CRAAAAAZY JULY!!!!!!!

Just to set the mood for this blog post I have added a little music for your listening pleasure...

Megamix (Backstreet Boys) by PattyCakess

Why am I forcing you to listen to a Backstreet Boys medly? Well I don't expect you to listen to the whole thing because 14 minutes is absurdly long for a song (my attention span began to wander after about five), but I thought it would be a fun way to start this blog since it's how I started my month. When I turned 21 this past December (oh yes, I'm legal for all those dying to know) my aunt gave me a coupon good for one trip to Vegas and I decided to cash it in at the beginning of July. It may seem crazy to want to go to a hot desert in the middle of the summer, but the Backstreet Boys can make you do insane things. Their concert with New Kids on the Block at Mandalay Bay was on July 3 and I WAS TOTALLY THERE!! Are you jealous? YEAH you are! I was definitely one of those preteen girls obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and madly "in love" with Nick Carter. Once I got older and realized that Nick Carter and his family are completely insane, my crush was dead. But that has never stopped me from singing every word to every Backstreet Boys song... to this day. I was never a huge New Kids on the Block fan, but I knew enough of their songs to be really excited! The concert was freaking AWESOME!! I know you're skeptical, but take my word for it. It was so good!!! Both bands definitely still got it, and they did a really good job performing together. The rest of my trip was a lot of fun too. My cousin and I reenacted bits of The Hangover and I may or may not have gotten really super drunk, but I digress...

I got back on July 12 and immediately started helping my parents pack up the house (they sold it in the beginning of the month). We had to be out by July 29, so it was chaotic for a while. But we got everything packed up and my mom and I are temporarily staying at an extended stay hotel, which has been a party and half let me tell ya...

You're probably wondering what the hell any of this has to with writing a book, and the answer is absolutely nothing. But it does explain why it took me so long to write this blog entry (because there are just so many demanding readers of this blog... *cough*not*cough*) This month wasn't completely wasteful though. I started writing an outline-thing. In the beginning it was just going to be a brief outline to help me get started and I thought it would take me about an hour or two. Well, the bullet points for the outline kept getting longer and longer until two hours turned in to about five. The descriptions kept getting longer until it became less like an outline and more like a collection of thoughts. I'll probably have to go back and make a real outline now, but it was nice to get some of my thoughts down on paper. The actual book still has yet to be written, but that'll come. Just gotta work my way there!

~Loretta

P.S. By the way, I had to go all the way to Vegas to find out that Donnie from New Kids on the Block is the older brother of Mark Wahlberg. What the hell?! Nobody tells me anything!! I'm usually good at knowing random facts like this, but what an epic fail!

sooooooooooo about that book.

So Loretta got to go on this awesome trip to Vegas with her Aunt and my motivation for writing on this thing went with her. Funny how that works. My progress on the book is about the same...nada. I feel like I should start at the beginning, but that's not the most exciting and juicy part. What I'd like to write about is the crazy stories of shoes gone missing, confrontations in the laundry room, and relationships with monitors. And another problem I'm finding is connecting it all and how it should flow. Like should I go in chronological order, but then skip from different friends and different issues, or do more of a grouping of topics, but then it goes over time and each new group might have to go back to day one.... I'm not sure which would read more smoothly or if either really do. Maybe I should write in pieces and then see how they fit best... that may just be too logical. ;-)

- MJ

And so it begins...

So Loretta wrote this really nice post about us and it has left me stumped. I'm staring at this blank writing box thinking of what I could say that hasn't already been said (yes, I'm alone in the big, dark space called the "real" world... it sucks by the way). How we met has been covered and then disturbingly separated and how we came up with the idea for the book... so I guess all that's left is to talk about beginning the book??? Anyway here goes...

And so it begins, the epic journey of writing a novel (that sentence should be read by Morgan Freedman). I've noticed there seems to be tons of books, articles, and websites that are supposed to help you finish your book. I guess it is a common problem. I could say I'm worried or nervous about that, but I'd be lying. This is the beginning, the honey moon stage if you will. There's tons of stuff I want to draw and write and I'm really excited to get started. Honestly, with all these thoughts racing through my head I wish I could just turn my brain into a projector and just play all of them onto paper and voila! the book would be done. I feel like I think faster than I write or draw, which makes sense, but I have this weird fear in my head that my ideas for the book are like the rubber mat on a treadmill and I have to keep running faster and faster to keep up and not fall off the back (and not finish) or maybe it's more like a hamster wheel that's just never ending.... either way it's an odd thought. I have those. A lot.

So welcome to the blog, I hope you enjoy reading about our successes and failures as Loretta and I try to complete this book (with or without those help books, articles, and websites). I'm sure you'll get a few laughs at the rants that at least I'll go off on (Loretta too, just mine seem to happen all the time). And if you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to let us know! Thanks :-)

It Starts...

Wow the first blog post... I beat MJ to the punch, HA! And so it begins... I don't really know where to start with this. My life seems so boring, it's hard to think people will actually want to read this, but MJ and I think we're hilarious so I'm hoping that will be enough. Plus, if it gets boring we can just whip out some movie quotes because we're pretty good at that (most of these quotes are from disney and Moulin Rouge. Don't say I didn't warn you...). But I guess the best place to start is at the beginning...

NOTE: Heavy sarcasm ahead. Be prepared...

Both MJ and I met in college through one of my old roommates. We both attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (a.k.a SCAD), but she is one year older so she was a junior and I was a measly sophomore. After some intense bonding via Robin Williams Live on Broadway, we were best friends. The remainder of our school years were spent together, inseparable (everyone ready? Awwwwwwww...). Unfortunately, at the end of this past school year we were viciously torn apart when MJ graduated. Why she couldn't suck it up and stick around one more year, I'm not sure. Now I have a year and a half at SCAD while she's stuck out there in the real world. Ew she has to be an adult now! But fortunately the distance hasn't kept us apart and we still text and skype. A lot. 

Last week we were texting one another and started talking about those old Klutz books. You know, those books that would show you how to do different things like paint designs on your nails, do crazy things with your hair, design bracelets, fold origami paper, etc. It would come with the supplies you needed to do whatever was in the book. Of course, everything would fall apart within an hour of ripping off the plastic, but that's besides the point. When I was a kid, I had a zillion of those books lying around. Anyway, we started talking about them and said that it would be awesome if they made an adult version. Like Klutz for the Sophisticate or something. I'm still not entirely sure how we got from one idea to the other, but after two hours worth of texts (my fingers were NOT happy) we decided to write a book about our college experience. Since neither one of us have written any books lately it's bound to get a little interesting, so we decided to document the process with a blog. As Mufasa would say "You must take your place in the circle of life." And by life I mean the internet. 

And now here we are! I don't know if there are any actual people (other than MJ and myself) reading this, but I hope you were slightly entertained. If not, at least you killed some time waiting for those YouTube videos to load.