NaNoWriMo and the Fiesta Movement - what else?

"This very secret
That you're trying to conceal
Is the very same one
You're dying to reveal
Go tell her how you feel."
- Feist, "Secret Heart"

So, I'm sitting here on my parents' couch with my laptop in front of me, and I've got about 4,000 words(ish) left to write, I'm guessing, until I actually finish this year's NaNoWriMo novel.

It has just occurred to me that this probably isn't going to happen today, as Luke gets here in about two and a half hours and I am just not feeling very motivated to work on it right now.
My goal was to finish the novel in a month, but I did get 50k words (and then some; I'm at 55,155 right now), so I accomplished the NaNoWriMo goal, anyhow.
And I can write the end of the novel next week, I guess, when I get home from LA.

But - look at my graph! My most impressive catchup ever!

So anyway. I had all sorts of Thanksgiving stories and things to share, but I am just so burnt out on writing right now that I am going to just let everyone use their imaginations. There was a lot of food, and fun, and all of that. At one point my housemates and I all were wearing crazy hats and we changed the holiday into "Hatsgiving". Before we ate, we all had to say what we were "hatful" for. Good times.

My mom and I went shopping today for a little while - AFTER the black friday morning chaos/rush - I hate to admit, I mostly bought things for myself. Though to be fair, I did get my little brother a Christmas present that cost almost as much as everything else combined. The little brat.

I don't know why I felt it necessary to update my blog right now. I mostly felt guilty that I hadn't updated since Sunday, but I have literally been writing my novel nonstop so I couldn't justify doing any other kinds of writing this week. December will be much more blogful, I think.

I've been getting really Fiesta Movement nostalgic all week, because I have to give my car back in 4 days. I am really, really sad about this. Not just because I love the car and have been totally spoiled for 7 months with free gas, but also just because being part of this whole "movement" has been really fun. Having this crazy experience in common with 99 other people, doing interviews and missions, getting emails from "mission control" - I'm going to miss it.

But the big Fiesta party is next week and I can't WAIT - I'll get to meet so many people I have only seen in the #fiestamovement twitter feed or in videos, and I get to see Parachute play (and hopefully see the music video they used my car for in filming?) and do a live interview with currentTV and wear a pretty dress.... I'm very excited.

AND, I get to drive down the entire west coast with Luke! That will be a really fun last trip to take in the Fiesta. I know Thanksgiving is over now, but I feel like I have a lot to be thankful for.


Also, today I bought cowboy boots. They were on a clearance rack. I could NOT be happier with this day.

Word count: 55,155

Most people don't do that.

"Since you've gone I've lost a chip on my shoulder,
Since you've gone I feel like I've gotten older,
And now you've gone it feels as if the whole wide world is my stage
And now you've gone it's like I've been let out of my cage."
-Lily Allen, "I Could Say"

Last night I went to see Kayley's play, Ivanov!

She had a lead role, as Sasha, and she was so, so good. Eia and Liz and I were fangirling in the lobby as well because her headshot was so gorgeous. I missed seeing Hank on tour in Seattle to go attend her show (the venue was literally minutes from my house), but I was happy with my decision because I was so very proud of her. It made me kind of miss the days when my life was pretty much dedicated to theatre (in highschool) when I saw that glowing look on Kayley's face during the curtain call and afterwards when she came out with the rest of her cast to greet everyone. I mean, I am definitely happy with how my life is now, but it made me a little nostalgic. Anyway, I know a lot of people probably wished they could have been there for her and I clapped extra loud for them.

The other day Eia and I went shopping - we do this every so often when we really shouldn't, but as best friends and roommates sometimes we just have to indulge. We bought these little sparkly letters to hang on our doors - currently I have a pink glittery "K" and Eia's door has a matching "E" in blue. This has been a dream of ours since we moved in together and it makes me incredibly happy, in a five-year-old way, that the dream has been realized. It's really the little things in life with me, haha.

While we were at the mall that day, we were sitting in the foodcourt eating Panda Express (pretty standard happenstance) when Eia pointed to a sign they had hanging up at Sbarro. It said, "NAME OF THE DAY! WIN A PRIZE IF THIS IS YOUR NAME."

The name that was handwritten on the board that on particular day was "Kristin". I looked at it and said "No waaaay!" So I waltzed right up, leaned on the counter and asked, "Sooo... what if your name is just one letter off the word of the day?"

The lady just smirked at me, left for a moment, and returned with a piping hot breadstick and a little container of marinara sauce on a plate. Which she gave me! For free! Just for being named Kristina!


