Today was a good day

[janradder]

Earlier in the week I'd told haddayr that I needed a break from the kids this weekend.  She had been gone for five days as WisCon and then when she returned, she had the stomach flu so I really wasn't able to get a breather after.  This Thursday we'll be driving down, first to drop her off at Sycamore Hill in North Carolina, and then the boys and i will continue on for about an hour and a half to Aiken, SC to visit my dad and half-sister for a week, which means that I'll again be on my own for childcare.  So I really needed a breather which I got today.

I headed out from home with the intention of writing for a while and then seeing a movie and then maybe visiting a record store or something.  When Arie heard that I was leaving for the day, his face fell and he came up to me and said he'd miss me today, which is unusual for him as, normally, he is quite the Mama's boy (Éiden, on the other hand, I know misses me when I leave).  So, when Arie gave me the hug and told me that it sort of took me aback.  I gave him a hug, delighting in the display of affection he was showing, then said goodbye and left for my day alone.

I wound up at a coffee house and got to work, looking in the paper first to see what time my movie started.  I wrote for a couple hours and saw I still had another hour before I had to leave and kept going.  An hour later, I was still working on a scene so I decided to skip the movie and maybe check out a record store later.  Several hours later, approaching dinnertime, I saw I was not going anywhere else so I finished up what I was working on and packed up .  Final writing tally, six hours, 9,500 words, 29 pages (which has brought me up past the 100K mark in words and past the 300 page mark).  Heading home I felt great about my work.

As good as I felt about my writing, though, it really wasn't the best part of the day.  The best part?  Pulling up in front of the house to see two boys still dressed in their Superman pajamas from the morning, racing from the door to greet me with big bouncy smiles, hugs, and excited stories about their day.

Comments

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, 9K? How do you do it?

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I just sat down and kept going. Every time I came to the end of a section, I thought, you know, I think I'd like to write the next part and I did. I have never written that much in one sitting before (and my ass is certainly the worse for it). Lately I've just been sitting down after the boys are in bed and the dishes are done and plugging away. I usually wind up going until 11 or later and I'm pretty tired the next day but I've really been enjoying myself. It was nice to have a whole day to write, though.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

This post deserves a high-five.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll take it!

[michaeljasper.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous of your six hours (and 9500 words and 29 pages, but mostly that precious TIME). :)

And that's so awesome about your return and the welcome you got.

Is Sycamore Hill in Raleigh this year, or in the NC mountains? (I live just outside Raleigh).

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- it was really nice to get the time and not have it come out of my sleep.

Sycamore Hill is in the mountains. We're dropping Haddayr off in Asheville and one of the participants will drive her up to the site (to save the boys and I a little time and so we don't have to drive those winding mountain roads, getting carsick in the process).

[timalyne.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I've been getting a couple days "off" lately to visit friends. Paul will have 5 weeks off when I take the girls to Nantucket, so it's kind of nice to get a little reciprocity.

Congrats on all the writing. I'm a little jealous.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Five weeks -- that's quite a long time. Hope you have fun in Nantucket (I have to say I'm jealous of your trip -- I really do miss New England, though I'm most homesick in the fall).