Remember how in my last blog post, I said I didn’t want to say who I was rooting for in the men’s figure skating competition because I’m nerotic like that?

Ok, so you don’t. But let’s pretend like you were reading my blog last night, and you thought, “Oh, I’m really curious to see who Gymfan is rooting for!”

But anyway, back to last night…

…. that was the skater I was rooting for.

Congratulations, Evan Lysacek! You’re the new Olympic champion!

Ok, so maybe the Olympics have already been going on for about a week now. And maybe I didn’t write at all last week, breaking my goal of writing once a week for three months. *shrug* It was a busy week; oh well.

The Olympics have been pretty fun to watch; this is probably the first time I’ve done the whole full TV experience thing. Although I probably spent as much time, if not more, online watching events during Beijing, simply because there’s just so many more events to chose from. The Winter Olympics are a bit slim in that regard.

So far, the Pairs event has finished, and the Men’s gold medal will be decided tonight. Pairs finished exactly as I hoped; with Shen and Zhou, the married couple from China finally taking the gold medal at their fourth Olympic appearance. Talk about dedication! They announced their well-deserved retirement just days after their gold medal, and plan to go home, enjoy their success and each other, and hopefully start a family. They gave so much to the sport and I’m so happy their career ended on such a high. I wish them all the best of success in their new life!

The Men’s free skate is tonight, and it’s going to be a bloodbath out there; I just know it. The top three men are virtually tied, and each one of them are quite capable of either imploding or winning the gold medal. Not to mention the other skaters ranked 4th-6th, whom I’m sure will be giving it everything they’ve got in order to get on the podium. It’s going to be a nail-biter of a final; I’m sure. I just hope that everyone skates their very best, and let the chips fall where they may.

You may have noticed that I’m not really mentioning who I’m rooting for tonight or in future skating events. It’s kind of a superstition I have, almost, even though I know it really means nothing and there’s no such thing as jinxing or anything of the sort. I’ve just found that when I’m really vocal about a certain team or individual, they tend not to win. Although I’m wondering if this “power” I have only applies to team sports, because come to think about it, when I look back, my favorite athletes have tended to actually do really well. But it doen’t really matter. Either way, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out who I was/am rooting for.

On a completely different subject, my training and preparation for the marathon relay in May has been going pretty well; far and beyond my wildest expectations. When I first starting running I seriously doubted if I could do this, but it’s amazing what a little training can do. I started out doing short intervals of running and walking, and believe me, the first two runs were MURDER, and I was only running for a minute at a time! But as I’ve kept at it, I’ve noticed that my stamina and endurance has improved and I’m able to go longer without my heart feeling like it’s about to jump right out of my chest (a very obvious sign of being really out of shape!). I can really feel a difference in my heart rate, and how I’m able to run longer, but not be as tired.

I also changed my mentality a bit; not getting too focused on the aches and pains and instead viewing them as a positive thing; knowing that you HAVE to stretch and tear down muscle and hurt if you want your muscles to get stronger. All with reason, of course. But instead of wimping out at the littlest twinge, I just push through it and I can really feel a difference in that now.

Also, one thing that REALLY helped my running (even though it sounds so silly when I’m typing it now!) was an iPod. Yes, an iPod! I finally caved in and bought one, and the difference in my running has been like night and day. I now have some music to help keep my mind occupied and off the discomfort of running, and time also passes by so much quicker. Music can also help you set a pace and stick to it, and not run too fast or shuffle too slow. Also, I’ve been able to time my runs, which is a HUGE encouragement. The first time I went out with my iPod, I ran for four minutes straight. The next run, my longest run was seven minutes. Yesterday when I went out, I was able to go for 18 minutes without stopping; roughly a mile. I was SO excited! Next time I go out, I want to run 20 minutes; I know I can do it now. If I keep increasing my runs by just a few minutes each time, suddenly running seven miles all at once in two and a half months doesn’t sound so impossible anymore.

So yeah, this week’s traning has been REALLY encouraging to me. I know it won’t always feel this good, and it’s going to hurt a LOT more before this is done. My knee was complaining a bit yesterday every time I went up an incline, because I think I pushed it too far a few days ago when I did a long run (for me) straight out of my warm-up walk, with only a little stretching before. Not very good. So now I know that I need to ease into the running gently. Lots of stretching, then a warm-up walk, then a short run, and then I can run as long as I want. It really makes a difference.

Well, that’s all for now. I will try my very best to update tomorrow after I get back from work! I’m sure you’ll all be dying to find out who I’m rooting for tonight. As if anyone actually reads this.

So I signed up to run this marathon relay. And now I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve lost my mind.

I guess I should probably explain how this all came about. Last year, two gals/ladies/whatever from the Gospel Hall (my church) trained for, and successfully ran, a whole marathon. Crystal is the mother of three and Sarah is seventeen and loads of fun, and together they ran together and accomplished that pretty incredible feat. It was pretty inspiring and yes, I’ll admit that I said to myself, “Well, if Crystal and Sarah can do it, I’m sure that if I tried hard, I could to.”

Fast forward a few months, when Crystal starts batting around the idea of getting a few folks together to run a marathon relay, basically a marathon divided up among four people. What a perfect way to jump-start my career as a champion runner, I thought, and enthusiastically signed up.

Stuff puttered around all winter, and finally got put together and finalized a few weeks ago. I filled out my form and paid my fees, and thought to myself, well, I suppose that now would probably be a good time to start training.

Let me make this clear, very, very clear. I am not a runner. I’m not even an athletic person of any kind. I’m probably the least athletically-inclined person alive, and I say that not out of humility, but out of honest truth.

I signed up to do this run because I thought that A.) it would be fun, and B.) it would be a good way to get more in shape and physically active, and C.) prove to myself that I’m not a fat lazy slob that sits in front of the computer all day. 6.7 miles? Yeah, it would be hard, but I could do it, right?

Right?

Um, got a little too big for my britches, did I.

Last week, figuring that now was as good of a time as any to start my training, I decided to go out running. I could handle a little jog, couldn’t I?

Apparently not!

