NaNoWriMo 2016: Sleeping Beauty Spin-Off

For NaNoWriMo this year, I have chosen to work on a story I've already started—my Sleeping Beauty Spin-off. I have worked on this story on and off over the last few years. Actually. the genesis for this idea came back when I was in high school. My friend Amanda and I decided to try to write a story together. That is where the seeds of this story idea began.

I have over 26,000 words written on the story so far, but there is much of the story to tell. So, I will create a new document, start from where I am, and work to get 50,000 more words written on it this November. This November is already shaping up to be quite busy, but I will do my best to reach the goal of 50,000 words written in November.

Poetry Again

I'm writing poetry again. It has been a few years since I've dabbled in poetry.

The other day I read an article in a magazine published by my church. The article talked about managing negative emotions. One of the suggestions was to find productive ways to express negative feelings. I am using poetry. I won't be dealing with just negative emotions in my poetry; however, it is cathartic to release negative emotions via poetry.

Having started writing poetry again, snippets of poems flow through my mind periodically throughout the day. Most will likely never been written down. As for the poems that do get written down, at this point I don't plan on polishing them. For now, they are a release, a way to deal with the stresses, and joys, of life.

NaNoWriMo 2015 Winner

I did it. I wrote 50,000 words on Tania's gift in the month of November, and reached my goal of finishing by Thanksgiving. A lot of things got pushed to the side, a lot of reward chocolate was consumed, and the story the story took a lot of unexpected turns, but I won NaNoWriMo. The story is not finished yet. I plan to keep working on it, though I have honestly not worked on it since I won. I need to rectify that...

NaNoWriMo 2015: Tania's Gift

So, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I did it two years ago. But not last year. I was too overwhelmed with everything I had going on. I kind of wished I had once I saw friends posting the cool winners certificate. But that's okay. 

Over the past month, I have been brainstorming for this year's NaNoWriMo. It is an idea that has been sitting in my file of story ideas for quite some time. It is about a young woman who can feel what other people are feeling by touching them. A man from another kingdom comes to request that she come to his kingdom for some reason. I wracked my brains for an idea of why she was needed in the other kingdom. I finally came up with an idea, and I like it. But I'm not going to share it yet...stay tuned.

I would like to incorporate some fairy tales into my story, so if you want to help, share some ideas of fairy tales that prominently feature princes.

November is going to be one crazy month, but by the end I plan to have written 50,000 words on my story of Tania's Gift.

P.S. To warm up, I've been writing more of my Sleeping Beauty Spin-off. I'll get that finished one of these days.

Crafts and Cinderella

So, there are a couple things I wanted to write about today.

One, I recently created another blog: kebstudiocreations.blogspot.com. On that blog I will be writing about all sorts of creative and crafty things, like cross-stitching, sewing, art, scrapbooking, etc. This blog will continue to me mostly about my life and writing. So, take a moment to check out my other blog if you haven't already.

Second, I finally finished the rough draft of my Cinderella spin-off, which was my NaNoWriMo novel from last year. It ended up being just over 74,000 words long. It will need LOTS of revision, but at least the first draft is complete. This is actually the first full draft of a novel I've ever written! It is a good achievement, though one I planned on achieving years ago. But, I have made the progress I have made, and that is good.

This year I plan to participate in NaNoWriMo, but probably not to the full extent. Life has gotten busier, and I don't know that I can put everything off to the side for a month like I did last year. I might do it but set a lower goal, or I might continue working on a novel I've started previously and just try to write some each day. I'm not sure yet. We'll see.

NaNoWriMo Winner

I did it! I wrote 50,000 words on a new novel. Writing 50,000 words in a month was not easy. A lot of things got pushed to the back burner in order to make time to write. And, I don't think I would have made it through the month without a lot of help from the Lord and my husband, Jason, who also did NaNoWriMo. I offered many prayers when I felt stuck, unfocused, or discouraged. Jason doing NaNoWriMo helped me to keep going as did his encouragement.

