Random Thoughts More Random on Friday

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving and I had a post planned , I thought I would post my Thursday randomness on Friday instead. Hopefully my Friday thoughts aren't too random since I'm writing them after a VERY tasty turkey dinner - Thank you, Steven! - and an early evening tryptophan-induced nap.

• You may have noticed that I've taken down my NaNo countdown. Yes, I've decided to throw in the towel on that one. It was just getting to be too much. Instead of being a challenge I just got more and more frustrated everyday as I continued to fall further and further behind on my word count. I realized that I didn't know my main characters well enough, so all I was writing was meandering crap. Which isn't totally worthless, but I didn't really want to write 50,000 words of it. So instead, I'm going to put the novel aside and do some free writing solely about my characters. And since the holidays are coming up, it will probably be slow going there, too. But I'm going to try and get as much as I can done and get a restart in January for, as my writing friend has suggested, JaNo.
  

• Tomorrow is the official start of the holiday shopping season - known around these parts as "Black Friday." While I'm not brave enough to run with the overwhelming crowds, I have put two new links on my sidebar I wish you would take note of. I have become part of the Amazon Associates program and if you plan on making any purchases on Amazon.com this holiday season, please use these links to shop through. By clicking through my site to Amazon, I will receive a percentage of your final purchase in the form of gift certificates. (I LOVE Amazon.com and couldn't pass up the opportunity to make free money for future purchases.) The links will be up year round, so you can use them anytime. Thank you in advance for your participation.


• My husband and I are now house hunting. It's so exciting! We currently live in an apartment and can't wait to have a space we can call our own and a back yard and a dishwasher and a new queen size bed and . . . you can see why we're excited. I've been scouring the net at all the online listings (another distraction that affected NaNo) and we're going to look at our first house this weekend! While I'm nervous about all the financial stuff, I know that it will all work out. It always does. And like someone has recently reminded me, if everyone else has a house, why can't we? So keep positive thoughts in your minds for me :)
  

• And last but not least, I feel it necessary to announce that I went out on Thanksgiving Eve - a great tradition in my pre-kid days. Usually when I go out I'm the cautious one; the one who has a few beers and stops; the one responsible for getting my (drunk) husband home. Well, last night I went WILD! I was drunk. I admit it. And I had a great time! We went out to eat, saw a great band and I enjoyed several beers with great friends and I'm so glad I did. In fact, I outlasted my husband. He went home a full hour and a half before I did (the bar was down the street and therefore we could walk home) and I heard "Drink it up! It's time to go!" for the first time in I don't know how long. I mean, I have NO idea when the last time I closed a bar was. It's definitely been years. And to top it off, I woke up this morning with NO HANGOVER! I don't know how, but I did. I did need a little extra sleep (and I had no voice for quite some time), but my husband politely obliged while he slaved away in the kitchen early this morning. Isn't he the greatest?!

So Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving!