NaNoWriMo: A challenge to be won.

Lethargy and disappointment have unfortunately stunted my ability to accurately describe my experience in New York thus far. I fear that pessimism has sought its way into me and I just won't have it any longer. From here on out, I am wiping this sad and struggling face off and putting on a slightly less sad and much more appreciative and optimistic face on!

It has been far to easy for me to sink into dark and depressed days where I just don't do anything except stare into a screen filled with job descriptions and click "upload resume"--this is not healthy for anyone. Especially not a person who is used to being a very busy bee. This week has marked a new awareness and a new sense of action. I went to a vigil on Monday evening put on by THAW (Theaters Against War) and am going on Saturday to get a script to be an actor in next Monday's vigil stree theater performance. I love theater as activism. Along with that, I have decided to partake in this years National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). This is where participants sign up to write an entire novel--that's 50,000 words folks--in 30 days. Seeing as this is a huge feat for any person, I am expecting it to be a very difficult endeavor for myself as I have never-ever written a novel. I have written short stories when I was younger, but in recent years I focused on non-fiction and decided this time around that I would challenge myself even further by writing a fiction novel. That starts in 11 days. I have next to me my book "The Most Common Errors in English Usage and How to Avoid Them" by Elaine Bender along with "Existentialsim is a Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre and finally, my delightful current pleasure read which just feeds my brain and soul "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami. Quite obviously the first book is going to be helpful in my upcoming month of writing like a mad-person...the Sartre book is food for thought. I love reading about philosophy--not surprising right? And, Mr. Murakami is a new favorite! His words touch me as a human, as a writer and definitely as a runner.

Back to New York.

I had a chance to wander around the West Village the other day and found this wonderful little travel specialy book store IdleWild it really is a treasure. It is small and a recent addition to the city. They have author events all the time, I think this week alone there are four! I missed the one this evening unfortunatley. It was with the author of this fabulous book all about New York's special little spots. Of course, being a newbie to NYC it would have been a helpful event to attend. Alas! Another time.

Living on the Upper West Side has given me a great opportunity to get to know Central Park. It is so amazingly large that I can't even tell you how many times I have gotten lost. Once, I ended up accidentally crossing the park to East 80th street by the Guggenheim and, trying to get back to my apartment, crossed baack across only to end up at West 100th street--23 streets from where I was supposed to be! It was a splendid 6.41 mile run/walk that day...I was, however, able to find my way to Belvedere Castle and show my sister the magnificent view of the city. I am acquiring my sense of direction, but can I just tell you how grateful I am to google.maps.com? The public transportation directions are so helpful! I finally figured out the pattern of uptown/downtown trains and which side of the street you need to be on. Also, the avenues run North to South and the streets East to West (cross town). This is very helpful to know when people are telling you to meet them someplace.

I have a chosen haunt better known as the Aroma Espresso Bar, and this place is pretty awesome. They know my name now, and some of the staff have decided that because I am unemployed and only ever get orange juice that they will occasionally give me free cookies...such wonderful people! They are good cookies too. Some have caramel centers with shortbread, others are chocolate chip and granola..mmm and then there is this amazing almost croissant-like pastry with a thick chocolate inside (small but tasty!) it almost reminds me of the chocolate breakfast bread I had in Turkey...ahh chocoloate.

The fall is slowly setting in. Last week there were a few days where it seemed to have skipped Autumn all together and jumped right to winter--it got to 37 degrees! But, it is back to low 60's high 50's during the day with sunny, only slightly cloudy, days. I can't wait for the leaves to start turning and falling, though I have a feeling that when that starts to happen I will be stuck ina corner of my darling Aroma bar with my orange juice (cookie?) typing maddingly away on my computer to produce an absolute genius work of art...or else, crying pitifully over my crap pages. We'll see.