Friday, August 31, 2018

Sometimes My Job is to Not Work

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Yesterday was Going To The Fair Day. Not officially, of course. A friend and I went down to Salem just to check it out, watch a couple of typical fair shows (the Cirque Zuma Zuma, and the Alaskan Pig Races and Hurdle Jumping),

It was a good day. It was a day I didn't work at ll.

When we'd had enough of the fair (somewhere around 7 hours later), we left. We drove back up to Portland to write for a while.

It was a good day - the not working and doing something just for fun. With a dollop of writing on top at the end of it all.

And now I get to attend a special Happy Hour event at an organization I respect madly for an event I adore. Yes, it's (non-writing) work-related, but it will be fun, too. And a good networking opportunity - practice for when I get my book published (no, not contracted, yet; pie in the sky dreaming!)
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Sunday, August 5, 2018

Let's not talk about The Weather

It is now August. The temperature is going up, again. It's summer, I know, it's supposed to be hot.

It is.

Hot. As in temperature hot. We used to get 2 to 5 days of hot, which to me means mid- to upper 90s, hovering around 100. We've already had many of those days. And streaks of those days. They started early (I think the first one was in May) and have continued to show up. Last week it finally cooled down to a lovely mid-70s for the highs; it was lovely. There is another heat wave coming to land in the area later today, upper 80s, then into the 90s the next few days.

It's summer. Hot. I know.

So what does this have to do with writing? My writing space is upstairs, in a front, full south facing room, with four very lovely 3x6 windows. I love it. And - hot. Luckily, one item on the remodel list a couple of years ago was the windows. Now they open, so I can let the heat out; except when it's this 90+ hot, it never gets cool, but the room can at least breathe.

But that's also okay, because I can (and do) write in other spaces.

Did I say that I don't like the heat?


  • Writing. It's still happening. It moves down the priority list when there is a show to prep, but it never falls off my radar any more. Which is good.
  • Theatre (the JAW week was fantastically intense and inspiring and fun and audiences loved it). I'm working on a couple of other theater projects right now - though not play interpreting preparation, other aspects of theatrical interpreting.
  • Work is work - good, don't get me wrong. But it is that time of year when there is a lot of pressure to have fun get ready for school take care of the yard go on vacation finish the summer projects weed the garden harvest the too many tomatoes too many zucchini buy school supplies buy school clothes start planning the holiday puzzle with family exercise eat lite find joy find solitude party like you'll soon have no time and on and on and on. Irritability seems to be running on high in the content of the work and joy is simultaneously minimized and being sought.

I'm also wondering what to do here - what direction do I want to take this in and how far. It has meandered through a couple of ideas in the early days. Then it was more "this is me writing", reflective. And recently it has become a place to update on writing progress (or stallouts) and workshops and bits of information from different parts of my life. With the occasional NaNoWriMo updates, and Camp NaNo, though I barely wrote here during July, when I did successfully do my Camp NaNoWriMo goal of writing the equivalent of an hour each day.

I used to post prompts once a week. I think for a little while I posted twice a week - two different types of prompts. I used to post advice, mostly links to websites/blogs/posts.

I wasn't on Facebook I would probably write more here. Although I'm not generating a lot of original content there, either. Mostly promoting interpreted performances, with a few comments here and there. Reposts.

I heard that blogs are making a comeback - or trying to. As people move away from social media a bit, because the amount of information can be overwhelming and there is so much false information being shared - so many lies, misunderstandings, so much hate. And also a lot of love and true information and resources. There are connections I have in Facebook that I probably wouldn't have, at least not to that extent, if I didn't have a social media connection. Maybe there will be a decent alternative someday. Although, as things go, it will probably decline after a while, too.

I've rambled enough.

I have no insights.

I have thoughts beyond "too hot" and "how's the traffic" and "what time do I need to leave to get to work/my appointment."

But now, it is time to wrap this up and ... what? Publish it? Or delete it? Or wait until I can clean it up and then publish it?

Naw. Raw thoughts are sometimes worth sharing. I don't know if these are "worth it" - but I'm going to do it, anyway.