Scarf Swap!!!

First, everyone please admire my awesome new scarf. Do it! Now!

Okay, you can stop staring...That's kinda creepy.

I'm just preparing everyone, this post is going to be one giant shout out to Carrie over at Just A Girl! She was my scarf swap partner for Kates scarf swap and let me tell you, Carrie put me to shame! I got my package today and was just dying to sit down at the computer and show off all my new goodies!

The photographs are in order of opening the package so everyone gets the same "package opening" effect that I experienced!

How freaking cute is this box??!

Opening the top....LOVE the purple/pink tissue paper!

Cute card! It's going on my now clean desk!

My scarf! I love it and I cannot wait to wear it!

There's more???? Yum.... :-)

Carrie, I don't know how you knew I have a weakness for coffee mugs but you hit this one spot on! I can't wait to have a hot cup o' joe in the morning!

Another surprise in the bottom??

I died after seeing this magnet set...

And promptly installed it in a place of honor on my refrigerator.

And chose a sash to describe my mood... :-)

Carrie, I cannot thank you enough! After opening your wonderful package I feel like I dropped the ball on the wrapping and being creative with my package... :-( I may have to send a supplemental package of goodies to alleviate my worrying. :-)

This scarf swap was awesome and I definitely know more if I do another one in the future! I got so caught up on finding a scarf in Louisiana that would be appropriate for where Carrie lives that I totally dropped the ball on the fun creative stuff. I will know better next time!

Did You Know?

The Health Care Reform Bill that the House passed today has five times as many words as the Torah?

While I'm glad it passed, I find it a little ludicrous that it took that many words to construct a bill that the House could narrowly agree on.

Check out Life in Israel for a blurb from the Jon Stewart show on the Healthcare Reform Bill that is longer than the Torah!

Along the same line, do you ever think about how many words go into everyday documents? I do now that I'm trying to write 50,000 words. I keep copying and pasting my words into Word from Scrivener and going "Wow that's 10/15/20 pages, that's way longer than any paper I ever wrote in college!". It's mind blowing what you have time to do once you're finished with college and unemployed.

In fact, I now routinely wonder how many words in the many books I'm rotating through right now (Or was rotating through before NaNoWriMo) (Confession: The sale table at B&N got me again last night and I added another book to the rotation. I think I'm trying to drive myself insane before the end of the year...) the only problem is, I can't copy and paste my books into Word and go "Wow, _______ thousand of words! That's a shit ton! I can totally write 50,000!" So, I just keep wondering how many words went into my many beloved books.

In other small news, my "not-a-novel" now has a working title... I'm sure it will be revised again but I think it's pretty clever. (Then again, it is 12 am so it may not be as clever as I think it is. If that's the case, I'll take it down tomorrow morning when I look at it over coffee.)

Just a Little Light Humor Before I Dive Back Into THE NOVEL... DUH Duh duh....

Courtesy of an awesome blogger who is also a NaNoWriMo participant. InkyGirl comics are hilarious and I recommend hopping over to her site if you are writing and getting frustrated. Quite a few chuckle inducing comics!

I Really Shouldn't Be Blogging

Right now, I should be working on my still untitled novel but I'm not. Instead, I'm blogging. Why? I think I process things better when I just put them out here on this blog. There is no story line to follow on my blog, it's about my life! NaNo is insanely fun so far but I'm definitely stuck on this one part of my Novel and I think it's because I'm about to jump into an experience that is going to cause my main character alot of pain and uproot everything she has known to this point.

Surprisingly, I find myself unwilling to do this to her. I keep drawing out some of the situations to prolong getting to the bad part. Death is about to enter my main characters life and it's hard to write what is coming because it is one of my own personal worst nightmares. Of course, I plan for all of this to eventually lead her to more positive things but right now, it's hard.

I now have a whole new level of respect for the writer of my favorite tv show, Greys Anatomy. If I had helped create those characters and carried them through six seasons I would have major issues killing them or causing major problems for them in their lives. At some point, you must just want them to have a happy normal person episode!

Anyways, I'm stuck but chipping my way at writing the horrible part.

Starbucks here I come tomorrow.

Letter Writing, an Art We Should Fight to Keep Alive.

Those of you who have followed my blog for the last year have seen my occasional references to mail, letter writing, cards, and stationary. I have a great love for all of those things. In fact, the day the United State Postal Office closes may be one of the worst days of my life. I may need some therapy if that should ever happen.

