reallife

10 years

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etoiline.com is officially ten years old today. Around midnight, April 24, 2002, I finally completed the transaction for the domain and started working on the website. I was so into it that I forgot the fact that it would renew each year on my parents’ anniversary.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you so much and I’m so glad you’re still together.
Back then, I’d had my last final (probably math or something else engineering related) and most likely track practice (we were trying to qualify for Nationals, which didn’t end up working out, alas) and then I got back to the dorm. I realized that I didn’t have much to do for the next week or so (I got to stay in the dorm a little longer than most since I was a senior and still participating in sports) and I’d wanted to buy a domain for a while, so lo, I did.
The word ‘etoiline’ comes from a story I wrote while I was in high school. Yes, it’s a derivative of the French word for star. The story is probably a trunk novel  by now, but it’s still got a lot of good stuff in it, and I’m sure I’ll be mining it for years to come. One of these days I’ll get around to purchasing a domain with my name in it. But I’m not a famous author yet. I doubt anyone is really looking for me that hard.
I don’t have the first entries from that blog easily available. I was using a different blogging platform at the time, and though the entries are saved, I have no idea where they are. I think they were little things like “Hello, world” and “I read this book today.” The blog hasn’t evolved much 😉
I wanted to a) have a new layout for the site and b) write you a short story, but I’m not the speediest web designer and whenever I try to write short stories they end up being pretty long. So you’ll just have to wait for the new layout and pester me for the next story. Any blog topic ideas are welcome.
Odd to think that it’s been ten years. Ten years since I finished my last college course, as well. How time flies.
Happy birthday to Kate and Gordon, too.
See you at the St. Charles Artwalk this weekend? I hope so. Come keep me company and see great art.

Spellcliff

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NaNo 2011 Winner badge

I know I haven’t said much about NaNo here this year, but it was sort of a busy time, being ML for the St. Louis region and all. For year eight, I wrote another fantasy (of course). Here’s the one-sentence summary:
When a librarian finds a murdered historian in the undocumented vaults of the library, she discovers that magic, unusable for centuries, is returning to the world, and those who once wielded it are returning to take back their homeland.

It kind of ended up being like that, so I guess I stuck to the synopsis better than I have in previous years. Yes, I did manage to actually have a dead body show up in the first chapter right when it was supposed to, as opposed to last year, when I didn’t kill the person I was planning on until the very last section. Planning, it is your friend when writing.
There’s still more to go. I’ll see how many words I can put down tomorrow night, but I’ve got that purple bar of win, and it makes me smile.
Here’s to those of you who took this jaunt into literary abandon with me, and those who are still chugging along. Keep writing, my friends!

(Google+ edit:
Scrivener says 50,148; NaNoWriMo says 50,033. Either way, I just won NaNo for an eighth time.

Anthony MatheniaWay to go Jen on your eighth win! Thanks for all the hard work you do to support others!

Jennifer ShewThanks +Anthony Mathenia for all your good posts this year! I don’t know where you found the time 😉 Congrats to you too.

Yesterday

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Yesterday was like any other day. It was Sunday, so I could sleep in. I met up with some friends for an early lunch, read a book or two, did some laundry, worked out, did my part to stimulate the American economy, watched a couple of movies. Aside from the hopefully not stray cat* it was a pretty normal day.

But it seemed weird that it was normal. It was September 11th, and it seemed like there should have been something that stood out to mark the tenth anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers. But Mike and I rather studiously avoided any network tv, not wanting to see the memorials, we didn’t talk about it, and nothing else felt different. Of course 9/11 was at the back of my mind the entire time. But it was just another day.
I know that for some people, 9/11 will never be an okay day. For me, though, as much as I abhor the ideals that made the terrorists even envisage this plan, it’s not part of my life. I didn’t know anyone in New York that day. I wasn’t awake when the planes hit the towers; I missed the first barrage of news and didn’t find out about it until my mom called me, panicked that universities might be targeted next. I went to my late morning class anyway, just because I didn’t know what else to do. There wasn’t much information yet, but eventually all classes were cancelled (which rarely happens at WU), and I spent the afternoon in the green space by the chapel and prayed for all those unknown people.
Today I saw some pictures from 9/11, shocking and scary. There were a few of the people who fell or jumped from the tower, and that took my breath. But still, I’m removed from it. On the one hand I feel callous and uncaring, but on the other I still thank God that I wasn’t there. That my family wasn’t there. That no one I know was in those Towers, or had their name read out during a memorial overlooking the largest man-made waterfalls that mark the place where they once stood. 
Aside from hassles at the airport (brief–I’ve only flown a handful of times since that day) and increased security at events, I haven’t been affected much by the tragedy. I’m so grateful for that. It means that I can have just another day.
Bless those who can’t.

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Something to think about

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Everybody must know by now, that the name that has haunted America for a decade is gone and good riddance to him. I love that there were celebrations at Ground Zero and I hope that the survivors and relatives of lost ones can feel some closure. But there’s a lot of sadness that such celebration happens. I’m relieved he’s dead, and no one can dispute that he did horrible things that no one, American or not, deserved, but then I think, “someone died.” Quite a few someones, really. That’s not usually something to be happy about.

