Halloween Down...

NaNoWriMo to go!

I wish I could stay up until midnight to begin writing, but I'd be good for nothing tomorrow. And after the day I've had today...that would not be a good thing.

Happy tapping, all you 12:01 a.m. writers!

WrimoRadio

I'm listening to WrimoRadio right now, and Chris is talking about the different things you go through during each week of NaNoWriMo. How true it is...the week one Fear of the Blank Page, the week two Slowdown, etc. It's not really encouraging me...it's actually making me nervous, as I deal with these bizarre feelings I've been having, like not being excited about writing (yet...will I get there by November 1?), and not having a really great story idea (yet...will I get there by the day after tomorrow?)

I haven't spent any time this weekend so far planning my novel. I have, however, done a lot of great stuff! The highlight was going out to dinner with our best friends last night. Before we could eat, though, though, we had to attend the annual community center Halloween party, in which the kids get into their costumes and run around looking for candy.

Isn't it funny how kids will do anything for candy? They'll crawl through an obstacle course, cling to an indoor rock climbing wall while wearing a cape, approach total strangers in scary costumes, walk around in the snow in the dark...just to get a piece of sugar wrapped in paper.

And most of the time they don't even need extra candy. Take my son for example. This kid still has Halloween candy leftover from last year. Heck, he still has candy leftover from two Easters ago! There's also a bowl of candy on the kitchen counter next to the coffee maker that he never touches. He has total access to candy. He has so much candy he forgets about it. But still he feels compelled to carry around a bag and hope adults will throw candy in it. I have this theory that it's either early hunter/gatherer instincts coming through, or else it's a part of this culture of collecting. But, I digress.

Among the fun things the kids did at the party was participate in a cake walk. We figured we had it beat, since there were, like, ten kids walking and three of them were ours. You should have heard the whining and complaining when none of our kids ended up winning. And the kids were bummed out, too.

Then we went to dinner at our favorite hole-in-the-wall Italian, the one with the 90 year old owner that all children are obligated to hug on the way out. Sometimes, if there are no kids around and you're short, she'll hug you. But luckily we had kids, so she hugged'em. (And then she gave them some candy.) Dinner was as delicious as always.

After that we went to see what we call 'the Pumpkin Man's house', a retired guy on the south side of town who carves amazing designs in the monstrous pumpkins he grows, then puts them on display for all the neighborhood kids. He's been doing this for, like, 20 years. And, he gives the kids candy. (Not the greatest photo quality, but you get the idea.)





Then we got to come home and watch a great movie, go to bed late, and sleep an extra hour in the morning. Life is good.

Kicked Off

The Kickoff Party was a hoot -- the room was great, the food was great, some newbies showed up, many brought friends, and my husband (aka NaNoWriMo Widower) helped a lot!

We had a raffle for Vintage NaNoWriMo Goodies, and surprisingly the Magical Pen of Wonder from 2003 was the hot giveaway.

I believe much fun was had by all.

I must admit I enjoyed planning and executing the party, and I have a great time talking about past NaNoWriMos and about writing at that pace, and hanging out on the Forums and stuff...but I'm not as excited about actually writing as I have been in the past.

I keep reading folks on the boards saying, "I can't wait to start writing"...but the thing is, I can. Wait, that is.

I am just so busy right now.

Hm. Three days and counting.

Why is the Alphabet in that Order?

Is it because of that song?

My favorite sweatshirt bears those questions, and I get many, many comments when I wear it. I didn't buy it to be smarmy, I bought it when singing the alphabet song was an everyday occurrence for me. (Ah, the preschooler days.)

I just got my second "A". Sweet, encouraging, first letter of the alphabet, how I love thee. It's just what I needed to hear today!

That's the good news.

The bad news is that my husband's job is going to the Philippines next year. Apparently half of the staff will be let go by December, and the other half is to stick around for another year getting the division sent safely overseas and then, supposedly, reinstated somewhere within another division of the company.

What remains to be seen, naturally, is which 50% my husband falls into.