Last night I was shopping online because I realized Christmas is actually, regardless of what anyone thinks, scarily close. I only bought one present for one person in this particular online quest, but I wanted to share this hilarious anecdote because it was too good for me to just experience alone at 1 in the morning by myself.
After putting my paypal payment through, it took me back to the basic confirmation screen from the original website I was buying from, but instead of the standard/boring "thank you for your purchase" message, it said this:

"Please keep this invoice for your records if you're into that sort of thing. Most people don't do that."

Maybe that's not as funny to anyone else, but it had me cracking up. I love when things are self aware like that. I mean, does ANYONE have a folder of "please keep this page for your records" printouts stashed anywhere? I always get to that page when buying/booking/signing up for things, and I just roll my eyes before closing out of it forever. I mean they usually email you anyway.

Okay. I want to talk about something else. Just as I have been typing this, I have received not one, but TWO spam messages on skype. On skype! Is this really the future of the internet? This message was trying to get me to sign up for muscle supplements, and actually used the little animated muscle emoticon in the IM. Professional.

What the heck! I just got another one for "EuroSoftware, Inc."


No thank you, EuroSoftware.

In other news, I have just reached 35,000 words on my NaNoWriMo novel, and officially have to write 3,000 words a day in order to finish on time. And that's assuming my novel will only be 50,000 words in length. I have a sinking feeling that it's going to be longer than that, and after doing NaNoWriMo for three years, I am no longer the kind of person who is just okay with stopping at 50,000 words. I have to finish the novel.

This is going to be a stressful week.

But in other news, Luke will be here in 5 days. :) So that's positive.

Word Count: 35,193

Glitter, Muse and sleep-texting.

"I want your love and
I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
I want your love and
All your lovers' revenge
You and me could write a bad romance."
-Lady GaGa, "Bad Romance"

I'd like to welcome you all to another installment of "I should be working on NaNoWriMo but instead, here I am! Writing a blog post! Doing cartwheels! Actually that's not true because I am, in fact, incapable of doing cartwheels! Yes!"

However, I have already written 1,300 words this morning, and at only 9 AM, I am feeling secure in my decision to stop nano-ing to write something else. So here I am.
My goal for tonight is 30,000 words, but that puts me at needing to write 3,700 more, so we will see how that goes.

I talk about this too much. I'm not apologizing, just acknowledging it. When it's all you're thinking about for an entire month, I suppose it makes sense that my blog is just littered with talk of word count and writing strategies and gameplans.

However! I do have other things I want to discuss today! Here they are!

The winner of Top Model. I wont say who, in case people haven't watched it yet, but I was pleased. I also enjoyed the extremely gratuitous glitter-covered runway show. Although that one awkward moment when all the sparkly contestants were rubbing each other as the water fell down on the catwalk was a bit much.
I don't know how the public would feel about this, but I have always wanted to audition for America's Next Top Model. I love love love the photo shoots, the fact that they go to another country each cycle, and not to mention all my proportions are right and everything. However, at this point in my life, I would probably just be pegged as "that YouTube girl" which would be annoying, and also, I would be the girl (there's always one) who gets called out for not knowing a thing about fashion designers. Also, I can't walk in heels. But besides that, I think it would be awesome.

That's assuming I would get picked. It's doubtful. They did an open call in Seattle once but I didn't make it there in time, which I took as a sign that reality television is not my calling.

Other exciting news - I got an email yesterday in the middle of my "feeling sorry for myself and my aching uterus" afternoon, from a fan who remembered that I love the band Muse and really, really, really want to see them live. This person was informing me that Muse is playing Deck the Hall Ball here in Seattle in TWENTY FIVE days and did I know this?
NO I DIDN'T KNOW THIS.
So I immediately called Liz, whom I had woken up from a nap, and she freaked out too, and then we realized it was sold out, and then we panicked, and then we checked eBay, and 20 minutes and a fair amount of money later, we had tickets to see one of our very favorite bands play live for the first time for both of us. Yessssss.
I still had cramps at this point, but cramps are a lot easier to take when you're the owner of a ticket to see Muse next month.

I spent the rest of the evening feeling apathetic about writing, and moaned and complained downstairs on the living room couch. My roommate Justin tried to cheer me up by showing me the new Lady GaGa video, which I hadn't seen yet. I, in fact, had never even seen what Lady GaGa looked like until Gossip Girl this week. Like the rest of the world, I'd heard 'Poker Face' a million times but never gave Lady GaGa much of a passing thought. Now I am super intruiged by what a ridiculously strange person she is and will probably have to get the rest of her music to see what I've been missing. I don't even really know what people actually think of her, though I'm aware that most of the world is way ahead of me here on my interest.

