there's only three more days in November. for anyone (still) partaking in the National Novel Writing Month, that means you have three more days to slap some words on paper.
i almost participated, but then my edits went into overdrive. in spirit, i was hoping to have them done by December 1. which means, i also only have three more days! because if i don't finish? dun, dun, dun... well, there's still december and january and every month after that to get them right. but for the sake of kick butt, three more days.
which means, in (more realistic) theory, in a week or two, i will have a solid final draft of my novel done again, finally. everyone i normally send it to has already read it about three times in the last 5 months. so here's where i wonder aloud if any writers (other than the couple of fabulous commenters i have) read this blog. because i could use even one set of fresh eyes.
anyone want to Beta read for me? anyone also think that during this chaotic time of shopping, holiday parties, and general merriment, they could have it read in a few weeks?
just thought i'd put it out there.
and now for my holiday vacation pictures. all two of them.
it's a bird! in the airport! now is that lazy or what?
giant dogs in cars are funny.
that's right. family pictures? nope. two weird animal pictures? o si!
i have caught another cold. only after having two colds back to back can you truly appreciate the differences in the strains. it's like tasting wine side by side.
"why goodness the first one comes on much stronger. it really gets you in the throat. while the second one starts with a full body feel."
oy. i'm not surprised to have caught another. i truly think 98% of people in nyc are sick. so whether it was a co-worker, friend, or maybe just the lady who coughed in my face on the street, no, i kid you not, i was kind of waiting for this.
the trick is to get healthy before i go home for the holidays tomorrow. which means, lots of tea, kale, and rest before my busy work shift and 6 a.m. flight. oomph.
so i'm off to do laundry, pack a bag and blow my nose. safe travels to all of you and yours this week!
still highly in edit mode. i'm going home for thanksgiving and have this dream that i can have the manuscript finished by then. in the way of dreams, there's probably little reality in this one, but that means no dawdling.
this video is courtesy of my red-haired sis. see how many times you watch it. five for me so far.
it's always nice when my apartment stops looking like this:
yes, i am healthy again. also yes, i do throw dirty tissues on the floor when i don't feel well. the above photo was taken after i began to mend. the day before there were at least 40 more. i think it has something to do with embracing the disgustingness of being sick. or more likely, it has to do with the fact that my writing desk is in the corner and my garbage can is under the sink.
anyway...where was i. oh yes, i am (for the time being) healthy again! which makes everything brighter. and which, apparently, makes me feel like taking pictures of things that look brighter on my out and abouts.
so even though it's raining today, here are a few things that made me smile in the last few days.
if ever you think you're having a bad day, tell yourself,
at least i'm not sitting on a step decomposing
hard to tell, i know. but it's a hoola hooping contest.
the lil midget in the pink top won. no, no, on the left.
did you just squint and look?
the trees were this gorgeously yellow
all the way down the street. creepy man in
the park asked me which was my favorite season
and was suprised when i said spring and fall.
this is why i love fall, creepy man.
this is old news for some of you. i've talked about it before. radiolab is a product of WNYC, my local NPR station. the idea of the show is that they pick a topic in the sciences and then thoroughly explore it. but this description SO does not do the show justice.
i discovered radiolab a year or two ago. i listened whenever i could. loved it every time. then i kind of forgot about it. recently, i've fallen in love all over again.
usually, when i get ready for work, i listen to NPR or my favorite latin pop station. now i listen to radiolab.
there aren't many things i've encountered that leave me feeling this enriched, this full of possibilities, this happy/amazed/appreciative of the human experience. their website breaks the show down into four categories. gut-wrenching, heart-swelling, knee-slapping, mind-bending. i once cried on the subway -- huge roll down my face tears -- listening to radiolab (i think it was their show LOVE or else it was FALLING fyi). they must save their heart-wrenching stories for last, because those are the ones that always get me. (the last story on LOST AND FOUND, omg omg omg).
seriously, give it a try while you're cleaning, driving, waking up in the morning. it's perfect if you have an ipod dock or any other listening device. you can download their podcasts for free from their website or itunes.
