Powerlessness

Life is shit right now.

The strike has gone on long enough.

I don't have time for this. I have plans. They've been ruined. I don't have time to make new ones.

FUUUUUUUCK.

Okay, no more profanity. Time to get myself out of this funk.

-Laur

I'm a terrible, terrible person.

I'm a terrible person. Just to reiterate. I'm actually not a terrible person, but I'm a terrible blogger and I feel awful. Why have this blog at all if I'm not going to use it?
Sheesh.

January is halfway gone today. Madness. I had an exceptional day today; I went to Le Jardin Conference and Banquet Centre and booked the venue for this year's Ed Formal, an event for which I and my partner Adrienne are responsible. It's going to be bigger, splashier, and more gorgeous than ever before and I am so excited. Unfortunately, it's not until May 15th, so I'm going to have to find some crazy way to make it through the next few months until the magical date arrives.

Strike watch- still on. Hopefully by the end of next week classes will resume. If the labour disruption extends past that, I honestly don't know what will become of the academic year. I could list all the complications that already exist because of the extended school year, but it makes my head ache and my stomach feel sick to even think about it.

My grad photos came before the New Year, though, and I must say they are quite excellent. I've sent them all out to the family now and I keep getting happy emails and phone calls saying "I got your picture, you're so gorgeous!" Thanks, fam and adopted fam. I love you.

Dinner and then Grissom's last episode of CSI, and a new Grey's tonight. Woohoo. Work tomorrow, 10-4, gym, more dinner, and then other stuff. Like professional resume. I'm such a procrastinator!!!

-Laur

Festive Spirit

Honest Ed's window at Bathurst and Bloor.
Yonge and Dundas Square.
The Swarovski Tree at Toronto Eaton Centre.

Around this time of year I start to get festive. Most people do, when it comes down to it, but I have a feeling my festivity isn't like other people's . Since I wasn't raised celebrating Christmas, it's not the religious aspect that attracts me (and there's stating the obvious!) but rather the sparkle and shine of it all. Gifts are great, but I prefer the sales because they mean I can get a necessary item for better value. This year it's either a television set or a dishwasher. I have a feeling that in terms of necessity, the dishwasher is going to win.
Sarah and Mom decorated the main floor for the holidays yesterday and it looks so warm and inviting. The little tree is all lit up on the buffet, the stair railing is adorned with gold tinsel (the kind NOT dangerous to stupid cats) and gorgeous red ornaments are hanging on almost invisible threat from the chandelier, making them look like they're floating above the holly-print tablecloth and pine-themed centrepiece. I'll take pictures. It looks great.
Today the weather is crummy and it makes me not want to go outside, but I told myself I would go to the gym and since I didn't go with mom in the morning, I need to go now. I figure I'll hit the library on my way back and pick up a few DVDs, and then clean my room a little once I'm home and put in some laundry. There's my play-by-play of the day. Oh, and I have work at 6 where I'll be buying a tiny Christmas tree for the family room for exactly $2. Good times.
Mom leaves for Edmonton on Thursday. I want to go with her, but since I can't I hope she has a really great time.

Jingling and cringling (whatever that means),

-Laur

The people that we meet...

Nanowrimo is over. When midnight struck on November 30th I was awake and watching as word count validation shut down and my status as a 2008 winner was cemented. I felt tired and somewhat relieved; November was an extraordinary and month and while I had a lot of fun, I was kind of glad to be finished. The almost overwhelming feeling of bereavement and grief didn't hit me until the next night while I was at the TGIO (Thank God It's Over!) party at the Victory Cafe on Markham Street. The above picture is of the Nano Trifecta of Evil: Laura Winberg, Nelson Yu and Natalia Lopez-Woodside, three writers who met at the first Brunch social at Pickle Barrel Atrium a week after Nano began and will probably remain friends for the next 5, 10, or even 20 Nanowrimos.

This is Natalia. She is my other half. We figure we were separated at birth (though with the 3 year age difference [she's older] there would be a lot of explaining to do) because we're so similar it's scary. People kept asking us throughout Nanowrimo, did we know each other from before? You know each other so well, you probably go way back. Not the case, but a little creepy and definitely a lot of fun. This picture is of her at the all-night write session at Sanctuary on November the 22nd. We sat across from each other, both plugged into our iTunes as we wrote, and looked up at each other at the same time whenever we had something to say. It was neat. I hit 50K that night, and Natalia hit it right before the 30th. I love that we both won.

