Freeze

It's that time of year again. The cold is setting in and we have to put blankets and towels over our plants. Or else they turn brown like this. ^ *cue Jaws music*

Yes, our lovely basil plants went to the dust last night. They froze to death. Amazing how one day, the plant can be green and healthy, and the next day, you wake up to find if brown and ugly. Frozen in the night! But you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the plants alive, I suppose.

Good Bye Basil plants. Please, let us have a moment of silence in honor of these brave volunteer plants, who grew so healthily.Until next year, rest in peace. And compost, compost, compost.

50K

Last night, I reached 50,000 words!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

I was so happy!! And so fried... I ended up writing about 4000 words yesterday. But I did it! The story completed itself at 50,130 words although I might add to it in the next week, rearrange scenes and what not. I was so tired when I finally got there, it was like my mind went kind of numb...

And then I proceeded to do my happy dances all around the house while singing "No Eating Here Tonight" from Finding Nemo.  Although, I must say, I think the effect was rather lost because I was really hungry at the time and it was nearing dinner... but no matter!! After the quiet numbness wore off, the excited giddiness set in. And I could not stop dancing all around the house. It was great fun.

And now, me and Bethany are planning to do a novel swap at some point (details still need to be worked out) and in the meantime, I will be rearranging scenes because this year, I didn't write my story in any sort of order, whatsoever. But following whims is one of the good parts about NaNoWriMo...

Now, though, I'm not really sure what to do with myself... I think I will be getting the NaNo Blues pretty soon. I'll probably end up filling the empty space with mail... (it's been piling since November started..)
and thus, I welcome myself back into the real world!!

I Have Decided...

I have decided that coffee is a wonderful thing. I used to not like it, just because it was bitter but you know, with a little bit of half and half and some sugar, it really isn't half bad!! I tried it one day when I was falling asleep during school so I poured myself a cup from the dregs in the pot and after drinking it, I felt more alert. It was amazing!! Although, the bitter aftertaste is a little hard to get past in the beginning, I don't think it's so bad!!

I used to dislike coffee because I had a bad experience with it. I'm like five years old and my job is to collect the dishes in the living room and put them in the sink. Most of the dishes in the living room were coffee cups. Usually, they were empty but on occasion there was coffee! Well, one day, I got the great idea of seeing what coffee would taste like!! O_o Looking back, I realize that the coffee was probably several days old but still, after that experience, I very highly disliked coffee for a while. And at the time, I didn't know any better! But still, it did not taste very good. And since then I haven't really liked coffee. But recently, I've been trying tastes of it here and there and recently, I've drunk whole cups of the stuff.

But I'm not an addict or anything so no need to worry (yet).

I am also discovering that it seems to go straight to your bladder. T_T But I think the alertness is worth it! But ultimately I think that it depends on my mood. I won't drink it if I don't feel like it. But I just had a cup today to help me keep up on my writing. I was starting to feel some brain-deadness so I had some to give me the stamina to keep writing. But I am most tired of looking at screens. I am so close to 3,000 words for today though, that I will probably just finish that up and call it a day.

41,033 words!!

Also, in other notes, Aunt Colleen arrived today! Hooray! It is so good to see her again! I will post our adventures with her later.

Confession

I have a confession to make: I am grossly motivated by competition.

It's kind of pathetic really... Everything has always been a competition for me. A lot of things are motivated by speed. Whoever gets there first or the fastest...

This is especially true with NaNoWriMo. I have noticed that I get obsessive about other people's wordcounts. I stalk them and then go to extremes to get ahead of them. And then when they pull ahead, I'm bummed!!! What a vicious cycle!!

Honestly, I don't even know how I got so competitive... It's kind of scary. If I'm not beating someone else, I'm beating myself... I am finding this to be true more and more.. Hmm.

My New Pet

I am pleased to announce that I have a new pet!!!
His name is Fred!!
He is a typewriter!!

