Fadedwords

I’ve gotten a lot done this weekend.  I finished up some Christmas projects thanks to a lengthy crop at my friend’s house.  I’m pretty excited that I was able to finish up what I did.

I also lost 1.6 pounds this week, a week that was full of food and temptation.  This is a HUGE accomplishment, and one I’m very proud of.  I have three more weeks before Christmas, and I want to get as close to a full 40 pounds lost as I can.  I’m down a total of 33 pounds at this point.

My last big accomplishment this weekend?  I finished my NaNo piece this morning… as in, completely finished.  It’s 100% done.  This is the first year I’ve ever finished a whole piece in the month of November.   My final word count is 61,883.  It is 91 pages long.  I’m fairly pleased with how it turned out, although I’m not deluded enough to think it’s “great” or anything.  I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to post it here or not.

In other fun news, my back has gone out.  This is the first time it’s gone out like this since before I started WW.  I’m supposed to go grocery shopping today, as well as fold laundry, and I know I can’t do either.  I slept barely at all, because there was no avoiding the pain.  I hate it when it goes out like this, because there are so many things I want to be doing that this prevents me from doing.

Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be better.

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving Day.  There were no big plans, just us making dinner here at the house and enjoying it together.  Jake had decided to fry the turkey.  It came out so incredibly tasty.  The very top got a little bit crispy because it touched the fryer, but the meet was tender, juicy and very flavorful.

I’m proud of myself because I did not over eat.  I stayed within my points for the meal, and only went over for the day by about 3 points thanks to a second slice of pumpkin pie. 

I’m thankful for a great deal of things… my family who I miss terribly.  I’m thankful for my truly wonderful friends that have seen me through some tough times, as well as helped me find even more joy on the regular days.  I’m thankful for an 86 pound furry idiot that we like to call Merlin (or Noodle or Moose or Idiot) and the fact that he’s currently curled up with his nose on my lap. I’m thankful for my job and the fact that there’s never a time that I have to worry about having food or the things I need to survive.

I’m thankful for my wonderful boyfriend and the fact that this is our third Thanksgiving together.   It seems unbelievable to me that we’ve been together this long, that this is the third year celebrating this holiday together.  I feel incredibly lucky to have that in my life.

All of the pictures from Thanksgiving are here.  The food was yummy and the day was wonderful

In other news, I did something today that I never thought I’d do.  I went out shopping on Black Friday.  It wasn’t all that bad actually, much in part I’m sure to the economic situation in the country right now.  I found a GPS system for $110 and also was able to get a gift for my Dad.  I’m pretty excited about both;  I’ve wanted a GPS unit for quite some time, and now I have one.  It will be *so* nice to drive up to New York for Christmas with this.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday.

I’ve never been more astonished than I am this year that I have achieved the 50,000 word count necessary to be a National Novel Writing Month winner.

I started out with an idea I came up with last year before NaNo began, and ended up not feeling inspired by it so I went with something else.  It was the only idea I had this year, so I either tried to write it or didn’t participate in NaNo.  I decided to see what happened.

I am almost completely finished with this piece, which is another huge accomplishment.  I’ve never finished a whole novella in a month, and I think I’ll get that this year.  I’m still typing away furiously in an attempt to do just that.  Having five more days seems like a lifetime.

This year’s NaNo has morphed so completely from what I thought it would be, and I’m completely OK with that.  My characters decided where they wanted to be and I let them take us there.  It’s not a “great” story, but it’s solid. 

I will look back fondly on this year’s writing, as it helped me get through some difficult times that were happening.  It gave me something to focus on other than the negativity that was spinning in my head.  It was a very welcome distraction. 

Congratulations to all my fellow NaNoers.  A special congratulations goes out to the writers’ club I co-advise at my school.  The group set out to write a total of 10,000 words and they reached that goal.  I am incredibly proud of their achievment. 

Usually Merlin snuggles with Jake… I’m not sure why I get shunned in this respect, but he typically boycotts laying on me.  I’m assuming it’s because I was always so strict when he was a baby about him climbing on me.  It takes an act of congress now to get him to do it.

Snuggling with his sleepy ears.

The Mutt and Me.

One good thing about him?  He’s very warm, and it’s been really darn cold out here.  Having an 86 pound, furry heater never gets old.

Last night my group of friends went out to celebrate Sarah’s 26th birthday.  It was a fantastic evening, made even more fun because Jake came.  This is the first time he’s been out and met all my friends, so he was a little bit nervous.  Everyone really liked him (as I knew they would), and he said he had fun.

Click on the photo to see the rest of the pictures.

I’ll admit that I had about 1/4 of a bowl of seafood pesto pasta, and it was outstanding.  I can tell I didn’t over do things because my stomach didn’t get all torn up from eating it.  It was fantastic, and totally worth the probably 18 points I used for it.

Today I’m going to go to the grocery store and get the last of the things I need for Thanksgiving.  This afternoon I’m heading up to Cary to hang out with my good friend Steve for the day.  We’re going to play some W*ii and then go out to dinner.

I have two days of school this week and then three glorious days off for the holiday.  On Wednesday Sarah, Bethany and I are going to go see T*wilight.  I’m very excited even though I know that it won’t be as good as the book.  We’re all turbo nerds, but I’m totally OK with it.  Next Saturday I’ll be going to my friend Bre’s house for an all-day crop.  I’m really looking forward to that because I have a project to finish for Christmas.

In other news, Jake sold his old motorcycle and bought a new one.  Head on over to his site and check out the photos of the new bike.  It’s very shiny and will absolutely mean that I will hardly ever see him because he’ll be out riding all the time.  :)  It makes him happy though, and that’s what matters.