Wannabe Cowgirl

Or winenr, as I typed on my first attempt on the title for this blog post. A National Novel Writing Month 2006 winner, that is! If you wrote anything this month, you rock. And congrats to all those who passed the 50k mark...and the 100k mark...and the 150k...well, you get the idea. I'll content myself with my 89 word surplus for the month. I wrote nearly 7,000 words in 4 hours today, and my fingers are decidedly jelly-like, so I'm going to call it a day for this post. But, yes...I'm a winner, too. This time around, at least. Oh, and Anna, "kerfluffle" made it in three times.

It's that time. The last two days of November are nearly upon us, and that means that literary grim reaper born of a month of novel procrastination has finally come to collect his dues. I have two days to write slightly less than 7,000 words. Can it be done? Certainly. But the real question is, will I do it? Obviously I can't be too worried since I am wasting precious words on a blog post. But the blog seemed a little desolate, so I thought I'd treat it to a night out.

Once I hit that 50,000 word mark, however (assuming I hit it at all), this year's NaNo noveling is out the window. Until January, at least. At the moment I can't stand my characters. All they do now is mill about and complain, and I can't get them to do anything except talk in the passive voice and use far too many adverbs. Perhaps a month's vacation will do them good. I know they do need a little sun, as right now they are trapped in a very small and windowless room. Maybe I'll send them to the Bahamas. Or something.

But once NaNoWriMo '06 has come to a close and my characters are off on some beach sipping literary cocktails, I will also be dusting off some activities that I miss. So what will my December be filled with? Books! Lots of books! I can't wait to start reading more again, and maybe start that girls' Bible study up (again). I'll once again try to start a crocheting project and hope that my magical stitch-dropping disease has departed. I want to go ice skating, and to have a Christmas shindig and finally (finally!) play FFXII.

I want to spend more time outside with my dog. And that's not to mention the friends I've neglected, both old and new. I can't wait to go sledding and do more speed angeling and drink hot chocolate afterwards while my toes warm up. I want to teach more. I hope to survive the Christmas commericialism intact and in good health. I want to get dressed up. I'd like to go back into the wilder parts and see old faces and places. I want to write more poetry. That's a pretty good list to start with. But above all, I am excited to see more of the people in my life. I miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans and other turkey-savvy folk out there! May your day be filled with gluttony and tryptophan!

I always enjoy flying. Even when it's pretty rotten and I sit through hours of layovers in uncomfortable chairs and get tempted to eat all the McDonalds I can stomach and haul my too numerous carry-ons in and out of crowded bathrooms -- I enjoy it. So I'm excited to leave this lovely town for a few days and fly (with a two-hour layover both ways!) to Denver for the holiday. I do wish I could take Cody, but I'm sure he'll be having a great time jumping all over Ed (sorry...and thanks!). It will probably be a somewhat sad visit because of recent upheavals, but I am still happy to see the folks, to make the journey to the home of shared blood. And of course that reminds me of the blood that was shed and shared for all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Yup. I updated my blog's layout. It's...a work in progress. I really love the template I snagged from GeckoandFly.com but I'm still working out the kinks of the HTML code and what not. Any and all help is appreciated. Argh.

In other news...well, there's not much. The PlayStation 3 comes out tomorrow and hardly anyone will get one, while those who do will sob in despair at all the glitches. The Nintendo Wii comes out Sunday, and I'm hoping that a lightsaber-heavy game will come out for it soon. Dog Cody is as cute and huge as ever, and I'm abandoning him to go on a mad last-minute dash to Denver next week. I'm totally addicted to coffee and am fostering a secondary addiction to Halls Defense Vitamin C tablets. Yum. Yahoo Instant Messenger highlights really random and pop culture-heavy phrases with reference information, and it mildly disturbs me (it knows Hercules and Eminem and Harry Potter, but not Jesus or God or Les Miserables). I'm writing this blog post in order to procrastinate writing my NaNo novel (aaagh I'm so very behind!). I dislike turkey.

I'm reading an awesome book about World War II and the Holocaust. I am dreading going back to teach the same fifth grade in Missoula again tomorrow because I have no self-esteem and think that the student teachers are always talking about me (they're probably not...but what if they are?!). I long to go ice skating and watch Ed not break any bones and have a great time. I miss horseback riding, and playing the game Horsez will be no substitute, and I will probably play it anyway. I love and hate the weekend. I wish I hadn't eaten so much salad for dinner. I wore shorts outside today and it was cold, but nice. I love the night sky, and am terrified by it. I am currently craving cheese.

This has turned into the most random post ever! It's probably because I'm channeling all of my NaNo procrastination into it. Sigh. Will I ever learn? Well . . . probably not.

sometimes
most times
i don't know where
i am, but there
You are

Introducing . . . the new generation!

The first member of my family's next generation is officially alive! My cousin Lisa had a baby boy named Nickolas this morning at 11:20 AM (EST). How insane is that?! I can't even begin to imagine one of the cousins I remember looking up to as a kid now being a mother. I mean, I can't imagine it for myself. My brain sort of goes kerfloofy when I think of it. But wow. Just wow! It's insane! It's terrifying! And . . . it's wonderful. I'm glad that the baby came before his father, a member of the Navy, was deployed again. I think Larry's due to leave tomorrow, so the baby was born just in time. So congrats to the new parents, and biggest blessings. You rock.

The other day I had an interesting and rather depressing encounter. As you might know, I work in a store that sells video games (which, incidentally and unexpectedly, I love). This guy came into the store and asked for some help finding a good game, preferably something in the RPG genre if I remember correctly. So I was recommending the usual (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile) and a few newer items which seem pretty cool (Magna Carta, Radiata Stories). After a number of suggestions met with little success or excitement, he went off to browse with his friends. I heard him say to one girl, "I'm looking for the next game that will make life worth living!"

He did say that somewhat jokingly, but it still floored me. Is that what I'm helping to sell in this job? Something to make life worth living? Because you're not going to find that in any store on this planet. It makes me wonder if that is what all entertainment is -- a distraction, something to make life a little more enjoyable until inevitable death. How depressing that is. Maybe that's why I don't play many games anymore. Sure, I love Lego Star Wars, and I'm super psyched about Final Fantasy XII. But I know that there is no "next big thing" that will fulfill my heart -- at least, nothing that can be bought.

National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as NaNoWriMo) has officially begun. For the month of November, approximately 70,000 people worldwide will frantically scribble, type, and drool their stories into existence in an attempt to reach the 50,000 word count mark before time runs out. Why do people inflict this kind of emotional torture upon themselves? you may well ask. For many reasons. Because it's fun. Because they like pain. Because it's exciting to see stories of moderate quality weave themselves into existence. Because it makes them feel like hot stuff to say they wrote a novel. As for me, it's something of a combination of all of those reasons. Especially the pain one. But I kicked off the month with an hour of writing at midnight this morning, and I've already got just over 1,000 words banged out. Of course, those words are horrifying and poorly chosen...but that doesn't matter, just for this month.