NaNo Day #24... Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

It's Thanksgiving Day, 24 November. I'm sitting pretty at 46,726 words on my novel. Yep folks. Today's benchmark is 40,000 and I'm well ahead. I have 3,274 words left to write to reach the 50,000 word mark and "win" NaNo. That doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things... and yet, it DOES because I have a novel written! Or I will have in just a couple more days... I mean, even 50,000 words does not make a novel... I will likely write more and cut more and edit plenty before it's in any sort of drafty stage to send to a publishing agency... but that's the goal... after reaching 50,000... dress it up and send it out to party :)

I'm pretty excited. At one point I wasn't even sure I could stretch it this far. Yay!

I've really enjoyed this process. I think I have found my stride, which is a good thing to feel. I discovered "Write or Die" which will help me with writing daily in the future (manageable bites are key). I've also learned the need for balance. I've spent the last month jamming on the creativity frequency. I need to have input, too, though... as well as output. I'm looking forward to getting back to reading more regularly and not feeling this crazed pressure for a while. At least until I come up with another grand idea... or until next year's NaNo :)

So... in other news, I volunteer at Blackbird Yoga now, down the street from my house. It's a nice way to get out a couple times a week and I get free yoga for helping out over there. Pretty cool! I try to walk there at least once a week (and drive the other day I go)... mostly for the getting outside. Our street is not the safest to walk down. People like to go careening down the hill and slam into the speed bump in front of our house (that includes snow plows in the middle of the night... right outside my bedroom window... good times...). I don't let Tag in our yard without his 30 foot lead on for that reason. I can't bear the thought of him getting hit. That said, I don't see to many animals (other than squirrels and chipmunks) that get hit on our road. And we have plenty of critters... heron, beaver, muskrat, deer, raccoon, and then I found this guy on the side of the road, a clear hit and run... who knew we had bobcats too? Sad that I had to discover it this way...

Leaving paradise

I think we're going to move here. No really. It's amazing. And we've found that property values are reasonable. And look at it!!!

Sexy surfing husband!

Red footed Booby

Poipu: Spouting Horn

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

A beautiful tropical island... and some chickens!

We are vacationing in Kauai right now and absolutely loving it!

Coconut!

North Shore: Ke'e Beach

There are wild chickens all over the island.
We think they are awesome!

More Yellowstone!

Here are some more shots from my trip to Yellowstone. I wish I had a more inspiring post for you today, but my thoughts are a little muddled. One of my dear ones is hospitalized right now, and I'm worrying for her, even though I know worrying won't help... but it's all I can do... and on top of that we're going to Kauai on Sunday for 10 days... and all the details that go into making that trip a success (and making sure all my creatures are happy and well-fed) are driving me a little to distraction. Sheesh! I need to go read a book... maybe a zombie book... to try to calm down. ;)

Enjoy the photos!

Yellowstone Public Transportation: some of these
babies still have crank engines!

Bison!

Hee hee hee!

Columnar basalt! Created by lava flows... ya know,
 from the SUPER VOLCANO!

A great book about the Sheepeater Indians:
"Mountain Spirit" by Lawrence Loendorf and Nancy Stone

Friend! At Osprey Falls

ELK! Blocking the bathrooms, no less...

Least Chipmunk.

Natural Bridge

Bison jam...

Raven!

Geysers are cool

I mean, geysers are SOOO cool!

I spent the last week in/on a super volcano! It's kinda creepy thinking about what made Yellowstone the amazing natural wonder that it is... but millions of years ago, this gigantic volcano exploded, leaving the caldera that forms the valleys, canyons, and peaks of Yellowstone park.

