NaNoWriMo

Always the problem when you move to new dig: you never know what to take with you and you should just get new.

Seeing that at the start at least this blog shall be pretty much whatever is floating around Chris's head at the moment, som duplication from one blog to another is just one of those things.

So short form here:
I am writing a novel in one month. Nov 1st, 50,000 word by Dec 1st. Quantity over quality. It's an excesize thousands of people, all over the world are partaking in. It's good. It's fun. The forums on it are very enteratining. And hey it's still not too late to start!

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

This are still going swimmingly! One problem. Last night, I ended up figuring out exactly how many chapters I'll need. I even named them all!

Chapter 1: A Departure and Two Visitations
Chapter 2: The Agreement
Chapter 3: A Life Examined
Chapter 4: The Tiny Thing
Chapter 5: A Series of Awkward Moments
Chapter 6: The Revelation
Chapter 7: A Different Perspective (tentative)
Chapter 8: The Trip (tentative)
Chapter 9: A Random Coincidence
Chapter 10: The Body Part
Chapter 11: A History Lesson (tentative)
Chapter 12: The Door Ajar (tentative)
Chapter 13: A Day of the Dead
Chapter 14: The Red Passage (tentative)
Chapter 15: A Black Meal (tentative)
Chapter 16: The White Bed (tentative)
Chapter 17: A Pale Caller (tentative)
Chapter 18: The Straw (tentative)
Chapter 19: A Deal Unbreakable (tentative)
Chapter 20: The Long Silence (tentative)
Chapter 21: A Gathering (tentative)
Chapter 22: The Plan Unending (tentative)
Chapter 23: A Search for Answers (tentative)
Chapter 24: The Race (tentative)
Chapter 25: A Final Judgment (tentative)
Chapter 26: The Departure and Two Visitations

Now, the problem is that I finished chapter 4 tonight. So I've been doing about a chapter a day. I am also at 14,500 words or so words. So I am averaging 3625 a chapter and a day... I am don thing I am going to be able to keep up that pace. My chapter outline gives me four day wiggle room if the goal is to get to the end of the story. But that also ends up being a 94,250 word novel, significantly over the 50,000 goal.

So I am torn. But it's a great thing to be torn about.

Mayhem

I loved my kitty Mayhem. In the future I shall tell the long tale of his short life, but for now I am just posting his photo.



So this makes me on of those people who posts pictures of their cats in their blog. Sue me.

The Perfect Crush

There is something so perfect about summer camp love. My perfect crush came late as far as summer camp experiences go.

In the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I went to the California State Summer School of the Arts ( CSSSA ). You actually had audition for it. I was in the acting program, but there were artists of all stripes. Musicians, painters, sculptures, film makers, dancers. Three hundred arty high schoolers jammed onto the Loyola Marymount campus. Just asking for trouble.

That summer was magical. I remember having to meet with the dean of the program because a bunch of us had snuck out at 3 in the morning and took all the outdoor furniture at the cafeteria and built a (temporary) sculpture in the fountain. Glorious thing, 15 feet high. At first the dean was mad at us, very stern about curfews and such. But then she relented because the project "had merit." How awesome was that!

But Amy was the biggest thing. The first night there we met and both of us were instantly breathless. Amy of the dazzling eyes and infectious laugh. Amy of the strange doodles and rambling stories. Amy of the bare feet and summer dresses. For four days we danced around the idea, trying to see where we stood and spending every minute we could near each other.

There is something about summer camp, and a lesser extent college, that can create 'history' instantly. You develop inside jokes and moments in such a quick and intense way. Before we were officially an item, we already had nicknames around the camp: Scooter & Granola. With colored Sharpies, we made t-shirts with our new names. That was the fifth day of camp and that night we kissed. Literally in a tree. He had climbed up into the foliage and there, in our private world ,I had a kiss that I shall remember every single second of for the rest of my life. Soft and sweet but absolutely electric.

Just now, remembering, I get shivers up and down my spine.

But summer camp is summer camp. Amy and I only had the slightest sliver over two weeks as a 'couple.' Summer camp ends as I suppose all things to. And then she returned to San Fran and I stayed in L.A.. She was in town one more day that summer, but it was a fleeting meet as she was just passing through. A month had passed and suddenly camp seemed eons in the past.

We sent letters to each other a few times the next year. Then I went to the east coast for college and she went to Cal Arts. She sent me a mix tape my first week. I played it all through college but now it is long gone. I can barely remember any of the songs on it.

And then she sort of disappeared. Years later, someone I knew in L.A. said he had run into her. Her life had been hard and horrible and she had been in a rough shape. And then nothing again.

I google her every once and a while but nothing comes up. She just kind of slipped away.