Day 90

Day ninety

January 31, 2013: Almost forgot today. Got out of a warm bed and everything to do this.

Day 89

Day eighty-nine

January 30, 2013: Well, I wanted something to write about. And guess what? I'm writing this entry in a hotel room. Yep. A hotel room. I am writing this entry in a hotel room not because I won a trip to Hawaii, not because some rich relative has come to surprise us, no. Last night there was a rather windy storm, and this so stated windy storm decided to rip the ginormous tree in the front yard in half. The tree had a natural Y in it, and it split apart. Half of the tree is leaning over towards my room, the other half is leaning towards the neighbor's yard. Some guy is going to go to the house tomorrow morning and cut down the tree.

Day 88

Day eighty-eight

January 29, 2013: For some reason, I have been having a problem typing out eighty. I don't know why.

Day 87

Day eighty-seven

January 28, 2013: Monday. Yeah!

Day 86

Day eighty-six

January 27, 2013: It is embarrassing how often this happens. Some people can write a whole novel for each journal entry and I'm struggling just to write a paragraph. Got to listen to a couple missionaries from Romania. It sounds like the basically do what Dustin did in his camps in Latvia. They have camps for the youth where they teach them about Jesus Christ and stuff. I could have said that to make it sound holier. More holy?

Day 85

Day eighty-five

January 26, 2013: For the first time ever, in my life, I got to be the one to unlock the door after the family came home from doing something. I know I'm nineteen, and that's pretty old never to have done that before, but it's just something I never really did before. (Plus I didn't have my own set of keys back in Bend.) So yeah, despite being a rite of passage it's kind of lame it's happening now. There just never really was I time when I came home to an empty house, so there was no need. It's funny, when I first said I could open the door my Colleen thought it was because I was going to pick the lock.

A Poem (or not)

Everyday I try to write a little something. I have this whole process where I have writing prompts that I randomly choose, and stuff. I wrote this poem on a day when, as you will later know, I did not feel like writing a poem. Enjoy.  

I need to write a poem today,

But I do not feel like it.

I packed my rhyming dictionary,

So this verse doesn't rhyme.

I'm highly uncreative,

Uninspired at the best.

But still I need to write a poem.

The weary got no rest.

The last bit hardly made,

Any sense at all.

If I am meant to be a poet,

I think I'll skip that call.

I don't even really care,

If the meter stays on track.

And someone wanting free verse,

Would have had me sacked.

I think I wrote a poem today.

I cannot really tell.

At least I'm finally done now.

And boy it feels swell.

Day 84

Day eighty-four

January 25, 2013: I might write about something interesting tomorrow.

Day 83

Day eighty-three

January 24, 2013: I made excellent head way in my current novel the past few days. Killed off a main character today. It was a very touching scene. I didn't cry though. I never cry while writing the death scenes. I will often cry during the planning stage, but I am a merciless tyrant when I write. What happens must happen.

Day 82

Day eighty-two

January 23, 2013: Every time, literally every single time I go to work wearing pants someone always comments on them.  Not just recently, and not just the first few weeks I worked there. Every single day that I have gone to work wearing pants instead of a skirt, one of my co-workers feels the need to point out the fact that I am, in fact, wearing pants. "Oh my gosh, I have never seen you in pants." "I can't believe you're wearing pants. I've only ever seen you in skirts." "You're wearing pants!" "Two times in a row. I never thought I would see that happen." "I wasn't sure if you owned any jeans." "What are you wearing britches for?" Because I do not think my manager would appreciate it if I had shown up to work without any pants on.

Day 81

Day eighty-one

January 22, 2013: Different cause, same results as yesterday.

Day 80

Day eighty

January 21, 2013: I forgot to write today's entry before I went into work today and it was a closing shift.

Day 79

Day seventy-nine

January 20, 2013: Some days I think that this is a really easy thing to do, and the others I realize that most days I have nothing to talk about. I finished reading The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared. Long title, but it is a really good book. I hope, that even with school, I'll find time to read recreationally. I love reading.

