greetings from manhattan {2.5 weeks later}.

Do not let anyone ever tell you that I do not love New York. They would be lying.

Oh, my husband. You are hereby allowed to run the New York City marathon every single year, if you like. Better yet, why don't we just move there?

No?

*sigh* I tried.

After years away, it was bliss to be in NYC again. Re-acclimating myself to the subway system was a bit comical, but other than that, I slipped right back into the groove and panic of Manhattan. Uh, sort of.

It helped that we were only there for 3.2 days. Anything more and I would have REALLY made a fool of myself. But!

1. I wore a green pea coat and walked with confidence.
2. I was asked for directions.

Ego sufficiently boosted. Until next time.

Highlights include:

WAR HORSE. Oh my gosh. Please sit in the second row on the aisle at a show like this at least once in your life. Eerily lifelike horse puppets. Over my head. Actors. Three feet away {maybe less?}. And then, you know, it was amazing and stuff.

Tears on my face the whole time. Because! a} What a beautiful story, and b} Oh my lands, one of the most impressive things I've ever seen on stage {if not THE most}. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to wait at the stage door {*sob*}, because we had to hurry across town to get to this place:

DIRT CANDY. Vegetarian episode of Iron Chef America + challenger from a veg restaurant in NY = we are going there. And we did. We met Amanda Cohen and told her we saw her on TV, and she giggled {love!}. Not surprisingly, the food was outofthisworld.

The next day, there was a marathon. Husband survived with flying colors, and then this went down:

Blogger party at Madison Square Park!

Bess and Elisabeth, hunkering down over this weird short girl in between them.

 {That is a tiny to-go espresso cup in my hand. It was, in the way of Ramona Quimby, DELISHUS.}

Of course, now I want to go back. I always want to go back. We did a lot of other fun things, like stumble upon a neat little restaurant/bakery called Kitchenette, and explore the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park. So cool.

And we saw Ground Zero, which is a whole different animal now than it was four years ago. Note to anyone about to visit New York: you have to get your pass to see the 9/11 stuff before you show up and try to stand in line. Oops. {Honestly, I wasn't all that let down. I look forward [in a weird way] to telling my future children about it, but until then? I'm not too keen on reliving the nightmare. This is a new and strange development for me. Maybe related to traumas I've experienced since? Who knows. Moving on.}

In short, I miss it. I miss the buzz and fury and life of New York. I don't know why. I don't really LOVE cities. I mean, I've enjoyed visiting Chicago and Boston and DC the last handful of years, but I don't dream about them when I leave. I don't want to spread out my arms and spin in circles when I get there. I do love DC {I could live there, easy}, but even that doesn't compare to the oomph and yes and home I feel for New York. Is it the theatre thing? The writing thing? The bigness and importance and quintessentially-American thing? The memories of going there with my mom? Perhaps it's a little of all of that. I can't wait to go back (in April! YAY!). Now if I can just convince my husband that Central Park counts as "outdoors"...

In the meantime, I'll watch War Horse videos on youtube and stalk New Yorkers on twitter and talk to my friends who live there. A vicarious experience is better than none at all.

Cheers!

{For real, you guys. I don't even want to see the movie. 

I just want to hold the stage production in my heart, forever.}

11-11-11 at 11:11 am.

When I was in high school, my best friend and I habitually kept watch over the time, for the sole purpose of celebrating at 11:11. Preferably twice a day.

Part of it was all the ones. And part of it was in anticipation of her 11/11 birthday.

Happy birthday, Dani. 

Happy wedding day, Jess!

And a very happy Once-in-a-Lifetime Day to everyone else. 

A good time to do something memorable.

Me, I'm going to go meet up with some 'Nooga Wrimos and try to catch up.

I owe you:

*One blog post about my trip to New York.

(so wish I had a War Horse post to put up for Armistice/Veterans Day, but... writing... ugh.)

*One blog post about a NaNo myth that I have either unraveled... or confirmed.

Cheers!

nano update: day three.

