The Girl Effect

http://www.girleffect.org/video

Almost the end

Well, I didn't make it but I *did* have a lot of fun and will try again next year no doubt. I'm hoping to get my daughter to do it too, and I introduced my brother-in-law to the great Nanowrimo as well. My attempt was my win this year for sure. Thanks to everyone in the writing group for including me, and for sharing your thoughts, ideas and excerpts!

Home

With the holidays approaching, I'm a bit melancholy. I love the holidays and yet, well, there are a lot of people and one particular place I miss, especially at this time of year. No doubt this is true for many of us. Getting older means that the holidays and their significance shifts from year to year to accommodate various life changes. Although I haven't lived in the Midwest for 15 years, I still pine for it, especially in Fall and Winter. I confess to looking on Zip Realty to see which houses in my hometown are up for sale even though it's doubtful I'll ever move back. I think part of me keeps wondering if the house I grew up in will go on the market again. I just looked at one for sale and clicked on the arial map view - it's almost directly behind my childhood home. I could see the rooftop and back yard and it made me a little sad. Still and all, I'm happy to be where I am and have no regrets, I'm just pining for home, even as I sit in mine.

Thrift stores: a day to decompress

I needed to decompress today so I went to two of my favorite thrift stores. I went looking for a nice trench coat, which I found, but not in my size. Instead I found a couple of pretty scarves, a pretty dress in pink and brown paisley, and a sweet navy blue cotton top with little white polka-dots. I also found a cute dress for my daughter, a ruffled blouse and a wool pullover sweater (this was a bad choice; it's likely to get little or no use but it was such a nice one!) Not sure why thrifting relaxes me but it does, with very little strain on my budget!

Word count: shamefully low. I haven't given up hope - yet. I agree with Andrea from A Cat of Impossible Colour: "the attempt is a win in itself." Still, my goal is to finish. I'm going to have to crush to get it done but I tend to perform under pressure of looming deadlines. If nothing else this has gotten me on a regular writing schedule and forced me to exercise my writing muscles which were in dire need of flexing (much like my actual muscles which are in dire need of a trip to the gym).

Posting my horrifyingly bad dialogue on a blog for all to see was like tearing off a bandage and showing my open wound! Ouch. Felt good to let it get some air though. It won't get better otherwise...

More thoughts and a word count update forthcoming. Cheers!

Stuck

This week has been dreadful. The worst!! All of life's little details are demanding my time and attention and so has my family. I love them all (not the little details - those actually suck - but my sweet wonderful family) and wish I could add hours to my day so we could spend more time together...Right now, though, it's time to continue to challenge myself and follow through on something. The book. The book of short stories or long ones, or one long one or a bunch of teeny-weeny ones (It's actually two at the moment). Ass to chair. Write! I'm shamefully behind so completing this book will go beyond the Hurculean task it started out as. Before I get too far in the dumps about it, I'm going to do a little cheerleading for myself and all the wrimos out there however far along (or not) you may be: YIPEE! Go wrimos! Think of how great it will feel to have finished writing a book! Lets go everyone! So what if you haven't written a word in three days (that's me). You *can* catch up, you will catch up and you'll make it. Happy Friday everyone!

To tell or not to tell

Bad day most of the day. I shouldn't have shared any information about what I was doing. Not many people can understand why one would take on a daily writing regimen of 1000 words per day plus in the middle of all sorts of other pressing matters. Still, I waded through the negativity and managed to get to 8188 (or 8206 depending on the counter). Still behind but getting closer.

5595

Day six is almost over. I came up short but all is well. Just happy to be here and happy to be writing every day.

My mind is now fuzzy with sleepiness so it's time for bed.