Throughout the month, we found ways to reward ourselves for reaching our daily goals, often in the form of yummy goodies like Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes. I also started doing a reward system of five peanut M-n-Ms for every 500 words I wrote, some days that kept me going. NaNoWriMo suggests a target average daily word count goal of 1,667 words. We set our daily goal (for most days) at 2,000, since we didn't work on our novels on Sundays and since we wanted to finish by Thanksgiving (which we did). Here is a chart showing what my daily word counts looked like, with the line showing what would be on par for the day to finish by the end of the month.

So, while I had days of discouragement, days where I didn't get much written, I did do it, and I learned a number things. One thing I learned is how to tone down my internal editor. I knew what I was writing was certainly not the best ever written. I knew I was ignoring tons of writing advice that I have received of the years. But, I also knew I would not get the 50,000 words written if I kept listening to my internal editor. So, I told my internal editor to go away. Sometimes I had to do it repeatedly, but I got easier as the month went on. I focused on writing, often whatever came to mind, rather than worrying about whether or not it was good writing. If I thought to write something, I wrote it, even if it took me on a tangent I hadn't planned on. This is likely why I didn't finish the novel in the 50, 000 words, as I expected to do at the beginning of the month. So, even though I haven't finished the novel yet, my goal is to finish it by the end of the year.

Which leads me to something else I learned from doing NaNoWriMo: I can write more words in a day than I thought possible. Earlier this year I was working on a goal to write out my Sleeping Beauty Spin-off. I would work on writing a couple days a week and often only write a couple hundred words each time. But now, my goal is to write 500 words per day. I am going to finish the Cinderella Spin-off I did for NaNoWriMo first, but then I am going to go back to my Sleeping Beauty Spin-off and see if I can finish writing it too. I know I can, I just have to put in the effort. It will be a little harder with the Sleeping Beauty spin-off, since I was working so hard to craft it. But it is better to get it written and then rework it than to never finish it.

Another thing I learned from NaNoWriMo is how helpful music, especially the right type of music, can be while writing. I often listen to music while I write, but sometimes I don't. Often I pick a nice movie soundtrack. I did this during NaNoWriMo, but one day I was just stuck. I was writing a ball scene and nothing I chose to listen to seemed to help. Then Jason suggested I listen to Strauss. It was perfect! It was exactly what I needed and helped get the idea flowing. So, taking a few minutes to try to find the right mood music is definitely a worthwhile use of time when writing a novel.

I know there are more things I learned over this past month, but I think I'll leave it at this.

Yay for NaNoWriMo!

Being Brave

So, I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year. For those of you who might not know what it is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It occurs every year in November and the goal is to write a full novel (50,000 words) in that month. It is not necessarily meant to be good. But it is meant to get you writing. I've wanted to participate since I learned about it, but have always found one reason or another why it wouldn't work that year. But I've decided to put my fears and excuses aside and just do it. And Jason's thinking of joining in too, so that will be fun.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Life is busy right now. Busy and a bit exhausting. So what is going on in my life, you might ask. Well...

In July I made my Etsy store live. You can see it here. That was one of my New Year Resolutions. And I did it! Now to maintain and update it. I have a number of jewelry items already made that I want to add to it, but that I need to photograph and create listings for. I am also working on some Christmas items to add to it, hopefully sometime in September. I am also considering starting a blog to chronicle my adventures in this exciting endeavor. Stay tuned to see if it actually happens, and if I can keep it updated once I've created it.

What else is keeping me busy? I now have two part-time jobs. That keeps me busy, and I end up plenty tired at the end of the day. I enjoy both jobs.

I also for the past month went and swam laps three mornings a week. I thoroughly enjoyed that despite the fact that it meant I had to wake up early to do so. But now that is over, and I need to find some other way of getting exercise in (something I struggle with).