Anyway, it's the weirdest freaking music video I have seen in a long time, but I really, really love it. You should watch it, if you haven't.

I'm sleepy. Last night I fell asleep at 11 PM, and sometime after that got a text message from Luke asking if I was awake, to which I am pretty sure I sleep-texted him back saying yes (I have no idea how), because I was woken up by a phone call around 2 that led to me staying up waaay later than I meant to, again. xD

Word Count: 26,329

Thai One On.

"Have you made up your mind?

It's the only way.
Have you made it up? Have you made it up?
I admire the time that you take.
Have you made it up? Have you made it up?"
-Ben Kweller, "Make it Up"

So first and foremost, I have reached 25,000 words on my nanowrimo novel, which puts me at OFFICIALLY HALFWAY DONE, which is super exciting. Plus - I am actually only about 2 days behind being right on track with where you should be at this point. I don't even know how I did it. I have been an absolute machine the last few days. I mean look at this graph:

So that's exciting. Notice the stretch of flat when I was at Wrockstock. Haha. It was about 3:30 in the morning, last night, when I was forcing myself to just get another 700 words to cross over into the world of "the second half of my novel". This was, of course, a direct result of staying up way, way too late talking to a boy on the phone, but we lie in the graves we dig ourselves, I suppose. I still hit half way. I'm just tired, today.

This morning I woke up early and had to deal with a whole bunch of boring errands-type stuff. I had to chat back and forth with a company I am working for about payment issues, I have to take a contract to the post office still, I had to write up the bio for ALL CAPS for the DFTBA site, and I had to drive over to my Dad's office (he works moderately close to where I live) to pick up my car registration (on my old Cavalier, not the Fiesta) and go to the licensing office to figure out why, if I paid for my tabs renewal and new license plates, I don't have them. And they were all, "this is from months ago, why do you only care now?" and I had to fight back with "well I won a car, sucka, so I wasn't driving this car or thinking about its license plates" and they were like "orly?"

This is getting ridiculous. xD The point is I am no closer to sorting it out, since I left only with a phone number to call where I will likely have a very similar conversation to the one above, end up hanging up on them in frustration, have to go BACK to the licensing office and just shell out the $35 for replacements. I didn't lose them! Ahh!

In other news, even though I should have come home and continued writing, I instead went out to lunch with my Dad at a cute little thai place called "Thai One On". I love food with a sense of humor. I got this amazing curry fried rice; half of it is down in my kitchen in the refrigerator in a to-go box. I love leftovers.

Then I went over to my Dad's office for awhile, which is seriously one of my favorite things to do. I dunno. Walking around that office makes me feel so good because it is super, super apparent just how proud of me my Dad is. I mean, literally everyone who works there knows pretty much everything about me. We walked around all the individual offices saying hello to his coworkers (whom I also know from his annual company picnic also, but still) it was a little crazy the amount of "how was Europe", "my daughters loves your new album", "two weeks left with the car, eh?", "do you have any shows coming up?", "how many words are you at on your novel?", and "I voted for you on the Fiesta Favorites thing from my work AND home computer!" I got in the half hour I was there. It was crazy - one of my dad's coworkers seemed to know more about the Fiesta Movement than I even did. He'd scoped out the competition and was telling me stuff about the other agents... I was amazed.

So anyway, I'm in a pretty good mood. I also got my dad to print out my paper that's due today in my Consumerism class while at the office, so I don't have to make an extra trip to the computer lab. *fistpump*

Tonight is the season finale of Top Model! That's the only thing I am allowing myself to do besides writing, tonight. If that girl with the obnoxious accent wins, I'm going to be pissed.

Word Count: 25,004!

Holiday Oreos. They have red cream.

"You and I left our troubles far behind
But I still have just one more question on my mind
For all my pals who live in the oceans and the seas
With fronds like these well,
Who needs anemones?"
-Owl City, "The Bird and the Worm"

I am only allowing myself to write a blog post because it's only 9 AM and I have already written 1,600 words on my novel this morning. I am consistently about 10,000 words behind schedule, but I have worked out that if I write about 3,000 a day, I can still win easily. So my goal now is just to write as much as I possibly can each day to try to give myself a little bit of a buffer and maybe even catch up eventually. My biggest problem (I have a really good life if this is my biggest problem) is that Luke is coming up to visit me/help me drive my Fiesta down to LA to give it back to Ford on the 27th. That cuts me off 3 days early, giving me only 11 days left to finish.