That first run was an epic disaster, and I say that in ever literal, realistic sense. I did so many things wrong it’s not even funny. For a person who had never really ran before, I probably couldn’t have picked the worst set of circumstances. I didn’t know it at the time, but my course of choice was up an incline. Never, ever, EVER underestimate the power of incline. It’s brutal. The weather was cold, which made breathing hard. I was wearing boots. Yes, boots!

As I trudged along, struggling to run even a few yards, I couldn’t help but scream at myself inside. Who on earth did I think I was?! I couldn’t even handle this little thing! There was no way I could ever run six miles than I could fly!

It was so discouraging. I really didn’t know if I could go through with this. Maybe I just wasn’t cut out to be a runner. Maybe there was something wrong with me. Maybe I really was a lazy pathetic loser.

Hey, enough with the lies! Let’s move on from that depressing first run.

I’m happy to say that it has gotten better. I got advice and encouragement from my fellow runners. I found a training plan that, while it won’t get me to six miles by May 1st, the day of the relay, it should get me to three miles by April, with a goal of improving my stamina and distance so I can run at least half of the relay all at once, and then walk/run the rest of the way. That, to me, is a realistic goal.

I invested in a really nice pair of running shoes, which are working out SO well so far. I bought some proper clothes. I educated myself on proper training technique, including stretching which I cannot stress enough: It really does make a difference!

So far, my very early training has been going well. I know I’m only two runs in and there’s still dozens more to go, with a LOT more difficulty coming, but we all have to start somewhere. My goal right now is to run/walk three miles every other day, doing interval training and gradually increasing my run ratio until I’m running the whole way. Then I’ll move onto six mile walks/runs, hopefully shortening the walk portions as much as I can until the actual relay.

I know actually running the whole thing is a bit of a realistic stretch for me at the moment. But that’s okay. I’m going to try my very best, and if I can’t do it, it won’t be for lack of effort.

I know it’s going to be painful and tiring, but I really am looking forward to getting more in shape and doing a really fun event with a bunch of really great people.

Now, I’d really appreciate if the weather would up and cooperate and start being nice. I had to run in the snow today and it was not. fun. at. all. Sunny California, I think I might finally miss thee!

So I’m sitting here at the computer, quite blank as to what I should write about this week. After griping to myself mentally for months about how I always had so much I wanted to share but never had the time to write, once I actually start blogging regularly, I exhaust my list of “good” ideas in less than three weeks.

Pathetic, no?

Plus, today has just been one of “those” days. Not that it was bad, just…one of those days. I didn’t have to work, so I’m sitting here at home with noting really to do. And yet I feel oddly bereft and…off today.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s 22 degrees outside and snowing. Color me shivering.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I wasn’t able to successfully complete the Journey Challenge because I’m a hopeless procrastinator and lazy to boot. (I’m still going to finish before January is over, mind you…I HATE failure. )

Maybe it has to do with the fact that January seemed like such a busy month and I hardly got any of the things done this month that I wanted to. My new forum is supposed to open in two months and I didn’t do a single. bit. of . work. on it. all. stinkin’. month. *headdesk*

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I signed up for a marathon relay in May that really isn’t such a difficult task when you think about it (only seven miles! ), but when you couple in the fact that I’m probably the most un-athletic person on the planet and I think I might stink at running and I’m quite possibly going to have my butt whipped by kids half my age there, yeah, it’s a little daunting!

But maybe the reason why it’s been “one of those days” is because I’ve just had too much time on my hands today and not enough work. ) I get moody and introspective when I have days like that.

Anyway, since I couldn’t really come up with anything better to talk about at the moment, and the frigid winter weather outside is being at least a little inspiring if not exactly desirable, I thought I’d share some photos I took about two weeks ago.

We had what I believe was a freezing fog, or some kind of frost. Either way, I’d never seen it before. Every tree for miles and miles was coated in frost, very light and delicate and spiky.

It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. God’s creation is so amazing; it just took my breath away.

That’s one thing that I really love about living in Illinois…you really get to see some very incredible variances in weather that you don’t usually get to see in California. Snow, frost, freezing rain…some of it is just awe-inspiring and amazing.

Every time I see a snowflake, I can’t help but think about how God made them so that no two snowflakes are exactly alike. Just like He made each one of us unique; with no two human beings being exactly the same. When you think about how many snowflakes there are, has been, and will be…that our God could be so powerful and amazing to make each one different…

… I guess that if He cares that much about snowflakes, how could I ever doubt how much He cares about me?

Recently, I’ve been on a bit of a free stuff kick. And I’m beating myself up for not getting on it sooner.

I’m trying to figure out how exactly we got started on it. I think it was on Facebook, when someone posted a huge list of restaurants and establishments that offer freebies on your birthday. I signed up for nearly all of them, and got the rest of the family hooked on it as  well. I haven’t had my birthday yet since signing up, but the other kids have and some of them made out like bandits. Did you know Benihana’s offers a VERY nice birthday perk where you get a free meal up to $30? That’s by far one of the best birthday freebies out there. Other really nice ones are offered by Cold Stone, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, and more. You can find all the information for signing up for these freebies here.

But anyway, back to free stuff. The big list of birthday freebies I just linked you to came from a site called Hey, It’s Free!, a site dedicated to finding out all the offers for free stuff over the net and compiling it in once place.

Around October or November, we (Ruth and I) really started keeping track of the stuff on HIF and signing up for various freebies and deals that came by. Since most things come in the mail 1-2 months after you sign up for it, there was quite a long period between when we started oping in for things and when we started receiving them. Ruth signed up for things a while before I did, so she started getting mail in December. Everything from granola bar samples to eyeshadow. But I never got anything, because I didn’t really start signing up for things until she started getting mail.

Anyway, this week marked the end of my “waiting period” and I got quite a few freebies in the mail! It was very exciting, you see.

The first freebie I got didn’t actually come from HIF, but from a General Mills market research group called Pssst. I’d heard some good things about the group (how they were pretty generous with samples and didn’t expect too much in return), so I signed up last month and received my first product from them a week ago. It was for their YoPlait Frozen Smoothies, and they sent me a coupon for a free bag, plus a bunch of coupons to use and hand out to others.

