Dead Mouse, Dead Rat

First, before plunging into a post I wanted to congratulate the NaNoWriMo winners. Awesome job. Kelly and Joely are true inspirations. For those of us who didn't win, hey, there is always next year. I got about 23K words before I totally lost focus. I was actually on pace to win but I couldn't keep up the momentum. But I was pleased with what I did. It felt nice to write something strictly for myself without any real eye to the market. However, it was frustrating to realize that if I had worked on my real WIP, I'd have been done in three weeks. I have less than 30K left to write on my book. Ah well...

So over the Thanksgiving weekend we decided to look for the Christmas decorations. We have a storage unit and thought they were there and that they had been mistakenly taken by someone using the space so it seemed prudent to search for what we did have. Hubby opened the attic and swearing immediately ensued. He found a monster dead rat in a rat trap. Since the remodel we have had rats in our attic. Not a bad infestation but certainly one I'm concerned about. Luckily the nights have been chilly and ratty hadn't decomposed to the point of absolute gore so he was pretty easy to dispose of. But we decided to empty the attic. It will be easier for the pest control guy to block up the access. We did find our missing decorations (oops!) an a lot of other stuff.

Oddly enough we emptied the attic last year for the remodel but I didn't have a chance to really look through the stuff. Found some real treasures. I forgot I had a postcard collection. I found a tee shirt from when I worked at Mervyns. It said "Mervyns Super Saturday" on the front and "Open, Open, Open" on the back. Does anyone remember that ad? Anyway, that's a keepsake. There were little mementos from when I got married and a time capsule I did back in jr. high. There was lots of stuff I felt very little connection to. I'm not one to get lost in sentimentality. But one thing I did find was my writing from high school. Ouch. Over 150 pages of handwritten schlock. It was a historical (I think) and just painful to read. It made me smile.

It reminded me of why I'm a writer. In those sloppy words, I found the roots of my madness. There is a certain rough beauty in the prose. I was so obviously determined in my writing yet oblivious in its content. But I could see why I was writing. I loved it with abandon. There was a poorly conceived world on those pages which pulled me in and set the course for the rest of my life. I'm glad I got a chance to revisit that moment in time. I didn't keep it out. It is the past and it belongs with the past. I boxed it back up with the other symbols of my faraway youth. But I do think it is important to take a look back from time to time and see where you've come from. Its a good reminder of why we are who we are today.

Speakings of memories, do you remember life without computer mice? I remember getting my first mouse for my 386 computer back in 1993. It was cheap, only about $10 with the little rubber ball that had to have a mouse pad. Now I have cordless mice for my laptop. The damn thing died. But I had another one, roughly the same age and that died too. I was sans mouse. I do have a touch pad on my laptop, but I can't stand it. I know some people are artists with a touch pad, but not me. Anyway, I found myself totally at a loss. I barely used my computer for almost a week. How could I become so dependent on such a puny little device? I have a sexy little red number made by Microsoft. I'm hoping this cordless mouse will last longer than my Logitechs.

Are you mouse-dependent?




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Currently Reading: The Hunger Games