I love e-mail and text messages. I love technology. However, when is the last time you got an e-mail that read like a letter? It's been a long time since I've gotten one. In fact, I think the only time I get an e-mail that is more than 5 sentences long is during the holiday season when everyone thinks I care what their family did in the last year. Those summaries are long and arduous to read. They are antithesis of a true letter.

When I was in pre-school, great attention was paid to the art of letter writing. You were to address it as "Dear So and So". (We didn't need to use To Whom it May Concern or other salutations because we only wrote to family. In fact the one time I hand wrote the President of the United States I addressed it Dear Mr. President. I hope he felt honored to fall into my familial greeting!) Then, you were taught to properly indent your first paragraph and to structure your letters so they read pleasantly without too much rambling. Finally, you were taught the different sign-offs and whom you should use them for. I was never comfortable with the word "Love", even at a young age I realized it was a loaded word. I only ever used "Love" with my parents. I have continued searching for out of the ordinary appropriate signs off my whole life. I once had a professor who signed his notes and e-mails with "Be Well". I absolutely adored that sign off but it was his, and though I use it occasionally it's not my sign off. After all of this education in letter writing we, as young children, were prepared to dash off grammatically incorrect letters to our loved ones. I know my younger brother who is now, almost 18 also got some letter writing education but he never wrote letters. I often wonder how children of today are taught about letter writing?

Are they being taught to write letters in computer class with text editing programs? Is someone standing over their penmanship exercises and helping them perfect it? Somehow, I doubt that. All those years I fought with teachers to write in block letters were successful and as we progressed through the grades cursive was left behind. Ironically, my better hand writing today is in cursive and it is the easier style for my hand to write in. Sadly, many people struggle to read cursive today. So I print my letters by hand. My print letters are atrocious but at least no one wonders what I wrote. Where will we be as a society if we let cursive and letter writing go the way of the type-writer, used by an eccentric few and hated by most? Letter writing leaves a legacy that e-mail cannot match. I suppose blogs are the new electronic legacy, but they don't hold the nostalgia for me, that pen and paper do.

I found this video on TED and it touched me to the deepest part of my core. I feel the same way she does. I am utterly fascinated by the letters of my grandparents and parents. They are a legacy, a glimpse into their everyday thoughts and worries that would never have been voiced to me.

I hope you all take the time to watch this video and I hope it inspires you to pick up a pen and paper. There in this world like writing a real letter and the recipient will remember it forever.

Take the time to leave a legacy today, it may be the most important thing you do.

Motivation

Why am I writing this novel in one month? The truth is, I don't know. However, I've always been an avid reader and everytime I finished a book I would wonder how someone could do that? How do you write a novel? Well, I guess I'm finding out though, trust me I'm no Sophie Kinsella in the making.

In other news, I went ahead and downloaded the free trial of Scrivener which is available for download to any participant in NaNo. It runs out Dec 2, when if you win the challenge (write 50,000 words) you will be able to purchase it for 50% off. So far, I love it and it has really helped my work flow.

I'm aiming to go past 6,000 words tonight since I'll be up late nursing my hip. Seems like I've irritated an old injury and I'm not sure what to do besides alternate ice, heat and pop some NSAIDs to try to help with inflammation. I'm just hoping I don't have to go back to physical therapy because physical therapy without insurance = Not Fun.

*Sigh*

Oh, in fun news, I mailed my scarf off for the scarf swap today! It was kind of nerve wracking to shop for someone you've never met! I really hope Carrie enjoys her new scarf! Check out her blog Just A Girl it's a good read and I look forward to following her in the future!

I'm hoping to give you all a look at my newest goody, the Nike Sportband as soon as I catch up on my NaNo numbers!

NaNo Update

So far, I'm still on top of my word counts though, not by much! I'm hoping to start setting up a schedule because the last two nights I've written alot at night and it's keeping me up too late. My plan today is to finish cleaning and running early enough to go park it at a coffee shop for a couple of hours (hopefully Starbucks since the red cup comes out today!!!).

Also, Traci over at Pictures and Posts of Life and Art has an interesting question to ask all you bloggers out there! She wants to know if any of you have a job that you absolutely love. We all know the answer to that question for me but I would be interested in seeing what you all say! Please head over there and enlighten us! :-)

That's all for now, I've got to get going or else I'll end up writing all night again!