So close to 100 posts and I crap out

How...normal of me. Yes, that's how I roll. It's a terribly bad habit, I admit. Usually when I'm really close to something being done I either forget about it or find a reason to walk away. Obviously there is some psychology behind it. But I'm not here to talk about that.

A Christmas Letter from Doris

When my mother worked the day shift at the bank (date processing center, not an actual bank with money) she worked with a lot of older women. This was over ten years ago and most of those same women are retired. One of them, Doris, sends out an email every day to whoever is on her contact list. These "letters" as she calls them are normally sent before 5am. I don't know when she started sending them but for those who receive them I'm sure it feels like forever.

I was visiting my mother and stumbled across these emails. At first it was the bad grammar, bad spelling mistakes, and terrible sentence structure that made me giggle. My mother began to email me funny ones and eventually, upon my insistence, all of them. Once, I read that day's email out loud to my girlfriend. That started frequent reading sessions which snowballed into my forwarding of the email to her.

Her friend visited us one weekend and I happened to read a "Doris letter" aloud. Now I forward the emails not only to my girlfriend, but to her friend as well. We tried to explain the humor to a bunch of friends at a party. It didn't go over well.

Christmas Eve I happened to be in the kitchen at my mother's house when the phone rang. When the caller asked for her, I kindly explained that she was seeing our guests out to their car and would be able to take the call momentarily. While carrying on an amicable conversation I was racking my brains for which one of my mother's friends this could be. I was afraid she was going to say, "Okay, just tell her I called," and hang up. That's happened to me before but I've always recognized the voice. Finally about five minutes in the called asks, "and who is this?" I reply, "oh, this is Janet's son," and to my merriment I heard over the phone, "this is Doris. Your voice changed too!"

My first thought was, duh, of course my voice changed - that's what happens, quickly followed by, holy shit it's Doris! Their mutual friend was sick and landed in the hospital which is why I assumed she was calling.

When my mother came back in the house I excitedly told her who was on the phone and handed it over. I soon found out that there was something wrong with Doris's internet connection and she was unable to send out her letters. She was afraid people would assume she was sick or dead and wondered if my mother could send an email out to all her contacts to let them know what was what.

So the reason she called wasn't because her friend was in the hospital, it was because the friend that was in the hospital is the one who would have sent out the email for her!

I jumped onto the computer and started writing the email even before my mother was off the phone. It was a Christmas miracle! I talked to Doris AND got to write my very own Doris letter.

Yes, I am that easy to please. ;)

NanoWriMo...oh no I'm starting to talk like them!

It's...well, it was, day 5 of National Novel Writing Month. I don't care if you're sick of me talking about it. There are 25...well, soon to be 24, days left, so you better get used to it!

Today my own personal goal was to get to the 10,000 word mark. At this moment I'm at 10,885/50,000. Hooray! I wrote 4093 words today (!) and my story took an interesting new direction. I'm not sure how it all goes together buy, I guess that's to worry about after it's written. When I realized what I had written and where it was going I actually started to giggle out loud. That's never good. Then again, I've also spent most of the day writing. I took my adderall at two separate times so I was able to concentrate better. One of the days I waited too late to start and it was like pulling teeth. I think it was day 3. But now I'm cruising along. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here!

National Novel Writing Month

It's Day 2 of National Novel Writing Month and, yes, I've been writing! It's been a challenge for me to forget all I've been taught and just write. I know, boo hoo hoo for me. But in having a BA in English with a concentration in writing, there are certain things you're taught to do. And certain things you're taught not to. Like what I just did. I'm used to tightening up my prose as I go. When you're writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, you're going for quantity and not quality. Someone on the website joked that December is for editing. The entire point of doing this is to prove that it is possible for anyone to write a novel. 50,000 is technically a novella, but they wanted to make it doable for people that had full time jobs, children, were students, etc. could participate without killing themselves.

I was very upset on November 1st when I woke up with a cold. Well, I was actually upset during the night when I couldn't sleep because my nose wouldn't stop running. At one point I fell asleep with a tissue propped up against my nose. But I was still able to churn out over 1,000 words. In order to stay on track I have to produce around 1700 word a day. Today I made up for yesterday by bringing my two day total up to 3445. I'm actually hoping to finish a week early (glutton for punishment) so I don't have to worry about working on it while home for Thanksgiving.

Cats, Halloween, and Novels

Back by popular demand!

So sorry for the delay between posts. Usually if nothing of note happens in the day I don't see any point in updating.

I just read back a few entries and realized I never updated about the cat. I changed his diet awhile back to Iams healthy something or other and more recently started feeding him a little wet food at night. His problem seems to be gone for now. I'm also working harder to make sure he drinks plenty of water. I mixed some wet food with water today and gave it to him. He was happy to take it off my hands. Right now he's thumping his tail and laying on a stack of magazines. Nothing beats a spoiled, happy cat.

