Hello! Is it just me, or are these bears just too darned happy to have 2020 stamped on their feet? Or perhaps they’re happy because there’s less than a month left in the year. Anyway, November is over, so it’s time for the monthly wrap-up.
Books Read:
I actually increased the amount of books I read this month! Yes! I read 9 books. I have ten books left to complete the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’m 1 book behind schedule, but I’ve got a couple short stories I can read if I need to. Goodreads also includes video classes I don’t include here (I just finished Renaissance: The Transformation of the West) and I’m almost done with a book I’m reading with my boy for school (a reread for me) so I should be able to pull this off.
- Talon – Julie Kagawa
- The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater
- Rogue Princess – B.R. Meyers
- Keeper – Kim Chance
- A Curse So Dark and Lonely – Brigid Kemmerer
- Call of the Raven – Wilbur Smith
- Slingshot – Mercedes Helnwein
- 1434 – Gavin Menzies
- “Booked For Christmas” – Lily Menon
No rereads this month, I was focused on NaNoWriMo.
Writing:
November means NaNoWriMo, and I won! My book this year was one I initially thought about summer 2019. It’s supposed to be a duology, but we’ll see. I hit “book 2” territory at around 45k words. Depending on how many words I add in rewrites, it could turn out to be one book with two halves. I intend on finishing both parts before doing rewrites.
Then there’s this thing I did, which I waited a year to do:
Yep. I sent out my first query. For my NaNoWriMo book. On December 1st. It was my NaNoWriMo book from 2 years ago, but still. Let the rejections roll in!
Life:
Classes are almost over for coop for the year! I just have one more class to plan for, which will be a party (via Zoom). I think we’ll play Jeopardy!, listen to a song (where the students have to pick out all the words they hear, it’s in the language they’re learning). My German students can all play Pictionary, so we’ll probably do that too. A couple of my Spanish students can’t draw on the Whiteboard, so we can’t do it in that class. It shouldn’t be too difficult to plan for (well, Jeopardy takes a while to set up, but at least I created the board for a previous lesson).
Technically, I started this on December 2nd, but I started taking a course called How Digital Technology Shapes Us, and so far, it’s been very interesting. I finished the first two lectures and it’s gotten me to think: is digital technology making it harder to focus? Sometimes I have trouble clearing my head so I can focus on my books, for example. Twitter is one of those sites that I find myself wandering over to and wasting time with. I don’t know if this will work or not, but I’ve decided to try minimizing my Internet browser when I’m not using it. Out of sight, out of mind, right? We’ll see how that works.
Thanksgiving was quiet. Just me and my husband and the kids. We’re all staying healthy, which is good. I decided to try to make gifts for some of my family members. I finished a scarf, originally intended for my daughter when her favorite color was purple (it’s not anymore) and that’s going to my sister-in-law. After I finish this scarf for my daughter (maroon), if I have time I’ll make one for my brother. So I may end up knitting a lot. I want to make a sweater too, for myself, but after Christmas.
And then there’s this Sherb from Animal Crossing:
So adorable! I wants him! If I make it sometime next year, it’d be for my boy, but he’s so cute!
If I make all these things, it’ll take a lot of time. I can listen to audiobooks while I’m doing this, or watch video classes, or maybe Survivor. Or maybe even Christmas movies!
Oh, and this technically happened on December 2 too, but this is exciting news: my dh had a really good job interview! He’ll have another interview later this week with the owner; if the owner likes him, he’s got the job! It’s for a very small chain (5) of urgent care offices. People aren’t going to stop going to urgent care any time soon, especially with covid around. It’ll probably pay $20k less than my dh’s last job, but it pays more than unemployment or Walmart. And unemployment (even extended unemployment) is almost gone anyway. So hopefully I’ll have some good news for you in next month’s wrap-up.
So that was November! Did you have a good month? Hope you end this year on a good note. It’s technically the end of the decade, even though people tend to celebrate the ten’s digit changing as the decade-ender.