Day Twenty: First Thoughts, First Meet.
So today I finally began to really get into The Strain, and am loving every page. It’s great so far, and even though I know that the disease is a virus that basically causes people to turn into vampires, it’s great writing, and is really creepy. I’d say that it’s basically Cell+The Andromeda Strain (two greats books by the way, if you haven’t read them, highly recommended). I also read a little more of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, and can’t help but love the writing, but hate the work that I have to do for it. Taking notes on every chapter seems tedious, especially considering that I have a mammoth volume, A Distant Mirror, three hundred pages of the 14th Century, still knocking on my door.
And as for JulNoWriMo? Don’t get me started. I’m ten thousand words behind as of tonight, and I’m supposed to sleep in early tonight, because of swim team in the morning. Speaking of swim team, our first swim meet was today. And of course, the first race of the year, our medley relay team gets owned horribly. Because somehow at thirteen, I’m the oldest kid on the team, I have to swim the fly, which no other kid apparently knows how to do, and the fly is my worst stroke. Naturally my goggles end up around my neck after the first dive, and we end up in last, because one of the swimmers couldn’t turn around. I’m not complaining or anything, I’ve seen this sort of thing happen a lot, I’ve been competitively swimming since I was seven, when we lived in Singapore, and I swam for the Fighting Fish. I went on to swim 50 free, coming in first place with a horrible 30.48 time, my goal this summer being to break thirty seconds. I came horribly close. I swam the 50 back, and I was grouped with the sixteen year old age group and still won, can’t remember the other times. Also swam fifty breast, also was grouped with sixteens, also won. It’s pretty satisfying when you swim up and win, even if the swimmers aren’t the best in the world.
So now, I’m probably going to cram what little I can of JulNoWriMo in before I positively get demolished this weekend trying to write the pain away. My goal is to hit fifty thousand by the end of this weekend, sister permitting (plug wars…). My next post is probably going to come sometime late, so be prepared to stay up 
Going to type faster than humanly possible,
Andrew.
