This Post Is Not About Writing

I am tired! Holy smokes! Who knew? Who knew that after 5 years of non-employment (because I wasn’t unemployed), adding 20 hours to my already 24/7 job as a mom would kick my rear?! And I’ve only worked 8¾ hours of my 20 this week!

But it’s wonderful. In a way that I want to take a nap now and then tell you about work later, but I’m going to go ahead and tell you now because I have mom things to do. We’re out of milk again.

My first day was Sunday. I didn’t even work 3 hours, and I was completely wiped out afterward. My job supports the Religious Ed program for youth at my church, and Sunday was the first day of RE for this year, and everybody needed something. Parents, teachers, visitors. The office was, several times, full of people in those 2¾ hours. Fortunately, there were 2 other people there helping. I guess they didn’t think they should leave me alone on my first day. I handled it, though. People came to me and said, “I need [this].” and “What do I do with [that]?” and “Where do I find [these]?” and “[This] is broken.” To which I responded, “I’ll bring [this] to you,” and “You can give [that] to me,” and “[These] are over here,” and “I will fix [this] and bring it back to you.” I was awesome!

Except I wore the wrong shoes. I knew there was a chance I’d be running all around and up and down stairs and in and out of doors so I wore my clunky Mary Janes, stable but still dressy. They were fine for running around in except for the fact that they’re HOT. So my feet didn’t get tired, but they sure weren’t comfortable. Next week, ballet flats!

It was Super Fun. I left that afternoon and left a to-do list on my desk, which included tasks from data entry to storytelling. I couldn’t wait to get back and do them. I’ve never had a job where I couldn’t wait to go in and tackle my to-do list. NEVER!

Yesterday I worked all day (ish, 6hrs). I knocked the data entry off my to-do list and added a different data entry to-do, was given a ton of new tasks (including posting the podcast! and creating a how-to manual and quick reference guide for my position). The part I was least comfortable with was covering the front desk while our fulltime admin went to lunch, but I managed. It helped that nothing happened while she was gone…

I love my job! What’s that quote about finding a job you love and never working again? That’s me!

Back to Writing! In a minute… After I do these other things…

School started, you know, 2 weeks ago. I was sooo looking forward to it for several reasons. First, I’m not an Automated Entertainment Machine with Super Fun Activities in my back pocket, just waiting for 5 or 9 year-olds to get bored; I’m sorry, but I’m not. Second, I do not enjoy refereeing the fistfights that ensue when 5 and 9 year-olds (girls!) are bored. That didn’t happen often, fortunately, but once is too many times.

And third, and this is the big one, with everyone gone to school and work, the house is quiet and nobody needs me and I can write! Also, edit. Or so I thought…

Turns out, now that everyone else is elsewhere, I’m also needed elsewhere. In the last 2 weeks, I’ve spent… Well, let’s just do the math.

14 days in 2 weeks minus 5 weekend/holiday days = 9 days for writing, right? Wrong. 9 writing days minus 5 days of volunteering at the school = 4 writing days (already down 10 days here…). But then, and this is all on me, I know, I spent 2 days doing churchy things. One day I had an interview for that job, and even though the actual interview, including driving time, was only an hour, the day was pretty much lost to anxiety and getting ready. The other day, yesterday, I spent volunteering at the church, doing work that would have been done by the person who left and made a job available. That was just the morning and early afternoon, but then I needed to go grocery shopping so my girls would have milk to drink and wouldn’t have to buy school lunch (ick!).

So: 14-5-5-2=2. Two days. I think I’ve been busier since school started than I was before.

And yet, now that I think about it, I’ve written and revised a poem, edited a chunk of the first chapter of my Tallulah MS, Googled picture book agents (anyone have any recommendations?), and journal-ed almost every day.

Never mind. Being busy is good for my writing, apparently.

(Quick addendum: I got the job. I start Sunday. It’s only part time and so will leave plenty of time for writing.)

Workin’ 9 to 2-ish, a couple days a week

That title totally works with the “Workin’ 9 to 5” tune. Sing it out loud; you’ll see.

