Category: journal

Which is fundamentally different from NaNoWriMo 2008. Somehow.

November was a busy month for me, quite apart from my writing. Work was hectic, but nobody wants to hear about my work, so I’ll let it slide.

I got back into WoW sometime in October, which was pretty foolish. The expansion called to me, though, and I started playing three or four weeks early so that I could be “ready” when the expansion finally came out.

T– and AB went to Wichita for a special family thing on Thursday the sixth, leaving me here because I had to work. I was well taken care of, though. Thursday night I spent playing WoW, and then on Friday and Saturday I hung out with K– and N–. My birthday was on Sunday, the ninth, and T– came home late Saturday night so she could be there for my birthday.

We didn’t do anything extravagant then — had lunch with K– and N– and maybe D–. Then I spent most of the afternoon being lazy, which was awesome, but not much different for me than most Sundays.

The following Thursday was the release date for Wrath of the Lich King, the WoW expansion, and I took off work Thursday and Friday. In case that seems outrageous, bear in mind that one of those was my Regular Day Off, so it wasn’t a full two days of vacation just for a silly game. One day, but not two.

Anyway, after spending all evening Wednesday playing WoW, D– and I ran up to Wal-Mart at midnight to get in line for our copies. My sister’s husband joined us there, too. The dork factor was through the roof, but we survived unscathed, and got out after about an hour’s wait with fresh copies of the new game.

Then we went home and discovered that the installation process was going to take several hours, so I gave up and went to bed. I think D– stayed up late, and played some during the night.

I spent some time Thursday morning with T– and AB, but then spent pretty much all of the next 24 hours playing WoW. I must have slept, but I’m not sure how much.

Friday afternoon my parents arrived, visiting for my birthday, and we had a big party that Friday night (thus the low-key celebration on the preceding Sunday). We had barbecue from Steve’s Rib (my current favorite), and everyone brought treats, and we played Rock Band for hours on end. It was awesome.

Oh! I didn’t do any writing during all of that. I’d gotten a couple thousand words done Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday over lunch, but as of the time I got home on Wednesday afternoon, I was all about WoW. And then my family came in, and I was busy hanging out with them until late on Sunday, and Sunday evening I got back to WoW.

So Monday morning I was way behind on my writing, and I didn’t do a lot to get caught up. Tuesday was a holiday, and also server maintenance for WoW, so I couldn’t spend the whole day on the game, but I never get any serious writing done at home. After that, though, I really kicked into gear. Four thousand words a day, regularly, and I had eight thousand-word days on Thursday the twentieth and Wednesday the twenty-sixth — that last being the day I finished the book. That was pretty exciting.

I know something important happened that weekend after my birthday party (the weekend of the twenty-first), but I can’t remember what for the life of me. Sometime in there, probably on the nineteenth, I took T– to an art opening at the OKC Museum of Art. That was a lot of fun. Pretty sure I’m forgetting something else, though….

Anyway, then Thanksgiving came the week that I finished my book. Actually, I wrote “The End” over lunch on Wednesday the twenty-sixth, then three hours later left work, picked up T– and AB at home, then got on the highway Arkansas-bound. We got to my parents’ place a little after 10 p.m., then sat up talking until midnight.

The plan for Thursday was a late Thanksgiving dinner — not my favorite tactic, but it gave us leisure to sleep in, and Mom and Dad took us out to IHOP for a big hearty breakfast. Then we got back home and Dad said he needed to clean up the leaves in the yard, but after that he was hoping to get some writing done. He really wanted to hit the 50,000-word goal by the end of the month, but he was still in his low thirties, and he was going to have family to entertain starting that afternoon.

So, more because I’m a good writing coach than because I’m a good son, I offered to take care of the leaves for him if he would promise to spend the time writing. Turned out they have a high-power leafblower (new since the last time I offered to help them with their leaves). It was a major convenience, but they have a major lawn. I spent a couple hours on the project, on got about 2/3 of the leaves taken care of (if you don’t count the back yard). I got the most important bit done, though, and around the time my back started killing me, family was showing up, too, so I called it quits and nobody complained.

My dad’s brother Perry and his whole family came to visit, making this year by far the most time we’ve ever spent with them. My older sister and her family was in town, too. They came by for supper, hung around late, then went back to his parents’ place for the night.

Friday Mom and T– went out shopping some. I played WoW, and Dad worked on his book. We all went out to dinner Friday night, and then I watched AB until her bedtime so T– could do some scrapbooking with Mom. After that, of course, I WoWed.