listen and let me know what you think.
you can thank me later:)
Harlem.
i've been in nyc for 3.5 years and i've never gone. commute wise, it's further than Buffalo is from Rochester. but more than that, i've never had a reason to go. sure i'd read about great restaurants. but there are lots of terrific new restaurants an hour and half closer to my house.
on Wednesday, all that changed.
a month ago, i sighed up for NYCares a volunteer collective in the city that's pretty cool. every week they post tons of events that need volunteers. usually it's a one time deal, so the commitment level is minimal plus you get to participate in lots of diverse projects.
i chose to "over winter" a rose garden in Harlem, which means cutting back perennials, planting bulbs, and in this instance going wayyyy uptown.
stepping off the train, i ran into (no, not literally) a man selling sweet tea, lemonade, and fruit punch from three giant plastic vats that were sitting on top of a busted looking shopping cart. nice. even better? a woman was buying it.
that was it. signed sealed delivered. i was in love.
Harlem might be the best place on earth. first of all, every street i saw looked like this:
so basically, it looks like Park Slope but with a Manhattan vibe.
the day was sunny and warm. my volunteer site wasn't far from the train, but i saw a little of Harlem's restaurant row on Lenox Avenue (which further down in the city is known as 6th Avenue). in Harlem, the sidewalks are wide, the Avenues are tree-lined, the rents are supposedly still affordable.
volunteering was terrific. it reminded me of my Buffalo days. the woman who revived the Harlem Rose Garden, Caroline, did so for the same reasons i started community organizing -- self-interest. the building she owns is right across the street from the plot of land where the city planned to build a high rise.
but a little self-interest in your property and neighborhood leads to good things for everyone because what in 1992 was a vacant lot filled with building debris, is now this:
three hours later, the garden was winter ready. i'd spent time talking with a VERY chatty Korean chica who was visiting the states before finishing her degree and, you know, decided to volunteer while she was here. pretty awesome. i watched enviously as Caroline chatted with a revolving door of neighbors who came through to say hello. i remember having that connection with my old neighborhood. sometimes it was exhausting. more often, it felt great.
mostly though, i found ways to garden near Felix.
Mom, be prepared for Corrie's hard sell on why you should immediately adopt a pug. they might be the best dogs ever.
main thoughts? i could live in Harlem. sure, i'd need to take more trips up there first, and yes, it's really far from everyone i know and love here, but it felt good, right, being there.
but all good things... and a quick train trip, i was back to Union Square for a friend's birthday dinner at ABC Kitchen.
i arrived at the restaurant only to find that the entire place was closed. not strange, because my restaurant doesn't open until immediately before serving either. the burly men standing outside with ear pieces? also not strange. i figured they were doormen.
so yes, i was the first person in the restaurant when the doors opened because i am always unforgivably horrifically early. and yes, i said i'd take the table instead of waiting at the bar because i wanted to sit down.
which meant that for about ten minutes, i was alone in the restaurant, sitting immediately next to......
Jay Z.
i shite you not.
"oh dear," i laughed, picking up my menu, wishing i hadn't just come from gardening and worn something more spectacular than A FRICKIN' T-SHIRT. not like i wanted to pick up Jay Z, i know, hello Beyonce, life of jets, yachts, supermodels. meanwhile, i can't even spell yatch. but why the hell didn't i bring my cool Spain skirt to change into?Jay Z would be all: i'm gonna buy that nice girl in the nice skirt dinner. or a fancy cocktail. um. no. didn't happen. whatever.
so there i sat. casting tiny glances at Sir Z and the two enormous gold chains that hung from neck to belly that would probably sustain my current lifestyle for at least 5 years or so, until it finally occurred to me to wonder who he was dining with.
i laughed again.
hello Kanye West.
nice jacket. did you wear it while volunteering today? oh no, right. just to your fancy music awards thingy.
so yes. it was quite a day. throughout dinner, whenever i tried to look at my birthday celebrating friend, Jay Z's head was sitting on her shoulder. at one point our eyes met, and mine did the horrible crikey!-i-just-made-eye-contact-with-jay-z flick away thing. sigh. and she's wearing a t-shirt, he probably thought.
