wishbone clover

Nun Fashion in Michigan - A Photo Essay of God's Wives' Closet

During our 40 Whatever/Ford-y Whatever trip through the glorious Great Lakes Region, my BFF CityMama & I were compelled to make an unplanned stop at the Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine. Even though it was God's Will that we found it, we didn't feel like walking through the woods to see the actual "Cross" (because ew, woods + walking = no thanks, dirty!) but the stop was totally worth it just to experience the most wonderful and terrifying collection of dolls, possibly in the world.

The Cross in the Woods has a very special doll museum, containing over 300 dolls, in varying sizes, wearing horror movie expressions and dressed in the habits of nuns -- and priests -- from around the globe.

To my dismay, none of them were for sale, not the dolls or the costumes! And they were frustratingly well protected against crazy chicks who would have risked God's Wrath by shoplifting them, or even just experiencing the magic by running our their curious fingers over the embroidered "Jesus" whipples.

Spoilsports. But we took pictures. A lot of pictures.

Hey, We're in God's Wives' Closet!

Yes, that's the Mother Theresa habit on the far right. Take a good look, because that's as close as you're going to get to a Nun of Color in this collection. Apparently most nuns are white.

It would have been nice if Sally Field could have signed the Flying Nun costume below, but no such luck.

We learned that the best nuns are fully accessorized, with special embroidery and chunky beads.

Loving that light blue suit! And the modern, low-maintenance hair do! Also, who decided which sightless mannequins needed to wear glasses?

Crossing 35k in the Nanowrimo Race

Last night my imaginary world finally started to make sense. Which was a relief, because I've invested a lot time in this piece of crap. Twenty-something days.

For the fifth year, I'm doing Nanowrimo. Fifty thousand words written in the month of November, that somehow hang together in an approximation of a plot.

A vague approximation.

It's been different for me every year. The first year it was about finding the discipline to simply sit down and write. Okay, that's true for every year. The first year is about proving you can find the discipline to sit there.

Year two was actually fun, because I knew I could do it, so the pressure was almost off. Year three, a little harder to motivate because I knew I had two crappy first draft novels sitting around, untouched, unedited.

Last year was the roughest. It was a tough year at work, my story idea was totally depressing, and I ground out the 50k in just a few marathon writing sessions. The magic never happened.

So why do it again this year?