This has been a crazy month. I had a feeling November was going to be a little nutty, but I had no idea so many things were going to happen. (I guess if I did, I’d be psychic, yes?)

To start, I finished the first draft of a novel. I’ve been working on it for two years, and on November 9 I put down the final words. On November 10, I was giddy as a schoolgirl. I sent it out to a few people to read, just to see if it’s a steaming pile of literary excrement, or whether it’s worth it to keep going. Ever since then, I’ve kind of wanted to puke. I had forgotten about the weird, uneasy feeling you get when you workshop creative writing. One of my teachers referred to it as “lying naked on a table in a room full of strangers, letting them poke you with sticks.” She was right.

I also started another novel. I feel much more confident about this one, for some reason. Maybe because it’s a story I can understand and requires less making-up. On the other hand, yikes. Still, I figured it’s NaNoWriMo, and even though I churned out (literally) 10,000 words in the first few days, I’ve stalled out a little since then and only have about 2,500 on my new book. But that’s okay. Only, uh, 58,000 to go! Or whatever.

In other, non-writing-related news, Mike attended his convocation on November 13, and received his BA. He started his BA in 1988, so this is a monumental occasion in some ways, and in others means the occasion has lost all meaning. Still, I’m enormously proud of him. He put in a Herculean effort over the last year to finish up all his classes, so he could qualify for the Education program last September. And he did it. So now we’re 18 months away from the real deal, the convocation with a B.Ed. And then the start of a whole new chapter.

A few days after that, Len finished up her first decade. It’s funny to think of her as being 10. People still think she’s a puppy – she’s got lots of, uh, verve. I guess they don’t look closely enough to see all the grey on her little face or the white on the inside of her ears. And truthfully, I’d forgotten how many spots she’s lost over the last few years. I’ve probably also forgotten how nuts she was when Mike and I met. She’s mellowed a lot.

More finishing (or almost finishing) – we have a habitable living room. Finally. We still need to add tile and trim, but we’ve spent every evening during the last week sitting on the couch and loving our new lights, listening to music, and watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders win the Grey Cup. The other day I unrolled my yoga mat and did downward dog right in my own house. My third eye just about rolled, I was so blissed out. I can’t wait till the bedroom is done, and we can put the tools away for good.

So there’s November.  I told you it was crazy.