The trip home

From the Greyhound, riding home.

~~~~~~~~~~

This morning when Danny leaned over to kiss me goodbye, I could hardly move. I have had occasional back pain before, but rarely, perhaps never this bad. It seems that after almost 17 months of sharing his bed, my body has decided to dissent. I don't understand. I sleep on a futon at home, too, in fact it's less comfortable than Danny's. What tension has risen like a knot from deep inside the centre of my contentment? I spent an hour trying to find a comfortable position after he had left, then drifted off for a few more minutes.

Perhaps I've spent too much time at my keyboard lately. I'm out of shape. This is fresh incentive to adjust my sleep schedule so I can get out of bed early enough to go to the gym with 'Bruce.' It doesn't help that Danny and I spent a few hours this weekend strolling around Toronto. Walking on pavement makes my hips ache. But that, too, would change if I got back in shape.

I was happy to come home today. I have things to do. I thought the bus terminal would be relatively quiet at noon, no rush hour mobs, but I was wrong. I had to stand in line at the food court to grab some brunch. A Fillet-O-Fish from McDonalds. I can't understand what I like about them. The very idea rots my innards, but despite my distaste for fast food, I have a few buds leftover from childhood that call out for bland fish patty with tartar sauce once in a while. I picked up a blueberry croissant and large coffee for dessert, then passed through the tunnel under University Avenue and boarded the bus.

Now I remember: last night as I drifted off to sleep I had an inspiration to rewrite Tendril Through Cyberspace ( don't click here if you're a fiction writer and a kleptomaniac )

. Thanks, avad, for the inspiration.

At least the bus wasn't crowded. I intended to read and write, but made the unusual choice of sitting on the left hand side of the bus so I could take pictures of the Niagara Escarpment when we passed. I usually sit on the outside where I can spy on truck drivers. The escarpment looked bland and nondescript from the Greyhound, but I shot a strange series of photos through the opposite side of the bus after all. Now I have this blurry record of a trip I've made so many times I couldn't guess. Now that the car is gone, I settle back into this bus schedule.

I wanted to diarize my feelings along the route. I was bright and optimistic when I left Bill and Danny's, and the sun was shining in a clear sky. Halfway home, a sheet of clouds gulped down the sun, and we pulled into a sombre Guelph. I stopped at the Nutty Chocolatier. I had to.

The York Road bus was quiet. The passengers here are different from Toronto. At least on this line, most of them are light-skinned. A lot of bleary-eyed young men heading to their shifts in small factories on the southeast corner of town.

One in a white fleece jacket had mesmerizing grey eyes and a day's worth of sandy scruff. I would have paid to photograph him if I had the money, but the fantasy stayed in my head.

( Another view from the bus )

Finished!

I finished Chapter 23 of Pilgrim's Cross at about 9:30 this evening, did a word count and found it had reached 50,470. The count has been verified. I'm a winner! Yay.

I'm not done writing, though. About another eight chapters will be required to finish the story.

Congratulations to all my friends who participated in NaNoWriMo. Especially DD, I am so proud of you!

Special thanks to everyone who encouraged me along the way, including those who commented in my fiction journal and in person. I hope you'll stick with me and kick me in the butt if I get distracted from finishing this novel.

NaNo Stats

Both years I used NaNoWriMo report card (an Excel file) to chart my progress. In addition to some pretty graphs I won't display here, it produced some interesting statistics for comparison:

Year	2003	2004
Total word count	50,079	50,470
Total hours spent writing	64.25	47.33
Number of writing days	23	20
Days spent behind schedule	7	21
Completion date	Nov. 27	Nov. 30
Average words written per day (based on total days to completion)	1,854	1,682
Average words written per writing day	2,177	2,524
Largest daily word count	3,560  (Nov. 12)	4,127 (Nov. 18)
Longest work day	6 hours (Nov. 3)	4 hours (Nov. 3)
Average hours writing per day (based on total days to completion)	2.38	1.58
Average hours writing per writing day	2.79	2.37
Average words per hour	779	1,066
Highest words per hour	1,372 (Nov. 27)	1,526 (Nov. 30)
Average morale per day (scale of 1 to 10)	6	6
Days reported morale of 9 or 10	4, 10	2, 11, 15, 18