Another Year, Another NaNoWriMo

November has come and gone and, once again, I failed to write 50,000 words.

I haven't been doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about) all that long, but I still feel like I should have been able to write 50,000 words in a month. I mean, I sat down one night and wrote almost 3,000 words in one sitting - 1,667 a day shouldn't be a problem!

I wish that it didn't take place in November. I have a lot going on with Thanksgiving and the other holidays coming up. For some reason, it seems to be the busiest time of year for us even though we do a lot of social nonsense all the time. But this year from Thanksgiving until Christmas, I won't have a single weekend to myself to do nothing (or at least just do whatever I want, which usually involves reading and staying in my jammies).

I was hoping to catch up over the four-day weekend, but that didn't happen. We went out Wednesday night; Thursday was Thanksgiving and I made dinner for everyone; Friday night was Friendsgiving with a group of friends; Saturday was Small Business Saturday so we went out for that, and then that night was a birthday party with the same group of friends from Friday; and Sunday I went to visit my grandparents and aunts and uncle.

Of course, by Sunday it was too late. I'd missed the deadline and hadn't met the goal.

While I would say that I'm disappointed in myself, I'm not really. I mean, yes, to a certain degree I am because I didn't finish my novel - not even close! But you know what I did do? I managed to write over 38,000 words in a month - a very busy month - and hammer out a lot of details for a story that I've been trying to get down for a long time.

I think I might try my hand at Camp NaNoWriMo this summer. I'd like to at least finish the story I started and maybe get somewhere with it, and come up with a solid outline for the next NaNo story I'm going to write (yes, I already have one in mind for next year).

So while I didn't finish, I am proud of myself for attempting it and getting at least some words down. I'm happy that I figured out where I want to go with my story and that I got more plot lines down. It's okay that it's not finished. I'll still work on it now. I'd like to get a book published some time in my life... why not 2014?

Anyway, I'm off to go do actual work and other things that have been neglected during this month of insanity. My office is in shambles... I got a new desk and everything is just sitting in piles on the floor because I don't have time to fix it. I have filing to do, a closet to clean, and bookshelves to organize. We've been in our house for two years now... I guess it's about time these things got finished.

What I'm Thankful For

As I sit here at 11ish on Sunday night, I'm getting grumpy about my four-day weekend disappearing. I won't get another until next Thanksgiving (unless I take time off) and I felt like it got wasted making food for Thanksgiving and parties that we had to go to. I didn't have one day completely to myself to just relax and enjoy.

And then I thought about it - I spent my entire weekend in the company of my family and friends. What better way is there to spend Thanksgiving weekend?

It made me think about what I'm really thankful for. I didn't do the typical Facebook post listing everything that I'm thankful for. I used to, but anymore I feel like people just like to talk about what they love in their life to make everyone else feel bad about theirs. I could be wrong, but Facebook should really just be called LifeBrag or something because that's what people do. Facebook rant aside, I have a lot of things that I am thankful for, but I don't want to irritate people on all social media outlets.

So while I'm feeling cranky about having to go to work tomorrow and not really having a relaxing long weekend, I'm incredibly thankful that I have a job to go to, and that I actually like my job. I'm also thankful that I have friends and family that want to spend time with me, and that I want to spend time with. I am thankful that I have the time and resources to make Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I'm very, very thankful that I don't work in retail anymore. I'm thankful for my husband, my dogs, my house, my life.

All things considered, it was a good weekend, and now I need to get to bed so I can function at work tomorrow.