Day seventy-eight

January 19, 2013: I do believe our house has become cat central. Even the cats that belong to other people hang out at our house. One which is a Siamese bread of some sort has basically adopted our family. He has been named Bandit since the black fur on his face looks a bit like a mask. And now his sister or daughter (we're not sure which it is) won't leave our front porch. There is this really poofy one. There is also a tailless one. I love to watch the tailless one run. It is really funny. At least back in Bend we owned a few of the cats that stalked our yard.  

Short Stories and Novels

Yep, I brought back the fantastic Writer's Block header. And yes, to those of you who may have notice, (and to those of you who didn't,) the background picture is the same as for A Thousand Days. 

Recently I have been reading a collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories. It's a single book that contains The Martin Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and The Golden Apples of the Sun.

It's a good book to keep around for when I am between books, as each book featured is a collection of short stories. When it will be only a day or so before we go to the library, or the person reading the book I want to read next is almost done with it. It is good for times when I know that it will only be a day or two wait for the next book I want to read. 

Reading all of these short stories have reminded me of something though.

I am terrible at writing short stories. 

I know, I know what you're going to say next. Don't you dare say it. This isn't me being falsely humble and lamenting the fact that I have low self esteem when it come to my work. This is more about personal frustration and honestly having difficulty doing something. 

One thing that teachers, other authors, and editors tell you to do is write short stories. They are not as much commitment as a novel, but they still get you practicing with the elements you will come up against in a novel. Characters  plot, setting, description, pacing, all of that good stuff. It is a really good idea, and I think writing short stories is a good practice.

The problem is this. Whenever I get an idea for a short story, and I sit down to write it, I suddenly realize that if I just add this one little part, it will actually become better. And then I think, well, there actually isn't much of a story to this, let me add some depth and plot here, and maybe a little there, and oh, that's terrible, there's a big gaping hole right there, better add a couple more scenes to clear that up...The next thing I know, I have a novel on my hands. At the very least I have a novella. Novel, novella, it turns out to be something too long for a short story. I then try to cut some out, but then the story seems dead to me. Sometimes I write these stories anyway, getting rid of the extra stuff, and I am disappointed in them. A lot of the time, the ideas I have are simply too complex to put into a short story with any success. Yet these are ideas I do not want to devote the time and attention that a full novel would take. 

I have always been a bit...long winded. 

I've decided that I am going to try to write a few short stories every year, even if they are kind of lame. My first order of business though will simply to read more short stories. I mostly read novels. Reading short stories might help me see the tools and the pacing that other authors have employed. 

Day 77

Day seventy-seven

January 18, 2013: Writing this just so I can say I wrote it today.

Day 76

Day seventy-six

January 17, 2013: I worked today. Originally I had today off. But then yesterday I was asked if I could work today. Since I did not really work much last week, and I'm not going to work much next week I went ahead and said yes. I still have my weekend though.

Day 75

Day seventy-five

January 16, 2013: I usually wait until after dinner before I write my daily entry but today I decided I would do it earlier. I have the closing shift tonight and I have discovered that the closing shift nights are the ones where I tend to forget to write. That isn't surprising considering I don't get home until almost 10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was really good. Martin Freeman was born to be "...in the f****** hobbit movie, playing the f****** hobbit."* He made the perfect Bilbo Baggins. I also learned yesterday that I cannot wear hats to work. This makes me very sad, as I love hats, and I love to wear them. If I just loved hats but didn't care whether or not I wore them it wouldn't be as sad. As it is the wearing part that I love about hats, it is sad.

*That's a quote from Martin Freeman himself, by the way. 

Day 74

Day seventy-four

January 15, 2013: Going to go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tonight. I'm excited. I know a lot of people are disappointed in it but quite frankly I think they need to stop comparing it to the Lord of the Rings. Reviews by people who actually weren't as dedicated to Lord of the Rings ended up enjoying it more. Going to the movies in this town is way less expensive than in Bend. Tonight I think it's going to cost each person about $5.50, while in Bend it would have cost at least $8.

