Reading over Thanksgiving Break

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you're not from America, I hope you've had a fantastic weekend.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There's no pressure to buy gifts, no pressure to be religious, it's just about eating and being with friends and family. My parents always have a massive Thanksgiving feast. They got married the day after Thanksgiving, so it's a very special time for them. This year, we had fourteen people over. It was fabulous.

As there are only two weeks of the semester left, I've been frantically working on homework. Managed to write ten pages in a paper yesterday and finish the research for a different paper. Today, I'm hoping to finish up both papers (one is significantly shorter than the other).

Last night, as a treat to myself, I read The Little Prince. Oh my god. I can't believe I've never read it before. It was absolutley beautiful, and caused a bit of a shift in my thinking. This semester has been particularly difficult emotionally, and I've been so stressed out for so long and trying to just stay on top of everything that I've been burned out for weeks. Just ... sad. But this book got me thinking.

I've been trying to reclaim happiness in my life. I've also been trying to figure out what to do with myself, what direction to take my Social Justice major, and life after college. I've realized lately that maybe, emotionally, I'm just not right for working people through conflict. Which had sort of been the original plan. I've been thinking, lately, that maybe I should look at arts for social change instead of women in conflict. I'm much better at that, and it's much more easy for me to sustain and still be happy.

Reading The Little Prince really makes me think that I should do something that allows me to be happy, to cultivate wisdom. I don't always want to have to be in therapy to deal with my job. I want to be happy, I want to have the energy to be creative. I don't think the path that I was going down was going to make me happy. I could already tell - it's been wearing on me.

In this beautiful little book, I feel like I've found permission to do what works for me. I can't really explain it, and I need to read the book several more times to get the full meaning of it, but I read it at a time when it was needed.

I read my mom's copy of it, and I told her how much I loved it. She gave it to me. That's the spirit of the book, right there. Generosity and love.

And everyone could use a little more of that in their lives.

Naps and academics

I need a nap.

I've been trying to work on my abstract for my Arthur paper all day, and I is tired.

So procrastination begins!

I'm really excited to be able to read a novel for fun over break. Yes, I am definitely very excited about that. I also really want to continue writing my novel, which has been on hold for several months and is bothering me. I'm debating what to read. I know that I'll need to finish "The Phantom Tollbooth," but that's a kid's book so it's a really fast read.

I think it's high time I read "The Little Prince." I'm really into literary tattoos, and there are a lot of people that get images from that book as tattoos. I'd like to see what all the fuss is about. I also really want to read some more George Orwell. I'm feeling a reread of "1984," because for some reason "Animal Farm" just isn't catching my eye. But I should read "Animal Farm" at some point. Or some Kurt Vonnegut. I still haven't read any Kurt Vonnegut. I also want to read some Virginia Woolf, when I've got time to just relax and read it. She's got so much going on, I'd like to be able to pull it apart.

... Somehow, I don't think my winter break will be long enough for me to get through all of those books. Sad!

Oh, if only I were done with the semester. I feel like I'm about to go crazy. Yesterday was too nice, being at home. Way, way too nice. I can also focus so much better there than I can here - I think it's because here, it's my life and therefore overwhelming, but at home I have more ability to relax. I just need this semester to be over so I can get a new, fresh start. I hate it when the classes I'm taking get old and stale. Not good.

This post was written a couple of days ago, and I realized it would be really good to put it here. In other news, I'm being picked up by my parents in less than an hour for Thanksgiving. It should be pretty fantastic - Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Peace out, folks!

NaNo Rejuvenation

I've been lagging behind in NaNo. This is understandable, considering it's the middle of the semester and November began with a history-making election.

(Hell yes Obama won! I feel like it's ok to hope again.)

And so my mind has been on other things. Clearly. I've been working hard with MPIRG to get out the vote, I've been keeping up with schoolwork (I have As in all of my classes), and I switched novel ideas just before November started. I've literally been starting from scratch, with three characters and a semblance of plot.

As of right now, the word count is at 1718. Considering how busy I've been, that's miraculous.

But it's not nearly where I should be to sit pretty.

Then I opened my email this morning and read Jonathan Stroud's pep talk. And I remembered why I'm doing NaNo. Because writing a novel will always be painful in some way - there isn't time to make it perfect, like you would with a poem. It's a HUGE quantity of writing, and the real writing is in the editing. The novel that I've been working on since this summer (the one I'm not doing for NaNo), was starting to make me question my ability because it isn't perfect or good, and so I took a break from it to do NaNo. And after NaNo, I can return to it with a new vigor, knowing that the first draft is the real trick.

So I'm writing a novel in a month.

I need to write my way up to 6666 words today to catch up, and I will. Even if I don't get that much sleep tonight. It's worth it.

And hopefully soon I'll have a werewolf play-list for noveling! That will be quite exciting.

First post of NaNoWriMo!

So I'm really behind with NaNo. As in, I have a little over one day's worth of writing in.

I knew it would be crazy around election-time (the show I've been working on also opened this weekend, not to mention Halloween festivities). And therefore, I'm really not where I should be with it right now. But ... schoolwork and sanity does have to come first. I think. At some point I'll probably revoke my sanity to push the story really hard core.

I reworked the story two days before November, deciding not to go with my original idea, so now I've got to figure out what the hell I'm doing. Thus far, I really like the storyline. The characters are coming surprisingly fast. I'm excited to get through the prologue and get to the first chapter, in which I introduce my main character.

I need to get designated writing time/writing special things. That will help me. And perhaps a playlist. (Which I will post, if that ever happens.)

My tattoo is amazing. I'm in love with it, and continue to get distracted by it every time I look at my feet.

Tomorrow's going to be crazy. I'm trying really hard not to be nervous about the election. Really, really hard.