Waiting

While I wait for the reviews of my newly completed writing project, I plan to participate in NanoWrimo this year. Yes, somehow between holiday plans and six talks, I somehow believe I'm going to complete 50,000 words this month. Maybe it's an overly ambitious goal, but one I'm willing to try. I had fun participating in NanoWrimo last year. It was a strong motivation to complete something, though I admit I haven't looked at what I wrote during last year's competition. I've debated looking at the material and cleaning it up and finishing it, since I started on one project and midway through the contest switched to another project, so I actually have two stories lumped together. But I'm running out of time to review the material, since the contest begins in several hours. I have an outline for a new project, so I may work on that instead. Who knows? I'm truly indecisive at the moment. But the gals have come through once again. We have formed our own writing group and have established our individual goals, so I'll have that as further motivation. So good luck to us all! And boy, I hope the reviews on my last project aren't that bad.

FEAR

They say sitting down and formulating a story is one of the hardest things to do. And the ubiquitous "they" are right. Stories careen through my head daily, yearning to be told. But though the ideas are there, it's difficult to put those words to paper much less flush out a full story with interesting characters, dialogue, and plot points. Yet I have to say handing over my work yesterday was harder than writing it. I've spent 16 months working on my most recent project and I fear the time being a waste if it's pure and utter crap. I have taken to heart and learned from the previous critiques of my work, implementing those changes. Sending my latest work to Mich was easy since she'll review it from a reader's perspective. She's been harsh in the past which I've needed, but she has previously read the first section of this story and enjoyed it. It was harder to hand the material to my next set of reviewers. Reviewer A is one of my favorite reviewers and I truly respect her opinion. Reviewer B is reviewing and editing the material. She loved the first sentence, but had problems with the second. Reviewer C is an amazing editor, but doesn't regularly read the genre. Fear has set in. I keep trying to reassure myself that it's a vast improvement from my previous work. I feel that the storyline is better than some of the material I've read recently. And I know every author goes through many editing stages. I need to shoo away the doubts and move forward. I'll share the reviews once I have them. And in the meantime, I plan to focus on my project for NanoWrimo next week. But I can't deny FEAR is a predominate emotion right now.

Gals of TGC

I am truly blessed to work with a group of remarkable women. Two of my best friends work in our building though not in our department and I have three wonderful ladies as colleagues, Dawne, Delia, and Kay. We share way too many laughs, rants, and fun during the work day. We also have a tendency to wear the same color scheme without discussing it. It's as if we're psychically connected. So on Saturday of the NBGS, the gals of The Genealogy Center were wearing pinkish purple tones with black and gray. Though Kay was not with us, Aaron wore her colors for her, but we didn't run into him until we were leaving the building, so no pic is available.

It's Called Writing

I know, I know ... this blog focuses on my struggles with writing, yet I haven't written a word about my project in a long while. Well, I have to share that since the doc has ordered me to maintain a strict sleep habit, I've discovered I can get a lot of things accomplished early in the morning on my days off as well as my night shifts. And to my surprise on Monday, I actually completed my 16 month project. Initial writing and editing is done for the moment. I've already sent a draft off to my initial reviewer and plan to give two other copies out next week.

Of course, all the fears and doubts have reared their ugly heads. I know this product has to be better than my last two since I'm continuously learning from my writing experiences. Plus, this story came to me during a time of deep personal turmoil and was an outlet for those emotions.

While I wait for the reviews, I figured we should discuss NanoWrimo. Yes, it's that time of year again. And please don't tell me you're too busy as I have 6 talks and a trip to Florida during November, yet I feel we should participate once again in our version or on the live site. So think of your goals and send me your plans for NanoWrimo. You have now been properly challenged.

The Hubby Report

I try to be open and honest on this blog while sharing my life with those who read my bouts of fancy, but only a handful of people are aware that hubby and I had a rough patch last year. Considering our living arrangements, our marriage is one that requires communication, honesty, and lots of effort to maintain a healthy relationship. Unfortunately, hubby and I both failed in handling my health crisis last year and hurt each other horribly. I honestly don't know how we've managed to overcome our marital crisis, except to say, we love, respect, and appreciate each other very much.

