I love the mountains.
I had to go to Asheville this week for a meeting, and like every time I visit the NC mountains, I was struck by how much I really want to live there. I'm not sure why I enjoy the mountains so much. I enjoy going to the beach, but I would never want to actually live at the beach. But I would move to the mountains in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, unless I find some other source of income than the legal profession, it's not a realistic possibility until I retire. Sure, there are legal jobs in the NC mountains, but I would do almost anything to avoid going back into private practice, so that severely limits my options.
It doesn't stop me from dreaming and hoping though. Every time my husband and I take a trip to the western part of the state, we spend some time looking at smaller towns in whatever area we happen to be visiting. Ideally, we'd like to buy some land and put a trailer, or something we could spend weekends in, on the land and slowly do the necessary improvements needed to get the land ready to build our retirement home. It's still a dream at this point though.
The downside to my visit to Asheville this time was that I tripped over a folded up floor mat & slammed my head into a metal door handle. I'm fine, but I have a small cut on my left eyebrow that bled like a stuck pig for a while, and my eyelid and under my eye were a lovely shade of purplish red that is now starting to turn yellow. I told my husband he was lucky I was out of town when it happened, and that I have witnesses, otherwise people would think he did it.
The incident didn't change my desire to live in the mountains though…someday.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
HodgePodge
I didn't mean to go a week without posting. I kept thinking about posting, but just kept coming up with other things to do instead.
It's been a busy, awkward week or so at work. We have 4 new employees that I'm largely responsible for coordinating some training for, and on top of that, this week they are literally moving the walls in my office, so I've been working on my laptop out of the library, the windowless conference room, or wherever I can find to plug in & have a phone nearby. Today is a holiday & tomorrow I'm going to be working from home. Monday, they are supposed to be done and between meetings on Monday and Tuesday I will have to move everything to my new (smaller) office and get everything set back up so they know where to run my computer and phone cables. Wednesday & Thursday I will be in Asheville for a meeting, and then Friday I will be out of the office as well for another meeting. So next week will be just as crazy as this one.
Our daughter and her boyfriend were here over the weekend. We really enjoyed having them here. She's 22 years old, and while she's been sort of "grown-up" for some time, this was probably the first time it truly felt like having adult house guests for the weekend, rather than a college student sleeping here for the weekend while she hung out with her friends. It also helps that we like the young man she's currently dating, and he didn't seem to mind hanging out here with us and helping my husband work on cars.
What I haven't done over the past week really, is do any writing. I'm still sitting at 4,375 words on my Nano novel. I haven't given up on it, I just haven't been able to get my thoughts together to actually work on it. I may work on it some later tonight, but even if I don't, I do plan to put in some definite time on it this weekend and see if I can't get the creative part of my brain in gear again.
I hope to be back posting again before another week passes, but meanwhile, today is Veteran's Day, so be sure to thank any veterans you happen to encounter!
It's been a busy, awkward week or so at work. We have 4 new employees that I'm largely responsible for coordinating some training for, and on top of that, this week they are literally moving the walls in my office, so I've been working on my laptop out of the library, the windowless conference room, or wherever I can find to plug in & have a phone nearby. Today is a holiday & tomorrow I'm going to be working from home. Monday, they are supposed to be done and between meetings on Monday and Tuesday I will have to move everything to my new (smaller) office and get everything set back up so they know where to run my computer and phone cables. Wednesday & Thursday I will be in Asheville for a meeting, and then Friday I will be out of the office as well for another meeting. So next week will be just as crazy as this one.
Our daughter and her boyfriend were here over the weekend. We really enjoyed having them here. She's 22 years old, and while she's been sort of "grown-up" for some time, this was probably the first time it truly felt like having adult house guests for the weekend, rather than a college student sleeping here for the weekend while she hung out with her friends. It also helps that we like the young man she's currently dating, and he didn't seem to mind hanging out here with us and helping my husband work on cars.
What I haven't done over the past week really, is do any writing. I'm still sitting at 4,375 words on my Nano novel. I haven't given up on it, I just haven't been able to get my thoughts together to actually work on it. I may work on it some later tonight, but even if I don't, I do plan to put in some definite time on it this weekend and see if I can't get the creative part of my brain in gear again.
