I Signed Up for NaNoWriMo...what have I done?!?!?

I did it. I thought about it last year and the year before. This time I did it, but I'm going to stay anonymous. If you see a saraphen out there, it's not me....LOL.

It's the National Novel Writing Month. I have pledged to write something during the month of November. The goal is pounding out 50,000 words by brute force, over the course of the month, and maybe a story will be in there worth polishing.

You do the writing online, on the NaNoWriMo website, so they can monitor your progress and at the end they can verify that you haven't copied the same word over 50,000 times or the same sentence a bunch of times. It's free to join at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ They ask for a $10 donation. (Maybe by the end of November I'll stifle the urge to say Na-No-Ne-Ne-No-Nu)

So all my friends who have a novel just waiting to be written, this is your chance. I won't promise I will make it to the finish line, but if I don't start I know I won't.

Michael Jackson - "This is it!"

I went to see it at 1:00 today with my sons. Tinker says he'll wait to see it on DVD. I wanted the big screen experience. I never had the privilege of a live Michael concert, and I hoped this would give me a taste of what had missed while he was living. I knew this was rehearsal footage, but didn't know what to expect.

First of all, Michael was very much in charge, vibrant, not at all sickly. The movie merged multiple rehearsal sessions of individual songs (you could tell by the change of clothing), and he was dancing, singing (at the same time)...how many of you 50-somethings can sing while you walk upstairs? He was directing singers, dancers, and musicians, singing the instrument parts, getting the perfectionist's sound and tempo.

There was new movie footage for the Thriller sequence as well as new black-and-white footage of Michael with Bogart and Edward G. Robinson for Smooth Criminal. Just a wonderful small morsel of the concert that might have been.

Michael was demanding, but gentle. He treated the whole team of singers, dancers, musicians, technicians, directors as family. He thanked them with "I love you," when they responded to his changing demands for perfection.

I lost count of the songs. There was a taste of the Jackson Five, and he went through the decades of hits, every one you would want to request. I was dancing in my seat. There were times when he held back on the voice, said he was saving his voice. But other times he got really into it and gave it his top performance.

I guess you can tell I'm a fan.

Attendance was light at 1:00. There were fewer than 20 people in the theater. Many of us had bought tickets in advance, expecting a crowd. Most of us stayed through the credits at the end.

Some critics have given this documentary 1/2 star. I give it four.

Will I be able to play the piano?

When my doctor came to see me Post-op, that was the first thing I said when I woke up. It was like I had been waiting all my life to make that dumb joke, and I finally had the opportunity. She was serious, "If you could play before." "How about playing tennis?"

Two of my greatest regrets. I quit the piano when I was four years old. Or it was really my mother who couldn't stand my banging and crying anymore. I couldn't stand to practice. I wanted to get it right the first time, so I would bang and cry. Some things I will never be able to do no matter how hard I work at it. I will always suck at tennis.

My surgery was a success. My left ovary and cyst along with the fallopian tube, were bagged up and pulled out through my belly button. Now I have three small bandages, one on each side, and one for the belly button. My gut feels like a small bulldozer went through it, but otherwise I'm feeling well.

My daughter said I probably had Propofol for a sedative. That would explain my loopy conversation. I feel like I understand Michael Jackson a little better now.

It's My Birthday

I had my Pre-OP meeting today. They do it by telephone. Rather strange, but it certainly was convenient. I've accompanied my brother for his last three pre-op appointments, so I knew what to expect. I had my shoe-box of meds all ready to tell them what I take. With my changing assortment of blood pressure medications, there was no way I would remember my dosage and the names of Benicar, Diltiazem, and Terazosin. Those are the three I'll have to take the morning of my procedure.

I had to confirm that I was having a left Oophorectomy...her word, not mine. A laparoscopy, and I'll stay overnight. My pain level is only two today. Any kitchen activity takes it up to a six (for-real!!) I went to muscle class last week, and that took it up to a seven.

I'll be glad to have this thing over.

Today is my birthday! The count-down starts to Medicare...LOL The insurance companies have already started bugging me to select a Medicare supplement plan. Gonna sit on my throne the rest of the day.