Photos, Writing, and McDonald's Playland

Today marks the end of week 1 of NaNoWriMo, and I have to say that I'm impressed with myself. Either that or I'm completely insane, but I prefer to go with impressed. Early this morning I passed the 25% completion mark, logging just over 13,000 words that actually gel together and make sense. Not quite sure I'm ready to call myself a novelist, but I've always enjoyed writing and for some reason this particular story is coming very easy to me. I'm writing it in parts, so I'm not sure how they'll all tie together, but it's been fun so far and I'll have to tip my hat to my neighbor, Russ, who encouraged me to do it.

It's been a horrific week with the day job. My work cell phone holds 20 calls in the voice mailbox; my office phone holds 40....both maxed out several times this week...one day they maxed out...TWICE. I thought my head would explode. It couldn't have come at a worse time, when I was trying to get eight shoots edited and proofs back to people, as well as work on a very technical edit that has required some consultation.

Short and sweet of it is that I hit a bit of a wall, but now I've gone through it (insert cartoon characterization of Maureen's outline in the brick wall), and I'm getting everything done that needs to get done. My apologies to friends and family if you've been waiting for me to call you back. When I emerge I'll have a lot of chatting to do.

I did take a much-needed break last night and took Thomas on a little date. I've been working so much for the past two months that he finally came downstairs to my basement office, tugged on my sleeve, and said, "Mommy, when Daddy is gone this weekend, can you and I play?" Enough said. I have no remorse about typing this right now as he's engrossed in a Jimmy Neutron episode, but I shut the computer off last night, dropped Madelyn off at MCT (she's helping backstage) and took Thomas out to dinner and then to the new play structure in the newly rebuilt McDonald's. He's four, but this was our first venture over there. He had a blast and played on the thing for THREE HOURS. The way the place was rebuilt, there is very little echo in there and, sad to say, it was almost pleasant (!!!). He made a bunch of new friends and it was so much fun to watch him run, climb, squeal, and use his imagination to make up all sorts of games. I knew he was tired because when I finally told him it was time to get going home at 9 pm, he didn't even put up a fight. We got home, read some books, and cuddled up together until we both fell asleep. Who knew that going to Mickey D's could be rated as one of my favorite evenings, but it did.

Andy is off in Pittsburgh for the annual trip back to see his brothers and go the Steelers game. I'm jealous. I know tonight he'll be sitting at Delallo's eating his favorite ravioli and kicking back a Rolling Rock...ON TAP. What I would do for a slice of pizza from Fiori's in Dormont. Ugh. Guess dads are allowed their fun, too!

I've not taken ONE photo of my NaNoWriMo experience...sorry. Just didn't happen. I'll just steal other people's images instead!!!

Take care and have a happy Saturday. It's been raining here all day today, and I procrastinated on raking leaves, so I get my punishment by raking wet soggy leaves to the street. Fun fun fun. At least in Missoula everyone rakes the leaves onto the street and they come by and suck them up, recycling them for mulch for the parks and stuff. That's a pretty cool thing about living here.

Of course, now I'm a bit afraid of raking! My neighbor Pat, who raked that HUGE pile of leaves for Thomas last weekend, suffered a heart attack this past week. I saw him out there raking one afternoon, and the next thing I knew, a fire truck and ambulance were whisking him up to the hospital. Luckily he recognized the signs early and called 911 right away, so he's expected to make a completely recovery. Gosh, between Pat having a heart attack while raking this week, and Andy having an episode with his arrhythmia while shoveling snow last winter, I have a feeling there'll be a lot of manual labor in my future.