If you remember last year, I had an ambitious November. I wanted to take 30 days to make myself a better man, and I did. I wanted to do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups each day, and I did. I also wanted to complete NaNoWriMo, and I did. It was ambitious and by the end I was absolutely drained in every aspect of my life, but it felt great to do all those things on top of my daily activities.

This year, however, I won’t attempt to make myself better each day. I won’t exercise and I won’t write 50,000 words. I want to do these things but I just won’t have the time this year. You see, November is the month where I pack up my things in Ukraine and I head home. I’ll be home on November 27th. Before that, I’ll be in Kiev in and out of meetings to make sure I’ve taken care of everything I need to before I step on the plane. And before that, I’ll be in Konotop packing up and cleaning my apartment. I’ll be saying goodbyes to people and trying to not get emotional. I won’t have time to sit down and write 1,667 words each night, even though I might want to.

Instead, I’m planning on doing this once I get home. Not necessarily 50,000 words, but I want to finish the damned novel I started last year. As you can see in the sidebar, my word-count has stayed  around 84,000 (though that’s only 84,000 typed and I estimate another 10,000 not typed). I want to finish it, edit it, and then put it up for everyone’s enjoyment. I’d love to take the next month to do this, but I’m already too busy to even consider it.

I have a plan, however. There’s this job that would be nice to get. Not so much a job as an apprenticeship for 13 weeks. I’m dreaming about it too much and I don’t think I’ll be able to bear the letdown if I don’t get accepted. Every aspect of it seems perfect, but I always wonder if I’m putting all my eggs in one basket. Regardless, I don’t have a job yet post-Peace Corps. I have, in a way, stopped applying for the moment. I’m still looking, just not applying. Once I get home, I will be in full force application mode. Even then, it will take time to land a job. That’s just the way it is, even for charismatic, gorgeous, and confident people such as myself.

“But what’s the plan?” you ask. I’ll tell you. The week of December 9th, I want to spend with my grandma. I would visit her the week before, but that’s the week leading up to my roommate from college’s bachelor party and I’ll be orchestrating it all as best man and I need to be connected to take care of things. So after that, I want to go off the grid. My grandma’s place is the perfect place to do that. I mentioned in a post that I do my best writing when I can’t be distracted by the internet. My grandma doesn’t have internet and I could use a visit with her as a week-long writing retreat.

Of course, I’ve only seen my grandma briefly in the past two years and her health hasn’t been great (she’s been battling Leukemia almost the entire time I’ve been in Ukraine) so my visit will be a good time to spend time with her to make up for the time I missed. It’s always been a worry that I won’t have any time to spend with her when I get back, so it’s better to take care of it right away if you ask me.

Long story short. I want to visit my grandma for two reasons, to focus on finishing my novel and to spend time with her. Feel free to steal my idea, your grandma will love it.