alot. John and I were ready to just say okay, we'll take her, but then the lady brings out this little tiny Boston terrier and says she just got him "back" and maybe we'd like to see him too. Well, he's so damned cute, John and I were pretty much smitten right off.

Apparently, Buddy's original owners neglected him by way of not feeding him properly and not providing needed veterinary care among other basic pet needs. The no-kill shelter got ahold of him after he'd been dumped at the pound and took care of him (he needed an operation on his eyes, shots, and worming) and even placed him in another home. Unfortunately for little Buddy, this home included another dog who did not care for him on his home turf and attacked him badly enough to leave him scarred. Once again Buddy went back to the pet rescue where we got him and they took care of him.

All's well that ends well--for us and Buddy anyway as this seems to be a match made in heaven. He's the perfect little gentleman and so sweet and so adorable. I just love him to pieces already!

I FINALLY have my dog.

I finally broke my husband down. He's finally ready to let me get a dog. He's actually excited about the prospect now that we've started filling out shelter applications and looking at prospective pups online. I'm thrilled too, but the excitement is dwindling due to having to wade through ten semi-biographical five page a piece applications to no avail.

We haven't heard back from one shelter or rescue yet. We've called and left messages. We've emailed. We've re-faxed. Meanwhile, all the dogs we've picked out are getting adopted out from under us. We started out with twelve potentials and are now down to four. It's frustrating. Do they want these animals to get a good home or not? Why haven't we heard back from anybody?

I found our former dog's leash and collar. I didn't think we'd kept it. I'm not sure why we did but now I have a good leather leash and a collar for our new dog. We bought some dishes too. One for food and one for water. I even picked up some cute toys.

But everyday, every night, it's the same disappointing news. No news. Nothing. It's the first thing I ask my husband and it's the first thing he asks me--Have you heard from anybody yet? No.....

Hopefully soon.

More to come.

I gotta tell ya, I've been loving this time off.

I did some major spring cleaning and redecorating. I got some quality quantity time online. Did some power shopping oh yeah. And over the weekend hubby and I slipped off to a fave getaway, Daytona Beach Shores for some s, s, and s (giggles).

I've had time off work since last Thursday and don't go back to work until tomorrow--boo! But I've had a great time with my freedom. It's not even over yet.

Tonight--to celebrate that most auspicious of days when my beloved and I wed--JC is taking me out to dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in town. I haven't been out for dinner in so long, I can't remember, so this will be fun. Kinda like going on a date. Besides, gives hubby the night off from cooking-teehee.

(Anyways, to my husband: happy 19th anniversary! I look to the next nineteen years together! Don't let me eat too much tonight!)

Led Zeppelin is on the radio right now. God I haven't heard this song in ages and I'm loving it. Robert Plant was soooo very sexy then but I was too young to appreciate it...then.

Yes, I'm home by myself for the next week as husband has embarked on a road trip to visit friends and family north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Maybe I shouldn't even announce such a thing. Who knows? Some serial ax murderer might be reading this and getting ideas....(Did I mention my huge pit bull/rottweiler-cross dog I have named Cujo yet?) I HATE being left alone. I always freak myself out for the first couple of nights before settling in. I'm going to call everyone I know as soon as I get offline to help ease the transition. No forensic shows for me tonight!

Apparently I can't spell anymore. Just about every sentence has a word underlined in red. I'm out of practice.

It's hard to believe it is March already. It seems like my last posting here was just a few weeks ago. I know I always keep the "busy" excuse handy for convenience sake, but I really have been busy. It seems like I haven't had time for anything (like posting on my LJ) lately.

But then what exactly has been consuming all my free time I couldn't say. I did rearrange some rooms in my house. I've been calling my sister every night after work because she's been laid up at home with a broken ankle. I've had a lot of doctor's appointments. I got new glasses. I got a new cell phone. I've been doing a lot of yard work. One weekend I helped at a Relay for Life fundraiser. Been watching A LOT of movies since JC and I switched from Directv to cable. We have Showtime and HBO now along with On Demand and a slew of other movie channels. I've been watching a lot of On Demand series too. Californication being my absolute favorite atm. Too much TV!!! I haven't been writing. Or drawing. Or out with my friends. I haven't been online except to check for any emails. I just can't believe it's March.

Update: I'm fine. Still an insomniac. I'm kinda at a standstill as far as losing weight goes. I guess it's time to hit the gym again. I haven't gotten a dog yet. Maybe for my birthday in June? I'm ready to take matters into my own hands if hubby doesn't come through. Husband is fine too btw. He's going to visit his father up in DC at the end of the month. All the cats are fine. Bunny is fine. She hasn't grown much in spite of the fact she eats like a horse. I'm thinking she's gonna stay little. I was hoping to have some new pics to post of her, but I haven't finished the film yet.
Yeah I still use film. What can I say?

Well I better scamper off to work. The sooner I go in, the sooner I can leave. What's everyone else been up to?

