Write-In San Diego

The only official write-ins I've ever been to were in Madrid. I think about five people showed up. I thought it was the most awesome thing. I wrote my first 5k day there.

Well this year, I'm in a smaller but better represented region. I went to the kick-off write-in Sunday night at the Studio Diner. It was fun starting at midnight surrounded by people who didn't think I was crazy, but it was so  different from the write-ins in Madrid.

There were about 20 people there, so you would think it would have been four times the fun. It turned out to be about four times as dull. As I said, it was fun starting NaNoWriMo surrounded by other participants, but there was no camaraderie, no conversation besides the table behind me chattering away distractingly.

I don't know. I'll still be going to more write-ins this month, I just don't know what to expect any more.


In other news, I'm around 2300 today, which is a pretty good start on getting above goal early on. The word count widget is on the right side there, right above my old winner badges.

Also, did I mention that my little brother and sister are doing the Young Writers' Program with me? We all of us made our goals for the day, so I call that a win.

Maybe I'll post an excerpt soon.

Rebekah blogs

These socks are epic! No I didn't make them. I just like socks. And I like wearing green.

What? Rebekah's blogging again?
OMG!

Yeah... I figured 6 months of unannounced hiatus was enough. Plus, it wouldn't seem like NaNoWriMo without blogging about it.
That's right! It's that time of year again.
If you've ever enjoyed creative writing, I encourage you to visit nanowrimo.org and seriously consider what you've been missing out on. It's a ton of fun even if, like me, you never plan to do anything with your novel after you draft it.

This year, My main character is a teddy bear who serves as a source of comfort and wisdom to a ten-year-old girl named Katie. Here's a picture:

Here's where you come in. Neither the bear in the story nor the model bear have names. I'm looking for a name that's both cute (as in, something a young girl would name her stuffed bear) and wise (as in, something that would sound good played-off in the title of a novel). Do you have any ideas? Post them in a comment!

And here's to a moderately thriving blog experience for the next 6 months!

P.S. I'd promise, but you know how that has a history of going. I do, however, mean to post a short synopsis of what I've been up to since I last blogged. (Since that seems to be what people want to know of a recent college graduate.) TTYT!

[EDIT: I'm temporarily going with Rufus Puddlemore. I'll still take suggestions though, and if I see one I like better, I might change. Ooh, and click the Nano '10 button on the right to visit my profile and see the working cover art!]

"Help Heinz Fight Hunger"

As seen on facebook...

Apparently, this child is very hungry.
Apparently, we're supposed to feed this child ketchup out of the bottle.

Welcome to today's newest most awkward ad!

Your birthday in history

I've been really really busy lately. I do apologize for not blogging in forever (almost literally) Anyway, I do promise to update you all on Spring break in Mexico, my thesis, etc. as soon as I'm relatively free, i.e. May.
Until then, I break my silence in order to bring you something absolutely pointless, yet strangely fascinating. Do you know what historical significance your birthday has? Look it up on wikipedia! It's really interesting. For example, I share a birthday with Larry King, and on my birthday, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address, and Columbus landed in (the future) Puerto Rico for the first time.
What happened on your birthday?

I missed knitting

It's like I'm simultaneously living two lives. One in 2010, and one in 2009. The me of exactly one year ago is at her first day of orientation in Paris. The me of exactly one liturgical year ago will be going to Mass on campus tomorrow and then getting to explain to all the non-catholic students at "Catholic University" what carême is.

The Knitting Olympics have started! I'm absolutely in love with my project. The 100% superwash merino wool, the bamboo double-point needles. It's a dream to work with. And, though the colors are deliberately jarring, they are just so cheerful that I can't help but be so happy when knitting this hat! Even stockinette in the round isn't boring.

"What hat?" you ask? "Knitting Olympics?" you question me with a disdainfully bemused expression? Yeah! I'm making myself Jayne's Pretty Cunning Hat! It's pretty universally awesome.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch firefly here or here before asking. You won't be sorry you did. The hat makes its debut in "The Message".

I'm taking a picture of my progress every day and posting it on ravelry and Picasa. Check it out!

Red, Yellow, and Orange. And Allspice.

I went to a time management talk last night, and I won a set of multicolored permanent markers in a raffle. I then proceeded to go back up to my room, where I spent fifteen minutes of valuable homework time proofreading the pack of the marker package:

Unfortunately, the "Rambunctious Red" marker was too big to use, so I had to use a normal red pen. (Thanks, Emily!)

