Monday, July 11, 2011

This is why I'm so often barefoot...

I shared this picture earlier today on Google+ (I'll be posting my thoughts on G+ tomorrow), but it was cute and thought that the rest of you would enjoy seeing it.


In regards to my NaNoWriMo experiment, I'm a bit behind if I'm going to reach 50,000 by the end of the month, but that's okay. I'm getting through the hard part right now--at the end of this chapter I should hopefully be able to let loose and fly without providing context/exposition every fourth paragraph. That's the hope anyway. Still, I'm averaging not quite 1,500 words a day. I'm happy with that!


Total Word Count: 16,026

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Holly: 1, Shelob: 0

"Watch out, Sam. There's a spider web across the length of the kitchen."

I'd just finished eating the last piece of bacon, tormenting Nala mercilessly the entire time. The cat has on more than one occasion licked up the bacon grease off of a plate if no one's watching.

She's a smart cat.

Sam was in the process of packing his lunch, and I'd looked up just in time to see a single thread of the web glinting in the morning light. Heeding my warning, he came to a dead stop, looking for it. I pointed it out to him, and he tore off a paper towel and proceeded to knock it down, no spider in sight.

"That's weird. Definitely not a cobweb," he noted as he threw the paper towel away.

"Don't tell me things like that," I shuddered. Spiders and I... well, we're not friends. "I'm just wondering how you'd missed it."

Sam shrugged. "It was up pretty high."

Knowing my fear of spiders, Sam proceeds to amuse and distract me as he finished packing his lunch. In the course of cleaning up breakfast, all thoughts of spiders and webs disappeared from my brain. Mission accomplished, he kissed me and then headed to work.

Later in the afternoon, I realized that there was far too much blood in my caffeine system. Understanding the direct relation between my writing and caffeine intake, I walked back into the kitchen to make another batch of coffee. I set it to brew and then tidied a few random things around the house while I waited. Re-entering the kitchen, I poured myself a mug and went to fetch some half-n-half from the fridge.

Walking along I caught a glimpse of black and felt something brush against my hair. Immediately I started batting at my hair, thinking a fly had somehow managed to get into the house and avoid the cats. I look around, surprised that I cannot hear it buzzing.

Now, my eyesight isn't the best in the world. In fact, it's pretty atrocious. Because of this, I often make assumptions based on the general size and color of objects.

So here I am, batting at the air about my head like a madwoman at what I think is a fly, when my brain repeats what it just realized: I cannot hear the fly buzzing. Pieces snapping into place in my brain, I shrieked and ran into the laundry room. I pulled clothes away and ran my fingers everywhere, trying to find any trace of the bug. Coming up with nothing, I turned and looked back into the kitchen.

Sure enough, there in the middle of the kitchen, hanging at about head height, was a spider dangling at the end of its thread. In my delusional state I'd been playing tether-ball with an arachnid.

Blood pounding, adrenaline pumping through my system, my vision tunneled down to where all I can see is this spider. Briefly I toyed with the idea of exiting the back door and walking around to the front of the house and just waiting for Sam to come home so he could deal with it. I discarded the idea, unwilling to call my husband home to deal with a spider yet again. (Yes, this has happened on multiple occasions. I fear, loathe, and hate anything with eight legs. It's irrational and I'm not proud of it, but there you go.)

Eyes darting about for something, anything, to deal with this intruder, they lit upon a broom in the corner. I reached out and grabbed it, not comprehending the fact that the dustpan was still snapped onto the end of it. I spun around, broom in hand, and with a resounding crash I smacked the spider out of the air and to the floor.

What followed was five minutes of me pounding the broom and dustpan into the floor with all the incoherent rage and violence of any murder done in passion. When I finally stopped, all that was left was a shattered dust pan and a messy ball of spider guts.

Breathing heavily, I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, closing my eyes and waiting for my body to calm down. Minutes passed, and when I opened my eyes I could not help but start laughing.

Nala was licking up the remains of the spider, purring the whole while.



Total Word Count: 14,544

Friday, July 8, 2011

Camp NaNoWriMo

At the end of June, Sam started bemoaning how he needed to start working out more than just twice a week. He'd plateaued on his weight loss over the course of the month and was wanting to kick his butt into gear. Completely understandable. Problem is in the past when we've tried to make a commitment to more exercise or different eating habits or [insert good habit here], we typically do well for a few weeks and then fall off the wagon.

I had the brilliant idea of making a one-month commitment to a goal. As this blog has shown, I can usually force myself to do something for about a month. A whole year... not so much, but a month I can handle.

So the last day of June, Sam came home from work and again mentioned a desire to increase his exercise. I found myself saying, "I'll make you a deal."

Deal? What "deal?" You said nothing about a "deal" to us! my inner lazy child started to wail.

"Oh?" was all Sam said, unaware of the internal panic and confusion my words had caused.

"How about for the month of June, you try to exercise every single day. In return, I'll try to write at least 1,000 words a day on a story."

Where did that come from? my other inner voices wondered, flabbergasted.

How should I know? Y'all are the ones who supply my ideas. Just roll with it, I replied.

(Please don't send those gentlemen in their nice white coats after me. I'm not truly crazy. Promise.)

Sam agreed to this experiment, and I'm now supposed to write a story.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, occurs in November each year. I learned of it back when I was college, and while I've always been intrigued by it, I've never participated. Partly it's because November is always a crazy busy time in my life. Mostly, however, I just never felt like I had a story to tell.

Well, apparently I'm not the only one who never has time in November but seems to have plenty of time in the summer, so this year they're doing Camp NaNoWriMo, which I'm trying out. We'll see how it goes. I still don't really have a story of my own to tell, but I'm enjoying my foray regardless. If everything goes well, I may even share it on this blog once it's completed.

Or not.

Either way, we'll see how this turns out. Currently I'm right on target for hitting 50,000 by the end of the month--providing I do today's 1,500 this afternoon. Onward and upward!

Total Words: 11,680
Total Words: 13,062

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Just like riding a bike

I promised all of you that I would be back on July 7, and true to my word I have returned.

Yes, I know you have missed me greatly. Rejoice! For the time of parting has passed.

Or something like that.

It was nice to take a break from the blog for awhile and not feel guilty about it. It's probably something I'll do again at some point. For now, I'm excited to be back, and I'm going to try and make it worth your while.

(Notice I've made no promises as to how successful at that I'll be.)

The past month has been filled with good times with friends and family, games, books, movies, and a plethora of happy memories. Hopefully at some point I'll remember to share them with all of you. If not, just know that the past month has been put to good use.

And now, to celebrate my return to the interwebs.... a cat picture!