Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Nano 2005

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Yes, it’s that time of the year again. I’d been looking forward to this for some time, at least for the past month, when I realized I really needed to take a break from the novel I’ve been working on since last Nano and work on something new for a while.

Well, I guess it’s kinda new: it’s in the same series as last year’s. (It’s a mystery series.) Same main characters, different crime. And so far I’m 5005 words into it, so I guess I’m having a fairly good time so far! I want to get ahead of the game a little, especially in regards to Week 2 (when everyone hits the Wall and has no idea what to write) and Thanksgiving. But hey: 2500 a day, I’ll be done by November 20th.

Well, it could happen.

Writing is never like “taking dictation” for me. I read that over and over again from various people. What it’s more like for me is that I see a scene and I try to write down what happens, with enough set decoration to set the stage and enough internal monologue to provide a little humor along the way. I’ve never been given a plot in one single lump — I always have to play with things to put it together. Apparently I am not on a hotline to Inspiration Central: everything I come up with comes from me, not the Great Ether.

Of course, if the Great Ether wants to show up and help out and give me a little boost, I am all for it.

And now, after 3200 words today, I am going to go take a little break.

Update: I have no idea if I’ve mentioned this before, but my handle on the Nano boards is “Dianeofnka”, in case you want to friend me. And let’s face it: it’s all about having long friend lists. And the 50,000 words, of course.

Two Halloweens

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Sophia and Simon went out for Halloween last night. (Of course, it occurs to me right now I didn’t get pictures of them. Sigh.) She was Cinderella; he was Buzz Lightyear. We did approximately 3 million houses last night.

Simon was quite shy and scared at first, particularly with some of the houses around here that get all dolled up for the occasion: giant spiders hanging from the roof, spooky music, dry ice. But after a while he discovered the magic of the occasion: he could go up to a door, knock on it, say a short, simple phrase, and the person in the house would give him something. He didn’t even seem to care that it was candy. Getting something seemed to be the pinnacle of his existence.

And here’s why I tell everyone that I don’t have to save for Sophia’s college education, I have to save for her graduate school. I told the kids, “Okay, after we finish trick-or-treating, you can have one piece of candy and then it’s time to get ready for bed.”

A sly smile. “But Mommy, what if the package has more than one piece of candy?”

Great. I’m going to need to start outlining everything in detail and get all parties to sign off before we can hit the road next year.

PG&E Trail

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Nina, Rob, and I set off to Rancho San Antonio to do the PG&E Trail: about 8.5 miles with a 1000+ foot rise overall. Since it was Daylight Standard Time, it was nice and light out at 7 when we got there.

We headed up. Pretty steep. On the second major hill I said, “Are you guys even breathing hard?” They weren’t. We agreed we would all meet up at Vista Point, the halfway point in the trail, after which we’d start heading down the hill.

Puff. Puff. Puff.

I managed to keep running for a while…but not the whole way. Eventually I stopped and started hiking up. At one point I saw Nina and Rob off in the distance — at one point I was only 20, 30 meters behind them. But then they started running up the hill again and I just puffed along.

We met up at Vista Point, and Nina and Rob seemed to be surprised by my appearance. My appearance so close behind them, not my appearance-close-to-death. We started down the hill and Rob began explaining to Nina that I am fervently, hopelessly competitive.

Which was roughly when I felt a sharp sting on my scalp. That grew into a sharp, terrible pain. I doubled over and yelled, “Is there something in my hair?”

Indeed, there was. A yellow jacket had just stung me on the back of my head. I don’t know what happened to the yellow jacket. Nina pulled out the stinger. (She said, “This is going to hurt.” I said, “Go ahead. Can’t hurt any worse.” And it didn’t.)

We had to walk all the way back to the car. Jostling my head hurt too much.

Can I just say that getting stung on the scalp is one of the more surprising things that’s ever happened to me?

I was bummed that we had to walk half the way, but the downhill portion of the PG&E is gorgeous: looks out over Santa Clara Valley to the Bay. Really is a pretty area we live in. And the weather was absolutely perfect: about 70 at the highest (which, if you are climbing 1000+ feet, is just what you want).

At Rob’s house Nina got out a sting kit and Rob gave me an Advil and some coffee, so I was good to go. The sting still hurts, but apparently I’m not allergic to yellowjacket bites (this would be my second one in the past four months). I am worried about taking a shower and washing my hair though. Oooch.