Since November 1st I’ve pretty much been devoting all my writing time to the novel I’m attempting to finish for NaNoWriMo, but something happened this week that has driven me from my novel-creating hidey hole and over to my blog. See, I have this friend Kate that writes a fashion blog, and she received an anonymous email a couple of days ago. The message said: arnt you too fat to write a fashion blog? 
I’m of two minds about how I would have reacted to an email like that. The most likely response would’ve been to blast the asshole in my blog for writing such a mean (and poorly spelled) comment. There’s no reason whatsoever to say something like that to someone who is putting herself out there and daring to share herself with the masses. Alternatively, I may have locked myself in a room with a year’s supply of chocolate and cried. To her credit, Kate’s a better person than I am, and she fired back here and responded back candidly to the person who’d sent her the comment, which took far more (metaphorical, of course) balls than sending some stupid anonymous message ever could have. The response to her post has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’m really proud of her for addressing the anonymous comment.
As a girl who has been everything from a size three to a size thirteen in the last ten years, I have been called both too fat and too thin and can tell you that neither one feels good. Like it or not, there’s a huge focus on body type in our society and I really dislike that there are people out there who feel they ought to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, or whatever, and inform those that do not ask that they are too skinny, too fat, too tall, too short, too whatever.
Fuck you, Anonymous. I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, a size one or a size one hundred. The thing about making yourself anonymous is that you think no one knows who you are. But we know, Anonymous, Kate and I and everyone else who read that nasty little comment you wrote. We know exactly who you are. You are a giant douche who needs to get a life. Oh, and a dictionary. You need a dictionary, Anonymous. Because it’s spelled AREN’T, not ARNT.

It’s November, and those of my friends who write might already know that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is upon us. The idea is simple enough: You get from November 1st to November 30th to write a novel of at least 50,000 words.
Yes, the idea of it sounds daunting. But if you break it down, 50,000 words in thirty days is really only 1,667 words per day. Actually, 1,667 words per day would be 50,010 words in thirty days, but whatever. The point is that even though the big overall number goal sounds scary, it can be broken down into a nicer, smaller, more manageable daily goal. So far I’m keeping up without a lot of difficulty, and I’ve written 5,006 words in the last two days.
My novel probably sucks, but that’s okay. You don’t pound out 50,000 words in 30 days and expect it to be the best thing you ever wrote. You do it so that you can finish a novel. The first time you write it, yes it’s going to have errors and go off on tangents and really it could be awful, but at least you wrote it. Hard part’s done. Once you have a first draft, then said first draft can be rewritten, edited, and made pretty. I’ve been writing this blog for quite awhile and while I really enjoy it, I’ve always had a dream of becoming a famous published author, someone who touches people’s lives the way my favorite authors have touched mine. When I was younger I spent hours locked away in my room, music blasting, writing away. I’d bring my writing to school and let my friends read it, and everyone gave me good feedback and seemed to enjoy my writing. As I’ve gotten older I’ve had a harder time thinking up stories to tell, and I’m hoping NaNoWriMo is just the nudge in the right direction that I needed to get me writing fiction again.
If you want to read excerpts of my sure-to-be-atrocious novel, let me know and I’ll send out updates every 10,000 words or so. In the meantime I’ll try not to neglect my blog too horribly. Happy November!

Yesterday was Halloween! I must admit, I love Halloween. Costumes and candy…what’s not to like?
For work, I didn’t really get all that creative. No one in my work group seemed overly enthusiastic about dressing up, but I couldn’t NOT wear a costume. I have a small box with some wigs and other Halloween attire and as I rummaged through it a few days ago I came up with my old Grocery Outlet apron, which still had my nametag in the pocket. I worked at Grocery Outlet as an after-school job in high school and for a little while in college. It was actually a really fun job that I enjoyed. I decided to resurrect the outfit and went to work as a grocery store cashier.

My costume was cute enough, but I admit I got trounced by the call center admin who came as Honey Boo Boo. You can read about her Halloween adventures here.
After work I headed to Zumba, where the stakes for a good costume were much higher as the winner of the Zumba costume contest would get ten class passes. My friend Angela had constructed a really creative costume for herself and two others during work, and she brought the costume along to Zumba and asked me to join in, along with our other friend Kate. The three of us were Rock Paper Scissors.
 

The costume was really cute and fun! We haven’t heard who the winner of the costume contest was yet but we are very hopeful!
Halloween, in my opinion, was a great success. I had a blast!