I was trying to find something profound to say about the past six months. How I have gotten through it…how the struggles have made me stronger…but I got nothing.

I tell you what one thought has been on my mind recently. I lost my husband…It’s weird what your mind grasps onto, ya know? I lost my husband. It sounds like you misplaced your spouse, like a watch or ring or something. I didn’t misplace him, I know where he is so technically he isn’t lost.

Isn’t that insane? I mean of all the things I have to cope with in my life, all the changes I have gone through and that is what my mind has chosen to grapple with?

I won’t say I have had it easy, after all, I find myself crying at the most awkward moments. I was out with my mother and she asked what I wanted for dinner. I just started to cry for no reason…at church we were ready for communion and the tears began to fall and I couldn’t stop them…I was driving over to my day job and overwhelming sadness gripped me firmly and I had to pull off the road and cry. No particular reason, it just hits me.

Then sometimes I get super angry. I want to rip him apart for leaving me to pick up the pieces and clean up his mess he left behind.

Other times I feel numb. Empty. No sadness, no happiness, nothing. I am almost normal…those times are few and far between. I really want to be normal again, but I don’t know if I would even recognize normal if it slapped me across the face…

Well, enough melancholia.

I wish you all the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years.

Huggles
Donica

I can’t wait to figure out how to use it so I can’t work on my writing. The next book in the Four Horsemen series is becoming quite vocal in my brain. I would love to be able to get it done and sent to mug publisher–who I know is anxiously awaiting the next installment.

So tell me, what are your Christmas plans?

Well I need to be leaving y’all I’ve got to get back to work.

Huggles,
Donica Covey

I know murder is nothing new–Cain and Abel…Lizzy Borden, Jack the Ripper, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Mengela,  But now days mental illness seems to be cropping up all over. In modern times, Ed Gein, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Albright, Gary Ridgeway, Randall Woodfield, Philip Markoff to name a few. 

What do you think? are people more susceptible to insanity in our modern age? Are serial killers more prolific? Or is it the miracle of modern technology that allows us to know about the crazies?

Inquiring minds want to know…

Huggles

Donica Covey

This post is about how numbers affect our lives…do they? I’ve never been one to hold to numerology or none of that. I’ve never had a lucky number or believed 13 was a horrible omen. I once lived in a house where the address was 666…just a number, right?

Then I was hit with this weird coincidence. In ’88–a number EVENLY divided by 22–I married my husband on October 22–my parents’ 22 year wedding anniversary. My husband and I shared 22 years of marriage that ended on June 22 with his sudden passing. Now, like I say, I’m not into numerology or anything but I think I will be avoiding the number 22 as best I can–wouldn’t you?

In other news, I’m getting rather excited. I’m hosting Thanksgiving in my new home this year. The place is much smaller and will require a bit of furniture rearranging, but I’m also pretty stoked about. Doing most all the cooking and baking…the cleaning…umm, wait…hold up, depressed myself with the thought of all that work…lol

We’ll be a little tight in my tiny place–there are going to be 20 of us (at least it’s not 22, right?) in my little house. But family will be there surrounding me and that’s what counts!

Now I’ve got to finish off my menu shopping list, check it twice and make sure I have everything I need!

I’ve also been dealing with Christmas. I have almost all my gifts done. I’m still finishing it off but I’m down to 3 people! Wahoo!!!

Well, guess I better take off for a while. See y’all again soon!

Huggles
Donica

A few years back my mother and I began this fabulous tradition of going to Branson for the weekend. Branson has their own way of celebrating. Veteran’s get special discount packages for lodgings, shows and other forms of entertainment. The shops, inlcuding the discount malls also had huge sales.

Every year mom and I would meet my grandmother, her friend Sharon, sometimes my aunts Susan and Robbie would join us with their daughter(and daughter in laws). We’d rent a condo for the weekend and spend all day shopping and all evening playing Pitch.

Then I guess it was three years ago, we could no longer go, due to financial strains, health issues and other family problems the annual trips stopped. This year the weekend has arrived and we’re not going. My husbands death, my new job as my grandmother’s primary care giver and money issues have conspired to prevent our trip yet again. But, mom and I have come up with an alternate plan. I’m off on Saturdays and Sundays so mom and I are going to try and head for a discount mall not too far from home. It won’t be the exact same, but it will still be time with my mother.

Of course I know that the origin of Veteran’s Day wasn’t for the shopping minded. It was set aside as a day of honor and appreciation. Today several places are using this day to accumulate portions of their proceeds for donations to various Veterns organizations. So, when I can get out I intend to do my share to help increase their donations even though I can’t afford a great deal.

THANK YOU to our many Veteran’s and their families for their time, dedication and selfless service.

This is also 11-11-11. For many it’s considered a lucky day. I don ‘t know about that, I guess we will just have to wait and see if this day turns into a luck one. I do know it would make a cool birthday or wedding date. My fingers are crossed that this is a lucky one for you, my readers and friends.

Huggles
Donica

1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn’t.

2. I don’t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

3. Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them.

