Category Archives: randomness

random ramblings of Yours Truly.

anecdotes

Losing Ground

I find that, when I get home from work, I don’t have enough mental energy left to work on my novel. (NaNoWriMo has at least upgraded my terminology for my “story” that I started a few years and 18,000 words ago.) I come up with plenty of ideas while I’m at work, and I’ve even written a little longhand, although it took me a good ten minutes to really get into the groove. (More about that later.) But, for right now, I find that I’m more interested in vegging in front of PBS or blogsurfing than adding to my story. I’m just so tired.

Of course, that has nothing to do with the snack-food potluck we had at work today, wherein I ate four dry Atkins muffins, a piece of veggie pizza, several crackers with spinach dip, several pieces of fruit, a few pigs-in-a-blanket made with Li’l Smokies weiners, a few pickles, lots of cheese, some salami and pepperoni, et cetera, et cetera. I’m positive I ate more sugar (and carbs in general) than I had originally intended today.

But back to my original rant. I find that my creative juices have changed from flowing at night to flowing during the afternoon. Of course, I now get up at 7:15am as opposed to 10am (or later, when I could get away with it) during college. So, I try to make the most of it when I’m at work: I keep a piece of scrap paper handy by my desk for to-do lists and general ideas, and I’ve taken to writing longhand in a journal over breaks and lunch. Thankfully, a Quiet Room has been instituted at work for people like me who would rather write or read or nap during my personal time, and that’s where I’ve been spending my time this week. In the big comfy fuzzy chair with the ottoman, my shoes off, one foot tucked up in front of me to make a little slanted writing desk out of my thigh.

Today, however, I was intruded upon. Just as I was moving from journaling to noveling, two young women came into the quiet room. One held a ball of yarn and two knitting needles, and the other brought nothing. They started talking quietly amongst themselves about this-n-that: “Did you start over with your knitting? I wish I’d brought a book. They seem really strict about this ‘no talking in the quiet room’ thing. Can you believe the traffic over there?” All in that low almost-whisper that is more attention-grabbing than normal speech.

I had been having a hard time getting started, anyway. I stood up, put on my shoes, grabbed my paper and my purse—and then they realized they might actually be disturbing me. They apologized “if they were bothering me,” and I pretty much blew them off. I crossed the hall and sat on the floor in the empty corner room with all the big windows, which is where I’ve been sitting to read up until now, and was where I had thought the Quiet Room was going to be.

Even with people walking past in the corridor and talking, with the ding of the elevator and the sounds of people downstairs echoing up the stairwell, I got more written on the floor of that sunny room than I would have fighting the distractions in the Quiet Room sitting in the comfy chair.

The underlining point of all this is that I’m losing ground on my 50,000 words. I’m hoping for a prolific writing day tomorrow while I’m off work, and for some more stamina in the evenings.

Edit: I just calculated that I’ve only added 1,440 words to my novel since the beginning of the month. I am way behind.

randomness 1 Comment

Election Night: Running Commentary

Not that anyone checks my blog on an hourly basis, but I thought it would be fun to run a commentary on my opinions and reactions as the poll returns come in. I’m watching Peter Jennings and his election team on ABC, for reference.

8:00pm – Early, early returns are disappointing. Bush has 39 electoral votes, Kerry has 3, and it looks like Ohio’s ban on gay marriage is going to pass by nearly a 2:1 margin. Damn, damn, damn. Why are people so… I don’t know… narrow-minded? The gay marriage referendum closed the door on civil unions, as well, through its wording. I’m not usually very vehement about political or social issues, but this is one defeat that is highly disappointing to me.

8:05pm – That’s better. Bush with 66, Kerry with 74. Give me a second for them to put up the map… Nope, neither Ohio nor Florida are tallied yet.

8:15pm – Now, at this particular moment of electoral limbo, with returns coming in and nothing yet decided, there is one thing I’m most pleased about: NO MORE POLITICAL ADS. I never thought I’d be happy to see a Chrysler commercial again.

8:35pm – The online Electoral Vote Predictor currently shows a near-tie in the presidential election: Kerry with 262, Bush with 261 electoral votes. This is, of course, speculation and statistics, and the candidates need 270 votes to clinch the Presidency. Still, though, it’s heartening.

8:40pm – Fuck. Now it’s 102 to 77, Bush. I need to stop getting worked up over each single state reporting in and being tallied. It’s a long night ahead.

9:15pm – Emerged from Photoshopping to check the returns, and was surprised by the map. There’s an awful lotta red on that map. Part of me is wishing Ohio would pop up on the map already, but part of me is daunted by the fact that the preliminary results are showing Bush besting Kerry in Ohio by about 55% to 45%. It’s still early, I know, but I’m starting to feel a little defeatist about this. I’m also feeling like I might fall asleep before the results are all announced.

9:55pm – Feeling more sleepy and more disheartened by the moment. The local news keeps reporting that Bush is currently edging out Kerry in the Ohio race, although the margin gets slimmer as more precincts report in. I’m going to try to stay up for at least another half-hour or so, in hopes of getting a better idea of who will be President when I wake up in the morning.

10:20pm – Aaron just called from work to ask how the results were looking. As I tried to explain that Bush was ahead, but that none of the Battleground States had been decided yet, it occured to me how tired I truly am. I was stumbling all over my words, and my brain felt like cotton. I think I’m going to try to stick it out until 11:00, and see what it looks like at that point, and then go to bed and see who’s President when I wake up in the morning.

10:45pm – Ralph Nader is so sad. The excerpt from his speech this evening nearly put me to sleep (which, at this point, isn’t terribly difficult). I hope he doesn’t try to run again in 2008. He might have done well in earlier years, back when more people knew his name as… well, a corporate activist, I guess one might call him. For now, though, in the year 2004, he just looks so sad and so washed-up that he doesn’t exude any sort of presidential vibe. Not to say that he doesn’t still have good ideas—it just takes a certain amount of political sleaze and schmooze to make an effective, electable candidate. And he ain’t got it.

11:05pm – OK, I’m done. As of right now, it looks like Kerry’s going to win Pennsylvania and California, so the electoral vote stands at 200 to 188, in favor of Bush. At least it’s a little closer now. I’m just too tired to justify staying up to see who the next president will be.

So, Aaron, you might leave me a note or something telling me who the President is, so I won’t have to have people at work tell me tomorrow. 🙂

Good luck, all. I hope we won’t have voted in vain.

randomness

All Hallows Eve

Interesting, I think, how dark it is in my neighborhood tonight. Even our next-door neighbors, who always have their motion-sensor porch light on, now have all their lights off and their blinds drawn. Can’t have anyone mistaking yours for a trick-or-treat house, after all. Our own porch light is broken, though, so we couldn’t really hand out candy tonight even if we’d planned to.

Aaron and I kind of forgot to carve our jack-o-lantern until today, so we’re planning to do that after dinner. Of course, that will be long after the trick-or-treaters have gone home to count their Smarties and Tootsie Rolls and get wired on sugar before bed. Ah, well. It’s the thought that counts.

And if you’re not into the modern American Halloween festivities (but who isn’t?), you could always reflect on your family or learn about the history of Halloween / Samhain and how other beliefs and cultures celebrate the day.