Rapid Misfire
Welcome to the first entry of November, and likely the last general entry for a good part of the month. If something non-NaNoWriMo happens that's interesting enough, I'll break from the Nano filter long enough to report it, but if you're not on the filter, this is the last you may hear from me until December 1 or 2.
Having said that, there are a couple of Nano items to talk about. The first is that on Saturday, we had our Kick-Off meeting. I had agreed to arrive a half hour early to help set things up. I'm a volunteer like that. What I didn't agree to was my bus being 20 minutes late, which made me miss my transfer The next transfer was due in 30 minutes... and then it was late, because there was a rally against the Death Penalty that marched down Congress Avenue that day. Happy was not the word of that trip. A trip that should have taken about an hour, including wait times for each bus, ended up taking nearly two.
The kick-off itself was entertaining and fun. I got to get up and talk about the Word Count Challenge I'm helping to run again. We're going up against Maryland for the fifth time, hoping for victory the fourth time. (I think we won three of the last four years. Maybe I should check my sources again.) We also played the genre/setting/character game, in which everyone was handed a slip of paper and had to team up to compose a story. Some were given a genre, some were given a setting, and the rest were given characters. The only part about the game I don't like is that both times I've played it, my team has made me write it down and tell it. (Last year, I actually had to compose the majority of it, almost on the fly.)
The turnout was slightly disappointing to me, but Emily (our ML) said it was probably due to so many opening events being so close together. The midnight write -- which I was unable to attend last night -- is the highest-attended event of the year, usually. (This includes the after-November TGIO celebration, which astounds.) There were fewer than 20 people at the kick-off, and last year there were close to 70. (Maybe more... my memory skills aren't always the best.)
All in all, I'm glad I went. I got to see Emily and ciri again, and met some of the fine folks I'll be tormenting as the month progresses.
Yesterday was a struggle, and in the end I prolly came off looking like a whiny baby type person to the family. Yesterday being Halloween, Sis had grandiose plans that she decided had to include me. The way it was described to me: Several friends and family members were bringing their kidlings to Sis's place around 6:30. They would all take the kidlings trick-or-treating, and Uncle Bubba (and prolly Big Bubba -- my brother) would stick around and hand out candy to the neighborhood kidlings who rang the doorbell. I was groovy with that. I'd get to see my kids in costume, and the houseful of people wouldn't last long enough to set my hair on fire.
Well, as the day progressed, Bro disappeared for a little while and came back with many bottles of soda and several bags of ice. I commented to Sis in a very snarky manner, "Looks like you're throwing a party." She got a hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar look, and I got pissed. If she wanted to throw a party, that's her business. I wasn't mad about that. I was angry that she was trying to trick me into attending it. I'm sure she doesn't see it that way... but we've been over this kind of thing before. Many times. I don't like being around a lot of people I don't know.... which seems ironic in the context of NaNoWriMo. Maybe it's just that with NaNoWriMo folks, no one is constantly hounding me to make sure I'm having fun. I have my cadre of people I hang out with at the events, and the rest mostly leave me alone. Or we socialize in the context of writing. I have almost nothing in common with any of their friends. At least with NaNoWriMo, I have the writing in common. And if I want to sit in a corner and hold up the wall, they're okay with that. Unlike Sis.
They took me home before the party began.
Since I had planned to be with Sis and the family well past sunset, I hadn't bought any Halloween candy to sit on my counter for the next year. (I never get trick-or-treaters at my apartment.) This year, I figured that since I didn't have candy, this would be the year someone knocked on the door. That didn't happen, though I would have given 'em some of the World's Finest I had bought from my nieces while I was with 'em.
My plan had been to be in bed by 10:00, but as that time approached, I decided I'd watch Dr. Horrible and half of another movie, write for 15 to 30 minutes when midnight approached, and go to bed at 12:30 instead. Yeah. I should have skipped Dr. Horrible (not because I don't like it, but because it's under an hour) and just watched the other movie. The movie in question was Camp, and I didn't even realize we had reached midnight until the movie was over and it was already 1:00.
SO... rather than go to bed at a halfway decent hour, I ended up staying awake until 1:00 in the morning, and still have no writing to show for it. Yeah... National Novel Writing Month is off to a great start.
I still have 20 minutes of my lunch break left. I'm going to start my novel as soon as I'm done here.
If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, I hope it goes well for you. May you be off to an incredible start, and your momentum build and build until you've long surpassed 50,000 words.
I'll let you know how my first day ultimately goes tomorrow, via the Nano Filter, Dear Journal.