October 31, 2008
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Painful indecision
I read a hilarious piece by David Sedaris in The New Yorker earlier this week. He was asking how anyone could possibly still be undecided. He compared the election to food service on an airplane. On the one hand, you could have chicken, on the other something really foul with glass ground in it. He said that the undecideds at this point are the people who would look at the two choices and then ask, “How was the chicken prepared?”
It’s a funny essay.
But I have a lot of sympathy for the pain of the undecideds. I’m an undecided and they have about 35 times as many minutes/hours to make up their minds as I have. They have so much time left, they could spend vast amounts of it drinking a beer, sleeping in a hammock, or well, doing anything they want. They have the luxury of time left in which they may yet avoid having to make a decision. They can wake up on Tuesday and if they are still undecided they can pick up a voters guide and thoughtfully reflect upon the candidates and issues as they make their way to the polls.
I have no such assistance.
Tonight at midnight my options will have expired and I will have to either do it or not.
Of course, I’m talking about NaNo. And no, I still don’t know.
What I do know is that with my schedule the only possible way I could complete NaNo this year would be to spend every Saturday closeted with my computer writing from Sunup to Sundown. I only have 1 half-baked premise for a book. No outline, no index cards, no opening scene envisioned …
You know, there’s a great tradition among American writers of turning to alcohol and I’m beginning to understand why. The pain of indecision is intense. If I feel this way about something so relatively unimportant to greater mankind as whether I’ll start my next book tomorrow, how must it feel to know that you could be one of the 1,000 or fewer people who decide the fate of the free world.
Happy Halloween.
For my costume today, I was a VooDoo Witch/Sorceress/Priestess – whatever. I collected a shelf of potions with such titles as “Blood from a Turnip”, “Oil of Fair Isaac”, and “Wool of Bat Bum”. I wore my Mardi Gras mask, my purple feather boa, beads, black cape, and my purple stilettos. Oh yes, and impossibly long and garish purple eyelashes. I love wearing the fake eyelashes. I only do it on Halloween, but I may start doing it more often because it’s just FUN.
Comments (17)
i’m not nano-ing this year. i’m going to attempt the blog a day though. o_O i’m counting pics as a blog.
i could easily do one a day for 30 days just from my therapeutic trip to the westcoast during my time off work. 
You really SHOULD wear those more than once a year….they’re awesome.
Happy Halloween!
Last year, I thought I’d probably do it this year. No way.
@LuckyStars - A blog a day… most days I have to work hard to keep it down to one, and then it all dries up and I don’t blog for a week. No commitments from me on anything like that. I stopped doing New Years resolutions decades ago.
@SuSu - silly susu…it’s not new years. it’s nanotime. as for a blog a day. i’ve been blatantly absent for most of the past several months. i’ll be internetless at work, so i’ll have to remember to do it when i’m at home. considering i still have a week’s worth of clean clothes folded yet piled on my bed…after having been home over a week now, i’m not promising anyone anything. it will simply be a test.
@LuckyStars - Yeah, Lucky, I know what day it is. A commitment is a commitment. I just don’t make them unless I know I can keep them.
Ha. I was just going to email you to ask….
. I, too, am undecided. Well – not really. I’m undecided whether I’m really going to try to ‘win,’ or just futz around and half-ass it. Guess which one I expect to go for….no, really. Guess! 
P.S. The eyelashes are TOTALLY gorgeous, and so you!
I’m not NaNoing either. But I do need to make a deal with myself to write every day. Make it a warm up for April (National Poetry Month). Heh.
Trick or Treat!
Donkey Guy for President! Miss Smarty Pants for Vice President! Long Live the Queen! Hi Mom! Holy Sheep!
Sometimes you just have to make the best decision you can based upon what you know. The truth is you don’t know what anyone is going to do once they get into office…people make a lot of promises and whether they are sincere or not they don’t even know what they can accomplish until they get in that position and start debating with congress about changing some things….and that also depends on who gets reelected to fill those seats which is changing this years as well. Everything has to fall into place anyways to get things done and God already knows so I just make my decision and pray that it’s the right one and that it is the best choice. I voted for Obama…not just because he’s given many Americans hope and I’ve heard the things he’s done as a senator and he has the smarts to pull together a really good campaign and to argue down key people then he should make a good president…also I feel like if the economic invester, and many republicans including Colin Powell who was smart enough to know about the war in Iraq before it happened endorses him then my choice is probably a good one…but I really didn’t have a tough time deciding…for me I didn’t have to ask how the chicken was prepared. I just saw the glass bottom and said that’s ok lolol. I hope you make your decision by Tuesday and that it’s the best one for you…staying undecided doesn’t help because someone will win regardless lol!
Hope you have a great and blessed day!
just do it! even if you don’t finish, you’ll have more done than you did Nov. 1st… at least that’s my rationale for doing it this year! wanna meet this week some evening so i don’t move your books?
I’ll try NaNo again this year. Could be interesting. What jerjonji said! The ‘undecided’ as far as politics goes, well, I think most of them are like me. I decided who I’ll be voting for awhile ago, but don’t tell the polsters – it messes with their minds (and stats.). Now stop reading this and get writing…as I continue to peruse subs…
This is a tough election…the country is in desperate need of a great leader………so many issues. Hugs to you and this is a great post.
@jerjonji - Hey Jeri! Yes I’d love to meet some evening this week. Actually, everything I usually have to do on Tuesday is cancelled so that’s good as is Wednesday or Thursday. I don’t get off until 5 and I’m working in the office at Osuna and I-25 so if I could meet with you before heading home, that would be the best time for me. Let me know!
Hugs
I’m definately NOT undecided. I don’t see how anyone can be at this point, but I guess there are indecisive people out there who wouldn’t be able to make a firm decision no matter what the choices were. Or maybe they don’t listen to debates, or view he candidates websites and all they know is what the commercials say, that would make a person undecided I guess.
Your lashes do look lovely and I know people who wear them every day! I’ve even thought of it myself, but I always seem to go for the cheap ones that end up falling off half way through the day. LOL Glad you got into the Haloween spirit. Do you happen to have a pic of the whole get up? I’m sure you looked wonderful! <3 SuZ
@quiltnmomi - what’s near Osuna and 25? and Tuesday is fine and 5 is fine. I might have to sub but I’ll be done by 3ish and a bit tired, but eager to hang with you face-2-face while i can!!!!
Good luck on NaNo!