It took me a bit to redeem my coupon for the actual product because my Target doesn’t carry them, and every time I went to Walmart they were either out, or they didn’t have the one I wanted. Finally I was able to get my hands on it, and I made the smoothie that night.

It was pretty good! I’m not a huge smoothie fan, but I loved the berries and the yogurt nuggets gave it a very nice “ice cream-y” taste. The smoothie mix itself is a bit pricey and I’m not sure I’d pay full price for it myself, not being a smoothie lover, but it was definitely very nice to try it and if you like fresh smoothies, you’ll like this.

The next set of freebies came all at yesterday, and was quite a surprise because it had been so long since I’d requested them that I’d forgotten all about them. One was from Stacy’s Pita Chips, with a coupon for a free bag, and the other one was from the makers of International Delight, a coffee creamer company, with a coupon for a free pint. Ruth had signed up for that freebie too, so we were able to get two pints.

I don’t drink coffee, so I can’t comment on the creamer. I only got them because I know Dad would like them. And I have to say, if the creamer tastes as good as the packaging looks, it probably is delicious.

The Stacy’s Pita Chips…oh my goodness, where do I start? They were AMAZING! I have to say, giving out those free bags was such a smart idea, because now I’m hooked and I’ll probably have to go back and buy the full priced bags soon. I got the cheddar flavored kind, and it was SO good. They had other kinds too…plain, cinnamon, garlic parmesan herb, and more. They ALL looked good. PW, my favorite blogger, was sponsored by Stacy’s a while ago and talked about them quite a bit, but i never bought the hype. Now I will gladly rescind my previous scoffer’s attitude. These chips are AMAZING.

Oh, and I believe all of these freebies were gotten via Facebook. I think companies are just starting to realize the power of social networking, and are offering more freebies and incentives directly on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Nestles Crunch is running a HUGE promotion on Facebook right now where if you play a little quiz game around noon every day and rack up 1000 points, you can win a free Nestles Crunch bar, via a coupon sent to you in the mail. Ruth and I have been doing this deal for the last two weeks and should be starting to get our coupons any day now.  Considering that this promotion lasts until sometime in March, I have a feeling we’re going to have a LOT of chocolate.

But back to the present, that was all the straight-out freebies I got yesterday. I also got a coupon book from Nestles Inc., but most of the coupons expired at the end of December. Oh well. There were still some that are good this year that I can use. I’ve also got a cleaning supply-themed coupon book that has some pretty nice discounts in it.

Speaking of coupons, I have officially started becoming a bit of a coupon geek. I never, ever used them until I started working at Target, and couldn’t ignore the great deals you can get just by printing out a piece of paper from your computer. I don’t do the housekeeping (i.e do the spending) and I don’t get the newspaper coupon inserts, but I’ve been able to save quite a bit of money just from Internet coupons. Most of them were for quick and easy lunches for me to take to work. Almost every day I work I have to take a meal, and I’ve stocked up on quite a bit of soup and frozen meals. Thanks to coupons, I’ve only had to spend a fraction on food than what I might have had to normally.

Like I said, I don’t do as much coupons as others. I don’t get inserts, I really only buy for myself, and I do most of my shopping at Target and occasionally Walmart…I haven’t even touched stores like CVS or Walgreens. I’m sure that if I were housekeeping, I would go all out and I would make a KILLING just by using coupons.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see what other freebies I get in the mail soon. I signed up for quite a bit so hopefully it will start arriving soon. I can’t remember half of what I requested, but I know there was some lip gloss and Uni-Ball pens involved. :p

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and see if there’s any crumbs left of my fabulous Stacy’s Pita Chips. Man, that stuff was GOOD!

So I started a job back in October. My first real job, to be exact. Six months ago, if you’d asked me if I ever saw myself working outside the home in this situation, I’d have said absolutely no way. But things sort of worked themselves out, and both my parents and I felt like it was what God wanted me to do at the time. It’s not the most ideal job, but right now it’s fulfilling a need; a need for me to be busy and supporting myself while I wait on the Lord and see what the next step is.

But anyway. I’m a cashier at Target, a familiar establishment to my family since my brother Nathan worked there as an overnight stocker several years ago. Well, he worked for Target; not at this same store, obviously.

I like my job a lot. It’s quite interesting, and it’s never dull or boring unless there’s guests to assist, in which case time just drags. Fortunately, we’re rarely in that situation, so the shifts go by fairly quickly.

It’s not really hard work. At first I was a bit apprehensive, because I’m not really a people person and I wasn’t sure how complicated cashiering would be. The good news is that cashiering here is mostly dummy proof, and the parts that aren’t dummy proof are fairly simple to learn. And the best thing is, there’s always other people around to which whom you can “pass the buck” if a situation is beyond your knowledge.

I’ve been at Target for about three months now, and here are  some random observations I’ve made over time.