Day 73

Day seventy-three

January 14, 2013: Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday. We never got around to watching Once Upon a Time. Today, being the 14th, meant that entries for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. I admit, I entered mine as soon as I could today. I entered the same book that I have the past couple years, The Drosselmeyer Legacy.

Day 72

Day seventy-two

January 13, 2013: Today went by so quickly. Morning was Church, afternoon was playing Settlers and hiding in the basement from the tornado, (false alarm by the way) and the evening was eating dinner and watching Once Upon a Time. Well, technically the last thing actually hasn't happened yet, but right now that is the plan.

Day 71

Day seventy-one

January 12, 2013: I actually get a weekend today, and the next weekend, and the week after that as well. True, someone might call out any of those three weekends, but for now I am basking in the glory of having weekends.

Day 69 and 70

Day sixty-nine

January 10, 2013: I don't know what to write about. Blehhhhhhhhh. Mostly because I messed up and actually forgot today.

Day seventy

January 11, 2013: Why was it so hot today? It was so hot! It was not so hot that I was physically uncomfortable, but it is the middle of January and it never got bellow the mid-sixties. Winter, come on you could at least try a little. And what has happened to this country? Today I found a shirt I loved at JCPenny and even a small was too big. A small. And I'm not some skinny chick who can shop in juniors. So many of the shirts at the stores right now are so big. Why are they so big? I know I haven't lost quite that much weight. Since when is shapeless baggy a good thing? I feel sorry for the genuinely small people out there. 

Random Advertising Gimmick?

As all of you know I have been posting a little more than I used to. Namely I  have been posting a Thousand Days entry every single day. As to be expected, my stats have gone up. Quite a lot more than I expected. At first I was excited, thinking that maybe, possibly, some people had found my blog and liked it. I eagerly went through my states when I saw this...                                                                .                                             

Most of my "views" have been from random sites that I do not think could have seen my blog. The first time I saw this when I was a new blogger I was all "Yeah, this is cool, look at all these sites that people can find my blog through! How are they doing that?" At that time I was young, nearly infantile when it came to blogging.  I did not even know what a widget was. But growing up means facing the cold hard facts and realizing that sometimes the truth is far less magical. 

Growing up basically means learning everything on the internet is an advertising gimmick. 

Yep. I've held onto the hope for a long time that people honestly wanting to look at my blog have somehow found it through these sites but the longer it goes on, the more I'm losing it. Some of the sites it may be possible, but some of them when I click on them I'm...um...what? Random Japaneses art sites, YouTube videos with comments such "i dont no hw ppl saw my blog thr this but im glad they did" and last but not least links to weight loss advertisements. 

The last one is what did me in. 

So now when I see a large number for my states, I just dismiss it, because it is a fake number. Besides I'm not immature enough to find satisfaction out of several people viewing my blog. I understand that getting a lot of views on my blog does not make me a more significant person, not does it really matter. I blog because I enjoy doing it, not because I get satisfaction out of people I don't know looking into my personal life...

Who am I kidding? I see that my blog has been viewed ten times in the last twenty four hours and I'm all like, Yes, yes yes! Take that suckers! They say I couldn't make it in the world, well guess what? I am getting closer to nearly being famous on the internet. 

Day 68

Day sixty-eight

January 9, 2013: It rained a lot today.

Day 66 and 67

Day sixty-six

January 7, 2013: Downton Abbey is back on. We watched it. It was good. Going to keep this one short because it's late.

Day sixty-seven

January 8, 2013: The problem with work is that when you're working a lot, you're working a lot, but when you're not working a lot, you're not making very much. During the Christmas season I got used to working five days a week at least and suddenly I'm only working about three. Plus the shifts are never quite six hours long, my hours have been cut nearly in half. Working less will also mean more hours to get school work done, which means I might be able to take on a larger course load, but then less work means less money to pay for college. Botheration.

