The Long Way Home

I'm continuing with the titling the blog with song titles. I feel like I ought to give a prize if you guess, but I know all of you will just google it, so it doesn't count. And yes, I mean you, don't you look all indignant!

I know I haven't posted in a millennium. Okay, I know that's exaggerating. Things have been odd and interesting at the same time here. Shawn has been doing a lot of training for work and has spent most of the last two weeks in Chicago. Which he has apparently not enjoyed much, although he did get to go to two organized sporting events. Which makes him happy, so good. Thank god I didn't have to go.

I've been writing quite a bit. Not this weekend because my mother was here, and that forced me (and poor Shawn) to clean for hours on Friday night. I know many of you deride my lack of motivation in the cleaning arts (Laura V, I mean you), but I just don't think I'm going to be on my death bed thinking "I wish I'd cleaned more." You know, I have a hell of a lot better things to do with my time than clean. I'm not talking about filth here. Filth gets cleaned. I'm talking about clutter and laundry, and possibly dishes (until they become icky and I must clean them.) I think we all have to choose our priorities, and let's face it, cleaning is damn low on my priority list. Why clean when I can knit, spin, read, write, or do almost anything else?

To some extent it'd be nice to have beautiful space with everything in its place when people come over, but not if I actually have to do it, pay for it, or sit in it. I live in my space and I use my stuff, and it doesn't always get put away because I'm going to use it again. I have always felt uncomfortable in house beautiful type spaces. It's not lived in, it's not relaxed or home. (I think the bad guys from the Stepford Wives are going to jump out and get me.)

I think most of my friends like me for me, and not for for what my living room looks like (yes, Laura V, probably in spite of what my living room looks like, just getting that out before you do ;) ). And to some extent, my obnoxious, rebellious nature thinks that if some really care all that much what my living room looks like, to the point they'd judge my character over it, we don't probably share the same world view and it might be better to keep it to yourself, because mine's not going to change any time soon. Now, you might be getting the idea that my Mom cares what my apartment looks like. She doesn't, but I do prefer that my apartment is in the minor pit state, rather than major catastrophe, when people other than those that live here come into it. So I do cave to some societal pressure to have the place somewhat presentable for the comfort of those visiting, but this does not occur very often without such prompting.

I don't know why I'm blathering on about this, but recently someone asked me how much I sleep because I seem to do a lot. (Although I'm always lamenting how little I get done of that I actually intended to do.) Well, I sleep much more than I used to after recovering from my former life. I now am able to get between 6 and 7 hours a night, but it's still mostly six hours a night. But the thing is, I tend not to clean unless necessary either. So that gets you a lot of time. Now I still waste it on dumb things, Facebook, trashy novels, Cartoon Network, Ravelry.com and random shows which are not edifying (Monsterquest) on the History Channel, but those things still outrank cleaning every time.

So, speaking of not getting enough done, let's talk about the writing progress the last couple of weeks. I feel oddly amazed that I have 9,236 words and about 30 double spaced manuscript style pages. I have been a bit lax this week about writing, but I did purchase a blank book for my purse that I can just leave in there and jot notes here and there. I did manage to write some pages by doing that. It's weird because I then have to spend time typing them, but it gets me to write more later as well. This week I do need to get more back on track.

We had our first writing group meeting and I was very happy with how we conducted the meeting. I also think it was very helpful to have other people's perspectives on what I wrote. It makes it easier to remember that I do have to explain things to people who have not seen them. For example, at one point I had to go back and add a description of Moody's Diner, because I forgot that not everyone knows what Moody's Diner looks like. Oh, the novel's set in Maine. There's too much material and too many stories I've been telling for years not to fictionalize some it and use it. I might finally benefit from my childhood :)

In other news, I'm plugging away on the swirl shawl. I have 69 swirls done out of 82 and I only have 13 left to go. I have to say, I'm ready for this one to die. It's been interesting, but I'm ready to move on to the next project. I'll post pics when it's blocked.

This has been an editorial and probably reflects this station's opinion at this moment in time.