Today is the last weekend day before NaNoWriMo madness begins on Tuesday. Is it just me, or do the organizers seem really disorganized this year? Still no word count widgets or even API’s, and the buddy system just set up in the last few days. What’s up with it; does anyone know? They’re usually much more on the ball. I don’t mention it as a complaint so much as a concern. It’s unusual for the site not to be completely ready in every respect by now.

Since I’m setting my book mere blocks from my house, my husband (who is my greatest cheerleader, as he’s a writer himself), convinced me to take a research trip walk downtown, and he showed me some shops I didn’t even know existed. He discovered them on one of his daily runs. I took some notes. We found ourselves in one of those new age stores that sells crystals and tarot cards, and lo and behold if I didn’t run into a former student who works there with her mom! I was so shocked. Like students, teachers also sometimes feel discombobulated when they see students outside of the normal setting. Not so much if you’re expecting it might happen, like at the movies or the grocery store. But in a new age store, well, it threw me. Then we got coffee at this great sweet shop that I totally had no idea was so close to my house. And here I was crying over not living near Ye Olde Pepper Companie. Actually, I am still sad we don’t live near that wonderful candy store. But Aunt Kimmy’s is a great little candy store, too.

I mentioned to my husband that both of us will need to visit the Salt Factory, our local British-type pub, and unfortunately, I would need to try a Guinness for the sake of research. I drink beer, but I’m not a huge beer drinker. Months might go by before I drink anything alcoholic at all. We writers have it rough, the things we must do in the name of research. Anyway, it was a wonderful trip, and I collected some good information. We also found a great new little old-time store called Roswell Provisions. I hope it stays open. It’s too perfect. Here is a peek (from their Facebook page photos).

Of course, nothing’s set out here, as it was taken before they opened. We walked home, where we saw another former student and her family, who drove past us in their car. It was a gorgeous day and a great walk. We should do it more often, but it’s hard with everything that is going on, three kids, work, etc. It’s so handy to live so near the setting I chose (for a change), so I can just duck out to do a little research.

I am finally picking up Stephen King’s memoir [amazon_link id=”1439156816″ target=”_blank” ]On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft[/amazon_link]. My husband has read it and said it was useful, practical writing advice. I didn’t have anything I desperately needed to read lined up after finishing [amazon_link id=”B000JGQRPC” target=”_blank” ]Bridget Jones’s Diary[/amazon_link], so I grabbed to it read as I begin NaNoWriMo.

Aside from that, my weekend has been spent catching up on RSS feeds in Google Reader and trying to figure out how ready I am for NaNoWriMo. Oh, and I’ll leave with this: Class is in Session with Professor Wharton.