Funny Start

So, I woke to the faint sound of the phone in the kitchen beeping in protest of the power going out. It was dark, but I could see due to the full moon, so I got up, got my cell phone for light and let the cats out. Then I tried to call in the outage, but I couldn't remember my friggin home phone number. Totally gone from my brain. People here at work are enjoying my telling of it - it's more of an audio/visual story.

Last night's class was actually interesting, engaging, and educational. Maybe I won't drop it after all. The instructor bases 25% of the grade on group work, so there I was talking to seven other people, none of whom have voted in an election yet, and they found it hilarious when I suddenly interjected, "You guys have such an awesome first election! Mine was Carter."

Yesterday's writing was a treat. Every time I get in the groove and type in a quick nine hundred to a thousand words I get such a THRILL. I'm going to try thrilling myself again today. *g*

Oh, and I sent Kate chapter seven at about five o'clock, right before running out the door. Very raw, and I just sort of ended it because I couldn't decide where I wanted it to stop so I just...stopped.

There's Still Hope

It might take ten years to write this slim volume, but I am going to finish this damned thing if it kills me. It bugs the CRAP out of me to be going this slow.

I didn't get any writing done this weekend, but I ironed ten thousand shirts and got to watch an actual Colts game on something bigger than a four inch black and white screen. AND I had beer.

[later]

A good afternoon! I put about 920 words on the page and finished chapter seven.

Ahhhh, That's Better

Got some good work done today. Kelsey and Parker are FINALLY about to begin working together, though they still won't trust each other fully. That doesn't come till the end.

I was at my desk, goofing off, typing class notes instead of doing Kinesiology work (shhhhhhh), got that done and decided to AT LEAST type the stuff I hand wrote yesterday, and before I knew it, there were MORE WORDS added. *laugh* Man, that felt good.

Whatever Works

Seems like I'm doing much more work longhand than I am typing these days. But hey, whatever works, right? Yesterday up on 296, before my disasterous class over in Woodburn Hall, I penned (literally) about four hundred words before the students began showing up begging for a signature. This is the time of year all those morons who dropped a class because "it was hard" (whine) have to look for a second 8 wk class to keep a full load. Of course, all those classes are already full, and we get thirty reproachful looks a day from those kids. That really kills us, ya know? ;-)

Whew!

Man, it's busy around here. Still, I'm working on chapter seven today. It's going to be a wee shorter than the others, but I expect it will flesh out quite a bit on the re-write. Kelsey is going to be ALMOST nabbed by Mower Man, and they're going to literally run for it. Next chapter: "We need a plan."

Beautiful Days

The weather this last weekend was astoundingly perfect. Too bad we couldn't really enjoy it. Saturday we were on the road, hoping to see good tree-age during peak season. Saw some but not much. Had lunch with my mom, checked the house briefly and headed for home. Birdie surprised me by wanting to go to Fort Vallonia Days, not the parade but the flea market. We ended up spending about three hours. I found a couple of DVDs and a David Drake book. His style is so ROUGH, but very compelling. Unfortunately, we left Vallonia JUST too late to see the trees on 446. Pity. It's so pretty on that route - that we used to drive every day - that sometimes I would nearly run off the road from distraction.

Yesterday was even more beautiful, weather wise, but we were working on the house so damned hard we barely noticed. Birdie scared me yesterday. I have never seen her sitting on the ground trying to get over a dizzy spell before. We were both push mowing the yard and we both did too much, but Birdie did WAY too much. It's why I won't let her be alone at the house during mowing season.

I didn't get much writing done this weekend, but some. One of these days maybe I'll actually be able to reliably get a LOT of work done on a weekend. Right. ;-)

Tonight is my first class of the semester. Looking forward to it, despite the geek factor. It's a political science class "Election 2008".

Veeery Nice

Everyone in my acting class said this phrase constantly (as did Birdie occasionally) after seeing that Pinter play The Birthday Party.

But it also goes nicely with the work I did yesterday on Trouble and Ruin. My brain seemed to be connected to my body yesterday, so I got some words in on Kelsey battling Mower Guy, and closer outlining of the scenes following. I decided not to use the stuff I wrote last weekend. It was an interesting idea, but it just didn't fit.

[later]

Still getting back to bigger numbers every day. That's GOT to change. I have GOT TO put more words down every day if I'm ever going to get this sucker done. So far this afternoon only 350. Crap.

Cleared Up

My head is more clear than it was yesterday, so I should be able to get some writing done today. It was pretty funny, really, how I wrote a couple of paragraphs, then when I went back I had repeated verbs and written sentences that made no sense at all. Should I have been driving? Hell, no. *g*

Sick

Got a head cold. On drugs. Can't think. But I will be typing up some stuff from the weekend if I can remember what I'm doing from one moment to the next.

[later]

Heh heh heh. I tried to write, and I have to say, that was really amusing. I know what I wanted to say, but it came out pretty much gibberish. My bowling pencil is coming out. Maybe slowing down is what I need.

A Reason For My Bad Mood

You know, this three week menstral cycle has gotten SO OLD. *sigh* And of course we're driving to Tennessee tomorrow after work. I've been awake since 3:30 because of it today, and I'm so tired. Right after work, though, we'll be going back to Birdie's office to load packing peanuts on the truck for the trip tomorrow.

Yesterday I was up in 296, and got a couple of hundred words written. It was kinda weird... I had two sheets of paper and wrote for a while on Parker inside the gas station and then would switch over to Kelsey outside in the car. I felt really unfocused on both, which was probably a product of menstrual hormones.

Still, I sent chapter six to poor Kate, who is already overwhelmed with too much of her own stuff. Today I'm at about 500 words, and they're flying off my finger again.Kelsey is doing the athlete thing, preparing mentally for "battle", which is an overworked word in the sport world but completely apropos here. Hmmm...I should work that in.

