Three Things for Thursday, 11/29/12

Here's what I'm thinking about this Thursday (and for the past week!):

1) WIP Progress: Also known as "How Nico got her groove back!" Yesssss. I have a WIP, and I am psyched about it.  After almost two months of little to no progress on the college boy WIP (they just weren't speaking to me), I started a new WIP maybe two weeks ago.  I was making little to no progress on that one, too, until this weekend, when I brilliantly set myself an arbitrary deadline. Because those work so well, you know. But it did this time! I'm aiming to finish a first draft by the end of this month. Yes, that means by Saturday. Realistically, I think this could translate to finishing the relationship-building up to the actual sexytimes, but still...this is progress! This is grooving! This is groooooovy! Yes, I'm excited, and it's worthy of exclamation points.

The true culprit in my non-progress up til now? The internet.  The above cartoon depicts this perfectly.

The experiment: I turned off my wireless, and apparently I write around 150-200 words for every 10 minutes without wireless.  That's kind of amaze-balls for this notoriously glacially slow writer.  So I've decided I must go live in a cave that miraculously has power outlets.  Yes, yes I must.

So, yes, I've written around 4000 words in the last two days. Let me repeat: this is amaze-balls for me.

I am psyched and cannot wait to get Tomas and Derek's tale on the page. They are awesomesauce and a whole bag of chips.

2) Nico the Feline.  I'm totally sad-panda-ing over bringing Nico back home for the holidays.  First there's the stress of air travel with a kitty who loves being in his homebase so much that he hardly even brings himself to walk down the hallway outside my apartment.  Most of all, though, it's the super sadness I'm feeling over leaving him in San Francisco for six months with my parents while I (1) study for the California bar exam, (2) travel around, and (3) figure out logistics for moving back in June.  I know it's better for him than having to continue finding sitters or boarding him, and I definitely know it's better than having to stress him out by having him be smack in the middle of a cross-country move.  Nonetheless, I'm experiencing separation anxiety already...and he's not even gone yet!

3) California Bar Exam.  Ugh. Yep, I signed up to take it. Not thrilled about this prospect, but I determined in the end that I should do it "just in case."  It's a rather expensive endeavor, but law school and six years of lawyering were a rather significant portion of my life thus far.  It would make sense at least to be able to practice in California by having the California bar exam under my belt. So, yes, I ordered some study materials, and I'll be doing this thing. Wish me luck!

3.5) An extra random thought: Drag Queen Bingo!  I went to bingo night hosted by drag queens earlier this week. It was unabashedly ridiculous and also ridiculously awesome. :)

My feelings...they are a-jumble, but yay for WIP progress and (fictional) boys who are talking to me!

Thrilled to be typing away about her swimmer and the object of his affection,
NJ

My hands have been very busy.

Being crafty...like a fox. Rowr.

I've been very hands-on since funemployment began. Baking, cooking, and...crafts!

What happens when it's midnight and I have pliers and a paperclip in hand?

Yup...this is what happens. Thanks to inspiration from the I Spy DIY blog, I now have a cute little heart ring on my finger.

In addition to that, I also have supplies for bracelet (and other jewelry) making and my previous new find of needle felting to keep me occupied in the crafty way. Needle felting, by the way, is totally awesome. I repaired holes in my cashmere sweater and also created adorable little heart-shaped elbow patches. So easy and so quick! I highly recommend it. :)

I have two thoughts about this recent explosion in craftiness on my part:

1) Lawyering and being a legal eagle was stifling my creative side to such an extreme extent that I now feel this subconscious need to compensate for that lost time. At the end of the day, being behind a desk and working on docs and agreements didn't necessarily produce anything substantive or tangible. Don't get me wrong - I'm not putting down lawyering.  However, it's impossible to wear an agreement or accessorize with a private equity fund memorandum. There's no getting around that  Doing crafts and creating things with my hands is just much more satisfying to that part of me that needed to produce something physical from all of my effort.

2) Crafting has, unfortunately, also been accompanied by a massive case of writer's block. Boooooooo. Perhaps there's a parallelism to my above thought number 1 because with writing I'm also sitting in front of a computer versus physically using my hands and materials to create something fun and tangible.  Regardless of the reason, though, it's immensely frustrating. I recently started a second story, so I have two WIPs now. However, I haven't made much progress on either of them, and I really need to focus. Basically, I can't seem to sit still because, now that I think about it, my reading has also really tapered off in the last two months.

So...yes.

Being crafty like a fox is, on the one hand, awesome because I get to make cool stuff like my paperclip ring, and my friends will get handmade jewelry as little presents from yours truly. It is also, on the other hand, super frustrating because I can't seem to focus myself so that I sit down and flesh out what I have in mind for the boys in my stories. I'm quite torn because I have this desire to be creative; it's just not creative in the writing sense right now. I've just been going with the flow since this started with funemployment nearly two months ago, but wow...it's pretty much a writer's block the size of Stonehenge at this point. *cringes*

Anyone have any ideas for how to kick this writing slump while still feeding my thirst to get hands-on creative nowadays?

Trying to find a balance between using her hands for creating crafts versus stories,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday, 11/22/12 (Thanksgiving Edition)

Happy Thanksgiving! Three things on my mind for this fabulous Thanksgiving 2012:

1) Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, it bears mentioning again. :D This morning I woke up early to check out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A humongous Hello Kitty floated by, and I couldn't stop smiling.

This was the second time I stayed here in NYC for Thanksgiving. Back in 2007, I stayed here and hosted an "if you have nowhere to go, come by!" gathering that ended up stuffing twelve people into my teeny tiny NYC apartment. I even roasted a turkey and everything. :) This year, I kept it low key, but still had two friends stop by to hang out and eat food with me. It was chill, and the adage that time flies by when you're having fun definitely held true.