So I became concerned earlier this fall when I looked at my schedule and discovered my personal time with the gals and work schedule had overfilled my calendar. Plus I was facing another health crisis, though not as severe as last year. My fears grew and I worried that we wouldn't be able to face this situation again. Between my work schedule, attending the conference, and taking my vacation with Mich, I managed to spend one weekend with hubby in Sept. I worried he would resent my work and friends, but instead, we promised to maintain constant communication during this time. Instead of hearing how annoyed he was at me being gone, I regaled him with crazy stories of my adventures and let him know how much I hated being away from him. And in return, he was supportive, watching the animals, paying the sitter, doing laundry, and baking cookies for my return.

The other weekend, I had a bad reaction to my new meds and suffered through neurological distress, including chest pains, confusion, and panic attacks. Hubby helped me remain calm during this time and didn't shrug off how I was feeling, which was a change. Then this weekend while reviewing our schedules, hubby mentioned he wasn't planning to come home since I'm working the Summit. Deciding to learn from my previous mistakes, I stressed to him how scared I've been since my attack and how much it means to me to have just a tiny bit of time with him, so he agreed to come home.

So I had to share how great the hubby has been recently and how I'm learning to ask for help rather than trying to handle everything on my own. A huge learning curve for me, but one worth learning.

Different Personalitites

So Mich and I survived our trip together, though we have different personalities and ways of handling stress. Mich likes to casually get the lay of the land and explore. She also suffers from a severe case of SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome). Whereas I'm a planner. Planning allows you to be prepared and not waste time in my opinion. Thanks to Mich's insistence that we not plan everything, So Mich and I survived our trip together, though we have different personalities and ways of handling stress. Mich likes to casually get the lay of the land and explore. She also suffers from a severe case of SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome). Whereas I'm a planner. I have so much time planned for this locale and onto the next. Planning allows you to be prepared and not waste time in my opinion. Thanks to Mich's insistence that we not plan everything, we have some funny stories and adventures. One of the pitfalls of not planning on a road trip such as ours is realizing the lack of places to stop for refreshments or a restroom. We had days where the game plan was to do the quick drive-thru and move on, but when you're on a two lane road in the mountains, there isn't anything.

Because we decided to go off the beaten track with our jaunt along the lighthouse sightseeing tour, we discovered some quaint towns with cute museums and Fort Henry, except if we'd planned in advance, we would have known these places were closed. Fort Henry was the worst offender though due to the desperate need for a restroom. The fort, museum, and restaurant were all closed, but there were outside restrooms. The women's door was locked, so we made use of the men's room, which received my vote for worst facilities of our trip. The running cesspool in the middle of the floor was revolting and in second place with the port-a-potty I had to use in New Hampshire, where there were no public restrooms.

But planning had it's pitfalls as well. We arranged our hotel rooms for Bar Harbor well in advance, planning to stay at the Holiday Inn the first night and a swanky resort the second night. Turns out the Holiday Inn was nicer and an overall better experience than the overpriced resort, where the only perk I saw was easy parking while in the harbor area. Our third night in Bar Harbor we returned to the Holiday Inn, wishing we could have stayed there the whole time rather than bouncing hotels.

Though I'm a type-A personality and Mich is more a fly by the seat of her pants type of gal, we seemed to get along really well the whole trip. We both had to be flexible and adapt with all the changes that arose. And Mich was a bit shocked that I didn't stop her SOS moments, but rather participated in extending our activities and drives, so we were never on time to anything. Overall, a wonderful trip where Mich and I didn't get tired of being together for 24 hours a day/ 11 days and actually kept each other quite entertained.

In the End

Our final days of vacation arrived and we made our way towards Indiana, wit a stop over at Niagara Falls. Our travel weather finally became fallish. We'd enjoyed temps in the 70s our entire trip until Niagara, where the high was 46 and rainy. We decided to walk the Cave of the Winds, which takes you down along the Bridal Veil section of the falls. It was amazing to feel the force of the wind created and feel the strength of the spray. This tour left us drenched, but we'd become experts at changing in the car. After Niagara, we headed across New York and into Pennsylvania, where we stopped in Erie for the night. For some reason, every hotel we contacted in Erie was full or wanted over $300 for the night. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn, with several partiers, who aggravated us through the night. The next day we took the familiar route through Ohio and drove US 30 back into Indiana, thus ending our ten days on the road.