I just saw a blurb in a newsletter about the job I applied for. It said this:

“The Administrative Assistant will support the CYRE program, our Director of Music, general office operations including bookkeeping, podcasting and an increasing number of unpredicted tasks.” [emphasis added]

I was a little put off by the doom implied by the last phrase. Wouldn’t you be? Maybe other candidates will reconsider sending their resumes when they read that, thereby allowing me to stay firmly ensconced at/near the top of the list. We’ll see. Some people are all challenged and inspired by stuff like that.

Oh well. Wish me luck. And if I don’t get the job, wish my friend Kate luck.

I'm All Full of Myself so I'm Sharing This

We had a writers' meeting for that little show I like to do with my church in the fall, and only the director, one other writer, and I were there. It's my job to keep everyone informed about what happens at the meetings, and I was kind of annoyed by the lack of writers, so rather than send out my usual pdf of the minutes, I sent this:

Guys! Come on! I asked you 4 weeks ago when I sent out the notes from the last meeting whether or not you'd be able to make it this morning and NOBODY responded that they couldn't be there until it was too late to reschedule. As it was, it was a very productive meeting, at which each of you who weren't there were given 7 Very Challenging Assignments, and they are all due this Monday. However, only Dot, Mic, and I will be receiving copies of the notes I took so you'll just have to guess what your assignments are if you want your names in the credits.

I am going to doodle you all about the next meeting. If you don't know what that is, let your imaginations wander while you wait for me to doodle you. Then write all that down and hand it in; maybe we can use it in the show. The doodling will be a separate email with a very obvious and specific subject heading so you can't claim you didn't know what it was.

At today's meeting, Mic uncharacteristically did not give a Follies History Lesson, but we did spend some time talking about my new tattoo. So, way to go! You missed that! Of course, it's permanent and obvious, so I suppose we could revisit it if you want...

Also at today's meeting, it was determined that we need everyone to finish their assignments and begin sending them out. We started off like wildfire but seem to have fizzled waiting for people to write stuff. Mic has given us the opening scene and the lyrics to the opening musical number. Scott W. has given us a very workable Real Gays of Mecklenburg Co. Dot suggested "One" from "A Chorus Line" for the closing number and the FTV theme. She has taken on the task of rewriting it as "Hug," which was chosen as the f-word replacement. Anyone else got anything? Let's get this hugging show written so we can cast it and film the stuff that needs filming for the video segments, which I will edit with my fancy video software that can slow down and speed up and make it look all film-grainy and whatever. "Film-grainy" is too a word.

Oh, and the scene for the kids will be a mixture of Phineas and Ferb, GA, the Democratic Convention, and Disney's new movie, "Prom." Probably.

To sum up:
1. Hand in your assignments NOW.
2. Respond to the Doodle when it comes and
3. Come to the next meeting.

Thank you all for your inattention.

You know you wish you were coming to see this.

OMG, Mom! Go away!

Don't try to hide it.
We all know you're
That crazy lady who
Sits in the hallway
Outside children's choir practice
With tears in her eyes.
And whispers, "They're so good!"
To anyone nearby,
Despite the mortification
Of the 9 year-old
Mini-clone
Of your husband
Inside.

I feel important

Oh that this feeling will last
Beyond this day,
Beyond these moments,
And not fade tomorrow
In a haze of indifference
And spiteful words
And hopelessness.

Interconnected

by Thich Nhat Hahn in The Heart of Understanding

In [one of the Buddhist sutras] there is a very short passage on how the world has come to be. It is very simple, very easy to understand, and yet very deep: “this is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is like this, because that is like that.” . . .

We are not separate. We are inextricably interrelated.

--------------------

Likeminded

The difficulty, he says,
If you're going to be inclusive,
Is that you have to include everyone,
Even the one who says
'You're wrong and stupid and
I hate you for it.'

The ideal, she responds,
Is that the one who says,
'I hate you,' would desire
To coexist with you
Anyway, would understand
That we are all connected.

