Hello, world.  Claire's taking  a break from her blog until November blows over.  I'm one of her main characters.  My name is Kate, and I'll be here as her replacement until this whole National Novel Writing Month thing blows over. 

I haven't seen much of Claire lately, so I can't really say what she's been up to.  Mostly she's been doing an excellent job of avoiding me and the rest of my roommates here in the realm of her imagination.  It's not really our fault that we're so boring to her.  Actually, we tend to place the blame squarely on her shoulders, seeing as how she dreamed us up in the first place.  It's quite irresponsible, if you ask me, inventing a whole world full of people and then abandoning them to their own devices, stuck in limbo until our story is told.

On the other hand, she has been quite busy lately.  I think her family's planning a garage sale this weekend.  And her computer has been acting up over the entire month of November as well.  Her laptop fan doesn't work, so every few minutes she has to stop working on her novel to shut her laptop and wait for it to cool down.  Pathetic pieces of technology aside, it gets quite frustrating being in the middle of a life-altering, character shifting moment, and then have someone slam a lid shut on you midsentence.  Being a character isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know.  

And our relationship isn't all bad.  Early in the month Claire was contemplating abandoning us in favor of another story she was toying with.  I'm glad she decided to stick with us.  She has given us quite a lot to do early in the month.  On Veteran's Day we were extremely busy.  Seems she wrote over seven thousand words in a single afternoon.  And she also introduced us to various professions, hobbies, and menfolk who always make our days interesting.

I just hope she gets some inspiration while she's out there in the great wide somewhere.  It's getting a little boring in our little world.

I never thought I would be so happy to see something in the mailbox as I was today. I checked the mail at three thirty, thinking anything that would be delivered would have gotten to me by that point. The mailbox was empty, so I figured I'd have to wait until Monday. I went to the library to check out a couple of books for my mom and returned home a little over an hour and a half later.

I decided to check the mailbox one last time, just in case. And inside the mailbox, glory be, was my MISSION CALL!! I burst into tears in the middle of our apartment parking lot and did a dance of joy once I got inside.

Whereupon I promptly began freaking out. I was alone. My roommate was nowhere to be found. My mom was in Panama City, my dad in Utah. The Bowcutts, who had been calling me all day long to see if my call had arrived, were not picking up their phone. I called Lance in desperation and he said he'd come over. After about an hour's worth of frantic phone calls, I got through to several of my friends who made their way over to my house. I tried to get my broken laptop to work well enough to get hold of my parents on video iChat and called my dad and put him on speaker phone.

And then came the actual reading of the letter. I am still freaking out about it, two hours later. I think I've run the complete gamut of emotions over the past four hours. My roommate doesn't seem to think so, though. She just sneaked up behind me and grabbed me by the hair. Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks a lot.

I am once again behind in my NaNoWriMo novel this month. I'm not sure what is wrong with me. Maybe my story sucks (okay, there's no maybe about that). Maybe it's because I've been too social for my own good (didn't get to bed until three last night). Maybe it's because I keep running out to check the mail every twenty minutes (still no call letter yet!).

Whatever the reason, I think I need a jump-start. This thing is failing. I've been consistently two or three thousand words behind since around the sixth, unless you count that whopping seven-thousand word leap my wordcount took on the eleventh. That was the day I had no classes. I also didn't happen to get anything done in the way of school work that day.

So today my only class has been cancelled. It seems I'm in a bit of a dilemma. Write like mad to try and make it to 32K today and potentially salvage this month's novel, or...finish the school work necessary to graduate?

I forgot to adequately close my bedroom curtains last night. The window is inadequately insulated and positioned directly above my bed, so on a cold night I really feel the chill unless I maneuver the cloth hangings properly.

I love the cold weather. It's not quite as nice when the high temperature gets up into the eighties, like it will today. That means I'll have to wear extra layers in the morning and be ready to gradually remove them (and carry them around all day) as the day wears on. Still, I can't complain. I love that bite that the air gets when it's cold out. Mornings like this make me want to stay in bed all cozy-like. Mondays offer me no such opportunity, though, so I'd better get going soon.

I've often wondered what it would be like to have a full-scale orchestra follow me around and play theme music for my life's story. Okay, maybe not often wondered. But you know how in movies there's always that orchestra that shows up whenever the main character is doing something particularly heroic or emotional or dangerous or has just come to a crossroads. You never actually see any violins, so maybe they're just practicing next door. But still, it's remarkably well-timed.

Well, if the London Symphony Orchestra decided to do a score for the life and times of Yours Truly, they'd probably be playing something like this.

Seriously. Will the mail never get here?!?!!

I did a lot of writing today.

Even that's an understatement.

I slept until noon, having had a late night last night. I wrote a little here and there and then did some other things around the house before coming back to my novel. I added a few scenes here and there. Then I decided to do a little first-person outlining from each of my characters' perspectives, because my previous attempts at outlining and writing sans outline have not been doing so well.

And in that segment alone I wrote over 3000 words. I couldn't believe it. My previous wordcount according to NaNoWriMo had been somewhere in the mid 14,000s range. When I updated my wordcount after this writing session I was up to 21,161 words.

Is that insane? How is that even possible? I wrote seven thousand words in an afternoon?!

That can't be right.

I haven't written to Christine since my computer crashed. That was over a week ago. Shame on me.

Sunday was difficult. I will be glad when the mail I'm waiting for finally arrives.

