Longest Short Week EVER…

Posted: April 4, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

So, I didn’t get home from last weekend until Tuesday morning. I’m used to coming in on Sunday night but due to the previously mentioned death in the family, I spent Sunday night in Tucson so I could travel 3 hours in the opposite direction from home and attend the funeral. It wasn’t all that late when I got back to Tucson, not even 7pm, but I was emotionally exhausted so I stayed one more night and headed home the next morning.

The kids were on spring break, I had no reason I needed to be home before 1pm on Tuesday for writing group… It was fine… Well, that spring break thing is what kicked my butt.

I cruised along, everything fine… then on Thursday I realized it was Thursday, not Sunday or Monday (the old man was working but the kids were home and I had none of the usual routine to kick my butt in gear.) I hit a mild state of panic trying to get everything done, Easter shopping and making sure the family has food for the time I’ll be gone this weekend (just Friday evening and Saturday this week, no racing on Easter Sunday.)

So what made it feel so long? Partly the funeral. There was a LOT of time in the car, which is both good and bad, I tend to find myself thinking about characters and story, sometimes to the point that I realize all of a sudden I have no memory of the last 50 miles.

The funeral itself was draining. All of them are, but more so when the deceased in young. My cousin was only 22 when he was taken from us suddenly. This only leads to more.

Then there was that panic of trying to make sure everything that had to get done before my weekend was done so I can do what I need to do without worrying about the rest of the family.

Either way, it’s the weekend now and I’ve settled in. I’ll be hitting the racetrack in a couple hours. I love the track, there are so many characters to watch and draw from.

How was your week?

A really good day.

Posted: January 6, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Odds and Ends, writing, | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon on a road trip, I ended up with more than five hours behind the wheel, with two kids in the car, both absorbed in the games they were playing on their individual devices. The radio was on, my favorite station, XM’s Octane, but I drove across a lot of empty desert, there wasn’t much to see. This lead, as it always does, to my mind wandering, I think over plot lines, I consider characters and their stories, I review things I’ve already written and come up with some new material.

It was after 9pm when I got home last night, but I had several things I had to get down, directions that current stories will need to go, details that my characters had let slip during that long drive. So, once I got the kids in bed, I took my laptop and set up camp in the recliner, turning on an old movie to keep me company. Once I got my side notes down I started on the new project that had haunted me for the last two hours of my trip. I couldn’t wait to get started, I had to get at least some of it down.

So I opened a new Scrivener file and got to work. My movie ended and I started another, not really registering the passage of time. The story was unfolding at my fingertips and that was what mattered, the people talking in my head, not the ones on the screen or the hands of a clock moving on their own.  I was startled when the low battery alert popped up in front of me. I had been working for almost six hours (yes, my laptop battery lasts that long.)

I saved my work (not for the first time) and stretched and went to plug in the computer. I had gotten a lot done. I was happy, though, more than a little sleepy.

This morning I sat back down to it, the same project flowing as easily as it had last night. I’ve been up and down today, dealing with kids, feeding them, caring for them, getting them ready to go back to school in the morning. Even with all the distractions during the day I’ve managed to make thirty-six pages in the last twenty four hours. It’s been a really good day. I’m happy with it.

Now I’m going to go unwind a little in front of the TV, maybe knit a little, I would really like to finish my hood, though I know that won’t happen tonight.

I hope you had as good of day as I did.