Getting to the Point (Life Musings)

As of this writing I have eight drafts sitting here in my blog archive that span three months.  In that time I've only made two posts.

Eight times I'd tried to compose a witty, insightful piece of prose but couldn't get it tied up to the point where it made a point.  I've tried a few different topics too: struggles with my career, frustrations with the endless plot holes I'm finding in "The Kai'us Planet" and musings about martial arts.

All started out with a spark that interested me enough to try typing them up, but then they each fizzled into a meandering monolog that went nowhere.  Eight.  Times.

It's annoying but not as frightening as it may be for a writer.

Getting ready for the wedding did indeed eat up a fair amount of my time and energy and now I'm waiting with baited breath for NaNoWriMo to start in less than a week!

Still, I'd like to get a post up and I might as well at least touch on these topics that I've been struggling so hard to articulate in a thought-provoking fashion.

1) My career: I do rather live by the adage of "It turns out I don't want a career, all I want is a pay check".  Though it's true that apart from the retail job I had for six months the year after I graduated college and the in-home caregiver job I had for nine months to tide me over till I could find more steady work, all the jobs I've had for the whole of my adult life have been (at least vaguely) in the field I went to school for.  Problem is that I take major pay-cuts with each new job I get.  I'm pay-cutting myself into poverty and it's downright frustrating.

The easy answer is to switch careers, but to what?
Nursing or midwifery seem to be the obvious answers, but with my open disdain of the medical realm I really don't think I'd be happy there long.

Things are further complicated by the fact that I actually do very much like where I'm presently working.  I'm good at what I do, I like my co-workers AND boss/manager and have a fair amount of personal freedom.  The only real downside is the pay; so I'm continuing to noodle over what I should do there.

2) "The Kai'us Planet": I'm continually amazed at all the plot holes that have carried through "The Kai'us Planet" throughout the years, but that's why I'm rewriting it from scratch for NaNo this year.  There will be absolutely no copy/paste in this version from versions prior.  I'm going to force myself to assess each and every scene, plot point and character motivation to make sure it's as solid a piece of sci-fi as can be churned out in 30 days. (Then I'll spend the next year or two editing the hell out of the thing!)

3) Martial Arts: The longer I continue with Karate (I've been back for almost eight months now), the more I love it.  I'm even making compromises that I never thought I'd do!  For one I'm keeping my nails trimmed back shorter than the length I typically wear them just so that making a good, solid fist is easier.  Another gasp-worthy change is I'm getting up a full half-hour earlier each morning just so I can do exercises to increase my strength and flexibility.

I've got a self-created three-day plan going presently: Day 1 is focused on legs and hips.  My goal is to work up to a full split, but honestly my hips have always given me issue, so anything I can do to improve their mobility is great!
Day 2 is arms and upper body.  I'm appalled at how poorly I do push-ups in class, so I work on my own to get better at that.  Still have a long way to go and I continue to add exercises that'll hopefully help there.
Day 3 is a rest day and I usually need it.  This doesn't mean I sleep in that extra half hour - I don't want to mess up my schedule by doing something silly like that - instead I do chores on those mornings or just spend a little extra time on the computer before work.  I have a feeling Day 3 days will be a godsend during NaNoWriMo!

I'm still hellbent on trying to test for my next rank in May.  It's "only" seven months away and I still have a lot of work to do, but it's far more prep time than I've had for any of my other tests, so I think I'll do okay.

So those are the three main topics that I've had on my mind a lot lately that I've been unable to pull together in a way that was entertaining and awesome for this blog.

I'm hoping my second dive into NaNoWriMo brings out my witty humor again and maybe even some random short-stories will come your way when I need a break from that annual 50k word marathon!

Post-Wedding Life Update

I've been neglecting this blog something terrible of late because I was busy with wedding prep.  Don't feel bad though - I've been neglecting pretty much everything else as well (my poor house is an absolute wreck!)

So now I'm married (yeah!)
Thank heavens society has reached a point where people don't look at one funny when told the bride didn't change her name!

Once we get our formal pics back from the photographer I'll be submitting the full wedding story to The Offbeat Bride.  Until then I'll gloss over the lovely day we had. 
Apart from the chilly, icky weather it really was a wonderful day full of friends and family and food!

So what plans do I have post-nuptials?

Well, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo again this year! (Look me up under GwendolynWilkins).
Last year I didn't want to touch "The Kai'us Planet" as a potential NaNo project.  This year I can think of nothing else I'd rather do!
So that's happening.

I already have a vague outline sketched out and some other helpful resource material written down; but I have a feeling I'm just going to pants the damned thing (like I always have).  I mean I've written it from start to finish at least five times - I'm pretty sure I know how the story goes!

Still, as I revisit particular scenes in my head I'm continually appalled at all the blaring plot holes I come across.  In fact I don't think I've hit upon a single scene that I haven't found a major issue that will need to be addressed in the NaNo re-write. (Hmm...maybe I should do a write-up pointing out all these plot holes and my plan for closing them up...)

While I wait for the starting bell for NaNo to ding on November 1st, I've promised my business partner that I'd work on inventory this month so we'll be all set and ready to go for our Christmas season craft fairs.  (Time to plug our website and etsy pages!!)

So those are the immediate plans.
Though the wedding ate up a fair amount of my time for the past couple months, not much has changed in its aftermath.  We had no intention of doing a honeymoon straight away.  The current game plan is taking that fabled road trip through the Rocky Mountains, hitting all the National Parks we can along the way.
Ah, glorious travel!

I'm still enjoying Karate to no end and am still planning on trying for my next rank in May of next year.  We'll see how that goes - a lot of improvements in kicking needs to happen between now and then though!

I'm going to try to be a little more participatory over here on the blog.
There's always random musings floating around in the ol' noggin and no doubt a few of those will grace these pixels on occasion.

Thanks for sticking around and here's to hoping there's more to come!