NaNo Days 5 to 8: Fits and bursts

Is it already November 8th? How time flies!
On Monday, I attended my first write-in since 2011. Two of the people who were there in 2011 were still there, only older and with many more NaNo words below their belts. We were nine in total, the youngest was only 12, the oldest must have been around 45. We sat at IKEA, talked, joked, ate, and also occasionally wrote some words. I managed to write about 2600 words, which is pretty good for a write-in. At that point I was about 4,000 words ahead of par.
Then on Tuesday, I sat in a bar with a friend, had good conversations, drank a little too much, and didn't write  word.
On Wednesday I wrote about 1,000 while on the train to a meeting. I was planning to also write on the way back, but I fell asleep.
This morning, I was below par for the first time this NaNoWriMo. That should have given me an anxious feeling in my stomach, but after such a busy week I was now so sleepy that it didn't really hit me until I got home and saw that most of my writing buddies were already way beyond 15,000 words. So I sat down, participated in 3 word wars, and am now at 15,016 words. The par for tomorrow is 15,000, so I'm one day ahead again. Fits and bursts, that's for sure.

Story-wise, I can't actually remember everything that I wrote. The characters are coming to life more, and I've written lots of dialogue because I got so fed up with all the exposition. It feels like I'm coming into my stride, although at the same time it feels like I'm not really writing romance anymore, like the romantic bits are tacked on top of a 'normal' story. I never expected this genre to be 'the thing' for me, so I'm glad I'm making it work anyway!
2,234 words down so far for today, let's see if I can make that 3,000 before my eyes fall shut.