I did it! Ask me how. . .

Well, it was close, kids. Almost too close to call. I was way behind last weekend, needed 12,000 words by Friday at midnight.

I diligently wrote hard all week, on Tuesday I did almost 5,000 words.

Thursday saw me just 800 words short of 50,000. No problem. I can (now) write 800 words in my sleep. A lot of "very's" and "really's", but I can DO IT.

So, Friday, instead of NaNo-ing, I dinked around with Christmas Cards, finished my book (that I'm READING!), planned a trip to the mall. Anything but write those last 800 words.

At 4 PM I finally sidled up to the laptop and pumped them out. Uploaded them to the website, and VIOLA! I was a winner.

And the website told me I had 15 minutes to spare! 15 minutes?!?!?! By my count, I had 7 hours and 15 minutes! How could I have cut it so close?

Because I didn't change my region setting when we returned from Israel. I almost made a fatal mistake. Because, really, I could not have lived without a certificate from NaNoWriMo saying I won and access to that cute little icon at the top of this post.

No, really. I would have slit my wrist. It's quite possibly the only good thing I got from this experience. Besides the discipline to write (almost) everyday, I now have a word doc totalling over 50,000 words that SUCKS! TRULY SUCKS!

Now, what am I going to do with that!?!?!

Oh, and I donated money to them, to boot. Because, really (there's that word again), they do good things. Mostly for kids. And maybe my $25 will inspire a future John Irving.

Now, onward to that Christmas thingy. Supposedly, we are getting a tree tomorrow.