Stiffness

There's a stiffness in my joints

That comes from running too far

Running for miles, dawn to dusk, again

There is sweat and ache

And a stiffness

Or maybe it's from thinking about running

There's a stiffness in my joints

That comes from walking too long

Waling everywhere, without care,

Direction, and purpose

With a stiffness

Or maybe it's from thinking about walking.

There's a stiffness in my joints

That comes from standing all day

Standing straight and firm much too long

The work is never done 

It brings stiffness 

Or maybe it's from thinking about standing

There's a stiffness in my joints

That comes from sitting at least

Sitting through old and hard and sad

Why did I ever stand?

There is a stiffness

Or maybe it's from thinking about sitting.

There is a stiffness in my joints

That comes from flying at night

Flying up to places unreal

For they are too perfect

For the stiffness

Or maybe it's from dreaming about flying.

Nanowrimo

It's that time of year! For those of you who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as Nanowrimo! During November, those participating in Nanowrimo attempt to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. This is roughly 1,667 words a day and no easy task.

I've known about Nanowrimo for a few years now, but this will be my first year actually taking part. I've always put it off in the past, saying that I don't need the time pressure or I'm too busy or I don't have any inspiration to write or any other bullshit excuse you can think of. I've decided firmly and absolutely to take part this year. I have so many ideas floating in my head for what I want to write, but I never actually get around to writing them. Nanowrimo will force me, if nothing else, to get words down on the paper. I'll worry about whether or not any of the shit my fingers typed makes sense in December.

There's tons of information about Nanowrimo out there, but where I first heard of it was youtube, so I'm going to link you to a few videos that I found helpful/informative/inspiring/entertaining. I hope they'll inspire you to participate this year as well :)

• I've mentioned Kristina Horner before, talking about how much she inspires me with the sheer amount of stuff she has accomplished in her life so far. One of those things is the Nanowrimo Song, which is cute and goes through the basic stages of Nanowrimo Feels. Don't let the depressed and crazy stage scare you away, I'm sure it happens to all writers whether they're writing under such pressing time constraints or not.
• Kristina has put up pretty regular videos about Nanowrimo with advice, which can be found here and also here and most recently here
• Acclaimed author, John Green, and the puffier half of the Vlogbrothers has also done a video about Nanowrimo which you can find here
• Then there is another one of my youtube celebrity crushes, the illustrious lioness hayleyghoover who has her own video about the 5 Reasons to do Nanowrimo

You should go check all of those out, maybe they'll help you the way they've helped me--golly I hope so. People don't say golly enough, you know?

As I said before, this will be my first time doing Nanowrimo. I don't have high hopes (cause if you set your expectations low you always end up with either a pleasant surprise or an expected disappointment, neither of which is as soul-crushing as if you had actually aimed for the stars...wait a second, this was supposed to sound like a good idea...) but I am hoping to at least get a good chunk of my hopeful novel out of the way this November. So far I've got exactly 3500 words. I'm chuggin' along like a turtle, slow and steady baby--like your mom in bed last night.

If you'd like to participate in Nanowrimo, click the link I posted at the top and get started because it's November 2nd and you're already RUNNING OUT OF TIME!

happy writing

Start of Spring Break

I'm currently on vacation in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I'm having a lot of fun (my roommate and her family are extraordinarily generous and pleasant) but because of this I don't have much time to blog. So, until next week, you'll have to make due with extremely short posts. I did update my writing tab (finally) though, so feel free to peruse that. The nonfiction piece I posted (Heat) was for a class assignment, and I'm not a huge fan of it, but I wanted to post something today. So there you go.

For anyone who is interested, I am extremely sunburned.

I Want Yerr Booty!

I overheard the best conversation last night. My roommates and I were sitting in our living room, me writing a paper, Whitney watching videos on Youtube, and Julia studying. Apparently some drunk fellas decided to camp outside our door for a bit of a heart to heart. Two words, people: Thin. Walls. We could hear every word. Most of it was the usual stuff you'd expect: girls they'd bang, their gym routines, how they never called their parents (lookout, badasses) and how much they'd drunk that night. But then, oh but then.

Guy #1: "I really wanna get with this girl, but she keeps playing hard to get. I can tell she likes me though-"

Guy #2: "Duuudde, I totally know what you should do! Text her like a pirate!"

Guy #1: "What?"

Guy #2: "Yeah! It works, trust me. Just be all like, 'Ahoy there matey, I want yerr booty' and then they're all like, 'Aye Aye, Captain' and you're totally in. And then if she get's offended just say you meant treasure, not her ass. Works every time."

Guy #1: "Really? It works?"

Guy #2: "Yup. That's how Meghan and I started hooking up. Pirate talk totally turns her on."

Guy #1: "Dude..."

So there you go. If a guy starts texting you like a pirate, be wary, cause apparently it's a trap. If you want to text like a pirate, here's a link. I must say, pirates are kind of dirty! If a guy texts WTTMM? Just say no.

In other news, I have a Boy Problem. There is a boy in my english class, let's call him K. K and I sit next to each other and partner up whenever we have pair exercises. He is friendly and has a twang and is not attractive in the slightest. We happened to walk to class together on Wednesday and chatted about Philosophy and God (Yeah, I have deep conversations, what of it?) on the way. Now, today he waited for me and walked me to class. The awkwardness that ensued went something like this:

Me: So...how'd you do on that prompt? I'm not sure I used passive voice like she wanted.
K: Yeah, it was hard.

Silence. I bite my tongue and look around desperately for something to talk about.

Me: Do you have any fun plans this weekend?
K: I'll probably go to a party tonight. What about you?
Me: No plans yet. I have a paper due so I'll have to devote at least a day to that. I haven't done any of the readings yet, the teacher is so boring! He...

I tell an anecdote about my weird teacher. K laughs.

K: Well, if you don't have any plans you should come to the party. Do you know where The Reserve is?
Me: *OH-SHIT eyes* Uh, yeah, I know where it is.
K: It'll be fun, you should come. It probably won't start til later.
Me: Haha yeah it's only 10 am now so I would assume it would start later haha
K: You should come.
Me: Haha yeah I'll see what we're doing.

Walk up stairs in silence.

Me: I have to pick up a package from the post office after this.
K: Oh, yeah. Can I ask you something?
Me: ...sure.
K: We should exchange numbers.
Me: ...okay. Was that your question?
K: *Pulls out phone* What's your number?

Does anyone else see that this is awkward? That it's weird? I don't mind him having my number, but...we've only talked twice! This being the second time! He is sweet but sooo not my type, but I don't want to hurt his feelings. This is starting to sound like a bad YA novel, but I'm just so confused. I didn't send any signals! I didn't flirt or go out of my way to talk to him or do anything other than be nice! Is that all it takes? Being nice? If so then I should have a hell of a lot more suiters than I do. Cute suiters, who play sports and drive motorcycles. Why? He hasn't texted me yet. I'm unsettlingly anxious for it, like in a scary movie when you just know something is going to pop out at you. This is not how love feels.

Other than that, we had workshop today in my Structure of Fiction class where we all got into groups of four and critiqued each other's scenes. Everyone seemed to like mine for the most part, which made me happy. One of my biggest faults is that I don't take criticism well, so this class is going to force me to get over that. I'm going to polish the story up a bit and then would like to post it on here sometime soon. Beware, there be cursing, matey!

I am listening to a cover of When I Grow Up by Mayday Parade.