I’m conflicted, I suppose. Happy he’s gone, but not liking that I’m happy. Maybe this will make life a little safer. Maybe some of the restrictions on travel will be eased. Maybe the troops will be able to come home sooner.

But maybe nothing will change. There are still crazy people out there, and there are plenty of other agitators in other places, and that also depresses me. But you can’t live your life waiting for the sky to fall. So I’ll rejoice that a bad man no longer can inspire hatred in his followers, and I’ll hope for good things in the future.

9 times

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I’ve renewed the domain for etoiline.com 9 times as of yesterday. That’s scary close to 10, which means I’ll have been blogging intermittently for a decade next year. Wow. Guess I should update more often, eh? And my parents have been married for 35 years, which is spectacular and sweet. I love you both.

Hope you all had a happy Easter. Things are crazy around here, what with the tornado hitting the airport and friends and family on their way to weddings. Next weekend is the St.Charles Artwalk (see both my parents’ work!), as well as the STL Bookfair, so you’ve got plenty to keep you busy.

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Fleet

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Image via Wikipedia

Last Saturday was (among other things) the UAA Outdoor Track & Field Conference Championships back at my alma mater Washington University in St. Louis. It’s been eight years since I ran on that track, but the track alumni have been meeting up at conferences for the last few years, and they planned a tiny alumni meet. Sprint medley, anyone?
News of the meet made me finally purchase that indoor cycle I’d been thinking about getting. I knew I wouldn’t get in the shape I’d ideally have to be in, but I could at least try to drop a few pounds. I somehow managed to hurt my thigh muscles the week before the event, of course, but nothing was going to stop me from running that sprint!
Nothing but a tornado, actually. Yes, the relay (200-200 (me!)-400-800m) was literally on the track (after the tornado sirens went off twice, and the lightning siren once) when someone got the news that a tornado had really touched down in West County and we were all herded to the basement of the Athletic Complex (lots of unwashed wet athletes in a small space, yay!) as the rain poured down.
So I didn’t get to run in a race. But I warmed up and ran a bit, and put on my spikes that hadn’t seen daylight in eight years. And I did warm up sprints before the aborted start, and I remembered how good it felt to run down that track, how different it is to run in spikes and not regular running shoes, how strange to think that at one time I was covering seven meters in a second and maybe, just maybe, I could do that again.
I miss track so much.

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A new place

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It’s hard to believe that I own a house. I don’t really, not for another thirty years, but that I can claim I bought a house is a pretty strange prospect for me.
I didn’t think I’d buy a house on my own. I thought that I’d have a friend or a husband doing it with me. I’m so glad my boyfriend has been around to help out, but it’s just my name on the deed, and it’s a little weird. Eh. I can say I bought a house before I turned 30. I guess that’s one accomplishment that I can be proud of. Sure doesn’t seem like I’ve done all that much sometimes.
There are lots of boxes downstairs and I think I know what’s in most of them. Organizing, that’s what I need to do, yes.
On the fun side, it’s almost September, which comes before October, which means there’s not too much time before November and NaNo. I have a couple of ideas floating around, and while it looks like I won’t get to do a collaboration with my friend, I think I can figure something out. Better get cracking on that research! Yes, writing fantasy does require research. It has to be believable fantasy, you know.
Interested in spending 30 days and nights in literary abandon? Head over to NaNoWriMo and see what all the fuss is about.

Dragons and princesses

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Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deeps something helpless that wants help from us.

From Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, via Jane Friedman’s blog.
The house is looking more livable now…but still lots to do. And an apartment to pack up/clean. Sorry to all the prospective tenants coming to take a look…just don’t have time to tidy up much. I can’t wait until I get moved into my new house. It will be SO nice.

Keys!

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I guess I’m officially an adult: I closed on a house yesterday. I have my very own address. Excuse me while I squee.
—ZOMG keys!—
Ahem. It’s small but well proportioned and just the right size for me. There is so much work to be done, but eventually it will look really nice, and be, you know, livable with actual appliances and furniture.
One of these days I’ll have a painting party and you can all come. I’ll have a reason to use the tiny grill. And for those of you who don’t want to get your hands dirty, yes, I believe I’ll have a housewarming party too 🙂 Details to follow…sometime.
I’m excited. My bank account cries, and I’m sore already from lugging purchases and cleaning, but this is a good thing. An investment in my future–a life step, a part of the American Dream. Now all I have to do is write the Great American Novel and I can get out of debt. *wink wink*

A Giant Fourth

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Overheard on the radio:
A giant is taking questions like: Are you really a giant? Is your wife a giant too?.
Then he gets this one: How does a giant celebrate the Fourth of July?
He says, “I have to get far away from the fireworks, or else I have to duck” (haha) “no, seriously, I love some hotdogs, some hamburgers, and a good mattress sale.”
?! I don’t even know what mattress store this commercial was for–I was too flabbergasted by the total non sequiteur.
Not so funny: RIP Farrah Fawcett and Jacko’s in the hospital following a heart attack. Pop culture just took a major hit.