NaNoWriMo 2009

Awww...exactly two years today, I signed up on NaNoWriMo (for those of you not in the know, that's National Novel Writing Month). Not that I remember exactly what day, but when I logged in today, it lists the date you joined.

To be honest though, I wasn't planning on signing in at all this year. I finished my novels the last two years, using it as an exercise to just get the ideas out, and it was really good. This year, however, I already knew was going to be a little crazy. I'm currently taking a class, so I have homework, plus I've got some travel that will cut into my writing time too. Though, I'm not complaining about the travel.

But...well then we started talking about it. And then of course I thought of the great motivation that is the word count bar, and even the graph, where you can visualize your progress. Plus, there's the added competition of trying to just get five more words than your friend before going to sleep.

And I also have this idea I've been playing around with, not really sure if it could go anywhere, but I would like to start writing and see where it goes.

So. Am I going to do it again?

Let's just say I'm thinking about.

french press

So it felt like several years ago the French press became all the rage, despite it being a brewing method around for 160 years or so. They seemed to be everywhere and I heard quite regularly how great a cup of coffee made from a French press was.

But, like many fads, this one seemed to quietly fade. It was still there, of course. There was even some restaurant I heard of that served after dinner coffee in little French presses (how cute!). Somehow though, I had missed this. Despite my love of coffee, I never got around to trying it.

Until the other week. A few months ago, I won one in my writer's group, which made me a very happy girl since I've long wanted to try it out. Of course, a few months go by and I still haven't. Finally I got it out from the cabinet, washed it up and scanned over the directions and tried it with my favorite Sumatra blend coffee.

The result?

A resounding yum!

It's so much smoother than coffee brewed in my regular coffee pot, and maybe a little more bold. It's not as warm, but maybe that's just because I'm afraid of cracking the pot and my water could be a little warmer, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Plus, if I make more than a cup, which I normally do, it's not sitting on a burner continually heating up, but on my countertop. This I may have to tweak a little.

But it's definitely delicious, if you're a coffee drinker. Whereas before I looked forward to making a pot of coffee on the weekends and getting a little writing done, I'm now looking forward to my French press and my draft. There have even been a few mornings before work where I've made some. I didn't today, but it's definitely become a favorite.

finally fall

Actually, maybe not quite as much into fall as I thought. When I first started forming this post in my head, it was cold and raining, and that was pretty much the forecast for the next 10 days. A few moments ago I looked again, and after tomorrow it's supposed to be up in the 50s and...if you can believe it, then up in the 60s.

Still though, today...it's definitely fall.

Over Columbus Day weekend, I took a train out to the beach to just get out of the city for a little. It's always good to take a little bit of a breather away from everything, and disconnect. I brought my laptop and did a little bit of writing, though I think the most was on the train ride home. But this trip is what sparked my fall post.

Riding through Virginia, it was so beautiful! There were patches of golden fields, shades of red and orange on the leaves, though still mostly dark green...for now. But it reminded me of how beautiful fall is. Again, keep in mind I come from the South where...well, the only leaf color change is from bright green to a dead brown. Hmmm...not quite the stuff of poetry.

But though it's been almost painfully cold at times, because the rain and wetness doesn't play well with cold and wind, it's been ok. I love this time of year because it's cozy. It says: down comforters, movies, and lots of hot chocolate.

And it's also a good atmosphere to write. But there will definitely be a few evenings where I'll say I'm going to go write, but will be curled up under warm blankets watching a movie, while the wind howls outside and the cold chases everyone else indoors.

music education

I'm a writer that works best with background music. I've already written about my writing playlists, and how it sets the mood for a scene I'm working on, or a character. Music has always been a big part of my life. I grew up listening to music from the '50s, '60s, '70s and a little into the '80s. And of course in my formative years, I was very much in love with the Seattle grunge scene, and then on into the trance and electronic scene (yeah...no one said my taste in music was selective).

And I have distinct memories of dancing around my den with my father to everything from classic rock to soul. The music there would be so loud at times I'd have to shout up to him...ok, maybe some of that could have been due to my height as an eight year old or something. But still...

