NaNoNovember120×90Paper, originally uploaded by kathieshoop.

November may be well known for turkey and stuffing and being stuffed and shopping for Christmas, but for many writers, November means hunkering down and writing a first draft of the novel that has been knocking around their head for six months.

I love this process–it’s the one I use whenever I do a first-draft whether it’s November or not. It works for me because I’m not a first-draft-perfectionist. I need to get the story down, messy as it may be in order to work with it. So, I’ve been researching my WIP and sending out queries for my last book and I’ve neglected starting this one. But now, it’s just me and the computer and 1650 words a day or so and I love it. I love this part.

Anyone else have NaNoWriMo underway?

DSC02276, originally uploaded by kathieshoop.

Sorry to do this to you folks. But, in the effort to blog more often I’ve decided to try out various products you’ve seen advertised on tv. So, here’s number 1. These Kinoki pads. I don’t know what they actually do, but I definately got the result the commercial suggested I would. Here’s round one.

And again, my apologies, but in the end, if we all detoxify and live healthier lives it will be worth that breakfast you just spit up.

DSC00529, originally uploaded by kathieshoop.

Well, looks like dinner anyway, right?

I think the turkeys who roam our neighborhood are interesting if nothing else. By Thanksgiving we’ll have twenty in our yard on a daily basis.

Our one neighbor doesn’t appreciate the site of any wildlife–she’ll bludgeon a snake to death and tear a mouse limb from limb before you can say "Hey look at THAT fricken’ thing!"

She (she’s eighty-eight years old) beat a snake  in front of our babysitter and kids one day. THAT was a story to come home to. It’s true the snake was a fat six-foot black thing that gives me chills just thinking about it, but for me, running, screaming with my hands over my head is the way you handle a big fat black snake.

But, that’s me. A wimp. Or maybe it’s my youth.

What sort of critters show up in your yard?
PS. in case you’re wondering, yes this neighbor of mine hates the deer that stomp around the yard as well. What’s not to hate?

1. Man and woman in suits—pants suit for woman, sleek, ready for business, whatever it is, for sure.
2. Girl in sequined skirt, pink and white
3. person in medical field
4. Two carrie bradshaw wannabees with shoes that absolutely don’t match their dresses…nice try.
5. Mom in sweats and stroller
6. Yoga girl—shapely body
7. Well-built guy bitching with yoga girl about how long line is and all they want is water
8. Man in suit with guy in polo—like a contractor with a business guy
9. Girl in jeans polo, tennis shoes, delta gamma
10. Girl with enormous backpack but dressed in a dressy skirt walked out after looking at menu as though she was disgusted with the menu—but who doesn’t know what’s on a starbuck’s menu? And this girl, even with a backpack big enough to schlep a kitchen table (as though to give the sense she was camping or homeless), has clearly seen the inside of a starbucks before.
11. Foreign (French, I think) guy tripping people with his large pull suitcase—middle age guy in hiking boots and shorts gets pissed
12. Male student in wide striped polo
13. Skinny sight seeing lady—tiny, wearing white shorts, flip flops, tank top—must own something on Craig Street but looks like a tourist
14. Hunched guy with two kids and wife
15. Mom with toddler and furry, rabbit decorated, pink blankie
16. College guy who for some reason has to dress up but has no fashion sense or money but if he had money his beat up brown shoes with grayish brownish wool pants say he wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway. Get to Target stat.
17. Guy with stylish suit pants and button down shirt, looking like dressing for him is nothing—unlike dressed up college guy, this character knows himself and how to make his body work the drape of a set of trousers like a hanger. With girl in summer white dress, curly blond, died hair back in loose bun at nape with brown and tourquoise chunky necklace, high peep toed, nude hued, sandles—def. the best look so far, def. the best dressed couple so far
18. Naval rotc guy in shirt that says so, khakis and docksider shoes—do those still exist? Well there they are.
19. College guy in grey old button down shirt, jeans and messenger bag, unshaven by a day, flip flops, dark eyes friendly face
20. Forgeign guy comes back into view…really very handsome when not pissed about the guy who’s pissed at him for tripping over large pull suitcase.
21. Chunky unshaven guy with meryl shoes, khakis, beige sweater molded to his big belly…computer guy????
22. Oh yes!! Guy in pin striped pants, light blue stripe on navy blue trousers, blue button down and brown and cream saddle shoes!!!! Sublime. Love a person who knows his look, bizarre as it may be—see lady in summer white dress.
23. Guy in polo, khaki shorts and computer sitting across from me—eyeing me suspiciously as I eye him. Sunglasses on head. Looking bored with himself perhaps he’s writing about me writing about everyone in the line that snakes between our two tables?
24. Guy in microfiber shorts olive green, socks that go over the ankles, new balance running shoes, olive green polo type sweater, ipod, oakly glasses and grey and black backpack that match his grey and black tennies.
25. 60ish Woman in sweater, rayon flowered skirt, elephant ankles and coffee brown loafers—perhaps to change out of at the office? Hopefully? She must.
26. Woman in tweed grey, black and white stilettos with pearls and diamond apliquae on toes, white sleeveless blouse long grey gabridene walking shorts, tiny woman, good look for her though she has the kind of hair that makes your grandma go, “when the hell are you going to get that rag cut?”
27. Woman in black shorts, scarf as a headband, huge backpack.
28. Guy with workout clothes in plastic grocery store bag, wearing chuck taylors, jeans and 16 year old polo shirt.
29. Guy in brushed cotton pinstriped blazer, dark, shiny jeans, black oxfords white button down shirt—giving the guy who came with the summer lacy white dress a run for his coffee beans.
30. For Pittsburgh only, guy in tennies, shorts and cut-off t-shirt at arms and mid-driff, with a guy with similar shorts and Steelers shirt
31. Totally adorable CMU kids one chunky, babyfaced, sweet expression, his buddy is babyfaced, svelt, both carrying baked goods for some God-forsaken reason I can’t fathom…oops what’s this? A lady friend arrives—a fellow student—girl in running shorts and white t-shirt and flip flops—adorable with hair gone wild she’s bearing no baked goods, though. Hmmmm.

