Today, the Wife and I took a quick jaunt into Manhattan. We headed in to have some brunch at Sarabeth’s at Central Park South.

Unbeknownst to us but beknownst to everyone else, the 2008 New York Marathon was today. I thought it was yesterday. We walked right into it; literally. I directed us onto the wrong side of the street, and we couldn’t exactly cross the gated off course. So we had to walk back into the underground station and come out the other side. No worries. We found the restaurant, right next door to the Plaza Hotel, pretty quickly after that. I had some delicious Almond Crusted French Toast with some Chicken & Apple Sausage. The Wife had Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with some Pork & Apricot Sausage. Both dishes were extremely delicious!

After brunch, we took a walk through part of Central Park and got some nice fall pictures. Some of us, some of the local flora, and some of the local wildlife.

All in all we had an excellent day.

So I am giving this whole NaNoWriMo thing a shot. I am at 500+ words into it while riding on the train to CT. I have come to some conclusions about my writing skills (or SKILLZ) as they may be. First off, I have GREAT ideas. I think a story through so much that I tend to get mired down in the details. That leads me to my second conclusion; I ramble. I ramble, ramble, ramble. I try to fit in SO much detail, that I get bored writing the story and lose my train of thought. It has become frustrating because it is the same problem that I ALWAYS run into. In fact…I am pretty sure I am rambling now. On a side note, is anyone else singing the song ‘Ramble On’ by Led Zepplin?

I have created some great stories. People have told me so. Usually short stories where the details are the parts that shine. It seems to be when I try to insert characters into it that I get lost. When I try to detail their lives enough so that the reader can know enough about them, it is then that the details kill the idea.

A lot of times, when writing, you are supposed to just keep the thoughts going. But my attention gets distracted….especially when I feel I have lost track of my goal. Perhaps this month of writing BOTH for the NaNoWriMo and the NaBoPloMo will help me to hone my writing and story telling skills.
So far on day 1, I have one blog post (this) and 527 words (@ 8:40am). Only 49, 473 more to go!