It's already week two of NaNoWriMo, and I still haven't written a word. My Grandma had a stroke two weeks ago, and I flew to Chicago right away to be with her for a week. In the meantime, NaNo started, and I didn't. I MEANT to, I even brought my little USB stick, which caused a little problem at the security checkpoint when it got lost in my purse.
The security officer kept asking me, "Do you have anything else in there?" and running my purse through the x-ray no less than three times.
"No," I said. "That's everything." Cell phone, wallet, book, asthma inhaler, pens, passports.
I had to take everything out and put it all back together, three times, each time the woman asked what else is in there. My purse is black. So is my little USB stick, and so impossible to see in the inky depths of my carryon. On the third pass-through, and the third dismanteling of the contents, the security officer finally found the culprit.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Oh," I said. "I forgot about that. It's my USB stick."
She thrust it in my hand and shoved everything back at me. "You can go."
Two nights later, my sister's boyfriend was asking about NaNo... or somehow the conversation evolved to that point, and I remember talking about it and thinking to myself, Well, that's DAYS away. I've got plenty of time to get over my jetlag and get myself in order.
After that, I forgot about NaNo. Until a friend of my mother's called, and at the end of their conversation, asked to talk to me. Somehow, she knew I was planning on doing NaNo again this year, and told me a friend of hers is doing it, as well. "But I suppose you won't make the 50,000 mark, will you? Not since you're in Chicago this week."
I thought about what she said. Holy crap. It was Halloween evening and NaNo was starting at midnight. "Well, I brought my USB stick with me," (that troublesome little beast), "so, I was planning on squeezing some writing in while I'm here." and I meant it when I said it. I really did. I was fully confident I would get a goodly chunk of writing done.
But as soon as the conversation was over, I'd forgotten about NaNo. Until I returned to Germany. and now, with reverse jetlag and all, the idea of working on a story just overloads my circuits. I haven't thought about that novel in at least two weeks, probably more. I guess I better get crackin', though. I have no excuse to be forgetting all about it, now, do I?
Why can't writing a novel be as easy as writing a blog??? I'd have no trouble getting anything done, then.
I've been getting up, ready to tackle the day at 2:30 am, every day since we've been back.
Might as well start making using of that jetlag, right?
uh, yeah. right...
