reconnection, anticipation, and other good things

cooking vareneky for a friend's family

Over the last week or two, lucky as I am, I’ve been catching up with friends I haven’t seen for some time. These include a friend from Ukraine—through the wonder of Skype—but also real, live, in-person American friends who I’ve not met up with in three, four, or—gasp!—six years. It’s amazing to discover that these people a) still exist in such fully realized forms, b) want to see me at all, and c) are happy to chat with me and exchange extended pleasantries. As rude as that first point may seem, I think most of us, when pressed, would probably admit that there’s only some much room in our brains for so many active social guests. When we don’t see people regularly, we tend to seat them in the far-back tables of our minds, promising to return and chat soon. Is this an awkward image? Anyway, I’m glad to see these friends are doing well: coaching, parenting, writing, teaching, going to the dacha, and sharing their laughter with me. Love love love.

November is rapidly approaching, and for the sixth year in a row, this means one major thing to me: NaNoWriMo! Before focusing on that, though, here’s THIS! The first day of November has been chosen by Andrew and Logan to be the ADITLOU3—the third A Day In The Life of Ukraine cooperative writing project! If you’re in Ukraine on November 1, write about your day, and share it! You can find out all about it on the site HERE. Yes, loyal reader, you remember correctly: This is the project that I started last December, and that Andrew and I co-produced last spring. (Check the links on the right of this page for results from those ventures.) Of course, this is the first ADITLOU in which my D won't be in U, so I’ll have to make do. I’ve decided to post a parallel Day here on this site about my November 1 in the US, and if you’re interested, you can post your Day as a response here, too! I was reading a Ukrainian colleague’s comment on the ADITLOU3 Facebook event page that she was sorry she couldn’t participate because she would be in America, and it made me smile a little. With the chance to travel to America, she was disappointed to miss this writing project! Surely we can provide an opportunity. So, November 1, if you’re in Ukraine, write about your day HERE. If you’re in America or somewhere else, you’re welcome to post your day in response to my day on this page. :)

So, yes—NaNoWriMo! For those of you who don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month! If you’ve been waiting for the chance to write a novel, now is the perfect time, as you’ll have an entire world full of energy and a technological and social network at your disposal to encourage your progress. Take a look at the site HERE, get inspired, and sign on up! If you can write 50,000 words in 30 days—that’s 1,667 words per day—you can win! If I can meet this challenge, it will be the sixth time I’ve won NaNoWriMo. I’m taking nothing for granted, though, and am looking forward to an energizing month full of rapidfire progress tempered with heartbreaking frustration, snapped suddenly by inspiration and soothed into meltingly rich language… In a rough draft where the movement is always forward, there’s not too much worry about perfect sense-making, so the magic generally carries through all month.

field trip to the library!

In the real world, I’m still job-searching. I’m overqualified and underqualified, in the wrong place and at the wrong time for plenty of positions. Happily, in general, I’m really at the right place and at the right time, because I’m at home with parents who support me and aren’t pushing me out the door in an uncertain direction. While I search and continue to apply, I’ve been volunteering at two local organizations. For the Adams County Literacy Council, I’ve volunteered to be an ESL tutor for a woman from Ukraine (!), but my main work is basically a kids’ club twice a week during evening adult ESL classes. The kids are a bit out of my typical age range, but we generally have a pretty good time, and it’s something useful I can do. I’ve also been helping with the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice, mainly with written materials and a promotional video for an upcoming community fundraising event. So, good things!

Hope you’ve been well, and that your Halloween costume is coming together splendidly.

:)