It has been several days since my last posting, so I can share that I am doubly Back-to-School-Excited, as now my children have gone back to school as well. I have to say, the house seemed more uncomfortably quiet yesterday morning after the bus left than I had anticipated–guess I like my little buggers a lot more than I realized…

It was definitely odd to walk back in from the bus stop and know that I now had the time at my disposal to do all the writing and revising and drafting and editing I’d been complaining about not having the time to do all summer. So–how did I spend my first day with the children back to school? Nose to the keyboard, butt to the chair? Nah. I went to lunch and a movie with some friends–there’s discipline for you.

In all fairness, it was at least a movie about writers (Julia & Julia)–well, sort of. There was a lot of familiarity to the various writing-related scenes sprinkled throughout the movie; like the one where Julie Powell starts ranting about blogs in general just being people blabbing on incessantly about themselves (I swear, I don’t know what she was getting at); there was also the dream sequence toward the end of the movie,when Ms. Powell comes back to her apartment to find 65 voicemails from various agents, editors, and publishers, all wanting her.

I say “dream sequence” because for most writers, a moment like that would have to be a dream. I identified much more closely with Julia Child’s path to publication, one of slogging it out through the writing, the revising, the rejections, and then the one single acceptance letter that made her heart leap for joy–that seems closer to what I’ve been experiencing, anyway. It’s like the excitement you feel as a kid when you first light a sparkler on the 4th of July: it burns so brightly but is over so fast. (I speak of brief joy here because yes, it’s official: I have an article in The Writer magazine this month, and I did, in fact, leap for joy myself when my copy arrived in my mailbox. And then it was over and I was obsessing  once more about my lack of publishing credits.)

You know, as I’m sitting and reading back to myself what I’ve written, does anyone else find it sort of circular that Julie Powell shot to fame because of a blog she was writing, about which I’m now blogging myself? Hm…I thought so.

Anyway, it was a good movie, (and a good lunch, I might add) but not a very good excuse not to be writing yesterday. I did do some editing, however, so the day wasn’t a total loss. (I refuse to say “waste”, because I think friends are one of the important things in life and well worth losing a little bit of productivity for.) I’m currently “auditioning” for a job, so technically, I did do some work yesterday–I got the audition completed and sent it in this morning, which I thought was pretty good for someone who was playing hookey all afternoon (see what I can do with a whole day at my disposal? I can have fun and get some work done, which makes Julia a much happier camper, indeed.)

Today, however, I am truly back to work. I’m spending the morning polishing another piece; working on an article for a newsletter; updating this blog; finishing my homework for my Graphic Design class later this week (quick: How many picas to an inch? How many points to a pica? You don’t know? Ha–now I do!); and shortly, I will be taking a break from writing to work on my GRE prep. I have to go pick up The GRE for Dummies t0day from the library–I hope that title will turn out to be an oxymoron in my case. I have no fears when it comes to the Writing portion of the test, but fear I may be somewhat of an idiot savant when it comes to the rest of the exam. Will keep you posted…

So, that’s what’s happening in my life, which I can write about here because it’s my blog,  and since blogs are just about people blabbing on incessantly about themselves, then it’s all about me, me, me…if you don’t like it, you’ll just have to get your own space.