They nod in silent lament
For the Other
Who just doesn't get it.

Notebook

I have this Super Cool notebook. It's green with little line drawings of trees. All different kinds of trees. And peeking out from behind one of the trees is Big Foot! You have to search for him because he's tiny. And hiding. I'd take a picture, but I can't find my camera so look here instead. Mine is green. I said that. It has the picture below stuck on it and several Chinese restaurant fortune cookie fortunes that struck me, like "The world will soon be ready to receive your talents" (you know that's true!) and "You will make a name for yourself in the field of medicine" (HG said, "Are they going to name a disease after you?") and "Don't underestimate yourself. Your social skills are needed by others at this time" (very desperate others, apparently!). Also, a fortune appropriate for the career I've chosen to wrestle with, "You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily" (ah... revisions...).















Before I started reading One Year to a Writers Life, this notebook was just randomness and Follies. I mean literally, Follies - it was the notebook I took to the writers meetings for Follies last year. I don't have a good post to refer you back to that isn't from 2009 so I'll just remind you that Follies is the little show a group of talented people puts on at my church every fall, and in 2009 I stole the show and then in 2010 I wrote it and Pete stole it! Anyway, after I started my reading, I decided to make this book my journal and to date the things I write in it and to make them go consecutively from one page to the next instead of just writing wherever the book opens to.

I love my little notebook. I loved it the first moment I saw it and just had to have it. Little did I realize then that this would be My Notebook, my journal, my First Official Journal. Full of images from the ice storm and the sensory garden at the girls' school. Full of whining and complaining about having noplace of my own (yes, I meant that to be one word - Firefox doesn't like it - I don't care). Full of character descriptions and short scenes and, believe it or not, a couple of feeble attempts at plotting (not my thing, not finding those helpful yet). Nope. When I grasped it and wrestled it from the weird basket shelf thing where they keep the notebooks at the store, I had no idea what I would do with it; I just knew it belonged to me and that I could do great things with it. I knew it so certainly that I bought the matching 2-pocket folder.

How sad will I be when it's filled. Well, sad and proud.

And inspired.

I just mean that I hope my next notebook is this cool.

What do you think? Should I buy another one just like it now in case I can't find them when I need my Second Official Journal? Or should I just trust that, when the time comes, I'll be able to find another, perhaps different, equally awesome volume?

(This post was inspired by Charmaine at Wagging Tales. I often find her inspiring...)

Day 10

Hi. I'm running out of interesting things to share about my NaNo adventure so I'll just tell you my word total and then share something cute that happened in the car this morning.

Word total: 20,103. (woohoo!)

Cute thing: Lulu was singing a sweet song she learned in RE (religious education - it's like Sunday school without the Jesus - unless they're studying Christianity...). I don't remember the words, but after singing it about 14 times she asked Husbandguy to sing with her. Because he's a stick-in-the-mud man engineer, he said he'd rather just listen. She told him that he didn't have to do the hand motions, he could just sing. I was driving and commented that I didn't realize there were hand motions, that I couldn't see them since I was driving.

Next thing I knew, Lulu was singing again, and in my rear view mirror I could see tiny hands doing the hand motions to go along with her song. Awww...

My monkey has always been a problem solver.

YA Fiction and NaNoWriMo

Hi! I'm back. Follies is done for now. Sadly, they didn't want me to create the video for the DVD version so I'm all what-do-I-do-now and stuff.

Pete, by the way, was awesome in the Follies. She had ZERO stage fright, although she was nervous, of course. She spoke up and didn't miss a cue and got a ton of applause just for her. She wants to do it again. I am loving this.

While the Grandpa and Meme were here for the show, they gave me their notes on the story I was working on. The other one that I wrote a long time ago. They had some good things to say and some great advice. They thought it seemed more like young adult fiction than adult, which I hadn't considered before. But when I did, it made sense and opened up a whole new path for me to take. I considered working on it for NaNoWriMo, but it is against the rules to have anything written (other than an outline or some notes) before November 1 so I'm working on it between now and then.

