Sunday, November 1, 2009

It's My Favorite Holiday.

No, not Halloween. That was yesterday. Besides, free candy isn't nearly as awesome as free sleep. No, I've been looking forward to this day for a full six months. And like all major holidays, the celebration actually begins the night before, on My-Favorite-Holiday Eve, when we perform a cherished ritual each year: Setting back the clocks.

Can you think of anything more magical and worthy of celebration than a 25th hour in an overcrowded 24-hour day? Or reversing the role of aging, by actually turning back time? I live for this day!

Today in particular there is much to be celebrating:

1. My Favorite Holiday — one free hour to do whatever we please...sleep, party, create — this is every woman's dream.

2. Speaking of favorites, I have answered Luisa's tag and listed my own favorites here: To The Fifth Power. (Interestingly, Luisa tagged me for my first meme in addition to this one. I think I'll call them Meme One and Meme Two.)

3. The beginning of NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month.) Yes, I've decided to do it for real this year. (Although I must add that I value sanity over word count, and will not hold myself to the whole 50,000 if my life starts falling apart at the seams!) I'm joining blog favorites Brillig, DeNae , LT Elliot (no relation to TS?) and Melanie J...and writing a book called The Bridge Club Chronicles: A snarky account of the misadventures of four creative teenagers who choose to rebel against society in ways that are both harmless and hilarious. Please cheer me on. (And forgive me if I become a blog slacker in the meantime.)

What are your doing with YOUR free hour?

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alas, no relation to T.S. =[

Congrats on Nano-ing! I'm totally with you babe. You can do it!

This is my favorite holiday too. What shall I do with my extra hour? Well, I'm blogging with it!

LisAway said...

Go Charrette!! Sounds like a fun project.

We celebrated this holiday last week in Poland. I LOVE it, too. I stayed up and read my book, which I love, an extra hour, even though it was way past my bedtime.

And the kids are now very ready to go to bed on time and they woke up on their own every morning last week! I LOVE that.

Tammy Lorna said...

I don't get one!
*sob*
I'm happy for you though :) I always loved the extra hour sleep!

xo Tammy

PS. I'm guessing the switch back in April is your 'least favourite'?...

McMGrad89 said...

Well, I was just commenting to someone that an extra hour of sleep doesn't do any good if SOMEONE forgot to turn off the weekday alarm clock and woke you up at 5:30 in the a.m.

Good for you on starting your novel. Let me know when it is done as I teach fourth graders who might enjoy it.

Annemarie

Roban said...

I can't wait to read your novel one day! As a middle-school teacher, it sounds wonderful.... And if it's for the YA crowd, perhaps I'll have a class set one day! And if you want to test it, it would be fun to be able to share a work-in-progress manuscript with my class (talking via blog, too, about your thought process and writing process!).

I agree whole-heartedly about this very special holiday.... I was thrilled to look at the clock a few minutes ago and realize it's an hour fast.... I NEEDED this extra hour.

Blue hydrangeas... they are beautiful. I love the connection you made about how they flourish under adversity. Thanks for commenting!

Barbaloot said...

Ooh-I am excited about the novel! Good luck. My problem with today's holiday is that I always wish it would land on a week day where I could appreciate sleeping in before work.

kateastrophe said...

We don't get a free hour either! Arizona is LAME! It's been getting dark here at 5:30 for like a month now!

They claim it's for the children of farmers to get up early and do their chores . . . I'm screaming WHAT FARMERS?

Best of luck on your novel! It sounds totally intriguing!

Kristina P. said...

I used mine to sleep, of course!

Good luck with the novel. I have absolutely no desire to be a writer. None.

Melanie Jacobson said...

I love the extra hour too.

This is my first year joining Nanowrimo but I'm excited because it's perfect timing for me. I was staring my new novel tomorrow anyway so this is a great way to get it going with a bang.

I love the idea for yours, by the way.

Brillig said...

Sleep. That is how I spent my extra hour. And it was awesome. I think I'll do it again tomorrow.

How could you turn off your comments on your meme? I had so many funny things to say. Alas, now you'll never hear them.

And yay for NaNo! Wheeee! Here we go!

xoxox

Mrs4444 said...

I love the premise of your story. I know it will be wonderful, and I look forward to updates :)

Kazzy said...

Great idea! You guys are going to do a great job! I loved doing NANO a couple years ago.

I am with ya on the extra hour of sleep. Man, what a great day!

Lara Neves said...

I totally slept during my free hour. And now it's almost 2 in the morning, so that was probably a waste. Sigh.

Good luck writing! I'm very excited for all of you doing this. I doubt I'll ever participate myself, but I'm a great cheerleader!

Go YOU!

Jessica Stock said...

ooooo, this is SO EXCITING!!! I cannot wait to hear how it goes! And I LOVE your reminder of what a gift that extra hour was- you are right, every woman's dream! Happy writing!

InkMom said...

I was totally with you . . . until my kids woke up this morning at 5:45 AM. 5:45! It was still dark -- very dark!

Stephanie said...

I love the extra hour too, and I'll be cheering for you as you write. I'd love to write a book, but I don't think I could pull off fiction, and I'm not sure anyone would be willing to read one of my multi-chaptered non-fiction soapboxes. :)

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I spent my free hour reading (till 3am in the morning - eeep).

So wish I was joining in on Nano this year but I'm going to content myself with cheering the rest of you on!

Unknown said...

Yay, Charrette! I missed this post the first time. Was writing, I guess! I'm totally with you on the "extra hour" thing, and I feel completely hosed by the universe at large when we have to "spring the clocks forward" in six months!

I can't wait to read your stuff! Like LT, you have such a wonderful writing voice, and I know your novel is going to be great!

Write, baby! Write!!

Dedee said...

Sleep.

I'll miss you this month, but I expect to have access to the manuscript when your done.

(How was that for demanding and rude. Feel free to ignore me!)

Dedee said...

And yeah, why did you turn your comments off?

Jeanne said...

Jana, as always, you inspire me! What talent don't you possess? And how you use them...no wonder you have so many!

Love you,
Jeanne

Luisa Perkins said...

Sleep!

Thanks for doing the meme (and so cleverly); I consider it a mark of true friendship.

Heather of the EO said...

I'm so excited for you! You can do it! (even if it's less than 50,000, that's A LOT.)

I'm sorry, but right now I HATE the time change. My boys who got up at 6 or 7 now get up at 5 or 6. I'm exhausted. My extra hour has been stolen :)

Sandy M. said...

I've just read up on the history/saga of NaNoWriMo - amusing and interesting :)

'Yay!! Yay!! GO CHARRETTE!!!! GIVE US A 'C'.. GIVE US AN 'H'..!!!' (-this is me cheering you on!! :)

All is forgiven. Please just come home at the end of November :)

I think you should try for....
60,000 words!

(see:
http://sandragmunro.blogspot.com/2009/04/climbing-mountains.html )

xo

Cookie said...

my favorite too . . . I had completely forgotten, in my trick-or-treating-induced-headache haze, to turn the clocks back. I woke up and got ready for church, and tried to get hubby to do the same, but he knew he had more time to sleep . . . I got my revenge later by napping while he cooked dinner!

Susan Berlien said...

Oh yes. The Fall Back is a gift!

Debbie said...

How fun that book will be! But, I do miss you around here:(

Unknown said...

Thinking of you... have a great holiday week, and I hope the book writing is progressing well.