April 05

I haven't turned into a shill for Longhorn Steakhouse -- not that my meager readership would make me an effective advertiser anyway. Anna held the Thank God Its Over (TGIO) party at Longhorn for a small group of folks (four of us), and it was fun.

Anna runs National Novel Editing Month, which ended March 31. It's a much smaller event than National Novel Writing Month or Script Frenzy, but we have a few people who carry over from the other events. Brandon and Randy are two of those folks, and they're awesomely fun guys. It's difficult to coordinate something like this to bring everybody together for the event, which is unfortunate, but we had a good time anyway, discussing head colds, sex ed and detachable penises, and telling jokes. I had commented to Anna that telling dirty jokes wasn't as fun with the guys as it was with Marion and Belynda; I think they took it as something of a challenge. They certainly rose to the occasion -- pun absolutely intended.

Actually, on that topic, it's somewhat ironic that we were discussing detachable penises at a restaurant called "Longhorn," isn't it?

95/365 -

March 22

This was nearly the edit-in that wasn't.

I've been lazy about showing up on time at National Novel Editing Month events, since I'm not actively participating. I'm there more for moral support than any real editing purpose. Nonetheless, I'm usually there.

This afternoon, I was running a little late. Life interfered, and I took care of life first. While I was taking care of life, about 45 minutes after the edit-in was scheduled to begin, my phone rang. Anna was on the line, telling me to tell everyone that she was on the way. I chuckled at her naïve assumption that I was there, and we began making phone calls -- only to discover that nobody we knew was around.

Marion, meanwhile, was there, but wasn't sure there was an edit-in, since nobody else was at the restaurant. So she went to our other usual venue and discovered nobody there, either. Marion spent a considerable amount of time running to and fro, trying to find the edit-in. Finally, she thought to call me to find out what was going on.

I arrived at the event about a minute before it was scheduled to end, and thanks to Brandon's arrival two hours later, I was not the last person to arrive. Having friends like this is pretty darn cool. For once, I'm among people who are just as screwed up as I am.

81/365 -

March 01

Dinner with friends -- my friends, at least -- may not be elegant, but it's usually entertaining.

My friend Anna is running National Novel Editing Month, and held an edit-in to kick off the month. The group was small but fun. In front is Marion, one of the municipal liaisons for Script Frenzy next month, and Anna. I'm in the back (going for Marion's neck) with Randy, a stalwart of National Novel Writing Month for the past few years. Our friend Belynda (the other ML for Script Frenzy) was feeling icky and wasn't able to join us. Still, we had fun.

We met up at Subway for the edit-in, and moved the party over to the Longhorn Steakhouse for "chicken parts," as we've dubbed the Crispy Chicken Trio appetizer they serve. (It's excellent, and definitely worth the trip!)

I'm not usually a social butterfly, but I have to admit that I have some great friends and the few times I hang out with them, I really enjoy it -- as you can see.

60/365 -