amandaink

I am officially FINISHED with NaNoWriMo this year.

I've clocked in at 50,076 words. Sure, it's a little less than last year. Sure, I've finished with fewer days to spare. Sure, my "novel" is more like words regurgitated on a page.

But it's FINISHED.

I'm taking a break from any major writing projects this December and then starting on something new in January. My brain needs time to recover.

I know I haven't been posting about things I'm doing outside of writing lately. In fact, I know I haven't been posting at all lately. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, I've spent a good portion of my week baking. Did I mention my love of making sweets in an earlier entry? Sometimes I think I'll try making an actual meal but, no, fuck that. If it doesn't require sugar and flour I want no part in it.

This week has been cupcake week.

For the 4th of July I made red velvet cupcakes which, unlike normal chocolate or vanilla, require weird ingredients like buttermilk and vinegar. I've never spent so much on baking ingredients alone but it was for a holiday and I'd dedicated myself to them and told all my friends and blah blah blah. Anyway. I ended up not eating any since I find cream cheese frosting nasty but everyone else seemed to like them. I delivered them to my friends the morning of July 4th wearing a red, white, and blue outfit with matching nails. I've never felt so patriotic in my life.

Today was mini chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting day. I made three batches since I'm taking them up to the place I volunteer at tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be well received.

Also, I need a baking tag. Any suggestions?

I went to the Born This Way release party at my local Starbucks. There wasn't actually much of a party until 11:30 when my friend Darren showed up with his entire entourage of co-workers and promptly went to ask the barista if he would sell him an early copy for fifty dollars. Darren is a hardcore Gaga fan; his goal is to one day be one of her dancers.

Anyway, until Darren arrived my BFF (pronounced Biff) and I sat there for about three hours talking to anyone who passed through, which happened to be half the town's gay population. Our Starbucks is one hard dance track away from being a gay club. If I ever feel like I need company and I don't feel like calling anyone I can drive up to Starbucks on any given night and find a friend.

Once Darren was denied an early copy the barista was nice enough to let him hold one and Darren promptly screamed and accidentally fumbled it onto the floor.

And once midnight finally did arrive he, Biff, and I were the first ones in line. And once we had finished paying, Darren proceeded out to his truck where he put the CD in, blasted it so it could be heard across the parking lot, and then got into the truck's carriage and danced his ass off to Government Hooker. When he was halfway through Judas even the barista, a nice older man who was somewhere between perplexed and amused with Darren's hysterics while we were paying, came out to film him. He got applause from the entire cafe.

So yes. I now own a copy of Lady Gaga's newest album. I didn't use the official cover art on my computer though. This is what I used: