NaBloPoMo
creepy, Fond du Lac, NaBloPoMo, pests, random, writing thewritingspider
12:00 pm
I was going to write a list of the things that completely freak me out. The number one thing is some kind of bug thing that I don’t even know the name of. When I describe it, people say, “Silverfish?” but no, not silverfish. This this is like a two-inch ball of lint that undulates across the floor. There is pretty much nothing that makes my viscera retract uncomfortably into my skeleton like these things. Occasionally this pops up because I really hate seeing them, they are alien to me in a way no other critter is.
Ok, so pretty short list.
Here’s another thing: do you ever get words, names, or phrases stuck in your head? It’s usually something unusual or strange. Yesterday, I kept thinking of Fond du Lac which is a town in Wisconsin. I rolled the name around in my head all day and I can’t remember where I heard it. I expect it will come back around today now that I’ve written this post. I wonder if there’s a name for this phenomenon, thinking of words or phrases over and over.
This post-a-day thing is difficult. I endeavor to provide more substantial and meaningful content in the days coming.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
answers, Biggest Loser, NaBloPoMo, random questions, reality TV, road trips, sleep, Travel, writing thewritingspider
2:59 am
I dug up five random questions I will answer here:
1. If you came with a warning label what would it say? This one-of-a-kind human bean is hilarious, sensitive, sexy, loyal, and loving, but is prone to bouts of self-doubt, moodiness, and general panic. Feed sushi, chocolate and red wine, handle with care. Needs regular back-scratching. Do not allow to get overly tired. Is easily distracted with shiny things.
2. What character in a book can you connect with or relate to the most? She’s not a character, but I very much identified with Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. And Lewis Carroll’s Alice. I identify with characters who don’t quite fit the world they are in.
3. How are you with very little sleep? Um…terrible. I don’t get sleepy, really, I go from Regular Person to Madame Needsanap Crankypants in about ten seconds. I’ve done this my whole life – go to bed when I’m ready. Even as a kid. It made me terribly unpopular at slumber parties… If I turn to you and say, “I need to go to bed now,” you should let me.
5. What reality TV show would you want to be on? Biggest Loser! I don’t have that much weight to lose though, I just want to get verbally beat up by Jillian and possibly vomit on the treadmill.
6. How do you feel about road trips? I like road trips. I grew up spending many days in the backseat of the family car on vacations. We drove everywhere. People cannot believe that we (my sister and my parents and I) drove to Maine from Kentucky in a Ford Escort. (It takes a good three days to get there from here.) I like driving. I like just taking off in the car and looking at stuff – houses, trees, Christmas lights, farms. I don’t need a destination, I can just get in the car and end up at home later. That’s fine.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
car trouble, cars, horses, i hate cars, writing thewritingspider
12:06 pm
I come from people who drive cars until they die. We buy them secondhand and stick band aids all over them until they just plum won’t run no more. Car trouble still sets itself apart as a special kind of worry for me. As a kid, we normally couldn’t afford to just buy a whole new car – we had to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. I’d personally rather have health troubles or house troubles than car troubles. I’m one of those people who can work the vehicle but doesn’t know how it works. I’m no Zen and the Art of Car Maintenance. My Volvo, Oona, has been at the Volvo clinic for many months, and I’ve been driving Husband’s Infiniti which, as of last night, blew its alternator completely to bits.This morning we go to pick up Oona and post the Infiniti for the scrap heap.
That’s another thing. My car troubles come in big waves. Oona and the Infiniti were purchased within a month of each other after my darling old Toyota, Ziggy, was deemed “the most dangerous car he’d ever been in” by our mechanic due to lack of shocks, and Husband’s Firebird sort of fell apart. AT THE SAME TIME. Stupid cars. I had to replace the transmission on the Toyota about a month before I headed off to India which meant straining already strained finances.
I’d like to have more reliable public transit in my town. Better yet – this is Kentucky. Let’s ride horses to work. Instead of a parking garage there could be a stable for horses and carriages. It couldn’t possibly take you longer to ride home on a horse than sit in traffic. I would name my horse Black Beauty or National Velvet and off we’d go, into the sunset. I could learn to ride sidesaddle and wear a flowing cape, a la Arden from Lord of the Rings movies. Yes, I believe I’d like to trade in the car for a horse.
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NaBloPoMo and Sleeping and Thug Life and neighbors and writing
bad neighbors, neighbors, thug life, writing thewritingspider
12:54 pm
I hate to write this, but we haven’t had much trouble from Thug Life since early spring. Early spring! And last night’s incident barely qualifies but I have to relate it to you. Around 3:30 am I was awoken by a shrill screech. “I’M LEAVING!” I assume there was also some drunk or petulant stomping included but my head was buried in a pillow so I only caught scraps. Here’s the 30-second version:
Her: I AM LEAVING!
Male: (unintelligible)
Her: WE ARE LEAVING! COME ON!
Male: SHUT THE FRACK UP!
Her: GET IN THE CAR. I AM LEAVING NOW.
REPEAT FOR…ahem…Repeat for fifteen minutes at which time three cars fired up and peeled out of the parking lot. As episodes of The Real World: Thug Life (aka, my neighborhood) go, this was tame, short, and relatively low-key.
I am, however, at the age where I’m going, “Bloody hell, it is 3:30 am, people. Why aren’t you sleeping?? Why aren’t you thanking God for your BED and DREAMING of whatever you Thug Lifians dream of???”
The Thug Life-related events have become scarce, and that’s ultimately fine with me. However, an outburst occasionally, and always on a weekend, might be good for the blogging business….