• Contrary to popular opinion, people talking on their cell phones during check-out doesn’t really bother me that much. There are far, far worse things a person could be doing, trust me. :p As long they are aware of what they are doing, and acknowledge any questions I may have for them, it’s fine. It’s when they’re completely oblivious to their surroundings and stand there yakking while I’m waiting patiently for them to finish putting their items on the belt, or pay, that really aggravates me.
• Black Friday wasn’t that awful, for me anyway. Granted, I stayed put in one place the whole morning and my job was fairly focused and organized. I know that for others, who had to run here and there, Black Friday was a nightmare. But apart from getting up at 4am, it wasn’t really so bad. I’ve worked worse shifts. :p
• I don’t like bagging big, bulky toys. Which is why I can’t wait until this big inventory sale is OVER. I also don’t really like bagging groceries.  I usually try to keep frozen and refrigerated items separated and sorted while I’m bagging, but if a guest is just chucking their items pell-mell on the belt, there’s usually too much for me to process to keep things completely separated. But I do try.
• I much prefer for it to be not too busy, not too quiet, but just steady. There is NOTHING more mind-numbingly boring than standing around waiting for guests. I try and keep busy by putting re-shop away, keeping the area clean, etc., but there’s only so much you can do.
• People stick their re-shop in the ODDEST places. Re-shop is, by the way, items that people pick up in the store, and then discard later when they decide they don’t want it. It’s particularly bad up by the check-lanes, because people will stat going through their stuff and start picking out the things they don’t want. At Target, we have boxes under the register to put re-shop items in, and we very MUCH prefer for guests to hand us their unwanted items, rather than chuck them on the nearest end-cap or display. It’s very annoying, but also a little interesting to go through the check-lanes during a quiet moment and see all the junk that people have thrown each and every way. Some people are worse than others. One group of families were shopping together, and before going to check out, they starting ging through their items and throwing tons of unwanted things on an end-cap. Even as I was there, right next to them, silently removing the items and putting them in my re-shop cart, they kept doing it. *headdesk*
• When I first started working, my back KILLED me and I wanted to sit down all the time. Now, I’ve adjusted a bit and it’s not so bad, really. Everyone says that their feet and legs always hurt them in a job like this, but mine have always been fine; it’s just my back and neck that kills me. You learn very quickly not to slouch because it is horrible for your posture and general well-being. :p
• I’ve worked up at Guest Service a few times, and it’s a LOT harder than cashiering, simply because there are so many more variables and situations.

Well, that’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure there’s more, a LOT more, but time is waning and I’m actually due at work in 45 minutes. So with that, I shall bid you adieu, and give you a word of advice: Always, always, give your unwanted items to the cashier. He or she will be deeply grateful.

On this day, four years ago, Spareoom.net opened to the public. Normally I wouldn’t really be making much fuss about this, but lil’ Spareoom.net has been on my mind a lot recently, thanks to some big, big updates/changes coming within the next few months. Four years in, and now Spareoom.net is about to get a new purpose, and I’m excited and terrified all at the same time!

The last four years have been so much fun. Sure, there were parts that nearly made me throw in the towel, like the infamous Site Meltdown of ‘08. But the fantastic parts more than made up for it, like seeing the site take off and grow beyond my wildest imaginings.

It’s been real, it’s been fun, it’s been real fun. Sure, 4 years is pretty special…but, Lord willing, I hope that by the 5th anniversary, we’ll have something extra special to look back on.

Further up and further in!

Note: This was written shortly after NaNo ended, in November, but I haven’t been able to get it transcribed and posted until now. Enjoy anyway!

Thirty days. Fifty thousand words. One incredible journey.

Welcome, my friends, to the wonderful event that is known as NaNoWriMo!

The National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as it is more commonly known as, is a crazy writing event that has been running for around eleven years. The goal: To write a novel of 50k words or more during, and only during, the month of November.

It’s a huge task; something that requires dedication, time and most of all, the unstable desire to win at all costs. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people join up, all hoping to cross the finish line and declare themselves victors over the world of noveling. But many fall by the wayside, and only a small fraction (less than twenty percent) will actually be named official winners.

I first heard of NaNoWriMo in 2006, I think, incidentally the first year that the event really went “mainstream” and became more well-known. I heard about it too late in the month to participate, but I thought it was an interesting and intriguing idea. I’d always wanted to write a novel, so this challenge seemed right up my alley and would be something I might want to do someday.

The next year, 2007, I was right in the middle of moving across the  country, and naturally undertaking such an enormous task was not an option. So, once again, I had to postpone my dreams and say, “Next year.”

That “next year” was 2008, when I participated in my first NaNoWriMo. It was such a crazy, insane month; it’s hard to sum it up in a few words I wrote a story that I’d had in my mind for several years. I’d been waiting for an opportunity to get it written…now was the time.

Going into that November, I was really feeling the pressure to actually finish. It just wasn’t a project to me. I’d tried to write novels before many times, but I’d never gotten far. If I couldn’t do it during NaNo, with tons of support and a killer deadline (I work well under deadlines. ), I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it. It was make it or break it time.

Well, thankfully it wasn’t break it time. Spurred on  by my own ambitions and by some healthy, fun competition from fellow NaNo’ers, I crossed the 50k threshold on Nov. 16, 2008. During the rest of the month, I went on to write 15k more, for a total of 65k. For someone who was hoping just to win, I went far and beyond my own expectations. It was exhilarating and so rewarding, and I couldn’t wait to do it again.

Well, another year did pass, and here November was again. This NaNoWriMo was so different from last year in so many different ways. I thought that since I’d done it once before, I knew what to expect and doing it again would be a breeze.

Wrong!

I’ve since learned that every writing experience is different. So much is dependent on not only what you’re writing, but also a whole host of other things; the people you have around you, the place you are in life, and other variables that are beyond your control.

One of the biggest things that made things so difficult this year was my novel itself. Last year, I wrote a very light, fluffy, fun book named Golden Dreams. It had it’s moments, of course, but all in all, it was quite upbeat and cheerful. Plus, I was writing about a sport that I enjoyed and knew fairly well, and t hat sport figured very heavily into the story.

This year, novel, named Spirals, was so different. The only thing it really had in common with Golden Dreams was the fact that it had an Olympic level sport in it. But even though my main character was a figure skater, her sport was not as prominent. Her life and character outside of sport was much more important, and that is what was difficult to write.

My story was heavy, folks! Lots of tears and grief and sadness. I discovered that the mood of one’s story can have a profound effect on one’s own mood and enjoyment of said story. In that respect, this NaNo was so much less fun for me to participant in because my story itself wasn’t as fun.

But, again, that isn’t a necessarily bad thing. I feel much more satisfied and rewarded as a writer with Spirals than I did with Golden Dreams. I think it’s a good story, and someday, Spirals may go places.

But I’m skipping ahead of myself. I know t hat back in November, I said that I was thinking about blogging during NaNo. I didn’t, obviously. Every time I thought about blogging, I’d smack myself upside the head and say, “Hey! Instead of blogging, you could spend the time, oh, I don’t know, maybe actually WRITING YOUR NOVEL instead!!!”

So yeah. No blogging.

