50413 words later...

You guys! I did it! I finished something! Hee.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to lie down for a bit.

NaNo update: day 23

HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS, I'M ALMOST DONE.

Total Word Goal: 38341
Total Words Written so far: 40491
Words ahead/behind: +2150

Words left to go: 9509

NaNo Update, day 21

I'm still writing for NaNo, I just keep forgetting to do these updates. Here's where I am:

Daily goal: 1667
Total goal: 35007
Words written so far: 37061
Words ahead/behind goal: +2045

BLERG.

NaNo Day 17

I think all this novel writing business is starting to affect my brain. For instance, I just typed "tarting" back there instead of "starting." I'm not sure what tarting is. It sounds like it's when you get all whored up to go out to bars and stuff and then you meet up with your friends and they're all dressed casually so you're like, "wtf, guys?" and they're all like, "we just didn't feel like tarting up tonight." That's what it sounds like. That, or like you can't say "farting" correctly. Anyway.

Yeah, so there's that. And then last night, Joe and I had this conversation:

Me [singing]: Working on my night cheese!
Joe: What? What's that from?
Me: I'm not telling.
Joe: Is it from 30 Rock? It sounds like it's from 30 Rock.
Me: Maaaaaaaaybe.
Joe: Is that a yes?
Me: Maaaaaaaaybe.
Joe: Dammit, Jennifer.
Me: Working on my night cheese!
Joe: Yeah, it's from 30 Rock.
Me: Night cheese sounds really good right now.
Joe: OK.
Me: The best thing about night cheese is that it's FORBIDDEN.
Joe: ...what.
Me: Because, see, you're eating cheese late at night. And eating lots of cheese makes people poop a lot. Or does it make them constipated?
Joe: Both?
Me: So anyway, you eat all this delicious cheese EVEN THOUGH you know it'll make your tummy hurt but you don't care because it's so good and that's why it's forbidden.
Joe: ...
Me: Also, you have to steal it from homeless kids.
Joe: There it is.

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 2201
Total goal: 28339
Total written so far: 31606
Words ahead/behind goal: +3267

NaNo Day 16

You guys, writing today made me want to jab myself in the eye with a rusty spoon. That is all.

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1881
Total goal: 26672
Total written so far: 29405
Words ahead/behind goal: +2733

(PS: I did not write on Saturday, but I did write yesterday. I just forgot to post. Oops.)

NaNo Day 13

You guys! I'm halfway done!

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1783
Total goal: 21671
Total written so far: 25628 (!!!)
Words ahead/behind goal: +3957

WHOOHOO!

NaNo Day 12

This is my brain: Hi, I'm Jennie!
This is my brain on NaNoWriMo: BLLWEIRUSLDKLWUERLKJSLDFKUWLEKRJ2323LJ FSKYW..................



Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 2060
Total goal: 20004
Total written so far: 23845
Words ahead/behind goal: +3841

NaNo Day 11

I have sort of a weird question. Does anyone else get really uncomfortable when they're on the same pee schedule as someone at work? You know, you go to the bathroom for the first time in the morning and someone else is in there, which...who cares, BUT THEN every time you go in the bathroom for the rest of the day, they're in there, too? I hate that. It's awkward. Like, I only have so much bathroom small talk in me and I don't want to waste it all on the same person. Anyway.

I really didn't want to write today, but when I did, I got through it fairly quickly, so that's something. I need to work on not checking my word count every few minutes. Seriously, it's bad. I'll type a sentence, think, "oh, that MUST be like 200 words," (because I'm an idiot) and then when I check I find out it was not 200 words, it was ten words, and then I want to bang my head on my desk and you know what? They don't like it when I do that at work. Apparently, it disturbs my coworkers (for multiple reasons), but the way I look at it, that's not really my problem.

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1752
Total goal: 18337
Total written so far: 21785
Words ahead/behind goal: +3448

NaNo Day 10

So. Here we are. Day 10 of insane-o writing plus also blogging. I don't have any words for you today, Internets, except this:

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1962
Total goal: 16670
Total written so far: 20033
Words ahead/behind goal: +3363

I am now a little more than two days ahead. Oh. Snap.