This is my super happy face from right after I hit 50,000 words. There isn't an adequate grouping of words to describe how happy winning made me. I only hope I can do it again.

I met a lot of amazing people during Nanowrimo, from my long-lost twin to a feather-duster survivor to a transgendered person to a 40 year old man with purple hair who worships bunnies. I hope that I'm in Toronto next year so that I can do it all over again with the same bunch of awesome people, but if I'm not, I'll find Nanoers where ever I am and think about my Toronto Nano team fondly as I write.

Until next year,

L. Rose Harrington, author, Halloween Firsts

Viking Pride

I WON! When I uploaded the 50,000+ words of my yet-unfinished novel onto the Nanowrimo website just after midnight on November 24th (meaning it was actually November 25th) I was greeted with a lovely barrage of images telling me that yes, I had officially won the amazing challenge of National Novel Writing Month 2008. I could download all the little winners badges to brag on my Facebook and blog pages, I could fill out and print a paper certificate saying that I had completed the challenge and am now entitled to crazy sick bragging rights, and my progress bar, once blue with incomplete word count and then green with 50,000 words or more, turned purple and sparkly with victory.
There's going to be a party at Victory Cafe on Markham street on December 1st, aptly titled the TGIO (thank god it's over!) party, for all the Nanoers in Toronto. I can't wait to go, dressed in something festive and sparkling, to celebrate with all my new, kooky, crazy Nanowrimo buddies.
My novel isn't done yet, but it will be soon. I'm going to do my best to wrap it up in the next few days so I can get started on some long-ignored school work before the strike ends. I know how the story is going to end, but now that I've reached that 50K goal I feel like I might rush to finish the rest, or not do it at all. I've only ever finished one story that I've started, and that was because I entered it in a contest and the ending still was more ambiguous than anything else. This story needs a finite ending, or at least a beginning of a new world.
I'm off to York to do some professional development stuff. I'll do another blog entry on the All-Night Writing session I attended over the weekend and put some pictures up as well.

-Laur

Writer's Block

Hey, so...my mom yelled at me to post something new on my blog. Here it is.

My university has suspended all academic activity due to a strike put on by CUPE 3903, the union that the TAs, GAs and contract faculty belong to. I'm also banned from my teaching placement because the Ontartio Federation of Teachers considers our attendance to be a form of crossing the picket lines and will not allow it. A lot of my friends are really upset about this strike and the lack of classes, but I think it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I won't go into the details about why it's so excellent, but I will tell you what I've accomplished since it started 2 weeks ago:

Remember Nanowrimo? Well, I've written more than 35,000 words of my novel so far. I have a lovely protagonist named Poppy Thomson, and delicious love interest named Coll Finlay, and a host of friends, co-workers and acquaintances to shake things up. If I submit what I've written for counting between November 25th and 30th, one of Nanowrimo's corporate sponsers, a self-publishing website called Createspace, will publish my manuscript in paperback form and I will have my very own book to carry around in my backpack and whip out to brag about to perfect strangers. That also means that my friends and cheerleaders will be able to read the finished product.

Shit.

I've also cleaned my room (slightly), baked a batch of cookies or two, and caught up on my sleep. Those are pretty big accomplishments considering I was absolutely unable to do any of it while school was still happening. Weird.

Now I'm faced with a bit of a problem, though; I was writing like gangbusters up until yesterday, and then I got distracted by some FESA stuff and a meeting and forgetting my laptop charging cords in the Senate Chambers overnight (never fear, I retrieved them this morning), and now I'm suffering from... dun dun duuuuuuun...

WRITER'S BLOCK! Oh those dreaded words!!!! Nanowrimo sends out pep talks by famous authors throughout the month and today's pep talk was from the lady who wrote the book White Oleander. She said that whenever she is really stuck, she gets her protagonist into trouble. So that`s what I`m doing. I don`t know what I`m going to do yet, other than try to figure out why my apostrophe key isn`t working properly, but she`s going to get in some sort of crazy trouble very soon.

Wish her luck!!

-Laur

Faith Restored

Thank goodness. Thank goodness the Americans woke up and made the right choice. Obama-Biden 2008 was successful, and even though that wonderful man has many, many challenges to overcome in his first term, I think he'll be okay.
Thank goodness.

-Laur