June 9, 2010

• The Great American vampire novel & other news

  So this is a weird new fact about me, and I don’t know what to make of it. I’m basically done with writing my novel, and I’m just editing now for typos and adverb usage (yes, I’m an adverb addict). I’m satisfied with the editing through Chapter 7… about 14 to go, so I may be looking for an agent as early as the end of June, barring more beta-reader feedback. But here’s the weird part, the main character of my novel is a living vampire, a moroi. She has to drink blood, but also must eat food according to the “bland diet” because the blood makes her system really acidic.
  
  Lately I have heartburn all the time, so I thought, well, I’m too acidic, I’ll try some more alkaline foods. Better than popping pills for it, that’s for sure, and despite being labeled bland, most alkaline foods are actually rather sweet. It’s really helped me a lot, but it’s so bizarre that I’m having dietary issues like my character. (I swear I’m not drinking blood!) I even made my own avocado sauce to use in place of mayo and ketchup.
  
  Avocado cream cheese sauce
  

  • 1 cup mashed avocado
  • 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp minced onions
  • 1 tsp salt
  • dash Worcestershire sauce

  
  Mash avocado and add cream cheese, blending until smooth. Add other ingredients.
  
  I should say that I don’t really measure stuff. So I used two small avocados,  less lemon since I’m slightly allergic, and two dashes of Worcestershire sauce. I’ve used it on my veggie burgers and it was wonderful! Tried it in tuna salad… it was okay, not great, not bad. It was pretty good on some free range chicken, and I imagine it would be okay on fresh fish. On hot foods it tends to melt, otherwise its more of a mousse consistency. I’m going to try it on a cheese sandwich for lunch and tonight I’m making pizzas. I’ve never liked white pizza, but I’m thinking of trying my avocado sauce on the pizza instead of tomato sauce. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I can start a new trend… green pizza. heh

  In other news:
  
  

  
  

  
  I had a second interview yesterday at a manor care facility for people with mental problems. I seem to have got the job because she was talking about someone calling in the next few days to set up orientation and asking about my schedule, but at the same time, she said she hadn’t checked my references yet. I have nothing to hide, but I’m kind of flummoxed about how these interviews have gone so far. My first trip over there, she forgot about me for an hour and in the meantime one of the residents came in muttering to himself and uh, reaching into his pants every 30 seconds. I don’t know that he was even aware I was in the room, but it was just a little bizarre. Then I had to bug my sister about a call back (she works there) because the woman told me she’d call on Friday but never did. She never did call me, but my sister talked to our mother and told me when my 2nd interview was. That was kind of… impersonal; thanks, sis. Now the woman hasn’t checked my references…? I don’t know… I’d prefer a relaxed setting considering how I was run roughshod over at Borders, but it just seems a little too laissez faire. I don’t expect to be called in a few days… maybe next week.
  
  I’ll be third shift if I got the job, when most though probably not all the residents will be asleep, and it will mostly be bed checks and cleaning, which I’m not at all worried about. To be honest, the building is more disturbing than the people that live there… it’s a big rambling thing like something out of The Shining. It used to be a nunnery where cholera patients were cared for. Supposedly it’s haunted though my sister, says she’s never seen anything. That doesn’t surprise me. If she ever had any psychic ability, she’s buried it under years of disbelief. She’s also a militant atheist. I pity my nephew. He’s only six, but he’s already afraid to talk to his mommy about things he’s seen. She won’t discuss it at all. Considering the kind of people she works with, you’d think she could be a little sympathetic, but on the other side of things, sometimes I think she worries he might have mental issues that would land him in the same kind of place she works. I think criticizing him to the point that he’s afraid to express himself is much more damaging though.

  Some good things about the job… I’d be required to learn CPR and some other medical stuff, which is always useful to know. The classes are made available to the staff, so I wouldn’t have to go out of my way to schedule at a college or something. Whatever else might be said about the place, it will be an “experience,” even if it doesn’t work out. It will be better than working at the bookstore was. Obviously if I’m working with people with mental conditions, it will be nice to know ahead of time instead of having it sprung on me in a retail setting! lol It’s certainly a more meaningful job than working in retail with ungrateful customers and corporate executives sending down ignorant edicts about how the business should be run. These are people who need someone to take care of them and see to their needs, not idiots who think I’m the next best thing to a slave for however long they choose to remain in the store. And I’m finally going to be working 3rd shift, which I’ve said since before I was even old enough to work would be my ideal work schedule.

  Edit: The avocado sauce is really gross as pizza sauce…
  
  And orientation for my new job is Monday morning. Tattoo is set to update automatically, but it probably won’t be until 6 or so that I get to update the Index.
  
  

  • 11:53 am
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