I CAN DO IT.

Anyway. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on a video I made with Luke, which was a sort of NaNoWriMo theme song. I am aware that writing a song and filming a video ABOUT writing rather than writing is a little counter-productive to my goal, but the amount of comments I received telling me that the video had inspired people to keep writing made the entire endeavor completely worth it. And, not to mention, it was the first video I had made in awhile that I actually had a ton of fun making and was completely happy with when I posted it. So, yaaay youtube! You can watch the video here.

Yesterday the new Doctor Who special "Waters of Mars" aired in the UK, and while I have a link to watch some crappy streaming version open on my computer, I haven't watched it yet. I don't know what I am waiting for, honestly. Yesterday I was so behind on writing that I didn't feel like I deserved to watch it, but I know I wont be able to hold off much longer. I'm sure I will be tweeting my thoughts as I watch it later today.

What else is going on in my life that's exciting? Basically, I vowed I wouldn't make any plans with anyone for the rest of November as long as I am still behind on my novel. Meaning, no random trips to our local bars with my roommates. So far this has been working pretty well. I only work 3 more times this month as well, which is helpful. However, I wont be able to tear myself away from Gossip Girl, or the season finale of Top Model, or FlashForward this week.

The only other thing I can think to talk about this morning is that my local grocery store is currently remodeling, so they have this shelf up front that they just load up with new items every day that are marked 50-75% off. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been stopping in literally every day to see what awesome things I can buy for super cheap. I mean, c'mon. Snowman Kleenex? FOR A DOLLAR? This is one easy-to-please-Kristina.

My NaNoWriMo snack food of choice has been Holiday Oreos. They have red cream. I am so, so lucky I am not fat.

This is an absolutely pointless blog post.

Here is my favorite Omegle conversation to date, to make it more exciting:

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Kristina?!
You: OMG
You: YES HAHAH
Stranger: WAIT IS THIS REALLY KRISTINA?!
You: YES
Stranger: KRISTINA HORNER?!
You: YES
Stranger: AAAAHH YESSSS!

Back to writing. Or, if I am being completely honest here, back to reading comments on my nanowrimo video and eating.

Word Count: 16,664

Omegle procrastination and writing failure.

My first four Omegle conversations:

You: Hey

Stranger: james?

You: No, everyone says I look like him.

You: This is his son, Harry.

Stranger: i love you harry

You: ....Draco?

Stranger: ahahah

Stranger: why are you with ginny

You: She's hawt, man.

You: But hey. If you're.. available..

You: I could ditch the Weasley.

Stranger: yes

Stranger: kill the spare
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Stranger: hey

You: hey

Stranger: wassup?

You: Nothing much, just studying for Potions.

Stranger: potions..

You: Yeah, with Snape?

Stranger: ah

You: Freaking hard class.

Stranger: lol ok

You: Did you test out or something?

Stranger: test out?
Stranger: so whos snape?

You: OH did you not get a letter? Embarrassing.

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Stranger: hi, how are you?

You: I used to feel so alive

You: but... now I feel like I only can survive.

Stranger: kewl, yah same.

You: some people call me a zombie.
You: maybe they're right.

Stranger: Here is my tinypic album, {link here} do you think i'm hot? :)
You: NO. SHUT UP BECAUSE I MIGHT JUST EAT YOUR BRAIN.
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

And this last one goes out to Bre Bishop:

You: Do you like harry potter?

You: My mom says I look like harry potter.

Stranger: Harry Potter is amusing enough.

You: I have harry potter's email address.

Stranger: Oh wow.

You: I think Ron's stupid.

You: For Christmas, my mom got me a harry potter lego set.

You: Do you have a harry potter lego set?

Stranger: I do not have a harry potter lego set.

You: You should ask for one for Christmas.
Stranger: I'm a bit too old for a harry potter lego set.

You: Do you want Harry Potter's email address?

You: I can share it with you.

Stranger: I'm curious what it is.

You: I'm just kidding Harry Potter isn't real.

You have disconnected.

So... this is what I have been doing in the 2 hours I gave myself between my classes to work on my nanowrimo novel. That and talking to Emma about juicy girltalk. Not very productive.

Sigh. Tonight is going to be writing night for me for sure. If you're so inclined, you should leave me encouraging (or threatening) reasons I should start up writing again in the comments. I need reinforcements at this point, because stopping writing for a week and trying to start back up has been the hardest thing I have ever tried to do during nanowrimo. I am not happy with myself.

Wordcount: 7,846

75 hours WHAT.