Saturday we headed home, right after a lunch at On the Border. It’s a brutally long drive, and T– spent a couple hours of it napping, but I passed the time working on a programming project in my head, and it went pretty well. When T– was awake, we talked about my book, which she’d finished reading just a day after I finished writing it. Egotistically, my books are easily my favorite topic of conversation, so that was fun for me.

Then we got in late enough, exhausted enough, that we just went home, foregoing standing plans to watch the Beldam game with K– and N–, and the rest of N–‘s family who was visiting for the holidays. Turns out they had some drama of their own, but even without that we would have bailed. The game was amazing, though. Dallas won on Thursday, the Sooners won on Saturday, and they got their shot at the National Championship when the polls came out on Sunday. It was a good weekend, footballwise.

Well, all around, really. I played a lot of WoW, spent some fun time with family, and finished a novel all in that last week of November. I didn’t have anything to complain about.

Oh! And then I was up Sunday night, playing WoW and trying to bully myself into going to bed because I had work tomorrow, late in the evening when I got a call from Dad to let me know he’d hit the mark. 50,000 words and then some. His book wasn’t done, but that’s not part of the rules. He made 52k within the 30-day span, and he’s pretty confident that, just like last year, he’ll have his book done sometime around mid-December.

Awesome. I’m so proud of him.

This week I’ve been back to work, and that’s a drag. I’m also feeling some of the letdown of being done with the novel, and not in a good way. We did have some drama come up with our Tulsa house during that last week of November, and that’s pretty stressful, and work remains demanding. So I’m not sleeping great, and I’ve been feeling pretty out-of-it, but I’m sure that’s all swift-passing problems. Overall, life is good.

And, hey, tomorrow’s Friday, with the promise of a whole weekend of WoWing afterward. How could I not be glad of that?

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

So, yeah, yesterday I ended up sick. Unpleasantly so.

Still, we had tickets to go see the Oklahoma City Thunder opener. B– and D– showed up at my place a little after 5:00, and then T– (who had gone to Edmond to drop off AB at my sister’s for babysitting) picked up N– and the five of us drove downtown together. (K– would join us later, but he had to work late.)

We had dinner at Sonic in Bricktown, then walked across to the Ford Center. The crowd was huge, the lines were long, and when we finally got inside the arena area, it was packed. The basketball court looked tiny in the center of the crowd.

It was a real party atmosphere. In case you don’t know, the big deal is that the Thunder represent the first Big League sports franchise to come permanently to Oklahoma. We, as a city, have invested heavily in the team, and it’s seen by many as an opportunity to dramatically improve Oklahoma City’s standing on the national stage. Of course, if the team fails, it’ll be a major PR setback. But we’re not focusing on that.

Anyway, I’ve never been much of a basketball fan (it ranks somewhere between golf and baseball on my watchability scale), but I’m a big fan of my hometown and, hey, we got a good group of people to go see it. Worst-case, I was still spending an evening with most of my closest friends.

And that pretty much sums up the evening. Watching it in person was a lot more fun than watching the same game on TV, because of the atmosphere. Everyone was psyched. We lost. That was a disappointment. And I really recommend that you take every precaution to make sure you never get sick in a Ford Center men’s room. But otherwise, the evening was pretty awesome.

We got home around 10:00, and T– went back to Edmond to pick up AB. I took care of a couple things around the house, then I crashed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

I guess I failed to post yesterday. No big deal.

Monday night, I came home from work and played some WoW. Then T– made chicken and pasta for dinner, and we watched Heroes and Chuck (both of which were pretty good).

Before T– fell asleep Monday night, she was complaining that her stomach hurt. By yesterday morning, she was good and sick. I called work and told them I’d be late coming in, and I took care of AB for the morning. We watched Sesame Street and read books and played with her Legos. I also got some chores taken care of.

Then T– got up around 11:00 and I headed to work. It was a relatively quiet afternoon, although I finished up a project that had been nagging at me for a while, so that was a plus.

I got home and spent some time vegging on the couch and watching TV while T– played with AB, then I finally went back to my office and played WoW for most of the evening. I finished getting caught up on Big Bang Theory, and have decided it would be a pretty awesome geek sitcom if they would just lay off the laugh track. Half of the jokes (as you would expect from any real nerd medium) are derisive snickers at best, and the canned explosive laughter messes that up altogether.

