WHEW. I've been working on my novella for hours. I'm pretty fucking proud of myself because in less than a week I've written about 29 pages (that's about 19,000 of the 50,000 word deadline)...It's been fun and exhausting. I'm really tired right now from thinking about things to put into my story and then actually doing all the typing. It's also making me a little emotional because I'm remembering how horrible some of my first marriage was and I'm writing alot about the alcoholic husband and the fights we had and the eventual break-up of our marriage. I just need to keep trying to write 20,000 words a week and I should make the 50,000 word challenge by the end of November 30th!

Today I listened to alot of Belle and Sebastian, Cocteau Twins and some old jazz and that music seemed to be pretty good for keeping me writing and my spirit up.

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Yesterday Larry and I went out to see his grandparents. We didn't stay for long though because we decided to go on a short hike. I feel sorry for his grandma. About 8 days ago she went out to the garage to get something and somehow she fell hard on her knees. She ended up breaking her left kneecap and also breaking another small bone in her right leg (she's confused about what bone that is and they don't have her in a cast on either leg, so I'm a little confused as well!) In the meantime she is in tons of pain, is having to use a walker to get around (and half the time she hurts too much to even bother trying to get up from the couch) and grandpa (who doesn't know how to cook much of anything) is having to do all the cooking and is waiting on her. She said they are eating alot of frozen food and soup, which must be hard for her. She's so used to making homemade meals all the time. Hopefully she'll heal up fairly quickly but I know when you are older, your bones just don't repair themselves as quickly as younger bones.

After leaving their house we drove to some Trail (I can't remember the name of it) in the Umqua (not sure I spelled that right!) National Forest. It was really pretty. I was only up for doing about a 2.5 mile hike because I'm really out of shape. It was brisk and chilly in the woods with the sun barely peeking through the trees at most points. The trail was very hilly and so my legs and lungs got a good work-out, but I think I did pretty good despite being in bad shape. I also didn't complain ONCE about how tired I was, etc, so I'm a good sport (uh, sometimes...)...Larry took a couple of pictures. We walked to a gorgeous waterfall and then walked back to the car. The smell in the air was so sweet with evergreen and pine and sap that it almost smelled like cotton candy to me..go figure???

do the jerk * do the frug