Okay I never worked on my novel today. I really had every intention of doing 2 things today. Walking and writing. OK, no, I also wanted to do laundry and fold clothes. But none of those things happened. Instead I gave in to Miranda’s pleas to finish planting the flower bulbs in our yard before it got dark. I put the baby in his bed and popped in Baby Einstein while Miranda and I finished up some planting in the yard.
Then I cooked dinner. After that I vegged on the sofa, read a book for a little while on my bed, while the baby played and tried to destroy my book, then he got tired so I made him another bottle (yes this was 3 hours later), I took a shower and spent about 30 minutes or an hour surfing for cheap hotels in the New Orleans area, among other errands I had to do. We have to go to N.O. this weekend to visit my step-daughter Mandi who will be the leading lady in her school play. I spent too much time on that hotel searching. I also had to pay my phone bill and log on to my work e-mail to type in a bunch of reminders into my calendar.
As I took a shower and the warm water washed on me, soaking my hair, I made a mental list of all the things I had to do when I got out of the shower- look for Toll Road letter to change my billing information, send myself a reminder to write a character-witness letter for an acquaintance, change the billing info on my cell phone bill too, book a hotel room for this weekend.
As I took a bath every few minutes I had to run down the mental list again because I was so afraid I would forget to do one of those things. Then I remembered my mom and dad.
I remember being a little girl and my mother always being tired and exasperated. She was very impatient with me and short. My father would excuse her to me by telling me that my mother had a lot of things going on in her mind. He would say, “Tu mama tiene muchas cosas en la cabeza,” and he would gesture up to his head in that habit he has of talking with his hands. As a child I was intrigued by this idea and I thought of all the things she could be thinking of. Now as an adult I totally get it. My mother felt like I do when I’m making these mental notes to myself.
I can’t believe I’m a grown up now!
But I must say this. My novel is falling together beautifully! I love how it’s working out. You all don’t know how badly I wish I could just take a week’s vacation, take the kids to the sitters every day for half a day, and write write write until I finish it. I want to finish it so bad. Well I mean I want to finish my first draft because what I’m doing is writing straight through with no real editing. When I’m done with all the chapters then I’ll go back and I’ll revise and rewrite. The reason I can’t take the one week’s vacation is because all my vacation is spoken for. I’m in N.O. this weekend, but with the kiddos, so no real writing time. They have to go to visit their big sister. Other vacation time is already scheduled for events.
Okay, so the novel is doing good and the shower for my best friend Vicki Saturday went very well. My little one kept telling me yesterday and today, “Vicki’s shower was really great, wasn’t it?” I’m signing off for now because it’s 12:30 and this time change is going to kill me tomorrow.
Later!
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