But, I’d like to re-create that week-by-week style a bit and recap my NaNo experience from the beginning. So sit back, and enjoy!

The Lead-Up:

I started to get excited for this NaNo around September, I think. Which is a little bad, because it’s hard to maintain that growing level of excitement and anticipation for such a long period of time.

This year, I knew exactly what I wanted to write. I’d be doing another story I’d had in my mind for years; one I’d thought about writing last year but had postponed because I deemed it “too depressing”. Ha. ha. How little I knew. :p

As September went on and October began, I got more and more excited. I got all my material on order. I got my profile on NaNoWriMo.org all set up and ready to go. I donated for the very first time, and wore my golden halo proudly. I was so ready for November!

And then Worlds came.

Worlds (The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, if you didn’t already know) killed my NaNo anticipation completely, as wonderful as that competition was. I re-discovered my love for gymnastics, and suddenly I was spending more time on gym forums than on the NaNo site. Suddenly, I was regretting that I was writing a skating story and not a gymnastics story instead!

As October drew to a close, my excitement began to come back, but it was came slowly, and not to the extent that I had thought it would be. I had a definite conflict of interesting my new job which I had just started, plus I was expecting o not having as much time to write as last year.

As the hours ticked down from October 31st, I was very uncertain and unsure as to how NaNoWriMo ‘09 might end up playing out. At that moment, I would be lucky just to get to 50k, let alone the 65k or very distant 80k I’d been hoping for.

Week One

NaNo started out a little quietly, without any major fuss. I was still regaining my excitement for the whole project and wasn’t feeling the hype and adrenaline rush that you normally do at the start of NaNo. What if I ever got my passion to write back and this NaNo fizzled before it even began?

Then came Menelve, my Screnzy partner, fellow NaNo-er and late-night chatter came along. “Why don’t we go for 10k in two days?” she suggested.

Ha ha. Are you freakin’ KIDDING?!?!?!

But here’s something that I discovered about myself during November: I am incapable of  backing down from a challenge.

Oh, I hated it. I fought and protested it. I told her, “No way, Jose!”, in that many words. But mo matter how hard I tried, by the time the sun rolled around on Nov. 1st, I was already plotting on how I could realistically get to 10k by the next night. Against my will.

But I did it. Not by midnight, but before I went to bed on the 2nd. And you know what? It was just the shot in the arm that I needed to get my NaNo started and on the right track.

I managed to keep the pace up, and was able to drag myself across the 25k line before the week was out. I was half-way done…I should have been ecstatic! But I was miserable.

Well, not really. But the ‘un-fun’ part of my plot was coming back to bite me in the rear. Because I was writing in first person, I had to try and conjure up all the emotions of my main character up inside myself in order to describe them perfectly. I remember when I was writing one particularly emotional and sad scene, and I was thisclose to bursting into sobs. I’ve NEVER done that before with writing.

My actual novel was progressing nicely, but the writing experience itself wasn’t very fun and exhilarating…it was hard!

Week Two

After pushing to get to 25k by the end of the first week, I started the second week on a high. I cranked out the next 5k to make 30k so easily; it was insane. I was doing so well, and everything was going great!

And then I hit a brick wall.

This, my friends, is why I firmly believe that every NaNo writer hits their own version of the infamous “second week slump”, regardless of timing or word count. My second week slump lasted from 30k to 50k for me. Ouch. And it was so frustrating.

I kept writing, but I had no motivation. I’m a person who really thrives on friendly competition and needs it to stay motivated to push ahead. It had worked so well for me last NaNo. This time, though, thanks to my huge push early on, I had “out-written” all of my other writing buddies and there was no one to really challenge me.

So I had to find a way to challenge myself, and I did that by committing to make it to 50k by Sunday night. That would be 14k in three days; more than I’d ever written in that span of time before. Figure in the fact that I was also working on those days, or would be away for a significant portion, and we’re taking a pretty difficult job.

It was really daunting, but I sat down and got it done. I was able to finish in good time on Sunday, and beat my previous NaNo record by one day.

I was so proud of myself, not only just for finishing, but for setting my own goal and making it. It showed me that I didn’t necessarily need others to push me…I could push myself.

I’d completed the NaNo challenge…but not my novel. I still had SO much left to write, and two weeks in which to do it.

Week Three

Week Three is when NaNo really got fun for me, to be honest. I’d gotten my 50k, and the pressure was off. Now I had to finish, but that was becoming more and more doable, and a lot more enjoyable.

My direct competition with other NaNo’ers was pretty small. I’d had to go outside my group of close writing friends to find other Narniaweb NaNoWriMo’s who were on the same pace as I. But even then, my stupid overachiever status kept me from feeling any real motivation from them,  so I was back to self-motivating. But it was more satisfying and fulfilling now.

My focus in the event began to shift from my own NaNo success, to the success of others. Now that my own win was secure, I was determined to help and cheer on as many others across the line as possible. As the “advertiser” of NaNo on Narniaweb, I became more and more excited as I tracked others success and saw how many were winning, or were coming close to winning.

One of the most exciting and special parts of the whole “encourager” role involved my dear friend who goes by the name Ellesar online. She had chatted with me nearly every night that month, and a fair bit last year during my first NaNo, and this year I was able to see her cross the finishing line to win her first NaNo ever. I can’t take any credit for her accomplishment, but it was just so exciting and fun to be there and cheer her on.

Other NWeb NaNo’ers crossed the finish line or neared it in Week Three, and I got more and more excited. NWeb had participated in NaNoWriMo before in various capacities. But never with this amount of participants, or with this degree of success. I couldn’t wait to see how we would shape up once NaNo was  over.

As for my own writing, the week was fairly uneventful. I just kept going; smashing my own expectations with every 5k written. I’d gotten over the hardest part of my novel, and my plot and writing was actually becoming (gasp!) enjoyable!

Week Four

All month, I’d set Week 4, or Thanksgiving week, as the cut-off. I knew I was going to be extraordinarily busy that week, and I mentally told myself that no writing could be counted on to get done during that week. So I had my own deadline, apart from the NaNo deadline, and it was coming fast.