The Yellowstone River as viewed from the brink of Lower Falls

It was... beautiful there. I went to see my friend Lori during her last week as an Interp ranger at Old Faithful... I knew I would enjoy hanging out with her and hiking, but I never anticipated that I would dig geysers so much! Each one has its own personality... from the predictability in timing of to the nature of each eruption... I was duly impressed. Some geysers blow off steam and super heated water for hours... while others barely trickle. Here are some of my favorites:

Sponge: This is an eruption for Sponge geyser...
 Yay Sponge! You erupted! It seems like a lot of effort!

White Dome (in the background):
This geyser erupts every 20 or 30 minutes! The geyser in the foreground
(Great Fountain) is less frequent in its displays

Daisy: This geyser makes a chugging sound like a train during its
steam phase (at the end of the eruption cycle).

Grotto: This geyser has a strange shape, probably due to a tree falling into it
and becoming covered with minerals. It will also erupt for extended periods of time,
sometimes up to 24 hours or longer!!

Old Faithful: Not the biggest or the most dramatic
 geyser in the park, but surely the most predictable.

Beehive: This geyser's eruption is higher than Old Faithful's
and if you stand in just the right spot, you can get soaked by
the water as it falls on the boardwalk!

Castle: This geyser can have a dramatic and lengthy steam phase.

And my favorite, Great Fountain: This geyser has a 4 hour window in which
it may erupt. It begins with a trickle, then starts to roil, and then shoots water sky high!

I was lucky enough to catch a "blue bubble" in Great Fountain. According to the Geyser Observation and Study Association website's page on Great Fountain,

"a Blue Bubble occurs when a calm and still pool of water is domed up by a large expanding steam bubble. As the steam bubble rises and expands, the entire 16 foot wide pool of water is lifted and domed outward creating a beautiful blue bubble. Once the steam reaches the surface the water explodes outward and upward."

Have I geeked out enough for you yet? It was completely amazing!

I also learned that there are people who spend weeks, sometimes the whole summer, watching geysers and reporting via walkie talkie to the Old Faithful visitor center with the time of eruptions. They're called "Geyser Gazers," and they get REALLY excited about geysers... I mean... really. Who knew? (Confession: now that I know that GG's exist... I kinda wanna be one.)

More on Yellowstone later... I still have waterfalls and wildlife to cover! So much packed into one week! For now, it's off to bed with me... although I'll have to snuggle with the dog tonight since Noah has to work the overnight shift in the office. Bah. At least Tag doesn't snore!

Creative space

I know this is a total Proxy project... as Havi would say... maybe it's just downright Avoidance! Who knows? Either way, I hope that it actually helps me move further along towards my super goal of finishing the draft of Novel #1...

Wondering what I'm talking about, eh? Well yesterday I rearranged some furniture... I carved out a, I'm calling it a Workbench, in the dining room (my favorite room in the house)... a place for me to write, or paint, or draw, or even sew (the machine is under the desk). What do you think?

Yay for creative space :)

And yay for sunflowers!

Look how tall!

Tomorrow two amazing friends will be coming for a brief visit... only a couple of days, but it will be SO GOOD to be with them... and then next week I'm driving South with the dog. Eep! At least all those hours I spend in the car I'll have Tag to talk to.

So now I have creative space but no time to use it! Sigh... one of these days...

Baby steps

So progress is progress, right? After a couple of months of shirking, I have finally written a few more pages and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... meaning I have figured out how I want it to end, this WIP (that's Work In Progress for those of you who don't know) I have had hanging over my head for ... well... years, really. It's a mess and whole sections of it will have to be rewritten... but after a brief conversation with Noah last night, I believe I have found my resolution! And that's what counts right now... just getting it written... and then I can spend the NEXT 20 years editing it :)... Actually, it's probably only 15 years... and if you count how many years I spent NOT working on it... it's not really that long at ALL, right? Sigh...

Now if I can just get through the last pages of the beast...

Summer continues to forge ahead in the heat of its glory. And we have red sunflowers now...

and cucumbers and tomatoes...

 And more wildflowers...

And I'm slowly molding my insecurity into something more manageable, or learning to see it for what it really is... baby steps...