Because I have been so busy, my writing has really taken a hit. I have only written 27 words in my Sleeping Beauty Spin-off in the past month. For awhile I was making really good progress. I even wrote a blog post about it, but that unfortunately got lost in the ether before I could post it - sad day. My stated New Year Resolution was to finish the first draft of this book this year. My mental goal, which felt more reasonable, was to get through chapter 10 by the end of the year - something that is still attainable since I am currently at the beginning of chapter 8. I just need to take time and work on it, at least once in awhile.

While I am not getting much creative writing done, I am getting book reviews written. I've started writing book reviews for I Am A Reader Not A Writer. You can see a post introducing me as a reviewer here. I would definitely recommend following her blog. She has lots of awesome author interviews, book giveaways, and of course book reviews. I am enjoying reviewing books for her blog. It's fun. :)

I also keep busy helping out in the Nursery at church, attempting to keep up with housework, spending time with family and friends, and spending as much time as I can with my husband before the semester starts and he gets busier. And that is my busy life in a nutshell.

A New Year Resolution

It is a new year, and with it comes New Year Resolutions. My family has a tradition where we make a gingerbread house. We go around the room stating New Years Resolutions. After we say a resolution we get to break off and eat a piece of the gingerbread house. This is one of my favorite family traditions and one that gets me to New Years Resolutions.

Now, one of my goals for 2013 is to finish the first draft of the Sleeping Beauty spin-off that I am working on. When I set the goal I honestly had reservations about my ability to complete this goal, thinking that perhaps reaching chapter 10 of the draft would be a more reasonable goal (I'm working on chapter 3 right now), but I set the lofty goal all the same. The following Monday for Family Home Evening Jason, my husband, decided we should plan out how we were going to accomplish our goals for the year.

I was a bit daunted and overwhelmed by how to figure out how to accomplish this goal. In the past I have tried setting an amount of time to write. That didn't work too well and was difficult to track. I just wasn't sure how to do it. Then Jason showed me how he'd set up his goals. He'd split them up into steps. Do this in the first quarter of the year, expand on in second and so forth. That idea caught hold and my plan was born - start in the first quarter writing once a week, and then increasing the days of writing per week each quarter. I think this might work. At this point, writing at least once a week can be challenging with my busy schedule, but the two times I have sat down and written have been rewarding.

Today I wrote 500 words, bringing me up to 5,000 words for the manuscript. I also reread through what I had already written and made some edits. Surprisingly, I feel it is decently good. It's not perfect, but the idea and story feels solid to me. It is a story I've have bouncing around inside of me since high school and I guess now is its time to get released. I've never finished a manuscript for a novel before, but hopefully this will be the time. I've done a lot of thinking over the years, but not as much doing. To see my goals come to fruition will require work. Work I want to put in. I hope my commitment and desire will remain strong. This is definitely not a goal I want to fall by the wayside (though that is true of all my goals for this year).

Happy New Year!

Balance

I just wanted to write something short today. Lately I've been trying to work on writing (hence the two new Melly stories). I've been setting goals--I reached my goal for July. The goal I set for August is a bit daunting and I'm not sure if I'll make it, but I'm going to try. I enjoy writing, even when I don't feel that what I right is all that great. Right now I'm concentrating on just writing--getting things written even though they are very rough. Once I get more written, I plan to spend time revising as well. I also want to set goals to work on transcribing what I've recorded with my digital voice recorder. To help me reach all these goals I'm setting rewards--those especially help me when I'm tired and just don't feel like doing anything.

