I'm Sick

I'm running a 101 temperature and I've felt like crud all day, so I'm taking a break.

Love, Mackenzie

#1-Patrick at Work

     "Love ya," Caitlyn told him with a kiss to his cheek as she went to the back desk.
     Patrick replied the sentiment and sat behind the front desk and found the keys to open the library doors where three people were already waiting. The sliding doors parted and they all darted inside like flies into a kitchen window. Patrick smiled when he saw a mom and two kids heading for the doors and he went back to his post.
     Patrick pulled out a copy of The Giver from it's place where he left it the evening before and he started reading when a woman, Marci, approached him.
     "My account online said Twilight would be in the 'on hold' section today. Where is it?"
     "Umm I'm not certain, but let me check my computer real quick. . . Could I have your library card, please?"
     The woman rolled her eyes and pulled out her walled, sliding the card across the desk toward him. Patrick picked it up with his fingernails and flipped it over so he could input her member number into the computer. Once he did, he was a fast typist, her account popped up on the screen and she began tapping her fingers on the desk.
     "It says here that you don't have any holds, Ma'am."
     "You're joking, right? 'Ma'am'? I only have, like, five minutes to be in my car to get to work on time, I need to pick it up now."
     "I can have it ready for you by the end of the day or you're welcome to pick up a copy from our young adult section, it's just over there." Patrick said.
     Marci scoffed and ripped her card from his hand, rushing over to the teen section.
     Patrick returned to his book and Marci clouded his thoughts. He'd never really enjoyed being with her as a couple and it was even worse since she knew he was working at the library until he graduated. He was, however, was distracted when Caitlyn walked by his desk on her way to the back room. He knew he'd never get sick of staring at her. She winked at him as she went into the back.
     He wasn't expecting to see who walked through the door next.
     It was the gentleman he'd bumped into earlier that day on his run, only he looked even more pissed off than before. He practically huffed and puffed when he caught a glimpse of Patrick, who felt himself sink into his chair just a little...

More tomorrow...

Love, Mackenzie

#1-Patrick's Morning Run

     Patrick leaves his apartment, locking up before he goes. He slips his keys into his pocket and goes downstairs before realizing his left shoelace wasn't tight enough. He sat on the bottom step (he lived on the fourth floor) and tied it tighter.
    Then, he was off into the brisk autumn morning. He had his arms up at a 90 degree angle, the cords on his headphones whacked his chest at each step. He felt the slow burn building in his chest the more his heart raced. Air whipped his cheeks and he traveled the familiar path he'd jogged for the past three years.
     He passed the same female runners on his way that he'd passed before, and even though he checked them out, neither of them were at the top of his list. He turned his thoughts to Caitlyn. The beautiful blonde he'd left at the apartment. Those blue eyes that captivated him since his first day at the Library. The thought made a smile creep onto his face and he kept on going, running faster so he'd be in front of the women.
     Later he runs past an old woman who carries hand weights and wears enormous ankle weights as her fluffy permed hair bounces up and down. He waves and bumps into someone.
It's a middle aged man who he's seen a time or two, but he hadn't known his name.
     "Sorry 'bout that." Patrick said before stepping out of the gentleman's way.
     "Watch where you're going. . ." The guy said softly as Patrick ran off.


More tomorrow...

Love, Mackenzie

#1-Patrick's Average Day

Patrick is an early riser, around 6 AM, where he has a morning run. After his run, he showers and eats his egg white and salsa on toast breakfast. He begins his shift at the library at 8 AM where he runs the front desk. He loves his job and he loves it even more since his girlfriend Caitlyn works there too, they actually met each other there. They take a lunch break together and they often enjoy walking to the Subway down the road.
After his shift, he goes home before class. Then he comes home afterward and waits for Caitlyn to come on over. They watch an episode of The Walking Dead or Grey's Anatomy before turning in for bed.

More to come tomorrow...


Love, Mackenzie

#1-Family and Other Stuff

Patrick is the second of five children, born to Don and Marie Huff. He's the only boy and he's going to school to become a psychologist. He's a hardcore bibliophile and he has a pet African Grey parrot named Barney who keeps him company since he lives two states away from his family.

