Went to see "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" today. It's a love story set in 1760 France with some contemporary themes. The interesting and rare thing about it is that it is entirely dominated by women- men show up in 2 scenes in the film- the guys rowing the boat that bring our main character to the house at the beginning of the film and the manservant that alerts us to a character's return toward the end. The performances are very well done across the board and it definitely touches an emotional chord.

I have been wanting to do a re-read of my 2018 NaNo project for a while now and I've been reading through it for the past week. I'm pleased to say that I really like it- there are some spots at the end where I was just sick of writing and some chapters just end abruptly, but on the whole it's a very funny sci-fi/fantasy story.

( Poetry )

Vacation was nice. Not enough cheese, though what we had was very good (especially the fried gouda bites at the hotel we stayed at). The Kohler factory was wonderful (although they had water in the bathtub I wanted to get into, but I still manage to sink into one of the empty ones- clothed, except for the shoes, in case you were wondering) and we went to the visitor's center for Caterpillar and got to get up in the cabs of some real heavy duty machinery. So my inner girly-girl and my inner tomboy were very happy. I did tire my mom out though so this might have been the last big road trip we take together.

Trying to figure out what to write for NaNo this year. I had an idea, but it's a little bit of a downer and I think I need something light. I've been on the new website and I don't care for it. I'm sure I'll either get used to it or else just go in once a day to update the word count and otherwise be done with it.

I'm happy the hockey season is close. It's been far too long and I start to get a little wiggy the longer I'm away from the arena. I'll be back there on Tuesday, thank goodness. A day at training camp helped a little, but there's nothing like a real game to get me to relax.

Work was still there when I got back from vacation. It's nice to be needed, but it took 3 days to weed through the e-mails and paperwork that the person filling in for me didn't entirely do correctly (polite way of saying half-a***d). I got caught up for a minute, but two of my guys dumped 5 jobs on me at the end of the day, so it's back to square one. We have a staff meeting tomorrow to talk about programs. Yawn.

Hope you all are well. Drop me a comment and say hi (or if you've got a great idea for a novel that you don't want to write, let me know that too).

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving (or Thursday if you're from a place that doesn't celebrate it). I had a nice evening with my parents, a friend from church, and some neighbors. I ate way too much food though.

I am behind on NaNo. I need to get to it. I fear I have overextended myself this month with some churchy obligations that take up some time each week and I've just generally been blah about this project. I may need to do some quick mind-mapping or something. I'm at 35K, so it's not like I'm that far off, but it's not like this is the week where I'm going to be flying through things either.

I had been making progress on my diet/exercise regime (lost about 15 pounds since August), but there's been a bit of backsliding since the beginning of the month. Still I'm trying to get myself in better shape. I've actually got a real doctor now (instead of going to urgent care every time I need something) so that's a step in the right direction in terms of health.

( triggery stuff dealing with depression/suicide )

Local hockey right now isn't a relief because the Blues, for lack of a better term, suck. At least some of the time, I can watch the other team and just enjoy the hockey that they are playing. I still love the game.

My brother's family is coming over tonight for a game night. It should be a way to everyone to relax and have a good time after the week we've had and I'll get to spend time with my one nephew who was in for the Thanksgiving weekend (before everything went to hell) before he goes back home tomorrow.

That's it for me. Back to the NaNo novel...

Finished my NaNo story. It came through at 50900 or 51045 (depending on whose word count I use) and I feel okay about it.

I'm going to hit the library today, picking up a book for the first time in ages, and then I'll probably start on my Magi project soon (while the creative juices are still flowing!)

An 1800 word sex scene involving dom/sub relationships & cross-dressing?

You people have really influenced my writing.

My word count & I thank you very much.

Just thought I'd drop a quick 'hello' to my f-list before I'm pulled under the depths of NaNo. The briefest of updates:

Happy about the Cardinals winning the World Series.
Still employed.
Thrilled about the request I'm writing for Oz Magi.
7K words into my novel and I want to get another 1000 at least by the end of the night.
Looking forward to seeing my beloved Blackhawks in St Louis next week.

TTFN

Just validated NaNo. Barely over with 50006. But done for now!!!!!

The good news is that I actually like what I wrote this year, so I'll more than likely revisit it and play around with it later on.

The better news is that I can write something new and separate from the NaNo project and be guilt-free about it.

The best news is that I'm now free to watch the hockey game tonight without having to scramble in during commercial breaks to add words. (Or if the guys frustrate me to the point of having to change the channel, I can always watch a little "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer")

In a little over 11 hours, I will be headed to Chicago for a couple days of R&R. I really don't know why I don't do this more often, because after four months of being around my family, I need a break.

NaNo is going all right. I haven't written today, but I'm up to 17K words so far.

I have a thing for ritual and the annual selecting of oz_magi prompts is one of them. Sit there with the list and an ink pen drawing little arrows to the prompts that I like and think I can write. It's fun being able to take part every year although by December 15 (mark your calendars, folks), I will probably be going through the annual ritual of "What the heck am I going to write for Magi?"

Work is a little bit iffy right now, and I'm glad to be leaving it for a couple of days. They are going to be combining two departments in one space - not sure when it's going to happen and they really haven't where we admin temps are going to fit into the whole scheme of things. Although one flow chart did seem to list the title of Customer Service Support Manager for essentially what I have been doing for the past year. No word yet on if I'll be collecting a manager's salary soon, but it's highly unlikely.

The Blues (local hockey team) are playing extremely well, as are the L.A. Kings. Not so much my beloved Blackhawks, but there's still a lot of season left. (Although if they don't win when I'm at the game on Wednesday, I'll be supremely peeved.

I skipped about 50 messages to find that, yes, indeed, OZ Magi is open for the year. You can find the instructions here.

Right now, I'm so exhausted that I can hardly think of an idea for it. I fought with a bout of stomach flu/food poisoning all day yesterday and haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning. It's not that I'm feeling particularly hungry, but I also didn't sleep well all night so I'm ridiculously tired right now.

And if I wasn't in a stupid, stubborn "must start my NaNo novel at midnight" mood, I probably would do that.