NaNoWriMo, Day 28

I DID IT!!!!

I can't believe I actually did it! Fifty Thousand Three Hundred and Thirty-Five words in 28 days! And this was my very first NaNoWriMo!

This was a rough month, I have to tell you, but I'm so glad it's over! And no, don't expect to see any postings of my work. It's horrible, yucky, trashy and any other adjective you can think of. I came up with two words that describe this manuscript, and I actually put those words in...the MMC's accountant works for the firm of Dreck and Drivel. Yep, that's how I would describe my manuscript...dreck and drivel.

Well, now that it's done, I can dedicate December to -- erp, sorry, can't edit this mess yet. I got my writing assignment back and now I have to focus on that. However, there is another great site, NaNoFiMo - National Novel Finishing Month! I've already registered but I'm going to focus on my assignment rather than my NaNo. I only need to write the second chapter by December 21, so I hope I can finish that and get into Dreck and Drivel for NaNoFiMo.

The adventure continues! Stay tuned!

NaNoWriMo, Day 25

Wo-hoo! Broke 40,000 words! The end is in sight and I'm going to make it!

Baltimore Ravens

My nephew plays in the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band and they played in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! The Ravens are the very first NFL band to ever march in the parade and my nephew was in it!




The song they're playing is Green Day's "Holiday." My nephew is one of the clarinet players right in front of the tubas. I am so proud of him! Go Tony!!


I don't spend a lot of time on YouTube but I did a little searching and found another video. It features one of his band members, but he's in the shot in the last ten seconds or so of the video. I don't think he knows about this.



This is from 2006, and he's in there somewhere...I think...




Love you, Tony!!!

I Said I Wasn't Going To Do It...

But I did...I hate shopping on Black Friday and every year I say I'm not going anywhere. If I do leave the house, I will not go to Wal-Mart, I will not go to the mall, I will not go shopping on Black Friday.

Those of you who live in the Shenandoah Vally are likely familiar with the Green Valley Book Fair. It's held for two weekends in a row, six times a year. Books--usually the unsold books from chain stores--are sold at the Book Fair at great savings, around 50% discount or more. At the last Book Fair in September, I picked up a $30.00 Bible Concordance for $8.50. Awesome savings. So Mom and I headed down again today. This was personal shopping, not Christmas shopping, and it wasn't at a mall or shopping center or a Wal-Mart, so I was okay with doing this kind of shopping on Black Friday.

On the way there, the "low tire" light on the car's dashboard comes on. We pull over at the next exit and checked the tires. They all looked fine. Mom had an issue with her car a few months back where the light was coming on and there was nothing wrong with her tires, so we figured it was the same problem recurring again. So we got back on the road.

Got to the Book Fair and started shopping. The place was a lot more crowded than it was the last time we were there, but then again this was Black Friday. I wasn't Christmas shopping, but obviously lots of other people were. Mom and I split up and met up about forty-five minutes to an hour later. I wanted to limit myself to under $50.00. My total was $49.61! Mom also had the same limit and she was about $51.50. So we did pretty well.

We got out to the car, put our bags in the trunk and I walked around to the passenger side to climb in. I happened to glance backward and saw the rear tire was flat. Not just a little low, flat. The rim was on the ground. Looks like the low tire light wasn't a false alarm.

Oh, by the way, it's about 40 degrees outside with a constant 10 mph wind with gusts to 15 or so. And neither of us is really dressed for that weather. I'm wearing a polo shirt and denim jacket...no wind protection at all. Mom had on a sweatshirt and insulated jacket, so at least she was better prepared, but still, she was cold too. She called for roadside assistance and we waited about 45 minutes for the guy to show up. He did a great job and was very nice. He let us wait in his truck while he took care of the tire.

When he was done, he gave us directions to the nearest Wal-Mart (can you guess what's coming?). We went in and they told us it would take 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get to our car. Can you believe that? Well, there was nothing else we could do but wait. We--yep--shopped. But it wasn't too bad. It was about 2:00 at this point and the worst of the Black Friday shoppers were gone. It was like just about any other Saturday at Wal-Mart. Mom found a gift for her grandson/my nephew and I found a great hooded sweater/cardigan for myself. Hey, it's not a Christmas gift...it was for me so it doesn't count. Another gift...they actually pulled our car in right away so they were done in about half an hour. We were on the road by 2:45. With one quick stop at the grocery store, we were home at 4:00...only three hours later than we had hoped to get home.

So it was pretty frustrating, but through it all, I was calm. It was inconvenient, and a pain, and stressful, but I kept focusing on the positive aspects. Mom wasn't dealing with this on her own, we were never in any danger, and we were taken care of quickly without too much damage to our wallets.

I'm always grateful every Thanksgiving when I can be with my family. I'm doubly-grateful this Black Friday because even though there were problems, they were taken care of quickly and we were safe the entire time.

Tomorrow, she and I are going NOWHERE! Well, I may meet my fellow NaNo'ers because they meet every Saturday, but that's it! I'm going to do that, laundry, and write, write, write. As of today, I'm 3600 words behind in my word count and I am determined to make it up this weekend. Doesn't matter how trashy and junky it is, I will get caught up!

Happee Fangsgivings!

Awww, isn't that cute!