The Wrong Turn

Michelle and I said goodbye to Bar Harbor and drove southwest into New Hampshire with the game plan of taking the Kancamagus Highway into the White Mountains and having lunch in Franconia around two. Of course, things did not go as planned. First off, it rained almost the entire drive. Second, the Kancamagus is such a beautiful highway with so many interesting turnoffs for hikers and those suffering from SOS. Third, we entered the White Mountains searching for the Franconia Notch area and stopped at the Basin for a bit more sightseeing. All of these conditions led to us stumbling around lost in the White Mountains around five. The GPS decided to take us for an adventure down a one lane dirt road and announced we'd reached our destination, a Best Western Hotel. Upon stopping on the dirt road, we found ourselves surrounded by forest with no hotel in sight. We managed to get down the hill, onto a two lane highway and managed to stumble into a small town.

Shockingly, the town had an information booth for hikers. Mich explained to the nice lady that we'd driven in from Bar Harbor and were lost, we needed information on a place to eat, sleep, and how to get to the Flume Gorge at Franconia Notch, which was our destination for the next day. Apparently, there were only two restaurants in town, though one was really a bar and a hotel off the main street, up the hills, behind the stream, pass the dilapidated houses, which were not part of the hotel. Okay, we were at our wits end. We'd snacked in the car, but otherwise hadn't eaten, were cold and wet from the rain, and I was feeling truly out of sorts at this point. So off we went to the recommended hotel, which had the lone office and the hotel building up the dirt lane. The gentleman at the counter was nice and knew all about our tale of woe from the woman at the information booth. Our room was clean, but scary looking. The curtains billowed when the heat was on and the bathroom truly reminded me of the shower scene from Psycho.



After our night at the Bates Motel, where people at breakfast knew our sad story, we moved on to the Flume Gorge, where glaciers cut a notch in the mountains. Entering the gorge wasn't for the claustrophobic as we climbed stairs up the notch, buffeted by rocky walls and waterfalls, but it was beautiful. We headed off to Vermont and discovered some of the hurricane damage in Chester, VT, where part of a hill and roadway were swept into the river. Continuing our drive, we ended in New York rush hour traffic as we headed towards Syracuse for the night.

My New Friends, Cairn and the Blue Marker

Prior to our trip Mich and I had discussed the hiking situation since I haven't hiked in months and Mich hasn't hiked in years, and we were unsure of our skill level, much less tracking up steep inclines and rocky terrain. We decided our first hike would be a short moderate hike since the second half of the day, we were scheduled for a boat trip. We awoke at six to trek the Great Head Loop, which trails along the cliffside overlooking Sand Beach. Now, it's been a few years since I've hiked a path where you needed cairns and markers to guide your way, but this was the first of several hikes, where Mich and I kept calling out, I see blue. But it was exhilerating and beautiful. Afterwards, we headed back into town for a whale watching trip. We sat on the life jacket locker on the back of the boat for our three hour tour. A mama whale and her calf were spotted, who entertained us for over an hour. The calf at one point rolled over and waved its flipper at us. The evening was the beginning of rotating hotels in Bar Harbor, which I'll discuss in another post.



The next day, we were bold and determined. We started off on the easy Wonderland Trail and played on the cobblestone seawall before heading back to the mountains for the Ocean Trail hike. We'd timed our hikes in order to reach Thunder Hole for high tide and the big roar. We walked along the rocky shore while watching the tide inch over the rocks we'd just stood on for roughly 45 minutes before deciding we needed to move on and continue the trail to the Otter Cliffs since the trail didn't loop and we needed time to get back. Did I mention I'm afraid of heights? Mich enjoyed scaring me by inching to the edge of the cliffs to catch the view below until she eventually convinced me to do the same.



We'd left the hardest trail for last, Acadia Mountain. It was a moderate trail with very steep inclines and rock climbing of walls that were at least ten feet high in order to reach the 646 ft. peak that overlooked the fiord and Somes Sound. The signs warned that you were in the back country and to inform someone before entering the trail and we had an agreement that we didn't need to reach the top. I didn't stop to take many pics on this hike since we had to watch the clock and be off the mountain before sunset. I have to admit I questioned our sanity between losing sight and hunting for markers in the forest and rocks (hello cairns and blue markers), trying to find footholds and handholds in the rocks, pushing our way across streams and up inclines, I was ready to cry defeat, especially as we had five minutes before we needed to turn around to head back if we planned to get out of the forest before dark. Then suddenly we crested the top and it was a beautiful sight to behold. Of course, the camera came out to prove we had reached the summit. That night we ordered desert first at dinner in celebration of our triumph.

