NaNoWriMo Day 5 (& an excerpt!)

Done with 1997! And up to nearly 10,000 words

Word count goal for today: 8,333 words
8,333rd word: David
Total words written: 9,352
Words over word goal: 1019

Yay! Going well. I'm a little worried that my early childhood is a bit boring. But, I tried to make this part of my life pretty humorous. Despite this, I keep reminding myself that the people who are going to ever read this are the people who are actually going to care about these little moments in my life. I'm not writing for a nation-wide audience.

But, here is an excerpt if you are interested in reading about a moment in my life. This is from Chapter 4: 1997 --

During this time in 1997 Mom and Dad were busy making home improvements to our little frame house on Circle Way. Painting the walls, improving the ceiling, adding on an extra bathroom. They were doing it all! New sidewalk, plumbers coming and going, and bills for these improvements piling up. But Mom and Dad were happy. They were making their house a home.

            During all this, Kelsey and I had to find a way to entertain ourselves. We certainly weren't going to do any of this hard work. We were ladies, after all. And according to Kelsey, ladies don’t have to work. We had recently installed new carpet. A blue carpet. It was pretty, but a little rough. Not so shaggy and soft. But we still liked it.

            However, as a two year old, I’m still getting the hang of this whole walking thing. So running was still a bit difficult. And on new carpet… that’s just asking for trouble.

            So while Kelsey and I tried to entertain ourselves, we decided a game of Duck, Duck, Goose would suffice.

            Yes, there were only two of us. Yes, you need more than two people to play Duck, Duck, Goose.

            But Kelsey and I didn't care. We would have this whole Duck, Duck, Goose thing down without any help from anybody else.

            We would use the coffee table! Yes, that would be perfect!

            So whoever was “It” would start circling around the persons head saying the word “duck” about a thousand times. Finally, they would say the word “goose” and the sister sitting on the carpet would get up, run around the coffee table once, and try to sit down without being tagged.

            Now, we played several peaceful rounds of this. Catching each other, missing each other, laughing, playing. 

            Kelsey circled me, her hand on my head, saying, “Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck…” until finally she shouted, “goose!!”

            I got up and started running. But I didn’t make it far.

            Slip, BOOM!

            I fell over on our new blue carpet, tripping over my own feet I’m sure. I hit the corner of our coffee table – the one we had already had for years and the one we would have for years to come.

            My forehead busted open. Blood started spilling down the side of my face. Tears were falling and I began screaming. 

            I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but I know we went to Dr. Bottenfield’s office and I had to get four stitches.

            When Mom and Dad later asked me what I was doing, I replied, “Playing Duck, Duck, Goose with Kelsey.”

            “With only two of you?” they asked, thinking maybe I meant to say a different game.

            “Yup,”

            Mom and Dad would talk about this day for a long, long time. I don’t suppose their laughing eyes as they recount this story has a thing to do with Kelsey and me playing a two-person version of Duck, Duck, Goose, does it? Certainly not. 

           At any rate, I certainly hope I didn't get any blood on the carpet...