I don't know if anybody other than me watches "How I Met Your Mother" but I love Barney on that show. I especially love how every time someone says something he thinks of as a challenge is response is "Challenged Accepted" and he sets forth to do it. So I am dedicating this day to Kstyle from the North County write-ins for throwing down the gauntlet. Allow me to explain.
Today started as most days. I woke up thinking I needed to watch a few of the shows that my DVR has been feverishly recording as I write my novel but I was interrupted by a call that one of my friends needed me to ride out across town to bring them their keys because their car key was lost. Doing such cut into my writing time and still I did it. After lunch there was only so much time before our write-in and I still needed to find my party outfit for tomorrow so I went looking. I showed up at the library ready to at least add a few thousand words to my count and then finish up my 50k tomorrow during the day. That was until Mz. Kstyle walked in.
Most of you might not know this but I am a fairly competitive person and when Mz. Kstyle walked in telling me that she reached her 50K the night before I was blown away. I had secretly been competing with her in my head and she had just stomped me. I hadn't written a singe word for the day and she was already at goal. I won't lie, it hurt but like Barney I looked at her total and thought "Challenge Accepted".
The bad part was we preceded to talk for about an hour before we started writing. Still I left with another 2,000 added to the word count. I came home ready to watch the Laker/Nuggets basketball game and get my writing done and let my fingers go. By the middle of the third quarter I was getting distracted by the TV so I put in on mute and the Lakers started to lose. I had to put the TV back on so that I could support my team (although I love them both so I wasn't concerned with who won) and write sporadically until the end.
At 12:30 I was still almost a five hundred words away and twittered it to decide if I should call it a day. That was when Kstyle came back and reminded me why I was doing it with a simple "You can't stop now". She was right. I had accepted the challenge. So I went back to writing and banged out the word count I needed.
Word count to date: 50,079
Cups of Tea/Soda: 1 (Still rocking the peach)
Levels of Tired: Too excited to be tired.
I had wanted to beat her word count but as I was scared of what I had written I decided to let it go. Now all I have to do is get in another 11K by Monday as her goal was 10 and I will be back on top. Challenge Accepted.
Ps. I forgot to wish all the Veteran's a Happy Veteran's Day. We wouldn't be able to enjoy the freedoms with have without you unwavering sacrifices. And to their families thank you for allowing them the freedom to defend ours. My deep gratitude and prayers for your continued safety both at home and abroad.
