Category: Life

Back to the Grind

Stefanie Snider

Ugh, vacation’s over. I’m back to work tomorrow.

Why is it that time spent at work feels so much longer than time spent…well, doing pretty much anything else?

I’ve always promised myself I wouldn’t post much about DayJob, having read the horror stories of people fired for same, but suffice it to say I am not looking forward to going back. That bit’s no secret.

My solution to stay sane: I’m reading 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think and really thinking about ways I can still feel like my creative self while I’m going about my day. I’m not far into the book, but already I’m seeing all kinds of small ways I can get more done.

I bought a new charger for my dead netbook, so step one will be committing to writing at lunch. Tried before, didn’t stick with it, but I’ve reevaluated my priorities and I’m ready to give it another go. Besides, I’ll never get anywhere unless I really push myself.

Step two is nerding it up by self-designing new scheduling inserts for my Filofax. It seems I can’t find any that suit me, and I think I need to visually see where my time is going in order to use it better.

There’s got to be some way to get there.

FREEDOM!

Stefanie Snider

I finally, finally have a week off from DayJob. The last time I was off was in January and I’m pretty much clawing my own eyes out.

I have few plans — I’m trying to keep it that way, so I can get a handle on this whole “relaxing” thing. I give myself a day, two at most, before I’m bored of vegging and back to scribbling. But in the meantime I’m going to do my best to do nothing.

Tomorrow I’m off for some overnight camping (camping used in the sense of a trailer with plumbing; you will not catch me sleeping on the ground, ever. Ew). We’ll be in the middle of nowhere, just us girls and the woods and the things that snap twigs and scare the shit out of you in the middle of the night. I can’t wait!

I’ve got posts scheduled for the week, so I’m still “here” in a sense. Please don’t get bummed out if I don’t get to comments right away; I’ll get there, I promise.

Catch ya later!

We’re Lucky to be Horror Fans

Stefanie Snider

Last night I came across a blog about the atrocities of war. It’s graphic; there are pictures of the dead and brutalized victims of bombings, attacks, and the like. The photo that stuck with me all through today was of the aftereffects of a bombing: there is an eleven year old girl, screaming and blood spattered, and in the corner is a child who died smiling. I can’t get the image out of my mind.

It’s made me realize how lucky we are, us horror fans.

I live in Canada, and more often than not I take my country for granted. I don’t mean to, and I really do love being Canadian. It’s just that life here is…nice. People really are polite here (for the most part). We get all the seasons, so there’s something for everyone. The land is vast and largely green and just so damned nice. There really isn’t any other descriptor for it. And because it’s so lovely and safe, it’s easy to forget that life is not like this for most.

I can walk safely to my car in the dark (even though doing it drives my Mom crazy). I lock my doors out of reflex, but honestly? I probably don’t need to. I have never in my life worried about whether a bomb will hit my house. (I HAVE a house, in the first place, which is again more than many can say.) I grumble and bitch about my “bad days” like everyone else, but I rarely spare a moment of gratitude for the life I live.

It made me think: if you’re a horror fan (and if you’re here, there’s a good chance you are), you’re lucky too. No one in a war-torn country would welcome more horror. They have enough in their real lives. Those of us who can assume that we’ll return home unscathed at the end of the day have the luxury of “escaping” into horror. The monsters are different, but fear is fear. The difference is that we welcome the safe version, tucked cozily into our beds. The fact that we get to choose our horrors renders us lucky.

I don’t honestly know where I’m going with this. It’s just a thought that’s been with me today.

Today I am grateful.

The Ragweed is Eating My Brain

Stefanie Snider

image credit

I love Fall. I really, really do. But somehow each year I manage to forget that this is the time of my nemesis.

Look at them. Those little pollen…fucks. See how pointy they are?

That’s about how they feel as they embed themselves in my nasal cavities. Microscopic little shards of misery and suffering. I’m pretty sure that when I inhale they burrow deep into my brainmeats, where they send up a collective cheer that their Godless mission has been accomplished. They’re in there right now, high-fiving each other.

It’s probably a bad idea to jam sharp implements up there. I must resist. Instead I will gorge on antihistamines, pray for colder weather, and curse ragweed’s very existence from the depths of my blackened heart.

Attention Creepy Kids: Only Two Months Till Halloween!

Stefanie Snider

Fall is almost here. I’ve noticed a couple trees already losing their leaves, and when it gets chilly at night it just feels like Fall.

I get so excited and happy at this time of year. It’s time to start fantasizing about homemade bread. And cider. And warm cozy sweaters.

And, the best holiday of the year: Halloween.

Soon AMC and TCM start airing classic horror. Closer to October, you can flip on the tv and find an old horror any night of the week. Yes, I know you can get all-horror channels now, but it’s just not the same.

I’ll wait until probably mid-September to get into full Halloween mode, but just knowing it’s coming makes this little horror nerd very happy indeed.

