Sort of Sad, But Sort of Not

As Kenny Rogers sings in his well-known song The Gambler, you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. And twelve days shy of the November 30th deadline, I am folding the cards otherwise known as my National Novel Writing Month entry. Not only am I 12 days shy of finishing, I'm also about 37,000 words short. Add to that other commitments and upcoming holiday plans and rather than stress myself out about it, I'm putting it away for now.

So, yeah.

I'm out of words. And I'm okay with that.

Traffic and Shoppers and Palpable Tension, Oh My!

Wow -- the Halloween stuff is barely packed away (I don't 'do' Halloween, so that was a snap) and all the Christmas decorations and music and shoppers are out in full force. My younger sister was at the local Wal-Mart, surprised to discover as of November 1st they were already playing holiday tunes. The cashier she talked to wasn't thrilled about it, but I'm sure she has already learned how to tune it out.

I think all the holiday shoppers made their start today. Hubby and I went to the mall with his mom and it was busy. And I was a little stressed. Not by all the shoppers so much, but by my mother-in-law who felt it necessary to walk closer to my hubby. Not a problem under normal circumstances (he's her son, after all), but when I'm between them, it's not so swell. I finally just stopped walking and let them get ahead of me as I told them "I don't want to be sandwiched between you two!"

Maybe for this reason alone, I'm seriously going to check into doing my holiday shopping on-line or at Disneyland as we'll be there for a week in December.

As such, I decided to change things up here a wee bit. Let me know if things look weird on your computer screen as mine tends to soften things a bit.

Check This Out!

Have you ever talked about trying something new? Changing your habits, hobbies, or . . . something? (Wouldn't it have been cool if I had thought of another 'h' word?)

Well, some I know is doing more than talking about it. Every day for the next year, she is going to to so something new. You can follow her adventures here. (The link can also be found in the links section to the left -- it is "The Mysteries of Tomorrow".)

I am in the beginning stages of the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge and that, coupled with work, my write-a-novel correspondence course, and other what-nots have deemed November not a good month to join in on such a challenge. But I'm telling you, it is reminding me to quit talking about making changes and actually start taking some action.

Speaking of which, I have a word count to meet so I had better get cracking.