Today I spoke to my boss about my options. How ironic would it be if I had to begin working full time just in time for NaNoWriMo?

Ironic? I don't know...it seems like it's more just The Way My Life Goes.

And I wonder again if we will ever be able to truly make a living in Colorado.

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

My son and I just watched the old, classic cartoon tonight. I had one of those warm-your-heart moments, a sort of de ja vu to sit and enjoy with him what I so clearly remember from my own childhood. These times make me stop and and bask in the blessing, realizing with full force once more just how close I came to never being a mother!

Every day we pass the pumpkins we plucked from the patch in Penrose, which are perched on the porch.

Every day my son asks when we can carve them.

And everyday I tell him that his father wants to do it with him, so we have to wait until he's home and has time. This is a fib. But I really, really hate the feeling of slimy pumpkin innards on my fingers, and cleaning off the seeds so we can roast them is sacrifice enough, in my opinion. So, my husband gets to do the carving, and then eat the yummy nuts later.

Something that perplexes me (don't worry, I'm not going to get going with the P's again...): my son doesn't want a new Halloween costume. He actually wants to be the same thing he's been since he was five. In other words, for the third year in a row. I have tried to talk him out of this, but he won't budge. Does anyone else think this is strange?

Bragging

Hey, I got back some more grades and I finally did it: I got an "A" from the tough teacher on a writing assignment!

It warmed my heart.

Hot Air

At the risk of making this blog into the high tech equivalent of the post-vacation slide show, I'll just post these last two of the Balloon Rally. My family actually cooperated when I woke them up at o'dark thirty to get out to see the hot air balloon ascension. It was FREEZING, but quickly warmed up as soon as the sun was over the Sangre de Cristos.

Sideways is on; I haven't seen it yet. It's making me homesick. It's also making me laugh. ("Are you chewing gum?")

Antiques Curbshow

I got a kick out of this shop on the main drag with salvaged architectural elements artfully displayed in the garden. The shop itself, an old adobe set far back from the road (with its "the witch is in" sign on the door that I think was not necessarily a Halloween prop) wasn't near as much fun.

worlds away

I spent a night in Albuquerque, New Mexico once and remember thinking, I could live here. That was more than 15 years ago and this was my first trip back, this time to Taos. New Mexico is only a few hours away from here, but it's a different world. They call it The Land of Enchantment, and there really is something to that, somehow.

One thing's for sure: it was beautiful time of year to be there. This photo is as we were leaving Ojo Caliente, where we'd spent a wonderful morning relaxing in their mineral waters.

Success!

I did it!

I worked most of my normal weekly hours in the past three days, scratched off everything on my work "to do" list, and finished all the homework that was due by this Friday!

Life is good.

On the way home from all of that tonight, I turned on the radio in the car and on came Alice Cooper. I guess he has a syndicated Wednesday night show, you know, where he plays music from his era and talks in between. Jeez, what is it with these Geezer Rockers? Don't they know when to stop?

A couple of my co-workers are heading to SF this weekend on business. They promised to bring me back some Boudin.

Okay, now I'm just rambling, so I guess that's it for me. Now, I'm officially on vacation.

Ahhhhh...

I just made reservations for our getaway to Taos.

Now if I can just get my homework done before we leave, I'll be in good shape.

As I mentioned last week, getting to the studying when my little guy's on break and it's 75 degrees outside and I haven't cooked real food for my family in recent memory and the dogs want to play, too...is all but impossible!

My plan for tomorrow is to hunker down in my favorite coffee shop and not go home until my lesson is complete. I'll pack at some point, too.

(Wish me luck.)

I know, but I just can't help myself

This was Monday, when the colors "popped."

Since having seasons was one of the reasons I wanted to move here, I just really enjoy this stuff.

(Little did I know I'd get all the seasons within one week...)

How fun is that?

Doesn't this sound cool? I wish I had time to do it!

