Bits from the word battle...

Yes - NaNo is still in full swing. I however, am not. That's right. I'm about 15,000 words behind. Yep. That's a whole lotta words. I've hit a bit of writers block - at least on this story - and random other things I feel like working on have been pushed to the back burner until after finals. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finish this.

Here's another little bit though:

It wasn’t even 7:00, it was way too early to go to bed, but tonight she didn’t care. She slid out of bed only to get out of her suit, and instead of sleeping au natural as they usually did, she grabbed one of Andy’s shirts and pulled it on, letting it envelop her in his scent again.

She fell asleep with her cell phone clutched in one hand, and his note in the other, hoping it was all a bad dream.

The Re-education of Fat Girl

There are many things I love about law school, and today I am reminded of another.

I love the people. I learn so much from them. I'm currently sitting in my office discussing comic books. Yesterday, we were discussing books. Sometimes we discuss movies or music or other things. Yes, I know, some people are shocked to learn that I can discuss any thing by law - but there you have it.

I am a total book junky, most people know that. But most of the boys in my non-law life, have no desire to read a book. So having boys that read, anything from comic books to classics, and like to discuss them, is just so much fun.

I love to learn from other people... it makes it so much more fun.

Monday Monday

That's right. Here it is, Monday morning, barely 7 am and I'm up and at 'em.

There are several reasons one might be up at this hour:

a) one must be at work in the relatively near future

b) one must try to get something (usually homework) done before heading off to where ever one needs to be

c) traveling

d) one must register for classes, which opens at 7 am sharp

e) insomnia

f) one has not yet been to bed

Care to guess which one applies today?

*ding*ding*ding*ding* Today the winner is registration day. (you probably guessed right! Way to go!)

So here I am, up by 6:45, so I can be logged in and make sure nothing will stand in my way of getting the classes I want. That's right, I sat and watched the digital number change on the clock on my computer from 6:59 to 7:00. After all the stress and preparation for registration, which includes the following: determining which classes will fit together, which classes are required, what the final schedule is, and when it comes down to optional classes which ones you WANT to take, the list is made.

The list is the schedule written out with dates and times of classes, and exam times - again double checking for any thing overlapping that would be problematic.

Once that list is made, the secondary list must be compiled, which includes the course registration numbers, so they're all in easy reach, ordered by which class will likely fill up first.

Now the above mentioned process, choosing classes and making lists, took me about an hour yesterday. Weeding out classes I wanted to take based on final times (the tax class I wanted to take has a final the same day as the one class I MUST take - and if you've never taken a law school exam, trust me on this, you do NOT want to take two finals on the same day. YOWZA). Taking classes by professors I love. And determining helpful subject matter. A fun way to spend an hour (NOT REALLY).

Anyhow - one of the classes I want to take has a cap of 22. So out of all of the potential students registering for classes (about 325 between both classes) only 22 people can take this class. Now granted my class (of about 170) gets first crack at registering, but still 22 spaces and 170 people could be problematic even. So I have to feel the stress of making sure I'm up and ready to register at 7:00 sharp.

Registration timing was a thing I learned early on. End of 1L year - first crack at registering, I made my husband wake me up at 6:50 so I could get up and register then go back to bed (it was between semesters, and I had no reason to get up early). I got up, I registered at 7 am sharp, I got all my classes and my professors. A few days later I was having lunch with a couple other people from my class - one of the girls was just like me, on time to a fault, and the other two waiting until mid afternoon, because that was when they thought about it finally. Neither of the other two got all the classes and professors they wanted because a lot of the smaller classes were full already. In the middle of 2L year we had to register for spring semester (just like today) and we had to take a class with a partner for a writing project. My partner, being just like me in some ways, was up and ready to register right on time too, but I got into the class (with the professor we wanted) and she didn't. We registered at the same time and the class filled up that fast. She had to be put on the waiting list and eventually got into the class - it all worked out in the end - but man was it stressful for a little bit.

So this morning, being the first group of registrants, I probably had nothing to worry about - out of the 5 classes I'm taking two have 40 seats, one has 65, and one has 100. The only problematic one was the 22 - and I just did what I've done in the past, register for that class first, separately (don't want to waste time typing in all those other codes), then go on and register for the rest. Worked like a charm.

So after all this stress and preparation - any guess on how long registration actually took me? LESS THAN ONE MINUTE. All that work and planning for less than a minute. Talk about anti-climactic.

Only now - that I have all of the classes I wanted for my final semester of school, am I annoyed that I'm up way before I need to be. Oh well, if nothing else it gave me time to update my blog.

Random snippet of a conversation

Just a random bit that came to me last night for NaNo:

His eyes widened. “You told her how we met?”

“No, I told her a story of how we met.”

He laughed, “Our eyes met across a crowded room?”

“Costume party.”

“Halloween?”

“New Years Eve.”

“The Phantom and Christine?” he knew the games his wife liked to play.

“No, but that’s a good idea. Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.”

“Did she buy it?” he asked.

“Ate it up with a spoon. [small spoilerish bit redacted]” she laughed at the memory of the dreamy eyed doctor, obviously picturing herself dancing with the infamous Dr. Quick.

The Prologue

Alright. Here it is, the beginning of my madness:

Prologue – Present Day - Seattle

She stepped out of her office into the sun. It was a beautiful Friday night. It was June, and Seattle was having an amazing summer. She looked both ways and crossed the street to head down the hill to meet the girls for cocktails.

Her life was perfect: she had a job she loved, the best friends anyone could ask for, and a gorgeous husband that adored her.

She smiled at the thought, which added a little bounce to her step and a swish to her hips.

She looked down at her watch and realized that she was running late. She reached into her bag to fish out her phone and call her friends. The phone rang the instant she touched it. That was weird. She looked at the number displayed on the screen. It was a local number, but not already stored in her phone. Maybe it’s the girls from the bar, or maybe it’s one of the back lines at the office.

“Hello?” she answered tentatively.

“Hello Rachel, it’s been a long time hasn’t it?” a rough male voice said on the other end of the phone. She audibly gasped. “You didn’t think we’d just let you disappear like that. did you?”

She took another deep breath, then, it all went dark.

Have I gone completely crazy? I think so.

Today is November 1st. The first day of National Novel Writing Month, abbreviated NaNoWriMo. And I, along with several thousand other crazy people, have signed up to participate. The end goal is to write 50,000 words by the end of November.

That's right. I'm officially insane. In addition to classes, work and homework, I've voluntarily decided to write FIFTY THOUSAND WORDS. Apparently the words can be in any sort of form, non-fiction, short stories, fiction, anything really, but I seriously doubt memos, briefs, motions, and papers for school count. So with my well known affinity for the genre known as Chick Lit, I will probably write something along those lines. Happy, fluffy, girl gets boy in the end. Is it because I think that's the best genre? Of course not. I know another author participating, and I'm sure that piece will be marvelous and angst-y, but I honestly just don't think that way. I love to read that stuff, but I have a hard time writing conflict, I think more along the lines of episodic television apparently, wrapped up at the end of the chapter. I love a good mystery, but don't have the foresight to plan out a proper whodunit. But I can't write romance either... descriptive sex scenes just aren't in my realm of capabilities. I mean I can see them, but can't describe them effectively. So instead I'm stuck with just a story. We'll see how that goes.

Either way, wish me luck - 50k words in a month breaks down to 1667 words per day. Which doesn't sound like much when you can type 70 words a minute, but takes a lot longer than it should when you have to think up the story as you go.

Who knows, maybe I'll post snippets as I go.