I got a couple of compliments from people telling me that I always seem to be doing something, but I don’t really feel it. Sometimes I feel as if I’m not really doing anything, even though I’m out doing stuff most of the day. I guess I’m used to being a tad more stressed in my previous job, even though I’m responsible for a lot here no one is really expecting tons of things out of me, and I’m part of a team so the work load is scattered among all of us.
Magazine club is a little stressful. The kids totally don’t understand the editing process… I think this might be the first time they’ve even been faced with the idea. I really had to work hard today to explain about the differences between critiquing and critisizing, and even then some kids got upset or ended up doing nothing at all! But I’ve got work coming from them, and poems and drawings from the school as a whole, so I think I’ll have material enough to publish a magazine towards the end.
Nanowrimo is in full swing up here in Seattle. Standing for National Novel Writing Month, the goal is to write an entire novel in the month of November. 50,000 words. It’s a little insane, but I’ve done it before so I have full faith that I’ll be able to do it again. It helps that the NaNo community up in Seattle is wonderful. In fact, Seattle has had the top word count and donation count for the last several years, beating out places like New York and London easily. I’ve already been to a couple of write-ins and the forums here are very helpful.
In other news, I’ll be back in Tucson next week for the Angel ball. My ex-boss is willing to fly me out to help with the ball, so I’ll be spending a weekend volunteering with my family. It’ll be great actually, it’ll be tons of work but I know that if I was here while it was going on I would be a little disappointed. Then I’ll be back in Tucson on the 23rd for my Christmas break and I’m excited. I’m excited to hang out with my brothers and my friends. I’m excited to not have to pay for food. I’m excited to be able to pet my cat.
But most of all I am excited about seeing the dang-blasted sun. Seriously, all the time up here except during the hours that I’m in school the world is dark and rainy. It rains almost constantly, and as much as I like this rain when water is CONSTANTLY FALLING FROM THE SKY it affects your life in different ways. For example, jackets. Everytime I go out I need a jacket, and if I’m going to a place where I want to be seen I need more than just a jacket, I need a pretty jacket. But then it’s raining so it also has to be waterproof, and sometimes I’m going places (like concerts) that don’t have coat checks but where I don’t want to be wearing my jacket for tons of hours while dancing. Not to mention whether or not to bring an umbrella! It’s a whole nother group of things to think about!
I was reminded of how different it is in Arizona when I went to a Roger Clyne concert up here. Roger Clyne is a semi-regional band from Arizona that I saw all the time with my parents and friends back home. As soon as I got there I walked right up to the stage and plopped myself down, which meant that I was at the very front of the concert! The place seemed empty at first, but it filled up pretty quick and I was surprised to meet a bunch of ex-pats from Arizona. I made friends who were more than happy to dance all crazy-like with me, but I missed hanging out with my friends. I even suffered my first bout of homesickness thinking about all the fun times I spent at concerts like these before.
But tis to be expected. At least I got to enjoy a little bit of home before heading back out into the rain.