MeWriMo: Three Days Worth

First fact about me: I do not like white chocolate. And it's apparently not even chocolate.

I subscribe to this blog called GOOD, and each month, they start a new challenge for readers to participate in (if they so choose). The month-long challenge is a general way to improve as a person (like "perform acts of service" or "live healthier"), but GOOD then gives a daily challenge that's more specific and fits under the umbrella of the larger challenge (like "Buy a meal for a homeless person" or "Snack on fruit rather than the crappy stuff you usually go for").

The GOOD challenge for November is to document your life, and this works out as a perfect motivation for me to start working on the good ol' blog again and hop on the personal history train that has been toot-tooting its way into my world for a while now.

I'm calling November "MeWriMo," which is a shameless ripoff of "NaNoWriMo," the abbreviation for "National Novel Writing Month." NaNoWriMo also takes place in November, every year. I thought about participating this time around, but I decided to do some non-fiction, personal-type writing rather than do the fiction thing. You can call that "Memoir Writing Month," or "MeWriMo." And it's all me, baby.

So anyway, I'm following along with the daily documenting challenges from GOOD.

Day 1: Document Street Style

tuesday

(earrings from DownEast Outfitters, cardigan from Old Navy, Trouve tee-shirt from Goodwill, watch from a shop in Provo, Levi-Strauss jeans from DownEast Outfitters, Cole Haan loafers from Goodwill, jacket from Macy's, bag and gloves from Target)

wednesday

(necklaces from yard sale and Buffalo Exchange, Gap sweater from Goodwill, skirt from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

thursday

(headband from Target, vintage Nordstrom top from Value Village, BDG jeans from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

I'm gonna keep documenting my outfits this month, even though it was only the challenge for the first day, for a few reasons. The first one is that this blog got its start with outfit pictures and so forth, and I'd like to have that as a continued part of what I'm recording here. I've also started working with clothes for a living and have spent some good brain time thinking about my personal style, so I've got some new things to say. Anyway, anticipate that.

Day 2: Document a Pet

Walter!

Walter has been our cat since August 25th. Craig and I had this deal going where we decided that once we had moved to Seattle and we both had jobs, we would get a kitty cat of our very own. (Craig and I both grew up having family cats, and by sad coincidence, both of our beloved, elderly family cats passed away over the summer, so we went through our grief and realized all-the-more how much goodness a terrific pet can add to your life.) On the very day I got hired at my current job, we got our bums down to the local Humane Society and took a look around. There were many friendly cats who were eager to play and cuddle, and we almost overlooked Walter entirely. He was very mellow in a cage on the bottom row. We only noticed him because, at whatever angle it was at the time, Walter looked like a mini-cougar. It was pretty distinctive. We played with him for a while, and even though he didn't seem super-interested in us, it seemed like a good fit. With a few signatures and interview questions behind us, we were taking him home an hour later. It took about three weeks before he would even leave the bedroom of our apartment, but now, he roams with ease. This cat is ridiculously set on cuddling with us. Anytime Craig or I are sitting still for more than 90 seconds, he takes advantage of the opportunity and hops onto whichever lap is most convenient. He also sleeps in bed with us and has gotten really great at not bothering our sleep in any way. On the downside (every relationship has a downside), he has a bit of a problem with cat snot. He expels it regularly, in quantities that are seriously astounding.

I'm not gonna say that I understand parenthood now that I have a cat, but I will say that I kind of understand parenthood now that I have a cat. I love this animal a lot, so much so that I attend to his bodily functions and want to have conversations with other people about those bodily functions. What could be more mom-like than that?

Day 3: Document Happiness

How's this?

It's better than this.

The crazy thing is that those last two pictures, where I'm looking horrendous and showing off my crackers, were taken because I said to Craig, "You know, I think I'm feeling a lot better now. Go ahead and take some pictures so we get this all documented before leaving the hospital." Which means that at this point, I was feeling better. My appearance before this moment must have been just heartbreaking.

I had vaginal surgery back in July (wrote about it briefly right here). Was it happiness? No, not in and of itself. I was very sore for a while there, and coming out of the anesthesia was a terrifying experience. But it was a big step, an important step, one that (fingers crossed) will help me become a mom someday. That brings some happiness to the equation. I also got to have my husband and my mom take care of me for an entire week, which was just marvelous. We moved to Washington two weeks after the surgery, so we had to stuff a lot of Provo happiness into the post-surgery days, and I think we succeeded.