November

I thought about doing NaBloPoMo this month, believe it or not, but I later realized that while I liked the idea of posting every day, it would probably be boring as hell, because some days, to be honest, nothing happens. Some days, the biggest thrill of my day is that my kid had a double blowout and the washing machine hummed its hot-water wash all. day. long. (Hello, that would be TODAY.)

NaNoWriMo doesn’t appeal to me, either, because while I DO want to write a novel some day, it seems a bit silly for me to condense it all in one month. (Incidentally, the only goal I have for said novel is to finish it, simply as a personal accomplishment. If no one reads it, I’m not sure I’ll even care. But oh, to FINISH AN ENTIRE BOOK! That would be huge. A marathon for writers, if you will.)

Anyway! So. November being what it is, the month of Na-something, and also a generally sucky month, weather-wise and psyche-wise, as winter just LOOMS like some kind of GIANT RAINCLOUD OF MISERY, I was wondering if there was something I could do this month. A mini-goal, of sorts.

And folks, I have decided that November is NaNiceMo! I don’t mind admitting that I’m a generally a pretty nice person with some pretty serious flaws, but this November, I am going to try to be the nicest version of myself I can be — oh, I don’t mean I’m going to give up being snarky or that I’m going to turn it into NaPushOverMo or anything (I’m looking at you, pediatrician’s office, Keeper of the Swine Flu Vax), but I DO think that I could stand to make more of an effort in general, and I mean beyond my extended family. The honest truth is that I benefit from being nice to my family — Adam and Sam are more pleasant when I’m nicer, and things are generally more harmonious for me. Ergo, being nice in that capacity is a LEEETLE bit selfish, you know?

So what I am ALSO going to try to do is do one extra-nice thing every day for someone or something that doesn’t directly benefit me. It doesn’t have to be anything big – in fact, it can be quite small. Today, for example, I called the manager at my local grocery store to tell him about exceptional service I got from a young man in the checkout line today (seriously, he helped me so much, you have no idea). Is that something I should do whenever that happens? Yes. Do I do it every time, or even MOST times? No. I get too busy.

This month, I am not going to be too busy! I am going out of my way every time and THEN SOME! NANICEMO IN THE MOTHERFUCKING HOUSE.

Are you in? You don’t have to tell me if you are. But it would be, uh, nice (hello, I AM REDUNDANT) to hear that there are a bunch of extra-nice people out there this month. November sure could use it.

Happy Monday to you!

*Tom Waits. Echo & the Bunnymen. So many! So many November songwriters!

28 comments November 1st, 2009