Love, Mackenzie

#1-Basic Character Profile

Patrick James Huff
Born: August 8, 1990
Occupation: Librarian
Hobbies: Riding a motorcycle, he belongs to a local motorcycle club
Height: 5'8"
Hair: Chestnut brown, parted
Eyes: Green
Defining Features: Roman nose and a sunny smile

...That's all for now.

Love, Mackenzie

#1-The Name

Patrick Huff is his name.

More about his story tomorrow...

Love, Mackenzie

A New Concept

My dearest husband Josh has given me the best idea to rejuvenate my love of this blogging project. And it's a little twisted, but needless to say I'm all over it.

Every week (or so) I'm going to create a new character for ya'll to learn about and hopefully learn to love (or hate) and then on Sunday-ish each week I'll decide their fate at the end of the week.

I think this idea will really help me with my character creation, making lots of depth and stuff, and also it helps with my upcoming murder mystery series. I've been struggling with coming up with who I can kill for my sleuth to solve the crime... Great grammar, Mackenzie. 

WHAT I MEANT TO TYPE WAS,

I've been struggling to come up with a victim of a murder that my sleuth can help solve...

UGH.

YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING.

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

ANYWAY.

So I'm going to try this out and see how it goes.

The End.

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

Here's this weeks picture prompt, complete with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

UGH.

My writing has stalled once again, and I'm super distracted by my figure skater romance, but I know I need to finish drafts 4 and 2......... UGH.

And a couple people who I'm close to in life didn't invite me to something and I'm a little bitter about it. UUUUUUUUUGH.

...........
...........
...........




UGH.

Love, Mackenzie

Getting My Groove Back

After about a week of writers block wreaking havoc on my brain, I feel like the fog is clearing up and the words are flowing better.

Oh, and I've decided to pursue two new romance novels once All I Wanted and Last Ditch are done. (The figure skating one I've talked about in past posts is my NaNo project for this year so that is my deadline for finishing the current drafts of the above listed ones)

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's this weeks writing prompt, complete with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

WAITING.

Waiting... Waiting... Waiting....

Love, Mackenzie

The Village

Tonight Josh and I watched my favorite movie of all time, THE VILLAGE.

The more I watched it, the more I remembered why I love it. It combines some of my favorite things. Romance. Tasteful Drama. MONSTERS.

AAAAAAH.
It's pure perfection.

Love, Mackenzie

Stupid Period

My stupid period. I haven't even started, but my daggum hormones are flipping out.

Normally I'm logical and rational, but today, I've been snapping at Josh left and right and I started an argument at 10:30 at night over something I don't even remember. And it's only been 10 MINUTES since that happened.

I HATE BEING A WOMAN SOMETIMES.
STUPID. PERIODS.

My mood starts like,

And then it goes,

And then,

And after that,

And then I finally realize I've been irrational, rude and hormonal, I look at myself like,

Love, Mackenzie

P.S. I don't really toss tables but I feel pretty damn close to doing so.

Picture Prompt Saturday

Here's this weeks picture prompt with the link! I must admit, I am smitten with this piece of art. . . I think I'll claim him as my own but I don't know where I'd put him. . .

Happy Writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Well, Crap

I MISSED A DAY.

DAMMIT.

I'll do better later... Although I'm kicking myself because I went 153 days straight, so crap.

Love, Mackenzie

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's this weeks prompt, complete with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Swap.com--First Order Review

I'll admit it.
I hate clothes shopping.
My wardrobe shows a lot of sad looking, well loved pieces, but last month I realized I needed something else.
But my issue was with going to stores, feeling judged for being in the large and XL sections, and leaving with nothing I liked.
BLAH.

But then I came across a website that I decided to try out. It's called swap.com

and I couldn't believe the ease of use! Their filters are crazy specific (although I wish they always had the option to narrow down by color...) and there is literally something for everyone, even me. I don't know what I want most of the time, but when I see it, I know.

Anyway, I received my first Swap shipment this afternoon and I'm very pleased with what I picked out!

