Friday, November 27, 2009
WIN!!!



Not done with the novel yet, but I've got 50K, so I win!!!! :-D


...enough said for now. I need to sleep. Tomorrow's Black Friday!!!


Not like I'm a big shopper or anything. None of my family is. We just go for good, wacky times together and free snowglobes at JCPenney. Oh, the simple things in life. :)
Another kudos to Charisse...again, because I wouldn't have finished without her inspiration. :)
Praise God!!! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!
posted by Kristin @ 12:38 AM   1 comments
Saturday, November 21, 2009
So...
It's almost 1 AM. I'm all ready for bed. But I'm not sleeping.

Why?

Cuz I've got a novel to write, darn it!!!

I think I can finish 30K before I sleep, which would be excellent. :) Then I'll only need to write 5K when i wake up to be all caught up! Not saying that will happen today, but I'm hoping it will. :)

Oh, and if you get the time today (meaning November 21), please say a prayer for my grandpa...it's his birthday! Although, this year, his birthday is a mixed blessing, as it also happens to be his first wedding anniversary without his wife of 50+ years. (How about that? They got married on his birthday so he could never forget! :-P) So prayers are greatly appreciated! :)
posted by Kristin @ 12:55 AM   0 comments
Friday, November 20, 2009
NaNo Update
I haven't been blogging at ALL since I've been noveling (since it's been hard to even find time for that--I'm behind again!!), but I feel as if I have nothing eventful to report, except for my novel.

So I decided that one of my historical figures was going to get his jaw whacked because my mouth was particularly sore today. (I might have the beginnings of dry socket. I'm hoping I don't, because I hear that it's painful, but we'll see. Anyway...) ...so then my historical companion ended up falling down a set of stairs, hitting his mouth, and decapitating an ugly statue of George Washington.

Here's the statue's description:

"They went in the direction of the statue, which was about three blocks further in the way that they had been walking. Lizzie was prepared to see anything, but she couldn’t muster up much concern over the statue. I thought they should have replaced that thing ages ago, she thought amusedly. Though, she knew that the statue had valid historic significance for the university, as it was paid for by the family of the founder of her university. She knew that the entire faculty would probably be tripping over themselves to be able to get a new one. However, she knew that not many of the students would care. Most of the student body considered the statue a nuisance and an eyesore, not because they didn’t think that Washington should be prominently displayed, but because of the manner in which he was portrayed. He was seen in this statue wielding an axe above his head towards a tree stump in front of him. In the students’ mind, the least they could have done is carve him in a boat crossing the Potomac, or sitting on a chair as President, not looking like an Ax Murderer or an extra in the movie Saw. But whenever the students complained about it, the administration assumed that they were simply uncultured teenagers."

Hat tip to the walking people pole at CMU, which inspired my character's disdain for this statue.

Also, bigger hat tip to Charisse, because if she weren't there kicking my lazy butt into gear, then I would most definitely have given up by now. Thanks, Charisse! :)
posted by Kristin @ 12:18 AM   2 comments
Friday, November 13, 2009
A Wise Experience...
So, after three nights of essentially just having fun:
-Tuesday's Scythian concert: they're a Celtic Rock band from DC. Their songs are really catchy, and though their songs aren't explicitly Catholic (but some of them definitely have detectable Catholic influences, imo), they have very good music, and they're now what I listen to going to and from work. :)
-Wednesday night's trip to Hemingway's for my 21st. They wouldn't declare me 21 until midnight, so we just had food in the front and then moved to the bar. Contrary to my little sister's suspicion, I did NOT get "sloshed." :-P I did have a good time though. :)
-Thursday afternoon lunch with my parents at the Olive Garden and Thursday night's dinner at Union Grille (where I only had a Lemon Drop cocktail because I was quite ambivalent towards having another drink at the time..I guess this is a good sign that I'm not prone to want to drink just for the heck of it :-P). This was so much fun, and I saw some friends I haven't seen in awhile!

