2014 Wrap-Up

If 2013 was a life-changing year, then 2014 was the aftermath. 2014 was the year of taking stock and moving forward.

I spent much of the first third of the year, dealing with my aunt's estate. This was emotional and stressful. It was my first experience with selling a house. Luckily, Dan found an amazing team of relators (Team Kociela with First Team in Tustin), who took care of everything and made the process as painless as possible. The house sold fast and for well above asking. My aunt and uncle had bought their house before I was born and it was very hard for me to let go of a home that held so many happy memories. Luckily, a nice family with a new baby bought it and at the risk of sounding sappy, I hope that they fill it with love and wonderful memories of their own. I especially hope that they have epic pool parties!

After selling my first home, I turned around and had my first experience buying a home. Dan and I are now proud owners of a house in Big Bear Lake. We have spent many weekends enjoying our mountain retreat and we have already made friendships with several locals. We are starting to feel like part of the community.

I spent about four months working as a professional dog walker. Unfortunately, the company that I worked for, folded. However, during the short amount of time that I worked, I got to know two of the sweetest dogs around, a Golden Retriever Puppy named Busy and an energetic Labradoodle named Milo. My stint as a dog walker nearly turned me from a cat to a dog person. Nearly. 

In 2014, we bought a Jeep Wrangler and took up a new hobby, Jeeping. We attended the Big Bear Jeep Jamboree and Big Bear Forest Fest. It's amazing how many trails are in our new backyard. We learned the real definition of JEEP ( Just. Empty. Every. Pocket.), as we got the bug to modify it, until it looked nothing like it did when we purchased it. We are looking forward to more events and modifications in the new year.

Between heading to Big Bear and our other travels, it felt like we were never home in 2014. We spent fifteen days, over four separate trips in Las Vegas, which included Jeeping in the Valley of Fire for the first time. Beautiful! We did a weekend in Chicago and we spent our first anniversary in Lake Tahoe, a place neither of us had visited previously. Our summer trip to Europe included three weeks in England and a little over a week in Sweden. It was great to finally see the country where my stepchildren live and to see their home/school/city. I ate Reindeer for the first time. Rudolph is delicious!

Life was filled up with other things, so I didn't go to as many plays, concerts or movies as I typically do. I did manage to see Josh Ritter, The Airborne Toxic Event and Britney Spears. The first two were phenomenal and the third was much better than I had anticipated. I finally got to see a touring production of The Book of Mormon. Hilarious!

I read fifty-two books and discovered both Booksparks and Netgalley. 

I've finished five writing classes towards my Fiction Certificate at UCLA Extension. More exciting than the actually classes, is I've made progress on a novel idea that I've been contemplating for years. 2014 has been creatively, very productive. 

2014 started off a mess, but the maelstrom has subsided and I'm entering 2015 calm and focused. I look forward to 2015!

NaNoWriMo 2012

I just took the plunge and registered for the 2012 NaNoWriMo. For those uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. I am going to  write a novel in the month of November.

Admittedly, this is less impressive than it sounds. I've done it in the past and found it quite easy to write the required 50,000 words that it takes to officially finish the task. It's really not a lot to write. I started the story without any planning or idea of plot or characters. Chris Baty, one of the creators of NaNoWriMo has written a book about the event and it's titled, "No Plot, No Problem". I read it and took it to heart. I entered the event without a goal and ended up meeting it with a story that had a structured plot with a story arc and some twists thrown in for good measure. I immediately deleted the entire thing on December 1st. It met the goal, but was a load of crap and not worth editing.

This is not my inner critic talking, it was drivel. I know that I can write and that just wasn't something that I left feeling proud of, so I dumped it. I like the entire concept of NaNoWriMo, the idea of just creating and letting go of that inner critic. It's about putting pen to paper and getting it out there. That's the magic. However, this time I am taking a different approach.

I have an idea. Scratch that, I have a great idea that I am excited about. It a story that grew from a short story that I workshopped through a class at UCLA extension. My short was extremely well received and I thought of a way to grow it into a bigger story. I don't have it all worked out and there are going to be characters and twists that I have not yet thought up. However, I feel like this is going to be a completely different NaNoWriMo experience for me.

I require deadlines. I've had this idea for over a year and have yet to put it to paper. Months ago, I wanted to get going on it and if it turns out the way that I hope and imagine it will, I want to self publish it on Amazon. So here we are, October 31st and NaNoWriMo starts at midnight. I thought why not just give myself that imposed deadline and go for it?

I am sure that my story will be over 50,000 words, but I am not going to focus too much on that goal. If it is, it is and if it isn't, it isn't. Regardless if I qualify for an official NaNoWriMo finisher badge (when you finish the story, you submit it and they run it through a program to make sure that you hit the number goal) or not, my own goal is going to be to finish the first draft of my story to my satisfaction. That will make me feel like I have achieved my goal, not the number of words. I am going to use the NaNoWriMo site as motivator to push me through it.

I am off at midnight. The first few weeks will probably be slow going, as I am scheduled a bunch of shifts at work. However, my last day is the 13th and then it is full steam ahead. Here's to a productive month of November!