Yes indeedy!! I bought this lovely typewriter at a garage sale for-wait for this... five dollars!!!! It is so amazing!! Cameron has been begging me to let him use it ever since I brought it home. I told him no... Dad got it to work for the most part. The ribbon is old so we just messed around with a piece of paper. It was great. :) Writing nonsense sentences on this clunky old typewriter...

But anyways, Cam is dying to use the thing and I keep telling him no because I don't know how to work it!! (Soon enough, I will have the skills... soon enough!) But for the time being? I don't. And dad doesn't always have the time or interest to help us... hmm. I will have to find someone else. I have already pleaded to the Amazing Typewriter Brigade from Nanowrimo and they were very helpful indeed.  They told me where I can find ribbons for this. Hooray!!

All in all, I am very enamored with Fred. (I have always loved the way typewriters looked!! I don't know why... And I started wanting one after someone wrote me a letter with a typwriter... it was FABULOUS!!) I just don't know how to use it...

Another typewriter was also mentioned in this post. For those of you who might (or might not, as the case may be) be interested. Hmm, now that I've looked at the picture better, I think that other typewriter is cooler... but Fred is cool too.

More Pictures:

 Did I mention it comes in a super awesome case??

Of Finger Mustaches, Snowman Pajamas, and Walking with the Old Man

I wish I had more better pictures to show you... but I don't. And I took this myself (which is why it looks so bad!) Seriously, I don't get people who can sit there and take tons of pictures of themselves... For one thing, you always end up with your arm looking like it has cancer! And then, whenever I do it, I always feel like such a dork. This was one of those moments. The reason I'm smiling? Not because I just painted myself into the painting of Mona Lisa. No, I'm smiling because I feel ridiculous taking pictures of myself. (that's why you don't see very many pictures of me on this blog; cuz it doesn't happen if someone else doesn't do it.)

So, for Halloween, I dressed up as a French painter and I had a FABULOUS finger mustache (which I didn't get a picture of, sadly.) We went to a church fall festival (the big church...) and Cameron got a lot more candy than I did!! It wasn't fair. I think I'm getting too old. I feel weird and awkward saying "trick or treat" now. But somehow, by the grace of Cam and also Sydney and also Miss Darlene and soon to be, possibly, hopefully, Daniel, I will have more than enough candy to last me through November. (Noveling snacks!)

When I wasn't getting very much candy, I was like, "I declare socialism when it comes to candy distribution!" (I am learning much about socialism in history. Everyone works according to their ability, and takes according to their needs.) And Dad looked at me from pawing through Cam's candy bag and said, "Yeah, get out of her Frenchie!" XD It was so funny!! I just laughed. Next year, I am dressing up as a mahjong tile!!! We'll see how that one works out...

Then today, when I walked the dog, I decided I would wear my pajamas out. Because I can. Because I felt like it! And I decided that just for this morning, I wouldn't care what anyone thought of me! It was all very great fun. I imagined all the looks people were giving me as they drove by. It amuses me. And I was really super warm! Last Christmas, Mom made me a pair of flannel snowman pajamas (actually, the whole family has matching pairs.) and I wore a pair of leggings underneath. My goodness! It was so warm!! I wish I had a picture but again with the taking pictures of myself thing.


And on Monday, I was walking in the evening and I saw an older man (okay, he was an old man. But not like, frail or anything..). And we know the man...sort of. His name is Carl and he has a dog named Daisy and we walk by his house every morning with Pat. So I caught up with him and decided to walk next to him and talk to him as if we'd been friends for a long time!! :) I explained who I was of course. And we talked about his dog and how he tries to walk her for an hour every day. And I told him I missed seeing him in the mornings... It was a nice conversation. Nice dog. nice walk... It was all very nice.

On a side note, I think I have *drumroll* 4,288 words!!! and more writing today! I'm going to hit 5,000 today. I am I am I am!! I think I wrote 2,000 ish words yesterday...