Daylight Savings Blows

I got out of my routine for almost three weeks! First there was the writing workshop, which I will talk about later. Then there was the trip to Texas... which I will talk about later. And then there was the whole 'I-chose-to-travel-outside-my-time-zone-right-when-Daylight-Savings-hit,-and-now-have-no-freaking-clue-what-time-it-is-now-that-I-am-back' thing. Which I won't talk about later, because I am going to talk about it now.

Yeah, so all last week, the first week back, neither the Boy nor I had any clue what we were doing. We were sleeping ridiculously late every day, we could not quite figure out what day it was, and we dragged like a Stanley Kubrick film. It was a surreal week, lemme tell you. The Boy actually napped a few afternoons, just because he was so confused and tired. Poor us.

But the trip to Texas was the best I have ever had since moving to Yankee land. Really. I crammed in a lot-- the first full day there, I spent with my parents, but crammed in four other sets of relatives, and also traveled from San Antonio to Temple. I got to see family and friends that I hadn't seen in years. Some are college buddies that I have seen fairly recently-- one I saw in February, and another last summer, and the last a few years ago, although we have spoken on the phone. Two sets of family I had not seen since my wedding-- almost ten years ago.

And, then I managed to also see two friends that I had not seen since high school... Both knew me back in the sixth grade. I hated Temple, and Central Texas, and really cut the chords as fast as I could. But, Facebook reunited us. And so I got to have lunch with Karen in Waco, and then hit the zoo with my folks and the Boy (I saw two rhinos!). And I got to go have a grown-up evening in Austin my last night in Texas, dinner and then karaoke, and had a great time singing old show tunes with Dylan, several college buddies and the two bridesmaids from my wedding. We did every show tune we could think of and also did a lot of Queen, and the requisite 80s crap. Good times.

Before the trip, I attended the writing workshop. I loved it. Not only was one of my best friends attending as well (so we got to carpool), but it was just a great time. I have a lot of concrete steps to use in my editing process, and.... as part of a writing exercise, I wrote a short story that kinda floored the rest of the class.

Lest it appear that I am bragging, let me hasten to share something that FINALLY sank in. I have been writing constantly for years. I thought I had just done it here and there. I thought that because I didn't count the play writing I have done for my classes. But I have written TONS of scripts. Enough that I really ought to collect them, edit them, and publish a collection of children's scripts. They've all been produced, and many of them re-written. So, was I able to spit out a nice short story that didn't require much explanation? Yep.

Anyway, the workshop was a great refresher for me as a writer, in that it reminded me of the basics of writing, and all the little elements I should be thinking of and working on. I also got some really new ideas, and I am excited to be using them as I work on my book.

My next blog, I will simply share the short story I wrote. I like it, and I hope you enjoy it too.