Backwoods Babble

That's going to be me in about 18 days! I am starting the final leg of completely freaking out and packing and trying to stay focused while managing all my current classes, signing up for new classes, trying to figure out how to pay for said new classes and.... whew! It's alot! I really am beyond excited. As I look at things like this lovely family farm -- Henry's Tree Farm! and looking forward to festivals and Christmas. Where I live now, a little town out in the desert, they don't really have a town square, and while there is certainly the air of Christmasy things at Walmart, it's not the same as snow, being so cold you can't feel your toes, snowmen, snowball fights and Christmas lighting ceremonies that most of the town shows up at. I didn't realize how much I missed all of these things. I mean, really deep in my soul have missed them. I am looking forward to seeing all the lovely, small town Christmas things. Maybe I'll even go to a local Christm

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig My rating: 4 of 5 stars Okay, I finished this awhile ago, see a theme in my reviews yet? LOL I absolutely LOVED this! I went into a bookstore and when one of the people working there asked if I needed any help, I asked for a recommendation. I do this alot, it's a great way to see what kind of people work at any store. If you work there, you should always have a couple of recommendations up your sleeve. Set in Montana, it is essentially a story about the education system at the time, early in American history in the West. The characters are vivid, real and flawed, my favorite kind. And it is told from the perspective of a student, one of those dream students that all teachers want to have come along their classrooms. I highly recommend it even if you are not interested in education, the stories of the narrator and his two brothers are awesome, hilarious and full of boyish mischief. View all my reviews

But, I think I am going to do it. I have been feeling (well besides stressed)that I need more creative stuff in my life. I spend too much time thinking, how it would be cool if I .... (insert creative thing here). And then this little email showed up announcing NaNoWriMo, which for those of you who don't know is National Novel Writing Month. You can read lots about it on the NaNoWriMo website. It's really a big and scary challenge. 30 days - 50,000 words, approximately 1,667 a day. In order to finish a novel. Dauting, yes. Scary, yep. But, ultimately I hope uber-rewarding. Today, was day one and I manage 1,701 words, just over 3 pages and could have gone longer, but I have some other homework to work on. What I thought I was going to write and what is coming out of my fingers on the keyboard are two different things, but that's okay. Random picture time. This is from awhile ago, but I like how it's a going down the road on the adventure kind of picture. So