Week 4 was here, and my novel wasn’t done. Just getting to 50k wasn’t enough; I had to finish. It was Write A Novel challenge, not a Write 50k challenge. So I kept writing, even though the week got busier and busier.

As I went on, I surprised even myself more and more by just how successful I was. I would have been happy with finishing my novel at 50k. But here I was, past 60k, past 70k, and with 80k fast approaching. By all calculations, I became the NWebber with the highest word count, which put me officially in the “Certifiably Insane” category. It was all really surprising and pretty humbling. I didn’t realize I had it in me to write so much.

I finished my novel on Thanksgiving day, at 82k. I took the weekend off, and then used Monday, the very last day of NaNo, to finish an abandoned scene and make my official word count 83,071. NaNoWriMo ‘09 was over. And I’d surpassed even my most wild imaginations.

The Aftermath

After the dust settled, the results and stats emerged and they were staggering. We had around 50 participants from Narniaweb, with 33 winners. The success rate was incredible! Together, we wrote a total of over two million words.

To me, that was almost more exiting than winning NaNo myself. Thirty-three individuals had just experienced the incredible joy that is writing a whole entire novel. That’s a feeling that is so hard to describe, and now completing this challenge for the second time, I was thrilled for everyone one who won as well, especially the first-time winners.

In my own personal front, I’d done what I thought was nearly impossible and learned some things about myself. I learned that i don’t need endless amounts of time to write so much in so little time…around 95% of my writing was done only between the hours of 8pm and 12am. That’s four hours of writing a day, and I averaged over 3.5k a day. And I know that I can write more, because mathematically, I can write over 3k an hour, if I really need to. And I didn’t even go near that pace this NaNo. That encourages me, because I know that with even less time and more obligations, I can still write 50k in a month, maybe ev3en more.

I’m much more satisfied with the result of this NaNo, novel-wise. This was a much harder story to write, but ultimately a better one. I didn’t execute it as well as I would have liked, but I think this story has potential. And someday, maybe, this novel could go places.

As for the future? Upwards and onwards, I hope. In the spring I’ll begin revising and editing, with the aim to get a free proof copy published in June. That’s as far as this little NaNo will go, for the present, but who knows.

I hope to participate in my second Script Frenzy in April. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be writing, but one possibility is a screen adaption of this year’s NaNo.

And next November will be NaNo ‘10, hopefully! Lord willing and circumstances allow, I hope to write for my third year. Seeing as I will likely be very, very busy with the looming VdT release and whatnot in early December, I’m fairly sure that whatever I write will be fairly simple and easy. Maybe a sequel to last year’s NaNo, or a little nonsense novel based on my pet child “story”.

Whatever it ends up to be, I’m excited. I’m a writer; co-author of a full-length book-to-movie adaption and author of two novels.

….

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and someday a published author. And slowly but surely, thanks to a little program based in San Francisco, my dream is coming true.

Well, as I’m sure you’ve obviously noticed, it’s not 2009 anymore. It is, in fact, 2010, which means that it’s a whole new year, with lots of new things happening.

This is the year that, as a kid, I thought would never get here…the year I turn twenty. Egad, that’s practically ancient. But yet here I am, a mere four months away from that momentous occasion. Exciting? Yes. Scary? Are you KIDDING?!?

Time seems to keep rushing by…it seems to have sped up considerably since I was ten years old. :p I’m almost out of my teens, yet I don’t feel that way. On one hand, adulthood seems exciting and full of endless possibilities. I genuinely am excited to see what God has in store for the greater part of my life. But on the other hand, it’s slightly scary to be in this position because I feel like I ought to be much more mature, much more spiritual, much more…put together, than I am. I suppose that I always assumed that someday, somewhere down the line, I’d just wake up and realize that I was an adult.

Sadly, that magic moment of awakening has not yet come, and life keeps hurtling forward. I’m almost out of my teens. I have a job. I have plans; small plans made to keep me occupied and busy until God has shown me what He wants me to do. Because I still don’t know yet. I’ve seen what God can do when I turn my life and schedule over to Him and let Him plan it. But here’s a whole new year, empty, yet also busy at the same time.

What all this rambling above means? I don’t really know either. I’m still very much in a “wait-and-see” mode; waiting on God and keeping myself busy in the meantime. I’ve been so incredibly blessed and I know that whatever happens, God is faithful.

Sometimes I think about what my life could have been, if things had gone in a different direction last year, or the year before, and I wonder, “Why, God? It would have been so perfect.”

But deep in my heart, I know that it didn’t happen for a very specific reason. Precisely, because God simply did not want it to happen. I can’t think of any other explanation. Therefore, I can only assume that instead of that other opportunity, God has something else planned for me. I just don’t know what yet. Maybe I’ll find out this year; maybe not. But no matter what happens, I want to make the best use of my time as possible; not letting any moment go to waste. I want to be able to look back on 2010 and thing, “That was a good, fruitful year.”

I want to see God work in my life more than ever before this year. I want to fall more deeply in love with God than ever. I want to study Him, learn more about Him; bask in His presence and love. I want to see God’s hand work  in the lives of the friends and family around me. I hope and pray that He can use me as His instrument; a means of touching and blessing others. My own life is insignificant and worthless in the grand scheme of things. But if I allow myself to be an empty vessel that God can fill with Himself, I know that He can use me to impact the world, one person at a time.

And really, what more can a person want than that?

I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions. They’ve always seemed more like opportunities to make grand promises and resolutions that you know you very well don’t really intend to follow through on.

This year, though, I am making a list of goals, not only for this year, but for the next three years. This was partially inspired by my friends Carrie and Melinda’s Day Zero project. There’s something strangely exhilarating about making a list of 101 things and saying, “by the time 1,00 days are gone, I will have completed this list.”

I’m not going for exactly 101 items, and I’ve kept my list limited to a vague, “By the time I am 23….”. I’m pretty goal and deadline driven, so this is perfect to get my tush in gear and get some things done that I’ve always wanted to do.