I love reading. I've started re-reading the Angel series (by Dan Yates). I love those books. At work I am also getting to learn about book marketing. I'm not getting a ton of guidance, but hopefully I'll be able to help market them. I recently read the one that just came out--Patchwork: Pieces of Appalachia by Lena McNicholas. I really enjoyed it, and so I hope I can market it well. I'm trying. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm doing that great of job. But sometimes there are successes. Those make me happy. I just have to remember to be persistent. And to follow up and follow up and follow up.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do about my health, yet mostly just want to try and ignore it. I went to an alternative medicine person this week. I wasn't a big fan. I don't know if it was the person, the plan or what, but in short, I'm not a big fan. I'm also trying to get a rheumatologist appointment. That's not working out too well and I sometimes wonder if I even need to or want to go. I certainly don't want to take off work to do so. Having health problems carries its own stigma and considering the person who had my job before me had to leave because of health problems I don't want to make it seem like the same. Not that I have MS like they found out she does (which is much, much worse than what I have to deal with). But as I was using spider killer spray the other day a co-worker told me to be careful--my chair is cursed, seeing as how people who sit there develop health problems. Anyway.

I have lots of things I want and need to get done. It's hard to find a balance in life but maybe someday I will. A balance in and with everything. That is one thing I didn't particularly like about that alternative medicine person's approach--it is such an unbalanced and extreme way to live. But whatever. Maybe someday it won't seem so extreme to me. Though I don't know that I would ever want to completely give up sugar. Besides, someone I trust once said that she'd tried not eating sugar and had found that balance and moderation in all things is the better course. I tend to listen better and more to people I trust. Ta Ta For Now :)

To Editors and Agents

So, I just read a tweet that says to not write crazy stuff on your blog because editors and agents will google you. Someone at the Orson Scott Card Roads to Writing Workshop said something similar. And it makes me wonder. Am I writing crazy stuff on my blog that would cause editors or agents to turn away from me. Honestly, the biggest worry I would have if an editor or agent looked at my blog would be the standard of writing. I don't go back and edit my blogs I just free-write. If I were smart, I guess, I would labor over them and edit them and make sure they were perfection before I posted them--but if I tried to do such I would never end up posting anything. So, to any editors and agents who may someday read this blog--just know that this is free-writing and not a polished gem.

Books, authors, and writing

You want to know someone else who has awesome blog posts--Mettie Ivie Harrison (http://metteharrison.livejournal.com/).

You want to know a really good book--Wings by Aprilynne Pike. I heard her talk about it at last year's LTUE (Life, the Universe, and Everything Sci-fi/fantasy symposium at BYU) and have wanted to read it since then. So, when I saw it at the library yesterday I checked it out and started reading it--way good. Definitely a book I want to own. I also want to buy the books in Shannon Hale's Bayern series. I just finished re-reading them. They are stellar books. They are good examples of good writing.

Today I went to an Orson Scott Card writing workshop--Roads to Writing (note: I was so tired this morning that when I first wrote it down in my notebook I wrote "roads into riding" LOL). I enjoyed the workshop. The authors there (Card, Brandon Mull, Aaron Johnston, and Edmund R. Schubert) gave lots of good advice. But now comes the real test--doing it. That is, of course, my biggest challenge. Just doing it. Just write! That is what I need to do. I really liked Aaron Johnston's presentation on finding time to write. You really do have to make the time. And to do it even when you're exhausted, tired, hurting, etc.

So...go write!

A Trip to the River

However did it get so late...ah well, I should have time for at least a short post. Today I went to the river--Glen Maury River. My sisters Alice and Sarah also went. We had lots of fun playing in the water, enjoying the peace of a beautiful spring day, and trying to skip rocks (I wasn't so good at that). It's been a long time since I've been to the river, but I hope to go again sometime soon. The smells, sounds, and sights all brought back memories and created new ones to remember in times to come. The cool water felt good in contrast to the warm day and very few bugs bothered us. Walking up the river with Sarah caused a song from Easter Parade to pop into my mind--"A Walk Up the Avenue." Not quite an avenue, or at least a watery avenue.

Do you know whose blog I like? Patricia C. Wrede http://pcwrede.com/blog/--she gives lots of good writing advice. This coming Saturday I'm attending a writing workshop at SVU. Orson Scott Card, Brandon Mull, and a few other others will be there. It should be good. I really need to spend more time writing. I am never going to reach my goals if I do not. (note regarding my last post: I wouldn't not get married because those things I wanted to happen before I married hadn't happened, but it is nice that two of them now have occurred:).)

