Archives for November 2007

Banger needs to quit trying to upstage Digit. That’s all I know.

My favorite two words (meaning-wise) are Create and Truth. I especially like them together. Even though it sounds like a pretty way of saying lying, creating truth, to me, means writing fiction.

Which, apparently, I love to do.

I started Nanowrimo this year as a cheat. Kind of. I’m writing non-fiction. Creative non-fiction. According to Cybele, one of the Nanowrimo ringleaders, this is considered kind-of-okay, as long as it isn’t journalistic fact-checking newspaper kind of stuff. They’re putting together another challenge for those folks. Gotta be creative, that’s all.

My writing is certainly not the fact-checking kind. Oh, it is so very far from it.

In fact, I’ve found that I’m bored. Or I was bored. Apparently, when I’m bored I spice things up a bit.

I’m writing non-fiction. Therefore, I’m writing about things that Have Happened. I know that truth is subjective in many ways — no one remembers the same thing the same way. Everyone who writes about the past is fabricating somehow. Everyone.

But oh, lord, I am making stuff up, not realizing I am doing so, and then BELIEVING IT! I was writing a scene where I broke up with someone over something, and I was all upset, pulling the faces I make when I write dialogue. While I was trying to figure out what was going to happen next, I realized that I shouldn’t have to figure it out — I should know. Since it had already happened and all. But I had made myself into a character, and my girlfriend was another one, and none of this had ever gone down. But I was writing it as if it had, and more, I was believing myself. And I was mad at the ex!

SO much more enjoyable. So much easier to write! More fun!

So I have abandoned myself to writing what I am calling a fictional memoir. That makes me happy for three reasons:

1. I am fully qualified to be in the Nanowrimo challenge. Although I wasn’t too stressed about it. It’s Nano. (Half-way party tonight at Juans! Woot! I’m over 30,000 words!)

2. Dude. I had a great reason here and I just forgot it. Oh, well. 

3. I don’t have to worry about sticking to the boring facts. I can throw in what I want, where I want! I just made three people up! People with whom I had a fake, never-happened conversation. I can tell you, the fictional me has sparkling conversational skills. Yup.

HOWEVER: I will forestall worries you might have about me James Frey-ing it — I don’t predict this being published anytime soon if ever, and by then I will have figured out what to do with it, what to call it, but I promise I won’t call anything non-fiction that isn’t. That I promise. (But why would you believe me? When I can’t even believe myself! Oh, it’s so much fun.)

Digit update: OHMYGOD he’s so good. And you know what else? HE’S ALIVE. That’s my very favorite part of him, even more favorite than his soft, wet nose. Here’s a shot of me, two weeks ago when I had that flu. There are five animals on the bed with me – two kittens, Miss Idaho at my feet, and a dark Harriet to the left. AND DIGIT! My Digit. (Your Digit, too.) More pictures and maybe a video next week? When I get them out of the camera?

New hair. With bangs. I like.

Why yes, I was in the VERY TOP row of the top deck.

I went to the Oakland Raiders versus the Chicago Bears game with some work friends yesterday. I’ve been wanting to go to a Raiders game FOREVER but people always say the same thing, "Oh, scary! You better be careful…. You should go with a guy…."

I freaking loved every minute of it (except I drank beer during the day, starting during our tailgate at 11am, and had a hangover by 7pm — that sucked. I forgot if you do that, you have to KEEP drinking. Silly me, switching to water).

I have never seen a sea of humanity more chilled out, more accepting, having more fun. You’d actually see Bears fan walking in with Raider fans, tailgating together. Granted, there was some ribbing but it seemed good natured on both sides. I’d thought the people who I first saw wearing blue and orange were brave — that they were gonna get beat up for SURE. But nah. No big deal. Raider Nation. That is a brotherhood if I ever saw one. The guys LOVED the other guys. We girls were fine to be there, but it was all about men bonding with other men that they didn’t know. It was cool.

And it was November 11! My favorite date on the calendar! And my favorite Raider is Janikowski, number 11. Kinda sad when the kicker is one of the best players — we lost, 17-6, not a big surprise. But even after losing, Raider Nation was mellow. Maybe they’re crazy at away games or something. But not at home.  So fun. And from the top row, you can see San Francisco. Gorgeous.

And while I was there, Lala took the dogs for a walk (to say that she doesn’t care about football is a gross understatement) and then made this super-great movie:

Music, too! That is my cute dog, Clara, with short (get it?) appearances by Harriet and Miss Idaho. We now HAVE to take them to the hills to walk — no more beaches for them, for a long time. No one knows when all this oil will be cleaned up from the spill. It’s awful in so many huge ways, and some small ones, too, like Clara not being able to play in the waves and roll on the sand — her two favorite things. But the hills are nice. This is in Leona Canyon.

And now I’m off to write some more for Nanowrimo — keeping up but only just….

I realized the other day that this was going to happen with the time rolling back an hour: On Tuesday afternoon, the sun set. I was not going to see the sun again until Sunday morning.

Think about that.

Damn. I’m kind of bummed just thinking about it, and I’m not one of those that really feels like they need sun — I love rain — winter doesn’t get me down, but oh, boy. That’s something. Tuesday afternoon to Sunday morning. I get to work at 6am, before dawn, and leave at 6pm, after dark. We have one small round porthole in our concrete bunker, but because of issues with glare on computer screens, we have the blinds closed all the time.

We don’t take breaks, don’t have the staffing (but that means I get to screw around on the computer and knit and write and all sorts of good stuff when it’s slow), but I might start trying to go outside at least once a day for a couple of minutes. I’m kind of weirded out by this. I’ve never worked this kind of shift at this time of year — usually I’ve worked midnight shifts where you get plenty of daylight in the afternoon/early evening hours before you go to work.

Weird.

Also: Nanowrimo is kicking my ass. I managed only 875 words today, and I’m quitting while I’m ahead. I assume I’ll bounce back, and my word count is solid, so I’m okay, but yipes.

I would like a nap.

This, however, cheers me up:

   

Miss Idaho is happy dog

and this is happy, too:

She’s so small she looks like one of those bobbleheaded things.

We will not talk about Lala’s cowboy hat that Clara ate all but the brim of this morning. That is not happy talk. No, it is not. Very bad dog. If Lala felt anything like I felt after finding the cashmere massacre, I feel very badly for her indeed. (Yes, Clara’s getting daily hikes, and training, and kongs. Just damn naughty. Grrr.)

Besides not setting my clocks back on the Fall-Back day, which leads to gaining like SEVEN HOURS over the course of the day —
7am – time to get up, NO WAIT, it’s only 6am! Whee!
Noon – maybe I’ll take a nap, NO WAIT, it’s only eleven! Plenty of naptime!
6pm – Dinnertime, NO WAIT, it’s only five! Time for drinks!

I even got in a fight with TiVo, thinking it wasn’t recording the Amazing Race, but it was going to, at the appropriate time, which I had forgotten about again. That is seriously how easily I forget things. I love the daylight savings change in Fall. LOVE IT. Hate it getting dark earlier, but that’s the price we pay for such a fun day.

But that is an old passion, not a new passion. My new passion is looking at kitties (and dogs) with cerebellar hypoplasia on YouTube. If you like cats at all, I swear to all that’s holy you have to watch this video about Charley right now. Like, NOW. You can’t not be moved by that. And moved in a funny, spastic, lovely way.

If that tickles your fancy, there’s also THIS one (Gordon as a baby and as an adult), and THIS one for siblings, and THIS one for the dog lovers. Oh, happy.