I haven’t got my list finished yet, and I may post it later on. I will tell you what the first item is, though. In an effort to get back into the blogging grove (actually, was I ever in it to begin with?!), I hereby purpose to blog once a week for at least three months. It should be a bit of an easy pass because A.) It’s a slow time for my job, and B.) the Olympics are next month and I’ll be doing quite a bit of Gymfan’s Figure Skating Blather blogging. But either way, it will be a good motivation for me to keep writing.

I’ve been working on some small goals that I’d like to get done during the month of January, and here they are (subject to change of course!)

• Get the technical/design aspects of my new forum completed
• Start editing on my NaNo
• Memorize Colossians 3

That ought to keep me fairly busy, I think. And if I get it done soon, I can get a jump-start on February’s list!

Well, I apologize for the disjointedness and roughness of this blog post; I just sat down and started writing. I will be back within seven days…should I be a good  girl and count this post for last week’s, or be technically correct and call it this weeks? Well, since I still have at least two drafts sitting in my dashboard waiting to be finished, I guess I can resolve to finish those this week.

Wishing you all the most blessed year ever!

Have you ever heard of Kayla Williams before? I mean, from something or someone other than me. No? Well, don’t feel badly. I didn’t know about her until two months ago. And five months ago, by gymnastics standards, she didn’t even exist.

In elite American gymnastics, star gymnasts are typically identified very early. They either train at a world-class gym by the best coaches, or participate in TOPs, a skills-based program that brings talented athletes to the attention of USAG. These gymnasts will be ear-marked early on, and watched carefully as the progress through the ranks before testing to junior elite at a young age. By the time these gymnasts reach the age of being able to compete in the senior ranks, they are already well-known by the gymnastics public and officials.

Generally if an athlete doesn’t test into elite before they are fourteen or so, it’s very difficult for them to be noticed by the right people and be able to attend the right competitions that can put them on the correct track for a successful elite career. If a gymnast intends to compete elite at all, they will do that early on so as to get experience.

But Kayla didn’t. For whatever reason, elite was never really in her goals. A lot of that might have had to do with the fact that she wasn’t age-eligible for Beijing anyway. If she’d been a year older, it’s possible that her coach might have seized that opportunity and pointed her towards the elite path. But she wasn’t, and since most gymnasts who just miss out on one Olympics rarely make it to the next, Kayla and her coach steered her gymnastics goals in other, very manageable routes. She’d be perfect in the NCAA circuit, someone must have thought. And so she was groomed for Level 10, the level below international elite in the US, and the level that all collegiate athletes compete at.

Kayla did very well at Level 10. She reached that level when she was 13, I believe. I know the first year she made it to the Junior Olympic Nationals (the biggest competition for a L10 athlete) she ranked, but not medaled. The second year, 2008, she made it to JO Nats again and took second place. And her third year competing, this past May, she went to JO Nats and took the all-around title as well as several medals on other events.

Somewhere along the line, someone (her coach?) must have realized that there was a lot more that Kayla was capable of. She had won the ultimate competition in L10; there was really no way to go up except for elite. And she wouldn’t be going to college for at least two years; maybe three. Somewhere, somehow, her coach had her start training elite-level skills.

Kayla’s story is not that well known, which is why my facts are a bit muddled. I’ve heard that Kayla tried out for elite before this summer, but didn’t make it. I haven’t been able to verify that, though. I’ve also heard that Marta saw Kayla at JO Nats this year, saw her power and what she was capable of, and advised her coach to get her to an elite qualifier. I’ve also heard that her coach tried to get Kayla invited to the National Team Training Camps multiple times before this year. I don’t know how much fact is in all of these things, but I suspect that there’s a bit of truth to all of them. Marta was desperate for someone to fill the gap on vault and floor that was made when Alicia Sacramone retired, and Kayla, with her insane power and already polished double-twisting-yurchenko vault (a VERY hard vault and an international standard), seemed to be a likely candidate. Marta had others she was keeping her eye on as well, though, so Kayla was just an inclusion to a large pool of girls that Marta was trying to pick a new star from.

All we DO know is that Kayla did go to an elite qualifier in June, and passed. She was then invited to the Cover Girl Classic in August, a qualifying competition to Nationals.

I watched Classics, and I remember that Kayla was shown on a few events. I didn’t have a flying clue who this girl was, obviously. But then again, I didn’t really know who anyone was except the great Nastia Liukin and her fellow cohorts. That Kayla was good was clear. That she was pretty rough on various aspects was also clear. Competing Level 10 and competing elite are two vastly different things.  There’s a whole different mindset, and training methods that are instituted when one is generally fairly young. After Kayla had made elite and had gone to a training camp with Marta, the first change that Marta made was Kayla’s floor routine. She thought that Kayla needed something a little more sophisticated. So Kayla’s college-type routine was ditched for a hastily-put-together routine set to music that didn’t really fit her. Considering that Kayla only had had her new routine for around two months by the time Classics came along, you have to respect the way she was able to make it work and do her best.

Kayla qualified handily to Nationals, probably expected from Marta, but a nice surprise for her. You have to understand where Kayla was coming from. A few months before, Level 10 had been her whole life. She hadn’t really thought beyond competing at that level and joining a great college team. Now she was thrown into the world of elite; the world of her idols that she’d watched on TV the summer before. And not only was she competing with the likes of Nastia Liukin, but she was actually GOOD at what she was doing. She was getting good scores. And now she was going to the US National Championships, with the outside possibility of maybe making the World Championship team because of her phenomenal vaulting ability. A little crazy for a sixteen year old to process, right?

Kayla did very well at Nationals, winning vault (by default, I heard), and ranking in the top 10 all-around. That was more than enough to qualify her to the World team selection camp, where she now had a good shot at making the team.

You really have to be amazed at how things just aligned so perfectly for Kayla this year. Realistically, if everyone who had competed at Nationals had been healthy enough, the would have gotten the spot to London over Kayla. Sam Pezek had an amazing vault and Chellsie and Nastia could have taken a spot easily if they’d been more prepared. But for various reasons, they all dropped out, leaving a spot empty, and that spot went to none other than Kayla Williams.

