My goodness, I fell right into my old habit of Doing Instead of Reporting.
Since last we spoke I have been to a book festival in Bowling Green, Ky., that was quite a bit of fun, I spent a night in a hotel all by myself and finished my first draft, and I saw the new Avengers movie. Betweentimes I made a new friend, spent a jillion dollars to be told nothing is wrong with our plumbing (but will be soon), and had about six work-related nervous breakdowns.
All in all, I'm coming out ahead, even if I'm running behind.
So, let's see. We drove to Bowling Green and stopped at Henry Clay's house along the way. It's a lovely spot, especially in spring, but we didn't bother to tour the house because we didn't time it right and didn't want to hang around for an hour. In Bowling Green, we were in the Staybridge, for a pretty cheap rate -- and it had TWO bedrooms, TWO bathrooms, plus a full kitchen and living room. It was amazing, seriously. I could live there quite comfortably. Especially with the maid service and all... The festival was fun; The kid and I went to four panels, which is pretty good for us. Diana Gabaldon gave what is apparently her standard recitation, but it's a hilarious one, so good on her. Then we listened to a bunch of middle-grade writers talk about writing, which was sort of interesting. I think the Young Prince got a few pointers that might help him in the long run if he can keep them in mind. After that was Not Your Average Blogger's panel, where he knocked it out of the park, as usual, and then a panel of authors flogging books on Civil War/Reconstruction era, which was also interesting. I was half-hoping to find a kindred spirit there to hit up for a critique of one of my chapters, but the only person who came close was NYAB's friend from high school, Marty, who drove in just to see us and kindly sat through the panel with me and laughed and eye-rolled at the same things I did. I was so glad he came; we had an absolutely wonderful time hanging out with him.
So then it was back to work and crashing disasters hair on fire all week.
The next weekend, I worked on my book. My plan was to go to the library and stay there til it closed, then go to a hotel and write til I dropped. Not so much. The night before I planned to bail, water was backing up into the basement, which means septic troubles. So I got four hours at the library, then had to come home and wait for a plumber while NYAB took the YP to his music lessons. (A thousand dollars later, our tanks are pumped empty, we were told nothing is wrong with the pump or the drain field, but that we need to replace the whole tank and pump and some kind of switch box and whatnot in the next 2 years. Sigh.) Then we went to dinner (and it was prom night, so that was fun people-watching), and I finally got to the hotel and down to writing at around 8. Still, I finished the draft. And I went through all my existing notes to make sure I'd included everything I wanted. Good progress.
The next steps are to go through my critiques, fix what is mentioned, find the holes I have marked for filling, and then double-checking all my citations. I'm hoping to send my proposal ... soon.
Except then it was another week of Work Disasters. On the upside, a good friend of JB's has become my new BFF and partner in weight loss adventures, and she is very kind about listening to me whine and rail and pitch the scale out the window. Having a new friend to gush with made it a little less irritating when work bled over into my weekend—and I did get to see the new Avengers movie, as I already said. I didn't like it as much as the first one, but it was pretty good for what it was. And we got a lot of yard work done, which is satisfying.
We also have two new acquisitions for the house. First, the kid got a new box spring and mattress—I think his old one was probably 35 years old, if not more. It is funny, because the new one is so tall that his face is now parallel to the window. (And yet, he still won't wake up on first prodding....) The second was a lightweight elliptical machine. I love it. Now I just need to use it (see weight loss adventures, above). Which means I have to get home before 9 p.m., which means I really need to figure out a way to stop caring about work disasters.
This weekend is Mother's Day. I guess I'd better do something about that for my mom, huh? Beyond that, NYAB has an overnight the following week for a book talk, and we are wide open. Anyone want to come visit?
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