"The butterflies are passive aggressive
and put their problems on the shelf
but they're beautiful."
-Ben Kweller, "In Other Words"

We pulled into Liz's drive at about 1 in the afternoon today.

I was so tired, I ended up staying at her house for about two hours even though Eia went to her parents' house and Liz went upstairs and went to bed. I just stayed, creepin' in her living room because I did not have the will to get back into my car after driving all night.

Okay, to recap. We left Lincoln, Nebraska at about 10 am on Tuesday, and began the incredibly long remainder of our trip pretty energized. I took a 5 hour shift, and then Eia took an 11 hour shift because she is absolutely ridiculous. That brought us to about midnight on Tuesday, after a long day of good conversations and eating just ridiculous amounts of junk food. We had massive meals at both Burger King (lunch) and then Taco John's (dinner). We also seemed to just be snacking, the whole day.

One of Liz's tweets sums it up pretty well:

@kristinahorner and @eiaradio's new driving strategy: Eating. Constantly.

We also spent a good portion of the drive playing the Oregon Trail on Liz's phone, because we were amused that we were taking nearly the same route in our car. Our actual journey was a little more successful than our video game one… since Eia died of a broken arm, I got lost for 3 days going to the bathroom outside, and Liz died of cholera? Pretty bad.

So at midnight, Eia woke me up from a pretty solid backseat nap and told me it was my turn to drive. I don't know about other people, but if I have already slept about 3 hours at a normal sleeping time, getting up and driving a car full of people I love and whose lives I want to keep intact is not my idea of a good plan. But we really didn't have much choice because Eia needed to get home for work the next day and so we couldn't stop and get a hotel.

Conversation started getting pretty silly as well when Eia was sleeping and Liz and I were just losing it from being so tired. I am copying these over from twitter just for posterity's sake.

Liz: "You know what? Evolutionarily, it makes sense to have your mouth on your head."

Liz: "Can you imagine what this trip would be like without technology?"
Me: "Like covered wagons?"
Liz: "...no like with cassettes."

Liz: "I dont wanna put shoes on and throw this bag away."
Me: "Well, your options are do that, or don't do that."
Liz: "Well when you put it that way…"

So Eia needed a longer nap, Liz was nodding off, and I couldn't keep my eyes open. Great. So I called Luke and he told me stories and kept me awake for about 2 hours in the middle of the night which I really appreciated, and then I was able to do another few hours after that, getting us to about 5:30 in the morning when Eia took over again and Liz napped. Then I napped. Then we stopped at a truck/store/gas place in Pendleton, Oregon, where even though it was like 6AM, Eia, Liz and I collectively decided we wanted hotdogs. So that was breakfast.

Then Eia got us to Yakima, and I drove us home from there. Which brings me to now. I finally came home after my few hours of resting at Liz's house. I brought in my suitcase, but left all our pillows and blankets and junk and food and garbage out in my car because I just didn't care. I didn't go grocery shopping or shower or... anything productive. Best day.

And now, the adventure is over.

We went through a total of TEN states!
Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah and Oregon.

And we drove a grand total of 4,387 miles, which added up to about 75 total hours in the car. It was awesome. I am so glad we decided to drive.

This last week has been amazing!

Now I am sitting on gchat where Luke is trying to teach me to play guitar. So far I can just about play his incredibly emo song "Happy". I feel pretty cool singing that song in my post-wrockstock scratchy voice and am also considering painting my fingernails black. #NaNoEMO

I am so behind on all my TV shows! I'm going to go watch last week's FlashForward with my housemate Justin. It's good to be home, even though I miss everyone loads.

Tired, disjointed Wrockstock thing.

"You transfigurated my heart
and now it only beats for you.
If I could apparate into your arms
maybe I wouldn't feel so blue."
-The Mudbloods, "I Wish You'd Be My Witch"

I don't even know how to begin to sum up this weekend.

I can start by saying that I am really really tired and am currently sitting in a hotel with really crappy Internet in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm just writing a blog on a textedit file because I gave up wrestling facebook and gmail. We began our journey home around 1 in the afternoon yesterday, and I have to say that driving in the opposite direction as all my friends is the worst feeling. I mean, yeah, everyone was going home. But driving 34 hours toward a wizard rock weekend to see, in my opinion, some of the greatest people in the world, is a lot more fun than driving 34 hours to leave them.