I took a nap yesterday afternoon. It was a much needed two-hour affair, but I woke from it extremely unsettled. You know those dreams you have that involve actual people you know, and something happens in the dream that changes your opinion of the person, even though you know that it was only your subconscious and the dream's events never actually took place?

Well, I had one of those dreams last night, and it involved one of my friends, and it scared me half to death.

Also it involved a setting not unlike FHE, so when my roommate came home and the first thing I heard after waking up was a suggestion to go to the Institute for the last half of FHE, it gave me pause.

I am woefully behind in my novel. Woefully. I caught up a little bit last night, but I'm still more than two thousand words short as of this morning. Regretting more than ever my laptop's decision to quit on me. Without the use of an external drive I have no computer at all, but I so wish I could bring my laptop with me today.

Last night we watched "Twilight" with Rifftrax again. Most of the people there were not there last time, so it was like a whole new experience. Every time I watch it I catch jokes that I never noticed before. It's great.

There is an episode of the comedy "The Big Bang Theory" in which the characters decide to take a train from Pasadena to San Francisco to attend a conference. Sheldon, the nerdiest and most OCD of the bunch, realizes he's left his flash drive at home and the knowledge eats at him. As the train pulls out of the station and starts its clickety-clack motion, Sheldon starts to whisper to himself along with it, "You forgot your FLASH DRIVE, you forgot your FLASH DRIVE, you forgot your FLASH DRIVE..."

Why do I bring this up? Well, last night I didn't write a THING on my novel. I comforted myself last night that I had written more than my par the previous day, so I was only three hundred words short as I was going to bed. But this morning I woke up with the rhythmic mantra in my head:

"You didn't make your WORD COUNT, you didn't make your WORD COUNT, you didn't make your WORD COUNT..."

Not to mention the smoke detector in the hallway needs a battery change and keeps beeping shrilly and intermittently - seldom enough to make each one a surprise, but often enough to drive you nuts.

I wish my laptop wasn't broken so I could bring it to class with me and type away. As it is it'll be back to good old ink and paper for me just so I can ward away the guilt monkeys.

The last several days have seemed to drag. Maybe it's because I have a lot to do these days. Or maybe it's because my brain tends to make the month of November last longer than usual.

My to-do list is getting longer, but I relish the feeling of an evening's work well done.

Some friends came over Saturday night after we put in an appearance at a Halloween party. We watched “Drag Me To Hell.” Horrible gory movie. Gross sound effects. Way too many bodily fluids for my taste. I wrote some during the movie though it was dark, and then once people had left I made it to 2000 words plus before I passed out. I think I'm coming down with a sore throat, which petrifies me to no end.

Sunday was the first full day of NaNoWriMo, and also Fast Sunday. I love them both. Break-The-Fast was a joy as always, especially since the theme was Thanksgiving foods.

Elder Lewis came back to Tallahassee on Sunday! His family came to Florida to pick him up because he got was getting released on Monday. They came to the Institute where we had just finished watching a CES Broadcast with Elder Uchtdorf (if you can, look it up. It was most excellent). Much chaos ensued in the Institute foyer with embraces and shaking of hands (depending on the gender of the person involved; Elder Lewis had yet to be released and so was technically forbidden from physical contact of any sort with females). He kept shaking our hands like the good little not-quite-released missionary he was. Rebecca and I sort of bent the rules to take a picture with him. Ah, the undeniable awkwardness of an elder putting his arm around you for a photograph. What a great guy.

Noveling is awesome.

Word count as of tonight: 5198 (woohoo, ahead of schedule!)

How I feel about my story (scale of 1-10): 5

I hate working without an outline. I like to know the shape of my story instead of this random, fly-by-night, throw in a random quote from my journal here, an odd character there business. I'm a creature of habit. I like a house of order.

And yet I signed up to write a novel in 30 days. Laugh at me if you will.

Okay, so I lied about the whole "tomorrow is my last tutoring gig" thing. I had a lot to do on Friday afternoon, what with traveling to Gainesville that evening. A horrible excuse to evade my tutoring duties, getting ready for a YSA dance, but it's the only excuse I have and I'm going to cling to it.

The Zombie Prom was awesome. The drive there was awesome, the dance itself was awesome, the drive back was awesome. I got to put makeup on (hang on, let me run up the tally on my fingers) . . . five of my friends, not including myself. I have to say, it turned out really well. Not bad considering the weapons -- er, tools -- I had were limited to the powder, eyeliner, and/or lip balm variety.

Jesse, displaying my handiwork. I wish we'd have gotten a pic of his other side, it was just as creepy.

Another one of my volunteers (right).

The whole motley bunch of us. This was after several hours of dancing, so we look less zombified and more like we just haven't slept in a while.

Last night was fun too. I slept until noon, having gotten to my bed at four in the morning. Jacqueline's house hosted a Halloween party. Rachel came over beforehand and I put her hair up in two buns to be Princess Leia. I went as a Jedi. Even made a light saber (one of my friends thinks that's one word, but Blogger thinks it's two) out of a vacuum cleaner attachment and a scarf - coincidentally the same scarf I used as a sash for my zombie getup on Friday night. That scarf has seen some good use in its day. Christine used it as a neck kerchief a year or so ago to be Daphne when four of us dressed up like the Scooby Doo gang.

All three of them are now on missions. Velma's on her own.

Our Star Wars costumes were reminiscent of the first year Christine and I lived together. Looking back I realize now how much dressing up we did as roommates.

Ah, R2. We made him out of a bucket of oats, among other things. He served us well.