A Month-ish-ly Summary

Well friends - I guess it's time to get all caught up. However, so many things have been happening and I am so exhausted at this point that this may be the most haphazard, twisted, non comprehensible piece of writing known to man. Prepare yourselves.

Part One: How I Know It's NaNoWriMo Season

1) I have stopped using conjunctions and hyphenated words. This adds to one's word count and is therefore essential to the ability to make it through the month.
2) I sit in my apartment and laugh maniacally sometimes - the result of reading the NaNoisms thread, where people post the misspellings and other unfortunate creations resulting from the mad dash to 50,000 words.
3) My dishes have been stacking up since the beginning. Namely, every. single. coffee. mug. I. own. is. dirty. It is VERY exasperating.
4) I have started to be able to block out portions of my day again. This used to happen in college when I existed on five to six hours of sleep and would sometimes come alert at some point knowing I went places and did things, but not quite certain how they occurred.
5) I've started making up words.
6) I use multiple adjectives to describe the most mundane things - the puppy's eyes were big brown pleading and sweet. Which they may have been, but I know for a fact there are less verbose ways to say it!

Part Two: The Return of the Old Me

I don't know if it was just the newness of everything here, but for some time I was doing pretty well - I was looking responsible to other people, I was carrying on in a more or less socially appropriate manner, and things were trucking along decently, if somewhat boringly (see made up words from part one). This has ended. The honeymoon is over, as they say, and my true self is showing it's inappropriate, stumbling, blushing self again.
Allow me to run over a few highlights:
Last week, I had to get an oil change. I brought a friend with me, and we went to Walmart so I could shop at the same time. Dropping the car off was no big deal. However, picking it up - well let's just say that they need to label their doors much more accurately. Basically there was this whole ordeal where we attempted to force a loaded shopping cart through a single-person door marked customer, then not knowing where to go since it led into the shop itself, we went out a side door, only to find ourselves on the opposite end of the shop from the car. So, in full view of no less than three laughing mechanics and possibly a customer, we proceeded to march around the entire building, still pushing a rattling shopping cart overloaded with plastic bags, and reach the car, where we then had to unload all the bags in front of the still-staring and snickering mechanics, then make our escape home.
At work on Thursday, I tripped. On the plain old carpet. In the middle of the giant, wall-length, floor to ceiling windows. Right at the front of our office. Three different times.
Coming home from work Friday night, I tried to open my front door using the beeper for my car. Because if it says unlock, it should unlock, right?
This morning, getting ready for church after a very late night of writing and then that random extra hour of sleep, I tried to use not mousse, but contact solution on my hair. May I point out that this is only November 6? As I tried to explain to my friend after the Oil Change Incident, these things just happen to me. I don't know why.

Part Three: Hearing Things

No, sarcastic person in the back, I heard you, and I am not manifesting my latent insanity. However, I have started an interesting assortment of quotes lately - it must be because I'm writing again, I'm always more attuned to the world then. Because this post is already far too long, I'll just share two of them with you, and then I'll be off.

1) My father, of course:
"Well a rolling stone gathers no moss - and that's Spanish. No más."

2) (Overheard at church)
Pastor: "We brag about many of the blessings God gives us, when they're beyond our control. We even brag about pointless things: My house is bigger than your house. My girlfriend is cuter than your girlfriend."
-Everybody starts laughing-
Pastor: "What? Haven't any of you done that?"
Husband down the row - leans to his wife -: "Is my girlfriend prettier than your girlfriend?"
Wife - backhands husband in the chest, then stage whispers: "I wouldn't know, I've never met her." -Then starts laughing crazily at her own self -

And that, my friends, if life lately.

On Hearing a Story

When you like to write, you sometimes get a teensy bit of a God-complex about your story. You know every tiny detail of every word, thought, and interaction every one of your characters will have from beginning to end.
And then you start to write.
And it allllll falls apart.
I was telling a friend of mine that I am going to do Nanowrimo and convincing her to do it with me, and as we were talking about it I gave her the synopsis of my plot, using your average filler "blah-blah-blah" for the parts i wasn't entirely clear on. When she teased me about it I pronounced my wording epic, and added that I didn't know yet whether the end of the book I've chosen to write is going to be poignant and haunting or sweet and charming. This is what she said:
"I guess it might be one of those instances where you won't know until the end. Let the story speak to you.
And if it says "blah-blah-blah" hold out for something a bit more profound. Because no, it is not epic."

Minnesota Wish List

Today I am going to give myself a giant imaginary gift all about my roots:
Good old MN!!
The things I would put inside would be:

Minnesota gear - comfy sweatshirt, cozy sweatpants, probably a knit hat and maybe some mittens
Coffee: the goodness of Caribou! and probably  a giftcard so the next time I'm home I can go there with my sisters.
Some kind of MN history book - because I grew up on MN history thanks to my dad, and I kind of miss it sometimes.
Minnesota postcards
Cheesy little touristy things like the license plate name tags and homemade soaps and stuff
A snowglobe with Minnesota in it, or pine trees or some such nonsense
Something totally kitschy like a mini Paul Bunyan
A Twins shirt - because I never cared about them, but now that I am in enemy territory I care just on principle.
A Target giftcard, because there's no Target for miles and miles and miles here.
A couple hotdish recipes - or preferably the hotdish itself.
The movie New in Town - for a touch of home...as others see it, since I never knew a single person who had "The Accent".
Posters for my wall - the awesome ones the history center had of split rock lighthouse and downtown areas in primary colors.
And of course, notes from all my lovelies at home.

If you were going to create a package from your favorite place, one you've been to, are in now, or want to go someday, what would you put inside?