We arrived at Wrockstock around 6 on Friday. Did the usual checking in, finding our cabins, unpacking, soaking in the feeling of being at my third Wrockstock and looking around at all the familiar sights. There are so many memories at this lodge. I met Luke, Aaron and Jason of Ministry of Magic for the first time 2 years ago at WS1. Had loads of amazing times with Jake Niffler at WS2. Ended my portion of our tour with Lauren and Lena last May and performed the Pokémon theme song in three part harmony during Lena's set. Grew so much closer to so many of my friends.

So within minutes of getting there and day-dreaming about years past, we got antsy and needed to go find our friends. A handful of them were sound-checking for that night's show, so there were hugs all around as we poked our heads in the performance room.

I can't actually remember the sequence of events of Friday night anymore, now that I think about it. At one point we went up to the lodge to eat dinner. They no longer use the kid's buffet, which freaking sucks. I never got my grilled cheese sandwiches. Then the Myrtle's played first, and they had this screen they put up and played video and picture slideshows on it during the set, which I thought was awesome. During their happy meta-wizardrock song "Transparent", they had a bunch of pictures from shows and cons over the years, with a ton from last year's Wrockstock. Lena and I were standing next to each other smiling and laughing every time we saw one of us, of which there were a lot.

Ministry of Magic played Friday night as well, and Snape vs. Snape was super fun, like always. As was Goodbye Privet Drive. I love them. :)

Post-show Friday night naturally meant partying, and I had a lot of fun seeing people I haven't seen since before London. I actually was just walking around with a huge grin on my face all weekend because I definitely remember when I was feeling really low this summer, and feeling incredibly alone over there in a foreign country; I was really, really craving a chance to see my Wizard Rock friends. And I remember Wrockstock seeming really far away at that point.

So it was nice to sort of… I dunno. It was nice to see that I had survived, if that makes sense. That I was really, truley happy, and that enough time has passed that what even used to still be a sort of dull ache in my stomach has now just been completely filled because I have so many amazing people and experiences in my life to make up for my crappy summer.

Anyway! I made some new friends this weekend, re-connected with old, and also spent time with people I have always meant to but never had the chance to.
I got to know Erinn Lewis this weekend, I bonded a bit more with Christian of Oliver Boyd and the Rememberalls and his girlfriend Kelly, got to know Fred of Fred Lives, got closer to Nina, finally hung out with Kathleen and Sammie G after years of saying we should, and spent a lot of time with Luke after way too much time just talking on gchat.

Kathleen and Sammie and I had a talk about how much we dislike school on Friday night I believe, and bonded over how frequent wizard rock trips make it so much more bearable. And there were MANY conversations about how excited pretty much everyone is to be able to talk about LOST at the events we see each other at next year. And, I avoided thinking about NaNoWriMo like the plague. I'll deal with that when I get home.

Everyone's sets were really awesome. Especially Matt's. And Christian's. And god, the Mudbloods'. This was their last show together as a wizard rock band and everyone is really sad about that. They're just such a good band, and such a good addition to this community. Everyone is hoping for a reunion show. Sometime. xD

I'm trying to think of what else I can possibly say without getting too personal or delving too deep into "you would have had to be there" type stories. It was just a good weekend. I enjoyed myself a lot and I really needed to see everyone again. Sometimes I get a little… discouraged. About wizard rock. Living so far away from most people and also missing out on a lot of shows this summer… I was starting to feel really detached from the community. But it's really amazing how even after 6 months of being away, you can just insert yourself right back in with these people and it's really like no time has passed. Just that everyone is a little bit better of musicians than the last time you saw them (my friends are so talented) and you're a little bit more in love with everyone. I feel completely energized and motivated to write and work on music. Eia and I have loads of ideas for our set in Kansas, since the Hallows and Horcruxes Ball (in April) is our next big show.

We actually spent a good chunk of our drive yesterday listening to the complete Parselmouth's discography to see if we can revive any older songs, which was really fun. Eia and I always get like this right after a weekend like this though, so here's to hoping the energy holds up. :)


Completely amazing weekend. So what if we spent just as much time in the car driving there as we actually spent at Wrockstock? It made it an adventure. So what if I slept in my clothes every single night because I never actually made it back to my own cabin? So what if I got maybe a collective 12 hours of sleep in the last 5 nights? This weekend was amazing and hardly anything bad or negative happened. We played this amazing little set on the dock on Sunday night, where Luke and I played some ALL CAPS songs, and then we played Parselmouth songs and acoustic Ministry of Magic songs, and Jeremy even sang a song he wrote off his new album "Muggle Relations". It was really, really sweet. And a ton of people came! I love intimate, personal shows like that. And also, singing ALL CAPS songs live, together with Luke, instead of over a computer was really fun. I think people really liked it.