And yes, I realize that on a given day some man probably leaves the coffee shop wondering why there were so many big-assed women there. Just one of those eerie things, I guess.

So, onto my post.

I’m a little burnt out. Sarah Ban Breathnach tells me so. Her book, Simple Abundance, which I read for the first time about 12 years ago or so is the book that helped me see what my true calling in life was–to be a writer. I learned so many lessons in the book–how to appreciate the world as is, not how I want it to be. How to create a home environment that feels comfy and beautiful to me, to create instead of consume, to write, to do the thing, the work, that would make me happy at the time, not wait for retirement or when there was more time or money or whatever…

Well, I did it, and Sarah’s lessons have stuck, but of course with the addition of children, much of the reflection and appreciation of the beauty of my own belongings has gone down the toilet with all the wet-ones. Now that the kids are in school and I’m consulting part-time and writing the rest, I’m suddenly so tired, not excited about the work that I used to fight to weasel forty minutes of, into my day.  When friends of mine met for brunch or shopping or girls weekends away, I wrote. And I loved it.  So what’s the deal now that I have some breathing room?  I don’t know, but I’m confused and back to reading Simple Abundance, rediscovering all the lost appreciation that I have the life that I do.

Anyway, something I’m fascinated with that I would love to have be a central part of my existence but I’m smart enough to know it never will be is gardening, making meals from scratch, all that stuff.  There’s an article in the Post-Gazette this morning called "Fired-up." It’s a tremendous piece about Braddock, PA and a new community oven that’s opening right across from the Edgar Thompson Works.  This is the coolest thing I could ever imagine and the fact that it’s happening in a town that is redefining itself after its illustrious steel days, deep depression, and is plodding along, still with some steel, still with steely people.  I don’t know, people like Ray Werner who decided this would be a useful, meaningful community building project and then followed through with it, are amazing to me.  Very cool thing.

And finally. My horoscope says "Punctuality puts you in perfect pitch. You might not be able to hit all the high notes, but if your timing is right no one will notice. Get a head start on any deadline to be met, as energies may become sluggish." How do these psychics do this? I’m never ever late, ever. And though I almost never hit high notes, my energy nearly always becomes sluggish.  Wow, these people are something.