Little depressed this morning, but I'll get through it. If you've read through my entries, you'll see that I joined eharmony. It hasn't gone very well. I know I shouldn't have expected miracles, but I thought I'd give it a try. This is the last month of my subscription (though it does renew monthly) and I may go one more month...not sure. Anyway, I was matched with someone last week and I was really surprised at how compatible we seemed. Going through the "getting to know you" process, I kept expecting him to drop out at any point, but he didn't. I was starting to wonder if we would actually get to the "let's meet" phase when this morning, I found out he closed the match. No more communications. I admit, I'm disappointed. I was really starting to like this guy. Oh well. Like I said, I'll get through this, and I'll probably stay with it for another month or so. We'll see. Besides, he was distracting me a bit from my NaNo.

Okay, enough of that. I'm grateful to have my family, that everyone is healthy and happy, and that I can post cute pictures of cats. Have a great Thanksgiving!

NaNo, Day 18

Haven't posted or updated my word count in a couple days because it's just been that kind of weekend. I did get some writing in and have made it over the half-way point! I realized that I hadn't really established my MFC's profession, just jumped right in to where MFC & MMC meet and went from there. Her profession is a very important part of my story and it had to be worked in, so I wrote that today. There's still more to be written before they meet. Hopefully tomorrow will be a slow day at work and I can get some of it done then.

I love the writing process. Imagine my shock when my MFC revealed that her parents had three other children prior to adopting her (yes, I knew she was adopted). The brothers and sister were a bit of a shock as I didn't plan on them. She was supposed to be an only child. On the one hand, this could complicate matters. On the other, it'll give me some more to write about. I wonder what it will be like when the oldest brother meets the MMC for the first time...

NaNo, Day 14

YES, BREAKTHROUGH!

Whew! I had been idle for a couple days, not really getting much written because my characters were completely stagnant. I had a few ideas to get them going again, but none of them were any good. I was responding to a post on the NaNoWriMo site and all of a sudden, I knew what I needed to do. I only wrote about a thousand or so words today but at least these dummies--I mean, these wonderful characters of mine--are back on the right track.

Yay Me!

NaNo, Day 13

Okay, so it took me to Day 13 to hit the wall, but it finally hit. I wrote nothing today. Absolutely nothing. I should feel bad about that, but strangely, I don't. I think my mind needed a break. That or I'm running out of story to tell. We'll see how this week goes.

But whatever happens, I'm not giving up. I may not make 50,000 words, but I'm going to do my best throughout the month just to see what I can do. And next year, I'll do even better.

NaNo, Day 9

Had a really big push today and caught up on my word count. I had fallen behind my daily average thanks to the early week hang-up, but now I'm doing great...provided I don't fall asleep at my keyboard!

NaNo, Day 7

I find it kind of funny that I said I wouldn't be blogging every day about NaNo, and yet here I am, blogging almost daily about NaNo. I guess once I start writing, I just can't stop!

I know November is supposed to be for writing and December for editing, but I had to go back and make some edits. The scene I wrote on Monday was good in that it was the next logical step for my characters, but I didn't like it (and neither did they!). Everyone was wearing different hats and doing the wrong things and nothing made sense. I didn't get much done on Tuesday because I still hated Monday's work. So today, even though I didn't want to, I had to go back and rework not only Monday's work, but bits and pieces of everything. But now I'm happy because everyone is where they need to be. And I broke the 10,000 word mark in the process! Yay me! I'm still behind my daily goal by over a thousand words, but I'll catch up quickly now that everyone is back in line.

NaNo, Day 6

Ugh...this is the first day I've fallen short of my daily goal. Only 287 words written today. Just couldn't seem to get into it. I've written myself into a strange corner and it's going to take something strange to get me out of it. I'm hoping inspiration will strike tomorrow and I can get back on track.

It's probably because I had such a busy day at work today that I just couldn't seem to focus. The first five days, I was practically obsessed with getting to the computer and writing. Today, just couldn't seem to find it. Well, at least I did write something. I didn't just blow it off.

Hey, wonder if I can count my blogging toward my total word count...

NaNo, Day 5

I was actually kind of hoping I'd make it to 10,000 words by the end of today, but fell just a bit short...9057. I probably would have made 10,000, but the stuff I wrote yesterday had to be redone. Now, most NaNo's will tell you that edits are to come later, but the scene didn't make any sense to me, so it had to be redone so it did make sense. Now it does...except for the end of that scene. I'm not thrilled with it. But I'm also tired, so it'll wait until tomorrow.

NaNo, Day 4

It's Sunday, Day 4 of NaNo and I'm still going pretty strong. I wrote extra on Saturday because my Sunday's are usually reserved for church and leisure activities (relaxing, watching TV, working on a cross-stitch project, etc). I had no plans to write today, but as the afternoon wore on, I began to get anxious to return to the keyboard. I wanted to write! This has fast become an addiction. I can only hope I'll still be going strong as the month wears on.

NaNo, Day 2

I'm not going to post every day, but I will update my meter every day. Day 2 has gone well--my count is now 3717--and I predict good things for Day 3. Day 4 is up in the air, though!

NaNo, Day 1

1842 Words.

Did pretty well today. Can only hope to say the same when I get to Day 10. Of course, I did have a pretty clear picture of the first scene...by Day 10, who knows?