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And some days I feel like doing this...

Jumping for Joy

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Today we walked almost two hours, from our house straight west, up the big hill where we could turn back and look out over the valley. Then on to the lake, with a couple stops in to tour the model homes. One was the most light-filled, spacious small house I have ever seen-- on 3 levels, and positively inviting. Decorated by Ikea. We even sat on the front porch for a bit to imagine what it would be like to live there and decided our front porch is better.

Then on to the lake, which was as still and smooth as glass, with the wavy reflection of the houses making the water surface look like an impressionist painting. Still a few ducks on the water, although most have gone South by now. We would have enjoyed sauntering further along the lake, but we were getting tired, and it was still forty minutes back home. A beautiful, mild November day, perfect for a long walk.

We are headed to Colorado for Thanksgiving, the first one away from "Mom and Dad's" (our) house in years. Our 17-year-old, a bit of a worry wart, is concerned about the weather: "Isn't it risky to drive that far in late November? What if the roads close because of a snow storm? What if we get stranded?"

One of our middle sons and his wife can't make the trip and want to have a Thanksgiving celebration a few days ahead of time, before we all head out on the "dangerous" trek to Colorado Springs. So the night before we leave, we will head out to their house and eat turkey with all the trimmings.

Our niece called last week to invite us to an early Thanksgiving at her house, with that side of the family. Early meaning the Saturday before Thanksgiving. If we attend that, by the time the real day comes along, it will be our third Thanksgiving dinner in less than a week.

I love Thanksgiving as much as the next fat person, but hey folks! Do I look like I need three of them?

Okay, I know I am cheating by starting my NaNoWriMo novel in October, but that's because I am not officially enrolled. So it's okay. I'm not counting words yet, I look forward to transcribing it all to my computer and checking the word count at that point. Right now it is pen on paper. Huge scrawling cursive words to use up lots of paper. That way I feel like I am making progress. Haven't read any of it back yet. I absolutely WILL NOT do that, or I would despair at my lack of talent and give up. (I know myself too, too well.)

To those of you who have read Uncut Diamonds, yes this is a "sequel" in the sense that it has the same characters and setting, but I'm going in an entirely different direction. Marcie is getting out more, has joined a writer's group, has a few stories published, and the members of the writer's group enter into the story. As well as what they are all writing. This gives me a chance to actually put several of my own story ideas into the mouths of these writer characters, which is kind of fun. And then there is the problem with Cindy and Karl's new baby....

Anyone else started a project? How is it going?

I'm in. I have this rough rough draft to work on that I have been avoiding for months. My last novel, Uncut Diamonds, published in July, is now out in the world standing on its own and I at last feel free to let it go. Time to get to the next one, but ugh...that beginning draft.

When I read about NaNoWriMo I got the light bulb. Perfect! I can spew out 50,000 words in thirty days, even if they're garbage words, and when I'm done I will have something to revise! Revisions I love, the actual writing to get it all down on paper I do not. Because it's horrible. Awful writing. It takes the revising to turn it into something half way decent. It's like cleaning a closet--you have to make a huge mess first, and then you can start tidying up and organizing. Well, with writing it is not the making of the mess I love, it is the tidying up and organizing.

I remember last November when I heard about NaNoWriMo. I thought smugly, Well, I already AM writing my novel, and it is coming along very nicely, thank you. This year its sequel sits hidden away, too rough for me to want to even look at, let alone finish. Perfect timing. I'm not doing it officially-- signing up and then when I'm done sending it in electronically to get a certificate. I don't care about a certificate. All the positive feedback I will need is that word count on my computer that says "50,000."

Also, I'm not waiting until November. I am so eager to get going that I already started. Believe me, that rough draft is dreadful. I dug it out of the closet and could barely tolerate reading it, one eye half closed. What I'm writing now is pretty bad, too. I don't care. My goal for the next 30+ days is not to write well it is to write fast. Writing well can come later once it's all on the computer and I'm going in to revise. Hooray!  

