Me and schnee

[mamagotcha]

Woke up this morning to a powdered-sugar world (not unlike what Linc did to the kitchen the other evening when I left a sifter full of confectioner's unattended) . Neighbor guy with toy snowblower revs up about 10am (hey, he let us sleep in for two whole hours this time!) and since he's 80-something, I get out there with my shovel.


The snow is light, fluffy, a bit of grain, like fleur-de-sel but not as grey. It's brilliant white, the kind that would sparkle like Hedwig (the inch, not the owl) if the sun were out. My little helper is industriously shifting the stuff all over the back deck (he has a hat and mittens, honest! He just sheds them immediately when we force them on... he's got Bill's radiator constitution).



The shovel lifts the snow neatly, but the snowblower leaves a dirty quarter-inch film of packed ice in its wake. I follow after and scrape some of it off our common driveway, but give up after the blower's noxious fumes start making me gag... if the ol' coot wants to make ice to skate on, that's his business.



There were bunny tracks around the garage, and a little bird had landed on the front door mat, leaving the remains of an interpretive dance along the lines of "fill the bloody feeder already, would you?" I do as I am told.



Now I'm curled up with a steaming mug of mocha, a biscotti, and a squirmy toddler combing my hair (gotta be careful with that... a few days ago, he dumped a quarter cup of BioSilk on my scalp).

In other news: I wrote and submitted a magazine article yesterday morning... the first in a few years. It's a delight to have the pure and obsessive NEED to write fill me. 1300 words flew effortlessly from my fingers (were they good words? That's still up in the air... we'll see if the articles editor thinks so). But feeling the writing flow again is like crawling into the hot tub when I'm tense and cold... everything is soothed and relaxed, parts of me that I thought were unusable start to limber up and flex again, I can open my eyes and see the stars and just fly anywhere.

Comments

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

There's a teensy different between smacking out 1300 words before breakfast one day and committing to grinding out 50,000 in a month.

But... maybe next year...

And I can't WAIT to see you! I hope you can get a few days off to go gallivanting around with us (if you have to narrow it down, ask for Jan. 6, 7 and 8... I really want to try to see Caren, and I also want you to meet Jean, and go on the sailboat, and and and!)... ROAD TRIP! (Hmm... better reserve a van, shouldn't I?)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you can get 1300 done before breakfast, that's only 367 more to write for the rest of the day. (Unless you're Lisa, who has some kind of Magic Wordcount Power of which I can only dream.)

I wanted you to do it with me this year because I'm not going to be able to do it for the next few years. When I'm in college, that's what I'm going to do: college. I'm not going to try to handle the added stress of a project like that. But I'll happily be your cheerleader if you do it!

Eh, I probably won't even have a job in January. Both of my current ones are seasonal. There's a chance I might be able to stay on, but it's pretty slight, and I don't know if I want to stay at Michaels even if they let me.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Well, if you wind up unemployed, I can at least provide a little bit of silver lining by dragging you around the state in the presence of your three brothers and your mom in a small vehicle. Um, wait. Let me rephrase that...

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's not like the last time that happened I ended up wandering around the red-light district of Seattle at midnight!

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode of...

X-TREME HOMESCHOOLING!

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Wait... why are you answering comments at four AM?

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Heh. Five AM, now.

Long story and lots of writing. See my more recent posts... plus, Bill will take the Linc in the morning so I can sleep in. Yay.

Going to bed now. Love ya. G'night.

[lunacow]

(Unless you're Lisa, who has some kind of Magic Wordcount Power of which I can only dream.)

Oh, man, you don't even know how my accomplishments pale in comparison to some of my NaNo friends. One wrote 100,000 words by November 16. Another wrote three separate 50k+ novels during the month -- she'd work on one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. They make the rest of us look bad, but I forgive them because they're both such cool people.

I definitely think Katje should give NaNo a go next year!

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

I'd like to, really. Y'know what my major stumbling block is? I've never really written any fiction. I mean, sure, I've elaborated a story plenty, but to spin an entire yarn out of thin air? Yeek... daunting! How can I possibly come up with anything as cool as what Real Life throws at us?

Ah well. I've got a whole year to get panicky get psyched for it.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

You can do it! *waves pom-poms*

[lunacow]

How can I possibly come up with anything as cool as what Real Life throws at us?

No one ever said fiction can't be based on real life. You've certainly had an interesting one to draw on, as much or as little as you like.

In any case, open your mind to the idea of writing a novel a year from now, and maybe by then you'll come up with the seed of a story you're just dying to tell.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Gah. I was proud of barely scraping by with 50,000.

[lunacow]

And well done, by the way!