...that didn't go too well.  Sorry, folks, but my attempt at NaNoWriMo kind of fell flat.  How far did I get?  Well, no more than that word count over there. --->  I did finish chapter 1.  And kind of got stumped and unmotivated.  Hence the slacker I am.  Honestly, even though maybe I disappointed some of you (those of you that even care, that is) that I didn't finish it, I'm okay with it.  It just wasn't the right timing for me.  I do have chapter 1 of a novel I hope to write/finish at some point.  But just not now. Instead I have other news for you.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook at all, you probably know that I am planning a few trips here soon.  One is my vacation in a couple of weeks to Aruba.  The other is a trip I'm taking as a part of a class for school.  I'm going to Russia over my spring break in March.  I signed up for a 3-credit hour class that is a study of emerging economies, of which Russia is one of.  I'm very excited about it, both the class and the trip.  I had been planning on taking another class/trip for school next summer, to China, but once I found out about the Russia class, I think it is a better fit for me.  The China trip lasts for 2 weeks and includes a lot of consulting and project work.  The Russia class is more of a study, which is really what I want.  I'm so excited to learn more about the country and ultimately visit it for a week.  It's going to be great, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity. In light of these upcoming travels, I've decided to start a separate travel blog.  I know, I could just use this space for it, but I'd kind of like to keep it separate for a few reasons.  One, I think having a separate blog just for that *might* (or might not, who knows, knowing me) encourage me to post more about my travels.  Two, I'm using tumblr for my blog platform because it is very easy to post from.  WordPress just doesn't have a very good mobile blogging platform, in my opinion.  Tumblr makes it really easy to upload quotes, text, video, photos, etc. and that will be perfect for posting when I am traveling. I've decided to name the blog "travelatté" to go along with the theme of this blog.  Of course there's my giant coffee cup up there at the top, and then my regular tumblr is, of course, called "Small Bites".   So it seems to fit in perfect with this site as well as my addiction to coffee.  Plus it's a play on the words "travel a lot", which I kind of do. So there you have it.  I hope you'll jump in and decide to follow travelatté as well as this blog so you can join me on my adventures.  Check out travelatté on tumblr and follow @travelatte_blog on Twitter.  Looking forward to having you along!

I've been talking about this on Twitter, but I don't think I have mentioned it here just yet.  I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  And if you've never heard of NaNoWriMo, you're probably thinking "WTF??" right now.  NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month.  Basically, it's where people decide they are going to write a novel (50,000 words, to be exact) during the month of November.  It's held every year, and tons of people all over the country (and possibly the world) sign up and start writing.  Some finish, some don't.  And it's not about editing your novel at all, more like just a push to get all the words out there and see what you end up with.  Write now, edit later!  So this year, for the first time, I'm going to try to get those 50,000 words out myself.  I've never done this before, and while I have an idea what I'm going to write about, it's not all fleshed out just yet.  So this could end up being kind of interesting.  I will be tweeting my word count pretty frequently as the month goes on (it's currently 0 - I should get on the ball!), and I've also added a NaNoWriMo badge to the side of my website.  Just look over there ---> and you'll see it.  Feel free to check back anytime to keep up with how I'm doing.  My friend gRegor is participating in a similar venture through the month of November as well.  He's doing NaBloPoMo, meaning National Blog Posting Month.  So he will be blogging every day this month.  Make a visit to his website to see what kind of blogs he is cranking out each day. Wish me luck, and good luck to all the other NaNoWriMo-ers out there as well!  Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you are participating too, or if you know someone who is! (Oh, also... part of my novel is that it includes several different characters that I haven't quite determined the stories for yet.  So if you have an idea for a story about a modern day character - please let me know!)

A blog post about blogging.  Novel idea, right?  I've been blogging since - well, according to my Xanga page - October 2001.  Next Tuesday is apparently my 8-year bloggiversary.  Yay me!  So yes, I started blogging on Xanga, and later eventually moved to my own site, which you see before you now.  The look of it has changed some over the years, but I am still here.  Where else would I be?  I'm pretty sure there is no other Sheryl Hugill out there to try to steal this domain name from me... Besides my own personal blog, I have also been a blogger for other websites as well.  In 2006 and 2007, I was a blogger for a local magazine that used to be called INtake Weekly.  INtake has since become Indy.com (sadly leaving behind their Blog Squad), and now is a part of Metromix.  And now, I'm excited to add another entry to my blog portfolio... you're looking at the newest "BizBlogger" for the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI! The Kelley School of Business showcases their newest blog entries on their main page, found at kelley.iupui.edu.  The link to the "BizBlog" itself can be found at bizblog.kelley.iupui.edu or by clicking on "More Entries" from the BizBlog section on the main Kelley page.  Found here are blogs by several different types of people involved with Kelley, including undergraduate students, alumni, advisors, and of course (like me) graduate students.  If you go to the main BizBlog page and click on Graduate Students, you'll see my name listed there on the left.  No posts yet, but I currently have one waiting for moderation. I'm very excited to be blogging for the Kelley School of Business.  I know the MBA program will be a challenge, and I'm looking forward to sharing my experience there.  Interestingly enough, my blog here is what got me the job... someone from Kelley contacted me while I was in the process of preparing for the GMAT and applying to the program, after having seen my post here about that process.  She wanted to talk to me to find out about my experience with the application process, and this later led to my invitation to blog for the school. What a great opportunity, and a great way to celebrate my "bloggiversary"... with a new blogging challenge. UPDATE: My first blog at Kelley has been posted/moderated now.  I think they have changed around the graduate students blogs, as mine is listed right now under "Evening MBA Experience".  Here's a link to my first post.