....I got to top off the birthday celebrations by getting my over 21 Driver's License and getting my wisdom teeth out today! (Ok, that last part really isn't celebratory, but you know...:-P) My Driver's License expired today, but i really wanted the horizontal one so I could very quickly prove I was over 21 (and just for the thrill of having a new looking license :-D). Luckily, it didn't take long because I had to go home to get a ride from my parents to surgery.
I was pretty nervous when I got to the dentist's office, so I put a Rosary around my neck so that Mary and Jesus would be with me (not like they wouldn't be there if I didn't put it on, but the reminder that they were there was extremely calming :-D). I walked in, waited awhile, and the dentist called me in. (As an aside, Dr. Ban is one of the best and nicest dentists I've ever seen. He actually explains things to you in terms non-medical folk would understand, answers your questions honestly, and makes sure you know what's going to happen every step of the way.)
When I sat down in the chair, I saw a little tray of things right above the chair. They all looked very sharp, and soon after I looked at them, I knew I shouldn't have, because I got a little more nervous again. Then, after a brief explanation of things, my parents left. Then the nurses put a blood pressure cuff on my left arm and put a heart monitor sensor on my finger. I knew the part I dreaded most was coming up soon, the anesthesia. (For some reason, the idea that I'd be knocked out for a period of time frightened me like you wouldn't believe.)
Suddenly, Dr. Ban put a very tight, very painful rubber band on my right arm and started asking me questions: "So, what's your major?"
"Industrial Engineering and Latin Language."
"That's interesting. My sons took Latin."

I recognized in the tone of his voice a sense of attempting to soothe someone's fears. Then I realized, I know what you're doing, I thought. You're trying to get me to forget the fact that you're putting an IV in my arm. Well, I'm going to play along, because I DON'T WANT to think about the IV going into my arm. But just so you know, you didn't fool me.
"Really? Where did they go?"
"North Allegheny."
"Oh! My cousins went there and took Latin. Rachel, Melissa, and Norman." (Feeling the needle in my skin. watching him prepare to hook it up to my IV. Freaking out inside, but I don't want the dentist to know that.)
"Rachel Gottron! Yes, my sons know her! She came here you know."
"Oh really?" (Watching the nurse reach over me and touch the IV cord, which is now attached to my needle. OK, PLEASE, make this quick. I'm not going to keep my cool for much longer.)
"Yeah. We know her very well. She got her wisdom teeth out here."
"Great!" I knew it was coming soon, so my nervousness mounted. I think my head turned to the side to try to take my mind off the now dripping IV bag.


.......then, I woke up with a bunch of gauze in my mouth and the doctor looking down at me. I was also vaguely aware of a lot of movement going on around me as the nurses took off my heart monitor, what was apparently a laughing gas line from my nose, and other random things that seem routine for post-op. A band-aid was now where my IV cord was, and my mouth felt really weird. I stared up at the ceiling and started to laugh. I don't know why. The ceiling was funny. I think it was the laughing gas, because there was clearly nothing funny about the ceiling. But I couldn't laugh much because I had so much gauze. So I turned my gaze towards my dad, who was now in the room again, hoping to take my mind off the funny ceiling. But then I saw two of him (I had some double vision). Seeing two of my dad was absolutely hilarious and made me laugh even more. I vaguely heard the doctor tell my parents (not me--he obviously knows by now that talking to the patients at this stage is worthless) the requirements for taking care of me the next few days. They helped me to the car, I laughed some more as I saw double the entire way home, and went home and sat on my couch. I greeted my brother coming home from high school (I high-fived him with my foot. I couldn't move my arms that far since the anesthesia made me feel physically weak.) I fell asleep soon after that.
SO. Now I'm still at home, and I have feeling back in my mouth. I haven't had any Vicodin yet, but I'm definitely having some before bed so I can sleep easily. :)

Here are a few things that have made me happy today, and today, because I am now limited in what I can eat and do for the next 24 hours, is one of the days where the smallest good things are absolutely enthralling.




My ice pack :). I think that's pretty self-explanatory.

