Winner!

oh, yeah! 50, 044 words. Four years running!

47,000!

Just posted the very latest in the Lab, so now you have exactly everything that I've written right up until this moment. Even went back and updated the old Space Ghost Stories chapter. Now it features a theoretical discussion on the Gorm and how Portia's not too old for Bea to send to her room.

I'm going to see if I can do any more tonight. I really want to be able to finish this thing tomorrow.

40,561!

A three thousand word day!

Now I need a nap.

I updated the lab with about five new chapters. (I was working on bits of them at the same time.) If it's jumpy of doesn't make sense, remember: I am very ill.

39000!

Woo-who! I'm going to make it!

The Sicks

It's official. I have strep throat. Fortunately, I also have antibiotics, orange juice, a laptop, and Andy at my beck and call.

And Natalie, who braves unknown germs to deliver me gatorade, bananas, and egg nog because she knows I like it. Thank you. :)

Andy cancelled our Turkey Day plans at the Belancios because I'm no fun to be around and who wants me coughing all over the food? Yeah. So Andy went out this evening to the madhouse grocers and got us the making of our "sad sick Thanksgiving." We have frozen ravilois and fancy Newman's Own sauce. Not as nice as the Belancios (what is. Will is a killer cook.) but this way I'll keep the germs to a minimun.

And I'm trying to write. I'm resting and have a little bit of energy now (enough to blog) so I want to do a thousand words at the minimun. Tomorrow I should be better and I can do more.

Currenlty, I'm at 34,322.

34,000!

Finally, I seem to be over the wall and hitting my second wind.

Week three is always the roughest. That's just about the point where I run out of planned plot and my narrative sputters, running out of gas, if you will.

But all that's changed, baby!

Inspiration struck last night at 11:30, when I was sleeping. I woke up and I had such a good idea that I ran to the computer to type it in before it drifted away.

28,455!

I crossed 28k last night at midnight and then promptly went to bed. This morning I want to hit 30k, before noon when the real world catches up with me.

Jule is running the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday and Natalie and I have been appointment her support team. Tonight we're taking her out for a nice dinner filled to the brim with calaories. Sunday we tool around Philly, waiting to shout "Go Jule!" at various parts of the race, and then we scrape her off the finish line and take the chick home.

Jule says that if Natalie and I do a good job, we can be her offical support team and follow her to other marathon. We'll need snazzy tee-shirts, though., with a cute team name. (Natalie is all about the Two Fat Chicks Marathon Support Team, for the irony.)

It'll be a good day but I don't think I'll get much writting done.

Yesterday I said as much to her and she said, "I am running a marathon, it is very important."

"Nanowrimo is my marathon, too! Writting 50 thousand words is a marathon."

So after the race on Sunday, she'll be my support team. :)

Glamorous Harrisburg, Baby!

Tuesday the Alzheimer's Association had a rally at the state capital to support House Bill 566, the Family Caregiver Support Act. Long story short, it's a very good bill and directly affects my job. It would raise my budget from $200/mo to $600 to help the elderly stay in their home. (Write your State Senator to support it. That's you, Natalie/Delmar.)

Jule and I decided that going to Harrisburg was important. We had scheduled meetings with State Senators and State Reps. We were grouped into teams and we conveyed the important of suuporting this bill and how it saves the state money in the long run. Really, $600 a month to let a family keep their loved one home and out of an instituation, which is like $10k a month? Huge money saver. And the fact that Jule and I work with the program everyday helped to focus the conversation ( I think) and answer some tough questions the Senators had.

Such as, Senator Tomlinson. "Did you just get tobacco money a few years ago."

I jumped in. "True, but the Dept. of Aging split that money with other programs. Family Caregivers used it to expand the program and increase the number of people served. My office went from serving 130 people to 195. Bill 566 keeps the current number of people served will increase the monthly limit on what we can spend, increasing the help they already receive."

Pretty good save. Tomlinson said that was impressive. :)

Then he said, "The Govenor wants us to find $35 million for heating this winter."

Jule comes in with the best line of the day: "The winter is only three months. This program makes a difference all year long."

Our team leader, Bob (who is also on the board of directors for the Alzheimer's Association) said we did a great job and he wished every team had social workers to help.

So, a very long and very tiring day but very rewarding. And I actually like this government stuff. :) I came home really jazzed about my day and babbled joyfully about who said what to whom and how brilliant I was, etc, and Andy said I missed my calling. I don't know about that, but I deffinately want to do more.

22047

I'm kickign butt!!

Right now Portia made a very bad pass at Franklin who had the decency to tell her she's like his little sister. That did not go over well.

Meanwhile, in Jenny's novel, I'm totally in love with her characters. *sigh* "PLease give me a bunny." Ah ha ha. Ah ha ha.

19,600!

I'm going to make it to 20k before the night it out, meaning I'll have written an impressive 3000 words this afternoon. That also means my ass is sore from all this sitting and I have half a dozen soda cans littering the computer desk.

Updated the lab, too. Check it out.

I love to vote!

Andy comes home this evenign at 6:30 and I'm hard at work writing. He asks, "Did you vote?"

Of course I voted, I think. I lectured people about the importance of voting, even in the minor eletions. But I don't answer...

"Did you?"

"I forgot."

"What!"

"Nano..." I say weakly.

"Put your shoes on woman, I'll take you out voting."

Just then Jenny calls and she, too, forgot to vote. Ha! So it wasn't just me.

After executing my duty as a good citizen, Andy takes me out to dinner. He believes it's really clever to say things like, "Dammit, woman, I don't tell you how to vote but I do tell you to vote."

(This is spurned by a comment a client made to me last year about how she voted that day and "My husband real good to mer. He doesn't tell me how to vote." Funny, in a wierd way.)

That kid's got a case of the Fossey

SO there Andy and I were, doing our food shopping, and this little girl comes dancing around the corner, following her mum pushing the cart. She's tapping her feet, swinging her hips, and doing jazz hands.

"She's got to dance," I said.

"She's got the Fossey," Andy said. And then he said, "Jazz hands!"

what the fuck

I'm not sure what happened...I went to change the template and all my lovely links and tag board dissapeared.

I'll fix it tomorrow, if the Omouse doesn't see her way to fixing it first. :)

8412

Jenny, Natalie, and Tracy all called me today to remind me to get off my butt and write. Thank you all for the poke in the ass. It was appriciated.

Some of the older posts in the Lad have been updated with the more recent rewriting. All newer version include a higher word count, of course. And in this version Portia has a Personality and actually gets into a fight with her boss. Cool. She also has this unhealthy love an anime show, Superpower Kung-Fu Koalas.

And to round out the day, things are now moving in the story. Portia's even in jail.

I'm going to leave her there until the morning, so she can learn her lesson.

My Bad

As Jenny pointed out this evening on my answering machine, I have been remiss in posting the novel as I write it. My bad. It's all waiting the Lab now, toasty warm.

I'm not writing today. My brain hurts. And now I'm going to bed.

Strike

Septa, the public transit authority is on strike. This makes the already lousy Philly traffic exceptionally lousy. As I was walking down Germantown Avenue, fetching my lunch from the corner deli, I mentally grumbled about the cars double parking, the crowded streets, and the impatient drivers honking and honking like that could do anything. The strike is three days old and I've been late to work everyday. Driving anywhere takes twice as long.

And it suddenly occured to me: The strike was going to be in my novel.

Excited, I hustled back to my office and started writing notes on a fax coversheet. Ah, the magic of NaNoWriMo...