Truffle the monster puppy has been with us for almost five weeks now. And I’m finally starting to feel like equilibrium is returning to our household. He’s a bit calmer, a bit smarter and a much better listener than he was even two weeks ago.
And when Truffle is calmer and smarter, so are the humans in the house. Especially me. Truffle may be the monster puppy but I was quickly turning into the monster mommy. The last few days have been much easier. I haven’t yelled as much at the girls. This development is a very positive one if you believe what Slate has to say about the psychological dangers of screaming at your offspring. And let me tell you, it’s a good thing Chloe and Sophie are tough-skinned. Because in an effort to avoid taking out my first-time-puppy-owner frustrations on the dog, I was instead well on my way towards permanently scarring Chloe and Sophie with my irrational outbursts.
I am not entirely to blame, however, for my semi-psychotic state. All I will say is a little more help from the family with Truffle care would have been most welcome during those trying first weeks. And I’ll leave it at that. I’m not the only moron in this household who wanted a dog. OK, I’m done.
As I mentioned back in September, Chloe convinced me to participate in NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month. It started on November 1 and we have both been furiously typing away on our laptops in order to meet our word count goals. I’ve written more in the last week than I ever expected to write. Ever. I haven’t reached the 50,000-word minimum yet, but I’m getting close. And Chloe is well on her way to meeting her goal as well. On Chloe’s initiative, we’ve done a few “word sprints” together where we write as much as we can in a predetermined amount of time.
As I was working on my novel this afternoon, the sun finally made an appearance after a rare dreary and rainy day. This fall has finally been one to savor after two years of miserable weather. The light outside was lovely and the sun’s rays hit the leaves in just the right way and made them sparkle. And while my novel is not about leaves (how dreadfully boring that would be!), the foliage outside my window provided me with the perfect dose of motivation to forge ahead.
My novel will not be finished by the time we’re done with this crazy competition, but it will be at least 160 pages strong. Nor will my novel be ready for any kind of public consumption. But the actual exercise of writing it has been a dream come true. Seriously. I’m usually not the kind of person who uses Disney-like vocabulary to describe my mental state, but I’m being totally sincere here. And the fact that Chloe pushed me to do this and that we’re doing it together makes the experience that much more meaningful. Up there with those Mastercard priceless moments. Except better.
Happy fall, everyone. Happy fall.