NaNo Day 9

Do you guys want to hear a sad story? For the last week or so, I've had it in my head that Thanksgiving is next week. And so I've been thinking that next week I would only have to work three days. Possibly only two and a half days! But during a conversation with someone from Payroll a bit ago, my hopes were crushed. CRUSHED! We were talking about a project that needs to be completed before Thanksgiving, a huge, awful project that I am pretending does not exist which it sort doesn't, because I haven't yet gotten anything I need in order to complete it.

Sidebar: Isn't that the worst? You have some huge, looming project at work that already has a reeeeeeally close deadline, but you can't work on it because you're waiting on someone else to do what they need to do before you can do what YOU need to do? Yeah, good times.

Anyway. I said something about how we only have this week and a few days next week to get it done and she looked at me kind of funny and was all, "...um, we're working a full week next week," and then I looked at my calendar and tried to play it off like I was talking about the week after next and that SHE was the dumb one but I don't think it worked. Oops. I blame all the writing, it's killing my brain and then I have no thoughts left for anything else.

Word count!

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1963
Total goal: 15003
Total written so far: 18071
Words ahead/behind goal: +3068

NaNo Day 8

Good day, Internets. It's a strange day here in Ohio because, you see, it's November, which usually means chilly temperatures and SOMETIMES even snow but today? Today I have all of the windows open and I'm sitting here in shorts and a t-shirt and it's amazing. It's Ohio, though, which means it could snow tomorrow, but today I'm going to enjoy the 70 degrees.

The procrastination continues, but I managed to finally get around to writing. Not until I'd done all manner of important things, though. Things like grocery shopping, vacuuming, laundry, farming...you know, normal Sunday chores. Here are my numbers:

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1770
Total goal: 13336
Total written so far: 16108
Words ahead/behind goal: +2772

The first week is over and it went better than I anticipated. I'm surprised I was able to stick to my goal of writing a set amount of words (and then some) every day. I've heard Week 2 is a lot harder than Week 1, so I'm a little worried.

Last night, Joe and I had planned to grill hamburgers, forgetting that, um, it gets dark at 6 o'clock now. When we realized this, we decided to go out to dinner (yessssss) and then to the movies (yesssssss). We ended up at Bar Louie after hearing about the 45 minute wait at Mongolian BBQ (seriously?) and it was magical because there was no wait AT ALL. Which is odd. After dinner, we went to see Zombieland and OH MYLANTA, it was so good. I am simultaneously terrified of and fascinated by zombies, which means I will see any zombie movie made, but I will be on the verge of peeing my pants the entire time. It's a dangerous game, but well worth it, I think.

NaNo Day 7

Oh, Internets, I did NOT want to write anything today. In fact, I started a post about an hour ago about how I was going to skip writing today because I was ahead of my projected word count and then I thought, "wow, this is how quitting starts," and so I started writing. And crazy story started spilling out and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but you know what? I can get rid of it later if I need to. It's a comforting thought to have when writing nutso things, that it doesn't have to be permanent.

Anyway. Here are my totals for the day:

Word goal for the day: 1667
Words written today: 1774
Total goal: 11669
Total written so far: 14338
Words ahead/behind goal: +2669

Now if you'll excuse me, since I'm already being all productive, I think I might continue that and go work out and then fold laundry and clean up the kitchen and then, you know, maybe shower before Joe comes over and we make INSTEAD OF BUY a delicious dinner.

WHO AM I?

NaNo Day 6

Today was a pain in my ass because the internet is being a little bitch and not working when I need it to. Except for right now, of course. Anyway. This is all I got, Internets:

Word Goal for the Day: 1667
Total Written for the Day: 1696
Total Goal: 10002
Total So Far: 12564
Words ahead/behind goal: +2565

Happy Friday!

Day 5, all NaNo, all the time

I am tired today, Internet. I'm not sure if it's just the usual Thursday Tired, or if all this writing is catching up with me. I'm going with the Thursday Tired. Thursday is always when the Weekly Lazy kicks in. I start the week with all of these goals. I'm going to work out every day! I'm going to make a good dinner every night! I'm going to clean! I'm going to read so much! And then, by the time I get home from work on Thursday, all I want to do is put on my pajamas and stare mindlessly at the TV until it's time to go to bed.

