#WIPMarathon Report #3

I missed my monthly check-in on Saturday, but that was because I was at Universal Studios with 45 middle-schoolers (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). So here we go...welcome to my bleakest writing report ever! 

Last report word count + chapter count/scene count: 85,746 - 26 chapters completed

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 86,801 - Still, 26 chapters completed

WIP Issues This Month: April is THE WORST. 

Four things I learned this month in writing: 

1. Writing...
2. in...
3. April...
4. is impossible.

What distracted me this month while writing: Mother in-law's birthday, daughter's birthday, Kid's Fishing Clinic, Dad' birthday, Movie field-trip, Kiwanis One Night, Spring Carnival, Easter, Universal Studios field-trip, Snake Bytes, a bazillion different parent-teacher conferences, grading, and...well, just picture my head rolling down the street, and me trying to catch it so I can screw it back on.

Goal for next month: Starting chapter 27 is sounding pretty good to me right now. 

Last 200 words: Okay, this is the spoiler I avoided posting last month, so if you end up being one of my beta readers, pretend you've never read this. Sound good? (Ifeoma, you're fine--you've read this already).

    He hadn’t changed at all. And I had fallen for it. Fallen for him. 

My knees buckled beneath me, and I lurched toward the nearby police car. The gray was closing in. I wasn’t surprised. I had overdone it. Now that the adrenaline and euphoria were seeping out of my body, I was crumbling just like the light pole lying decrepitly over the van. I clung onto the side-mirror of the police car, letting my body fall against the driver’s door.

Two EMTs ran up. “Miss, are you okay?” They took me underneath my arms and started dragging me toward the ambulance. “She’s going into shock.”

But I could barely hear them. I twisted around, trying one last time to see Stryder. To make sense of anything.

“My name is Stryder Black,” I heard his voice say. “I would like to turn myself in…” my stomach lurched. What was he doing? Fog encroached the edges of my vision. I tried with every ounce of my being to cling onto consciousness. “…for the hit and run of Joseph Tanning.”

Hit and run? What? He couldn’t have…

I sank miserably into blackness, letting the fog engulf me.

Title...? Oh I Don't Know

Oh MY GOSH I am going to force myself to write a post RIGHT NOW because my lack of blogging this month is downright RIDICULOUS (don't you love using caps to make yourself sound like an over dramatic lunatic?).

Last week I had to work four sixteen hour shifts in a row due to extracurricular activities--hence my lazy blogging. Some of them were fun (like taking the Rattler Readers to the movies to see "Divergent"), and some of them were grueling (like spending three hours creating a picture-video-presentation-thing). I think the only thing that pulled me through this week was Trinity, who helped me put together my picture presentation, and Clint, who took two days off of work and bent over backwards to get me through the end of the week. On Thursday night, we had "Kiwanis One Night," which is where my club (Builders) gets together with Kiwanis to eat dinner, play games, and do some kind of service project. Usually we make blankets for homeless shelters, but this year we put together care packages. It was fun and well-organized, but I missed the blankets. Something about making cuddly stuff for kids--you can't beat that. Anyway, at the end of the evening, the president of Kiwanis called me up and gave me an award for my "service and dedication to Builders Club." She also gave me a $100 Visa Gift Card. I was so surprised and touched, but I felt (and still feel) a bit awkward too, because...well...I plan to quit running the club next year, and all of this is making it that much harder for me to tell them.

In other work-related news, our principal is leaving us (*sniffle*) and we have a new principal coming in for next year. Because I run our staff newsletter, I was able to sneak out of class to interview him on Friday. The interview was awesome--a lot of laughter and boisterous fun. But check this out:

The dude is HUGE. I'm average-heighted, and he towers over me. He used to be an MMA fighter, which sadly he doesn't want to share with students (I think it would be great for classroom management).

Oh, for the record, us teachers don't generally wear oversized paint-splattered overalls to school. It's just that every now and then us tenured teachers get lazy and become total slob dogs. Plus it was laundry day.

Okay, I'm totally kidding. Friday was our "Country Jamboree," and we were dressing the part (that explanation seems so boring now...I liked being a slob dog better).

We signed a contract for our pool! It's going to be a 16x30 ft. free-form (wavy-ish, lagoon-shaped) pool, with a six-man spa set above the pool and a simple waterfall feature. We're also adding a baja shelf (this slightly submerged island type area) for small kids to play. We're set to break ground on May 19th, and estimated date of completion is June 16. I am too excited for words. I'll take lots of pics.

This song came on a Pandora '90s' station that Clint downloaded the other day, and I can NOT get it out of my head. Shan says I shouldn't post songs because it might be construed as me reaching out to people. To her I say, yes, I see your point. I AM reaching out. I hope this song (despite it's really crappy graphics) speaks to all fifty-some of my secret lovers. Alejandro, this includes you.

That's about all I've got steam to write. Time to stuff my nose back into "Ruby Red"--my latest mindless YA read--which of course has to do with time travel because, as usual, I'm obsessed with time.