NaNoWriMo

It officially starts tonight at midnight - National Novel Writing Month. I've signed up to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Fiction is not really my forte and although I have a glimmer of a concept of the novel's storyline, I have no idea how I am going to flesh it out for that many words.

To get to 50k words in 30 days, I have to write about 1,600 words every night (I'll most likely write at night during the week and tackle the weekends however they may come). I've never had to do a sustained, daily writing project like this. I am a bit nervous that I'm going to have writer's block or not have enough to sustain the novel til the very end.

But I think having a set goal, with a place to log my words in at the end of each night, will be a motivating factor. It's now or never, right?

I'm letting you all know this as my blog postings will probably be sporadic, if not non-existent, during the month of November. I really want to focus my energy and attention to this book (crazy).

So here goes nothin'...

Ninety Amazing Years!

This past weekend was a big celebration for my grandfather's 90th birthday. Ninety! It's amazing that a body and mind can exist for such a long time and still be in almost tip-top shape.

This birthday bash was a big family reunion, with my dad's side of the family (he's one of 8 kids) getting together for what will most likely be the last time. It's hard getting that many schedules to coordinate, especially now that grand kids are all in different stages and places in life. This party has been in the works for a while and my grandmother put in many hours to make sure it came together perfectly.

This was also the first time that my boyfriend met that whole side of the family. It was a little overwhelming at first, as very few of my aunts and uncles are considered "quiet." But after the initial shock, it was really awesome to see him get acquainted with everyone, especially my grandfather - they bonded over both having been to war. 

Here are some pictures from this weekend. As I scrolled through all of them, it was shocking how well I felt like I knew these people (we share blood, after all), but how very little I know about their actual lives. It makes me a bit sad to think that I won't ever be as close to any one of my cousins as I wish I could be.

Let's move on to happy pictures instead of dredging up what could be...

These are my parents! Aren't they cute?!

These are all of my cousins. Quite a crew, huh?

This photo makes me smile whenever I look at it. My sister's boyfriend on the left, my boyfriend, me and my sister. 

These people make my heart sing and my life brighter.

This is my grandfather. We call him Gung Gung, which is 'grandfather' in Chinese. What an honor to be able to share in part of his life.