4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

5. Don’t take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.

6. You’re just jealous because the voices only talk to me

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder.

8. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.

9. I’m not a complete idiot — Some parts are just missing.

10. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.

11. Nyquil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck- is-the-room- spinning medicine.

12. God must love stupid people; He made so many.

13. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

14. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

15. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

16. Being ‘over the hill’ is much better than being under it!

17. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up..

18. Procrastinate Now!

19. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?

20. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

21. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

22. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!

23. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken..

24. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.

25. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.

26. Ham and eggs… A day’s work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.

27.. The trouble with life is there’s no background music..

28. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

29. I smile because I don’t know what is going on.

Cool, right? While I’m out driving I love to see vanity plates and try to interpret them. Sometimes they’re pretty self-explanatory, other times not so much. Here are a few examples of some recently seen plates:
FXURPT   Fix Your Pet
DBLLNG  I have NO idea!
EMT1   Emergency Medical Tech 1
FNRSQ  Fire and Rescue
MYKAR  My Car
MINIME  Mini Me–seen on a Mini Cooper

I’ve placed the interpretations for the ones I figured out next to them in white. in order to see them, you will have to highlight the “empty” spaces.

I’d LOVE to hear from you, what are some great, funny or interesting plates you’ve seen? Inquiring minds want to know so let me hear from you!

Huggles and have a GREAT rest of the weekend!
Donica

When I write stories I usually already know the names. I love unique or even downright odd names–however even I draw the line at naming a child Apple, Orange or some other kind of fruit…

I think one of my favorite names is the one I am using in my current WIP . The heroine’s name is Phyledelpheia. She is called Phyl for short. The name came from the 1948 John Ford Classic Fort Apache. It starred John Wayne, Henry Fonda and playing Henry Fonda’s character’s daughter Phyladeplphia was a half-grown Shirley Temple.

In past novels I’ve used names like Remington, Brandy, Chase, Tabith and Simon to name a few.

What are some of your favorite names? Are there any you’ve loved more than others? What about ones you’ve loathed? Inquiring minds want to know so please share!

Huggles
Donica

Last night was no different. At nearly 3 am I was still checking the clock and chanting “sleep…NOW!” repeatedly.

At 7 this am the phone rings and it’s my daughter’s employer apparently she was late for work. I jump up, go in and wake her (she’s incredibly lucky, like her father all she has to do is lay down and she’s out cold…must be nice…) then my dog begins his daily potty dance so I head for the door, open it and suddenly I felt something weird.

The scream that escaped my lips must’ve echoed throughout the subdivision. My dog freaked, my DD came running and I stood in place shifting from foot to foot on the verge of hyperventilation.

A black spider the size of a quarter had decided to build it’s web between my screen and front door. When I opened the door uninvited creature was unbalanced and dropped onto my head, off the shoulder and hit the ground scurrying.

I am NOT an arachnaphobe, but when a black spider the size of a quarter drops on me unexpectedly, yes, I am going to freak out slightly. I am usually of the catch and release mindset as well. This morning however I was shouting “kill it! Kill it!” at the top of my lungs.

After DD killed the uninvited squatter I attempted to put dog outside. No dice…it has been raining all weekend and he is such a prissy little boy you’d think he thought he would melt with a little water! Finally got him out, Dd out the door to work and I said heck with it.

I went back to bed and fell back to sleep for another (almost) three hours! I just hope last night/this morning are NOT indications of things to come this week!

Now I’m off to get dressers emptied out for easy loading and transferal to new place, tape up some boxes for the move and headed to the WalMart for a few objects I must get.

I hope y’alls Monday is better than mine and I hope you have a ROCKIN’ week!

Huggles
Donica

It drives me crazy…I think I’m doing all right and then for some reason the pain rips into me again. I had a migraine due to the shifting weather patterns and then on top of it, all I could do was think of DH and how much I missed him. I went through the anger, the sadness, the pain and the utterly suffocating sense of fear over what the future holds.

I was to go over to the new place over the weekend and paint the new shed so I could start moving stuff this week. Yeah, didn’t happen. I spent most of the weekend in bed.

I still have the headache, still have a touch of sadness, but I am feeling better today. I might be able to get things started…I hope.

I’m looking forward to getting settled into the new place and getting back into the swing of writing. I have a couple of books that are nagging at me to get finished. Plus the last couple of nights I’ve had this nightmare that would make a VERY interesting novel. Zombies, mobile homes, murder and mayhem. The dreams have felt so real that I’ve sat up, bathed in sweat, heart pounding, threatening to break free from my chest. In my dream I remember this subconscious voice saying “it’s only a dream, wake up now…come on wake up…” and this helps me pull out of it but the details are so vivid, and it feels so real…I hope to be able to one day write this one and get it out into the world.

It’s Moanday…errr I mean Monday and I have this week to get things ready for the large furnishings to be moved from the house to our new place. Wish me luck in getting things done, please? Thanks so much!

I’m off–yeah, I know, I’ve always been a little off….Have a GREAT week y’all!

Huggles
Donica