Anyway. Eia and Liz are still asleep in our hotel, we missed breakfast (we always miss breakfast), I'm all smiley because I like a boy and I am preeeeetty sure he likes me too, and there are about a solid 24 more hours I have to drive to get back to Seattle with my two best friends. All things considered, I'm pretty happy right now.

Wordcount: Oh shut up. We'll talk about it later.

Roadtrippin' Part 1.

"And you're the only reason
that I remain unfrozen.
Suppose it stands to reason
that you would turn on me."
-Muse, "Sober"

ROADTRIPS ARE AWESOME.


I am sitting in a hotel that I really thought was in Nebraska, until we saw that all the information downstairs in the lobby was for Iowa.. so I suppose I am currently residing in a Days Inn somewhere around the general Nebraska/Iowa area. I swear, we can like, see Omaha from our window. How is this Iowa?

Anyway.

We began driving last night at 5:30 pm. I took a 7 hour shift, Eia took a 7 hour shift, I took another 5 hour shift, she took another 7 hour shift, and I finished off the day with one last 3 hour drive. Each of us had two little backseat power naps. Liz provided moral support, entertainment, iPod song changing and Starburst unwrapping.

Eia only learned to drive a stick like a week before we left. She's amazing.

There are probably a million little stupid road trip anecdotes I could share right now but I am so tired. We just drove for 30 hours straight stopping only for gas, once at an Arby's, once at a Subway, and then being duped into stopping at Wall Drug in South Dakota.

Actually, I will talk about Wall Drug.

Liz was asleep in the back and Eia and I were cruising along I-90, when all of a sudden we started seeing these interesting hand painted signs. They started out pretty innocently.

"Have a Milkshake!" the first one said.

A few miles later, another insisted, "Have a Root Beer!"

We laughed about it, saying we wished the signs would stop telling us what to do.

Then they started getting weirder.

"We have historic photos!"

"Free Ice Water!" followed immediately by "It's COOL!"

And then our favorite, amidst a rainbow background, "Kids Love It!"

This went on for honestly an hour. We watched in amazement as we went from thinking that Wall Drug was stupid, to being intrigued, to wondering how they could have "A T-REX IN THE BACK", "CHILI DOGS", "HOMEMADE PIE" as well as an "OLD FASHIONED PHOTOGRAPH STUDIO" all in the same place. Before long, we NEEDED to go there. There was no doubt in our mind that we would be stopping in Wall, South Dakota.

And we did. It was stupid. We got our pictures taken with a 10 foot Jackelope. We bought shot glasses. We wandered through this scary place called "The Backyard" where half was a real functioning restaurant (that was darkened and closed) and the other half was a museum style arcade and photo-op with creepy saloon people and a disappointingly non-scary T-Rex.

Aaron Nordyke of Ministry of Magic warned us not to stop. We didn't listen.

We didn't even get the FREE ICE WATER or 5 CENT COFFEE.

The funny thing is, we loved Wall Drug while we were there. Hence the shot glasses. I am only realizing its lameness now in my reflection of the experience. I do have to appreciate the absolutely successful marketing tactics. We were suckers.

Anyway. Now we're in a hotel. This hotel is nice. I am sleepy, I know a lot more about Liz and Eia than I did before we started this road trip (for the first 10 or 15 hours of the trip we made each other do "confessions" every hour on the hour, where we told each other something we didn't already know. This was difficult, as I live with Eia and have known Liz for about six years and already know pretty much everything about them), we put about 1600 miles on the car, I keep making lame driving jokes (like - "Dry Creek Road? Dry Creek? Wouldn't that just be a ditch?" - or, "Two Mile Road? Wonder how long it is." I'M STUPID), and we're meeting Ministry of Magic in Kansas City before driving the rest of the way to Potosi. :D Can't wait.


I am probably forgetting loads of funny things that happened on this trip so far, but I am too tired to care. Tomorrow is Wrockstock. Bring it on.

It's only 2,167 miles.

"I went for so long
And I was so wrong
And then I met you
And now I can't live without you
And I don't want to
I've done that all my life up till now"
-Eisley, "Combinations"

This is going to be a short entry, because I actually don't have time to make it any longer.

I have been in panic mode all afternoon, because tomorrow I leave for Wrockstock. I don't think I have really made this explicit anywhere, but I am driving to Wrockstock. In my Fiesta. With Eia and Liz, mind you, but regardless of the company, that is 2,167 miles I am putting on my car in a day and a half. I am equal parts excited and terrified of making this road trip.