Forget the Easter bunny. Introducing Holly, the Christmas bunny!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/BeElleGee/000700212.jpg

My favorite Christmas present. Actually she arrived a little before Christmas Day, but that was okay by me. She's two months old and mostly dark (mink-colored) brown with lighter brown on her head. She's got black ears and black around her eyes and a black muzzle. She's just the cutest damn thing and so nice and cuddly. I love her to pieces needless to say. I'm bunny-less no more!

So present-wise, "Santa Claus" was very generous this year and got me all kinds of things on my wish list. Wish list as in Amazon.com's wish list. Very handy to have. I know I utilized my husband's lots and found it very helpful to be able to refer to.

As usual I ate way too much food (but it was all so scrumptious!) and way too much food I shouldn't have like pies and cupcakes and candy, cookies, etc. etc. John and I decided to use the rotisserie for cooking our turkey and man, did it come out fabulous! My green bean casserole was just right too! Miraculously I didn't gain any weight, but didn't lose anymore either. Naughty me.

My little Christmas get-together went off without a hitch and we all had lots of fun. Claudia, Maggie, Lori and Judy were there. Judy brought little Malori whom I hadn't seen since she was a few months old. She was walking and talking and entertaining us all. It was great seeing Judy again as I hadn't seen her in about a year and little Malori was just a doll and a half.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/BeElleGee/000700252.jpg

JC and I traveled to Ocala to spend the day with his mom on the 23rd. We had a nice meal with them and hung out and relaxed. It's soooo quiet out there where she lives it's almost surreal.

We made it back Christmas Eve and enjoyed a nice evening at home just the two of us. Christmas Day together was perfect. I think I want to spend all my Christmases at home from now on.

My eldest sister, who had been researching the family ancestry for over a year now finally had a major breakthrough of information and presented it to us all for Christmas. There's some incredible stuff! I'll have to get into more details later.

Carrie called and said she was in Port St. Lucie. We are planning to meet up sometime before New Year's. I'm anxious to see her. And Amya. She's talking now too!

My tree is still up and my outdoor Christmas lights are still twinkling each night. I don't think I'll take either down just yet. I think this weekend I'll go shopping with my gift cards and my extra cash.

All right, I've rambled enough this time. All comments regarding Holly's cuteness may now commence.

I compile this list with an air of authority and Christmas music expertise. I probably have more Christmas music on hand than most normal people simply because my husband procured a vast collection working at the radio stations he did. So I have probably listened to more different music than most. Out of that collection, there's just some albums and some songs I have to hear /every/ Christmas or the holiday just isn't complete.

Some of these are not only my favorite Christmas songs, but favorite renditions of my favorite Christmas songs. For example, Silent Night is on nearly every artist's Christmas CD, but Aaron Neville, hands down, has the best version of it on his CD I've ever heard.

Oh, and they aren't in any particular order--just as I think of them.

1. Stylistics "I Wanna Be Wrapped in Your Arms This Christmas"
Yes, I'm in love, and if you're in love with a special someone, you know the best Christmas present ever is have that person by your side to curl up with at Christmas time.

2. Steven Curtis Chapman "The Music of Christmas"
This is just one of those songs that makes your heart swell when you hear it--like a good anthem.

3. Aaron Neville "Silent Night"
This man's voice is simply angelic and when applied to this simple holiday carol, this song is transformed into something truly inspirational.

4. Michael Crawford "O Holy Night"
This is on the same level as Aaron Neveille's version of "Silent Night". It's a common holiday classic but no one sings it quite like Mr. Crawford. His voice just blows you away.

5. Manheim Steamroller "Carol of the Birds"
Out of all the Christmas music this band does, this is by far my favorite.

6. Amy Grant "Emmanuel"
Just beautiful and beautifully sung.

7. The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping"
A rather eighties-sounding song, but fun to hear. I always crank this one up when it comes on Sirius.

8. Andy Williams "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
Here's another heart swelling song and no one seems to give it as much warmth as Andy Williams.

9. Nat King Cole "The Christmas Song"
No one does this classic like Nat King Cole. No one comes close. The man's voice is velvet.

10. Harry Connick Jr. "When My Heart Finds Christmas"
Romance and Christmas go hand in hand to me and here's a song that fits that bill. Makes me want to cuddle in front of a fireplace beside a twinkling tree.

Honorable mentions go out to Josh Groban with "Believe" from the movie soundtrack of "The Polar Express". Beautiful. A song that captures the magic and meaning of Christmas on many levels. Then there's Ringo Starr "I Wanna Be Santa Claus". It's fun, what can I say? Kenny G's version of "Silver Bells" also holds a special place in my heart because it brings back certain warm fuzzy memories I have. That's what Christmas music is all about isn't it?

Well there you go. Now when you happen to hear these songs by chance this season, think of me and give them an extra close listen.

Merry Christmas everyone. Stay safe and healthy. Catch you all on the flip side.