Checking in 45: 11.19.21

Hello!

New Steps

NaNoWriMo update. As of this post, I am on track to hit 40K words today. Look at me go. I’m about five days ahead of where I should be. This means if something crazy happens I only need to get in around 1,000 words a day to still win.

I have to say; I‘m really proud of myself for this. I went from writing maybe every few days and being lucky if I got 1500 words in a session to averaging just over 2100 words every day. I have not put up a zero day yet. Even the days I planned as no writing days, I wrote. I didn’t make myself. I felt like it. If feels good to write. It makes me smile when it’s a funny/cute/goofy scene. It brings tears to my eyes when it’s tender/emotional/vulnerable.

I’ve talked about vulnerability before. To recap, I am not good at being vulnerable with others, or at least I don’t feel like I am. Vulnerability is a huge part of writing. We put ourselves into our characters whether we want to or not, so it’s like showing a part of yourself to anyone who reads your words. I feel like I’ve gotten better at it IRL because of my writing. So… bonus.

The Breakdown

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

I just got to part two of this personal memoir by actor Matthew McConaughey. I am listening to the audio book, which he narrates himself in his wild and sometimes over the top fashion he displays in his movies. It’s good so far, though some of the stories are a little painful to listen to. At least for me. In particular, the stories about his parents. Coming from a very non-violent family, some of the stories seem crazy to me. His mother once broke his father’s nose with the base of a telephone after he threw the kitchen table into the ceiling in response to her taunting him and calling him names… immediately after which they quite literally kissed and made up in a biblical manner right there on the kitchen floor while his nose was still gushing blood. “That’s how they loved each other,” he explained. He also says they divorced each other twice and married each other three times. A relationship like that is little outside my frame of reference.

Most of the stories are funny. I haven’t heard any that were sad per se yet (except feeling sorry for a young Matthew who got caught up in the crazy, though to be fair, he caused some of the crazy himself), but I’m sure they are coming. We shall see.

P.S. I’m still slogging through House of Leaves. It’s slow going, but I haven’t given up yet.

Living Life

My workload has been slow at the new job for the first three weeks. I wasn’t quite to the point where I was banging my head on the desk, but I was starting to wonder if they actually needed me. Then suddenly, yesterday, my boss dropped a bunch of stuff on me at 3:30 in the afternoon. Quitting time is 5 pm. The funny part is, I hadn’t done half of this stuff before. The even funnier part is they all claim ignorance on how to do it as well.

So, I was on the phone or messaging two different people for three hours to get instruction on some of the finer points that weren’t covered in my video training. I finally got it all figured out. Got that pile of stuff done. Then I stumbled into a conversation about a Christmas breakfast they want catered for the guys. I made one little comment, and suddenly, I was voluntold to organize the whole thing.

I started working on that, calling around to different companies, getting quotes, etc. when I heard a sound. Then a few seconds later, I heard it again. I looked up. I heard it again. I stood up to get a different angle on it. I heard it again. Plop… plop… plop. Shit. I grabbed one of the managers. Yep. The roof was leaking and dripping on a ceiling tile right above my desk.

Happy Friday.

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