I hope to be back posting again before another week passes, but meanwhile, today is Veteran's Day, so be sure to thank any veterans you happen to encounter!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Struggling
Well, day 3 of NaNoWriMo, and I'm struggling. I'm up to 3,923 words, but it's been hard going so far.
When I did this in 2004, I had a good idea of my storyline and once I got started I always seemed to know where the story would go next. Not that the writing was necessarily good, but I was able to write it. Maybe it's because that was a more general, women's fiction, type story and this time I'm trying a mystery, but it's not flowing right now. I realized in brainstorming before this month that a mystery definitely takes more planning and thought, but I didn't want to plan too much out and lose momentum when it actually came time to write. As a result, I'm now acutely aware that there are a lot of things I haven't thought out at all.
I didn't even write last night because I just couldn't figure out where to go next. Today, I decided that I just needed to write, so I've been writing whatever scene pops into my head. I have an idea of some of the events that need to happen, but I'm lacking in how to get from event to event. There's some logic in what I've written so far, but definitely a lot of gaps that will have to be filled at some point.
I'm hoping that by just getting the things I have thought about out, it will bring some clarity to the rest of the story & I'll figure out where I'm going. If nothing else, I may write 50,000 words of disjointed ideas that I can eventually cull something useful from to start again from scratch.
I'm frustrated, but I'm not giving up….I'm writing.
When I did this in 2004, I had a good idea of my storyline and once I got started I always seemed to know where the story would go next. Not that the writing was necessarily good, but I was able to write it. Maybe it's because that was a more general, women's fiction, type story and this time I'm trying a mystery, but it's not flowing right now. I realized in brainstorming before this month that a mystery definitely takes more planning and thought, but I didn't want to plan too much out and lose momentum when it actually came time to write. As a result, I'm now acutely aware that there are a lot of things I haven't thought out at all.
I didn't even write last night because I just couldn't figure out where to go next. Today, I decided that I just needed to write, so I've been writing whatever scene pops into my head. I have an idea of some of the events that need to happen, but I'm lacking in how to get from event to event. There's some logic in what I've written so far, but definitely a lot of gaps that will have to be filled at some point.
I'm hoping that by just getting the things I have thought about out, it will bring some clarity to the rest of the story & I'll figure out where I'm going. If nothing else, I may write 50,000 words of disjointed ideas that I can eventually cull something useful from to start again from scratch.
I'm frustrated, but I'm not giving up….I'm writing.
Monday, November 1, 2010
And So It Begins….
It's finally November 1 here, and that means NaNoWriMo has officially begun!
I'm finding it a little slow going to start, but I just got started tonight and I've done 500+ words in just an hour or so. The average per day needed to get 50,000 done in 30 days is 1,667 words per day, so I won't get there today, but I'm confident that as I get a little further into my story I'll be able to make it up. UPDATE: Got a little more writing in than I had planned and got to 1,937 for the day, so at least I hit the minimum.
The Nano website has been lagged out since yesterday. Too many people trying to hit it at once I suppose, but hopefully it will even out a bit once the excitement of starting has passed.
I'm going to try to keep posting here at least every couple of days, and I will make an effort not to talk only about how well my novel is (or isn't) going, but if I don't appear for a couple of days, you know why. Also, my daughter and her boyfriend are coming for the weekend, so I need to get as much written between now and then as I can.
So the adventure begins, and hopefully a mystery will emerge from my efforts.
I'm finding it a little slow going to start, but I just got started tonight and I've done 500+ words in just an hour or so. The average per day needed to get 50,000 done in 30 days is 1,667 words per day, so I won't get there today, but I'm confident that as I get a little further into my story I'll be able to make it up. UPDATE: Got a little more writing in than I had planned and got to 1,937 for the day, so at least I hit the minimum.
The Nano website has been lagged out since yesterday. Too many people trying to hit it at once I suppose, but hopefully it will even out a bit once the excitement of starting has passed.
I'm going to try to keep posting here at least every couple of days, and I will make an effort not to talk only about how well my novel is (or isn't) going, but if I don't appear for a couple of days, you know why. Also, my daughter and her boyfriend are coming for the weekend, so I need to get as much written between now and then as I can.
So the adventure begins, and hopefully a mystery will emerge from my efforts.
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