Sunday, November 1, 2009

Moment of Truth: Timeline for Making HS Reunion Fantasies a Reality

I am totally turned on by envy Martin in Grosse Pointe Blank.
He's gone to his high school reunion.


One of my dear friends, Mama Milton, went to her high school reunion a few months ago. It sounded like so much fun that I began to wish I'd gone to mine. With all the reconnections I've made thanks to Facebook, I thought it might be not as horrible marginally bearable a real blast to get together with my former classmates.

Then some of the women began posting about meeting to plan a reunion. Our 30th reunion. Lawsy, that seems like ginormous number of years. And I haven't seen these people since I graduated. The momentous event will take place in the fall of 2011, so there's plenty of time to accomplish everything I've been meaning to.

Like dropping a hundred pounds.

Rather than trying to do it all the final week before the reunion, I've decided to spread the loss out over these next two years. Actually, it will be a little less than 2 years - I suspect they'll set the date for some time in September or October. So, it'll be roughly 100 weeks, which means I need to drop a pound a week. Easy as pie!

Pie. That sounds really good, don't you think?

Pumpkin Pie by Toni Dunlap - click on image for her blog



Let's redirect, shall we?

This gradual approach to weight loss will be so simple; truly a piece of cake. Which reminds me of my buddy Shana's post, WTF Wedding Cakes at So Not Zen.

Here's a lovely piece from Tattered Edges at Engaged: A Blog on the Bog.
She's doing NaNoWriMo too!
- click on image for her blog

This is not going to help me in my endeavor, is it? My fellow HASAY Club members won't appreciate me putting all these yummy treats in today's post. So let's move on to the next goal I have for my reunion:

To be a famous author with my novel on the NYT bestseller list.

Or at least to have a book published.

Or at least to have a book written, being considered by an agent for representation.

I am hereby participating in NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. The NaNoWriMo website describes it as "a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

This is a much more short term project. It requires me to write 1612.9 words per day.

So you won't be seeing much of me this month. But hopefully I'll be back on December 1st to share news of my great accomplishment with you.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll share your thoughts on all of this. I'm especially eager to know who else is doing NaNoWriMo. And hear your wild tales of high school reunions. I have such limited experience; I anticipate something like this.

13 comments:

Barry said...

If spent a week with aching joints, but now that that's over, having read your post, I have aching sides! Seriously aching sides!

I went to my 25th highschool reunion a number of years ago and none of my close friends from the time showed up.

Of course, to be fair, I didn't hang with a crowd who were likely to attend a high school reunion. We were the school's intellectuals who were above that sort of thing. Today we'd be called geeks.

I mean when you 16 and asked what your favourite book was and you answer Plato's Republic, you are a geek by definition.

For that matter to be part of a crowd who even cares what your favorite book was condemns you to geekdom right there.

I my defense, at least I was the geek with a sense of humor!

Now stay away from that pie.

Its mine, I saw it first!

Becky said...

Now, I thought you posted your NowImaWriteMo stuff on your blog? Is that not how it works? Good on ya for doing that.

And yeah, the HS reunion. A facebook group has already formed and organized my 20th for next year. I honestly don't know how people ever had reunions before the internet/facebook. Did they use the phone?!?

Fantastic Forrest said...

Barry - glad I was able to make your sides ache. Hopefully that will take your mind off the joints!

Are you on Facebook? I'll bet if you reconnected with the geeky gang, you'd have fun. And perhaps some of those you didn't know well have grown into geekdom. It's never too late, you know. I was an early bloomer for geekiness. :-)

Fantastic Forrest said...

Becky - I may post a smidge of novel material, but I really want to become a real live published author, so I'm holding out for a book deal.

I think people used to be a lot less transient, so it was easier to track them down. Phone and regular mail, I imagine. The internet makes it easier to deal with all of us who move around now. It will be really interesting to see who shows up.

lisahgolden said...

In my case, the reunion was worth it. It had been a really long time. And you how I looked when you met me this summer? I looked like that. Not fab, but it didn't stop me from having a great time.

I'm right there with you on the slow and steady weight loss AND the writing. Best of luck! You can accomplish all your goals. I know you can.

Maureen said...

Oh, good luck! My 10-year is coming up in 2011, and if anyone from my class (who is not me) sets a date I might consider going... hopefully 20lbs lighter. We'll see! I am participating in nanowrimo as well. Should be fun!

Bee said...

I got a little distracted by the pie, because pumpkin is one of my favorites. Not too sure about the orange marmalade, and I swear by a crust that is half butter/half Crisco . . . but where we?

Ah yes, your goals for the upcoming HS reunion. (May I mention now that John C. is still unmarried. Not that this is relevant . . . since you and I ARE married.)

Well, good luck with those goals. You dream big, honey, but why not?

A Tired Wife said...

Good luck with the writing! I'm going to be right here *sits down on the floor* until you get back.

kyooty said...

Way to go!! I think the reunion plan is wonderful. I'm hoping to be back to normal size by my 20th in August of 2011. There is a meeting around Christmas. girls night out, so I'll use that for my "now" and then the reunion for my after? I guess it could work. Good luck on that novel!

Kathy Amen said...

Good luck with the novel! Your blog-reading public awaits.

Miss Healthypants said...

Good luck on the weight loss and the book writing! :) I'm trying to get healthier/lose weight right now, too.

My nephew is doing the NaNoWriMo stuff, too. It sounds like a big goal. The best of luck to you!! :)

Casey said...

Gah, thanks for the tempting pictures! Actually, I just finished a pile of mini candy bars so I'm doing just fine on my own.

I think a pound a week is doable, and some weeks you'll lose more and some less so it'll even itself out. The novel, sheesh. I can't even bring myself to put up a blog post these days and everyone's working on novels. You rock.

Here's to a great month!

Erin said...

Can I do NaHaiWriMo? A letter per day toward a haiku opus that I know I have inside me?

Good luck with the novel!