Writing | BulgingButtons

November 3, 2014
by BulgingButtons 2 Comments

My First Ever Missed Appointment

Today has felt like quite a Monday. It wasn’t an awful day, but it had a few little bumps.

This morning when I packed my lunch I noticed that the single serving guacamole packets that I bought YESTERDAY had a use by date of TODAY. Grrr. My fault. I should have checked the package at the store.

Speaking of my fault, this afternoon I missed a doctor’s appointment for the first time ever. It was an appointment to go over lab results, no big deal. Except, I never went to the lab. I cancelled that appointment and didn’t reschedule. Apparently I forgot to cancel this one as well. Oops.

Today’s appointment slipped my mind, and would have been gone forever, had the automated reminder service not called me on Friday. Yes, Friday for a Monday appointment. I know, I know… it’s my responsibility to remember my appointments, not the automated system. You’re right of course. The thing is, by the time I got the message it was after office hours, and there was no way to leave a message. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make the appointment, so it was frustrating that I couldn’t cancel it. Even if I could have made the appointment, there was no reason to go. No lab means no lab results, ergo the doctor and I have nothing to talk about.

Again, my fault, I should have cancelled it right away. Still, I wish that I could have left a message stating that I wouldn’t have been able to make it. I had that appointment hanging over my head all weekend, so you would think that maybe I would have remembered to cancel it today, right? Wrong. I don’t have a lot of down time during the work day, so taking care of personal business gets pushed to the back burner. Typically I try to take care of things after school, but today I had a meeting. A long meeting, it turned out. So long that my phone reminded me of my appointment (silently, of course) ten minutes before the actual appointment (the default setting on the phone- helpful, right?).

By the time the meeting ended (about two and a half hours after it began) the phones at the doctor’s office were turned off. Of course there were about a dozen options for various recordings, but no option for me to beg forgiveness for missing my appointment. Ugh. Now I have to TRY to remember to call tomorrow and BEG them not to charge me for my missed appointment. We’ll see how THAT goes. I know, I know… it’s my own fault, but I really miss the days of the personal reminder call. Now that would have solved everything.

And for those of you skimming and just reading the highlighted words, here they are as poetry:

Monday

Yesterday Today

Could Wish Maybe

Try

Beg

That

Everything

What a lousy poem! I hope it at least made you smile at how terrible it is. Tomorrow is a new day, and everything will work itself out. In the meantime I plan to indulge in some of my favorite things… a new quilt magazine, my favorite TV shows, some writing, and dinner with my sweetheart (that he’s cooking… score!).

November 1, 2014
by BulgingButtons 8 Comments

Welcome to the Crazy that we Call November

The trick-or-treaters are all gone, and only a few candy wrappers were blowing around the empty street this morning. I’m debating whether to put away the Halloween decorations today or wait until Monday. It seems like they should stay up through the weekend. I even hit the half price section of my major discount retailer this morning for a few strands of orange lights and a three foot tall monster yard decoration. Oh, and a couple of bags of half price candy. We ran out last night and I’m a candy addict, I admit it.

So now that another holiday is officially in the books, the craziness that is November begins. We start the month with the vestiges of Halloween, and the candy and mess (think rotting pumpkins) it leaves behind. As soon as we get that all put away, we turn our attention to Thanksgiving. Who will be coming over, what dishes should we serve? And if you live at my house, how shall we prepare the turkey? Fried, smoked, or roasted? Decisions, decisions. Then, the day after that’s all done, as we’re enjoying leftovers, we turn our attention to Christmas. Up goes the tree, and out go the crazy black Friday shoppers. No offense, but I enjoy sleep way too much to get up in the middle of the night to fight crowds and spend money. No, thank you.

Mix into all of that a little thing called NaNoWriMo, where you challenge yourself to write a whole novel in November, and another little thing called NaBloPoMo, where you challenge yourself to blog everyday, and you have a recipe for madness. The really weird part about it all? I did it last year (oh, and threw in a very early Chanukah to boot) and honestly, I LOVED it! I blogged everyday. I wrote a manuscript of over 50,000 words. I cleaned up from Halloween, celebrated Thanksgiving, celebrated Chanukah, and prepared for Christmas. I also taught full-time and parented a teen and maintained a relationship with my fiance. I rocked it!

So here we are back at November 1. I’m in a new home, but everything else is the same. Do I think I can do it again? Why not! I won’t know unless I try, so by golly I’m going to try. Hang on to your hat, because November is here!

October 19, 2014
by BulgingButtons 5 Comments

To NaNo or Not to NaNo

November is rapidly approaching, and I’m starting to get lots of e-mails from the folks over at NaNoWriMo. For those of you unfamiliar with NaNo, it’s short form NaNoWriMo, which in turn is short for National Novel Writing Month. The NaNoWriMo folks have claimed November as theirs, and invited the whole wold to join them. Last year I accepted that invitation, and I wrote the manuscript of a young adult novel. In a month. Yes. I did it.

That manuscript is still very raw, in fact I haven’t done much of anything with it. I know so much more about writing now than I did a year ago, and what I’ve learned has left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the prospect of all the revisions that lay ahead. Gulp. But does that mean I can’t write something new? Of course not!

Completing NaNoWriMo was a huge accomplishment. It showed me that I did in fact have at least one book in me, and that I could find the time to create it. It also showed me that even when I was feeling stuck, I could make myself move forward. It was an important lesson. Of course it wasn’t without its freak-outs along the way.

Another lesson that it taught me was that I spend too much time on activities that give me nothing in return. I think many of us do. My main time sucker (and maybe yours too) tends to be surfing the internet. Watching tv is a big one for a lot of people too. Still, no matter how busy I felt, I was always able to at least put in at least twenty to thirty minutes on work days, then fill in with some extra time on the weekends. I knew that skipping days would stress me out too much in the long run, so I avoided it at all costs.

So now here I am, Mid-October, and decision time is looming. Yes, I think I’ll try it again, and this time I’ll incorporate some of the information on story structure that I’ve learned over the past several months. I have a new character that I need to get to know, and I need to create some really interesting things for her to do and say. I also need to stock up on Hot Tamales, they are my go to candy for writing inspiration and energy.

Hopefully this year’s 50,000 plus words come more easily than last year’s, but I’m not counting on it. Writing a novel is a really difficult process, but by announcing it, I’ve just taken the first step. Wish me luck!