Day 65

Day sixty-five

Every time I wear my scarf, I have at least a couple of people ask me how I tied it. Today at least half a dozen people wanted me to show them. I actually went to Sunday school today, though it will probably look way different next week. Apparently there are a lot of people there home for the winter break who will be going back to college. I guess I did join the college group. In all reality I had to be expecting that. Uhg, it's so annoying. A part of me wants to go to Columbia State. I had fun with COCC and actually going to college, and it would be cheaper than online colleges. But times is also a huge consideration, and I would like it to only take two years to get my associates, and I'm just not sure that I could do while working and at Columbia State. Dilemmas, dilemmas. 

Day 64

Day sixty-four

January 5, 2013: Scrivener's Moon came in the mail yesterday and I'm so excited. The library here isn't quite as well stocked as the one in Bend and Scrivener's Moon wasn't available there. I used the Barns and Noble gift card I got for Christmas to buy it though and I have already read several chapters. Yesterday I started up my savings account, finally. I've had the cashier's check from my old bank for forever. I also tried to get a credit card, because the two I already have from Belk and JCPenny are not enough, but Dad had to be there since it would have to be a joint account or whatever. I am just shocked and offended that the bank would not trust me, a college student who has never had any financial responsibility before with a credit card. The way of the world today.

O

Day 62 and 63

Day sixty-two

January 3, 2013: You know, it hasn't been as hard to remember write 2013 instead of 2012. Usually I mess up for a couple weeks but here and at work I haven't been.

Day sixty-three

January 4, 2013: Another small entry today. Closing shifts are the worst.

Some Catch up

You know what, I completely forgot I wanted to blog all of this. I blogged it. Feel free to read it, or not.

Day thirty-one

December 1, 2012 Second month of A Thousand Days. Yeah!

Day thirty-two

December 2, 2012: Saw Rise of the Guardians with my family. It was really good. DreamWorks is getting to be nearly as good as Pixar with their animated films. I also came up with a couple killer short story ideas today, one of them even Christmas themed called, Naughty.

Day thirty-three

December 3, 2012: Work, it seems, is either feast or famine.  Either there's dozens of people waiting in line to be checked out, or I'm tidying the same rack of shirts that I've already tidied several times. I actually don't mind the busy times much, it makes the time go more quickly, but the wandering around straightening up the store is the boring part.

Day thirty-four

December 4, 2012: I'm putting the dates on the days now. I wasn't before. Now that it's a new month it struck me as a good idea, as already I'm losing count of the days. Sometimes before the only way I knew I had written the entry was by matching the day to the date. In the ultimate resting place for this project, every day will probably be dated as I plan on writing all of these entries down in a journal, and it would be weird to have the format suddenly change. Not any weirder than talking about a change that seems irrelevant I guess.

Day thirty-five

December 5, 2012: Why is it so hot? It's December and it's 70 degrees out. Even with the Christmas decorations up it's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that it's December. It's warmer here than it was in June in Bend.

Day thirty-six

December 6, 2012: I did nothing today. Absolutely nothing. I had all this stuff planned to do today since it was my day off. But no, I woke up this morning with blood all over my pajamas, and I've been extremely tired and quite frankly really cranky all day. (Period, by the way. Not some random wound or strange disease.) 

Day thirty-seven

December 7, 2012:  We have an advent calendar which is shaped like a Christmas tree and has little drawers with an ornament inside for each day. The calendar is rather old so many of the ornaments are broken. One of them is a snowman; was a snowman. Now it's just a snowman's head. Each of us kids take turns on the different days. Today was my turn and I got the snowman head. In Doctor Who we recently watched the episode where we discovered that Captain Jack is the face of Boa. Therefore, I decided that the snowman's name was Jack Frost, and now that he's just a head, he's the face of snow.

Day thirty-eight

December 8, 2012: I'm not sure I agree with this whole working on the weekend thing. Today we decorated our Christmas tree and went and got our ornaments for it. There are even some presents under it already.

