Sunday, November 23, 2014

How is it Thanksgiving Week??

 
How in the world is it Thanksgiving week already?? How is the NaNoWriMo validation already live? It went up on Thursday, November 20th—no pressure to my fellow writers who haven’t finished yet, either!  I can’t believe so many people in the forums were already at 30k—or even 70k, or even higher—by the 15th! I know we’re not supposed to compare ourselves to others in this challenge, but it’s hard sometimes when you see that and you’ve been hovering around 25k for days (I finally passed that marker and earned that last word count badge on the 19th—whew!)...
WRITING-SPECIFIC GOALS:
1, 3. Blog Sketches, Vlog Idea: Nothing new. Still dancing around new ideas but not really devoting energy to them.
2. Blog Posts (10+ blog posts for November & December, revised to one or two ROW80/NaNoWriMo update posts & one crafts-based post per week):  I'm definitely slowing down, but I’ve keeping been up so far…barely. The ROW80 updates are much easier, since I have an outline and a deadline. The creative posts require more planning, research, photography, and editing.
4. Creative Writing: This has been going very slowly. I’m still chugging along. My monthly goal of 50k (which I’ve split between the blogging and the fiction) is still falling behind. But I am writing regularly every day, and pushing for a little more out of each session. Taking a break is so attractive, though. I want to nap, watch or read. But I also want to know where this story is going, which is a bit perplexing and exciting.
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ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA/PERSONAL GOALS:
5. Tweet more Original Content & Reply to at least one ROW80 post or comment per update interval.  Continues. My tweeting output has definitely dropped, while I’ve been dealing with NaNoWriMo & life. But I still enjoy the community aspect.
6. Keep Up with Minimum Exercise Goals: My minimum personal goal is still 3/3/3 (3+ sets each of counter push-offs, planks, and jumping jacks, for 3+ days in a row). I continue to do some exercises and stretches each day, although not necessarily those three specifically.
 
I love Thanksgiving.  More than other holidays, Thanksgiving features homemade food and quiet social time.  I get roasted squash, mashed and sweet potatoes, stuffing (or dressing, as some call it), fruit pies, and spiced apple cider…with an extra helping of board games and holiday movies. This year’s festivities will be a little different, but that means there’s also less that I, personally, need to take care of. So hopefully that means more time to write and think about writing?
 
The holiday of Thanksgiving has a very questionable past, full of colonialism, conquest, and the sugar-coating of history, but it has come to represent the United States in a very big way, and is one of my favorite holidays because it represents what I cherish: rather than making a patriotic or commercial statement for others to see, Thanksgiving is about gathering together with your friends and family, and celebrating your community by spending time together and eating home-cooked food--and munching on all the delicious leftovers for days, which is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving.  This also stretches the holiday into a multi-day affair in my mind! 
 
If you’re crazy, Thanksgiving also represents manically shopping together. This is still technically bonding time, but why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to the growing frenzy and mob-experience that is the hours of mid-night lines and stampeding crowds during Black Friday, I cannot say. I once assisted a manager during a Black Friday, and it consisted of me standing in a mountain of clothing in a secondary, blocked-off dressing room, hanging clothes on hangers and sorting them into nice little bunches by which floor section of the Juniors Department they belonged in. I would hand out an armful to a sales associate, so that she could quickly put them away before helping another customer. And then another sales associate would dart in, and so on. That mountain of clothing shrank and grew, hour after hour after hour, but I sure felt helpful!   I was glad that I knew the department well enough to make a difference in that way (plus, it was a completely helpful, valid excuse not to be out in that crazy throng).
 
Sometimes at Thanksgiving, we will supplement our homemade food with some pre-made sides, or a turkey. This is always very convenient, but it makes me think about a story a friend mentioned a couple years ago, about going into those rotisserie shops to pick up a big Thanksgiving package of food, and seeing people sitting around, quietly eating their little Thanksgiving meals all by themselves. On the one hand, they were honoring the holiday, and making it a little special, and on the other hand, they were hanging out solo during a communal holiday at a semi-fast food establishment… Which meant they either didn’t have someone to share the day with, or they had chosen not to. Who’s to say what their lives are? But those options feel kind of sad to think about…
 
Thanksgiving has become a great holiday in the U.S. in another way (similarly to Christmas), where you can donate your food or your time to others, to make their struggles a little bit lighter. In college, and at some of the places I’ve worked since, Thanksgiving has been a great time to volunteer at a food bank or a soup kitchen, or even just to pull those non-perishables that you’ll honestly never get around to eating out of your cupboard and pass them on. You can even just add an extra canned or boxed Thanksgiving ingredient to your Thanksgiving grocery run, and add it to one of the donation barrels that live at the front of most grocery stores during this season. And we can wish people working on Thanksgiving “Happy Holidays,” at bare minimum.
 
Whether you celebrate or not, I hope you are all able to be with friends or family sometime this week, and that you have a moment to eat something special. Or just go on a walk, and enjoy a moment of quiet, and smell the fresh air! Hopefully you have some refreshing air within reach, where ever you may be this week!

2 comments:

  1. Our little family of four has to members who don't enjoy Thankgiving food. They are under-18 members of the family, and, in many families, they'd be expected to eat as everyone else did. But to us, it's more important that we have the time together.

    So we skip the preparations and cleanup, and go to a local buffet establishment we discovered a few years ago. We all enjoy the food we like, laugh and have a good time, then come home and enjoy the rest of the evening at home.

    It's perfect for us.

    It looks like you've got some solid word counts happening, and making good progress on your goals.

    Hooray, and happy Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whatever works best for you! You get to skip the cook-time and the huge clean-up phase...While still getting all of the social time together. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

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