I enjoyed watching General Conference this past weekend. The speakers gave wonderful talks. It's a bit daunting thinking about all the things I need to work on and improve in, but all is possible with the help of Lord and effort on my part, of course. In Institute today we reviewed some of the talks and topics from Conference. I especially liked hearing about Elder Rasband's talk from the Priesthood session. He spoke of an experience he had of observing President Eyring assign out mission calls, and encouraging him, Elder Rasband, to pay more attention to the spiritual guidance the Spirit offers. That struck me greatly. I want to strive to do just that. To diligently strive.

Did you notice the lack of "to be" verbs in this post--I diligently strove to avoid using them. Some of my sentences may sound a bit strange as a result. I am unaccustomed to striking their use from my writing, but it is a habit I hope to develop, for I do believe my writing will improve a bit as a result.

I enjoy crafts. In fact, I am cross-stitching at this very moment, in between typing thoughts to this post. Also, my brother Samuel gave me a beading loom for Christmas that I really want to try out. My older brother, Nathan and Byron, and I did some beading in our younger years. I enjoy making cards--I made one just tonight--a get well card for my grandma.

Do you ever have those times when you remember short parts of movies and a sense of the movie but can't remember the name of it? I do. One movie continues to flicker at the edges of my brain. I think Fred Astaire might star in it. And it seems like he owns a fashionable clothing store or something and pretends he doesn't, so as to give a girl privileges modeling the gowns or something. He says a madame so and so owns it. And eventually reveals that he is actually the owner. See, I remember so little. Hopefully some day I'll come across it again.

Brianne and Peter's wedding

It's late and I should go to bed, but I've been wanting to write for some time now, so I'll write, just a short post though.

One: I went to Brianne Shiraki's wedding a couple weeks back--it was amazing! It was the first time I'd been able to attend a temple sealing! Attending also fulfilled another of my wishes of things to happen before I get married--The first being, getting endowed--now related to getting married, but as an independent experience. That happened over a year ago :) and which made possible this second--attend a sealing:). I can only think of one more thing I've wanted to do before I get married and that is to get something published. This one...well, I need to work more on my writing if it is to ever happen period, so, yeah. Though, I did spend four hours this week typing in writing notes :), which are little snippets of writing. Anyway.

At Brianne's wedding and reception I took a bunch of pictures:). I'm only going to post a few here, but I posted lots more on facebook. I also had fun editing some of the pictures afterward.


I like taking wedding pictures:). I'm far from being a professional, but it's a fun hobby--photography, that is.

I have more things I'd like to write about, but it's late, so goodnight :)

The New Year is Here!

It is now a few weeks into 2010, and I am doing fairly okay with my new year's resolutions. For example, I walked home from SVU 3 times already. I know that may not seem like much exercising to you, but that is really good for me. Also, while I still haven't earned any money, I have bid on three jobs on elance.com, I may not get any of them, but I'll continue bidding on jobs. Also, have kept up on my indexing--100 names per week. I keep hopeful. I have hope for the future. Hope that I'll be able to earn money, hope that I'll be able to move back to Provo, hope that once back in Provo I'll be able to get a job. I think as far as a job goes I would like one that I can sit down at and one where I can earn enough money to support myself. Some places I've considered looking at for jobs are Nuskin, ancestry.com, Provo City, BYU if there are any jobs open.

I'm only doing so-so with trying to go to bed earlier. It's difficult for me. I've kept up on my Institute reading so far. Hopefully I can continue to stay on track. I'm also still helping with SVU's literary magazine--The Review. We need to get started on production work soon though. This evening I got some more blog mining done for Rick Walton.

I'm still working on cross-stitching Christmas presents. Hopefully people don't mind getting them late. If they do, I'll just tell them it's a New Year's or Valentine's or St. Patrick's etc present. :) Today I watched a cute movie. It is actually one I'd seen before, but forgotten. It's called "The Cowboy and the Lady." I really liked it :) I love watching movies--they make me happy.

