New School Year & Novel Draft Done.

As you can see, Yena has started high school this week and I thought I would share some pictures of now and then. I think she is doing pretty well so far, which is great because she is in a big high school over 2,200 students. She is not doing cross-country as of right now because of some ankle issues. We are hoping that she might be able to run at least in one or two meets as part of the JV races in October, but we shall see. It was a hard decision pulling her out, but we feel like it is better now then later like her junior or senior year and have a serious injury that won't allow her to run. We hve joined the wellness center in our city and she is doing cardio, some weights, and swimming to stay in shape. If anything, it will help her be ready for swim season. However, I am quite upset that she can't do cross country because that was my bread and butter in high school and I want her to get a lot of out of that, being on the team, and running. As a parent, it is hard sometimes not to project your own feelings, experiences, and expectations on your kid. Also, she has a lot of friends and who knows if she has a boyfriend or not, but I don't need to know everything even though I feel ike I have a pretty good sense on things.

As far me, I am still running and training for the Indianapolis Marathon in November. Last week, I did a 15-mile run on a local trail at a pretty slow pace. The trail had some beautiful scenery but there were places where I had to walk through trees in the middle of the trail, go up steep little cliffs, etc. However, my calf and ankle has been giving me some little annoyances. After last week of doing almost 45 miles, this week it is only a bit over 11 after I have taken some days off. I did Yoga one day and found out with alll the running, my flexibility has suffered a bit and I need to try to do some more cross-training. This coming week, I am going to try to get up to at least 40 miles again and next Saturday try to do a 17 or 18 mile run. My goal for the Indianapolis Marathon is 3 hours 20 minutes and I am trying to tell myself I can do it, but it is a 7:37 mile pace for 26.2 miles. I know I have the endurance, but I don't know about the speed. They have pacers at the marathon that I can try to run with as a group, but I don't want to embarrass myself. I am going to try to keep telling myself that I can do it!

Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that I finished the rough draft of my third novel, which is like a sequel to my second one. I did it in about three months after I don't know how many hours on most days that I spent thinking about it or writing. In the moment, I don't think I fullly realize how emotionally exhausting and how much of my mind is needed to focus on the story. It is probably somewhere in the 250 page mark of written text in my notebooks and I am hoping that on average about 300 words per page, which would put it between 70,000-80,000 words so about the minimum for a novel. I am going to give myself some time before I start typing it because that is where editing and some revising will take place. During this initial writing, I am sure I made several minor errors that I have already picked up on as I read a couple of the last chapters last night.

I can say confidently and without a doubt that this novel did not turn out in any way how I expected or thought about before or when I started writing it. That is the magic of writing because even if I have my own thoughts and plans, the characters have minds and wills of their own and I just have to follow. I have not meant to write some dystopian/utopian genre novel that is based on what I am seeing in current events and how things might go, but I guess some people could see it as such. I always try to focus on my characters though and their inner-lives; their emotions, feelings, actions, etc. and think that I have and that is why writing can be emotionally exhausting for me. We will see how I feel later when I look at it again, type it, and will see if I feel like sharing it with anyone. A lot more people than I have realized I think have read my first two novels and I have different feelings about that, but novels are meant to be read, right?

After finishing the novel this week, I have tried to let myself get back to other things that I enjoy. For example, the last two days I finally got back to binging some of White Collar on Netflix and I am almost done with season 4 now. I have tried to work on knitting too. I am going to start reading The Grapes of Wrath again but at the same time find myself looking around at other books. For example, former President Obama released his 2024 Summer Reading List and I have to say I feel a little FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) when I hear people talking about books that they read/are reading and what are deemed as important books or books that everyone should be reading.

The semester starts this coming Monday with my classes at Purdue and at the community college. I feel like I am ready but at the same time wish I had more time. I am not sure if I said anything but I got an email that stated that I was being recognized and invited to this Celebration of Teaching Excellence next month and I can take up to four guests. I thought that was pretty cool, so my mom is coming up that week and I am taking a colleague along with Zoe and Yena. However, I found out that this week that I am not being recognized for anything special; it is just for 10 years of service at Purdue. There will be others present that have received actual awards. It is not a big deal and it will be nice regardless, but I just wish I figured that out so that I didn't get as excited. My mom is coming up specifically that week for this and to see Yena run and now I feel like it will be a little disappointing because I am not actually being recognized for anything super special and Yena probably won't be doing cross-country at that point yet. I don't want to give off the impression that I am not thankful or grateful for Purdue doing all of this, but it is what it is.

There are a lot of other things that I could write about, including my opinions and thoughts about the presidential election coming up in November. I am relieved, excited, and hopefully optimistic that Kamala Harris will be elected and that it will be resounding enough that Trump and his supporters will not be able to challenge it legally in a way that is taken seriously enough or has any serious merit to their claims. I could also talk about my lifelong journey of faith that I am on; what I am learning, experiencing, contradictions, etc., but that could be an entire book, haha, right?

Okay as always, I end with: please take care of yourself and those that you love.