Relax!

Friday has really become my day to let everything go.

Weekends are like the rest of my work week. I'd make Sunday my day of rest, but I am too busy gearing up for the coming week to do that. So I'm left with Friday.

And today has an added bonus: the kids have fall break. So we're off to a state park today, braving the overcast skies and potential rain. We might not get to do paddle boating, but we'll still have fun, I bet. I'll take some pictures and post them on my Travel Tuesday this week (hopefully).

We're also taking the kids to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tonight. It'll be the first time they've seen it live, and I can't wait to see it again! If you don't know anything about it, it's by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the creator of The Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar (and a bunch of other musicals, too).

What are your fun plans for today--or for the weekend? Any relaxing on the schedule? No? Well, why not?

At least pull out a puzzle or something. Think through... what is it you really like to do that you haven't done in FAR TOO LONG?

Travel Tuesday: The Ideal Writing Spot

I will eventually get to real places... I promise. Right now, though, it's so much more fun to travel back into my brain, at least in the parts where they ugly voices aren't living right now.

(The ugly voices are living in most of the dark corners of my brain right now. You'll hear them speak for themselves tomorrow.)

For now, let's consider the ideal place to disappear to and write one's novel. NaNoWriMo is coming up in November, and I'm already making plans. Since I am holding down 8 jobs at the moment, though--yes, I said 8, and only three are volunteer--I can't quite go on vacation. Still, my little writing closet could use a fake window of sorts, one that looks out onto a blissful, almost real scene, as if I'm really on vacation there. Like this one.  

See, there is the lovely little Alpine valley, tucked into the mountains, and I'm sitting in my writing room gazing at the clouds as they float by. *sigh*

Only I'm not writing. And that's a problem.

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I need to try something else. I know. How about a beach?

Yup, this is the ticket. A sunset at the beach. For a little added depth I could buy a CD of wave sounds, complete with birds calling and wind blowing. 

Ooh, I need a margarita. Or at least a bathing suit. And sunglasses. 

But I'm still not writing. 

Perhaps the key to all of this is that I need to stop thinking of doing my writing when I'm on "vacation." When I'm on vacation, I shouldn't be writing. I should be on vacation, watching reruns of TV shows I haven't seen in 20 years (or at least five), painting my toenails, swimming, doing stupid things. Not writing. 

Writing is work. It is. It's like my other jobs--it takes some of my time, requires preparation, and sometimes I have to do it when I don't particularly want to. And when I denigrate it by filing it with my "leisure" activities, I don't get to it. And I have to. It's my job. And it's a job I love, one that deserves my time and concentration--without one of these stupid windows.

And that's what today is about for me. I had my Labor Day. I played tennis, watched TV, read, washed my car, and swam with my kids. I played. Sure, I did a little cleaning, but mostly I was on vacation. 

But now it's a Work Day. Let's see how many of my jobs I can get done today... including writing. 

Time Off

I'll miss all of you over the next few weeks, but I'm off tomorrow on a cruise with the hubby, and we will likely be out of touch with everything while we're gone. I'll check in when I get back, just in time for final run-throughs of the musical to go on, and then performance. (Whew, I am busy!)

I'm still taking my laptop with me, though. Got to keep writing! I'm in the midst of a play, and I hope to finish the rough while I'm gone, since a few other ideas are niggling at me, as well.

Hope the next two weeks are productive for you all (or restful!), and I'll see you when I get back.

Cape Flattery, the Video

This is the video I promised (at least, it should be the video, if it works, since it's still uploading). Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the contiguous United States, is also spectacularly beautiful. I took three videos on my digital camera, from three different lookouts, as we walked out to the very point where the country ends. The roar you hear is not my camera... it is the constant, load, explosive roar of water against rock.

Most of you have probably spent time on a beach, with waves pulling in and out, the smell of fishy, sandy ocean in your ears, along with people smells like sunscreen and restaurant food. That is not what you will find on this point. The weather, even in summer, is likely in the sixties, and the air is wet and spitty, always misting into your glasses and sticking your hair against your head.

The wind is unbelievable, but it pales against the sheer power of the water hitting the rocks below you. The roar of water is unending, rushing back and forth with the power of a sea god. I can see how the Native Americans in the area (several tribes have lived near here for centuries, including the Matak) could believe that the ocean was the place holding both life (food) and death. Honestly, standing out on this point, I could not recall the calm of the beaches in Florida, California, and South Carolina, for this sea was a different beast entirely, ready to eat me, to pull me under and splatter me against rocks.

And yet the cold and power drew me in more strongly than I thought possible. A small island out off the coast holds a lighthouse. The building is most likely no longer inhabited, but it once was lived in, by some solitary man and his family, alone except for a few days each year when a boat could make it from the shore. All alone, with the sea. I could think of worse ways to live.

If you are EVER up near Seattle, you must come out here. It's worth the drive through nearly uninhabited rainforest, if only to realize how small and breakable you are.

Summer Break Starts NOW!

I have no idea how it will end up, or what will happen, but four weeks of training is over. And my daughter's last day of school is today. And my son is now prepping for kindergarten. So, in less than five hours, we all have SUMMER BREAK!!! 

Hurray!

What will I do with my summer? I don't know. I have a ton of blank canvases waiting to be painted, including a HUGE one I bought for my sister and brother-in-law. I am working on revising my full-length play Desdemona. I need to work on two more novels, too, and do most of the research for my ghost book, along with planning out an entire fantasy series based on my first novel (which will be shredded in the process). My hubby's halfway through putting up a swing set in the back yard. Zumba classes continue at the YMCA, and I've started cardio kickboxing, too. My piano beckons every day, and I hope to sew a ton, too. I figure I'll fill the days nicely, even teaching my daughter to sew and letting her paint when I do. I'm excited about the prospects, about the relaxation, about having nothing but a little work to get done every week, since most of my jobs are ended. 

I do have some prep for fall classes to do (including reading through about four to five textbooks), but I also have a ton of reading waiting on me. I also have an 11-day camping trip planned, along with a quick (and long overdue) jaunt to my sister's in Houston.

What are all of you planning this summer? Will it be same as usual, or do you have an adventure on the docket?