Then, when November rolls around, I'm taking a break from all of my current projects and trying something new. A couple of years ago when I did NaNoWriMo, I didn't make it. I quit part way through. I gave up at just under 10,000 words. I do that, give up, when it looks like I'm going to fail at something, because for me it's better to not try and not fail than to have that failure on my record. I'm a chicken.

bawkbawkbawk

I'm ready to try again, though. I may not make it to 50,000 words. Especially considering I'm going to try to pull something completely new out of my hat. But I have an idea (inspired by Lulu's recent adventure) and I have in mind some books I've read recently (The Graveyard Book, the Series of Unfortunate Events books) that I enjoyed and a new audience (YA) to consider so I am hopeful that I'm not a total nut job. And I admit to having written 109 words to help get me started because I don't want to sit down on November 1 and go, "Duuhhhhh..." (drool). That would be unproductive. And gross.

How about you? Do you have a novel floating around in your brain that you just haven't had the time or motivation to write? If you sign up, let me know! We can be writing buddies.

And also, I'll be sharing the joy that is my NaNoWriMo adventure here with you so check back!!

Kids. In a Box.

Last Friday, Pete and I packed sleeping bags into the trunk and gathered our toothbrushes and headed out to the church for a soup-kitchen-style dinner and a loooong night of sleeping in a cardboard box on the playground. It was supposed to be similar, for the elementary children, to what a homeless person might experience. Since the weather was nice (clear with temps in the 50s), it turned out to be a lot more like camping than homelessness, I am sure, but the point of the night wasn't to cause our children to be miserable (that comes when they're in high school and do the cardboard city in December); it was to stimulate discussion about homelessness and what we can do to help people who don't have homes. That part was a success! For our family, at least. Pete and I are exploring the social justice volunteer opportunities through the church and will be participating in as many as we can (after Follies). I intend to include Lulu in as much as I can too. She was too little for sleeping in the boxes, but she had a lot of questions about soup kitchens when we were talking about it beforehand.

Some other nice things happened at the event. Pete made 2 new friends. Unfortunately they go to the late service and we go to the early one so she won't see them much, but it was neat to watch her make friends. This seems to be an area where Lulu excels over Pete, usually. Maybe she's rubbing off on her.

Also, Pete played the prelude for the little worship service we had after dinner. She played Für Elise. Beautifully, of course. And even let me turn the page for her without seeming all embarrassed that I'm her mom. I got to ring the gong, but Pete's piano was prettier.

I did not sleep. It didn't help that someone decided that Friday night would be a good night for some Midnight Leaf Blowing. What was that about?! I'm not kidding, though. Someone nearby was using a leaf blower in the middle of the night. Also, 2 trains went by on the tracks near the church. There was only 1 emergency that required a siren nearby. No wild or stray animals wandered by our boxes. Although there was a giant cricket thing in my box when I slithered in to go to sleep. It was hideous! I'm not a fan of bugs. And Pete didn't walk in her sleep. I was mildly worried about this. She, in fact though, fell asleep fairly quickly and stayed asleep all night. That was nice. In the morning she was even rested enough to go to her swimming lesson at 8. We stopped for coffee and a pastry in the way (she had a smoothie, not coffee) and then met Husbandguy and Lulu at the pool.

And then later? After real breakfast?

I took a nap.

I Need a Deadline, I Think

This whole being a grown-up and writing for my job thing isn’t going very well. For a couple of reasons. One is, you know, Follies, which is way easier to think about and work on than the stuff I get to claim all for myself. If something doesn’t work in Follies, I’m not the director and can look around like “Whose idea was that?”, and the congregation will appreciate the effort anyway.

