Finals Week

College is awesome. It's the time when people are finding themselves and are constantly evolving, beginning to resemble their more mature, adult selves. And while I may go to a school known more for its parties than its programs, it was still super easy for me to find people that I connected with, even if I'm not into the whole 'party every single day of my life, you only live once, time to get black-out drunk' scene.

But there comes a time, at the end of the semester, where everyone starts to get a little crazy. People at the library are either on such a high dosage of Adderall that nothing but the apocalypse could tear them from their studying or they are browsing Facebook with their study guide open in the background, hoping to absorb the knowledge through some kind of Internet osmosis. Last year during this time, when it was cold and windy and gray and most of campus was running on less than three hours of sleep from a combination of papers and projects and finals, I got really sick. I got a scalp infection that did something to my brain, so I had a debilitating migraine for a week straight. I went to the emergency room three times, where they put me on higher and higher doses of painkillers, and still it didn't go away. My mom was so worried about me she demanded I come home, so I took the bus back for the entire 10 hour drive, sitting next to a newly-released prison inmate with his only belongings in a tiny mesh bag and snores so loud I couldn't fall asleep, even with all of the painkillers.

Because of that, I have not had to endure the Winter Final Fever until this year. And for once in my life, I'm actually on top of things. I've been studying for my Nutrition final since Friday morning (it's on Thursday at 7:30am, urgh), and I think I know most of the material. I have (unfortunately) completely stopped reading/writing until this is over, but I'm done on Thursday, so hurrah!

In the meantime, I'm kind of going insane from the amount of caffeine I've consumed today. My roommates and I stopped at Panera on the way home from this organic food store called New Leaf Market, so I'm halfway through my second cup of coffee. But I've studied a bunch, yay!

Other college students: how are you coping with finals/finals week? 

NaNoWriMo = Failure

I called it, folks. I failed NaNo before the halfway point because life got the best of me. Hanging out with friends and doing delinquent college things overtook my life last month, plus all the preparation for finals with papers and projects. I'm glad I opted out of it before my life got too hectic, because I had a buttload of projects due last month.

Anywho, other things going on in my life:

• Tara from Hobbitsies was in my American Lit. class that just ended a few days ago, so we bonded over books and blogging and BEA and probably other b-things. She gave me a copy of Blood Red Road by Moira Young, so look for a review of that as soon as I finish, probably near the end of this month.
• I finished a short story that I'd been working on for a couple of weeks last night, called A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, although the title is subject to change because I hate that title. I'm pretty proud of my use of prose in it, so I think I might submit it to a couple of literary magazines and see if it get's accepted. After revising it a bit more, I think. It could be a bit tighter/more coherent.
• It's finals week. I've mostly been fine about my classes, aside from Nutrition, which I'm studying like a mad person for. That has been stressing me out.

Otherwise, my life is pretty unexciting. I may post from retrospective reviews of books I really liked and maybe another vlog when I go home for break, because I'm way too self-conscious to record myself acting like a fool while my roommates are in the room. If not the full return of me, at least it's a partial return.

Blogging NaNoWriMo: Day Six

Current Word Count: 8,641


I am not writing right now. I am playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and trying to beat Icy Adventures. I'm pretty much a professional writer. I'll be published pretty soon at this rate, I think. Maybe I can write my own guide on how to beat this game (that's probably about ten years old now) and then sell it online and make millions.

Well. Anyways.

Somehow, last night, I managed to get ahead, even with watching The Fellowship of the Ring and Batman Begins and Nichijou and Le Chevalier D'Eon. My characters are much different than I expected them to be, acting different than I'd planned out in my head. Indy is supremely messed up when it comes to caring about people and Luke is a humongous jerk. I was thinking a lot about plot last night because, well, I don't really have one, and I'm pretty sure I know where this is going. I just can't make Indy and Luke care about each other for a long time into the narrative. They hate each other. It has to be so subtle that you don't even notice when they stop hating each other.

It's kind of nice to be blogging again. I missed this whole community as well as constantly being on Twitter and talking to people. So, after this month, I'll try to be more regular about blogging. I've missed all you guys!

