Getting ready for NaNoWriMo and more...

Going to cheat a little and cross-post from my Sparkpeople blog...

HI all. I just feel like I need to check in here a little bit.

First of all we are FINE from Sandy. We stayed home on Monday but our little house never lost power. We had some branches down but no damage to our home or cars. Tuesday we were back to normal and even though the rain is still with us, I think we are in the clear pretty much. Many, many thoughts and prayers to those who are suffering.

NaNoWriMo.. National Novel Writing Month... is upon us!! Fellow writers you know what I am talking about!! I have done my research, created notes and files, and I was feeling inspired but RIGHT NOW I am not feeling it. I feel SUNK. I feel doomed. I feel like there is NO WAY I can write SEVEN pages a night!!! It just feels like an enormous task. Last year I failed, and failed miserably. This year I am just so nervous about failing again. AGH!!! PANIC!!!

Weight Gain.. checked my notes and I have gained *5* pounds in the last 2 months!! I got rid of my fat clothes. This CAN NOT HAPPEN!! The holidays and winter cold and dark is upon us. I need to STOP this. The scales need to go DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!!! I think the culprit may be that I readjusted my nutrition points after losing some weight. Maybe I need to move them back down again or something. I don't know. Anyway, this is dangerous. I need to pull into check ASAP.

Ok, now if you don't see me blogging for a bit it's because I have that novel to write. Be well friends... oh, and Happy Samhain/Halloween!

to lighten things up a bit.. a quote from my 6 year old

As my 6 year old daughter shared the living room chair with me last night she gently touched my hand. "Your hand is cold and doughy Mommy. I guess that's what old feels like."

Yup... old definitely feels cold. I knew that part, but doughy???? I guess I better work harder on losing some more weight!



On a more serious note--

Many thoughts and prayers going out to my friend Amy today. She is having surgery for lung cancer. I hope the doctors can give her the best possible news under the circumstances. I know she is in God's hands but I am worried for her.

Memories of a cracked toilet

I saw this sign at work this morning on the door of one of our staff bathrooms. Immediately I went back in time to 1983. Funny how a simple little thing can do that!

I don't remember exactly when we moved in, but my mother found us a house trailer that was parked on a hillside on a dirt road in a small town. The trailer was parked in a cow pasture and surrounding our little plot were cows grazing. The whole place smelled like cow shit. Manure would be too kind. Literally we could not escape the stink, even in winter. There was another smell too, especially outside near the bathroom where the plumbing was. It was the smell of gas.

We only lived there for a few months, from winter into spring. By June we were on the move again. I remember it though. It was just up the street from the home of my mother's friend, and my boyfriend (who wasn't my boyfriend just yet). We rode bikes up and down that dirt road. We threw darts into the ceiling near the bathroom for fun. I had to walk a long way to the bus stop up the road, by Jennifer Peters house. The trailer had 2 bedrooms, one for me and one for my brother. My mother slept in the living room. She had done that in the apartment we had before this place too. We had left that apartment because there was no heat. It had been so cold that our fish froze to death. In this trailer we had cats. Cats that my mother heartlessly abandoned somewhere when we moved out. I think she dropped them off in the center of town. I was upset but powerless.

I was only 12, in 6th grade. I had a great teacher that year, a woman named Mrs. March, who I think actually cared about her students. I was only in that school for a year.

Back to the trailer. One of the cats used to like to poop in the bathtub and in the bathroom sink. It was gross. I was always the one who had to clean it up. Since the whole place smelled like poo anyway though I don't know if it actually stunk.

So back to the toilet cracked. Yes, the toilet in the trailer was cracked. It was blue. We still used it though. We didn't have much choice. After we moved out, left town, moved on... someone else was living there. One night the smoke alarm went off and he got out just in time. The whole place blew up. I guess that gas leak was really something after all.

And that is my toilet cracked memory.

Prayers and help needed for neighbor with cancer

I posted this on another blog, and I am cross-posting because I care about this family and I want to help.


My 34 year old neighbor is losing her battle with metastatic (advanced) bladder cancer. When I look out my front door I see her home through the trees. Her two children are a little older than my daughter so we don't do play dates but we know each other. She and her husband both work at a local healthy foods market that is cooperatively owned by its members. They eat healthy, they live healthy. Her daughter won an award last year at school for having checked out the 3rd most books of anybody from the school library. Earlier this year we heard she had cancer but was keeping it quiet. She didn't want to scare the kids. We'd just lost another child's mother to cancer in our small community (there are 150 students in our K-6 school). She didn't want the kids to think that cancer equals death. She wanted there to be hope. She had hope. Her husband had hope. No one is giving up. Even now she is seeking alternative treatments.. but the reality is the conventional treatments aren't working. She is going to need to leave her job soon so that she can focus on fighting this illness. I've heard these lines before from people. It is not good news. 

I am only a helpless neighbor, but the more people who know the story the better. Please, read her story, and share it with others. This family needs all the help they can get during these difficult times. Here is a link to learn more... 

www.shersnow.com/ 

More demolition photos of Physical Plant at Umass

Didn't realize it would take so long to tear this thing down. They are still working on it.. Paused for a moment to watch this morning. Saw someone up in Machmer looking out the window. She had a much better view, above the fence line. Lucky her!