Name:

I love my maiden name.

It's a really good one.  I got some teasing growing up here and there for it, but that never really got to me.  I was always the only Eaton I ever met (that I wasn't related to by blood).

The nicknames that come with a name like this are GOLDEN.  I've been called:

• Eaton-cheese-n-crackers
• Eaton-Eaton
• E-tone
• Eat-a-ton (not actually a favorite but still gets a spot on this list)
• Etonian
• Eat-o

Bonus round of meaningless trivia:

• One of my favorite shows from BBC of all time, "Upstairs Downstairs," takes place at 165 Eaton Place in London.
• I've visited the actual Eaton Square in London.  Vivienne Leigh and Sean Connery have lived there. 
• According to this website, there was a Sarah Eaton who came to Plymouth on the actual Mayflower.
• Princes William and Harry attended Eton College (perfect if not for that missing "a"). 

When I went on my London Study Abroad program, there were three other Sarahs in our class.  I was pretty much known by my last name that entire semester to avoid confusion (except for the occasional "Sarizzle"), which I absolutely loved.

Recently at work, I started being called Eaton-Eaton out of the blue by a coworker.

When I married my favorite person of all time, and took his last name, there arose a bit of confusion because his sister shares my first name.  There are now two Sarah Reynoldses.  So from time to time, I go by Eaton in the Reynolds family to differentiate.  I never mind it a bit.

I love my new last name.  It's treated me right.  Every once in a while though I get something in the mail with "Eaton" on it, or the people at Safeway call me "Mrs. Eaton" because I still use my mom's Safeway card.  And it gives me a little burst of nostalgic happiness, and I wind up doing something frivolous about it, like, you know, writing a blog post.

NaNoWriMo Victory!

NaNoWriMo= Done! 

30 days
50,239 words
10 tired fingers
1 drained brain

Time to celebrate with a fistful of chocolate chips!

Toot toot!

Yes, that is the sound of me. Tooting my own horn. Not something I find attractive about myself, but I'm feeling indulgent.

I just finished my novel and won NaNoWriMo! Woo hoo! As of about 10 minutes ago, I finished the innocuous novel that I started on November 1st.

Final word count: 50,232.

As soon as I told Harry that I was about to submit my final word count, he jumped up and grabbed my phone to record the moment.



I didn't even know what to call this story, it's kind of scattered and doesn't even really do much of anything. But I wrote it, and it's really long, and the cramp in my left hand is sufficient proof.

And with that said, good night.

This is what happens when I surf the internet/start writing a post with zero direction.

I waste inordinate amounts of time, but happen upon some really funky fresh stuff.



Also, can I just say something really irrelevant? Of course I can, it's my blog, sucka.

I'm participating in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. My sister in law (who herself is the sum of all awesomeness) told me about it a year ago. You sign up and in the month of November, write a novel. It could be the lousiest thing ever written, but if it's 50,000+ words and you submit it before midnight on Nov. 30, you win. Or rather, everyone who does so wins. We all win. Win win win. Win.

The story would be a complete snooze and a joke to all who read it-- it's totally quantity over quality. But I have gotten to the point where this inane story is sort of starting to write itself. And this pleases my wee brain.

As I write this, Harry is making a "best of" Beatles mix and I'm hearing clips of songs of my childhood. Life is nice.

I call this scene "A Trippy Coincidence and a Plug for the iPad."

(Setting: Harry and Sarah are sitting on their stiff, gray, most uncomfortable student housing couch, each reading novels. Sun is low in the sky, night is coming on. Sound of cars creates a humming noise outside. Harry eats distractedly from a bowl of ice cream, Sarah munches thoughtfully on a graham cracker.)

Sarah: Do you know what this word means?

(Points to the word "lacunae" in the book she is reading)

Harry: No. Actually, that's so weird. I just read that word today in notes from a lecture. First time I'd ever seen it.

Sarah: Huh. Weird.

(Harry gets a twinkle in his eye, recognizes a golden opportunity to plug his most hopeful birthday gift)

Harry: You know, if we had an iPad right now, we could just push a button, it would turn on, and we could just look it up.

Sarah: Huh. (Goes back to reading)

(Two minutes elapse)

Harry: (suddenly in a fit of great shock) HA!!

Sarah: What?! What?!?!

(Harry points to a page in the book he is reading, resting his fingertip on the word "lacunae." Sarah and Harry look at each other in great shock, and the theme from "The Twilight Zone" begins playing in the background.)

Sarah: (points to the ceiling) BLOGWORTHY!

(She gets up to go to the table to get her laptop)

Harry: You know, if we just had an iPad, you could just turn it on and log in to the blog right here...

The End

Epilogue:

For those interested--

Lacunae: –noun,plural-nae  [-nee] Show IPA, -nas.

1.

a gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus.

New Word

Me and Sarah are speaking in church tomorrow. [I know that's improper English. Deal with it. That's how I say it.] Sarah just invented a new word, in preparation:

Eblaborate.

Priceless.