Headaches Aplenty

No, these are not metaphorical headaches. On the contrary, these are actual mind-blowing headaches that I've had since Sunday evening. Allergies are a bitch! Sinus head aches are the worst because nothing you do gets rid of them. I made several trips to the grocery store since Sunday trying to find something to remedy this pain.

I ended up buying nasal decongestant pills, nasal spray and a NetiPot. Gross? You ask. You betcha! It feels like you inhaled swimming pool water. AND it didn't help the headache in the least.

I have been debilitated for the last two days because of this darn headache, and today when I thought I finally had it under control...it's back! Now, after I made the trek into work this morning. I get to drive home. My long hour home with a headache. Joy of joys.

Weekends To Be Proud Of

Nah, not really. My weekends are easily forgotten for the most part. Unless I travel, but of late even travelling does not prove memorable just because I go to the same old places all the time. At least I make it out of the house right?

I bought Raving Rabbids TV Party a couple weekends ago and that did prove for some interesting party time. When you get 4 uncoordinated adults together for a party game there's always a laugh to be had, especially when alcohol is involved.

Speaking of alcohol, I found Hypnotic for $24.99 at Savemart last night. One bottle of that junk is normally $35, this was a Christmas pack with 2 very cute glasses. I was overjoyed!

'Tis the season to begin shopping for gifts for various members of family and friends. Luckily I don't see too many of my friends this time of year so I get to save money on their gifts. I do have to buy for my boyfriend's (who shall now be referred to as Wino) family, but we're splitting the cost of many things. Wino and I have already swapped gifts (thanks to NaNoWriMo, I wanted a NetBook and got one as an early gift).

This weekend will be just as unmemorable...we will get together tonight for some form of yummy food (I've been hearing murmerings of Indian...mmm), we'll come back try to figure out what to do...Wino and gang will hit the wine, I'll try to get everyone on board for a rousing game of something-or-other, then we'll settle down to watch SNL, of which Wino will be the only one left awake. Ah...Saturday nights!

Leftovers

Amazingly this year, after my three Thanksgiving festivities, I was left with no leftovers sent home with me. I am personally overjoyed by this fact, because, while I love me some turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and pumpkin pie, I hate hauling home the leftovers. They always end up so dry and tasteless the next few days. It's almost as though Thanksgiving gives these normally dry, bland foods some magical moist and yummy quality. Go figure.

Foggy season is upon us apparently. This is my first year commuting 100+ miles a day and this will determine whether I move up north to avoid the weather. I'm hoping not, I am happy where I am, and I certainly don't want to figure out how to have a long distance relationship. Tonight when I came home the fog was blissfully absent, however there was the weird mist that descended upon the valley that was enough to keep my windshield wipers going the whole drive. Hopefully it wont get much worse than this in the months to follow, I don't really want to live out of a hotel.

I am lame

Ok, really, I am beyond lame, I got so far in NaNo this year, but I stopped short due to the fact that I got all depressed two weeks ago. Work was mayhem, and it's nearing the one year mark of losing my sister. Needless to say writing was not something that even sounded tolerable for that week. Once that far behind, I just said "forget it" and stopped.

Better luck next year, I suppose. Two years down should be easier to bear.

So, now this blog will be shifting focus to my own life and musings, rather than that of writing. You can't let a good blog go to waste now can you?

Some things about me:

-I am obsessed with the Keith and the Girl podcast

-Waking up to read Sheldon is the highlight of my morning

-I bought my car with the sole purpose of being able to listen to my iPod--and therefore Keith and the Girl--on my two hour commute each day

-I bought an iPhone with the sole purpose to be connected to these afore mentioned items at all times

-And incase you haven't already figured this one out: I am a tech junkie, I am currently up to 3 laptops, an iPod touch, an iPhone, a Wii, a Nintendo DS (both with more than 15 games each). This not counting the fact that I wish to aquire one more laptop in the near future and that I am currently yearning to update my dinosaur of a TV for a shiny new 46" HD LCD 1080p jobber. "Hello, my name is Kathy, and I am addicted to technology."

Writing taking a back seat

So this week, my writing took a back seat to my life. Particularly my work life. It's been the busiest week of the semester, and naturally it falls in week 2 of NaNoWriMo. This made it even that much more difficult to keep on task. I feel behind around 10K words this week, which is terrible. I meant to write this weekend, but I just wanted to sleep, stress does that to me. I started writing tonight, and thanks to the dares thread on the forums managed to crank out 2K words in under 1.5 hours.

The End of Week One

I am ushering in week 2 with possibly a couple days off. Crazy? You ask, yes, and pretty much a novel suicide. I'm determined to make it through though, I'm about a day ahead as far as word count is concerned so as long as I write my daily total tonight (maybe a bit more) I'll only be a day behind come Monday AND I'm thinking I'll have enough time to write on Sunday evening, so...maybe I wont fall behind after all.
I hit 12K last night, it was quite an experience, I'm still all abuzz because I passed 10K so every word more than that is adding extra layers to the cake and making it all the more yummy.
Tonight I'm going to a meet up with the NaNo's in my area, I'm excited because I haven't had a chance to meet any of them yet. Here's hoping I actually get some writing done!

