Books

I have been reading the same book for at least the past two months...maybe three.  I'm a little embarrassed about it, actually.  It's The Goldfinch.  It's really great, but it's one of those books that has the kind of writing that makes you visualize minute details with just a few well chosen words, puts your mind so it's like you've experienced the moment personally or like you're seeing it happen in front of you.  And when I read books like this, I read slowly.  It's harder for me to skim quickly through a sentence when I'm trying to play the scene in my mind.  And even though I love the book, I kind of can't wait to be finished with it.

Sometimes a long book like this makes me want to read and read forever (like Harry Potter) and other times the story mixes depressive details in and this one happens to really lack anything uplifting.  Since I've been reading this I've also listened to several audiobooks on Audible.  It's easier for me to get through a book when I'm listening to it because I have so many more opportunities to make progress in it (on walks, driving, making jewelry).  I listened to that Cathy Yardley "Write Every Day" book...and the book from the TV Show Castle (Heat Wave...a ridiculously cheesy but entertaining read) and I am pretty sure I even made it through Stephen King's "Mr. Mercedes" in the amount of time since I started reading The Goldfinch.  Then I tried starting another literary one a week or two ago (Cutting for Stone, which I've heard great things about and will read...at some point) and decided I needed something else.  So I downloaded one of the more recent Nora Roberts books with this month's credit (The Collector).  I just needed something fun and lighthearted...something I would want to keep turning on while I'm driving or cleaning and make me enjoy those times rather than just helping pass the time.  I'm going to read "Unbroken" when I'm done with The Goldfinch...I have a borrowed copy that's due back by the holidays and I scoffed at the idea that I'd need that long but now I'm starting to wonder if I will have it done in time.  Ridiculous.

So I will go start my nightly routine of getting the baby ready for bed and reading The Goldfinch while I nurse her to sleep.  Wonder if there's any great twist at the end?  I'm at 90% (about) so I feel like I'd see it coming by now.  It better have a decent ending.

Good night..

Writing

There's one thing about me that I hope will never change.  I want to be a writer.  I want to get paid enough to justify writing as a full time job.  It's a dream a lot of people have, probably just as many people as aspiring actors or musicians or artists, but each of those people have their own version of their dream.  And in my version, I'm successful and taken seriously as a professional writer.

So a lot of what I do and think about (and buy...as far as gadgets go, anyway) ties into my desire to be a writer.  Take today for instance.  I spent over an hour finishing up the audiobook "Write Every Day" while I fed my baby some carrots and mango at the park as my older daughter played on her make-believe pirate ship and threw Elsa overboard every few minutes.  Afterward we all got in the car and went shopping for shoes for me (nothing to do with writing, but it was an exhausting trip...so I couldn't leave it out of today's details).  I finished the audiobook then decided to create a chart in OneNote so I could start keeping track of what I do with my time everyday (a suggestion from the book).

So that's a small snapshot of the weeklong schedule I've broken down into 15 minute increments.  Doing this is suggested so I can start managing my time better.  I might sound like I'm mocking this idea, but I'm really not.  I have a feeling it'll help me to see exactly where my time has gone.  I always feel so busy, but am I really?  And it'll hopefully help me find time that I can start dedicating to writing.  

That chart took me almost a full hour to make.  The table function in OneNote sucks so I created what I wanted in Excel (had to start from scratch once, the original was broken down into 10 minute increments but it was too long to fit in the OneNote document...according to OneNote).  OneNote lets you insert a table/chart/spreadsheet from Excel, so viola.  I hope I keep up with it.  If nothing else, it'll be helpful as a scheduler.  

I had planned to write tonight...get back into my finished manuscript and continue editing it again...but now it's so late and I spent all this time writing in this blog and making that damn scheduler.  I am falling asleep on the couch so I need to just give up for the day. 

And the weekend is over :(

Latest post-it...the others are still there, I just missed this one last week:

Am I judging myself?  I hope not.  

Maybe I am?

Either way, I'm going to bed now.  See you tomorrow in the 9:45 or 10 pm block.  

There's still time, right?

I'm wondering now if my bluetooth keyboard, which is sporadic sometimes in its doubling up of letters, has caused me to enter the web address for this blog incorrectly.  It's late though, so I was too lazy to really give it a good look, but already I've had two words get double letters and I've only written a couple of sentences.  Three words.  Sentences got two cs.  Alsoo, (I'm leaving it in, that's the fourth word now), it's not actually late (only 9:50 pm) but I have two children, one of which is a toddler and the other is still a baby, so I have the right to call anytime after 8 pm late.  I don't think anyone would argue.

Speaking of time.  The reason I came up with the title of this blog is because I'm sitting here, wracking my brain, trying to put into a short, little title-worthy blurb the whole idea of what I want to write about here.  And that's the only combination of words that still had an available web address (which is why I'd actually be slightly annoyed if it was only available because I spelled it wrong with my keyboard's double letters).  So yea.  Theree's (jesus!) still time, right?  I'm 31 years old.  There's still time to feel proud of my accomplishments in life, right?  (Yes, I LOVE my children and I feel an immense amount of worth and pride when I look at them, but that has nothing to do with what I'm saying here).  There's still time to write a book that people want to read, right?  Still time to accomplish something so that I stop feeling like I haven't done enough yet, right?

I've got to start writing everyday.  So even if no one ever reads this blog, it'll be a place I go everyday to write something, anything.  Regardless of how much it is, I want to do it everyday.  As a way to express things I'm doing, things I'm reading, things I'm writing, things I'm happy about, sad about...things.  I'll just write whatever things come to mind.  Which is working just fine so far.

So good night, and I'll see you tomorrow (and if I don't, it's safe to assume I'll never see you again, ha).