Besides being a social event and a chance for good conversation and connection with people, Mo*Con also made me think. Standing outside of the building on Saturday of the event, I found myself in a conversation with Kelli Dunlap. The panel happening at the time was about the writing business, and I had decided to skip it and use the time to head home to let my dog out and go get my copy of Orgy of Souls (to be signed by Maurice and Wrath). Upon telling Kelli this, she asked me, "are you a writer?" I wasn't sure what to say... I mean, at this point the whole convention had made me actually consider writing more. But how do I answer that question? I blog. I journal. I do like to write. And I never seem to have trouble having the words flow pretty freely. And it is something I enjoy. But had I ever tried to get a story published? Not even close. So I didn't know what to say. Kelli termed me a "hobby writer" and told me that that was perfectly okay and not to let anyone tell me any different. She's right, at this point. But even my "hobby writing" hasn't been much of a focus lately. But maybe it should be. One thing I took away from Mo*Con was the feeling that I'm lacking something. I've heard that to be happy in life, you need a good balance of all your "life areas". One of those life areas is spirituality. And to me right now - I believe that connection and creativity are a big part of what spirituality is in my life... two things that I found in abundance at Mo*Con. As far as creativity goes - I'm not much of an artist, but I DO like to write. So I've decided. In an effort to increase creativity and gain some spiritual balance in my life, I'm going to write more. There's no rhyme or reason to it, and no publishing of stories will be sought after any time soon. Heck, I don't even know if stories will be written. But something will be. Right now, my focus is just doing it. It's easy to get caught up in the things in life that it feels like have to be done, and to not do the things that really are necessary for fulfillment that just don't seem as pressing. But I need the creative outlet. I need the channel for paying more attention to the world around me and the wonder it contains. So be it blog post, journal entry, or whatever may flow out... write I will. I guess I am a writer.

And now - back to reality. After a weekend full of... well, not normalcy - I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things. This weekend was Mo*Con, the annual convention that my friend Maurice has hosted for the last 4 years here in Indy. I could probably never do Mo*Con justice trying to describe what it is, so I will just link you to his blog and tell you that really it's mostly a family reunion for Maurice and his writer friends. Now what does that have to do with me? Well, I'm not entirely sure... let's just say that I've met some of these writer friends and they tend to be pretty cool people, so I really just decided to come join the fun. I enjoyed the panels that I listened to. One was about writing and relationships that I thought had some points that I believe could be applied to relationships among non-writers as well. I especially liked Kelli Dunlap's comment about how for a good relationship to have the proper balance, there needs to be "my time, your time, and our time". There was also some good conversation to be had surrounding this topic. Another good panel was the one about religion and faith or the lack thereof. Wrath James White gave a "sermon" about atheism and why he chooses to not believe there is a God, followed by Maurice's account of why he does believe in God. Following this was a panel about the subject along with some more good conversations over the course of the weekend. The poetry was good, the food was good, the art was good, but probably the best part of the weekend was the people and conversation. I made some new friends, spent time with some old ones, and overall got to spend some quality time with interesting and intelligent people. I feel like lately I've lost a bit of myself, gotten caught up in the shallowness of society and forgotten some sides to life, some sides to me. The part of me that sees (and seeks) wonder and creativity and connection in the world. The part that doesn't care about trying to match up to society's standards of what should be chased after or found interesting. It might have only been a couple of days, but there's an uplifting of spirit that I obtained from Mo*Con that I hope continues to last. Among the people I met, re-met, or re-connected with this weekend are Kelli Dunlap, Alethea Kontis, Michelle Pendergrass, Wrath James White, Jason Sizemore, Linda Addison, John C. Hay, and a few more. It was good to spend time with Maurice and his clan as well. In some ways, I almost felt out of place considering I'm not a professional writer and felt like more of a fangirl. But hopefully they didn't mind too much. I really admire Kelli and Alethea. They seem like confident women that were an encouragement to a girl that's struggled to find her worthiness lately. And people like Jason and Wrath are proof that not all guys are into the skinny blonde Barbie image that our society seems to want every girl to kill herself to obtain. So I come out of the weekend with a renewed sense of... something. Maybe it's creativity. Maybe it's my own worthiness. Maybe I just needed a bit of a vacation. But whatever it is, I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out and where it might take me.