The other is that I don’t have anything to be working toward so I don’t quite know what to be working on. It’s kind of like when I first stopped eating meat and was all unfocused and, “Well what do I eat now?” and my friend A-ME suggested I get a vegetarian cookbook, which gave me direction (the direction was just finding a vegetarian cookbook at first, but it was enough) and now I eat pizza with artichokes! Mmmm…

Sorry. Where was I going? Oh yeah…

I have several projects, new and old, that I rifle through every day. A little bit here. A word or 2 there. But I can’t seem to stick to anything. And when I get really uninspired I write something else not useful. The other day? I wrote a description of the back of my hand. Seriously.

I don’t have writer’s block. That would be easier to deal with, I think, because it’s a real problem real writers have and can’t just be chalked up to laziness or apathy. I do well with a goal, though, a deadline, a due date. But where do you get one of those when nobody is waiting for your work?

One of My Favorite Things

Hi! Guess what! On Tuesday? This last one? The 14th, you know?

Follies rehearsals started!! Yay for Follies rehearsals!!

This year we have 30+ cast members at the start. The actual number will change as people drop out and whatever like they always apparently do, which last year allowed for the new upstart to pad her part until she had the most memorable role in the whole play (read about that here if you've forgotten). I had a hand in writing the show and in some of the multimedia stuff (which didn't get as big a laugh at the first rehearsal as I'd hoped it would, but people were distracted...); that's called "being on the production team." And the director is trying to get my character into every scene. Every scene. You know me. I don't mind.

Pete is in it with me this year. Since I helped with the script, I was able to write her a little recurring gag part that is going to be a big hit, I think. She's anxious, but I think that's because the little bit of "acting" she's done before involved, at most, 30 minutes of rehearsal on a Sunday morning right before the service in which she portrayed a (fantastic) bunny or a school child playing hopscotch (she was the only one who did the 1-2-1-2-1-2-1 right). She'll feel better about it in time for the show. I'm hoping she'll be bitten by the acting bug because that can be such a confidence booster!

The only problem is that it's hard to focus on what I'm supposed to be doing and not spend the day searching the internet for props and costumes... I already bought a mustache... :D

Blech!

Today I feel useless and crabby and like a crappy parent. I could tell you all the things I haven't done (like folding the laundry and making my kids play outside - it's 100º!), but instead I think it would help me for you to know all the things I have done recently.

This is a big one - I took my kids to see 2 movies in the past week (or so). Well, Pete saw 2, and Lulu saw 1, but for a person who prefers to watch movies at home, this is definitely outside my box. And I initiated the movie Pete and I went to by inviting Pete's BFF and her mom to go with us instead of waiting to hear from them. Also outside my box... Then Pete and Lulu and I talked Husbandguy into skipping out on his last 2 hours of work one day and all went to a movie together. Trying to talk HG into skipping out of work isn't outside my box, but it does make for a fun afternoon!

Then, yesterday, I took Pete's spelling workbook from last year and spent an hour building 13 crossword puzzles for her to take to the beach with us. I should share those with her friends...

And in the past week (or so) my girls and I have tie-dyed and painted pottery (twice) and made a fairy wand and watched "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" (which didn't scare Lulu).

And I've discovered that my Follies-writing niche is actually multimedia, not so much dialogue or whatever. I am a lover of high praise for me, and my projects for this year's Follies, which are Powerpoint shows (and VERY funny) have elicited high praise for me. Yay me!!

Honesty, I don't feel that much better, but thanks for reading anyway.

Oh, I did have another featured post at Write With Pictures last week. But I was the only entry that day...

A Difference

I'm a UU. Probably mentioned that before, but if not, there you go. This morning, the guest speaker (our minister is on sabbatical) told a funny tale. She had been asked to lead a UU-style service one Sunday during a session at an Episcopal divinity school, and the morning of the service, the dean commented, kind of nervously that she might want to make everyone aware of what to expect before she started. This is funny by itself because, what does he think we do on Sundays? But she complied. Standing in front of the group in the chapel she said, "This will be very much like what you're used to. We will have music and a message. But there will be one difference." Here she gestured to the chalice and said, "We will not be having communion. We UU's don't drink from the chalice. We light it on fire."

Once Again, Proud. of. Pete.