Day thirty-nine

December 9, 2012: I have discovered the hot chocolate I have been searching before. No hot chocolate ever has ever been the perfect balance of thickness, and smoothness, and rich chocolate taste. They are all either grainy, or watery, or really don't taste very much like chocolate. For years I have been looking for a rich chocolate but not cloying, perfectly smooth but not grainy hot chocolate. Mum makes this really good chocolate eggnog.  Well, if you warm it up turns out it makes the perfect hot chocolate. It's a lot of work really, for a cup of hot chocolate so I know I won't be having it very often...maybe that's actually a good thing. If the world's best hot chocolate was easy to make I might get fat.

Day forty

December 10, 2012: Late night. I hate the closing shift. There is nobody there after six, and after seven everything that can possibly be straightened has been straightened. Also spent all morning talking to different colleges, all of them acting as if I was going to sign up with them and already had my ducks lined in a row. All said and done, today has drained me.

Day forty-one

December 11, 2012: I do not like the way forty is spelled. Went to the dentist today. As always I need to go back next week and get work done. I guess it's because I don't brush three times a day, floss at least once every day and use a mouth wash...no wait, I do, do those things.

Day forty-two

December 12, 2012: Finally got my library card for the local library. Oh, and I am almost done with my Christmas wrapping. I'm so proactive this year.

Day forty-three

December 13, 2012: Today I visited Belk with Mum and Katy. At first I wasn't going to go but then I decided to. I'm glad that I did. At Belk I found the leather (okay realistically it's actually pleather) jacket I have been looking for, for years. I even got a Belk credit card and stuff. I "used" some of the money I will be getting for cloths for Christmas. Technically the jacket was bought with fake money, but I'll probably pay it off the day after Christmas.

Day forty-four

December 14, 2012: I don't know what to write. I wish colleges would stop calling me. I hate talking on the phone.

Day forty-five

December 15, 2012: Okay, fine, I will never ever complain about how slow it is in the Men's department. From 3 to 4 I worked alone. I've worked that time alone a couple of times and it has always been alright, but today it was crazy. There were a million people needing to be checked out and of course that was the day that everyone came in with returns without their receipt. What's with the p in that word? We should get rid of that p.

Day forty-six

December 16, 2012: Can't say as I am disappointed I have the next two days off. Work wasn't as bad as yesterday, but it was a long day nevertheless. Longer than yesterday. Less stressful than yesterday, but today felt so long.

Day forty-seven

December 17, 2012: I hate how all of the colleges are taking up my entire day talking to me telling me information that they send to me all in an e-mail already. And it's like they all assume I'm ready to make a decision right then and there. I'm on the other end thinking, hello, still in the information gathering stage. Maybe if you didn't spend hours talking to me giving me the amount of information that I could find in your e-mail in only ten minutes I would have had more time to make a bloody decision already.

Day forty-eight

December 18, 2012: Today may have sucked but at the very least there were Christmas cookies.

Day forty-nine

December 19, 2012: Back to the grind today until Christmas. Somehow it isn't as bad as having a day off ruined by college phone calls.

Day fifty

December 20, 2012: It was so nice today not having to talk on the phone to a college. That does mean I'll probably have to speak to one tomorrow. I don't know why. It's not like I don't have all of the information I need from all of them already. Especially from that one that promised over and over again that I wasn't committing myself to anything, and then right in the middle of "helping" my figure out where I financially concerning college the person on the phone tells me I've already been enrolled. I think that college needs to look commit and enroll in the dictionary.

Day fifty-one

December 21, 2012: Well, the day's already over for much of the world and they are all still here, so I guess the Mayans really did just run out of room on their calendar. (Not to mention the fact that according to the Mayan calendar December 21st 2012 was years ago since they didn't account for leap year.) I had a very lovely walk down to the square with Katy and Mum this afternoon. Before now, I could never understand how anyone could ever hate Christmas, even if their Christmases weren't the best. Having worked in retail around Christmas time, I can see it. I personally still love Christmas, but that is only because I have years of wonderful memories, and a still fantastic family to celebrate Christmas with.

