the end approacheth

A brief update: On Tuesday, Ed and I will be leaving with the Eberhardts, a Sullivan, and a Möhler to go on this year's Bulgaria trip. You hear that?!? This year, I get to go, too!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!

But more on that later. In the meantime, I'm gleefully anticipating the end of this year's NaNoWriMo! Of course, my glee is quite tempered by the knowledge that I'm going to be traveling and in Bulgaria for the last three days of the writing month. Meaning: After Monday night, I'm not gonna have much time to write. I'm already wondering how I'm going to get to an Internet cafe on Thursday so I can get my word count validated and get my email certificate.

So, things being what they are, I've been writing furiously anytime I could write the last few days. Current statistics:

Cups of coffee: 10
Frustrated pacings through apartment: 12
Possible Titles: 9.5
Definite titles: 2
Characters Behaving In Unexpected Ways: 11 (meaning: all of them)
Times Brain Has Been Close To Fried: 13
Write-Ins: 1
Words: 44418

Words to go: 5582!!!!! You see that bright, sparkly thing??? That's The Light At The End Of The Tunnel!!!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

why, oh why, do i do this?

Why do I stay up late at night, meandering around the Internet and reading blogs? And I hardly even comment anymore. Because if I comment on one, I feel as though I must comment on all. And that's just WAY too overwhelming. So I say nothing.

I have become a Lurker.

Gah.

I wish Ed would post something on his blog. At least I could comment on his without feeling guilty for not commenting on others'. ;o)

I give. I have a Greek lesson in the morning (yes, Ed and I are taking Greek!), so I'm going to bed!!!

update on NaNo efforts

This year's NaNo Adventure continues, at this point with my reaching a story impasse I'm not sure yet how to get through. My alcoholic heroine is having a fight with the man who won't admit that he loves her, and I'm not sure how it's going to end. Naturally, it all has to come out all right in the end, but I don't know yet how that's going to happen, either.

Oh well, why worry about it? In the meantime, here's a wonderful and extremely humorous distraction:

;oD I love it!

Also, Van and I got together for a little "write-in" today (and please note that we are well-armed with coffee!):

I think we wrote about 2.5 hours, and it was great! We decided we're going to do it again, though we're not sure when. We also want Joel to get in on the community writing action, so we're going to do the time zone coordination thing when he gets back to where he has Internet access.

In the meantime, I remain happily NaNoing away and trying to remember that there is actually a world outside of NaNo during November. (Who'd've thunk?)

Cups of coffee: 5
Frustrated pacings through apartment: 3
Possible Titles: 8
Characters Behaving In Unexpected Ways: 9 (meaning: all of them)
Times Brain Has Been Close To Fried: 7
Write-Ins: 1
Words: 31093

random thoughts on growing up and on rape laws in pakistan

Well, I haven't gotten back into reading people's blogs yet since I got home (to be honest, it's all a little overwhelming right now), but a few minutes ago I read a little bit of my cousin Luke's blog over Ed's shoulder. He mentioned that his brother Andrew turned 19.

Man, do I feel old. This means that Nathan is the only cousin still in high school. All of my "siblings" are growing up. On one hand, I'm glad, because it means we're all continuing on this adventure called life.....and there's so much more adventure to be had after we finally get out of those teen years!

However, it also makes me sad, because I remember the times when *all* of us gathered at Grandma & Grandpa Weger's in the summertime...and as we get older, the times that all of us are together are becoming fewer and fewer. And as we all move away from home, get married, start having kids, it's only natural that we turn more toward our own developing nuclear families, instead of putting as much emphasis on reaching toward the extended part of the family.

I know this is natural...I'm doing it, too...but that doesn't mean that it doesn't make me sad, and that doesn't mean I always have to like it.

In other news......

In Pakistan, they're trying to reform the Islamic laws on rape. In case you didn't know, the current law states that if a woman wants to prove she was raped, she has to provide four male witnesses to the crime. If she can't provide the four male witnesses, the raped woman has to face charges of adultery.

Don't even get me started on what I think about THAT.

The new Pakistani law would relieve women of the obligation of producing the four male witnesses. However, the law still has to pass the upper house. If it passes, it won't look good for President Musharraf, who has lots of supporters who want the current laws to stay in place.

People say that Westerners, with Western ideas and Western morality, have no business interfering the politics of Middle Eastern countries.

Well, how about this:

"Rape is already a common tool of revenge and settling tribal scores in Pakistan. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated in 2002 that a woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours."

Think about it.

here's why i haven't updated since ed and i got back from oklahoma:

17602 words and counting!!!