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NaBloPoMo and writing
dark, NaBloPoMo, seasons, writing thewritingspider
3:10 am
I am so flippy flopping tired right now. Something about the time change this week has jacked up my system royally. At some point this week, I went to bed at 9:30 and could have easily climbed in at 8:00. In my defense, I got up at 6, went to the gym, worked all day including a half-hour walk at lunch, then cleaned the house for two hours tonight. Geez. Oh. Pete.
I like this time of year. Sometimes the darkness at 5:30 is a little unnerving. Why is that? I’ve been doing it for more than thirty years, except for the time in the UK when it never really got quite daylight and then got dark at 4. Though I’m sad to put away my patio cushions and sweep the leaves off the deck, I’m loving the pumpkin spice candles in my house and the warm cozy feeling of being indoors when its dark.
That’s about all I can manage for today’s post. I do hope you’ll forgive me for my brevity.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
NaBlo, random, writing thewritingspider
2:26 am
1. I’m pretty sure that irregular yet persistent banging from the neighbors is sorority girl gettin some. Ew. Fine. But please hurry up so I can go to sleep. Soon. Please.
2. Dang it’s dark early.
3. I find that talking stomach Fazoli’s ad extremely disturbing. Even more so because I’ve never heard it, only seen it over peoples’ shoulders at the gym.
4. Please keep the TV shows I like on the air. I can’t tell you which ones they are because I will kill them with my love.
5. If a woman in your water aerobics class is telling another woman in your water aerobics class that she has a ton of business suits she’d like to get rid of, do not blurt out “I NEED SUITS!” because she will give them to you without letting you try on the pants parts of the suits, only the tops. You will get home and wish you’d been more insistent because now you sort of look like a middle-aged banker from New England…
6. Black and brown do too go together.
7. I love the iPhone app Awesome Notes. It’s expensive for an app but worth it.
8. Moreena Baccarin is HAWT with short hair.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
freelance writer, NaBloPoMo, networking, writer, writing thewritingspider
11:54 am
(Ok this is for yesterday, #5 is on its way)
I we
nt to a Networking Event last night. If I want to be a proper freelance writer, well, I’m going to have to hustle. The event was sponsored by a local law firm and put together by an an eclectic group of folks whose common goals include wanting to foster small businesses, and encourage women-owned and minority-owned businesses. I enjoyed it immensely and made what I hope will be some great contacts for my freelance career. It was a three-hour local networking event. 7-minute presentations by local business owners were sandwiched between1-minute speed-networking when we were encouraged to meet someone with whom we had not already spoken.
There’s more to this event for me than just finding clients. If you don’t know me, or you haven’t known me for long, you might not know that I am, by nature, an introvert. Change = scary, meeting new people is like totally panic-inducing. I’ve worked for many years to overcome my shyness and build confidence. It surprises people to hear this – they can’t believe it! All I can say is, fake it ’till you make it. I took a Meyers-Briggs test last week that indicates I am no longer an INFJ, but an ENFJ. I have morphed from Introvert to Extrovert. Years ago, I might’ve gone to this networking event and simply stood back and let people come to me instead of working the room, business cards in hand.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
best job, jobs, NaBl, writing thewritingspider
10:52 pm
Countdown style:
4. Babysitterist: Who hasn’t been a babysitter?? How many nights did someone pay me to watch Nick at Nite and check in on Junior a few times? Do people let twelve-year-olds stay with their kids anymore? Probably not. Want to hire me to babysit? Heck, I’d probably do it for free now.
3. Professional blurbist: I know some of you hated this particular place but it really had its upsides. As an abstract writer for a database company, I loved reading all the weird trade journals (Carny Weekly anyone?). No work to take home with you, no dress code to speak of, a pretty low-key work environment, and flex hours. Nevermind that the place was a breeding ground for neuroses of all kinds.
2. Ice cream scoopist: My first real job with a paycheck was at a local ice creamery that was taken over several years ago by a larger regional ice creamery. The best parts: making weird concoctions on slow nights (butterscotch pineapple milkshake, anyone?), all the ice cream you can eat, and that one year we got a box of chocolates for a Christmas bonus.
1. Nerd camp counselor: Five weeks of dance parties, crappy cafeteria food, making out in the stairwell, talent shows, and teen angst. And that was just us counselors! Seriously, my first year as nerd camp counselor was truly amazing. I’ve never been around a bunch like that: we bonded like super glue on a hardhat stuck to an I-beam. It didn’t make us much money but dang it was worth it.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo, writing thewritingspider
11:57 am
I thought about doing National Novel Writing Month. I did. But then I talked myself right out of it.
Typical.
I reasoned that I’ve already started my novel and you have to start new when you do NaNoWriMo. I reasoned that I cannot devote the proper time to the novel as dictated by the Rules of the Contest, what with my Regular Job, and other commitments. Nevermind that over the weekend I came up with a great idea for my next novel that I could’ve used for NaNoWriMo. AND I had a dream last night that, when I woke up, I think would make a great premise for a novel. But danged if I can remember it now.
There’s always next year.
I think I can do the blog thing. Even if it means typing out posts on my iPhone WordPress app. This blog was supposed to be a way to practice essays and the like and so far, it’s been doing that, except that I tend to write when I feel like it and that ends up being not as often as I would like.
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NaBloPoMo and writing
blogs, NaBloPoMo, November thewritingspider
11:49 am
Ok so I didn’t know about this National Blog Posting Month thing until today so I’m late to the party. I’m not in it for the prizes, I just need to get on board with the blog posting thing! I was all set to write about NaNoWriMo and then this came up. I will post! I will do it!
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