so, this happened.

relevant quote: “If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” --Ray Bradbury

Aw yeah.

Final word count: 30,071

My original goal at the beginning of the month was 38,000, but I decided a little while in that that was too much for everything I had going on, so I switched it to 30,000. That was more manageable while still an improvement from last year.

Next year I am doing the real thing, whole sha-bang, 50K.

Until then? I am going to rest.

(HAHAHAHA JK I go to a magnet school.)

Kendall

tea makes everything better.

Today was not a terrific day (it was one of those days when I wished I was home-schooled, if you know what I mean), but I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about things I like instead, like tea.

Right now I'm on my second third cup of Passion tea and it is an exceedingly wondrous shade of pink. See? It's kind of bitter, but very delicious. Mmm...I love it.

My grandmother sent me this tea cup + a matching tea pot as a confirmation gift last week and I have been putting it to good use. Tea is perfect while doing homework or writing or doing more homework, which is most of what I have been doing these past few days. Loads of fun. The 'gag me with a spoon' kind of fun. When do I graduate, again? Never mind, don't remind me. There are good things about school, though. Like today was unofficial "wear comfy jumpers and drink tea and knit" day at school. A bunch of people had their knitting and thermoses full of tea, although I unfortunately didn't have time in the morning to bring any. Next time, though. 


In the meantime, I think I'll go get some more tea. What about you: what's your favorite type of tea? Any suggestions for types I have to try?

Current Word Count: 27,001
Kendall

thanksgiving break

1. Walking. It felt like winter and it looked like fall in Kansas City. In case you didn't know, that's where I was from Tuesday to Saturday. We go there for Thanksgiving every other year. 

2. Sculpting pie crusts.
3. Peeling apples for the pie.
4. Be thankful.
5. Rolls! Best when fresh out of the oven.
6. Playing Sorry outside with cousins. (It had warmed up.)
7. Thanksgiving meal.
8. Friday, we went and saw the Muppet Movie.
9. And then looked at the lights.
10. Ushering in the Christmas season. I'm perfectly okay with that. More than okay.

Current Word Count: 22,825
Kendall

joining the thankfulness bandwagon.

It's Thanksgiving, so of course I had to make a list of things I'm thankful for. I mean, like, what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't?

I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

-Thanksgiving. For the chance to be here in Kansas City, to be with family, to be on break from school, and just to celebrate this holiday.
-food. My one true love. Cough.
-books. I have more things to read than I could ever have time for. I guess it's better than the alternative.
-my camera.
-my friends.
-music.
-family. Even though they drive me crazy practically all the time, I'm still thankful for them.
-nature.
-the internet. The internet is great. Need proof? Go here. And refresh the page several times. Bam. Where else can you find such quality entertainment?
-my cats. :)
-soccer.
-laughter.
-the changing of the seasons.
-ya'll.
-being from Texas. Having real good Tex-Mex, saying "ya'll" and wearing shorts in November. But not getting a sunburn in November. I am not thankful for that.
-life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Current Word Count: 20,370
Kendall

cameras & hands

are two of my favorite subjects to photograph.

I like how delicate and nimble hands are, how practical and pretty they can be.

Cameras are just lovely, and close to my heart.

The hands, and the camera, belong to my cousin. I took these whilst in Boston, more than a month ago. How time flies! I'll get to see her again this week, for Thanksgiving. Huzzah!

Current Word Count: ? I don't know, since this is scheduled. Betting it's dismal though. Last time I checked my estimated finishing time was December 15th. LOL YEP.
Kendall

odds and ends

This week didn't start off great, but it ended much better.

Wednesday evening I went to Anthropologie to pick up a sweater and oh my gosh all I want for Christmas is everything there. Seriously.

Thursday was a late start at school, so I went to IHOP for breakfast with some friends. They had this gingerbread hot chocolate which I tried and it was amazing. I love seasonal food.

And today, I went shopping and got a winter coat, a pair of jeans, a shirt, and some shoes. I noticed afterward that they're all either black or grey. I already own way too much grey clothing. It may be an addiction.

Wow, reading that over, it seems like a lot of my happiness stems from clothes and food -- that's not materialistic at all! But in all seriousness, I have a lot of other things for which I am glad. I'm in the middle of a good book -- I haven't really had time to sit down and read for ages, which is depressing, but this weekend I've found time. And there's only two more days of school until Thanksgiving break, but Monday is a field trip and Tuesday is Field Day, so it's really only like one class period. Still have Chem homework though. :( Oh, well!

Happy weekend or whatever!

Current Word Count: 17,122 (I been slacking *hangs head in shame*)
Kendall

P.S. One year ago, today, the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in theatres. I was at the midnight showing. How can that already be a year ago? *sob* Time, how it flies.

wild geese

This poem is exactly what I needed today. // The leaves are finally changing colors here. // It rained today, long enough to leave puddles. // I went to the dentist this morning. Spent the whole time thinking about how much I hate it. The dentist asked me if I wanted to be a dentist. // I can't wait for Thanksgiving.

