This is the last time that I’m aware of that I’ll get to really enjoy this song in it’s fullness. School ended on Friday and it’s finally time to put my summer plans in motion. I’ve already cleared my bathroom sink of the fiberglass insulation-like clog of hair and gunk. Now for the bigger projects.

I’ve put off the finishing of my novel for summer when I have the time to devote my mind and thoughts to it. My parents brought me roughly 75 packets of Starbucks instant coffee (it gives me a jolt of caffeine induced focus and energy like no other coffee I can get here) and I’m going to apply the remaining 65 packets to my writing endeavors.

Originally, I was going to go about this in a quiet way. I wanted to be able to come on here one day and say, “Surprise, she’s done.” But then I was browsing through the synopses of Kindle Singles and I read one about a man who gave up drinking and to hold himself to it, he put a counter up on his popular website and let his readers know what he planned to do. He asked them also to call him out if they saw him with alcohol. It worked for him and it got me thinking about last November. During NaNoWriMo, I kept myself going by blogging every day. Granted, I was blogging about becoming a better man but I also kept track of my writing. It kept me honest with the world and gave me the drive to finish like I’d never had before with NaNoWriMo. I’m going to attempt to recreate that.

You may have noticed the black bar newly added to the sidebar of this site. It’s keeping track of my word count and it’s a visual reminder, for me, of how close to my goal (125,000 words in my first draft of my manuscript) I am. Ideally, you’ll see it change every day. I plan to keep it current (with the exception of the weeks this summer when I’ll be at camps and most likely away from the computer and not writing). If it doesn’t change, let me know and keep me honest. I also plan on blogging most days so I can give updates here and there and make excuses for not writing as necessary.

I’ve also decided on another project for myself this summer. I want to get back into great running shape, ultimately doing a helluva long run sometime late-summer. Currently, I’m doing hour-long runs without any problem (with the exception of blisters forming but those will go away the more I run). It sounds like a lot, to me at least, but the long run I’m looking at is somewhere around 32 miles round-trip. I’ll probably stop and rest midway because I’m running to a landmark that everyone here tells me I need to see. Still, I’ve never run that much in one day. It will be good for my health (I typed this while puffing away on my pipe).

I’m also considering trying out barefoot running because I recently read about the benefits of it. I’m a little nervous trying it here because the ground is riddled with broken bottles, bottle caps, rusty things, and in a few choice places you can find syringes. Maybe I’ll test it out tomorrow.

One last bit of running news. I was talking with another volunteer, Larry, yesterday and we decided to visit another volunteer near us this summer. He lives only a short distance from the Russian border. We thought it’d be cool to run to Russia and back. Illegally. We’ll run over maybe a hundred meters and then turn around just to say we did. What could go wrong? The volunteer we’ll be visiting says he’s done it before and it really wasn’t much of a big deal.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with an update about life and my novel. Keep coming back and I’ll keep writing. Stop coming back, and I’ll keep writing.