20% and counting

I was so excited last night because I finally crossed the 10K line! This is my third attempt at NaNo and this is the first time I passed 10K, I feel quite accomplished. Now I want to do a couple sprints tonight and tomorrow before leaving for the weekend...my computer is still going with me, but hopefully I wont have guilt monkeys swarming me to type because I'll be ahead.
We'll see...

Day 3 Update

Ok, so tonight I churned out 2063 words for a grand total of 7665. I'm still ahead of the game. At least I wrote more that 1667 unlike yesterday when I wrote less. I'm still ahead by 2664.
It was a pain the buttocks to find a place to write tonight. The library near my apartment is antiquated and doesn't even have tables near the wall so that I could use an outlet. Just my luck that my computer ended up dying within 10 minutes of being unplugged. It's a great computer, but I swear the battery life on this thing sucks jolly ranchers. I really want to get a new MacBook, but I can't afford it quite yet...soon though...soon.
So after finding a bust at the library, I decided to try the Starbucks, however, both tables near the outlet were occupied, so I didn't even bother to stop. I ended up working at my house, and got into a comfortable groove with my beanie on. I work really well with this hat, I'm thinking it will be my good luck charm.

Chugging along

Well day 2. I got distracted by fun things and didn't write as much as I had expected. That's ok, I'm still ahead of the game. Today I wrote 1493 words, for a total of 5602. That means I'm ahead of the 1667 plan by 2268. That's a respectable difference. I'm hoping to get even farther ahead by tomorrow!

And they're off, NaNoWriMo '08

Woot! Just finshed 2024 words from 1am to 1:50am. Now I'm off to beddy-bye. Night, night!

Halloween Dreams

So the contest is over at my office for Halloween decorating. Hopefully we won. An insane asylum is pretty crazy. I even had my straight jacket on and ran around screaming to be let out. Rather humorous, though I was mortified because I don't like acting silly around people I don't really know. It was fun though.
Tonight I'm planning to sit up until midnight to begin my novel. I probably wont last long, but I'd like to say that I at least tried. I'm excited and really can't wait for this day to be over with so I can go home.

The countdown continues...

With only 3 days and some change left until the beginning of WriMo, I feel a strange sense of peace. It probably has to do with the fact that I'm swamped at work, and my social calendar is busy almost every night of the week. All of that is preventing me from getting my panic on like some of my fellow Nanoers.
My goal with my blog is to update it daily, after finishing my writing for the day, and give thoughts, word counts and general obstacles that I faced for that day. We'll see if I actually succeed, but hopefully this will help keep me accountable.

My Legs Hurt

Well, a long day is over, but it was worth it. Prior to the event it was estimated that around 10,000 people would participate in today's race. It really seemed like it could have hit that many. We were about in the middle of the pack and looking behind us there were people for a good half mile behind us and in front of us. Pretty amazing, and a great opportunity to get all choked up thinking about all the great people who care so much for this cause.
I forget how long 5K is every year. Right around the 2 mile marker my legs start complaining loudly to my brain to turn the switch to "off." Luckily my brain only listens to orders from me, and I shouted "no! we must continue!" Then to show the mutinous little buggers I'd speed up and they'd groan. Quite funny actually.
Now that that's behind me I can begin focusing on other things...like my overwhelming urge to just get this darn novel started so I can finish it. I've been practicing kicking my inner editor out of my head while writing some random word prompts. I'm doing pretty well just ignoring him and trudging on even when what I'm writing isn't gramatically correct.
Well, that's all for today, I'm going to go carve my Halloween pumpkin.
Until tomorrow....

November is almost here!

I realized last night, while at a wine tasting event, that I had made plans to be away for an entire weekend in November. I made the plans long before I even had thought about NaNoWriMo. Now, I'm stuck.
While I still fully intend to go (who wants to miss a wine release party, after all), I plan to take my computer and spend at least a couple hours each day typing away upstairs at the beach house. Either that, or my daily word goals for the first week are going to be raised so that I can already be ahead when we leave that Friday...what to do?
This weekend, my last of freedom, will be spent in reflection. I am doing the local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to honor my sister who passed away last year. It's going to be a rough weekend, but I'm always exhilarated by this event, and I know that being around so many others who have gone through similar trials will be comforting on some level. I'm just going to do my best to keep composed, it's still such a fresh wound since it hasn't yet been a year.
Because of that, I'm hoping to have my novel done before the end of November, since the final day of the competition is the one-year anniversary. I'd prefer to spend that day with my family.
Needless to say it's going to be one tough month. But I'm determined and I will win this year.

Welcome!

This blog has been specially set up to document my month of writing for NaNoWriMo. I have actually participated since '06, but since I was right in the middle of grad school, I never really got past 5K. This year, since I no longer have school to burn up my time, I have a renewed sense of "I must do this for me!" So it's going to be a month of H-E-double toothpicks, if I do say so.
This year I've also had time to prep, and actually have some storyline plots and characters already in development. It's great! By the way, Google Notebook is awesome for doing such things! I found out about it (along with Q10) on the NaNoWriMo forums. Handy-dandy little things they are!
So that concludes my introductory statements, oh wait! The title for my blog! I need to explain. My two favorite things, which really brighten my day, are rainy days & soup. They really go hand in hand, especially for the month of November! Sadly I don't live where it rains too often, but when it does, I'm a happy camper.
So, let the countdown begin to November 1!