I SHOULD BE WORKING, but...

...I'm arguing with my 4 year old daughter about who gets to use the computer, me or her.

I will always win this. My work buys toys, cookies, trips to the farm, the zoo and the Disney store. Ha!


...I'm reading Perez Hilton.

I'm completely obsessed by this Charlie Sheen/Denise Richards situation. What's going on there? Does he have issues with young girls? Did she really ask for his sperm so she can have another child? Does that girlfriend of his really love him or does she turn a blind eye to the bad side of him because he's rich and famous? Is she a great mother who's caught up in an impossible media situation?
I want to think that he's as evil as they come and because she exposed him to the media to protect her kids, she's getting royally f-ed right now...


...I can't stop thinking about J.R. Ward's new book. (SPOILER-ish alert)

I'm 400 pages in, 100 pages to go and I have no idea how this book is going to end. I have a few issues, like why all men (the male doctor for example) speak like the brotherhood, and why JM has to have sexual issues, too. But I can get past this because she's such a kick-ass writer, and I'm so invested in these characters. I know there is some big frustration out there with what happens at the end of this story, and I so desperately want to read people's reviews and talk about it, but I have to finish it first. I don't want to ruin the "gasp" or the "shudder" or the "damn you for going there, J.R."
...guess i should forget all of this and get back to work...later!


coming next week...
Mommy Monday - check out the blog, post and win...

My Addictions

COFFEE
I like the ice cream variety, but I was never a coffee drinker. Not until my second child came along anyway. Then there was this day, after this horrible night, where I felt like an alien had implanted a balloon filled with idiot gas inside my head. I couldn't think, make even the minor-est of decisions. I went to the "S" place. I'd been their before to buy a hot chocolate and a pastry, but this time I bought a half caf non fat latte. Ten minutes later, I was myself again. It was a miracle. From God - or Juan Valdez...doesn't matter. Later that day, I told myself it was just going to be a one time thing. Seriously, only my mother drinks coffee and angry office type people.
But that one time thing has morphed into an almost everyday Grande Non Fat Latte with 2 pink packets stirred in - addiction. I actually wake up with it's beautiful foamyness on my brain..... coffee, coffee, coffee.
Sad.
(I'm going to save this blog right now. Need to go out. Go somewhere... early in the morning, down to the corner to place that starts with "S")


MY WEIGHT
I had a baby 16 months ago. 4-6 weeks afterward I felt extraordinarily uncomfortable with my weight.

Side note: with my daughter, I felt none of this and ate 3 doughnuts a day for months after I gave birth - hey, I was nursing and needed to give my baby some good fat!

Okay, yeah, I was nursing this kid too, but for some reason I just couldn't stomach more than 1 doughnut per day. At the six week post baby mark, I joined WW. The place is great, and I ate what I wanted, but didn't go nuts. The weight came off and by Christmas time (6 months after Lucca arrived) I was down to a weight I hadn't been to since I got married. My sister even gave me the skinny jeans that she had cast aside for a size smaller!! (hate her)

I was so proud of myself!

And hey - I deserved a reward!

Now, 16 months later, I have re-joined WW to lose the 7 lbs I rewarded myself with...


MOTHERING SKILLS
This is a hard one for me to admit. Yes, even harder than the weight gain, doughnut thing.

I imagine myself as a very non judgemental person. I tell my kids that life would be awfully boring if we were all the same size, same color, same religion etc. But the part I leave out is,
Life Wouldn't be Boring At All If Everyone Mothered Just Like Me.
Okay, before you start sharpening your files and pick axes, I know, logically, that the majority of mothers out there are great. But I live in L.A. and my view is skewed...or is that screwed... With nannies taking care of kids 24/7 - seriously - I have become simultaneously jaded and superior in how I raise my little ones.
My addiction here is my desperate need to find other mothers with alike mothering skills and bond with them over food, drink and a mutual disgust of the less superior mothers in town...

commence pick ax filing now...



CLEAN KITCHEN
The rest of the house can look like 10 rabid dogs went through it looking for a fresh carcass, but the kitchen must be spotless for me to be happy...
'Nough said.


GOSSIP
This is my most favorite addiction.
One I will share proudly with you.
I used to buy rag mags (or what I lovingly refer to as Brain Porn) and a box of Oreos or something from Hostess, and I would stretch out on the couch and eat and read - this was when Daniel was in rehearsal, so I was alone...as if I could do this in front of my husband. The kids were sleeping and it was just me and dogs. Pure Bliss. Well, this got quite expensive, considering the first addiction on this list which I refuse to give up! So I switched to Internet gossip. Perez Hilton, to be specific. He's a total jerk, but honest and funny and free. But the thing is, I got so addicted to this site, that I was checking it many times a day - (so many I won't tell you because you'll think I'm pathetic and deranged)
Now, I have used PH as a reward for 5 pages written, bathroom cleaned, making it a whole day without going over my 24 WW points etc. God, I feel so much healthier!


p.s. and for those of you who couldn't pull up the picture i sent to Miss Blogger Dorothy of my "husband" riding our VERY normal pet sicock..this link works ...
http://www.weirdclipart.com/imagepages/oldmcweirdo/sicock.html

Reading Reviews and Other Ways to Get a Headache

Hello Friends.
Hello Readers.
Hello Family.
Hello People Who don't know who the hell I am...

This is my first blog. Blog virgin, Laura Wright here.

Okay, so I'm not great at making up topics or coming up with questions like, "Are you a tanning bed girl or a spray on girl?" Nope. That is just not me - except for the days when I pretend I'm Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. (and honestly, that insanity stopped after one of them landed in the clink and the other forgot her underwear AGAIN)

No, I think what I'll be talking about on this blog are the things I, and my friends with husbands and kids and zero time and no sleep, can understand, and of course a little writing industry stuff sprinkled throughout.

Today, I'm going to start with the industry... okay, so I have 3 books coming out starting in October. The first one, Millionaire's Calculated Baby Bid garnered a stellar 2 stars, and a totally heinous review from Romantic Times Magazine where the reviewer accused me of all sorts of cliche-esque activity. Now - she ain't wrong, there is cliche elements in there, but whatever, it's romance - some things just are cliche and I LOVE that. AND I love this book, dammit. I, and several others who read this book actually thought it was my best thus far. Well, I received this review after an all-nighter with my 16 month old and his screaming gums, so I was swimming in the depressed end of the pool already. THEN I get an email from them, and just so we're clear, I love RT, they're great and normally (that is, when i get a kick-ass review) I want to squeeze them to my bosom and whisper sweet nothings in their ear - how's THAT for cliche! So anyway, I get an email asking if I'd like to advertise in that particular issue. To which I say, "Er...ah... You mean the issue where the reviewer basically calls my work a crap pile of prose. SERIOUSLY?"
Needless to say, I declined.
A few weeks later, the lovely ad staff at RT sent me the review of my November book. Okay, this is the book I thought was my weakest - my editor loved it - but to me, I wasn't at all sure. Anyway, I get a 4 from RT and a GREAT review. So what does this mean, people???? Seriously? Do I have no true understanding of my work? Is this chick just trying to mess with my head? Or am I so sleep deprived that I've imagined this entire thing...I didn't write any books, I have no editor...this blog doesn't exist..

Okay, I've clearly had one latte sip too many this morning.

Breathe.

Ah, yeah, better. It's all coming back to me.

.....now the baby's crying. Well, At least I had a latte, a bitch session and a few breaths. Okay, later all, and thanks for dropping by.
And if you're not to freaked out by my obvious insanity, stop by tomorrow for...round two?

Laura