Twice upon a Time

This is me with my manuscript lately.  Jumbled.  Confused.  Trying to get into that "zone" but interrupted again and again before I have a chance to come up with a coherent thought.  I think the words "Twice upon a time" sum it up the best.  Seriously.

BUT--today was an exception.  Elijah went to Soak City with his best friend Lino, and Trin's at ASB camp this weekend.  And of course Clint is gone on his usual three hour tour, except for instead of three hours it's three days.  So, as I saw it, I had two choices on how to spend my kid- and hubby-free day:  Shop for some new fall clothes, or pluck away at the manuscript.  As tempted as I was to go shopping, ultimately the manuscript won.  It's so rare for me to have uninterrupted hours of writing time that I knew I had to jump on it.  It was a good call, because I increased my word count by 6% today in a mini-writing marathon that was spread amongst McDonald's, Starbucks, and my couch.  I could have done even more, too, if I hadn't gotten a late start (Elijah didn't leave for Soak City until this afternoon), and if I hadn't have spent the first two hours editing previous chapters.  But still--6%!  I am now at 61,461 words, and 82% finished.  I can't believe this manuscript will be done in a little over 13,000 words.  Not too shabby for someone whose life is on a perpetual spin-cycle lately.

This week was a serious improvement over last week.  I'm still out of my mind busy, but I think I'm starting to acclimate.  I got all my forms turned in for Builders Club, designed our club t-shirts, and managed to stay on top of my grading, so I'm feeling pretty good.  Clint finally got two days off on Wednesday and Thursday, and he was in a much better mood.  I think he's starting to adjust to things too.  He installed hardwood flooring in Trin's room on his days off and brought lunch to my work, so he won some brownie points there.  But what won him the most brownie points was a comment he made.  It's hard to explain.  He was talking about I-can't-remember-what, and at the end of his monologue he said offhandedly "If you're even working as a teacher next year."  He continued to talk, but I stopped him and said, "Wait--what?  Why wouldn't I be a teacher next year?"  He just blinked at me in confusion and said, "Well, you know.  Assuming you get your book published."  I think I just sat there staring at him.  Then I threw myself into his arms, gave him a giant hug, and sauntered off.  I'm pretty sure he still has no idea what he did.  Isn't it awesome when the men in our lives slip and say something so very very right?

I won't be getting my book published next year, but his casual faith in the idea warms me.

On Saturday the 21st, per tradition, I'm going to the L.A. County Fair to celebrate my birthday with my family.  I'm super excited to go.  The only downfall is I have to do the Tumbleweed Parade first, which means I won't be able to leave for the fair until around 11:00 in the morning (and yes, I still work under the pretense that my hometown is a 'secret,' even though I know at this point my whereabouts are blatantly obvious).  

Off-topic, but my smoke detectors are demon-possessed.  They started going off for no reason.  And we're not talking about little chirps--we're talking full fledged fire alarms.  It started last week, and nothing I did would make them stop--including pushing the reset button.  I finally had to call my father in-law and wait outside with Elijah.  Carey ended up removing all but one smoke detector (the one in my master bedroom) to get them to stop.  It seemed to solve the problem, until three days ago, at 2:40 in the morning, the one and only remaining smoke detector went berserk.  Since it was right there in my bedroom and I had been dead-asleep, the noise was ear-splitting.  Luckily Clint had come home from work that night around midnight, so he was able to grab the ladder from the garage and take down the last smoke detector.  All of this happened on a school night, so yeah.  Fun stuff.

Off to do something else now that doesn't involve staring at a screen.  Feels like I've been tapping at this keyboard all day.  Well, I sort of have.

Twice upon a Time would almost work as a title for my book.  Too bad it's already taken by some teen-bop looking series.