Nattering

January wasn't a very good writing month. I lowered my expectations and still didn't make the word count or time goal. It was low enough that even taking a week off I should have been closer. The goal for February is to write something five days a week. I've started a collection of rendezvous stories, and I have some fun-ish things I can work on, but I've really got to get Book Two in order and start editing so I can see where the holes are. There will be a lot of them, I'm sure. Maybe if I do some fun things it will be easier to work on that. Time is becoming more of a factor. Scott's roommate was just diagnosed with cancer, and he's been one of our biggest supporters. I don't know his prognosis yet, but it's another kick in the pants. Needless to say I've been shooting arrow prayers* since I got the news.

On a happier note, I got my pictures back and scanned some in. I hope to have them cleaned up and posted this weekend. I took them with a disposable camera, so the resolution wasn't great to start with, and the scanned images are very grainy. On the plus side, they look old! I'll see what I can do with them.

I'm hoping to get some more work done on the house this weekend. I've started alphabetizing paperbacks. We had three 6' book cases and a 4' book case stacked 2-3 books deep. There are a lot, but we've been collecting them for more than twenty years. I'm hoping that by alphabetizing we'll at least be able to weed out the duplicates and free up a little space. Not that I have any delusions that they'll stay in order! It would be nice, but it won't happen here. The ultimate goal is to get the loft painted and Vicky's drafting desk out of her room to free up some space there. It's going to take a while, but I'm plugging at it a little at a time. I'll get the paint this weekend, and hopefully find more shelves to put into the book cases so we don't have to stack 2-deep anymore. I think I'll be hanging out in the hot tub some this weekend...

*Arrow prayers are little short, specific prayers said in 'the heat of the moment,' so to speak. I routinely use this method not only when something troubling is going on, but also as praise when things are going well. It's one of the few good habits I've been able to cultivate, and it's second nature to me now.

Maybe it's just me

Personally, I think when you have a job, you should know a little more about it than the average person. If you build bridges, you should know why the trusses are placed the way they are. If you wash dishes, you should know to soak pie plates and they'll come clean faster. Taxi drivers should know the short-cuts no one else does, even if he doesn't use them with customers in his cab.

That's why it bothers me just a little bit when I hit a coffee shop and order a venti cappuccino, and the person behind the counter says, "What size? Large? That's the 20 oz, right?"

Umm, yes, venti is the Italian word for twenty. It even rhymes.

I, as a coffee drinker, did not make that connection until I lived in Italy and was helping my kids learn to count in Italian. When they got to twenty, the light bulb came on. I don't work in a coffee shop, but it doesn't inspire confidence when the people who work there don't know what venti means. It's just part of my weirdness eccentricity.

In The Zone

While I was camping I found myself with blocks of time with nothing that needed to be done and no place to go. I usually had something to read, and I had some sewing with me, but more often than not I’d pour a cup of coffee and just sit. For once, the plot bunnies kept their distance---maybe they were afraid I’d stick them in the stew pot. It was a good chance for my brain to reset. I came home feeling more relaxed than I have in months. I’m still not quite past it; my brain is a little fuzzy and I still catch myself grinning at nothing.

I hadn’t realized how much electronics distract me. I also realized that I multitask more often than not. If I’m reading something good, I’ll read while I cook dinner. The TV is often on while I’m doing laundry or cleaning the house. Even if I’m just watching a movie, relaxing at the end of the day, I usually have sewing or crocheting in my hands, or I’m playing free cell on the PDA. You know you multitask too much when you do two or more things for recreation!

I’m not one for meditation. I can only keep my mind clear for so long before my mental To Do list kicks in. I think I might need to work a some yoga classes into my schedule. I can’t think about cooking and grading school work and cleaning the bathroom if I’m concentrating on keeping my balance!

Speaking of camping, I dropped my film off for processing yesterday. I’ll pick up the photos Thursday and scan some in to get up here. Most of them were for personal reference—pictures of Dad’s sturdy boxes so Eric can see how the joints come together and things of that nature. I did get some of Dad and me, though, and some friends around camp. I’ll pick the interesting ones and get them up.

Back without a sunburn

Gooooood vacation!

I got back last night. I'm newly relaxed and unscathed except for some stiffness from tearing down camp yesterday and one fire ant bite that I just found. I'll also be hacking out campfire smoke for a few days, but man was it fun! Since I was in period costume all week, the only physical evidence I have of my week in Florida is that my freckles are a little darker! I'm amazed I didn't get burned when I usually do at the summer rendezvous' but I guess that's because in the summer I sweat off my sun block. I did the whole week with SPF 25.

The weather started off very warm, turned cold, and then warmed back up quite pleasantly. One day was in the high 8o's, another might have touched 60 for a few minutes when the sun peeked through the clouds, and the rest were around 70. It rained a couple of nights, Saturday night being the least convenient, and again yesterday morning, but the wind picked up and the sun came out so our canvas was dry when we took the tent down. We were glad of that--wet canvas weighs a ton!

Dad made the comment the other day to a friend that he and I hadn't been out camping on our own since the Bicentennial. I guess I never thought about it that way, but we both agreed we maybe shouldn't wait 30 years to do it again! I'll have more detail later and hopefully some pictures this week. For now I have to assess the damage to last week's lesson plans. Back to the salt mine.