When I let my fingers do the hiking

~ Tara R.

It doesn’t happen often, but this weekend I stayed home and didn’t get out for my usual photo hike. Instead, I spent the holiday weekend with my kids. My daughter, who is living out-of-state attending grad school, was home for Thanksgiving, so when she wasn’t hanging with old friends (who were also visiting over their break), I wanted to enjoy her company. My still teenage son lives at home, and also wanted to spend time with his all-growed-up sister.

The other deterrent to my hike was this pesky thing called NaNoWriMo… with my kids at home, and wanting to do that whole family thing, I got woefully behind on my daily word count. Saturday, I was facing a 4,000+ deficit and the possibility of simply throwing in my keyboard.

While I do enjoy football, I was particularly grateful for the games this weekend. The College Kid is a FSU alum and with the bitter intra-state rivalry between Florida State and the University of Florida, she was busy watching the game with friends. My alma mater also had its final conference game that morning, so… I donned my Vols T-shirt, and hunkered down to type while I cheered on my team, and my daughter was out of the house cheering on hers.

Much caffeine and copious amounts of (good and bad) snacking later, and I had pounded out 4,581 words, getting me back on track and even ahead a little for Sunday. There was also a celebratory glass of wine once I could power down the old laptop.

I have less than 10,000 words, and six days, to finish my quest of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

So… for this weekend’s photos, I give you a few images of what helped me through my marathon day of writing.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Unknown Mami
Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City

18 thoughts on “When I let my fingers do the hiking”

  2. you have plenty of time to hit 50K. I’m glad you got so much quality time with your daughter. We had wine corks and desserts and football here, too. great photos.

    Like

    Reply

  5. The Chicago Tribune had an article about NaNoWriMo the other day. I’ve only heard about it from blogging. I didn’t realize it goes back to 06 or 07? The article stated that only about 15% finish the challenge. Do you think the sale of win in Nov. is impacted by this challenge? I should try beer writing.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Congratulations on working toward a serious writing challenge. I love the picture of the wine corks. I need copious amounts of coffee when writing. Wine? I think it would just put me to sleep.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Congrats on reaching 40k! After this, it’s just all downhill and easy to achieve! You can do it!
    Also: wine is a GREAT helper with writing. A famous writer once said “Write drunk, edit sober” 😀

    Like

    Reply

  9. Good luck getting to the 50,000 mark Tara. I’m sure you’ll do it.

    My attempt to get 30,000 more for Rachel isn’t going as well as i’d hoped. I was much too blase about it and i had a busier than normal November with other stuff. My usual writing time at work was seriously curtailed (i’ve actually been BUSY!!) So my focus will continue into December and fingers crossed the story is done by the New Year 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  10. Tara, what is in the second last photo in the …cooker? 🙂

    Congrats on your progress. After sitting on it until Nov 8, I signed up for the NaNoWriMo too – and surprisingly sped past the mandatory 50K today. What a feeling. I am shocked I actually managed to write that much. Initially it was scary not to keep editing 😀 One of the reasons my writing progressed is a lighter workload this month. So what I lack in cash, I’ve made up in words, for what it is worth.

    Hugs! Looking forward to reading what you wrote!

    Like

    Reply

Join the discussion...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.