Just stuff

Life is finally returning to normal. The kids went back to school today; Eric went back to work on Monday and I worked yesterday. Most of the Christmas stuff is put away. It's nice to have some semblance of normalcy again.

I've been playing with Dragon NaturallySpeaking It's vastly improved over older versions. It seems the hardest part of using it is getting used to dictating instead of typing. I guess I'm used to channeling Walter through my fingers.

I signed up for year-long challenge at Forward Motion to write a quarter million words this year. The cool thing is that all words count; that means I can count blog words, too. I set that goal a month ago anyway, so now I have another layer of accountability. Jean is doing it too. (When I said 'Jean is', Dragon heard 'genius'. ;) Coincidence?)

I've also decided that it's time to stop procrastinating and start agent shopping. Of course, I decided that last year, too, but I also learned last year that procrastination is a symptom of underlying fear. I don't know what I'm afraid of. Maybe I'm afraid of failure or rejection. Maybe I'm afraid of success. I'm not sure which is, or if it's something else, but it's unproductive. Fear and procrastination don't advance my career, and I'm sure not getting any younger. Jordan Summers blogged the other day about her career. She said she might need to make some changes this year, and one comment stuck with me. She said it's time to put on her big girl panties. I laughed, of course, but I think it's time I put on my big girl panties, too. Be prepared for heavy sobbing when the rejection letters start rolling in!

Oh, yeah, Happy New Year!