It's That Time of the Year

Finals.

One word.  So many implications.

Here's a quick snapshot of me (not a real one, thank the Lord, because that would be BEYOND UNPLEASANT as you're about to find out.... ..... ..... .... .... .... .... ....... .....  *DEATH BY OVERUSE OF ELLIPSES* Grammar Nazis attack!  Sirens blare!  I've been caught!  I've been caught!!!!!  ...  Okaynevermindlet'smoveon*):

Ahem.  Me.  Today.  This morning.  I am studying in the library.  I have not bothered with makeup since Saturday.  My hair is unwashed (not going to go into details there you'reverywelcome) and in a headband (have I mentioned that the last time I wore my hair in a headband was, oh let's see, sixth grade?).  I have been running on an average of six hours of sleep per night and four or five cups of coffee distributed unevenly throughout the day.  I am still wearing the clothing that I fell asleep in last night.  The mental filter that usually disappears around 11:30 p.m. resulting in random hilarity and uncensored comments and things being far funnier than they should be is already gone (and it's only 9:30 a.m.).

My mind is completely stuck in the fantasy world of my current project (which I'd far rather be writing right now) (no, that document has totally not been open on my laptop all day being added to discretely and gradually) and I decided to teach myself how to draw last week, so my notes are filled with cartoon faces of varying levels of amateur, unintended creepiness.  AND on the few occasions that I manage to rescue my mind from a world that doesn't exist and jam it into memorizing three chapters on media law for my COMPLETELY SHORT ANSWER NEWS WRITING FINAL TOMORROW (what the heck?  Seriously.  What the heck?) it wanders into a mix of the guilty pleasures that have been helping to steal maintain my sanity (*cough* Gilmore Girls *cough* Walking Dead *cough*).

So, yeah.  I think I'm managing pretty well.

It all begins tomorrow.

*Did I mention that my sanity is presently questionable at best?

Obligatory Boring First Post (and also, November is over!)

Sing ye choirs of angels.

December is here.  December and hot chocolate and Christmas and Christmas break and, oh, let's just smash it all together and make a list of why December 1st is a good thing.

Finals are almost here and thus almost over.  Christmas break is close!  Reuniting with friends and family around the corner!  Icicles.  Snow.  Sledding.  Cold air freezing your lungs.  Candy canes.  Baking Christmas cookies.  Getting to drive again!  Driving with the windows down, the heat cranked up, and the radio blasting.  Going on walks through a frozen, sleeping marsh.  Wrapping presents, tape sticking to your fingers.    Advent candles.  Christmas shopping.  Ice skating and watching the sunset paint the sky in a clash of pastel and neon.  Curling up with a book on the couch (A COUCH!).  Waking up at 5:55, making a hazelnut latte, and writing the morning out of the night, the darkness away from the light.  Coziness.  Cards in the mail.  Coats and scarves and boots.  Coffee.

I could really, really, really go on for a long time, but I shall resist.  Just basically, December is here and despite being welcomed by 60 degree weather and incredible humidity here in Kansas, it is distinctly different from yesterday, which was November.  Really, we all should pity November, a month whose only bright spot is the turkey and cranberry sauce at nearly the end of it.  Thanksgiving always feels like a sort of "We've almost survived November!  Just a few days left!  You can do it!" or a pity party, because there's absolutely nothing else about November that we can find to appreciate.

Of course, November also is National Novel Writing Month and was fairly significant for me this year, because (for the third year running) I completed my 50,000 words and especially because (for the first time ever) I was happy with my completed project (begun: four years ago.  Rewritten: seven times.  Finished: three times.).  Happy enough to wait two weeks (yeah... I finished my 50k word count pretty early), edit like crazy, and send it in to an agent.

Oh yeah.

AndthentwodayslatersherequestedmymanuscriptandI'msortofsuperexcitedBUTIKNOWITDOESN'TMEANANYTHING.... yet.

So, yeah, I'm happy that it's December.