Crossing the Finish Line

Not to make too big a deal out of it but I've done it. I've posted every single day in November for NaBloPoMo. And a pile of others have as well, I'm sure. While I bitched my share about having to post each day even when I didn't feel like it, looking back over it all I can say it really wasn't all that bad. Bad enough, however, that I wouldn't want to turn around and start on Holidailies, even if they do cut you a slackburger and only require that you post a minimum of twenty times in a month. I may be a bandwagon jumping sort of person but that's one bandwagon that's going to go down the trail without me. While Holidailies is a fine thing to do, for me last year when I participated it was even more pressure than NaBloPoMo was. I kept feeling as though I needed to perform to a certain level all the time and I think it made my writing feel, at times, contrived. Somehow this month's focus on quantity has made me feel more comfortable with what I was churning out. Not all of it was brilliant prose but it felt more natural to me.

Even though I was determined to post during all of November, I toyed briefly with the idea of not posting for the last day. No reason really - just to break bad I guess. I wonder what it would have said about me if I'd really not posted today. Would it make me a maverick or a dimwit (Don't go there!)? Would I wake up tomorrow and think "What was I thinking?!"?

No, I figured that if I'd come this far I may as well finish. Even though I would have quit on my own terms instead of quitting just because I couldn't hack the task at hand I believe I would have a feeling that something wasn't complete - that something was out of balance. As a person who craves symmetry, it would have driven me crazy in the end.

On to other things. More bulleted points! I said yesterday that I'd write in whole paragraphs today but I didn't say that I'd do the whole post that way. Such a tease I am.

• My new Christmas gift laptop arrived today. I opened it so we could check if all is right with it and found out that it doesn't have wlan. Cue head banging on brick wall. I wasn't upset that B didn't check on this a little better than he did and that it would have to be returned. What was making me grind my teeth was the idea of getting it all tucked back into the three boxes it was shipped in so I could send it back. This thing was packed like the Matryoshka doll of laptop computers. Having a few Matryoshka dolls myself is what I credit with enabling me to get it all put back together just right. Another one with wlan has been ordered. Christmas is saved.
• Okay, that's an overstatement. My enjoyment of Christmas and its meaning to me has nothing to do with the receiving of gifts. But a good gift does add an extra sparkle to it all.
  
• I had my hair done today and I have to say that while it looks great, it reeks from the forty-five gallons of hairspray on it. If there's a new hole in the ozone layer, you know who to blame.
• No, not me. My hairdresser!
• I've been to the Christmas market three times now. Well, one time was really to go to the bank to get some cash - my bank is in the old market square where the Christmas market is located and I had to go through part of it to get there. Anyway, not until this evening on my third visit did I go through the whole thing and see what all is there. Up until now I was basing my idea of what would be there on visits in previous years. Tonight B and I wanted grilled chicken for supper so I went down there at prime supper serving hour to get one. Most of the stands are in the same places they are every year. I went to where the chicken lady should be (no, not this Chicken Lady) and she wasn't there. I walked further down into the market. No chicken lady. I walked through the whole market square. No chicken lady. I walked down the part of the market that extends down the main street. No chi...well, you get the idea. No grilled chicken at the Christmas market. Grilled chicken is a Christmas market and city fair staple. Grilled chicken is always there! Okay, who's jerking my chain here? Who decided there will be fourteen places for me to buy French crepes and no place for me to get grilled chicken?
• And come to think of it, there wasn't any place selling Kartoffelpuffer. Not that I buy them but that's another market/fair staple that wasn't there. This is wrong is so many ways. I hope I just missed it while trying to scan for the chicken lady and not bash into the 50 jillion people around me. I'm going back during the day so I can get a full picture of the scene.
• Poppy mentioned it on her blog and it made me think "Yeah! That's right!". Part of NaBloPoMo was for people to delurk and comment on blogs, especially if you aren't posting on your own every day. Folks, I'm not getting the delurking love here. If you're lurking here, c'mon out and say hey and I'll return the favor. And bring a grilled chicken, please.