JELL-O!!! One of the only desserts I'm allowed for the next 24 hours


EGG NOG!!! I saw this on the list of things I'm allowed to have before I went into the office. After I saw it, I HAD to have it, so I asked my parents for it. When I got home, my dad took a trip to Giant Eagle to get my prescription. I mumbled to my mom in my anesthetic stupor that I wanted egg nog. She said something about how it's not Christmas time yet, so it's probably not there. I disregarded this concern and repeated my request (apparently I'm stubborn when I'm half-conscious? lol), so she called my dad and told him to get egg nog for me. The next time I woke up, I saw eggnog in our fridge, so I drank it while talking (well, murmuring) to Charisse on Skype. Today must be about appreciating the simple things, because this eggnog has made me absolutely overjoyed. :)


Well, that's it for now. And this is a very long post, so I applaud anyone who actually took the time to read all of my useless, "here-I-am-sitting-on-my-couch" ranting. But I'm already forgetting these details, so it's probably good to have them down for later. :) I thank God that my surgery went well and that so far, I've had no complications.
I hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be here sipping egg nog and watching movies. :) OH, and writing my novel. :) God bless!!!
Oh, and in a random ironic situation, this week's Bible Study was about wisdom. What are the chances??? :-P
posted by Kristin @ 7:08 PM   2 comments
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Still NaNoWriMo'ing...

I'm currently 660 words away from being on track for NaNoWriMo for the first time this month! :) I hope I reach it today, because it would be much easier to keep up if I were on a good pace in the first place. :)

Caitlin requested on the last post that I post some snippets on the way, and the entire story when I'm done. Well, I'm not sure if I'm going to post the whole thing because I have no guarantee what I write will be good, or even make sense. But I can at least post some snippets. :)

Here's my introductory paragraph (Nota bene, this was days before I got bored of my plot and when my story was supposed to be somewhat normal):

"Lizzie always looked forward to the autumn. Out of all the seasons, she thought that the autumn was the most enjoyable, most pleasing to her senses. The fatiguing humidity of summer begins to fade in a fresh crispness which cools the air and brushes past the face with each new burst of wind. All the trees, after upholding the leaves, green and full of life, on their sturdy branches for a season, now were painted with glorious red, yellow, and orange hues, as if a fire emblazoned the hillside. The sidewalks and pathways were filled with these leaves, and Lizzie loved to crunch the leaves underfoot as she walked through the brisk afternoon air. To her, the entire scene meant that although the life of spring and summer now faded, a new glory had come which can only be accomplished if nature once again falls into the sleep of winter. Only when the winter came can the spring once again be renewed. Maybe that’s why she liked it so much. It reminded her of what she knew to be true in her own life. That the cold chill, the fading glories, must happen if she wants to experience a new springtime of renewal."



UPDATE: I'm now all caught up, for the first time all month!!! :-D Praise God! Hopefully it'll stay this way now, so I can write 1667 words a day instead of the 3000 I've been doing! lol


OH, and here's a fun little picture that the NaNoWriMo site made for its writers :)
posted by Kristin @ 12:46 PM   1 comments
Monday, November 9, 2009
NaNoWriMo! :)
haven’t been blogging lately because Charisse convinced me to participate in the National Novel Writing Month, where you try to write a 50000 word novel in the course of one month. I need to write about 40000 more words by November 30, and so far, I’ve been behind the entire time. So I’m probably going to need to have quite a few marathon writing sessions. I really want to finish, because they say that you “win” if you finish, and the idea of winning NaNoWriMo is oddly enticing. :)

Charisse and I are writing buddies. Though, Charisse is being her own good writing buddy and is already halfway done with her book. I, however, desperately need my writing buddy to keep my motivation, so that's her job. :-P Either way, it's been fun getting involved in each other's plots. Because of me, her novel now features Blues Clues. Because of her, my novel now features...well...read on...:)

My original premise was a Jane Austen-esque story modeled loosely after Pride and Prejudice. But for whatever reason, I just got bored of that and no matter where I took the plot within this theme, I knew I would hate it. I considered making my main character wake up and realize it was all a dream. I hated that idea too.