Pete had her Guild audition this past Saturday. It was in the same church where they had it last year, but they had added windows to the back of the sanctuary so I could actually see and hear her as she played this time. I tried not to stare because I didn't want to make her nervous, but when she was playing, I did sneak peeks since her back was to me and I knew hoped she wouldn't be looking behind her while she played. You'll never guess how she did. Seriously. Guess. Fine, I'll just tell you that she did AWESOME. Of course. And later that day we got an email from her teacher saying that she scored a "Superior." I can't wait to see her report card on Tuesday because you can't score a "Superior" without doing really well at a bunch of things.

Then on Sunday, the children's choir director had invited children who hadn't been in choir during the year to come and sit in for rehearsal and just give it a try (anyone could have joined at any time, but the invitation was kind of a come-see-what-it's-about-now-that-we're-done-learning-songs-for-services-so-you'll-know-you-want-to-sing-with-us-next-year), and Pete went. She sat with her arms crossed the whole time, but her lips were moving and she was paying attention so I think the arm-crossing was protective rather than defensive. And when it was over, she came right up to me and said, "I want to do this next year." AW! Me too!! I mean for her. I want her to do that next year too.

The church's music director had stopped by to play the piano for that rehearsal, which I imagine he doesn't always do since he's got his own choirs to direct and stuff, and after it was over, he caught my eye and said, "[Bel], you play piano, right?" and somehow that turned into me bringing home some music to learn so I can accompany them next week. So that was cool. Or whatever.

But this post is about Pete. Please join me in celebrating my Musical Child. I've always wanted a Musical Child.

Plus, also, she's just really cool in general.

It's like, you know, whatever...

Last night someone I had just met told me that she feels like she knows me. I started to say that I have one of those faces (because I do - seriously - I look like that girl you went to 2nd grade with), but before I could say anything she added, "Because of the Follies. I had fun watching you in the Follies, and I feel like I know you." (first of all, wow! really?)

"Great," I said facetiously, "You know me as Zuzu [a clueless ditz]. That's not good."

And she said, "But I like you!"

We were coming from a meeting at which I managed to have an overwhelming coughing fit and had to leave the room just as the meeting was starting, and when I got back and everyone (EVERYONE) inquired whether I was okay, I said, "I'm just trying to get out of participating." Am I clever or what?

Don't say "Or what," because you'll hurt my feelings. Unless you're being funny. Then you'll only mock-hurt my feelings.

Back on track: It's been a long time since anyone outside of the Follies 2010 Writing Team has mentioned Zuzu (not counting my kids) or me in the Follies at all. It was cool of her to say something because, frankly, the glow was starting to wear off for me. Sure, I'm all participatey in the writing of the Next Big Show with all my funny suggestions and whatnot (at least 2 of my ideas are definitely IN the show in October), and that's cool and creative and those 6 people on the team with me appreciate me, but with all the other stuff, the house not selling, me messing up Lulu's educational future, the dog costing $80,000,000,000 and not having anything wrong with her, I haven't seen my mom in forever and she's only an hour away, etc., etc., etc... WHIIINE... Where was I? Oh, right. It was nice to feel special for a moment.

And isn't it weird that she was so affected by my performance that she remembers it even now, 5 months later? Maybe not weird, but... you know.

Whatever (some randomosity fer ye)

One: Pete's teachers have been trying to get Pete into the Talent Development program at her school. You know, that little bit of extra attention for gifted students to help them not get bored (my elementary school called it the Gifted and Talented program). We found out this morning that they don't think that she's quite gifted enough. On the one hand, I think they're full of it. Because a. I'm her mom, and b. she's really bright, and c. I'm her mom. But on the other hand, I get it. She is gifted, but I am absolutely positive it wasn't completely evident to them due to the fact that a. she doesn't have a whole lot of experience with test-taking (she's a Montessori kid, after all), and b. she doesn't have particularly well-honed attention-to-details skills (she's working hard on that). But we know she needs challenges and her actual classroom teacher knows she needs challenges so even if the elitist TD people don't want her, we'll still help her develop her talents.

