Happy Thanksgiving!

Mood: Tired but content (and a little stuffed to be honest)

On TV: World's Dumbest - Holiday Edition (watching stupid people do stupid things - the perfect way to end a holiday!)

In case anyone missed it, today is Thanksgiving! It's the day to jump out of bed, turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then eat yourself silly all in the name of being thankful for the blessings in our lives. So, today I'm especially reminded to be thankful for:

• My hubs. He drives me crazy. Seriously crazy. But. I wouldn't know what to do without him. And they make medication for the crazy. 

• My family. Ditto the crazy but, again, I wouldn't know what to do without them. Also? The medication for the hubs crazy works equally well for the family crazy. 

• Car horns. They keep me from having a head on collision with people who are driving the wrong way down a one way street. They also allow me to advise said people of their error. 

• My laptop - I know, shallow right? But I loves my laptop! 

• Friends - both internet based and real life. Without friends I'd need a lot more of the medication for the various crazy in my life. 

• Disposable cookware. * 

So there you have it. Hope everyone has had a great turkey day and that you have many blessings in your lives for which you can be thankful. 

*Don't judge me - when you cook for a huge family it's all about the easy clean up.

Thankfully Crazy?

Mood: Thankful (what? It's like the whole point of the holiday, no?)
On TV: Hell's Kitchen (It is Wednesday and nothing like seeing some chef butt kicked to start the holiday off right!) 

Tonight I have made two pumpkin pies, two chocolate pies and one banana pie. I also have bags filled with all the fixings necessary to feed a standing army of approximately 5,000 hungry soldiers - or my family. Tomorrow I will take said fixings to my mother's house where I will spend hours with my sisters preparing an awesome feast that the hungry masses will annihilate in a mere 20 minutes. What can I say? It's tradition!

You know what else is tradition? Black Friday shopping! But seriously? What is up with the whole "go to the store at 3:00 am" crap? People, we have got to stop the insanity! Most of us will spend all day tomorrow with family and friends, eating ourselves into a carb induced coma, and then we're expected to drag our tired, pie filled selves out of bed in the middle of the night to schlep through the freezing cold of a November night to save $10 on something that we probably don't even want to begin with? I. don't. think. so! There really isn't anything I want badly enough to stand in line for in the middle of the night.*

However, it's tradition so Scott and I will drag ourselves out of bed somewhere around the crack of 10:00 am on Friday (and that's a bit too early for our liking on a day off). We'll curse the crowds, we'll find some good deals on Christmas gifts, we'll see Santa** and we'll do it all with the benefit of a full night's sleep because that's what sane people do. And really? If hubs and I are the measure of sanity in any given situation then people really need to reevaluate their life choices.

*Okay, there was the Harry Potter book thing but that was different.

** Don't judge me - how else is Santa going to know that I want a Nook Color for Christmas?

I'm a NaNoWriMo Drop Out!

Mood: Lonely and out of sorts (hubs is at work all day today - great OT for the holidays but I'm used to having my best friend at home on a Saturday and I miss him. )

On TV: Haunted London (guess the tv isn't ready to let go of Halloween just yet)

I? Am officially a NaNoWriMo drop out. Yep. That's right. Already. I'm a quitter. *hangs head in writerly shame*

For the non-writing peeps out there, NaNoWriMo is national novel writing month. 30 days of insanity that take hold every November when writers, professional and amateur alike, try to pound out a novel of 50,000 words in just a single month. It sounds like a great idea, right? Just write with abandon and get the words out on paper (or the computer) and at the end of a mere 30 days of insanity you will have completed a basic novel.

After completing my last work I thought that joining in the NaNoWriMo insanity fun would be a great way to get the creative juices flowing again. It would be a way of driving forward with my next work while the previous one awaits rewrites. Yeah. That was the thought anyway. The reality was much different.

Here's the thing folks. I'm a nerd. A card carrying member of the "I have to have straight A's or I'll die" geek club. Which means that when it comes to writing (or anything that remotely resembles an "assignment") I'm a painful perfectionist. Why that perfectionism couldn't apply to something more useful like, say, keeping my house clean or actually applying make-up everyday, I'll never know but it is what it is.

So, when I decided to dive right into the NaNo fray? I froze. Couldn't write, couldn't think. Spent days trying to flesh out an idea and failing miserably because all I could do was feel the pressure of the looming deadline. My muse clammed up and sat in the corner refusing to talk to me. My brain? Was only capable of playing endless rounds of on-line Yahtzee.

What if I didn't finish? (okay, really, what did I think was going to happen? It's not like the NaNo police are going to come and confiscate my computer.)

But if I didn't finish then I would fail and I can't fail! (I can however let my dishes pile up, my vacuum cleaner grow dusty with disuse and are there really people who immediately put their laundry away after washing because I really think that's a vicious rumor).

Ultimately I decided that I needed to remove the pressure from  my writing. Not that deadlines aren't useful but, for me, the deadline of one month was nearly enough to drive me out of my mind in less than a week.

So, to all the NaNo warriors out there - I wish you luck and flowing words.

As for me? I have another game of on-line Yahtzee to finish and then maybe I'll do the dishes. Or maybe I'll write because now that the deadline has been removed my muse is starting to look like she might be willing to have a little chat.