From Level 10 to elite, to World team member, all in five months. Pretty amazing, huh?

But wait! It gets better.

As Worlds approached, buzz around Kayla began to build and build. People who had been going, “Kayla who?” just a few weeks before, were now scrambling to find out as much info on this girl as they could. They discovered that this unknown gymnast from West Virginia had vaults that were capable with competing with the reigning Olympic Champion. Given the current vaulting field, this kid just might run away with a world medal; and not just any medal; maybe even a GOLD medal. NOW things were really getting crazy!

And they just got crazier and crazier. Kayla performed really well in qualifications on the two events she was slated to compete, vault and floor. She barely missed out on qualifying to the floor exercise final, and qualified first to the vault finals, with a nearly textbook perfect DTY and a rough but completed second vault (Barani, I think?). You have to give her a little slack when you realize that she just learned that second vault within the last few months to make her competitive on an elite level.

But that was just qualifications. The best was yet to come.

Vault finals was the first individual apparatus final competed for the women, and Kayla was slated to compete fairly early on, but after Hong Un Jong, her main rival. This was good for her, as it would put more pressure on Un Jong to pull out all the stops and give her more chances for error. And that’s exactly what happened, with the reigning Olympic gold medalist on this event crashing on both her vaults.

And then it was Kayla’s turn. She competed her newer vault first. Her form was a little sloppy in the air, but her landing was quite solid and in control. That is one area where Kayla had an advantage on her competitors. Level 10 has always emphasized stuck landings, whereas elites were never deducted for steps until this year. Since Kayla was already used to sticking her elements, the adjustment wasn’t as hard for her as it was for others.

With her first vault done and under her belt, it was now time for Kayla to pull out her masterpiece. She ran down the vault and completed a beautiful DTY that was about as perfect as I’ve ever seen it done. I could get nit-picky about one or two elements about it if I wanted to, but even the harshest critic would have to agree that DTY’s are rarely competed that well.

And she stuck it the landing cold, too!

The absolute elation and relief on her face after she finished was such a joy to see. She ran off the podium and leaped into her coaches arms. She’d been so calm and cool the whole competition; so admirable for a gymnast at her very first international competition, let alone the World Championships. But now that her competition was done, she was able to let her focus down and you could see the emotions tumble out of her. There were not a few teary eyes that day, not to mention her own. Such an incredible, but overwhelming experience for a young girl!

She won, of course. There was no one else who could challenge her scores. Kayla Williams walked away with the gold medal, her first international medal ever (and what a medal it was!), and she had the distinction of winning the USA’s first ever title on that event. Alicia Sacramone had come close several times, but it was Kayla Williams who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, to take away the gold medal.

It’s such a Cinderella story, really. What are the odds? In May, she’d been a Level 10 gymnast; with no elite aspirations whatsoever. And now here she was, in October, the World Champion on vault. This is the stuff made of dreams and fairy-tales. An unlikely fairytale, but a true one nonetheless!

I think that what impresses me most about Kayla is not just her gymnastics, but her raw talent and potential, not to mention her wonderful personality. She seems lke such  a sweet and genuinely kind person, so grateful for the opportunities that she’s been able to have because of her sport. I saw a lovely set of interviews she did at Nationals, and they were so fun to watch. Kayla really seemed to be over the moon just to be at Nationals; I can only IMAGINE what being in London must ave been like, not to mention actually winning!

What’s exciting about Kayla is that realistically, she has a lot more that she could do. Having  competed in the L10 ranks for so long, she’s been limited in her gymnastics and what she could do. She’s used to running on a very short vault runway, for example, which makes her powerful vaults all the more amazing. Imagine what she could do if she actually used the whole runway to gain enough speed and power!

She’s shown that she’s still very rough,  gymnastics-wise, as far as elite standards go. Apart from her amazing tumbling skills, her floor exercise routine was not a thing of beauty. She’s also at the disadvantage because she hasn’t had years and years of flexibility and dance training as her now top competitors have. If Kayla wants to prove that her gold medal was no fluke, she’s really going to have to work hard and improve so much in order to stay on top next year.

She’s s till very much a wild-card, which is pretty exciting, I think. We’ve all seen how much she’s been able to improve over the span of a few short months. Imagine if she had a whole year, or years, to improve and perfect elite-level skills and routines! Kayla could bring the house down in every sense of the word.

But, it could also very easily go the other way. Now that she’s won a World title, she’s going to have an enormous amount of pressure placed on her. She benefited from being a bit “innocent” and an underdog going into London; I’ve got a feeling that she may not have realized just how big that was until it was all over. Now, she no longer has the luxury. Every vaulter in the world now wants to beat her, and her specifically.  That’s a lot of pressure for one young girl, and while she’s proved herself to be very focused and steady so far, she might not do so well in the future.

But that’s all what if’s, what if’s. 2010 is going to be a really exciting year for Kayla Williams and USA Gymnastics, I suspect. If Kayla is able to go out there and show that she has not only been able to stay at the same level she was this year, but even improve, that could solidify her spot as a valuable member of team USA and raise her stock, so to speak.

Which is important, if Kayla is entertaining any thoughts of the London Olympics now. Only five girls will be representing the USA at the 2012 Olympics, and because of that, the US can really afford to send one gymnast who competes less than three or four events. Kayla has said herself that she “stinks” at bars, and she’s good, but not amazing, at beam. I think that if she could make her floor routine a medal contender and get her beam routine to Olympic-level, she would stand a very good shot at making an Olympic spot.

But that’s all very, very much in the future. Right now, Kayla needs to focus on staying healthy, and keeping her options open. Maybe, two years down the road, she’ll decide that the Olympic path isn’t for her, and will move on to a fabulous collegiate career. That’s really okay. Whatever makes her happy, makes me happy.

Because when you think about it, she’s already accomplished something amazing. Something that could only have been in her wildest dreams.

No, strike that. Beyond her wildest dreams.

Congratulations, Kayla Williams!!  You’re the new World Champion!

Up Next: The final installment to this ridiculously long recap.