Day fifty-two

December 22, 2012: I really want to write about something other than work, but that is all that comes to mind. That's all I do most days now. I always wondered why people would want to talk about work, but it's because it's really all they have to talk about. I closed tonight, and it was busier, that also meant it took more time to close because we needed to straighten. You know what I don't get. The opening shift is so slow, and it is even more dead than the closing shift usually, even around the holidays. (Unless it is some early bird sale or something, but only then ever. And JCPenny doesn't have early bird sales anyway.) Often times the closing shift has to stay late just to tidy up. Why can't the closing shift leave things mostly tidy and then the opening shift make things really tidy since there's nothing to do?

Day fifty-one

December 23, 2012: Wow, is tomorrow really Christmas eve? Working has really made the holiday sneak up on me especially since I will be working tomorrow. I'll still get to go to the Christmas eve service though.

Day fifty-two

December 24, 2012: The Christmas eve serves was good. I saw my manager, there. I'm not sure if working in retail around the holidays has made Christmas worse or better for me. On one hand, it has been slightly disenchanted for me. I've seen first-hand how nasty people get around the holidays and how they treat present giving like some horrible obligation. On the other, seeing that other people's Christmas is not very good, it makes me appreciate the fact that I have a wonderful family to celebrate Christmas with.

Day fifty-three

December 25, 2012: The one problem with Christmas is that it is over so quickly. And this year it seemed I did especially little on the day itself. After opening presents I napped, filled my time with doing nothing, took a walk, and played a game with the kids. Usually I read, and write, and maybe even watch a little something on the TV as well as those other things. Ah well, today was a good day. It's funny, the days I don't work I don't feel like doing any of the things I enjoy. I just want to sit there and do nothing.

Day fifty-four

December 26, 2012: The day after Christmas; such a bitter sweet day. Back to work again. Bleh.

Day fifty-five

December 27, 2012: I've decided I will have a New Year's resolution. I'm going to blog more. I am I am I am. I enjoy it, I don't know why I don't do it more. I just wish I had something central to blog about. Something better than random things that happen to me and random things that I think.

Day fifty-six

December 28, 2012: Today off. Yeah! I need to dig up my blog post idea list. I've also thought up a couple. Such as, Short Story VS. Novel. Well, actually that's all I've come up with so far. I also want to do the daily writing exercises, but ever since I've started work it's like...no. No time at all. I need to try. I will try. I swear it. It will be good practice for finding time for school work as well.

Day fifty-seven

December 29, 2012: I spent about seventy dollars of the one hundred dollars that Mum gave me for cloths money for Christmas. Today was my first day after Christmas that I worked in women's. At first I only picked a couple of things that I was going to try on during break. I told Tina (the person with me in women's) that that was all I was putting on hold for myself, but she shook her head and said, "Ah no honey. You're going to find things while straightening. It happens to all of us." It did. I ended up getting one very pretty plum colored sweater, a pair of black and white trousers, and a pair of black skinny jeans. (I know. I can hardly believe it myself. Who ever thought I would be wearing skinny jeans, let alone black?)

Day fifty-eight

December 30, 2012: Finally played the Settlers of Catan that I got for Christmas. It was just as much fun as I remember, although I did loose miserably.

Day fifty-nine

December 31, 2012: Last day of 2012. I posted on my blog today, well tomorrow. I wrote the post but I have it timed to go on the net at exactly at midnight. It's pretty cool

Day sixty

January 1, 2013: Happy new year!

Day sixty-one

January 2, 2013: Uhg, why didn't I run today? Now I have to run tomorrow. I finished reading The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairy Land: And Led the Revels There. Long title I know, but it is a really good book. It's a bit like Alice in Wonderland, only it actually has a plot.