So, I'm fighting that today but I managed to get my words written. Writing during my lunch break seems to be working really well, because my only distraction (aside from the normal Internet distractions, of course) is work and OBVIOUSLY if it's a choice between working on my lunch hour and WRITING on my lunch hour, I'm not going to be working. Anyway. Word count!

Goal for Today: 1667
Words Written Today: 2038
Total So Far: 10868

I was so, so excited to finally break past 10,000 words. I don't know why, but that was a big hurdle in my head, like, "if I can make it past that, I'll be OK." We'll see how that goes.

PS: I'm sorry if this is getting super boring and repetitive. Hee.

NaNo, Day 4 Update

I didn't have as much time to write today on account of VISITORS at work, which meant I didn't have much time to do any of my work, let alone write, because we had to take our visitor out to lunch. Which was fine. I got some gossip and we wandered around all the other buildings on campus and get this...we totally walked by some old guy SLEEPING IN HIS CUBICLE. Which was funny because we'd just been talking about him at lunch, and how he falls asleep all the time because he's 100 years old but won't retire. He is not the only one in this position, there's someone else, but she doesn't fall asleep in her office. That I know of.

Here is what I don't understand. If you'd been working for a billion years and you made shitloads of money, WHY WOULDN'T YOU RETIRE ALREADY? GET OUT. Especially if you fall asleep at work and don't know how to use your computer. Being awake and using a computer are like the only two things you really need to do at work. Anyway.

Last night, I actually wrote a few hundred more words, even though I'd already reached my daily goal AND THEN SOME. And I finally did finish my words today and HERE ARE THE TOTALS.

Daily Word Count Goal: 1667
Words Written Today: 1744
Total Words So Far: 8830

I made up a new character today. I think I'm falling a little in love with him (platonic love, of course).

And now for something completely different. I really wanted to watch The Biggest Loser last night but I also wanted to exercise because I'm trying to be healthier. I mean, I didn't particularly WANT to exercise, but I knew I needed to. The thing is, I didn't want to not watch The Biggest Loser and do a workout DVD instead, and I knew if I tried to make up my own workout while I watched TV, I'd end up sitting on the floor "stretching" the entire time. So I tried something CRAZY. Apparently I have the Jillian Michaels Shred DVD (Level 1, anyway) completely memorized because I was able to run through the entire thing while I watched Biggest Loser. And I know it worked because my entire body hurts today. True story.

Whenever I do exercises that require me to lie on the floor (and there should be more of these, yes?) Phoebe lies on the floor with me. She flops on her back and looks at me in that upside-down way that is JUST. SO. ADORABLE. and is all, "I'm so glad you decided to lie on the floor with me." And then if I'm doing crunches or swinging my arms or legs around (Pilates), she thinks it's fun to swat at my hands and feet and try and catch them until I get so paranoid that I'm going to accidentally smack or kick her that I scare her away and I feel really bad about it BUT IT'S FOR HER OWN GOOD.

NaNo Update: Day 3!

Remember when I said I wasn't going to update every day? Well, I think I might, only I won't update if I don't write anything. So if I don't post, you should yell at me because it means I didn't write anything and I should write something every day because if I don't then IT'S ALL OVER. Hee. Probably. I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm talking about.

Today was a good day, writing-wise. It has not been a good day, so far, work-wise, because I kinda sorta almost got run over by the bus I was thrown under and it hurt my feelings. Ha, JK, I don't have feelings. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, writing.

So it was one of those days where writing was easy, you know? YOU know. I don't mean that what I was writing was exceptional in any way, but the words just came easily, like I suddenly realized that HOLY SHIT, I CAN MAKE UP WHATEVER I WANT. I mean, maybe that should be obvious, but sometimes it doesn't seem like it is. I don't think I'm making any sense, so let's move on.

Word Goal for the Day: 1667
Words Written Today: 2276
Total Written So Far: 6703

(Where I need to be: 5001. I will do the math for you and tell you that puts me ahead of the game by 1702 words.)

