NaNo Journal: November 5-November 11

11-5-11
11:30pm

Remember, remember... the 5th of November!

I tried a new place for Fri/Sat evening writing. After the crap at Starbucks last night, I'm not so inclined to go there again for a while. I found the McD's between the house and EC has wireless. Fantastic! They also have the largest play place in what has to be the entire county. Not fantastic! And a single outlet for the entire lobby. Fail beyond fail. It was fairly quiet though so it will work for a bit. At least on Fri/Sat nights.

Got Spotify downloaded to the netbook so I was able to stream better music than the musiak McD's had. Headphones helped block out the beeping from the kitchen and kids screaming in the play place. Nothing could be done about the single outlet being under the booth right beside the bathrooms though. *sigh* Better than listening to someone tune a guitar though.

Friday Five: Favorite Holidays

I'm not sure why I have holidays on my mind right now. It serves for a good Friday Five though. My top five holidays:

Easter. I am not particularly religious and I don't claim affiliation with any specific denomination, group, council, sect, whathaveyou. Easter is my favorite holiday though for one specific reason. As a child, I didn't spend much time with my natural father's family (long story for another time). I missed a lot of holidays with them, but I always spent Easter with my Grandma. And Easter was almost as exciting as Christmas for me as a kid.

As an adult, I hold Easter above Christmas specifically for the memories I have of my grandmother. Easter egg hunting, the "treasure" blanket, and salami roll ups always jump at me. The "treasure" blanket is memorable because Grandma had many, many grand kids and so was not able to buy a lot of stuff for us. At Easter, she set out a number of toys and trinkets (Slinky's, water guns, play dough, etc.) and then would draw a name from a hat. Each kid was listed in the hat a certain number of times based on how many things she got for the blanket. 

It was one of the most awesome experiences of my childhood... the thrill of wondering if my name was going to be called next, planning out what I would choose and alternates in case my choice was snatched up by someone else, and the general euphoria of sitting around with a dozen other children doing the exact same thing. It was awesome.

Click the jump for the other 4!