Blogging NaNoWriMo: Day Five

Current Word Count: 8,370

I was behind all day and it was freaking me out. Last night, I stayed over my friends' house and watched The Blair Witch Project and wrote way too little, so I made myself drink coffee and write when I got up from my four-hour nap today. Now it is almost two am and I am still awake, sitting at the same friends' dining room table, listening to them watch Batman Begins while I realized that I am finally ahead on my word counter. Even though it is technically not Day Five any longer.

I feel like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I was so stressed about being behind, but today was a thankfully productive Saturday. I'm not sure how tomorrow is going to be, but we shall see!

On a completely different note, I made cupcakes for my best friend, Lauren's, birthday. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. They were absolutely delicious and by delicious I mean I ate five. Five is apparently an auspicious number for me: day five of NaNo and I am finally ahead and five cupcakes.

Blogging NaNoWriMo: Days Three and Four

Current Word Count: 5,112

Welp, Day Four and I am stuck.

I don't know how I didn't expect it. I had no plot. I had two character who hated each other and a zombie apocalypse. I have an ending and two or three scenes in between. But now I don't know how to connect any of those things into something that makes sense.

Here's the thing: I love it when two characters start out hating each other. But it's never done well enough for me. In most books, they become love interests, but I think that, if you really dislike someone, even if you can come to accept them as a person eventually, I don't feel like you can ever REALLY fall in love with them. And nemesis relationships are never raw enough. When they start out becoming friends, it can't be some pitiful insults hurled--there needs to be tangible dislike. It's never tangible enough for me.

That's why I wanted to work with Indy and Luke. They hate each other with a passion. But that's making them a tad unpalatable to me. Indy just seems like a bitch because we don't know why she hates Luke so much and Luke just seems like the innocent bystander who gets punched in the face. That's why I'm stuck. That's why I got stuck last night, along with sleeping over my best friends' house and watching Disney songs on Youtube, plus the stress of having to turn in a project today that I'd barely started last night. I have the rest of today to catch up, though, until I go back over to hang with my friends. I need to get to 6666. I will. I will.

Or I'll just read House of Leaves and dick around.

To paraphrase Mindy Kaling: Writing is 90% dicking around and 10% getting things done.

Current Mood: Blah.

Blogging NaNoWriMo: Day Two

Current Word Count: 3,887


I finished  Her Fearful Symmetry last night, during the time I should've been writing. (I had a massive headache, so that was my excuse not to write. But I can still read. Even though it makes my head hurt worse.)

I was not a happy camper.

Lemme give you all a one-sentence summary of this book: Twins are weird and ghosts are evil. There we go. I've spared you from having to read this book that was a disappointing follow-up to The Time-Traveler's Wife, which was awesome and great and made me cry. This book did not. This book made me want to throw things across the room. I can't rant sufficiently without spoilers, so I won't rant here, other than to say: skip this if you want to be satisfied. If you really loved TTW, give it a try, perhaps. But it just wasn't for me.

Whoa, way to be a Debbie Downer. As far as writing goes, today has not been productive. I've written about 800 words, but I'm still fairly ahead. I'm already wanting to give up. I think that's a sign that things are going well, when I want to give up.

This is the first year I am going by the seat of my pants. And it's kind of awful and awesome, at the same time.

Tomorrow: I'll introduce you guys to my characters.

Mood, thus far: Annoyed at everything.

Blogging NaNoWriMo: Day One

Word Count: 2,878

I am breaking my radio silence to bring you this, my dear neglected readers: I am not writing YA for NaNoWriMo this year. I know, I know. It's a shock to your delicate systems, already hurt by my lack of posts for months and months. However: The Symmetry of Grace still contains a teenage protagonist. It also contains zombies. And it is literary fiction. We'll see how this goes.

I went to a meet-up last night with people at my university and ate a bunch of Warheads while I tried to bang out my daily quota before going to bed. We sat in the breezeway of the dorm I lived in last year and I was disappointed by the lack of coffee. So now I'm in the library, where I've been for two hours, dawdling and drinking a delicious (though now-cold) coffee.

Anywho, here was the announcement I promised: I am going to try to blog every day of November, even on dear Thanksgiving and the days before and after I will be traveling home and back to school. It is going to be rambly. I may do a book review or two, but they'll most likely be on the classics we're reading in my Lit. class or the weird books I'm reading for leisure (right now, it's Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenaksdjasegger. Next up, House of Leaves!)

Outlook for the Day: Promising. This may or may not be fueled by coffee and the really cute guy sitting next to me.