Typepad naps, the earth tilts, Julie hopes elves will do her revisions for her

          So the Typepad service took a loooong nap yesterday, which meant that zillions of bloggers were denied access to their blogs, which meant that zillions of Very Important Blogs like this one weren't updated yesterday, and I think—I'm not positive, but I think—the earth tilted on its axis as a result. Thank God Typepad is back up, because now I can tell everyone that my search for a dress for the Ritas continues fruitlessly, and that my hairstylist recently whispered three little words in my ear: "Macy's Junior Department." She says if you look very, very carefully, really put your back into the looking, that is, you can find great bargains.

          I'm afraid of the Juniors Department. I'm always afraid I'll be detected. I'm afraid that if I creep toward it, sirens will go off and searchlights will go flailing back and forth like they do on Star Trek or Hogan's Heroes, and someone with a bullhorn will shout: "YOU! YOU with the FULLY FORMED BREASTS. Step AWAY from the camis. You're tooooo OLD. I repeat: TOOOOOO OLD." I'm also afraid of the music they play in the Macy's Juniors Department. I have nothing against loud music per se, having perpetrated my share of loud music in my lifetime, but that ceaseless thumpety-thumpety house music crap abrades my nerves, which are already tender and irritated from the need to shop. (My apologies to anyone who enjoys thumpety thumpety house music crap.) I might have a more fulfilling shopping experience if they play Guns n' Roses, or Vivaldi. Almost anything else.

          And since it's 1:30 a.m., and since foghorns are lowing appealingly in the distance here in SF and making me very sleepy, and I've discovered the hard way that Typepad is still acting wacky (this post has disappeared a couple of times as I've tried to save it and I can't insert images), I'm off to see the Sandman, and I'll be back tomorrow. Maybe magical and talented elves will appear and complete my revisions for THE SECRET TO SEDUCTION while I'm sleeping.
         But first I'll say: KimW! You won a signed book! You guessed the love scene locations correctly from Location blog. Atta girl! :) Send me an email with the subject line "BLOG WIN!" so I can find it in my sea of email, include your mailing address, and I'll send you a signed copy of BATS. :) (As evidence of Typepad's wackiness, your comment disappeared. But you did guess correctly. Feel free to hop on and comment again.)

Comments

[KimW]

Yay!!! Thank you!! Funny about the post. I've caught a really bad cold and don't feel that I'm completely here anyway. I was off of work yesterday. It's quite fitting, actually. haha! I'm just glad you saw it before it blinked into the unknown. Email on its way.

I say put some ear plugs in and head on over to the Junior department. You're going to find the perfect dress.

[Julie Anne Long]

Hope you had a good day of rest yesterday, Kim, and congrats on winning! :) Cartoons, hot tea, Airborne and BEAUTY AND THE SPY are my favorite cold remedies. LOL. Actually, I don't know about the last one, but I imagine it couldn't hurt matters. (I'll send you a signed copy of BATS.) Summer colds can be a bear. Maybe I'll wear an I-Pod into the Juniors department loaded with inspirational music, like Jimi Hendrix. :) Or...Erasure. Or Beck. Or Debussy.

But it's too sunny to shop today. It's a PERFECT day to stay indoors and work on revisions!! It's PERFECT revisions weather! (This is how I try to convince myself of things).

[Isabel]

Julie! It's good to your blog up and running again.

I second the idea of taking your I-pod while you go into the Juniors department. :)

[Julie Anne Long]

What should I put on the I-pod, Isabel? :) What makes a good shopping soundtrack?? Actually, I think I found something in the bowels of my closet that might make a fine outfit. Or part of an adequate outfit. :)

[Haven Rich]

I'm kinda curious are you going for the sassy author, feather boa and all or going for a more classic author look?

I love dress hunting and according to my sister have the best taste. Hey just because she is one-sided on this doesnt mean I don't have good taste haha.

It's one of the reasons I enjoy designing my own dresses. Because I get a wild idea for something and there is only one way to get it...I do it.

Best of luck shopping.

[Ranurgis]

I'm so glad that others don't like the thumpety-thump kind of music. But then I grew up with Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Debussy, etc. Makes it hard on me and I'm already sound hypersensitive. But I was just introduced to an ear-plug that works, so that might help my woes. I just cannot concentrate if there's too much sound around me.

Good luck on finding the perfect ensemble. I have give up shopping for dresses. I have such a weird shape. The solution according to some people: have your clothes made. Oh, sure, just the thing to do when you live on a disability pension. So it's tops and skirts for me. Even blouses can be bummers.

Sending good thoughts your way so that you'll find the right mood for those revisions. I can imagine it's not easy. I need to be "comfortable", for lack of a better word, in order to do tasks like that.

[Ranurgis]

BTW, you could always tell any nasty person that approaches you in the Juniors, "I'm getting a gift for my niece who happens to be my size." Are they going to call you a liar? I don't think so. If you, like me, don't like to tell even a little lie like that, you can always tell them that you just wanted to see the kinds of outfits they have there. I wouldn't worry about juniors. After all they start to wear prom dresses here as they graduate from grade 8. So there must be something along that line available for them.