*Pats Self On Back*

Today--well, tomorrow, really, although it's technically 1 am on December 1st and I'm back-dating this entry--marks the end of National Novel Writing Month.

I didn't win. I didn't even crack 40,000 words.

I am so very proud of myself.

I entered. I committed. I planned. I worked. I wrote.

End result: over 35,000 accumulated words and what I hope will be a good story.

The last time I touched Found was Sunday. I'm not going to touch it or look at it again until the thirteenth. Then I'm going to print out at least two copies--one for myself and one for Ryan--possibly more if BJ or anyone else wants to help me edit--and go at it with a red pen. Right now, I'm too close to the story. I can't read it, I get impatient and start skimming because I know what's going on here and I want to get to the next bit, and before I know it I've skimmed the entire thing.

We'll see what happens once I see it with fresher eyes, and once someone else sees it. Ryan may love me and want me to love him back, but he is still honest when he knows it will help me. BJ is my roommate and one of my dearest friends, but he is always, always honest, and he's a reader and a former English major, so I know that he will give me qualified and unabashed criticism.

I want to offer up copies for other people to read through and edit, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. I want the help, and I want the opinion, but I also want a fresh audience for when it's done (even if "done" means "I would send this off to an agent if I thought it would sell" and not necessarily "sellable").

I also want to offer my up my appreciation and heartfelt thanks to my friends and family who supported me and gave unabashed admiration and encouragement. I had not one single person tell me I shouldn't do it, or that I couldn't do it. This may say a lot about my choice of people, but I think it also says a lot about what wonderful people they are. Thank you. Every one. There will be more thanks to come!

The next two weeks will mostly be reading and, you know, living and working. I may start tapping at the other story that infested my head in the second week, but I'm not sure yet if that's a wise idea. Either way, after those two weeks, I will be diving back in, and I'm not surfacing again for a long time. I'm not done writing.

I may not have won NaNoWriMo this year (this year), but I still think I've proven one thing to myself: I'm a writer.

I'm a writer.

I Can Has Sleep Nao?

Today...was a day.

Dead at work, then stupid-busy, hours got cut, next week's schedule is all over the place and not even 35 hours, my schedule for this week is still nuts...oy.

At least I sold 2 pounds of Christmas Blend, even if it cost me twenty frustrating minutes of my life I'll never get back to two women who just...ARGH.

Tomorrow is a little sleeping in, trip to the bank so we can pay bills, work that may or may not be a full shift, then....TWO DAYS OFF! WOO! Maybe three, depending on a co-worker and whether more time off means more to me than a full day's pay...

Tonight: leftover Thanksgiving noodle soup and quality time with the man. :)

On a side note: Why has no one heard of Watership Down? My roommates, my co-workers, my boyfriend...this has been a classic for forty years, it's full of exquisite writing and intricate characters and a fanTAStic story...my mind, it boggles.

I Can Work Well, Or I Can Work Early, You Can't Get Both.

Today, I had a case of the dumbs. First I had my mind set on leaving at 8:30, when I actually started at 8:30. Fortunately, I realized my mistake in time to only be 2 minutes later, without speeding!...too badly!

Next, when a customer ordered a full French press of Guatemala Antigua, my brain once again focused on the wrong part. It went "Hey, customers usually only order a French press to have one cup, but they want the whole one! I should grind the entire bag!"

Note to non-Starbucks workers: we make a French press with just over a tenth of a pound of beans. Not an entire pound.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. We picked Secret Santa, and I'm very happy with the person I got :D

Tomorrow is 11 to 7:30, Tuesday is 1:30 to 9, and then I have a day off! Then a day on, and another day off! ARGH. W asked if I'd be willing to give her my Thursday shift, she's been wanting more hours...three day weekend is mighty tempting...we shall see!

Aiming For The Moon Totally Worked! These Stars ROCK!

I have to say, while I'm not 100% healthy again, it is so great to be able to breathe and to no longer sound like a prepubescent Kermit the Frog. :D

I'm starting to accept the fact that, excluding a miracle, I'm not going to win NaNoWriMo. Accepting is made possible by the realization that, holy crap, I wrote a 35,000-word book. Dude. That's AWESOME.

And I'm not done-done, either. I'm still going back through, finding parts that need expanding or detailing, so 35K isn't the final number. I'm just fairly certain that, even if I do hit 50K with this book, it ain't going to be in the next three days. Not unless there's another gas leak on Cleveland and my store is closed until Wednesday.

If I had any of the next three days off, maybe. But, I don't. Tomorrow is 8:30 to 2:30, Monday is 11 to 7:30, and Tuesday is 1:30 to 9. Honestly, tomorrow afternoon and Tuesday morning are my best/last chances to make the goal, and that's assuming I don't get waylaid by errands, fatigue, cold relapse, etc.

In other news: ...well, I guess there isn't any other news. Work was work. I'm feeling (and sounding!) much better. Life goes on. La de da. :D

Turkey Day 2010

I would have loved to update yesterday with a great Thanksgiving post, but Google went all wonky on my computer, and I was unable. Oh well.

