to updating this site: 1.) NaNoWriMo. 2.) Thanksgiving travel. 3.) Sickness, in the form of a lame little cold which nonetheless turned me into a gloomy snuffling rheumy-eye’d Dickens character for days and days. But now the dense cloud of ennui and Kleenex is dispersing and letting some of the twinkly holiday stuff sparkle through, and I think I might even be myself again one day soon.
I did not win NaNoWriMo. I did not get to 50,000 words, as I pretty much expected I wouldn’t. I guess I could have done it if I’d followed the some of the proverbial NaNoWriMo advice, i.e., cancel all your social obligations; order nothing but carryout; shut yourself up in your room with your hands taped to the keyboard and a beer hat filled with Red Bull, and so on. But for me, the point was more that I wanted to see how many words I could write every night while still being sort of a normal person who cooks dinner and watches those old Twin Peaks* episodes with her boyfriend (who had never seen the good episodes). And I wrote more words under those circumstances than I thought possible. All the counting counting counting made me twitchy, though, since I was working with several different files at once, instead of a long rambling Word document that starts with It-was-a-dark-and-stormy-bibbety-blah, and at some point I needed a calculator, and then I felt like I was auditing my own soul, but in the end it was nice to have some measure of progress. And then I ate some turkey.
*Comments we made over the course of viewing both seasons throughout November include, “That’s not the last you’ll see of creamed corn.” “It’s not very hard to kill a Renault brother, is it?” and “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Leland!”
Anyway, it’s close to midnight, and I seem to be needing a lot more sleep than usual, what with the cold and snow and shopping and minor ailment and my newfound taste for hot toddies, so I hope you’ll understand my cutting this short. I’ll be back in a few days to blather about Christmas music or something.
I’m glad you’re feeling better.
Now get on with the gingerbread hijinks.
Not this year. We’ll have houseguests AND we’ll be travelling.
As if I needed another reason to think you’re the bee’s knees…you watch (and actually LIKE) Twin Peaks. And no…it’s not very hard to kill a Renault brother at all. Or even just capture them. It’s a wonder they made it that far in life, really. But they’re French-Canadians, so. Quel suprise, non?
Hey hon, on your way home, could you pick up a can of President’s Choice(tm)-brand Garmonbozia (Pain and Sorrow)? I’m making a casserole tonight.
hey, lay off the french-canadians – they make the best politicians and hockey players….
So, what was the final count? – if I may be so bold as to ask…
“Diane, I am holding in my hand a box of small chocolate bunnies.” I had utterly forgotten about the creamed corn.
If you were in a gingerbread frame of mind, you could make the lodge of gingerbread, and people it with japanese tourists and singing norwegians.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Twin Peaks. My memory may be blurry…
I’ve just had a grinchy sniffly little cold, and it’s amazing how much of a spanner in the works it throws. I’m not tired enough to want to do nothing, but I am annoyingly unproductive. Lemon and ginger (and honey) that’s the ticket.
Hi, I found your blog in a roundabout way from Betsy Lerner’s AQ page. Noticed that you attempted NaNo this year, as did I. I didn’t finish NaNoWriMo, either, but I’m still plugging away at my idea. Are you going to scrap yours or keep working on it? Happy holidays.
I was feeling pretty grinch-like and sick of all the food-focused holiday crap, when I pulled out my copy of The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan last night and began rereading… :). You not only brightened my mood, you gave me a blog topic–so thank you! Hope your holidays go well.
P.S. At least you attempted NaNo. I tried to do a 70-day novel-writing “challenge” and failed spectacularly.