Officially Unofficial

I am declaring myself officially unofficial.  For what, you ask?  Well I have been inspired by both my friend Jess and also Travis, to participate in NaNoWriMo.  (You hear that Travis?  You were inspirational. I'm sure it was by accident.)  Jess has participated in years past, and has done really well.  I believe this is Travis' first year doing NaNoWriMo.  This will be my first time as well.  For those of you that don't know what that is or means, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel in a month's time.  Pretty wild eh?  You can go check out the official site here and get all the info and even sign up if you'd like.  :)  I do not consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy it from time to time.  I realized as I was writing my first page and half last night that it's been ages since I've written anything for fun.  Besides my blog.  Obviously.  Something like a story.  Even for school, all I was writing were essays on historical importance of playwrights or ideological meanings behind the actions of some play.  That requires thought.  Like, a LOT of thought.  I don't want to think that hard when I write.  That just makes me sound lazy, I realize that.  But I don't.  I don't want to have to dig so deep for something that I've completely lost what I was digging for in the first place.  It was really nice to just sit down and start typing.  I don't have to constantly think, "Well WHY this and WHY that..."  It happens because I want it to.  Plain and simple.  Yeah.  Oh, and in my first 750 words, I had like 3 Life Epiphanies.  Like for myself.  Whoa.  It was a little mind-boggling, lol.  I can't wait to see what other Important Life Discoveries await me in this journey.

I am also declaring myself officially unofficial for NaBloPoMo, which I saw over at Hillbilly Duhn's and again over at Super Fat Super Chick.  Clearly it's a play off of NaNoWriMo, and I'm all about it.  That stands for National Blog Posting Month, and the goal there is to write a post every day.  30 posts in 30 days.  That's a lot of blog love.  I almost made it last month unintentionally (I was 11 short), so I figured I'd give it a go this month.

The reason I say officially unofficial for both of these is that I would like to participate in both, but I'm not going to sign up.  I will keep track of my own progress, and if I follow through I will even be extra-proud because I did it without all the added pressure.  I know neither one of these programs is meant to put negative pressure on it's participants, but knowing me, I'll forget a day (or two) and then I'll feel like I let everyone down.  I don't want to let anyone down.  So I'm going to do it just for my own sake and see just how far I get.  I might even secretly sign up in a couple days and not tell you, lol.  I'm so weird.  :D

I am also going to do the assignment for OperationNICE this week!  Yeah I'm on a roll.  For those of you that haven't gone to visit Melissa at OperationNICE, you need to.  This gal has the biggest heart and runs her website on the premise that we could all be a little nicer to each other.  Which is SO true.  I'm trying.  Really.  Sometimes it's a lot harder than it needs to be.  BUT, definitely go give her a look-see.  :)

Anywho, the assignment this week was to make a list of your favorite places.  So here we go:

The General Mercantile, where I am sitting right now, sipping tea by a koi pond and writing my blog.

Missoula.  Man I *heart* Missoula.

My Friends' Homes.  It doesn't matter where they live, where they are is where the fun is!  And love.  :)

Seattle.  LOVE this place.  Seriously considering moving there sometime.  Don't know what I'd do...

Bigfork, Whitefish, and the Flathead Valley in general.  My chi is always good when I'm here.  There's really something healing in that valley.

Memphis.  I had a BALL in Memphis.  Beale Street rocks my socks off.

Vegas.  Even though Vegas gave me a serious butt-kicking, I still love the city.  It's definitely not like anywhere else.

In My Car.  I adore driving.  Driving means an adventure.  I'm always up for adventure.

In My Bed.  I love to sleep too, lol.  I have *such* a hard time getting out of bed some days...soooo cozy....

Craft Stores.  Good heavens.  I can spend hours (and a lot of cash) in craft stores.

Libraries/Bookstores.  Reading rocks my socks.  I love browsing past rows and rows of books, reading titles, seeing what jumps out at me, and what treasures I can find.

My Kitchen.  Baking is one of my favorite things.  And I've found over the last couple years that I'm actually not a bad cook either.  I get so proud when I make things from scratch.

Well, that's a start anyway.  There are so many places I love to be that make me happy.  What are yours?

Oh, and cause I didn't post them yet, here are some pics from Halloween.  :)

Me as Flo.  "How can I help you save today?"  :)

Showing off the little box of "Insurance" that I made to take with me.

Getting my "palm read" by my friend who dressed as a fortune teller, lol.  Don't I look intrigued?