Return of Curly Girl

Um . . . hi.

I'm still here. Four months later.

Sorry about the silence.

I've been working at the university for four months now. It's just as good as I thought it would be - easily one of the best jobs I've had since college. But by the time I get home, eat dinner and recover from a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is sit on a hard wooden chair in the hallway next to the living room and type on my mom's computer. Sad but true.

However, I'm finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and the hope that I will be moving out into my own apartment soon has given me the stamina to say hello once again. Feel free to celebrate.

I made that sound like my life has been miserable for the last few months, didn't I? Life has been pretty good, actually. It's just that I'm still living with my mom. I was hoping to be out of here long before now. (It look a little longer than I expected to save up a decent chunk of change.)

In some ways, my life is limited because I live with my mom. I can't really have people over. (You'd understand if you saw the place and the hidden garden surrounding it.) I can't always do what I want after work because most of my things are in storage on the other side of the city. I can't even really cook for myself in her kitchen. It is the tiniest kitchen that I have ever seen, and I've seen some small ones!

There are some good things, too. Like having a roommate. Once I move out, I'll go home to an empty apartment every night. I'll have to call people if I want to chat. I'll have to kill spiders by myself.

On the plus side, I'll be able to host that small group that I've been thinking about. I'll be free to read in bed until horribly late without someone checking to see why my light is still on. I'll do my own grocery shopping and cook what I want for dinner each night. I'll get my things out of storage.

Yes, there are many good reasons to move out of my mom's house!



In keeping with my Curly Girl resolutions, I've been thinking about NaNoWriMo.

What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's a non-profit based in Oakland. Each November, they sponsor a worldwide challenge, asking their members to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Just for the heck of it. Just to help spark creativity. Just to be able to say that you wrote a novel.

I think I'm going to do it this year.

Actually, I've been thinking about doing my own month in May. I'm excited about it, and I don't want to wait until November to start. I've always said that I'd write a novel someday, and I'm afraid that if I wait, I might not do it. But if I try to write one in May - maybe only 30,000 words, since I'll be totally on my own for it - then I'd have more motivation to do one again in November.

Don't worry - I'm not expecting to write anything very good in May! One of the motto's of NaNoWriMo is "Quantity, not quality." They argue that sometimes it's better to force yourself to write an entire book, even if it's trash. If you try to write a perfect book the first time around, you'll block yourself. But 50,000 words of trash will still give you the thrill of writing a novel, and it might be redeemable in the editing process.

I'm ready to change the subject now, but I have nothing to say. This is one of the hazards of trying to write after an eight hour day of work.

And beyond that, I just realized that I'm hungry.