Well, I think we can all fairly say that I have not done well with keeping up in the blog post department. I just have not been inspired to write lately, and I have to admit that the usual feelings of guilt and failure that often come when I consider my neglected blog have been strangely absent during these last months of non-blogdom. Which I actually think has been sort of good, because it means that I'm writing this right now because I want to, and not because I feel like I owe it to my blog to be a more conscientious master. I just feel like making words appear on the internets, and here they are.
While I have been a miserable blog host, I do like to think that I have been successful in other ways. For example:
In July, Joe had a birthday. I remembered this birthday, I gave him a present for it (I'm pretty sure), and he managed to add another year to his number count of time on this earth. In related news, he's 30 next year. Just thought I'd share that, I know he'd really love me to point it out. :)
In August, nothing remarkable happened. I guess we can pretend like Joe and I remembered that we started dating in August 2 years ago, but we didn't think of that. At least I didn't, until just now. While trying to think of something that happened in August.
In September, my mom had a birthday. I remembered it and gave her something that was probably less awesome than what my brother gave her. He has a ninja-type ability to bemoan his lack of present ideas (for anything--Christmas, birthdays, random other gift giving occasions) and then suddenly, when said "lame" present is opened, it's amazing and perfectly suited to whomever it was gifted. But the good news is, despite Spencer constantly showing me up in the world of gift giving, I think my mom still likes me and will continue to acknowledge me as her child. Success.
In October, we celebrated living in this house of ours for a year. Our celebration went something like this:
Me (on skype): Husband! We moved into our house a year ago!
Joe (also on skype, because he was at work): Yay!
We also successfully dressed up for Halloween, and both of our costumes were decided before the day of! I know! Joe was Tobias Funke of Arrested Development, and he ordered a blue body suit on Amazon. That takes some ahead-of-time thinking, you know? I was impressed. As for me, I dressed as Merida from Brave, which makes this the first Halloween in probably three years that I wore a costume that anyone recognized. I must admit that it was very strange indeed to have people come up to me (at our church party) and say "you're the girl from Brave!" without any hesitation or eyebrows raised in confusion. No one asked "who are you?" only to respond with a trailing off "oh....." when I answered that I was actually Kaylee from Firefly and I know it's hard to tell but it would be more obvious if I wasn'twearinggreenpantsfromthethriftstoremen'ssectionandohnevermindIcanseeIlostyouat"Kaylee". Never fear, though, next year I'll be back to the land of costume obscurity. I've got ideas already. (Who is this prepared person whose body I inhabit? Confused.)
November was, for me, the most interesting/successful month this year. Not only because it contains my almost-favorite holiday (...that's Thanksgiving...) but because a few days before November started I heard about National Novel Writing Month, referred to by those in the know as "NaNoWriMo." And despite not having prepared at all, and barely having any semblance of story, I decided I was going to try it. And it. was. HARD.
The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel between Nov 1 and Dec 1. No problem, I thought. If nothing else I can just jot down a couple thousand words of garbage writing and call it a day (month). Not so. I was surprisingly dedicated to writing down quality stuff, while at the same time not focusing too much on what I wrote. Speed and solid writing, that was my vision for November. I wrote every single day (except for a couple around Thanksgiving) for at least an hour, but usually more like three or four. And on November 30th I typed my 50,035th word and "won" NaNoWriMo. (You win if you pass 50,000 words. There were 42,000ish winners this year). I discovered that I actually do like writing, even when I have to do it all the time. I realized that I can write a novel-length amount of stuff and still find that story interesting. I learned that how you write a story can take a boring idea and make it compelling. And, probably most importantly, I know for sure now that I can be a writer, if I put in the time. So that's what I plan on doing.
And for those who are curious, my NaNo story is not yet finished, nor am I finished with it. I'll be writing it until it's done....probably another 50,000 words away. :)
(And Thanksgiving was a wonderful week spent up in Idaho with my Aunt and Uncle and my awesome cousins. We also saw Frozen which I highly recommend.)
And now it is December, which has been treating both me and my handsome hubby splendidly so far. We completed another project in the house -- putting up shelves around our wall-mounted t.v. -- and we've been enjoying the warm glow of the light on our cute little Christmas tree. I have purchased gifts for several people, and it's not even Christmas week. Small victories, I tell you.
And now I have blogged. Watch out, all. I'm unstoppable!
Except I'm going to stop this post. Right now.