Off Course Before Finding Perfection

In recounting our New England vacation, I need to backtrack a moment. Michelle commented on the previous post about me forgetting the full name of the restaurant we visited in New York. I also forgot to describe the decor, which consisted of animal heads tacked on the wall and drinks served in jars. And I was grateful that Michelle didn't notice that as we entered the place on street level, we immediately walked down a full flight of stairs into the basement level as she doesn't like being underground. Which leads me to another forgotten moment as we drove through Boston, Massachusetts and faced our fears. Michelle fears being underground and I fear heights. As Mich drove through Boston, we entered a lengthy underground tunnel before coming up onto a high bridge then back underground and another bridge. And while visiting Newport, RI, Michelle I discovered our combined Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS), which leads to a 3 hour drive becoming a 6 hour drive as we go off course and explore new things. SOS is responsible for us entering Maine after dark and driving straight to Freeport to shop at LL Bean.

In driving to Freeport, we had bypassed the Portland Head Light, one of the oldest lighthouses in the U.S. So the next day, we drove back to Portland and decided it would be brilliant to take a lighthouse scenic drive along the coastline of Maine. We visited numerous quaint seaside towns on this drive, but somehow many of the recommended highlights of the tour were closed. The worst offender of this was Fort Henry. As we drove, we never found a good place to stop for a restroom or lunch break, so we arrived at the Fort, starving and desperate for a restroom only to discover the Fort, museum, and restaurant were all closed. We continued on to Pequamid Point, Maine, where we discovered one of our first glee moments. We split a lobster roll and crab roll while sitting on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic, followed by us playing in these grooves that glaciers had carved into the cliffs.



Once done playing on the rocks and really behind our loosely planned schedule, we headed up to Bar Harbor, where we hoped to watch the sunset from Cadillac Mountain. As we drove, Michelle looked up the time for sunset, which was 5:50. Michelle and I were barely going to make it and the GPS couldn't locate the mountain road, so we programmed in Acadia's Park Loop Road and hoped we'd figure it out. Amazingly enough, we made it just at sunset, hopped out of the car and reached the point with other onlookers. As we stood on top of the mountain witnessing the breathtaking view, we decided our itinerary needed a change. You see, we'd planned to hike in Acadia that afternoon, but arrived at sunset and had only given ourselves another day and a half, which didn't feel like enough time as we stood in awe of Acadia National Park.

Are We There Yet?

Michelle and I survived our ten day New England road trip, though the first day was a bit rough. We drove from Indiana into Ohio, then Pennsylvania, ending in New York. It rained the entire drive and Michelle was positive Pennsylvania would never end. That night we stayed at an overpriced hotel with some party neighbors, but had dinner at the Mad Moose Restaurant, where we shared some fabulous pizza and fried oreos.

The next day we drove through the Catskills in New York to Connecticut, where we hiked Kent Falls State Park. We ended the day at Michelle's aunt's house and spent the evening with her family, who were all wonderfully kind.


Kent Falls State Park


The next day we were off to Newport, Rhode Island and absolute heat. It was in the 80s as we walked along the Cliff Walk, which led us to The Breakers. It is amazing to see how much wealth the Vanderbilt's had. Since this was our first meal along the New England coast, we stopped for some seafood before heading up to Maine. Somehow the Cliff Walk took longer than we expected, being the first of many days when we were playing catch-up.

We arrived in the town of Freeport, Maine a little after 8 in the evening., pulling into the Best Western, only to see a one room office. It turns out the hotel room was up a wood lined hill. Though it reminded us of the Bates Hotel, it was a nice room. We arrived at the LL Bean Store around 9 and parked in the Bear lot. This store is open 24 hours/ 7 days a week/ 365 days a year. It takes up two city blocks and has parking lots named after animals, similar to Disney. For almost 3 hours, I let Michelle dress me up like a doll and managed to charge a good amount on my credit card. So happy!

The Breakers
my LL Bean purchases