I am one of those people who gets premonitions very easily, not daily or anything, but pretty much on a regular basis. This week I started getting one about a big thing, too big to lightly discuss on a blog post, and each day it comes stronger. So even though the decision has not yet been made, I am fairly certain of the result due to these too strong to ignore premonitions.

The experience is bringing to mind other times in my life when this happened regarding big events. Like knowing this guy would propose after such a brief friendship. (He did and we celebrate our 40th anniversary next August.) Like knowing we would move to California although it made no sense at the time. (We did, and we lived there 4 years.) Like knowing a friend of mine with three kids would get a divorce after she got her degree. (She did, and of course I never said a word before or after.) No idea why I would get a premonition like that about someone else.

Is this common to get premonitions like this? Are there others who experience it--often, sometimes, never? Do you ever get what you think is a premonition and it doesn't happen? For me, the definition of a premonition is a specific, strong sense of a future event. And it has to happen as you sense it will, or it isn't a premonition. Otherwise, it is an idea of something that might happen, like a suspicion or an expectation. I believe it is only a premonition if it comes to pass. Does anyone have any really specific or odd premonitions they want to talk about? That maybe saved your life? Or changed your life? Or came out of the blue nowhere and you wondered---huh?? That's the kind I am having this week. Not necessarily good, bad, or strange, just entirely unexpected.

We have lived in this house for ten years with the finished basement being the second home for many of our boys' friends.

Sleepovers, Dance Dance parties, birthday parties, playing pool and/or ping pong, watching the Sponge Bob Movie about 80 million times, Nintendo, X Box, Wii-- whatever new game system comes out to be added to all the games and systems already collected, pizza, donuts, Tropical Smash, popcorn, bowls of candy, bags of chips, the death couch. Oh, the stories I could tell about that basement! One Saturday morning I came down to do laundry and found about 10 boys laying all over the place, in and among 4 tv sets that had been moved in to have some kind of electronic gaming marathon.

And then as the boys grew older they would occasionally clean up the pigsty and make it suitable for girls on dates--turning on the Scentsy warmer, opening windows to air out the "Basement of Stench," fluffing up the love sac, neatly organizing the afghans, pillows, DVD's, and electronic games, cords, and devices.

My husband and I have completely avoided the basement, except for the routine trips to the laundry room (me, not him), the food storage room and the freezer. Oh, and the occasional peek-in during parties. We dwell upstairs, and when the boys entertain in the basement, the farther upstairs we can get the better we like it.

But now the basement is being repainted, the damaged white walls full of dart holes are being patched, sanded and painted mango. It will be beautiful!  The carpet also begs to be replaced. But then what about the love sac, the death couch, the Dance Dance pads and the millions of cords and controllers? This basement needs a lot more than fresh paint before it is inhabitable for normal human life beyond that of adolescent boys and young men. 

When that time comes, I will wander down there and see the mango walls, the new carpet, the updated furniture and decorating touches, and I will sit down on my new leather couch and cry my eyes out. 

The first frost hit before I picked all my green tomatoes. I got the red ones, but left the greens--just in case. Well, now they're history. No laying them between newspaper to slowly ripen in the basement from now to Thanksgiving.

Some years I am so sick and tired of summer that I'm thrilled to see it end, but not this year. Spring was cool and wet, and by June I wanted it to be hot, hot, hot. I love the dry oven heat of Utah--90 degrees is perfect summer weather here. So July and August were great. Now it's cold again, and I'm sad. Goodbye garden. Goodbye my hungry koi with your busy lives--soon you'll be still at the deepest corner of the pond, waiting out winter. Goodbye my flower beds that I ignored all season, too late now. Goodbye afternoon read-ins under the fan in the living room.Goodbye falling asleep at night to crickets chirping. Goodbye to the smell of fresh-mowed grass. Goodbye grass.

Goodbye, Summer. I will miss you. And it will be so long before you come round again. Sigh.