Last night we had our yearly Halloween party. The theme was Iron Chef: Gourds, and I was very apprehensive as last year at the halloween party I had a seizure during set-up. I may have mentioned that before. Anyway, this time I was seizure free! And I won an award for best use of the sectret ingrediant. I made a vegetarian pumpkin lasagna from a recipe I found online. I had my doubt, but it was a fan favorite. Score!
I'm trying to get use to not drinking at parties. With all the pills I'm on and all, alcohol is one of the worst things I can put in my body. Also I'm not the, "well, I'll just have one," type of person. It's why when I quit smoking I just stopped. It's either all or none. If I have one, it'll lead to move. When my doctor okay'd 1-2 beers, I had seven; and I threw up everywhere. I've put soda in the place of alcohol. As odd as it sounds, I think it's working. I stopped drinking soda on a regular basis and only do it on "special" occasions. So last night instead of drinking and regretting it, I let myself have soda guilt free. It's a win-win situation.

Tomorrow begins National Novel Writing Month. I'm sure in a few days I'll be blogging about how i can't believe i signed up for this. But for now, let's pretend it's a great idea. I'm hoping that having a goal with a definite deadline will help me get back into a schedule. Not having a schedule and watching 6 hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while fun, isn't doing anything for my mental, emotional, and physical health. Starting at 12:00am November 1st, participants have 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel. Or if you're looking for pages, that number is 175. I don't have any strong ideas as of yet. I think I'll just start writing tomorrow and see what comes out. It's how I work best after all. :)

Haven't done this in years!

Couldn't figure out why I couldn't sleep last night. Until this morning when I realized I took pills labelled DAY instead of the ones labeled NIGHT. Day pills contain adderell. Now I am very tired. ;P

My name is Sean Hodgdon, and I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!

Okay, so I missed 2 days. One of those days nothing happened. No, really! I sat and watched Buffy allllllll day. Yesterday I booked a trip to Disney World.

No, you heard me correctly. I booked a trip to Disney World yesterday. Okay, okay. I didn't use my credit card. BUT I did do the actual booking. For December. Yes, this December. C'mon, what better way to celebrate the holidays than at the happiest place on earth!

Wheelchair is ordered, cat sitter confirmed, I called WDW today to iron out the details. Yes, I'm the person who accidentally sent in two reservations when I was playing around with the dates. I told her that yes, the one we started to pay for was the one we wanted to keep. I also requested a room close to the bus stop because of the wheelchair. Seriously, if I didn't use a wheelchair while there I would be beat after a day and a half. I was so tired the last time we went (and this is using a wheelchair), we came back to the room in the middle of the day to rest up before we went out again. I passed out in my underwear for an hour and a half. I'm the person who doesn't EVER nap. We're also going during the free dining promotion and during the 3rd least crowded week of the year. It will be nice to see the parks all dressed up for the holidays.

Also yesterday the Westboro Baptist Church (website: godhatesfags.com) had threatened to protest UML's production of the Laramie Project. Almost 100 students, faculty, staff, and friends showed up for a peaceful counter protest with witty and funny signs. People even stayed when it started to rain. I did not, I ran for cover for two reasons. 1) I refused to get sick from standing out in the pouring rain because 2) they never showed up. That's right - they. didn't. show. Apparently they've missed a lot of their protests lately and we weren't on the protest schedule on the offending website. It was great that they didn't show up but oddly disappointing as so many showed up in support.

The day we lost power I made out a check to one of my loan companies, sealed the envelope, and then lost it. The only good thing is I know it didn't leave the house because we didn't have any stamps. It's driving me nuts that it's gone. I even ended up rearranging the office looking for it. I made it look 100% better and we can actually get to the gym again. Because I'll be rocking a wheelchair for a week I need to get working on my arm and core muscles. Last time I did fine without them but I imagine it will be so much easier with them. Night, all! :)

My American Beauty moment at the kitchen table

I got out of the shower and saw a plain band-aid on my arm. I wondered why it wasn't a buzz lightyear band-aid. Then I remembered it was from the flu shot I did not administer myself.

Last night I did not blog because I had an American Beauty moment. We got home late and there was cat shit on the floor, the cats were screaming for food, and I forgot it was Thursday and the trash needed to go out. Amy was tired and went upstairs. I fed the cats and was picking up their poop when Io started throwing up in the livingroom. She threw up at least 6 times. And I picked that night, of all nights, to feed them chunky beef in gravy. After using all the paper towels and napkins, I finally clean it up, use Spot Shot to remove the stains, wipe it down with water, and vacuum. I finish what I was doing before she threw up and take out the trash. At some point I went upstairs to tell a sleeping Amy all the stuff I just did while she was sleeping. I went back downstairs and sat down at the kitchen table. Just sat there. I didn't know what to do, what to feel. I was empty, but full at the same time. Eventually I went upstairs to bed.