Frank: Welcome Back? Some Changes

So I learned that we can have multiple authors on the blog, which means we can log in with our own e-mails and post freely. I've invited all of you back, hopefully you'll consider posting again. Even if you don't, maybe you'll check in from time to time to read. I don't see most of you that often anymore and it seems like a long time since we've all been together. I hope we can find this blog as a place to share and reconnect, or maybe just talk about sports and Doctor Who. I think we should just try and be as supportive of whatever someone else posts, regardless of what it is. I know I was the biggest troublemaker on the blog when it came to getting in fights, but I'd like to put that behind me.

I’m actually writing on here again. Which is weird because I’m really really busy. And I always assumed that I would come back here when I had free time. Instead I came back when I’m in the middle of chaos. In the next two months I have SAT’s, prom, an AP Biology exam, concerts, a wedding and so much homework…
It’s actually really stressful and nauseating and I think I’m making myself sick over it all. It’s hard to imagine that this fall I’ll be sending out college applications. I mean-I’m almost deciding where I’m going to live for the next four years!

On another note- You all know I’m in concert band playing french horn. Well last weekend I went to a competition and we won a GOLD medal! Which is extremely difficult to achieve and not only is it a prestigious honor it’s the highest honor the band has ever received. The award is so great that we’ve been asked to play at Symphony Hall! Oh my gosh, right?!

Other random notes- My favorite show is Doctor Who. (hence the GORGEOUS picture above). It’s got a new doctor (played by matt smith) and he is absolute LOVE.

My birthday is this week. I’ll be 17. I don’t feel like I’m that old at all. Maybe it’s my height or maybe it’s my baby face but it doesn’t seem right.

Recently two quotes have been on my mind:

“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.” -The Princess Diaries

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps” -Francois Rabelais (his last words. I actually have no idea who he is. This quote is in Looking For Alaska by John Green)

This post was about nothing and everything all at the same time.
I need to get back to writing a thesis for my English paper. (it’s on Ezra Pound in case you wondering)

Love as always-
Liz

Last Night of 2009

And in typical fashion, I'm not doing anything special. Even my parents have bigger plans than I do this year. At some point, I have to wonder where my life went astray. As indicated, I'm not doing anything for New Year's. Lisa has to work till 8:30 and Liz needs a ride to and from a New Year's party. Seeing as every other adult in my house has bailed to do more exciting things, my semi plans to spend it at my in-laws have fallen through.

It's almost cliche at this point to do a year recap, much less the more vaunted decade recap, but one can argue that this opportunity comes only once a year, and only once a decade, so here goes. My 2009 in review, or at least, what stands out from the past year. My marriage to Lisa is the most obvious thing to comment on. Unfortunately despite that, It was kind of a miserable year, spent in blissful distraction of video gaming. I did crank out easily over 75,000 words this year, which was impressive. 2010 should prove to be the year of the revision, which is a crippling and agonizing process. I graduated college, promptly lost touch with everyone from college and barely maintain contact with people who live in close proximity to me. It was a year of surviving, of making bold decisions and coming to regret them. I moved into my deceased grandparents house, only to move out so my uncle could live there for a month. I bought a puppy who I ended up giving away to a family that will do such a better job of caring for him, it's sort of sad he had to put up with me for as long as he did. I've basically gone nowhere since graduating, maintaining the same pointless retail job and continuing to fail miserably at finding real employment. So as 2009 comes to a close, I bid it farewell and pray that the coming year proves vastly better. There are signs certainly of improvement on the horizon, but as remains my constant affliction, no real indication of when such improvement should arrive.
The first decade of the 21st century was a unique one. It makes a unique, bell curve to my life. The end of middle school, leading into high school was good, leading towards the height of happiness and success, at the end of high school and carrying over to the beginning of college. However as the decade wore on and I remained at Holy Cross, things began to slip and deteriorate. So it became less about wild success and more careful, guarded decisions to minimize the eventual failure. In short, I went from boring, to interesting to boring once more. And it is here, at being a boring individual that has no plans this New Year's eve, that I stand, looking back over my last ten years. I have made great strides, but stand far short of where I want to be. In conclusion, I have changed very little, which is the most comforting thing I can think of at the moment.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Another holiday, another frantic morning and afternoon cleaning the house for people I don't care what their opinion is. Apparently it's going to be a small affair this Christmas, as no one remembered to tell anyone we're actually having a Christmas party. We just spent our christmas gift wii points card on two terrible nes games and super smash bros for 64. At least something good came out of it.
Even less progress than normal on the job front, though I have taken a couple more steps on the literary front. January will be the beginning of the first revision of 2009's Nano. I've got a pretty good feeling about this story, so that's good. I did manage to wrap up 2008's nano yesterday. That was pretty good, seeing as I had just over twenty thousand words to crank out. Literary achievements are good, but I haven't quite taken the big step to start querying agents. I do have the first drafts of my query letters squared away though, so that's an accomplishment.

Big news this morning, a confirmation of something we were pretty sure happened. I'm going to leave it vague, but it's enough to say that it changes everything. Oh well.

No Title Needed, Thanks.

Nothing much to say. I do have a Twilight post planned out, but just not feeling in the mood to discuss it today. I missed two weeks, granted one was Thanksgiving, but I just feel so busy. The problem is, I don't work enough to really be considered busy. So I have none of the advantages of being unemployed with all the problems of being unemployed, effectively. It's a great position to be in. Things will probably spiral out a little worse over the next month or so but I think I'm starting to gain momentum in the right direction.
I finished my Nanowrimo the very last night, cranking out 4,000 words or something to that effect. It came out pretty well and I've been trying to make headway on the next part of the story, with varying success.

Just a Quickie

I'm still ahead on my Nanowrimo, but I'm certainly aching to finish it up. With only about 15000 words left to go, I hope to have it finished before Thanksgiving. Speaking of which, Turkey Day is a week from today, so there is a chance I won't be posting. We'll see. I have some interesting things to write about on Twilight and the Matrix, but those will have to wait till after Thanksgiving. I've also decided I need to leave my current job at the company and plunge headfirst into substitute teaching. The headfirst plunge would be easier if all of my free time not spent working for said company I'm leaving wasn't taken up by trying to keep my wife from going crazy over the lack of money, house and numerous other things. Plus I think I have the flu or something like it, as this cough/cold has only become more troublesome over the past few days.

The Ongoing November

It's a tough time right now, as the full weight of my student loans is about to come to bear on me starting next month. As it stands, I don't make enough at my current job to pay my loans per month, much less everything else I need to spend money on. This biweekly payday is a killer as I am always out of money within four days of my payday.

Slight progress on the sub front, basically a half application to Seekonk. The Veteran's Day holiday messed it up as the schools and admin office were closed on the one ideal time I had to drop off my finished application.

I stalled out on Nanowrimo a tiny bit, thankfully my stupidly high word count has sustained my lack of time to write these past three days. I am about to see if I can get back on track and regain the lead on the word count I've been enjoying. I stopped updating my word count on the site, as it seemed to be an annoyance and distraction to the people I'm writing with.