Before I fell asleep last night, I was complaining that my stomach hurt. By this morning, I still wasn’t anything more definite than woozy. I’ve felt unpleasant all day, but nothing violent so far. Wish me luck.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Thursday night, T– invited D– and K– over for chilidogs for dinner, then we spent the evening playing Rock Band. Toby came over, and we introduced him to the game, then he showed me the game database module he’d developed (at my request) so that the games we work on in the future will have easy save and load support, and relatively easy multiplayer capability. Awesome!

He didn’t leave until after eleven. It was a fun evening.

Friday I got off work an hour early, and got home to find Julie and Carlos there! We spent a couple hours talking about their honeymoon trip, then went out to Poblano’s for dinner, then came back and watched SNL for a bit. Then, by request, we loaded up Rock Band which they had never played before. Carlos is a real musician, and both of them have been fascinated by everything they’ve heard about the game, but this was their first chance to check it out.

They loved it. They were excited about the song selection (usually about songs I’d never heard of before I played the game), and they did amazing. Mostly Julie sang, and Carlos was rocking on drums and guitar in no time. I think he did one song on Easy on the guitar, then switched straight to Hard and finished above 90% pretty much every track. He had a little more difficulty with the drums, but mainly because he was wanting to improv.

It was fun to watch them play. They left around 10:30 and I thought about playing some WoW, but decided I didn’t want to be up that late, so I just went to bed.

Saturday morning T– and I took AB to the Village Fun Fair at the park just across Hefner. My little sister brought her girls, too. There were giant inflateable rides — mainly bouncey castles and slides — and a petting zoo that was apparently pretty awesome. I slipped away while AB was still in the bouncey castle so I could pick up D– and be at K– and N–‘s in time to watch the OU game.

We didn’t even finish the game before I had to head home to watch AB so T– could go to her crpo at the church. K– and D– came over to hang out for the evening. Mostly K– played Rock Band and D– played WoW while I tried to keep AB from bothering them. We read her books, played with the Legos, and discovered that she knows how to sneak into my office and close the door behind her, so no one knows where she is.

Once we tracked her down, I left the guys in charge of her and ran up to Falcone’s for a pizza. We had two huge slices each, and AB finished off most of one. She loved it. After dinner, N– came back from the crop to pick up K–, and while she was there AB was showing off for her, running short sprints and spinning as fast as she could.

K– and N– left right around AB’s bedtime, so I changed her into her pajamas, put her in bed, and headed back out to the living room to watch a movie D– had brought over. About ten miutes later, AB started screaming. Usually that means she’s thrown her pacifier away and wants it back, so I didn’t think much of it when I went to her room to check on her.

I found her standing up at the foot of her bed. I said, “And what’s wrong with you?” I was already scanning the floor for her pacifier.

She pointed emphatically and said, “That!” And there was her pacifier, right in the middle of her bed, buried under a humongous pile of puke.

Yuck.

So I got her clothes off and bathed her while D– heroically cleaned up her room. It took a little over an hour, but by the time I had her out of bed, AB was obviously feeling better. I put her in the tub and she immediately started playing with her toys, happy as could be. D– and I took a little longer to get over the trauma of it.

Anyway, we got her to bed a little bit before 10:00, then D– and I finished the movie before T– got home. Played some WoW, went to bed.

Sunday morning was church, then we invited D– and K– and N– to pick up lunches (D– chose Wendy’s and the rest of us McDonalds) and come watch the Cowboys game at our place. It was nothing like a trouncing, but the Cowboys eked out a win and there may be some hope for their season, still. Right now they’re battling for a wild card, though, which no one would have guessed at the start of the season.

After the Cowboys game we watched some SNL, then T– took AB to a Trunk or Treat at a church up in Edmond, and D– and I played WoW. It was a fairly quiet Sunday, to end a pretty busy weekend.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Tuesday night I didn’t do anything interesting. I signed some paperwork to get landlord’s insurance on our house in Tulsa, I had dinner with T– and AB, and I played some WoW. N– headed to Tulsa for a medical conference, but that only impacted me obliquely (and not until last night).

Last night we met K– and D– for dinner at Jersey Mike’s. Afterward, T– took AB to church and the guys came over to play some Rock Band. We played until 9:45, when I finally had to call it quits. Then I logged into WoW to run a couple quests, and headed to bed shortly after 10.

I had some absolutely bizarre dreams last night, too, but nothing really worth retelling.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

T– made steaks for dinner last night. D– came over in time to have one, then we played WoW for about an hour and a half. Afterward, he went home and T– and I watched Heroes. My whole night.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.