3,384 Words and the Messy House to Prove It

Day 2 of NaNoWriMo, and I’m 50 words ahead of my goal of 1,667 words per day.

I wrote tonight’s words on my new MacBook, which arrived this afternoon. I set it up in fits and starts, which is how I do everything with my kids around.

My husband observed this evening that the house is starting to look like a wreck again. I think the word he used was “mess,” but I encouraged him to watch what he says unless he’s going to lose sleep to clean up, which is how I clean up when I manage to clean up. Perhaps my mistake was getting it clean in the first place. It seems the contrast is what’s getting to him.

I’m doing my best to let neither the mess nor the comments from my beloved get me down. I’m having fun with this little story, which is taking me in directions I’d never considered writing before, and if that means we have to kick toys to the side to create walkways through the house until December, so be it.

I got an unexpectedly long walk this afternoon when we all walked over to our polling place as a family, and I remembered just as we opened the doors to the elementary school that I’d forgotten my picture ID. This is the first state I’ve voted in (and I’ve voted in four) that required picture ID. I actually thought that was unconstitutional. But then, I also thought you weren’t allowed to specify “male” or “female” in an ad seeking a tenant for a rental property or to sell a used mattress, but they do that here, too. Maybe I was mistaken. Wouldn’t be the first time.

At any rate, I turned around, walked home, grabbed my wallet (after making sure my drivers license wasn’t one of the things my son had strewn all over the kitchen floor when he was going through my wallet while I was setting up the laptop), and then walked back to vote. The paper printout that accompanied my touch-screen ballot seemed to be a little messed up, though. I hope my vote went through OK. If the results aren’t how I want them to be, I’ll know I was disenfranchised. That is the only reasonable explanation.