Remember yesterday when I thought it had just been Thanksgiving and not Halloween and I wanted to eat a bunch of mashed potatoes? Well. Last night, we tried to make baked potatoes but it turned out that the potatoes I had were, um, bad so we couldn't eat them. So then I was all, "BUT I WANT POTATOES, WAAAAAAH," and then I remembered that I'd gotten a free box of roasted garlic mashed potato mix in the mail. Why did I get a free box of roasted garlic mashed potato mix in the mail? Because I sign up for free shit on the internet whenever I see it. Especially if it's something I love so hard, like mashed potatoes. Or free tampons. Those are awesome, too, because have you seen how expensive tampons are? Damn, Gina. I think they should be free, actually, just like my roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

Anyway. So I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes in like three minutes and we ate them and they were glorious. I was skeptical because...um, instant potatoes, you know? But I would eat them again right now, if I wasn't eating my pudding cup, WHICH IS ALSO DELICIOUS.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day 2

I don't think I'm going to do these updates every day (YOU'RE WELCOME) but I finished writing today with extra time (score!) and I felt like blogging, OK, so get off my back! Ahem.

Word Goal for the Day: 1667
Words Written Today: 2239
Goal's Ass Kicked: CHECK

In order to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I should be writing 1667 words a day. I'm trying my best to do that or better every day, so I'm not scrambling at the end. Of course, this is assuming I write every day and don't have an off day where I'd rather cut my fingers off than type ANOTHER DAMN WORD and let's face it...I'm gonna have one (or 15) of those days. But, whatever. Right now I am 1093 words ahead of where I'm supposed to be and that's almost a whole day's worth of writing so YES, NaNoWriMo, you ARE my bitch. For now. I'm sure the tables will turn in a few days.

Anyway. I hope everyone had a good Halloween. I almost just wrote Thanksgiving there instead of Halloween. Just...what? Wishful thinking, I guess. Thanksgiving is when I feel like it's totally alright that I eat my weight in mashed potatoes but no, it was just Halloween, not Thanksgiving. Would you believe I didn't even eat one piece of candy? Probably because we didn't buy any, which was good, because we had zero trick-or-treaters. I'm not sure I've ever seen a child in our apartment complex, now that I think about it, which is probably good since someone who lives here just randomly throws up outside.

You know what was nice? Daylight Savings Time. I love the whole fall back an hour thing, but why stop there? Let's fall back to Friday right now. Or we could spring ahead to this Friday. I'm OK either way, really. I dislike the whole getting dark early thing, though. It makes me want to go to bed at seven o'clock. Last night, Heidi and I were talking in the living room and didn't have any lights on and after a while, I realized I could barely see her face and that's because it was six o'clock and it was dark out already. Wah wah. I did like driving to work in the not-dark today. It makes it far less likely that I will fall asleep at the wheel and drive into a ditch or Ikea or something. I think we can all agree that that's a WIN.

NaNoWriMo Update: Day 1

Well. The procrastination is in full effect because here are the things I did before I started writing today:

• ate Wendy's
• watched The Office and 30 Rock
• cleaned up a bit from last night
• folded some towels
• cleaned my room
• took a nap
• read the entire internet
• uploaded pictures to Flickr
• uploaded pictures to Facebook
• looked at everyone else's new pictures
• ate some questionable leftover cheesy sausage dip
• showered (OK, this was necessary)

And then, finally, after I did all of those COMPLETELY NECESSARY THINGS, I sat down to write. And it was hard that's what she said but I kept going. I got totally distracted about 30 bajillion times, but I blame that on not having a comfortable writing area. I tried sitting on my bed, and that was OK for a while, but it eventually made my neck and back hurt bunches. I tried sitting at my little laptop table but my chair wasn't very comfortable and it made my butt hurt. Then I tried sitting on a pillow but that made me too tall and I had to look down too much at my computer. I should probably go to another location altogether, because there are far too many distractions in my apartment, but I'll try that another day.

Anyway. Day 1 is complete and I have 2188 words to add to the novel I started a while ago. I'm not counting the words I wrote before November 1st, though, because that feels like cheating. IN TOTAL, I actually have 6842, but for NaNo purposes, I'm going with the 2188 I wrote today. Stupid rules.