16 days, and counting

I met with the other ML yesterday to plan the NaNoWriMo Kickoff Party. It's going to be simple, but productive and -- oh yeah -- fun! I've hardly given my novel a thought, which is what I did last year as well, and it was difficult to begin, so I'm going to have to try a little harder this time around.

Here's what I have so far: a character. She doesn't have a name, but she's around 30, I think, single and stuck. Her parents come from the old country and want to arrange her marriage, and even though she's not in a relationship, she doesn't want to settle.

This will not, I repeat, will not be a romance!

Anyway, I was working on something similar in last year's novel interruptus, but this will be better. Probably darker. I'm going to spend some time the weekend before character sketching.

I must get to work catching up in college class number two as well as planning the trip we're taking out of state Wed-Sun. I'm really not in the mood to travel but I think it will do me good.

What a Difference A Day Makes

Homework, Kicking My Butt

I had no earthly idea how I was going to manage adding school to work, family, and everything else. The first couple of weeks of the semester went pretty smoothly and, I admit, I got cocky. It's been all downhill from there. Especially this week, with my Little Guy on break from his school. This is when I have to get creative with squeezing reading/writing/corresponding-with-teacher time, and I've never been the best at multi-tasking. But, I have just turned in my assignment for the tough teacher and now I can stop and catch my breath.

Okay, I'm ignoring that I'm behind on journaling a writing book, and the chapters are piling up. But, that's not work, that's fun!

And if I don't turn something in by Friday, I'm also ignoring the fact that I'll be two weeks behind in my other class (just two classes first semester -- them's the rules.) But the other teacher's totally lax, thank goodness.

I honestly don't know what I'm thinking, signing up for NaNoWriMo.

Denial. It's a way of life.

From My Office Window This Morning...

So, NaNoWriMo

Here are my thoughts on National Novel Writing Month:

The first year I did NaNo just to prove I could. I didn't have a plot but I did have a couple of characters, and suprisingly that turned out to be enough. It was an amazing experience, as prior to that I'd only really written non-fiction and didn't expect to like fiction-writing. But I learned that I did like fiction, it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, and although my novel was pretty crappy, it was a beginning.

The second year I did it because I'd had so much fun the first year. This time I had a plot, but that didn't necessarily make the writing any easier. I had even more fun that time around, and my novel wasn't as crappy as the first one. I later edited it and came up with a finished product that I was then and still am very attached to, even though I didn't sell it.

The third year I did NaNo with less enthusiasm because, I realize now, I was doing it with a purpose (writing a novel) rather than for a higher purpose (having fun.) That was a mistake. Due to circumstances beyond my control I didn't "win" (write 50k words) anyway. It was a big bummer.

Also last year I made the discovery that I still have a lot to learn about writing. Hence the return to college to get the degree and see if there really is something I've missed, or not learned yet. I figure if the lightbulb hasn't gone off by the time I finish school, it never will.

This is the fourth year I plan to sit down on November 1 and start a novel. I have a character and no plot, which seems for me and for the purposes of this endeavor to be the recipe for NaNo success. I don't know how I'm going to manage to win considering that my life is busier now than it's been any other year I've attempted this. But I am determined!

Help! I'm trapped in the body of a B student!

Something new in my life: I'm an external student at a college in Indiana (I'll give you a hint: we're known as "Woodsies"). I'm planning to spend the next 12 years or so* finishing up my Bachelor's in Creative Writing. Today I received my grade for the second assignment I turned in for one of my major courses, and got my second B+.

I wish I could explain why it bugs me to not get an A.

After all, a B+ is a pretty good grade from a pretty tough teacher. Isn't it?

And, I'm not at all a competitive person, nor do I set unreasonably high standards for myself in other areas.

However, I've come to realize that in this one area I am, and I do.

It reminds me of the first time I quit college, 23 years ago. The event that caused me to put my tail between my legs was my upper division Journalism course term paper grade: B-.

I'm not quitting this time around.

Still, that B? It. Gets. On. My. Nerves.

*an exaggeration, but only slightly