That's 2,167 miles ONE WAY. I'm doing it all again on Monday when we come home.

But hey. Michael Aranda drove to Florida in 2 days. I can drive to Missouri. I have to give the car back at the end of the month anyway.. why not throw in one more crazy road trip?

I have a packing list open on my computer, which has the standard last minute things I can't actually pack until I am done using them (phone charger, shampoo, etc.) but also on that list are things like "find small cooler for road snacks" and "do Liz's chains fit on my tires?" and "get cigarette lighter to standard outlet plug adapter because working on nanowrimo novels in the car is absolutely necessary". Basically, I'm a little nervous. I've never done a drive this ambitious before. I am sure I will be doing frequent twitter updates of our status while we're driving. If I stop twittering - you'll know something has gone wrong.

My biggest concern is that something will go wrong and we'll get to Wrockstock late on Friday. I am WAY too excited to get there and see people to be getting in late. I will not tolerate late.

Today was a day full of me getting ready to go. Packing, finishing a paper that's due tomorrow for my Consumerism class, trying to get ahead in Nanowrimo words but failing as I have only written about 500 today, and giving up entirely to go downstairs and just bond with my roommates. This is the first time that I have really liked and actually hung out with all five of the people living in the house (people move in and out all the time). There was always at least one person who didn't get along with the rest of us or just did their own thing, but I have been having loads of fun with everyone here lately. We interrogated Paul the new guy for a good hour or so in the dining room, drilling him on his love life and past experiences. PJ and I are both very open people, so we're trying to encourage everyone else in the house to speak as candidly about their issues as we do. xD

The only things standing between me and being at Wrockstock, now, are one night's sleep, printing out a paper, turning that paper in, sticking this month's rent up on the fridge, posting a video, packing up the car, and LEAVING. Oh, and, you know... 2000 or so miles.

I'm a little nervous about Nanowrimo, I'll be honest.

But I am much too excited about seeing all my friends, particularly Lauren and Luke, to worry too much about it. I'll win this year. I always do.

Wordcount: 7,027

Chipotle envy and word wars.

"Oh, what a world this life would be
Forget all your technicolour dreams
Forget modern nature
This is how it´s meant to be"
-Sondre Lerche, "Modern Nature"

Okay, well, I have given up hope of writing any more between my classes, so I might as well succumb to the fact that I want to write a blog post.

I just feel GUILTY, now, blogging. Because I should be using the time to work on my novel. But this is so much easier. So much more fun.

Okay, let's see. Exciting life type things.

1. We got a new roommate. A boy named Paul moved in, and while I don't know him very well yet, he seems like a good addition to the dynamic of our weird little family.

2. Even though I intended on staying in and studying/writing with PJ on Halloween, that obviously didn't happen. I guess we should have known. Paul chose that night to move in, so we decided that the only thing to do would be to go out with him. Justin and his friend Michelle came along as well, and it turned into a very good night. I also randomly ran into my friend Sarah while we were down on the Ave, which was bizarre. So Halloween = success. Study and NaNoWriMo kickoff, not so much.

3. Because of mine and Hayley's competitive nature, I have been feeling a little regretful of not counting my Chipotle burrito intake of 2009 as well. I honestly think I would be at least on par with her, and yet have no way to prove that. So in an act of boredom at work last weekend, I decided to go through my bank statements to see if I could figure it out that way. Unfortunately, I can only see back 90 days unless I actually request physical copies of the earlier ones, which I don't want to do because this really isn't that important. But in the last 90 days, I have had 11 burritos. To put that in perspective, that's about a 1 burrito per 8 days average (and a month of those 90 days were spent in London, which skews my numbers). I don't want to do the math, but that puts my projected burrito intake over all of 2009 WELL up there with Hayley's.

4. I just took a test I was sure I was going to fail and didn't do TOO terribly. I won't jinx myself. We'll see.

5. I have a lot to do this week before I leave for Wrockstock. Like do laundry. And pack. And film two videos, and write a midterm paper, and work an 8 hour shift, and write a few thousand more words. And then write more. And then some more.

6. I'm not sure why I chose to make this blog entry in the form of a list so I am going to stop.

NaNoWriMo is going well. Liz and I had our first word war last night, which was fun. While I tend to always finish my novels WELL before she does, she always just destroys me at word wars. However, I beat her last night 826 to 744 (in 30 minutes).

I have less to say than I thought I did. I'm going to go to my other class now, where I will probably daydream about my novel instead of paying attention. It is NOVEMBER. BRING IT ON. See ya!

Wordcount: 4,685