Veteran's Day Writing Marathon Recap

Well, I didn't manage to find any veterans to harass with gratitude yesterday, but I did spend a little time watching the Warrior Challenge on ESPN for a little while.  This was a Men in BDU's Olympics at whatever military  base that is in Germany.  The guys were competing in things like "who can load the most MRE's in a Humvee in the shortest time".  It was very cool. 

I also hit my 20,000 word mark, and my laptop survived.  I didn't do the tomtato timer thing (though I'm going to go check that out, thanks for the idea!). I did a whirlwind tour of coffee shops and other places to plug in in Northern Kentucky (which isn't a city.  It's a fancy elitist term for "southern Cincinnati".  There are about a dozen little towns in three counties that have all run together within the 275 beltway on the cool side of the Ohio River.  Not that Cincinnati isn't also cool, but Kentucky's cooler, especially since we rarely wear shoes, and it is November (a ha ha ha.  I crack myself up.). 


I hit the Starbucks at the Crestview Hills Plaza and had a  venti brewedThanksgiving blend with a double chocolate brownie, which netted me about 1500 words.  There were a surprising number of people at this Starbucks for a Thursday morning.  Maybe it was because it was a holiday, but I was shocked at the number of Ladies Who Shop hanging around, ordering a mocha java kappa delta lattes with straight faces.  There was an interesting young man sitting at the table next to me, drinking a hot chocolate, with three snapshots of people spread out on the table in front of him.  I saw him again a little later, standing in front of Bath and Body Works, just looking at his snapshots.  I wonder who the people are in the pictures? 

After hitting the 18K mark and WAY over caffeinated and chocolate-ized, I rewarded myself with a visit to Borders Books and Music and redeemed my $10 credit.  They are having a buy-two-romances-and-get-a-free-B J Daniels-Intrigue novel promotion, so I bought An Unforgettable Lady, by Jessica Bird, aka JR Ward; and Defender, by  Catherine Mann, and only spent $6.50, which totally rocks, although I now have 903 books on the TBR pile next to my bed. 

THEN I went to the Kenton County Public Library, and curled up in a chair in a sunny spot and plugged the Chevy Sprint Car of laptops back in.  I tell  you, this puppy is making some serious noise.  I've got to bring her in and sweet talk our IT pit crew chief into giving her a lube job or something.  It wasn't obvious at Starbucks, because there was enough chatter from the Ladies Who Shop to drown out the noise; but I was a little embarrassed at how loud it was while I was in the library. I cranked out another thousand words and then slunk out of the back door. 

After a lovely lunch at Jimmy John's in Crescent Springs, I made it to Reality Tuesday's coffee house in Park Hills.  This place rocks.  It's all mismatched furniture and original art and business meetings and high school kids and little old ladies.  Here I managed to hit the 20K mark between sips of an iced Chai (without the milk) and surreptitious lustful glances at the Men in Camo on ESPN. 

I had a great day, and spent some quality time getting to know my characters.  Then I hit the carpool circuit, the grocery store, and ended the day with a lovely trip to buy jeans with my twelve-year-old daughter.  I had forgotten that if the size 7 jeans look too tight, then you need to go to the size 5's, because, you know.  OMG, I have to call my mother and apologize, again, for every time she didn't kill me when she took me shopping.