Worked from a little before 11 (I arrived to a crazy rush) to 4, barring and doing lots of dishes as I basically couldn't serve customers directly with my voice. We joked that I could answer the drive-thru with "Hi, welcome to Starbucks, would you like some plague?" I did have to answer twice, and the second time it was a girl who sounded just like me ordering a cider. We had a commiserating smile at the window as I croaked her total and "Happy Thanksgiving" and she croaked "Happy Thanksgiving" in return.

Food-wise...this was a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Ryan made apple and pumpkin pies in advance on Wednesday, and BJ made a cranberry salad and deviled eggs. The day of, Ryan roasted the turkey and made mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, two small chocolate pudding pies (just for me!), and gravy. BJ and Sameh made corn pudding and noodles. I helped here and there and did the cooking dishes and took pictures of delicious food and cleared the fridge for leftovers.

It. Was. SO GOOD.

If I had to pick a favorite...I don't know if I can, actually. And considering there was a HUGE put of mashed potatoes, and this is me we're talking about, understand just how good everything was for me to not immediately name the spuds as the winner. The corn pudding was fantastic, the gravy was amazing (Sameh and I are conspiring to keep Ryan in a constant flow of roastable birds just so he can keep us in good gravy), the bird was juicy and flavorful, etc etc. I even had a small amount of BJ's cranberry salad, even though I don't like most of the ingredients (cherries, pineapple, almonds), and it was very sweet and tasty. NOM!

And if you don't want to read about it...

Clockwise from the upper left: Turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, deviled eggs, cranberry salad, corn pudding, apple pie, pumpkin pie, two miniature chocolate pudding pies, seasoning that no one touched.


*drool*

I'm currently waiting for Ryan to arrive home, as it is currently a quarter past noon, the exact time he gets off work. I hope he's survived his 8-hour Black Friday shift intact. I also hope that he found those mixers he's been eying at a good price and bought himself one! :D

And now, off to spend my day off writing and WoWing and eating leftovers and comforting the tired Ryan...

Gas Leaks And Frog Voice And Cooking, Oh My!

Got woken up at 5:30 in the morning by BJ banging on our door, saying he'd just had a talk with my store manager online, there was a gas leak on the road my store is on, and the entire road was closed, so no work until further notice.

...k. *Zzzz*

I later learned that some of my co-workers had been loaned out to other stores for the day, but my manager let me stay home since I'm sick. Aw. Also, when the road was cleared and the store reopened at 5 this evening, she didn't call me in for the rest of my shift, again, to give me time to get better. Double aw.

I love my manager.

This sore throat, on the other hand, is completely uncooperative. I had an extra day off! I slept in! I drank cup after cup after cup of hot, honeyed tea! I took my cough medicine like a good girl!

I feel worse than I did this morning!

Well, wait, let's qualify that: am I worse in the sneezing, sniffling, dripping, sinus-related categories? No, actually, in those I am very improved. Am I worse in the throat category? Oh hell yeah. My voice is all but gone, and after a painless day, this evening sees mild pain when swallowing and swollen glands.

What the eff, man. What the eff.

Tomorrow is a short day (11 to 5) AND there's a good chance of hours being cut if it's slow, so I'm hoping I won't be too miserable. As it is, everything aside from my throat feels fine, and I am thankful for that. I am also thankful for my awesome boss, and my gift of a day off, which I used to drink gallons of tea and edit.

Sadly, the editing only garnered me an extra 600 words. Well, probably more than that, except I also took off some words, soo...yeah. I realized that I'm editing myself out of the NaNo win, BUT! I kept the original file untouched and am editing in a save-as file I created the second I wrote "the end," so I might borrow what I deleted and then tack on the 1,061 words I lost two weeks ago when I go to officially calculate. Might not help me make it, but it can't hurt. After all, I wrote all that! For the one story! IT COUNTS!

On the Ryan front, he came home with even more groceries, and is baking up a storm in the kitchen. The apple pie is almost done, the graham cracker crust for the pumpkin pie is next, and he's specially making a tiny little chocolate pudding pie just for me. *heart*

Last night saw BJ preparing his contributions: corn pudding, cranberry salad, and deviled eggs (there might have been more, I can't remember). The turkey is thawing away. Tomorrow, Ryan's getting up early and doing all of the main cooking himself while the three of us are at work. He plans to have it all warm and ready to eat by the time we all get home.

As if I didn't already have an overwhelming stack of evidence that I'm with Mr. Perfect.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's chicken noodle soup calling my name.

Ended, Yes. Finished, No.

Hi. Yup. Still sick. Today I've been losing my voice on and off. According to Ryan, I sound like a squirrel.

In other news, I hit the end of my story. No balloons or confetti please: notice that I didn't say that I finished. For one thing, I'm almost 20,000 words behind the NaNo goal. For another, the story is in great need of, well, finishing. Tiny plot knots got written and rewritten constantly during the process, so I need to go back and fix several things. Plus I left out a great deal of character and setting exposition, sooo...yeah. I'm hoping adding clarification and depth and texture will plump up the word count to the hoped-for 50K.

Now, time to go get dinner!