This is the Bride of Frankenstein candle holder from Bath & Body Works. I picked her up during a shopping trip with my mom WHO IS A VERY BAD INFLUENCE, by the way…
“I don’t need this. I won’t burn a candle in it.”
“You can…use it to hold your pencils!”

…she really is cute though. She will hold my pencils nicely, all year round.

I Haven’t Done a Damned Thing Today

Stefanie Snider

I helped my brother- and sister-in-law move house yesterday. It wasn’t a big move, in the grand scheme of things: they only moved about ten minutes away from where they had been living. But even then the heat, my lack of sleep the night before, and the general chaos that comes from moving added together until all I wanted was my own home and my own bed.

I stayed up until about 11, trying valiantly to at least read before bed, but I crashed. Tomorrow, I reasoned, I will get caught up on life.

Cue tomorrow, which was today, and I did…nothing.

I slept until two by mistake; I meant to get up at nine. I think my body was playing catch-up. I woke with a bitch of a headache. I stared at the internet for a while, I stared at the tv. I wanted to work on my sweater, on my writing. I meant to polish a new story today. It didn’t happen. Nothing happened. I spent the day in a sleep-hangover(sleepover?)-induced fog.

I guess it’s not a bad thing to waste a day here and there. But I’m not that person. I’m not happy unless I’m creating, or making, or learning. So today was a write-off, and now I’m grumpy.

I think I’ve forgotten how to relax.

Today Looks Like This.

Stefanie Snider


The Mariah sweater in progress. What I’ve cleverly disguised is that I have less than one half of one sleeve done. Instead, gaze upon my (limited) productivity!
It’s going to be a cold Autumn wearing what amounts to a washcloth.


Then I came downstairs and stumbled on this scene. At first I was touched to see the cats actually enjoying a nap together. But look closer — Zoey’s tail has formed a careful buffer zone around Jadie. I got a sour look for catching them almost touching. They mutually disgust one another.

I haven’t opened any windows or blinds yet today, and the house is chilly from last night. I’m going to hang out under a blanket, knitting and watching online documentaries for the rest of the day.

What’s your day like today?

BoardZilla

Stefanie Snider

I decided to try the whole planning-a-novel-on-index-cards-thing, so I bought a new cork board to hold them. I already had one in the office, but I decided I needed more space.

Ahem.

The small one is for mere mortals.

I had to move the front seats of the car forward, collapse the back seats, and was barely able to squeeze the trunk shut. The board came from our local Ikea-knockoff, so its size was given in centimeters, and I’m a bad Canadian and suck at metric but I’m thinking it’s at least four and a half feet tall. Maybe five.

I lugged it through the back door. My husband was gaming on the couch in the living room, and when he saw my new monstrosity he just laughed.

“That’s ridiculous! That thing’s HUGE! You could use it as a sled.”

“Shut up.”

“Or hold it over your head for a parachute…or use it to build an addition on the house…”

“SHUT UP.”

“Parasail…area rug…bet it won’t fit up the stairs.”

I rolled my eyes, asked him to kindly shut the fuck up, and went to carry it upstairs. I managed to put a ding in the wall, which made him laugh so hard I thought he’d pee himself.

I love my new cork board. It will be the answer, I know it. I’m guessing this thing’ll hold about 60 index cards, which should get me through just fine (ha!).

I told a coworker about it, and without missing a beat she said, “Flotation device in a flood.”

Shut up.

It’s Drive-In Night!

Stefanie Snider

Once a year, my pal Leslie and I head out to the drive-in.

There’s something about it: being out in farmland, the stars above you, watching a movie in your pjs with hundreds of strangers. Last year, just as Cowboys & Aliens told us that the aliens had come to Earth, the cattle on screen ran past and a whiff of cow shit from the nearby farm wafted by. You don’t get that from a theatre in the mall.

I will see anything at the drive-in, because it’s not about the movie, it’s about the experience. Case in point, tonight’s triple feature includes That’s My Boy. I can almost guarantee it’s going to be horribly stupid, but in a way that’s better: half the fun of the drive-in is making fun of the movie. And the people in the next car. And that one asshole who doesn’t know how to turn off his headlights…

Knitting Takes Brains

Stefanie Snider

I did a bad thing.

Even though I had a campfire sweater already on the needles, I went on Ravelry and searched for sweater patterns. I don’t know why I do this to myself. I found a pattern called Mariah, I fell in love, I ripped out the mostly-done sleeve I had on the needles. (Which belonged to a pattern that may or may not have been based on the sweater Bella wears in some Twilight movie or other, the fact of which makes me feel dirty.) Let us never speak of it again.

Sleeve, schmeeve, the new pattern has cables! And I love cables, I love them so, because they are so simple but they look so complicated and it makes me feel smart.

No longer will I be stuck wearing a sweater associated with a certain fluffy teen series! Instead I will lounge around a fire, in the dark, pleased as a cat with cream that I’m wearing a fancy sweater I made myself with fancy cables no one else will even see.

Now comes the part with the actual, you know, knitting of the thing. I have an inch of sleeve done. I want it finished in time for Fall, because I already picked out a hat to make for Winter…