2: Last Sunday we started writing the Follies, which are scheduled for October 16 (mark your calendars Meme, TG, and Moomie - and anyone else...). You may recall that last year I joined the little troupe late and still managed to ROCK the show. Remember? (Click here...) Well, this year I am being all involvedy from the very beginning so it will SUPER ROCK. But not just because of me. We've got a fantastic little group of writers and a bunch of talented performers and I am all full of ideas and can't wait for our next meeting... All I'm saying is that there will be a pink flamingo neon light on stage... And that if we see Zuzu, she will probably be 8 years old...

III: "What's up with Abby?" you ask. (Go ahead and say it out loud. I'll wait...) Well, I answer, something is up. Something not good. I think, perhaps, whatever energy oversees the owner/pet relationships in our house is testing (or punishing) us due to our whole Howie screw-up (we get it - we messed up). Our poor Abby should have been spayed in December, but I opted to wait until January due to the fact that Santa went overboard, as she usually does, and Mrs. Claus was already rolling his eyes about the credit card bills. I made the appointment and everything for right after Pete's birthday, but the vet wouldn't do it because poor puppy had (what we thought was just) a urinary tract infection. So, a monthplus and half-a-dozen vet visits and a heatcycle and several$100 later, the bacteria is gone, apparently (the culture didn't grow anything), but the puppy is still full of crystals and is having accidents on the couch and in the kitchen and on the carpet (she's not allowed on the bed anymore). But there's no stone. No obvious explanation. So today they're checking her liver function. I tell you what, I am really worried about that little creature because a. her mom and both of her litter mates are dead, and b. she's ½ Maltese, a breed that is prone to liver shunts. And Mrs. Claus is rolling his eyes again about how expensive my stuff seems to be, but he gets that there's nothing I can do about it other than keep taking her to the vet to find out what's wrong. I think I'm glad we didn't have her spayed in December, now, because if something is wrong with her liver, we wouldn't have known and it could have been really dangerous to put her under. She's scheduled for spaying this Friday, though, and her doctor is still planning on doing it so maybe they can fix this other problem at the same time and everything will be the way it's supposed to be from now on... Maybe...

FORE! We're planning on putting our house back on the market next week. We're waiting to hear back from the agent, but that's our plan. So fingers crossed for us, okay?

I May Not Be Very Good at this Posting-Every-Day Thing Right Now, but just wait until April...

El Fin Yesterday was the end of a long, fun period of creativity for me, leading up to several "performances" (in quotes because of the amateur-ness of them and because they were all at my church). It started with planning meetings for the intergenerational service at church, which was last weekend and which I narrated (beautifully, of course). At some point I got recruited to do the coffeehouse, which was this past Saturday, and also a little something during my church's Carnival service, which is an over-the-top silly service held at or around the start of Mardi Gras and which inspired our minister to comment he is always afraid we will get visitors on that day (we did have visitors yesterday, and they all seemed to have a blast). I wore my red plaid pajamas and fuzzy red slippers to church and no one sneered.

Successes Everything went well. I am 100% positive that everyone at my church knows that they can call on me to do creative things, silly or not. And I was told, "You're fun to play with." Not in a suggestive way...

UP I don't realize how consuming impending performances (little or big) are for me until they are finished. Apparently I'm all worked up inside pre-performance or something because I was soooooo sleepy yesterday after lunch when it was all over. In a way that I hadn't been sleepy in several months. A good relieved sleepy. But also I felt a little lost. What's next?

What's Next? Seriously. Well, um... Next weekend we have our first Follies-writing meeting, but the show isn't until October... April, you may recall, is a poem-a-day month for me, since it's National Poetry Month... I'm looking forward to both of those things, but somehow they don't seem quite enough...

S'Okay I'll find something.

LL Says:

I tried on the fishnet stockings I am planning on wearing to church this coming Sunday. Lulu was curious. After carefully inspecting my right thigh, she announced:

"I like them. They have holes in them. And I can touch you through them!"