Current Word Count: 13,010 (So very behind. And yet, so very inspired.)
Kendall

sunrise to sunset

I got to see the sunrise this morning. Not that it wasn't lovely, but it was 6:45 in the morning, on a Saturday, and that is just wrong. I had a soccer game at 7:30 (lost), one at 11:15 (won), and there's another one tomorrow.

I managed to miss 11:11 on 11/11/11...both times. Skillz.

This week wasn't great. I felt really sick to the point where I stayed home from school on Tuesday; now it's just a bad cold. Cough drops and tissues are necessities this time of year. School was also stressful in its usual stressful way. On top of that, every time I tried to blog, I either had no time or no inspiration. That's no fun. Oh, well, "this too shall pass" and all that. On the bright side, though, there have been many bright sides, which include but are not limited to: only one full week of school left until Thanksgiving, gingerbread pancakes (not those^), getting a dress, and finally reaching 10K words tonight.

From sunrise to sunset, it was a full day, but now it's over. The sun has gone to bed and so must I. (Cheers to those of you now singing that song. I wonder how many musical allusions I can make in here...)

sunset

Yeah, I really should go to bed now. Happy weekend!

Current Word Count: 10,050
Kendall

nanowrimo excerpt #1

Feeling lazy, so you get this. It's kind of depressing. Then again, someone dies in the second chapter (*spoiler alert*) so it's kind of a recurring theme. There's that.

The choir sang “Amazing Grace” and I leaned forward so my hair covered my face. By the end, my mascara was running down my face in a spiderweb of black. Why had I worn makeup?

We rode in a limousine to the cemetery. It was nothing like the last time I rode in one, for Liz's fourteenth birthday party. There was no mini-fridge stocked with soda or radio blasting the latest hits. It was a quiet ride I spent staring out the window. I let my mom braid my hair, cherishing the way her nimble fingers wove in and out and grazed my neck. I shook it out when she finished, though, and she didn't protest.

There was a lot of standing around. Prayers were said and words were whispered and the coffin was lowered into the ground. It was only when I started to walk away that I realized I was shaking. It was more than shivering, though there was that, too. It was the ghosts of lives cut short, brushing up against me. I ran all the way back to the limo, on the pretense of being cold. It was the smell of death that scared me, though.

Ok, guiz, I worked sooooo hard on that so please don't steal my precious perfect work of art or I will prosecute you to the full extent of the law!!1!

Yeah no.

Current Word Count: 6,237
Yep. Yep. No, you don't have to tell me.

Kendall

the girl who ate the pomegranate seeds

Persephone, captured and detained by Hades in the underworld, ate six pomegranate seeds. Each seed represented a month of darkness for the world, so there are six months of cold, harsh winter (some versions say four; whatever floats your boat). When these months are over, she is released from the underworld and her mother Demeter makes it spring again.

That myth is one of my favorites.

One good thing about the onset of winter is the food, specifically the fruit. Hello pomegranates + grapefruit.


The darkness before dinner caught me off guard; likewise, waking up after the sun was strange. Of course today the sun never really came out. The sky was completely grey, the way I like it. It even sprinkled for a few minutes on the bus, but no real rain came out of it.

Tea and writing.

Right now I feel pretty awful. My throat is sore, I feel warm (fever? I refuse to believe it!) and I'm soooo tired. All I want for Christmas is to sleep forever. I wish I was Sleeping Beauty.

Current Word Count: 6,054
Yes, I am still somewhat woefully behind, but I'm doing my best.

Kendall

inspiration station

Some people call it procrastination; I prefer the phrase "refueling inspiration."

(Click on pictures or links below for sources.)

i've been listening to this on repeat

via

via

via (don't know original source) 

via

via

via

via

Happy, happy Friday, dears! :)

Current Word Count: 2,813 (Shut up; I'm going to get caught up this weekend.)
Kendall

it's november

and you know what that means...

...NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as I should be writing right now.

November is full of:
eating candy left over from Halloween (how can people not be a fan of this holiday? It is my favorite! Hello, free candy!)
drumming on the keyboard trying to think of what to write next
endless cups of water and tea
the constant checking of word count
wishing everyone would shut up so I can concentrate
and also
the beginning of the holidays (a light at the end of the word-filled tunnel?)

Right now I've only written a little over a thousand words. It was slow starting, but now I feel like I could write forever! Maybe not. There are some people who can write 3,000 words in one sitting, and some people who have practically all day in which to write this. I, unfortunately, do not fall into either of these categories! I fall into the category of "girl who already doesn't get enough sleep because of school and has an only partially formed idea but really really does not want to lose."

Happy November! Are you doing NaNo?

Kendall
1,013 words