i left ABC Kitchen loving this city, top to bottom, wanting very much to expand my depth of what i was doing here, work in the city, or at the very least, be a baller. which is entirely possible for a YA author, right?
the nyc marathon was yesterday. it's one of my favorite parts of living here.
every year it passes right at the bottom of my street. every year i think, oh, it's early, it's cold, i don't want to go out and see it this time. every year i do (i mean, geez, corrie, it's neither that early nor that cold).
it is awe inspiring.
it brings tears to my eyes each time i see it. it is humanity at it's best. wave after wave of people surge past. from almost every country imaginable. while some are focused and just running, most look so elated to be there, you can't help sharing in their high. all the spectators are shouting, cheering, ringing cowbells. some runners put their names on their shirts so you can holler, Go Paula!
watching it impresses on you what amazing creatures we are. when we're not squabbling about politics, war, religion. on occassions we can all come together to try our hardest, test our limits, and put this incredible, temporary machine we were given at birth to work.
it's a beautiful sight.
and sometimes an absurd one, but hey, he's from france.
will someone please create a service that i can instantly benefit from? call it: Man For Hire.
for five bucks, you call Man, he comes to your house and screws in the thing you need screwed in or moves something particularly heavy. for the really girlie among us, Man could take care of bugs, too. the whole interaction lasts no more than a few minutes. Man leaves and Girl (fine Wo-man) does not need to deal with inadequate tools, arm strength or patience.
back up a little? okay.
my fabulous landlord bought me a fabulous new fridge! i had a teeny tiny one before with a permanently iced over freezer. it's literally been a few years since i've had ice cream in my house. how much do i like ice cream? enough that my whole apartment is now a little out of whack to accommodate said fabulous fridge. (yes, yes, it will now accommodate more vegetables as well).
a little space opened, a little more was lost. Ikea cabinet was purchased and built. feelings of conquering the world were had. but then this happened. i bought a door to go on a pre-existing cabinet and am left with this conundrum:
these drywall looking screw things
need to go in this un-pilot holed cabinet.
please ignore the black marks.
i don't know what they are either.
i'm at a loss.
since there's no pilot holes i had the door (which is also the wrong size)balanced on a soup container yesterday trying to make it level so i could mark and hand screw in some holes. honestly? i have better things to do. what i need is a Man For Hire.
someone steal this idea! please do. just locate said Man near me. and while you're at it, can you create Mom for Hire. i have a head cold coming on and could use some juice and soup served alongside sympathetic cooing.
yesterday was the kick off of National Novel Writing Month. the goal is a completed first draft of a book/to write 50,000 words. (one of) my fabulous crit partner and i are joining.
or, well, she is. because as she's posting blurbs from her new NaNo WIP on her blog and loving Google Earth because it lets her explore cities she'd like to use for setting, i was hanging with these girls last night.
da-da-da-dirty. dirty.
now granted, i'd spent the whole day from waking until about 8 o'clock working on my manuscript, so i think i'm allowed a little downtime. however, if November is NaNoWriMo month, then October was Pretty Little Liars month. i was totally addicted.
it's all because of damn Twitter. i barely log in anymore, but when i do there's always someone dissecting PLL. enter my stoppage of Netflix, scanning of internet for all forms of free anything watching and an, oh, why the hell not attitude one evening.
load addiction and press play.
have you seen this show? do you like teen mysteries in which everyone wears impractical high heels and lots of preposterous stuff happens? still no? then okay, never mind. you may recoup lots of hours otherwise spent in front of your tellie, rent The Wire, and try writing a novel in a month.
but did i hear a shy 'yes' out there? then never mind being productive and spending hours writing! watch this show. it's so unbelievably guilty pleasure fun, and great to have on while you clean, do dishes or eat dinner. and when it starts back up (in January?) we can be PLL buddies together.
luckily, i caught up on all the previous episodes last night. so now i really can try to both write a new novel in a month and finish the edits on my other.
i wasn't actually worried about my productivity. my big question is...what should i watch next?
