Gilmore Girls (Spoilers Free!)

Anyone else watch the Gilmore Girls revival? I wasn't as big a fan as many of my friends, but I've seen most seasons and I do like it. I'm 85% of the way done watching the new episodes.

And.... it's interesting. The original is a classic coming of age, watching a girl go from 16 to 24. I sort of grew up with her.

The revival (without giving too much away) is about her quarter life crisis. She's 32, she's not married, she doesn't have a stable job, she gives up her apartment and just couch surfs from friend to friend. She's nowhere near where she (and we!) thought she would be at the end of the original series, and she doesn't know what to do.

There's a whole subplot involving the "Thirty Something Gang," a group of young adults in Stars Hollow who have "been to college, then out in the real world, and it spit ‘em out like a stale piece of gum, and now they’re all back in their old rooms." Oooooof.... That one hit a little too close to home.

I mean.... I wouldn't say that the world chewed me up and spit me out. But I did end up moving back home in my late twenties... and that was never in the plan. Actually, my life hasn't turned out anything like I thought it would. It's still good, but... very few of my childhood dreams ended up happening.

Every YA novel and movie ends when the person is at the brink of adulthood, when hope is bright and anything is still possible. But if you skip ahead a few years (like Gilmore Girls does) for those characters, you'll find that dreams don't come true for anyone.

Life is crazy and unexpected. No one has all of their childhood dreams come true. Okay, maybe there's a very rare person who has everything happen that they wished, but my guess is even they would tell you life hadn't turned out quite the way they expected.

That doesn't make life bad. I still have a good life, even though it's nothing I hoped for or expected. I think an important part of life is accepting that most of it is out of your control. You can choose how you react, and you definitely make decisions that shape your life path... but a big part of it is learning to enjoy the ride even when it doesn't take you where you thought.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with good food and good company.

Jason is home!

Jason is home!!!

He came back home last Monday. Today in church he gave his homecoming talk. I am so proud of him. He's grown and matured so much over the last two years, especially spiritually. We've had some great deep talks on gospel topics since he got home.

It feels so great to have our whole family reunited again.

Our extended family came to Jason's homecoming talk, and of course for dinner after.

It's not for very long. In 5-6 weeks or so, Kristie and Jason head back to Provo for another semester at BYU. They're both tentatively planning on staying there for Spring/Summer, so this could be the last time all 6 of us live together.

Of course, didn't I say that about the summer before Jason left on his mission? I guess you never know what the future holds.

And no matter what it holds... we'll make sure family is always a priority for us. We'll find a way to stay close, no matter what. That's what families do.

Why NaNoWriMo Is So Hard

Last night, my awesome book club went to a book signing. :)

We recently read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Around the same time the library was sponsoring a community read of another one of her books, so they flew her in to give a speech and do a signing. So of course, we went. Natalie helped us all make matching t-shirts so we could be a team (actually, she 100% made mine--thanks again Natalie! :D)

It was really fun and now I want to go to more book signings. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's any more coming up in 2016, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Anyway, during the author's speech she said something that really struck me about NaNoWriMo. This is a professional writer, right? Someone who does this for a living.

She said her goal is to write 1,500 words a day.

In order to complete NaNoWriMo, you have to complete 1,666 words a day.

No wonder I never finish! No wonder it's so hard! Life is just so busy. Oh well, it's too soon in the month to give up yet!

NaNoWriMo

Every year, I try to do NaNoWriMo. Every year, I get off to a slow start, get miserably behind, and then give up.

NOT THIS YEAR!! I am determined to really put some effort in this year and make this happen. I've been exercising my writing muscles lately, so hopefully I'm in better shape for this event.

I'll let y'all know how it goes. :)