And I also have distinct memories of being sent to bed on the other side of the house, and could feel the music vibrate through my walls and hear it coming through my partially open door. And I loved it. Maybe that's why I now have to constantly have music on. I'm not such a big fan of the pure silence.

Tonight, for some reason, I had Otis Redding stuck in my head. Yeah, you can probably guess the one. I'll give you a hint: "Watching the ships roll in, / And I'll watch 'em roll away again, yeah, / I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay..."

Was that the one you were thinking of?

Anyway, I checked out iTunes, but kind of wanted a little more than just that song. So then I went over to Amazon and have found my one new item to stick to the top of my Christmas wishlist: The Incredible Soul Collection. Maybe when I was 16 I would have felt lame for wanting "oldies" music, but at 26, I just have to think "man, did I grow up with some great music!"

I know, I know...It wasn't my time, but I did grow up with it. I started listening to the Amazon sampler, and the first song just totally made my night. And each one, I was thought back to my den so many years ago. I like to pass along recommendations, though I don't do it too often on here. But this CD I will. And I'm sure there are others that are slightly different, but just as good. That's the beauty of Amazon. You can just keep going through and finding more.

hope diamond

My sister was in town visiting, and her first day here we walked around Chinatown and then on to the Mall. While heading down to the WWII monument, we passed the Museum of Natural History, and I recalled that there was something there said to be very big, and very shiny, that we might want to see: the Hope Diamond. I've lived here for several years now and still had not seen it.

We went up to see it, and I have to admit I was kind of expecting a little more. Granted, it was beautiful. It's such a deep, rich blue, but I guess because of all the hype I expected something a little more exotic (though that's probably more due to the curse than anything).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not turning my nose up at it. It was beautiful. But it's that whole phenomonen of having something so built up that it would have to have been boulder sized probably to live up to that. Ok, maybe a small boulder. And I also wasn't expecting it to be blue. I pictured it just like any other diamond. But in all fairness, it has been resized twice.

I have heard from others though who also expected it to be a little bigger. Anyone else? Or did it exceed your expectations?

mixed tapes

I watched this movie the other night, a pretty recent one, but set in 1985. And the main character was so excited when his friend gave him a mixed tape. And I just thought...."awww...I remember making my own!"

There's just something that seems to make the mix tapes a little more...personal. I don't know, maybe it's just me. But I wonder if it's also maybe because of the time it took to make one. With CDs now, we know exactly how much time is left and the program will usually tell you if the final song will go over the allotted time.

But with tapes, it took time to make them. There was the first five seconds of silence to go through, and then trying to calculate how many songs, at what length, would fit on one side of the tape without stopping one song in the middle. And if you did...well, who hasn't had a tape with songs that cut off right in the middle?

Now it's so simple to create playlists for iTunes and other mp3 players, and it's great when you can easily create multiple ones the moment you think about it. You don't have to stop and think about which songs and how long they are. But...it's not as much work. It doesn't seem to have to the care and effort that tapes had.

Just a random thought.

my so-called life

The other night I headed on over to Hulu, thinking that maybe I'd watch an episode of Chuck from season 2...because it's taking too long to come out on DVD with Netflix. But...when I got to Hulu, I discovered something even better.

My So-Called Life is currently up in its entirety.

I don't know about you, but that was one of my favorite shows! If I didn't want to be Angela, I wanted to know her, to have a friend like her. And I know that I definitely wanted to know a Jordan Catalano.

There were definitely moments where I knew exactly what they were talking about. I'd had those thoughts, or would have those thoughts very soon and relate over the reruns. And what's interesting is to go back and watch it now. The show was on when I was in Junior High, and then I caught some reruns occasionally throughout high school...but once college started...I don't think it was ever on. Or if it was, I didn't see an episode. I don't think that I've watched it in the decade since I started driving. It's interesting to watch the show now as an "adult," after I've had all those experiences.

"What's amazing is when you can feel your life going somewhere. Like, your life has just figured out how to get good. Like, that second." - Angela Chase

Oh, and another great show on Hulu? 21 Jump Street. I used to love catching the reruns. And yeah, Johnny Depp has always been cool.