I've been pretty happy with my progress for the most part. I haven't given up, and even though the beginning of the semester slowed that progress pretty dramatically, the word count inches ever higher. I'm in nose bleed territory. And I can't shake the feeling that it's the worst kind of crap and most people are going to turn their noses up at it. Sheesh. What a weinie.

Monday Happy Day

Yeah, Monday was great, writing-wise. I got completely focused up in 296, in the completely empty and quiet office. Parker makes up his mind to do the right thing and goes off to get ice for Kelsey. For the first time in weeks the words were just tumbling out and onto the page - 740 words actually.

Yesterday of course I expected more of the same, but it turned into one of those horrible days at work, with phone calls and constant interruptions - including an unexpected call from the furniture people who separated me from my desk for a half hour - that kept me TRYING to hammer away at the three rush jobs and innumerable little things. Bleh. All I managed was to jot down some notes.

I was also thinking about this blog, and how it's supposed to be all whiny, because I really EXPECTED to not be this far along, and there would have been a million whiny excuses...blahdee blahdee blah. I know the drill. How exciting that the title of the blog is misleading.
;-)

The Long Weekend

I didn't have as good a time as Kate had in Canada, obviously, but it was a good weekend until the end. We went up to visit Birdie's sister Linda and her husband Gust, one of several stinkin' rich couples we're friends with/related to. Their fridge was full of yummy Busch Lite beer, so I loaded up. *eg* (okay, that's cheezy even for me, but it was free and plentiful and I wasn't driving anywhere - much) Saturday night we went to The Princess Cafe in Beecher, IL, about a half hour drive toward Chicagoland. INCREDIBLE food, great service, prices out of my league. I had enough money to cover, but it would have tapped me pretty well if Linda hadn't grabbed the tab and run off. Like last year I had there Slab O Prime Rib that was Like Buttah and a couple of (cheap!) beers. Like a good restaurant for normal people, their beer choices ran the gamut from Miller Lite to Coors Lite. *g* The next day we had a strained breakfast (Linda and Gust don't eat much, often or with others for the most part) then went for a long walk on their very interesting wooded lot (about 20 acres), trying to id trees. The DOGS were in hog heaven. They have a couple of Australian Cattle Dogs named Parker and Zorro. Very sweet. VERY energetic. They fell in love with me as soon as I got there and Gust checked the car three times before we left to be sure they didn't sneak off with me. Then Linda and I climbed onto ATVs and tooled around the woods on their trails for only a few minutes - felt like that, anyway. When we got back they said we'd been riding most of an hour. What fun! We left late, due to the unexpected viewing of the Colts game, and so got stuck in the I-65 traffic from a fatal accident. Three hours to travel 7 miles. There are stretches of I-65 with no exits for thirty miles. We were on one of those. *sigh* We got home at midnight and are dragging ass today.

On the up side, I'm at the scene where Parker stops to get ice for Kelsey's injury, goes inside the gas station when he sees it's empty, and leaves her passed out in the car. She's going to make him hope she lives after he sees her handling the zombie that will come for her. Looking forward to finishing this! I did some writing Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but not much considering the circumstances (dogs jumping on me, lots of beer, football on the tv, etc., etc., etc.).

The Long Long Week

But we're pretty much taking the month off working on the house. Tomorrow we're driving north to visit Birdie's sister Linda for a day. She doesn't look like the rest of the Nordstroms, being short and petite and red headed. (Of course, that last is probably, like, unnatural. ;-) She was the first person to welcome me to the family, decades ago, which is probably why I have a soft spot in my heart for her. She's the most intellectually inclined, too, though she never went to college. Well, she and Birdie would be tied in that way. They both read a lot and are interested in the larger world.

Writing is still going. I'm getting a few more words on the page every day, and I'm still excited to see this thing finished. I don't know if anyone else will enjoy it, or if I'll be blasted for my uncivilized use of extreme gore, but I just really want to both have a good time writing it, and FINISHING. I *want* to experience the whole book submission process. (Yeah, I know, I'm nuts.)

[addendum]

OH! And Birdie's sister called to let us know that they plan on taking us to a swank restaurant about an hour south of Chicago. Last time I was there I got a PERFECT prime rib about the size of a football. Yeah, expensive as hell. Nope, didn't pay for it. Nope again, I don't feel guilty about it because these people are LOADED. *big grin*

Oh. My. Gawd.

On the way to work this morning I saw a pimp driving through downtown Bloomington. Things have changed around here.

Yesterday I got some more edit work done, but that's all because it was one of those days where there wasn't a CONSTANT stream of people, just an interruption every time I got into something. So the best I could do is a minute here and a minute there, fixing stuff a little.

So Much For That

The whole not coming in to work thing. I'm here and so is my red clipboard (where I've been doing a lot of writing lately.

This is We're Not Working On The Freaking House month. We're both burned out, my back isn't up to it, and we're going to be visiting Birdie's family instead. This coming weekend I will attempt to resist sister Linda's attempts to keep me inebriated on cheap beer and - of course - get more writing done. *g*

The Only Thing

On my mind today? Pain! I would have bet good money my back would be feeling better today, but it hurts so much my stomach is upset. I don't intend to come to work tomorrow. The only reason I came today is I had work do to that couldn't wait, and I've got an eye appointment this afternoon. They found something they didn't like last week and they want to take another lok at my left eye.

Yesterday I "worked" in the yard by setting a fire and then sitting in a lawn chair to watch it burn. While there, I did some writing, so it wasn't a total loss. But that turned out to be too much, and even though I sat/laid on the freakin couch all the rest of the day, I'm in a lot of pain today.