My Life is Awesome (If a Bit Weird)

So, I realize I haven't posted for a while. I'm sorry. But not too sorry, because a main reason I haven't posted is because I have been busy with my writing career. I had something rather major happen recently and I wanted to wait until the contract was signed before I said anything. So here it is: I got an agent. Her name is Lauren Abramo, and I am looking forward to working with her. I'm thrilled, actually. I feel like this:

And that is why I have been too busy to blog recently.

Scratch that - I had time to blog. The mental wherewithal was a little harder to come by.

Also, the last few weeks have been an exciting time in other ways, not all of them good.

Good: I got to go to LTUE out here in Utah. I've been before, but this was the first time I could go without having to skip out to go to class. I'm not going to go into a lot of details, because it's a writing conference and was more or less like I've experienced in past years. I met up with friends, made new friends, ate enormous marshmallowy rice crispy treats, and rushed from panel to panel. I saw a girl wearing a (SPOILER ALERT) "Kelsier Dies" T-Shirt and was glad I'd finished Mistborn. I also got a chance to wear all my nerdiest T-Shirts myself. Too bad it was cold so not many people saw my SHIELD logo shirt.

Bad: My chronic insomnia hit rock bottom over the last few weeks. I mean, all the way down, as in, I spent eight hours staring at the ceiling, waiting to either fall asleep or for the alarm go off. The alarm won. Another picture illustrating my feelings:

For. Eight. Hours.

I didn't draw this; I stole it from the internet. But things are better now. I got help from everyone except a doctor (that's pending; still need to find one near me that can help), started taking melatonin, and I make myself take the hour before bedtime to cool down and relax. Now, most nights I fall asleep in the first few minutes. Still have some bad nights, though, when the routine gets challenged.

The funny part is I wake up feeling like I haven't moved all night. I don't know if I just have a lot of sleep to make up or if that melatonin is good stuff. A friend asked me if I've been having weird dreams since starting the melatonin, and I responded, "No more than usual." Seriously, my dreams are weird and vivid. Imagine that picture of the fireworks I put above, but layer in late assignments, monsters, libraries, secret agents, and various characters from fandoms with special focus on Doctor Who and Agents of SHIELD.

I've had good, bad...let's get a "weird." Over the past few weeks it was nice in Utah so I walked to the library. It's a couple of miles away and a lovely walk on a nice day. As I'm about to cross a street, I look up to see two guys on a moped. That's not odd out here; lots of people ride mopeds and lots give friends rides. But as I'm looking, I wonder, "Is that first guy naked?"

How to proceed? I wanted to verify, but I didn't dare get caught ogling this guy. Also, if he is naked, I don't want to see anything! I kind of looked ahead and glanced out of the corner of my eye.

He wasn't naked. No shirt, no pants, no shoes...but a thin strip of bright fabric that indicated either a Speedo or really short shorts. As they passed, his clothed buddy saw me looking and waved. I waved back and busted up laughing.

Utah may be odd and my life may be exciting lately, but I promise, that doesn't happen to me often.