I ordered a hoodie, a pair of jeans (dark green jeans, I might add,) grey yoga pants, a black shirt, a black and white striped shirt, and an Aztec patterned shirt.

I tried all of them on and they all fit me the way I'd hoped. And the best part about buying gently used clothes is that they've already shrunk in the wash. There's nothing worse than buying something that fits you like a dream only to have it be too small after three washes. (Story of my life.....)

The box was well packed, the clothes were carefully folded and sealed in plastic, which I felt was very professional, and I liked that everything was in good condition, just as advertised. Buying from them has taken quite literally all of the stress of clothes shopping out of the picture for me and that's like a dream come true.

To be brief, I plan on using their site next month.

Love, Mackenzie

Currently I'm. . . (First Installment)

Reading. . . A Whispered Kiss, a romance novel recommended to me by my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Bri, and Love, Lucas. Love Lucas is one of my favorites so I recommend you check it out.

Playing. . . Pokemon X and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I love both of them and once I beat Pokemon X, I'll move on to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I LOVE my 3DS.

Watching. . . Josh and I are going to finish up Arrow (at least everything that's on Netflix) and then we'll move on to Breaking Bad... I'm wildly excited for it.

Trying. . . To eat better and work out more. But I already posted about that a few days ago... Maybe I'll make a day of the week dedicated to my progress with this??

Cooking. . . I'm wanting to learn more techniques when it comes to baking. It's something I was never surrounded by as a kid, my mom avoided sweets like the plague, so it's something I'm practicing.

Eating. . . Lately I've been eating a lot of Poptarts and puffed Cheetos.... I think it's been stress eating over the weekend, but that's okay. I've been balancing it by working out to compensate for the extra calories.

Drinking. . . I don't drink a lot of things other than water..... It's honestly so yummy, especially when it's icy cold.... AAAAAAH.

Calling. . . My side of the couch.

Texting. . . I've been getting bombarded with texts since Josh's accident. I hope that things will die down even more quickly so I can get back to my quiet days. I'm not a planner so having things going like crazy has been less than favorable.

Pinning. . . I've been pinning a ton of Cake Pop ideas, I've wanted to make some, I think I'll try it next month.

Loving. . . The feeling of working out and making sure I don't eat enough. I never thought I'd say it, but it feels good to get fit.

(Just to clarify, I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN about becoming skinny. I want to feel healthy and confident, and I'm fairly confident that will come when I hit a size 12, and I'm currently a 16)

Discovering. . . I'm getting back into my vocabulary studies and Josh introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft's work. We're reading to each other at night and it's so fun and bonding for us.

Finishing. . . Judging myself too harshly. Life's too short to hate myself.

Starting. . . Loosely planning for NaNoWriMo in November. I'm so stoked!

Love, Mackenzie

BLACK

Something odd happened just now. I pulled out my laptop, opened it up and thought about what to write about. I drew a blank.

How odd, I thought. This hasn't happened in the history of this blog.

Normally I can just think of something in my life that's interesting and write about it but there's nothing. Maybe its because I'm coming off the high of Josh nearly drowning last week. But I can't be sure.
So I decided to turn to my good buddy Pinterest for an idea. I have a blogging board there and I looked at the first post I have. I went down to the tenth day (it was one of those idea posts for one post each day of the month) and it said what did you wear today?

WELL.

I've had an issue with struggling to have clothes that fit. This has gone on for far too long and I'm finally remedying the situation. I have a package in the mail with three shirts, two pairs of pants and a hoodie. Take a moment and guess which part of that I'm most excited for.
Anyway, the package shouldn't arrive until later this week and so I was forced to wear an outfit that I like but it's not my favorite. It's a shirt that has white and pink stripes and a grey maxi skirt with a pendant necklace and CZ stud earrings.
It's not a bad outfit, but I have a specific look I L.O.V.E.

Black.
All black.
Everything, all black.
Black pants.
Black shoes.
Black shirt.

EVERYTHING.

