Proud of Who I Grew Up to Be

(1) I graduated. The end. (Pics to come soon-ish).

(2) Pottermore opened to the public this April, but I made the responsible, grown-up decision to wait until finals and graduation were over until I signed up. Then, I spent a lovely evening immersed in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. And I was sorted into...

 Ravenclaw! Which is cool, although Gryffindor would have been my first choice. For anyone dying to know, my wand is cedar with a phoenix feather core. If you want to add me, message me for my user name! (I'm anticipating that no one will message me: I have the strange feeling that no one, my age at least, is as excited about Pottermore as I am.)

Ravenclaws are clever, quirky, and independent, or so says the welcome letter on Pottermore. Maybe I kinda fit those things. Definitely the independent part.

 (3) I was telling this to my family, and my mom asked which characters were in Ravenclaw. The only two I could think of (that she'd know) were Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood.

Then she told me that it (my sorting) made sense. "You could be Luna's older sister."

Guys. My life is made. My mother thinks I could be related to Luna Lovegood.

This?

Totes okay with me.

Milestone and Goals

I just hit the 50,000 word mark on my novel! Hooray, hurrah, huzzah! Let's celebrate with as many celebratory words as we know! Auguri! Mazeltov!

...more?...

I feel as cool as this guy obviously is.

It feels good on this side of impossible.

And yet, there's still so much work to do on the story. It's 50,000 words of the zero draft (the draft in which I tell myself the story. Not polished. Not publishable at all).

But 50,000 words!!!!!!!!!!!! That's over a hundred pages in MS Word. Single spaced.

I love accomplishing!

Here are some other post-graduation, summer goals:

(1)Finish this novel
(2) Write another
(3) Find a job
(4) Make friends that like me and will hang out with me in Kaysville (or SLC) since most of my friends live in other states. Or Provo. Which is like a different planet (I kid. Mostly).
(5) Turn 25. Be happy about it
(6) Hang out with my awesome family

I'm thinking number 6 will be the easiest to accomplish.

P.S. I might need to make this blog private. I still want you, my friends and family, to read it though, and I feel that making a blog private seriously deters accessibility. What do y'all think?

There Is No Title for This Post

I'm been busy not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I don't have much to say, but here's some excellent music I've heard lately. Enjoy.



And:


Finally:


That last video was recorded for AUDIO-FILES, a new show from BYUtv. It's actually a really good show. If you love music (especially indie music), you'll want to at the very least check out the Imagine Dragons episode on byutv.org

Peace.

That One Time When I Was a Hostage

March has been a crazy month. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

A wedding, a writing retreat, school winding down (AH! I'm graduating!!)

Life has been busy.

So yeah. The wedding was wonderful (more on that later), but the writing retreat is what I really need to talk about.

Our New York trip, due to unforeseen circumstances, got cancelled two weeks before we were supposed to go. So instead, Rick (the author/professor I work for) suggested that we do a planning/writing retreat at the cabin of a friend of his. I was excited, because how cool does "writing retreat" sound?

Okay, it's probably just me that gets excited about that.

The cabin was swanky. "Cabin" is a complete misnomer. Try "palatial winter home akin to Robert Redford's."

At the palatial winter home, we set about planning how to take over the world (good news for another post, but I'll give you a hint: e-book company) and where the best place to schmooze with editors would be (ALA conference in Anaheim this June). Then we set about enjoying the elevator (yes, there was an elevator) and lounging in the library, writing! Huzzah!

At this point in the day, I realized that I forgot to tell my family and friends (read: Mom and BFF Katherine) that I didn't have cell phone reception. We did, however, have wi-fi, so I shot off this email:

Hey I'm on a mountain in a cabin and my cell phone has no reception. There is wi-fi, so you can email me or facebook me and I'll check. I only emailed you too because you're the only ones who ever call me!

Love,
Meg

An hour later, I decided to take a break and check facebook. Abbi, my little sister, had messaged me.

Thus began an interesting conversation:

Abbi: Megan Mom needs you to call home right now!
Megan: I can't, I have no cell phone reception! What's going on?
Abbi: First, who is your youngest sister named after. Just answer and ask questions later
Megan: No one. But her middle name is for her aunt Laura.
Abbi: yes it was your old childhood friend. who was that?
Megan: Abby [Last Name]
Abbi: good. ok you passed the test. what mountain are you on what cabin are you in who are you with?
Megan: I just emailed Mom and told her. Is she freaking out?
Abbi: yes she thought someone was either holding you hostage or your computer was hacked because you had misspelled words in your email and it didn't sound like you at all.
Megan: That's funny. I typed it fast. I'm not being held hostage. I'm here of my own free will. My third grade teacher was named Ms. Alston.
Abbi: Ok. but she still wants to know where you are, who wth, and why, and when you'll be home.
Megan: [I tell her where I am, what I'm doing, who I'm with. Also deleted for privacy reasons.]
Abbi: Ok sorry for the fuss. Please be safe. And call mom if you get reception ever. let cyndi know your safe too. mom and mike practically traced her online to get her number and then called her to see where you were.
Megan: Cyndi knows already. She was there when I left. All this because I spelled "two" as "too." Let that be a testament that editing is important.

Moral of the story: NEVER misspell words. Especially if you don't want a full-scale manhunt mounted on your behalf. If I'd written for another hour, who knows what kind of swat team would have pounded down the door?

p.s. my sister's impromptu security question made me chuckle. It reminded me of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

Mrs. Weasley: Arthur, is that you?
Mr. Weasley: Yes. But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!
Mrs. Weasley: Oh, honestly...
Mr. Weasley: Molly!
Mrs. Weasley: All right, all right... What is your dearest ambition?
Mr. Weasley:To find out how aeroplanes stay up.
[Mrs. Weasley goes to open the door]
Mr. Weasley: Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!
Mrs. Weasley: Arthur, really, this is just silly...
Mr. Weasley:What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?
[Mrs. Weasley's face turns bright red]
Mrs. Weasley: [whisper] Mollywobbles.