So I decided that the only way to fix the novel would be to add new character. Now, thanks to suggestions from friends, two new random historical figures are entering the story. Oh, and there will be a guest appearance of a Traveling Shovel of Death (at nanowrimo.org's suggestion) and quite possibly some other guest appearances to get the 50000 words. That's the beauty of NaNoWriMo--it's all done for creativity's sake. What you write doesn't have to make sense. You just need to get done. Quantity counts over quality. :)

I can’t wait to see where this goes! (I don’t even know where it’s going yet!) :-P
posted by Kristin @ 11:39 AM   2 comments
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Be careful...
My dad really likes watching those shows like Forensic Files that show how DNA testing and the smallest details will help to solve a crime. I tend to like watching them too, but they also sort of freak me out a little.

After last night, I think that maybe it’s good that they freak me out a little. I’m convinced that watching those shows may have saved my life or, at the very least, prevented me from making an unwise decision that could have caused me some damage.

Before my CCD meeting last night, I stopped at the Exxon for gas. I knew it would make me late to the meeting, but my gas gauge was on the red, almost on the little white line that said “E,” so I was in dire need of gas. I got out of my car and went to the pump, and looking around, I’d say there were two or three other people at the other pumps when I got there.

As I began pumping, a middle-aged man came up to me and asked if I was from Pittsburgh, telling me he was from Ohio and that he had just been in a car accident with his 6-year-old and 8-year-old kids. He said that the guys in the other car were from Duquesne, but that they had left him. He kept repeating that no one from Pittsburgh would help them, and that he didn’t know what to do.

Already, the wheels in my head were turning. No way was I going to go anywhere with this guy by myself. That was a given. And I didn’t want to give him my phone since I didn’t know him. But I was willing to help, so I began to suggest that we both go in the store and see if they had a phone. As soon as I said this, he smiled.

But there was something about that smile I didn’t like. It wasn’t a true smile of relief. There was something in his eyes that made it different, like they were a bit too narrow, or his face was a bit too creased. It seemed like it had a twinge of malevolence to it, and it made me uncomfortable.

Then I remembered a story I had seen on one of my dad’s forensics shows. It told of how a girl had accepted a ride from a stranger at a gas station and was never seen again.

Remembering this story, I quickly began to retract my offer to help, saying I was in a rush (which I was) and that I had no way I could help him. I apologized, and he walked away from the gas station, somewhere down one of the side streets.

By that point, there were at least 5 or 6 people at the gas station too. While I may have been acting a bit out of paranoia, my question is this: If he were really in an accident with two small children, would he not ask the help of anyone he could find? Would he not be persistent in trying to find help when one person refused it? I can’t help feeling as if he targeted me, thinking that, as a young college woman, I would be foolish enough to trust him. I almost did. God only knows what would have happened, but I thank Him that He kept me safe and gave me the wisdom I needed to make a good decision. Just in case he was actually in trouble, I said a prayer for the man as I drove out of the gas station, and if he indeed needed help, I hope he got it. But for safety’s sake, I could not be the one to give it.

I post this to remind you to be careful. Always be on your guard, especially in this city setting. Like I said, I don’t actually know if the guy needed help, but I know that if I did go anywhere with him, even into the convenience store, I could’ve seriously endangered myself. It’s good to help others, but always watch out for yourselves.
posted by Kristin @ 9:22 AM   1 comments
Monday, November 2, 2009
New phone!!
...with a never-before-seen-in-the-Gottron-household feature!!! Unlimited texting!!!

So far, it's been fun!! :-D But I know I'm going to get carried away with it very very quickly :-P
posted by Kristin @ 1:45 PM   1 comments
About Me


Name: Kristin
Home: Pittsburgh, PA, United States
About Me: Seeking my true Fatherland as I travel this spiritual journey with Our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope, with the help of God, to follow in the example of the saints and strive for holiness.
See my complete profile

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