Happy Monday!

I survived Friday, but got next to no writing done because the non-writing part of work was pretty consuming. There are a lot of upsides to self publishing, such as actually getting stuff out there when publishers are being weird about it, but I have to say that in my ideal world, I'd send a novel to a publisher and let them deal with all the major and sometimes even minor decisions so that I could focus on writing. Spending time worrying about white vs. cream paper (and how do you define "white" and "cream"?) isn't really my thing. I've often thought of myself as a control freak, but it turns out I'm really not. I guess I want to be in control of the things I care about (the story) and I'd prefer for someone else to make all the other decisions.

I was even so busy that I never got my cake on Friday. Fortunately, my birthday week started early on Saturday with a group gathering that wasn't actually about a birthday but at which we had a true CAKE to celebrate several birthdays that all fall within the same timeframe. It's very convenient when you can jointly celebrate a birthday with others.

Now today I hope to catch up on the writing. I napped on Sunday and still ended up going to bed early and sleeping very late, and now I finally feel somewhat rested (if a wee bit groggy). I even know what comes next. I also know what I'll need to fix in the next draft, but I think I'm going to get to "the end" before I revise, except in cases where I need to fix something to move forward.

It was a big movie weekend, as I got together with friends for a big movie-watching (and cake) day. I got a nice college flashback with two movies that were a big part of my college days but that I don't think I've seen all the way through since college: Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Real Genius. My college years were amazing because that was the first time I'd been surrounded by geeks. I had been the lone weirdo in my high school who was into that sort of stuff. Some of my friends were kind of into it and we did have a group trip to see one of the Star Trek movies, but they graduated before I did, so by my senior year, I was pretty lonely. Then I ended up on the geek floor in the dorm and it was like coming home. We were a lot like the gang in Real Genius, except for not having an evil professor stealing our work to sell to defense contractors (that I know of). I could quote most of Holy Grail by the time I saw it at a midnight movie on campus because it was just part of the group's vocabulary. The group of friends I have now is a lot like that college bunch (and some of them are friends with my college friends), so the day was both a nostalgia trip and a reminder of how lucky I am to have the friends I have.

Finally, in case you don't have anything to accomplish today, here's a good way to waste an hour of so. It's a collection of snippy (and hilarious) notes posted around offices. Some people are very creative about reminding their co-workers to clean up after themselves, make more coffee and unjam the copier. It's a nice reminder of why I'm so glad I don't work in a real office anymore. Since I've had nightmares about having to go back to work (restless nights are one reason I've been needing extra sleep lately), I think I'm going to go work on my book now.