2) I'm thankful for...   Every day I'm thankful for my family and friends who bring joy to my life. This year in particular, though, I'm specifically thankful for opportunity. My life has been filled with opportunities for which I'm grateful because, regardless of which direction I've taken, I've met wonderful people and experienced rewarding things that have helped me to develop into the person I am today. Right now, I'm thankful to have the opportunity (both temporally and monetarily) to take this time away from lawyering to explore other interests and life in general on my own time and terms.

3)  Turkey.  Just a random thought, but as far as my memory goes, this is the first year I haven't had turkey on Thanksgiving. I purchased a whole roast duck from Chinatown, so some poultry was consumed, but alas...not turkey.  Here's the turkey I roasted back in 2007:

More blog posting to come later this week (i.e., before the next Thursday update). I have some other stuff to say (I know - *gasp!*), but not right now. Right now I just want to rest with my cozy little food coma. :)

Patting her belly and smiling like the Cheshire Cat,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday, 11/15/12

Hi folks! So I made it. Yay! It's Thursday, and I am totally on top of this blogging-once-a-week shite. Ohhhh yeahhhhhh. ;) Here are my three things for Thursday:

1) Being an adult. As a single gal who lives with a furry feline roommate, I'm usually pretty lazy when it comes to meals. Popcorn for dinner? Ice cream and an apple? Cheese and crackers? Yup, I've had them all. This week, though, I decided to make strides towards being an adult when it comes to eating, and that has resulted in...*drumroll, please...*...cooking for myself.

Cooking for Myself, Attempt Number One

As a bit of a perfectionist, I'm a fan of baking. Measuring stuff, making sure the oven temp is right, mixing stuff together with precision - all of these things are awesome. In an attempt to step outside of my comfort zone, though, I decided to cook last night...sans recipe. *gasp* So I whipped up this quinoa dish and tossed in some veggies and toasted almonds, and...it actually tasted good! Color me surprised! So that was my first step towards being an adult and cooking "real" meals for myself.

2) Volunteering for Sandy. Earlier this week I volunteered with Occupy Sandy out in Brooklyn and the Far Rockaways. My muscles might have been aching the next day, but bagging up canned goods and lugging gallons of water made me feel like I did a little bit to help. It's been over two weeks since Superstorm Sandy hit the area, but there are still many people without power and in need. Please consider volunteering your time and/or donating supplies for this relief effort. If you're not in the area, you can also help by donating to the American Red Cross, giving blood, or sending goods to Occupy Sandy through the Occupy Sandy Wedding Registry on Amazon.

3) Corduroys are awesome.  It's the season for warmer autumn clothing, and that means corduroys! I bought some skinny-ribbed, skinny-cut colored corduroys from Old Navy, and I love them. That is all.

That's it for me this Thursday. How's everything in your neck o' the woods?

Eating healthily while sorting cans in her "saucy red" corduroys,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday...I mean, Friday

*peeks out from behind hands covering her eyes* Hey there, folks! I um...am apparently really really bad at updating this blog, so I was going to try to do a "Three Things for Thursday" post every week. But um...it's kind of Friday already. Oops.

Better late than never?

So here are three things that are on my mind...

1) Election 2012! Without trying to start anything controversial, I'll just say that I was pleased with the election results this week. Not only did we reelect President Obama, but the gay rights movement also went four-for-four in the four states in which the question of gay marriage was on the ballot. Well done, Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota! (Note: Just to clarify, in Minnesota, the vote was whether to define marriage as between a man and a woman, and that ballot measure was defeated.)

2) Superstorm Sandy hit NYC (and the eastern seaboard) last week, and the city is still recovering from it. As a result of the storm, some relatives who were visiting NYC came to stay with me for a couple of nights when their flights were cancelled.  There were six people, plus one feline, in my studio apartment. 

While I was lucky enough not to live in NYC's newest neighborhood SoPo (South of Power), there are many others whose lives were affected in much more dramatic and drastic ways. This storm was a terrible blow to the city, but I am impressed and amazed by the generally positive responses I've seen to the hardships. From grassroots organization of relief efforts to the MTA's Herculean task of bringing the NYC subway system back online after it sustained historic levels of flooding, I really feel like, all things considered, NYC has risen to the challenge. Next week I'll be one of those rising to that challenge when I volunteer with relief efforts in the outer boroughs.

3) Funemployment has been surprisingly HECTIC-with-an-all-caps-emphasis. Wow, it's been over a month, and I feel like I haven't done anything and, alternatively, like I've also been insanely busy. 

Between getting shite done on the red tape side (admittedly boring stuff like making sure my 401Ks were rolled over, health insurance, etc.) and my family houseguests for over a week, I haven't written anything on my WIP. *sad panda* (Note: I wrote a really scandalous real-person-slashy-fanfic, but um...that doesn't count because it's not all official and stuff.) 

When oh wheeeeeeen will I find the motivation to put thoughts to paper/screen? Soon, I hope! The characters are doing stuff in my head (what kind of stuff? well well well...I'm not one to have them kiss and tell... :P), but I just haven't sat down and pulled the words out yet.  I know a bunch of people who are doing National Novel Writing Month/NaNoWriMo, which is super awesome. Seeing their word counts in my Twitterverse will hopefully inspire me to get crackin'. :)

That's it for this week's "Three Things for Thursday Friday." Seriously, I'm going into my GooCal (Google Calendar) right now to remind myself to do this next week. I swear! :)

See you guys next week! (Or sooner if I have something more specific to chat about on my mind...) *wiggles eyebrows*

With happy and motivated thoughts for all,

NJ