Winner

I did it. I spent 30 days writing a novel and I finished it tonight, just hours before the deadline. Over 50,000 words (which translates to roughly 200 pages, give or take depending on spacing and font size) that, if nothing else, proved to me that not only could I start a novel, I could finish it. It's complete crap, of course, but with some major editing I think it could turn into something I'm really and truly proud of.

Now off to celebrate my achievement! Wine and peanut butter pretzels for everyone!

Just to be very clear about this

1993--C babysits by herself for the first time, the microwave explodes.

1997--C is left home alone over the weekend for the first time, gets in her one and only car accident.

1998--C is left home alone over the weekend for the second time, the car survives but she is evacuated by a SWAT team because the crazy neighbors started threatening one another with guns.

2005--C is left home (albeit only for the day--I debate lumping this story in with the others because Juan was just at the library studying) and the building across the street from the condo catches fire and burns almost to the ground.

2008--C is left home alone with Luke over two consecutive weekends and manages to not only have her car battery unexpectedly die in a Wal-Mart parking lot, BUT, almost loses three years worth of pictures, music, lessons, and OH YEAH THAT NANO THING when the baby dumps an entire cup of coffee all over her laptop.

Needless to say, I don't have a good track record when it comes to staying home by myself. Thankfully (for today, at least) the laptop started working again when it had been dried out and cleaned up a bit, and all the data I needed on it has now been backed up several different places just in case it's waiting until the next time I'm alone to off itself in a more permanent way.

Sick Day--part eleven million

The only silver lining about being home solo this weekend with a sick and teething baby? The look of absolute joy on his face at dinner tonight when Daddy called to to talk to him. You'd have thought the room was exploding with puppies and balloons, he was so happy.

NaNoWriMo Update

So far I'm doing fairly well with NaNoWriMo. I decided to write a murder mystery that's been kicking around my head for a few years now and it's coming along nicely. I've introduced my main characters, written far too much exposition, and just killed my first victim. Life is good. I'm also mostly keeping up with the 1667-words-a-day requirement to ensure that I make it to 50,000 words by November 30. Here's a cool widget from NaNoWriMo to show you how I'm doing--the green days are the ones where I made the daily goal, the red ones where I didn't.



So not perfect, but on track as of yesterday and today. Keep sending the writing vibes--they're working!

Yes we can!

I may be sick as a dog, hacking up a lung, and going on very little sleep after tossing and turning all last night thinking about the election today; but DAMN if I haven't done some jumping up and down tonight. Yes we CAN move this country in a more positive direction, yes we CAN let go of bitter partisan politics, yes we CAN break down the color barrier, and yes we CAN once again hold our heads up high in the world and be proud to call ourselves Americans.

Yes, we can.