And my yarn came in today for my knitting Olympics project. I'm making a Jayne hat! If you don't know what I'm talking about... I'm sorry for you. Go watch Firefly. Now.

I got some bamboo needles, something I've been wanting to try for a while now. I tried them out today when I made the swatch to test my gauge. They're so great. I love how they feel with the wool, and they just slide beautifully. I can't wait to get started! I'm not allowed to cast on until the opening ceremonies begin at 9:00 pm Friday.

I was so glad to be able to find almost the exact colors I needed for the hat. The thing is though, that I would feel sorry for anyone who received a project made with "Allspice" in anything other than an ironic manner. It's the exact shade of the carpet in Nana's old house. Knitpicks wasn't around in the 70s though, so I don't know where that die came from. In any case, I am grateful it's there though, because I'm gonna make me one pretty cunning hat!

Christmas Cards

Did I mention these in an earlier post? I feel like I must have, because they took up a significant portion of my Christmas break. Well, I think I made 16 cards total, though there were still a few I wanted to get to, so, sorry if you didn't get a card from me. There's always next year, right?

Anyway, I took some photos of some of the cards before I sent them out, and I've just put them online. You can see the collection here. They're not all there because a lot of them had very similar designs. Take a look. Enjoy. Lament that you know my parents. ('cause these only went out to people who didn't get the family card)

Cheers!

Christmas break is over

I keep saying it, but this last month has gone by way too fast.

I’m at the airport right now, ever so grateful for free wifi!

I’ve never flown out of the Commuter Terminal before. I’ve always kind of wondered how that over half lives… where they still put out the little staircase to get into the plane…

But then I flew Ryan Air, and now I wish I didn’t have to worry about this suitcase.
I didn’t make quite enough allowance for Christmas gifts when I packed my little rolling carry-on a month ago, and now last night, I had quite the time trying to fit everything in. As it is, Mom and Dad are going to mail me my new unabridged Spanish-English dictionary. In my defense, I suggested to them that they order it and ship it to school instead of wrapping the thing, but it was still cool to be able to open it Christmas morning and learn how to say “Information Highway” in Spanish. Hint: it’s only one word.

Anyway, wish me luck as I leave my tropical paradise and return to the land of snow and ice. I’m not looking forward to getting up early tomorrow morning and going out into the bitter cold. Maybe it will be worth it though, for you, Dr. Williams. :)

Where has the last month gone?

Tonight was my last night at work.

This afternoon, Emily left for the weekend and I won't see her till May.

I'm leaving on a jet plane Sunday morning.

Tomorrow night is my last Mass at St. Michael's before...

...MY LAST SEMESTER OF SCHOOL!

It's pretty scary. I keep saying that.

We're all the same.

...exactly the same.

Everyone asks the same questions and says the same things in the same situations. And then you teach yourself the correct answers for each of those repeated questions. So you end up with every conversation being superficial. It takes a real effort to be truly honest with someone.

These cheerful thoughts brought to you by Ganchi.

Readership

...weird word.

It has been seven weeks since the last comment on the blog.

I know that people have at least been visiting the site, but I'm left wondering if maybe my posting style has lost its appeal.

So I've put up a poll on the blog page. It's right there in the upper right corner.

Vote! And let me know what you want me to post about.

I'm not so great at this

This whole daily blogging thing. But here I am again today!

Today was a long day. I was at the church all day long collecting donations for my mission trip to Mexico over spring break. It was a little bit awkward because Monsignor didn't want me to talk from the pulpit, so I just had to wave to the congregation at the announcement and then wait in the back of the church for people to throw cash in a basket. Everyone was really generous and we did really well. I'm getting really excited now for the trip.

Keep praying for the team! Thanks!

A new year's resolution

After NaNoWriMo ended, I was doing so well for three days then and thought that December would be a good month for me blogging. That didn't work.

There's this thing called NaBloPoMo, where you blog every day for a month. I figure there's no better month to do it than January, so I'm going to try it, but without the website. Anyway.

I've been working at the Chinese restaurant again over Christmas break, which has been a strangely philosophical experience. I'm quite glad that I don't work in retail over those crazy shopping weeks, but in a restaurant like that, you can really get a glimpse of human nature in the holiday season. You can really see how all that stress gets to people. I worked Christmas Eve night and was surprised by how snippy a lot of the customers were after a full day of fighting for parking spaces. Tidings of good cheer!

Anyway, here's hoping your Christmas wasn't too stressful!

And here's hoping I'll be able to blog every day this month.