I've tried basically every style over the years and the style that makes me feel most comfortable and confident is all black everything. So at this point, I'm trying to expand my wardrobe so every shirt in my wardrobe contains at least a little black. Eventually I might get through my pants and make all of them black too... But we'll see.
I also have a dream of owning solid black high-top chucks. Like the rubber and laces and everything.

I realize that an all black wardrobe is a bit restrictive, so one of my shirts in the incoming order is solid black, another is black and white stripes, and the third is black, white and red, sort of an Aztec type pattern on it. All size large so they should fit me well.

So there you go. I wear color, but I prefer black.

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

Happy 150th post! Here's this week's picture prompt with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

P.S. Josh is home, he's doing well, taking lots of naps and generally his normal self. God is good.

Drowning

I've already written about what exactly happened to Josh yesterday afternoon in my journal, so I don't feel the need to write the whole thing here.

Instead, I've decided to vent my feelings a little, since nobody reads this thing anyway.

To be brief, I'm extremely stressed about the whole situation. Even though I know he's safe, he's with me and he's doing better than I expected, I'm still beyond stressed about everything. I was being driven insane by my children today and I wished I hadn't acted so nasty but I will admit that I wasn't then nicest person. I thought I was okay yesterday, but I'm realizing I'm not.

This type of thing hasn't ever really happened to me before and I think that I can't deal with another one of these situations.

But I did learn something important. I learned that my Father in Heaven is in fact looking out for me and I'm undeniably in love with my man.

Love, Mackenzie

My Chipped Tooth -- Well, Sort Of

On July 4th, I was flossing and something hard and white came out of my mouth and landed in the sink. Upon closer  examination, I realized it looked like a piece of tooth! If you remember a few months ago, I chipped my front tooth while flossing.
Anyway, I got an appointment set up for this morning and they check me. I'm sweating some I hate getting dental work done (except for cleanings, those are awesome)
WELL.
They checked me and they took an x-ray and lo and behold, there wasn't any issues. No cavities, no cracks, no lack of filling. NOTHING.

. . . . . . .

I think my mouth is trying to freak me out.
But there is a plus to all this. I was in and out in ten minutes, and now I'm sitting at the library waiting for it to open and my mom had my kids. This is like a dream.
. . .or maybe even heaven.

Love, Mackenzie

P.S. I do love my children but trying to run basic errands is a challenge so going alone is amazing. But I do love them. ❤

Writing Prompt Wednesday

Here's this week's writing prompt, complete with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

My Fitness Pal-Day 1

I've signed up with My Fitness Pal and I've been loving it!

.......

Yes, I know I've only been doing it for a day but I still think that it's going to be wildly effective, especially since Josh is going to sign up with me and I'll have him to be accountable with. It also makes me super aware of what I'm eating so I don't go crazy with the snacking.

Currently I'm trying to lose 1 lb a week and I hope I won't feel too deprived at my calorie restrictions.
We'll see just how Hangry I get when I make it to next Tuesday and I'll check back in with ya'll. ALSO. I'm super proud of myself because I forced myself to get on the stationary exercise bike in my living room for a whole 30 minutes this morning.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Mackenzie

Independence Day

Happy July 4th!

God Bless America!

Love, Mackenzie

Last Ditch

My second draft of Acts of Day (now renamed Last Ditch) is going so well! I've been writing like crazy and I'm making great progress. My cousin told me not to over think it and I'm taking her advice as best I can. I'm tweaking each scene a little here and there but for the most part I'm just zipping through this.
UGH.
This is amazing. I love falling in love with my work again. <3 <3 <3

Love, Mackenzie

Picture Prompt Saturday

Here's this weeks picture prompt with the link!

Happy writing!

Love, Mackenzie

Full Speed Ahead

Camp NaNoWriMo is afoot! So far today I've written 1,315 words which is great since I've been taking a break from writing for about three weeks. It also helps that I'm working on the second draft of my super hero novel and I've decided to not change too much. My cousin Kelsie has had to remind me to not over analyze everything and I'm taking her advice.
So obviously that means I'm saving my figure skater romance novel for November, and I'm super excited to start drawing out the plot on post-its.
...get it?
Super excited??

...
...
...

Nevermind.

Love, Mackenzie