No No Wri Mo!

I am not even pretending to participate in NNWM this year. I see other people gearing up and a tiny part of my brain goes “I could do that!”, but I must crush it ruthlessly. I’ll be on vacation the second half of November, and there’s no way I’d keep it up even with the best of intentions. So my best intentions must be not to do it at all. I just have to turn those short stories in and finish revisions on TRUTHSEEKER and take the month off. Those are my ambitions. Yes. *nods firmly*

On Friday Ted and I went to the movies, despite the constant downpour. Sadly, when we got there, it turned out the movie I wanted to see wasn’t playing anymore, so Ted went to his movie and I headed back out to get cat food and do some other errands.

About half a block from the movie theatre I turned down the road to get to the crosswalk, and walked into torrential, monsoon-style rains. The sort of rain that makes you shriek because there’s suddenly SO MUCH of it, in this case accompanied by enthusiastic wind that buffeted both me and the rain. My shoes actually filled up with water in about fifteen seconds. An African man came tearing across the street against the light, but then didn’t go forward because he was heading directly into the rain and it was so extraordinary that it all but held him in place. So we stood there, he and I, hiding behind our umbrellas and alternately shrieking and laughing at the rain.

Finally the light changed and I–well, I didn’t scurry, because there was no point, by then. Despite my umbrella and my trench coat, I was soaked through to the thigh, and figured I couldn’t really get much wetter. So off I went, and off the African man went, and I headed for the store. On the way I met three teenager girls who were ducking from eve to eve, trying to avoid the rain. Two of them ducked forward ahead of me. The third looked at them, looked at me, fell in step with me beneath my umbrella, and said, *very* brightly, “Hi!”

I laughed out loud and said, “Hi! You’re quite a bit more clever than your friends, aren’t you?” Right about then, her friends turned to see what had happened to her, shrieked with dismay/glee/astonishment at her boldness, and rushed back to join us under my umbrella.

Sadly for them, I was only going two doors down because I wanted to stop and make a hair appointment, so I cruelly abandoned them to the rain and went into the salon, where I was met with cries of horror at my soddenness. “Stay until it’s stopped!” pled the woman who works there, but I said there wasn’t much point, I couldn’t get much wetter anyway, so I made my appointment and went on to do my shopping. And on the way home I stopped for an ice cream, because I hadn’t gotten to go to my movie and I was soaked through and I By God deserved a treat. :)

miles to Minas Tirith: 16.8