I am also trying to be more productive. In pursuit of the goal, the other day I spent an hour typing in writing notes. Ideally I would spend a few hours every day working on writing, but I've got to start where I am and improve from there--slow though the progress may be. I'm also reading this book my dad wants me to read--The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. It's interesting. It talks about how myelin wraps around the nerves in our brain making it so they can fire quicker and that's how we gain skills--the more we practice (the right kind of practice, mind you) the more the myelin wraps and the better we get at those skills. At least that is my understanding. Reading this book does bring some questions to my mind. For example, how does myelin work for someone who has Fibromyalgia? Does FM affect myelin at all? Since apparently everything is controlled by the nerves in our brain, what are the mechanisms that create the symptoms of Fibromyalgia? I don't expect the book to answer these questions, but it does cause me to think and to wonder.

Well, I won't regale you more on my thoughts and questions sparked by this book. I actually need to decide what I'm going to do the rest of the evening and an episode of "Remington Steele" is sounding mighty nice! I'm so glad Tiffany Draut introduced me to that show! She currently serving a mission in Brazil. I think that's way cool, but am kind of glad that it's her and not me.

Until next time~~~

Be Not Discouraged

Why is it so hard for me to accomplish things, to get things done? What is my problem? I'm not sure I know. Perhaps I just need to learn greater self-discipline. That could be my problem. It certainly seems like the most likely answer. Selfishness could stand as a cause for my lack of self-discipline. So, now then, how do I overcome selfishness...the answer I generally here for that is service. And what is the cure for lack of discipline...work? It's a wonder I've accomplished anything in my life. But, I do know that if I want to accomplish things in the rest of my life it will require tons of hard work!

I do love good music.

I guess I also have trouble keeping goals...although I have achieved some goals in my life. I created a to do list to try to help me get things done and it has helped a little bit, but I still have a lot of improvement that is needed. I do allow good things to distract me from doing the best things.

Writing is often a slow process for me...often only a sentence or two at a time...the more important I consider it, often the longer it takes. Although there are times when I experience rushes of inspiration, and I write much quicker when I'm not worried about how I sound, going more for stream of conscious than sounding good or making it be good writing.

Sometimes I like to multitask. I see it as a way to get things done while not...you see often I can't seem to face the things I need to do, or they seem too overwhelming or whatnot. So, for example, right now I'm listening to music and rating it in my iTunes, I'm playing on pixiehollow.com (which I do quite love), and writing here.

Don't be discouraged...that is something I must strive for and perhaps that will help me with overcoming my selfishness and with developing more self control. Happy Weekend:)

Up and beyond...

So, I think it's about time to write another post. Nathan says my posts sound like me, so that's a good thing I think. I am discovering that it is kind of difficult to type on my laptop with two arm braces on...oh-well, I'll just have to do the best that I can. I'm not really sure what to write about. Any ideas? No, well, that's okay.

Sometimes I think I'm a rather silly person. You might wonder why I say this, but I'm not sure how much proof of it I'm willing to give you. I could start with some of my theories/hypotheses/ideas. I think it is reasonable to think that there is the possibility of there being more than one universe out there, far beyond our sight. That might sound unreasonable to you, but it makes sense in my mind. Emily Olson once told me that I have "uncommon" sense rather than common sense. At times I think she is right. I do realize that the very nature of the word "universe" denotes that there is only one, but that is just because men made up the word. There is so much out there we don't know. And as I've mentioned before, sometimes I can dream pretty big--the possibility of there being more than one universe being one of those.

