Going on Summer Hours

I'm taking this week off from the every-other-Wednesday writing post because I'm still catching up from the holiday weekend and have no idea what to write about. I'll resume next week. I was toying with the idea of taking the summer off, but it really doesn't take that much more time to do than a regular blog post. I just need ideas, so if you've got a writing-related question you want me to address, this is your chance to ask it.

I have decided to go on "summer hours" starting next week, but it's the opposite of what that means for the publishing industry. A lot of publishers go on summer hours, in which they work a half day on Fridays (and a lot of people telecommute for Friday morning, so generally no one is in the office on Fridays). I'm planning to use this summer to really buckle down and work more. In Texas, it's not really a good time to be outdoors (though this morning has been delightfully cool) and there's much less on TV to watch. I also have fewer of my extracurricular activities going on. This is a good opportunity to sit inside and write like crazy. Then I can go on "fall hours" when things get busy in the fall and the weather is more conducive to being out and about.

Though I think some of those summer hours will be devoted to work around the house, organizing projects, etc.  We'll see how this goes. I'm great at making grand plans, not so great at sticking to them.

I had a good holiday weekend but am now kind of tired. We had a Memorial Day service at church Sunday evening, and I got to sightread in concert because the local community chorale was also singing and needed some extra sopranos. I knew the song, so I agreed to do it, and then it turned out that what they needed was help on the descant, which I didn't know. I had to just hope that my knack for being able to figure things out just from reading the music and without hearing it worked. It was also very high. It's been a very long time since I've sung a high C in performance. I'm not entirely sure I actually did it this time because of that "okay, I think this is the note I'm singing" guessing from sightreading, but I at least sang something in the chord.

Now I'm a little self-conscious about the way I must look when I sing because two people commented to me at the fellowship after the service about how they like watching me sing. I guess I do have fun and show it, though there's the occasional death glare when someone around me gets something wrong. I think one lady was also referring to the morning service. We were doing a jazzy piece that included the Samson and Delilah story, and the sopranos were singing the Delilah part. I kind of got into character to sing it with the right amount of sass. But now I'll be thinking of this and worried that I'm showing more than I should as part of a choir. This is why it's good that I wasn't visible for the Mozart Requiem, so people didn't see me gleefully singing "Dies Irae" like it was great fun (even if it is).

Since I don't have to do a children's choir lesson plan and don't have to go to choir until adult choir rehearsal, I have a whole afternoon to focus on writing and/or housework.