Guess what I'm not doing right now? It's not about not knowing what to write. That tends to come on its own. It's the distractions, the overpowering urge to collect cartoon money from make-believe zoo animals on my phone. Have I mentioned that I no longer take ADD meds? Truth.

Okay. Time to get back on my feet. Did you see the fabulous NaNoWriMo buttons that Sommer Leigh made? Here are three that I snagged:

Of course I went for the one with Shakespeare on it.

And, since this is fun from time to time, want to hear my current musical inspiration? It's Chopin, and I love it. The person who uploaded this video wrote "sad song" as the description, but I've always felt it was more of a subdued-happy song. Oh, music, you and your subjectivity.

Okay, so, here it is: Chopin's "Tristesse." It plays a major part in my NaNo story, which, contrary to what the images on the video may lead you to believe, has absolutely nothing to do with angels.

Alrighty, back to the grindstone I go.

Oh, and uh, by the way. We're going to NYC tomorrow! Husband's running the marathon, we're going to see Warhorse {hee! puppets!}, eat at at least one restaurant we've seen on TV, and hang out with fairbetty, herself. All the more reason to write a crap ton this afternoon.

I can do it!

winning!

A of all, thank you and a hug to Kris for this award:

I do love tea, and all cups involved! To whom will I pass it on, you ask? Scroll down to find out! {or, you know, read the rest of the post first.}

Speaking of winning, remember when we had that contest-y blogfest thing? And remember how I said there would be winners? I was not, in fact, lying! Incredible.

So, without further ado, even though there were several honorable mentions {like Jeigh's first, uh, query experience, Lee's play about veggies in a fridge {Mr. Cabbage was type-cast! Bahaha!}, Jillian's dino/shake picture and Tristyn's "Chubby Dinos in Love", Jess's impressive pop-up book, Tara's potentially disastrous but so, so clever Sign in Please... heck, I could give them all honorable mentions, really}, I hereby award first prize {i.e. first pick of prizes) to... Gracie! Because, oh my gosh, that story about the recycling bin was brilliant. Heck, they all were. Go read, if you haven't already. The last line of the story about Bear and Girl made me L to the O L.

So, Gracie, please email me at julie {dot} maughon {at} gmail {dot} com with your mailing address and prize choice {a copy of Daughter, discount-book-store goody bag, or first chapter critique}, and we'll get this thing started!

Drawing winners!
In second place, as per the random generator {also known as my husband announcing a number after I "drumroll"}, is Kathy McKendry! Yay!!!
And in third, Rhianne!

Congrats, ladies! If you could email me as well, 'twould be fantastic. I'll email you back as your turn to pick comes along. Huzzah!*

*I went to an 18th century fair last weekend. It was awesome. Unfortunately {or perhaps quite fortunately?}, I'm having trouble ceasing with the lingo. Hhhhhuzzah.

And now, as a special treat, I'd like to pass this One Lovely Blogger Award on to all Thirteen Lovely Bloggers who entered the 'fest. In case you forgot yourselves:

C. Lee McKenzie
Gracie
J
Jeigh Meredith
Jenna Cooper
Jess McKendry
Jillian
Kathy McKendry
Redbootpearl
Rhianne
Ruth Josse
tara tyler
Tristyn E.

Love{ly} to you all! {And seriously, every entry was amazing.}

*turns off internet* *goes back to NaNo* *eats ice cream*

{45,546 to go!}

two years down, 48900 words to go.

Hello all, and a happy November to you! I'll spare you the "oh my pants, this year has flown by" musings, because I know that a) You likely feel the same way and don't need reminding, and b) The years will only get faster and faster-feeling, so why bother worrying about it now?

Anywho, this a special day. Two years ago, this happened:

 

 

 

 

And that was fun.

In other news, NaNo has begun! Look at me, blogging instead of writing. I DID, however, stay up to start writing at midnight, so I have about 1100 words under my belt. Totally justifies blogging, right?

*exhale* It's going to be long month (and I am pumped).