Alright. I'm ready.

I started exercising again yesterday. It's been a long, long time. I went to the gym and walked a mile and a quarter on the treadmill. I started again for two main reasons: (1) I'm going to Super Soap Weekend (but just one day, so I guess for me it will be Super Soap Sunday) again this year, and it's in 12 days (counting today), so the more walking I do between now and then, the more easily I'll be able to walk all around the MGM park, and (2) I figured that since exercise helps brain function, it ought to also help with imagination and word recall while I'm writing. That will make two things about NaNo this year that will be very different for me - I'm gluten-free this time, and I'll be exercising at regular intervals.

So, this morning, I was almost sucked into this vortex of depression, but I went and walked 1.39 miles, and I feel better.

Here's something interesting: My face used to turn a very bright shade of red whenever I would exercise, even a little bit. Employees at gyms and fitness centers would look at me with an expression of extreme concern, as if they were wondering if I was going to drop dead of a heart attack any minute, but I would assure them that I just always turn red like that and it doesn't seem to be anything to worry about. My blood pressure is always great, and I have no heart problems. So, yesterday and today, I noticed I turned pink - actually a nice, healthy shade of pink - but not beet-red. And the walking seemed somehow easier than it used to, as well. It has to be the gluten-free diet. I am noticing so many things, both major things and little things.

Ever since I was a kid, my hands always shook. People would tease me and tell me I'd never be a surgeon. I noticed a few months after starting the GF diet that my hands rarely shake now. They shake when I'm nervous, and sometimes they'll shake just a tiny bit after physical exertion, but that's about it. Here's another thing. I always had this embarrassing problem of my nose running every time I would eat. Not just spicy foods - anything at all! I always carried Kleenex with me, and D used to roll her eyes at me for having to wipe my nose whenever we would go out to eat. It dawned on me several weeks ago that I hadn't had my nose run while eating in months! Weird stuff.

Well, I have my outline, my characters' names and ages assigned, and notes of the basic storyline. I'm trying out the yWriter software this year. It looks pretty cool, how it breaks down the chapters and scenes. It will make it much easier, when I get up to a decent word count level, to find certain scenes and make corrections, move things around, etc., without having to scroll through a hundred-plus pages in a Word document. It also keeps a running word count, by scene, by chapter, and by total project.

Eight hours, 51 minutes . . .