Raving Amicks

An hour before my night class in screenwriting this past Tuesday night, I found myself at Big Time Brewery with a baked potato smothered in three types of cheeses, chives and olives with a hearty pint of beer. The beer and food (usually pizza) at Big Time is the second best way to reclaim my happiness after a torturous day at work.

I spread my script pages across the table and covered them in red ink; marking up areas or words that I found weak, and writing notes to myself for how I wanted to change the story. My writing/editing process couldn’t have been simpler:

Take a bite of cheese-drenched potato. Drink some beer. Write a paragraph of red ink over printed pages. Repeat.

Good food, good beer, and time to work on one of my stories. I couldn’t have been happier!

When the only thing that remained on my plate were fragments of potato skin and a puddle of butter, I had twenty minutes to leisurely walk to my classroom. Class came and went. I rode the bus home. Walked in the door by 10 PM. Relieved the dog. Fed and watered the dog. Lounged on the futon and talked to Tyler. Finally, by 10:30 PM, I brushed my teeth and went to bed. It had been nothing more than a typical Tuesday night for me.

Suddenly—cutting rudely into my peaceful dreams—my stomach seized and churned and bile flooded my mouth.

I dove out of bed and spent a good half hour waiting to throw up. Wishing I could throw. Once I threw, that annoying bile that ruins my teeth would stop. Once I threw up, my stomach would feel better. Once I threw up, I could return to bed. And yet, my stomach persisted in contorting and seizing. Finally, sleep and the comfortable new covers won over the chance that I might throw up on Tyler. I returned to bed. I spent the rest of the morning shifting and contorting to reach the least painful position, and cursing the cheese-smothered potato that surely gave me food poisoning.

I stayed home from work, originally thinking that I would be able to come in a few hours late. I drifted in and out of sleep, contorting, tossing and turning. Between lucid moments of sleep, all I could think about was how evil Big Time and their bacteria-infested potato was.

Finally, when noon came, I realized it was pointless to keep thinking I would make it into work. I forced my stomach out of bed, telling it that it had to commit to a decision: either hurry up and throw up and feel better, or stop seizing and feel better. This seizing and contorting business, I told it, is not working for either of us. I made Stomach an Egg in the Window, and told it that if it didn’t keep it down, I’m going to have to find a new stomach to share my life with. Stomach seemed to think I was serious, and gallantly kept that egg and wheat bread down. Stomach and I spent a few hours laying in bed and playing DS, and then finished off the working day with a hearty three hour nap. By the time Tyler came home, Stomach started to feel better, although it was still a bit uneasy. The rest of the evening passed uneventfully as Stomach settled down and returned to the well-behaved digestive system it usually is.

By the next morning—this morning—Stomach was much better, although still a bit delicate from its bout of seizing and contorting. It was then that I learned Tyler had similar issues last night. I still believed that the potato had poisoned me, though. It wasn’t until I came into work this morning and saw three of the other contractors were out, that I started to think that the potato from Tuesday night might have been an honest, wholesome potato after all. Starting up my computer and email account, I soon saw an email from a contractor who sits next to me and is directly on my team. She wasn’t feeling well at 5 AM this morning and was going to attempt to come in late. However, she never made it in.

I feel rather sheepish about cursing that damn tasty potato all day yesterday. However, I’m pleased to know that I can still eat at Big Time without thinking about that time they served me the evil potato of cheese-covered doom.

I would like to wish the Amick mother a very happy yesterday-birthday!

I hope your husband slaved away in the kitchen for countless hours while preparing a yummy dinner and cake for you, and I hope to see pictures of said yummy dinner and cake (most specifically said cake) posted to this website. I also hope to hear an account of said happy yesterday-birthday from either the Amick mother or the Amick father. Though I must admit, I prefer to hear an account from you, the Amick mother, as it seems like you have not posted to this website in a long while.

Also, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind the Amick boys to treat your mother right, and also wish her a happy birthday if you have not done so.

Poor iPod.

“This article is in dire need of quality editing. I love you, Apple—I really do. That is why I’m so offended to have this scourge against humanity brought to my attention. Typically, your documentation is very well edited. The tone of this article deviates from your other tech notes in that it crosses the line of informal tonality. It’s also laden with grammatical errors and lacks clarity. Please do not sink to the awful level of editing found in Microsoft’s documentation—I don’t think I could find any joy in this world should this level of editing become standard practice.”

The Article of Doom

Instead of working due to adverse weather conditions, I stayed home and made this tasty pumpkin bread. I also braved the insanely cold weather and took some pictures our puny dusting of snow. Despite the small amount of snow, it’s really treacherous out there. While I was wandering around, I encountered a few poor idiots who thought they could drive somewhere. I guess they didn’t realize all the roads were completely covered with ice—some with more than an inch.

Meanwhile, Tyler “telecommuted.” Of course meaning he sat around and read stuff on the internet and sent the occasional instant message to other coworkers who were doing the same. Ah, if only I could be paid to stay at home and make tasty food.

More on the snow/ice conditions in Seattle later.

Hi Amicks and Friends!

I don’t have any literary or story-driven posts for you today, but I thought I’d check in and update you on my life through my words (and not Tyler’s “yeah, she’s doing pretty well…”).

I’m still bored at The Big Suck. I can’t wait till this job ends, but I did decide to let them renew my contract until January 31st. I figured it would hold me through the holidays since the job market stalls during that time.

I spend the majority of my work time playing on the interweb at Etsy, which is an orgasm of crafting and shopping. I don’t do so much of the shopping part, as I’m still very poor. But I did indulge in these really cool organic and healthy dog treats called Pupcakes. The name made me so happy, I couldn’t help but buy them. Mary probably won’t get all 12 “pupcakes” as that would make her fat, so I’ll probably bring some down for the “Mother unit.”

I am taking the GRE for grad school next Monday, and I’ve been slacking on studying. For the programs I’m applying to, the GRE is required as a threshold to weed out non-serious candidates. However, no one looks at the scores most of the time—unless you’re at the very bottom of the acceptance pile. I still want to do as well as possible on the test, and since I never work at work, I thought that I should use this time to study. But then I felt kinda odd about installing my GRE prep software on their computer. And I also felt kinda odd about bringing my giant GRE book with me and studying in the open office I share with four other contract workers.

So instead of studying for the GRE, I’ve been editing some of my older short stories. The majority of my application rests on writing samples, and then a wee bit rests on letters of recommendation. Most of my former instructors want samples of work before writing their letters, so I’m trying to crank something out. I choose to use my older stories because they had been through class workshops and received feedback from former instructors. I also thought they would be easier to edit and strengthen as I can examine them more objectively.

Oh, and back to the GRE. There really needs to be a video game for the Nintendo DS that helps one study for the GRE. I say this because there are already two “brain-training” games for the DS that are quite fun. And I really do feel like they make me smarter. Well, they’re not supposed to “make one smarter,” but rather exercise one’s brain and wake it up. Though that’s really just making one’s brain smarter, right?