I love the stars and galaxies...outer space in general. That is perhaps one of the reasons why I am so attracted to the genre of science fiction/fantasy (and that is my favorite genre). I have met people who have no curiosity about space, that stars, none of that! I love pictures of space. They are so wonderful and amazing and beautiful. I'd love to do paintings based on them someday. I love Gustav Holst's The Planets--amazing music!!! I especially love Jupiter Hymn--the French Horn part is absolutely beautiful. {Note: sorry if any of you reading this are editors or grammar Nazi's, while I did minor in editing...I'm more into substantive editing rather than copyediting, plus this blog is more about just writing, without allowing things--such as making grammar mistakes--to impede the flow of writing. The goal is to just write...and to not worry about perfection.}

Do you want to know something that is mildly annoying...the limited choices when it comes to the design of blog profiles. If I knew how, I'd make my own design, unfortunately I don't know how, so I deal with the choices I've got. I actually really like design. I would love to work in the art or production department of a book publisher. I think that would be pretty awesome, but who knows where I'll end up working. I mean, I enjoy working at Day's Market, but it is hard on my body and I need a "real" job, plus I really could use benefits...aka...health insurance. I really don't know what I am going to do come Fall when I can no longer be on the BYU extended health plan. No idea. Oh well. Hopefully I'll figure something out. I have a tinsy bit more time before then. No need to worry too much. (Yes, I'm a bit of a worry wort.)

I like how when I get started writing I can often write and write on and on...unless I'm completely out of it...and then who knows what you might get. I enjoyed band in high school (this might sound like a non sequitur to you, but the thing is I'm listening to music on the "Gustav Holst" station I just created on my Pandora radio accout and yeah...) I really like the sound of band music, and I've always wondered why we don't have more bands and band music...I mean there is plenty of music by orchestra's and I do know that they include the band insturments and the music is great, but it just isn't the same thing! I also really like marching band music. But back to band music, I'd love to get ahold of recordings of the music we played in high school as done by professionals and just in general, band music (sorry if I'm not explaining all of this very well).

My goal for this evening is to not fall asleep, 'cause if I do, then I won't be able to fall asleep tonight and the cycle begins once again... So, I need to decide what else I am going to do this evening. Some thought on the matter turns up ideas like designing the cross-stiching for presents for Jenn's baby, work on typing up my journals, put things in my personal history, and of course, reading. A movie always sounds delicious, too (In recent times I have found myself misapplying words that are associated with one sense or another and it just feels right, so if I use words as I did in the sentence I just wrote, well...I figure I'm not going to fight it since it feels like the right word). The "feel" of things that I pay attention to. This is not necessarily a tactile feeling, hence the quotation marks. It is more like the feeling evoked--the feel of things.

I don't like it when I start having pain in the collar bone area. It happens rather frequently though. I try to not spend too much time concerning myself with all the various aches and pains and wierdness I feel in my body, yet it still consumes a large amount of my thoughts. I used to be better at putting such things from my mind. But getting carpal tunnel caused an awakening. Things I assumed were normal or transitory ended up being something mildly serious. (One of my friends, Camilla, once told me that I'm rather whimsical...or actually I think she was refering to my artwork...but still...I'd never thought of it that way, but I find it fits or at least feels like a word that fits me.) It is interesting to watch and see how different thoughts and turns of conversation are triggered [to avoid using the passive tense I should have writtten the previous sentence as "I find it interesting to watch and see what triggers differnt thoughts and turns of conversation."] I once worked with a girl (Brittany, it was when I worked for the BYU Conference Center Custodial) who would trace back our conversations to see how we arrived at our end result. It was rather fascinating but not something I'd generally be willing to spend my time and energy on, especially since I sometimes my memory stuggles some. But at other times I can remember lots of random things and can remember some things really well. It is one of those kind of oximoron sort of things that become difficult to explain since they seem to condradict each other. Although, it often seems to me like lots of things seem to contradict each other and then I start getting confused and people tell me I'm making things harder than they really are. The end result...well, I'm not sure what the end result is, but you're probably getting tired of this post...so I guess I shall close with...Hmmm...what's a good closing statement...if it comes to me it probably won't be until some random time and then I'll forget it, so we'll just have to go with, bland/boring/usual/random/whatever--"When you wish upon a star..."