Slightly Behind, but Hanging in There

I can't believe it's been five days since I last updated here. Lately, everything has been about catching up.

I spent a great weekend at home, where I got to see my brother do an astounding job at playing the part of Gaston in our high school's production of Beauty and the Beast, and it was just wonderful talking to a lot of my old friends from school who were involved in the production. I especially enjoyed seeing our former drama teacher, who flew in from Amarillo just to see the play. As much as I'm enjoying college and I was ready to move on in life just a few months ago this spring, I realize now how much I want to savor everything about life; being back home really makes me wistful for the good times there, and seeing the play this weekend brought back good memories from when I was in Annie, Get Your Gun two years ago.

On Saturday, I slept in, having stayed up until almost 3:00 the night before. I only had just enough time to cobble together my little presentation on writing before scrambling out the door for my afternoon at the Wells Branch Library where I used to work. I passed the whole afternoon there hosting a write-in in the meeting room. Only four other people came, and we barely socialized, but even without talking, I still fought to eke out every word that afternoon. All in all, I felt kind of sad that I spent half the day somewhat alone in a small meeting room at my former place of work, but it wasn't a total waste because I did make progress, no matter how painstakingly.

Saturday night on my way home, I happened to see some familiar cars in the parking lot at church, so I poked my head into the youth group's office to see what was going on. It was a good thing I did since there was a retreat planning meeting going on, and I was able to see several people from my youth group that I missed on my last visit. I spent the next couple hours with my friend Patrick, talking about life and vocations and faith, and it was really good to be able to share my feelings in words with someone else at the same stage of life.

Sunday, I again slept late, trying to catch up on sleep lost at the end of last week, but it was just as well since I ended up going to the youth-served mass at 11:45. This time, I was able to see my former piano teacher and her adorable baby, as well as our pastor at my home parish. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten that November 15 was the feast day of St. Albert, the parish's patron.

I didn't do much the rest of the afternoon except go out to Half Price Books to use a 50% off coupon, netting me a Berlitz Intermediate Italian course for just about $7.00, plus two other workbooks, Russian and Arabic in 10 Minutes a Day. Since I was near SuperCuts, I also got a haircut, which feels much better, although with the cold front that came in last night, my head is cold now!

As for words, I managed to write about 2,000 today, although ideally, I should be about 1,000 further. I'm not sure what it is, but I have faced this problem almost every year where I just absolutely hate my story and want to trash it. Before November started, I made around fifty notecards with scene ideas on them, but the only thing that was really cemented in my head was the introduction to the story. When that was finished, the plot kind of fizzled out, and I have been making up absolute rubbish in the meantime to fill the gap. Still, I managed to cross over the halfway mark (whoop! ^_^) today, and if I can bang out at least 10,000 more words, it ought to be smoother sailing from there. Too bad these words don't count! ;)

Current wordcount: 25,392 and counting