Finals and Writing

I'm making a small amount of headway toward finishing Providence. But to be honest, getting sick the first week of December and having finals the second and third weeks makes finishing a new novel tough. But I'm trying to work on it a little at a time so I don't lose momentum. Hopefully after my last final (A&P at 6pm on the 16th) I will get to finish it by the 31st!!

Finals... ugg. Any college student out there knows I don't even need to say anymore. But I will. Finals are actually going quite well. I have a portfolio for creative writing, a presentation and paper for linguistics, a non-cumulative test for A&P, and a website for web-writing. The website is due tomorrow so after I turn it in I can concentrate on Monday's presentation for linguistics then Wednesday's papers and exam. I'm loving web design, though I wish I had more graphics to work with from the company.

I'm also trying to finish my application to the University of Floriday graduate program and compile some pieces to send to IUPUI's literary magazine, Genesis. I'm working on a poem I'm calling Sophia's Song, which fans of IE will appreciate, and revising a short story I wrote two years ago that has been rejected by numerous magazines.

I'm getting caught up on bills since Mike made a fat paycheck on the 11th, but it'll still take us a bit to dig all the way out of the trenches of debt. It's hard keeping my head up, but I'm managing.

So that's the third week of December, 2009 in a nutshell. Wow, the year's gone by fast!!!

Off-Task

Do you ever write something you've already done on a list just so you can cross it off? I just did that, and it felt pretty good. I looked at my academic planner for the week and realized I wasn't very accomplished so far this week because I hadn't crossed anything off... then I realized I had barely written much down to begin with. So I started writing in things I had already done, just to cross them off. Now I feel much more accomplished for this week ☺

In other news, the next 51 days will be pretty busy for me. NaNo starts on Nov. 1, and I haven't done a lick of pre-planning for it. This will be my 2nd year attempting (I finished last year a hair above 50K words) but my first year doing it while being in school full-time. Should be fun. And, to add to that, I don't even know what I'll write. I was sick for 3 weeks in September so I got behind on everything -- schoolwork, writing, housework, Christmas stockings... everything. So, I think I'm gonna wing it for NaNo! Also, I'm headed to Florida on October 22!!! Going to check out the UF campus and linguistics program and try to make a decision about my future after graduation -- which is exactly 7 months away. That's still a ways off, but much closer than I've ever been (obviously)!! We'll be in Florida (hubby and I, that is) over our anniversary too, but will most likely spend that day on a long-ass plane trip and in and out of airports (8 hours for a 1.5 hour flight... not much faster than driving, it seems). Add a couple of final projects, including a website for IPW (Insanity Pro Wrestling, my husband's wrestling company), and extra IPW shows that I must attend due to an arrangement with said hubby.... oh, and holiday dinners! I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the fam... well anyhow, the next 51 days are going to be super busy.

But for now, I'm just trying to get through my list and cross everything out. And maybe get some extra done. Oh, and head to Kokomo to visit my grandpa, who had a stroke on Sunday. :( Busy, busy!!

Ready!

Hair: cut and colored
Backpack: purchased and packed
Planner: bought and filled out (w/ the syllabus info I have already, of course -- I'm not telepathic)
New clothes: bought and put up
Dreamweaver: Learned and still learning
Laptop: researched and almost ready to buy ☺
Dog: bathed and teeth brushed

I think I'm ready for school to start on Wednesday!!

I'm not sure what the dog had to do with that... but I'm pretty proud to have accomplished all of that stuff today, and after sleeping in too. In my sweatpants, because today was the first day cool enough to wear them.

The only thing I still have to do before my senior year starts is... write. I'm working on a sci-fi short of 5K for a contest. Let's face it, "working on" it right now means I'm reading David Gerrold's "Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" and brainstorming. And it's due August 31. Gulp. But, no fear...

Oh, and I'm still stuck on a few chapters of IE revisions. Chapters 6-9 are giving me some trouble. I had planned on getting to at least 10, if not higher, before school started... it can still happen, if I can figure out these tiny issues. We'll see.

Otherwise, I'm ready!!!!!

Where does the time go?

Not only has it been two months (ok, 2 days shy...) since I've posted on here, but it's already almost the SEVENTH month of 2009!! I can't believe how quickly time has FLOWN.

I still have a gazillion things to do before winter hits. Namely, finish the Christmas stockings, teach Austin to ride a bike, work my ass off in school so I only have 3 classes left by the time 2010 starts, lose some weight, and get a job. That's a lot of big things, and I can't do a lot of the little things on my list until some of the bigger ones are taken care of. So, I guess I'd better get crackin'.

A couple other MUCHO IMPORTANTE things to add to my list: finish the 2nd draft/total revision of IE!!!! Finish the first draft of Vaampyr/A&G. Finish the first draft of Sawyer (untitled works tend to take on the heroine's name, in this case, Sawyer Jackson, Ph.D.).

Speaking of Sawyer, SuNoMriMos is not going too well. School is CraZy and I only have about 6K done so far; my goal is 60K by July 31. This could get ugly. Luckily, finals are tomorrow (woot!) so I will have almost 3 whole weeks of peace, where I'll only have one online class to deal with. I plan on getting LOTS of writing done, LOTS of working out in, and even working on my Christmas stockings ☺ Then, July 20, I'm going to be in class M-F from 1:30-5:45pm. Could be worse, but 4 hours a day sucks big-time. Oh, well. I'll get the class over with and be ready to apply for graduation!!

In other news.... no, that's about it. Life is dull. I'm watching my high school classmates post pictures from around the world, where they're living the single life or having a blast with their spouses, many of them having children, most of them loving their jobs (or at least having one)... and I feel left out. Gotta get on that, but not quite sure how. My bro is in jail, so I haven't been able to see Lillie in a while, which makes me SOOOOOO sad. I miss her so much :( She's getting huge, walking, and her hair is so curly it makes me want to just play with it all day. Hopefully I'll get to spend more time with her soon. That alone would make up for the left-out-edness.

That's it. Life is boring. Not much to say. If I get around to it, I may post an excerpt or two from my revisions. That could be fun.