Back to "Normal"

Now my "vacation" (such as it was) and holiday are over, so it's back to normal. Actually, the plan was to be better than normal. Last night, I was so gung-ho about what I wanted to accomplish going forward. I made lists and an ideal schedule for the day and planned everything out.

And then I woke up this morning.

It was cold, and I was so cozy all snuggled up in bed. I was having pleasant daydreams. So I was about 40 minutes late for my idealized schedule and haven't really caught up. It didn't help that I mostly stayed off the Internet over the weekend, so just reading my usual industry blogs took longer than normal.

Still, I'm eager about the writing part of things. I was getting antsy over the holiday. I found myself thinking about the book I was working on earlier, before the latest round of revisions hit. I even spent part of the holiday weekend reading a book on writing and thinking about how it would apply to this book. I think that's the main benefit of taking time off. Forcing myself not to write really makes me want to write.

I have a few errands and things to deal with today, and then I'm going to fall back into this book. I'm trying to avoid going all gung-ho about it to where it's an all or nothing thing, since this is a really busy month in general, but I'd like to have the dedication I had toward the end of those revisions on the days I do work or have time to put in that time (when I don't have choir rehearsals, performances or parties).

My Thanksgiving was delightfully boring, just a lot of eating, football and TV with my parents, plus a lot of reading.

My weekend movie was Australia, and I have to agree with my mom, who said that the scenery was fantastic -- and the shots of Australia were nice, too. That may be my favorite Hugh Jackman role. He looks equally good scruffy and cleaned up. As for the movie, I think it might have worked better with some editing, or else as two separate movies. There was the save the ranch story and then the WWII story, and they didn't really connect, aside from the characters and the mustache-twirling villain. I liked the second half of the movie a lot better, as it seemed tighter and I was less likely to find myself mentally editing the story.

And now I need to make a quick trip to the library, as I have no books checked out and have made a serious dent in the pile of books I've bought but haven't read, and I don't currently have anything on the shelf that I'm in the mood to read.