DSC00699, originally uploaded by kathieshoop.

Well, it’s Fat Sunday!

Hahaha.

Here’s a shot of what my feet were doing all summer long.

That’s right, it’s not pretty.

But it’s not the worst it could be, either.

I still have the 12 pounds I lost, off, but everything has shifted and let’s just say I don’t feel l should ruin your vision with the site of my knees. Maybe in a few weeks or so.

Anyway, I’m back to that prison gym called Crossfit and I must say, I’m more sure than ever, that Crossfit is the way for me to finally, really get in shape. In combo with running, I think.

Oh, well, I’ll let you know…brace yourselves.

It’s so hard to imagine that the financial world is about to crumble.

It’s hard to figure out who is smart, dumb or greedy.

How do you know who is telling the truth who really knows the truth and who is just using the most sensational aspects of the truth for their own gain?

I watched an old-school republican on tv the other day–I can’t remember the guy’s name or the channel, but even though I disagreed with his entire political past, he was so reverent to his panel-mates. He had his opinions, but never shot a look of disdain, called anyone an asshole or even indicated that he didn’t respect the others. And I fell in love a little.

No seriously, no, I didn’t fall in love. But it was so refreshing to see someone with class who really seemed to care about what was happening, worried about the country, not his next photo-op.

Where are the rest of these people? Are they all dead except for this one guy whose name I can’t even recall? 

There must be more, we must find them…we must find them.

DSC02088, originally uploaded by kathieshoop.

Hey there everyone! I hope your summer was great. Mine was busy but wonderful and now, over…I should be skipping through the aisles of Office Depot singing “it’s the most wonderful time of the year…” and sometimes I feel like that, but there’s a cover of sadness that both my children are off to kindergarten/first grade. Everything is good, great, I’m lucky beyond words…

So, off I go to dance in the aisles of Dunham sports. That works, right?

But, I think it’s bigger than that, of course bigger than me and what I think is great viewing.

I mean how can you not love the Olympics?

Apparently, it’s not hard to ignore them. If you’re Beano Cooke or Mel Kiper, Jr.  that is.

Beano, who’s a University of Pitt grad (so I tried to cut him some slack while listening to him yimmer-yammer on the radio yesterday) is simply showing his age-spots when he claims he has no interest in the Olympics due to the commerical influences that infiltrate the games. Yeah, well, get over it oldy-but-goody guy. The fact that the athletes can now eat more than Ramen noodles for the twenty years they bust their asses for the country is just too bad for you, Beano.

Seriously, if Beano actually sat with one of those athletes, or gasp, simply watched one of them before, during or after their performance, the idea that the athletes themselves were all about the commercialism, money or anything else would blow his argument out of Michael Phelps’ smokin’ wake. I just think if you’re in the business of sports and God knows I love football as much as any of them, you should pull your head out of your ass or the ass cream for ten minutes and watch some of the hardest working, most gifted people the world has to offer. For the love of God.

And don’t tell me about the few that break the rules, I know they’re there, they don’t change things anymore than the fact the Americans are permitted to stock the shelves at, gasp, Home Depot while they train.

Sorry we don’t have centralized sports centers that rip kids from the crib to mold them into athletes at the age of three. That sort of alleviates the need for commerical influence in sports. 

Now to Mel Kiper. Seriously Mel, you just sound stupid on the radio when you defend the fact you have to watch 50 games before the college or pro football season starts so that nine months from now you can pretend you know who will be a hall of famer in the NFL. You don’t sound dedicated to your work, you just sound stupid. Get a grip, grab a beer, snuggle into bed with your wife and watch something besides Inside the NFL for two freaking minutes. Or just admit you’re a narrow human being incapable of even noticing your country is kicking ass and when they’re not, some other fabulous athlete is. Be amazed by someone other than your self for once.

Sorry, a little grumpy over here.  But it fits considering the men I’m writing about.

UPDATE:  Chris Collinsworth has never been my favorite guy, but his stock just shot up. He’s on TV with Bob Costas and it made me remember C.C. has been psyched all week for these athletes showing that it is possible for a football guy to see beyond the field…sorry to have overlooked you Chris, baby!