Novices!

One of my friends participates in NaNoWriMo religiously every year. Every November her blog becomes 4-6 posts per day of something to the tune of "I wrote another 50 words this morning!!!!!!!!" or "what should I name this character?" and I have to limit my visits to once per week to avoid being completely irritated.

Sadly, I lack the ambition and the time to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, but it turns out that there is something out there for me after all: NaBloPoMo. The rules are simple: post once a day or die. Then when you're tired of posting, click on the randomizer and comment nicely on people's blogs.

I must say, I'm pretty impressed with a lot of the blogs I've come across. They kind of put mine to shame. I'm also pretty impressed at the number of people who have stumbled across this blog as a result of it. So, hello, if that's why you're here.

I showed up for practice this morning only to find that my guys weren't there. It just so happened that the novice women needed an extra person in their eight, so I decided to help them out.

There was a time when I would have been incensed by even the thought of going out in a novice boat. For lack of a better description, it feels crappy to be in one of those boats. The balance is all over the place, you get splashed a lot, the rythm is rushed and chances are you'll smash your knuckles open and make a mess of your shirt. But nowadays I'm a little more forgiving.

Sure, it wasn't a good row by any stretch of the imagination, but everyone in that boat seemed to have a pretty good attitude and they were at least trying. I can appreciate that. Still, I'm becoming rather fond of my men.

Since then, all I've done today is stats. Exciting, I know.