Low Fat Quest

Turns out american food is all the same and all disgusting after a few weeks. I'm dying for Thai or Indian, but the low fat, home cooked versions. When you're forced to eat in airports and hotels you really do get the shitiest stuff too. I'm sick of chains and having no car. Next two weeks I'll be driving, THANK GOD. Three all fly weeks already has me drained. That and a presenter who's a real whackadoodle.

I feel gross from all the bad food I've had this week. Hopefully I can make something good this weekend with Mo....... Please, MJW let me cook for you!! :)

Closing In

Closing in on 25,000 words--halfway. I had to take a break due to an exciting weekend in Green Bay and the threat of an impending cold. I'm feeling better and writing again, although I'm intrigued by one thing:

I do some really messed up things to my characters.

I finished beating the crap out of my main character and now I'm forcing one character to accidentally kill his brother. How do I come up with this crap? :P

So much, so little

I'm one day away from completing my no-soda goal. Tomorrow the highlight of my day might not be sightseeing in Toledo but the diet coke I will allow myself to drink if I want it. It'll be interesting if I want it or if I've cured myself of the craving now. I've been craving soda all the time, but somehow I think I will be less excite to drink it than I thought. Just goes to show...

I'm aiming to knock myself to 20,000 NaNo words by tomorrow night. I'm at 16,500 so maybe it's possible? I'll still be behind, but much closer to pace than I am now. I have no idea if I can get through this, but I have hope and perserverence, or at least I hope I can perservere...

And I think I just got asked on my first road date by an older Michigan man... Ewww. Good thing I'm off to Toledo!

The Seasons

So I had a week of summer two weeks ago, then a week of fall in New England last week, and this week the trees are bare and I got my first snow flurry! It's fun having things change like that as I pass through.

Some days I don't take a lot of photos because I'm simply trapped in the hotel room or on the way to the airport. It's sad not getting a good idea of a city, but at the same time, I can't do and see everything. My exhaustion this week proves it.

I think I have hit the lull point of the new-job process, where I'm not quite 100% at the job, but it's familiar enough that I relax into it... and make a lot of mistakes. At least it's generally okay to make mistakes in life. I still feel bad when things go funky though.

I had an amazing conversation with my Kelly temp today, a man who grew up in Nigeria and moved to the US and then Canada. It's fun meeting people along the way and suddenly finding myself in deep philosophical conversations.

This weekend I need to do nothing on a grand scale.

An Off Day in Edmonton

Turns out having a perpetually sunny attitude wears me down after a while. I've definitely surprised myself with how consistently optimistic I've been lately even in the face of canceled flights and crappy speaker systems, but today for some reason I'm just off. The day started out fine, especially with the election results buzzing around in my head, but I just don't really have the energy to be particularly proactive. You think the room is cold? Well, you should generally have a sweater with you if it's only 40 degrees outside, so maybe you could put that on... The speakers stink? Let's adjust the volume as far as I can and then just give up to the worthless little speakers in the gigantic room. You want me to have a cab waiting? Okay, I'll make a call but who knows if it will show up on time...

My presenter isn't bad at all this week. In fact we had a ton of fun last night waiting for results to start coming in. I just think that Wednesdays are hard days for me. I'm fully exhausted and just want to not deal with another person who feels like they want their certificate at the afternoon break rather than waiting til the end like everyone else. If I wanted to hand out all the certificates at the afternoon break, I would be doing that. I made the mistake of giving a few out to some women who had a 3 hour drive post-seminar, and then suddenly EVERYONE had at least a 3 hour drive and I ended up passing out half the certificates by hand.

See, I just have this icky attitude creeping in. Maybe it has a little to do with the fact that I'm over 1500 words behind on NaNo... I think tonight I'll try to lock myself in my Calgary hotel room and write. Hopefully there will be no wi-fi there.

Election Day

Just to let all those in the USA know... I've heard two Canadian channels call the election already, and about 12 winter tire commercials.

I'm still holding my breath, considering the last two elections were definitely not something that I could believe and they still are the only elections I had any real investment in. I am really hoping that the voter turnout and eventual results actually make me proud to be American again.

[Edit 10:53pm MST]
There's really nothing I can say. I'm just deeply proud.

Yes we can.

Now I just hope we will.

Notes from Canada...

1. Winnepeg smells like cow.

2. I brilliantly went to get cash this weekend, and forgot that I am in Canada this entire week, thus necessitating CANADIAN dollars. Luckily, I didn't need to tip last night before I could get to an ATM and then find change at the front desk.

3. When will the wonky accent start to take hold of my vocabulary? Aboot now, eh...