what goes around comes back around

I'm sick, and it makes me whiny. I would skip work tomorrow to nurse my illness, since I'm a firm proponent of taking sick days and not infecting others, but I have a meeting with the head honchos of my department and I must attend because I'm working towards a pressing deadline. So, perhaps I'll leave work after that, depending on how I'm feeling. I really hope this is swine flu, because if I'm just laid up with a common cold on the summer solstice, I'm going to be pissed.

My goal today was to finish the final final draft of my novel and send it to my agent. My other goal was to leave my apartment; I didn't go out at all yesterday, other than to do laundry and take out my trash, and since none of that required stepping outside, I felt that perhaps I was missing out on the weekend's gorgeous weather. So, I spent a couple of hours at a cafe with Tom (aka Tom Foolery); he contacted me yesterday wanting to talk about some writing stuff, and I realized that I hadn't seen him in a couple of months, which is shameful given that he and Julie live within walking distance of me. It was nice to see him, and it reminded me how much I like having friends even if I'm dangerously close to losing all of them right now due to my extreme focus on my writing. But, despite the reminder, I still turned down Katrina's request to hang out later in the day; I was bound and determined to finish the draft today, and I knew that if I hung out any longer, I would fail. And then that single failure would cascade into a series of self-made disasters that would ultimately lead to me dying, alone and lonely, in a grey cubicle as a seventy-year-old middle manager who once dreamed of being a novelist.

Okay, that was melodramatic even for me. But, after buying groceries and talking to my parents (Happy Father's Day to you fathers out there, particularly my own father!), I successfully buckled down, finishing the draft and sending it to my agent at 9:51pm. I didn't do all the work that I should have done for my day job, but tomorrow morning looks light, so hopefully I'll survive. But to survive, I really need to go to bed now; starting this week, I'm back to writing my second book, and I couldn't be more thrilled, but that will only happen if I get a bit more caught up tomorrow. Goodnight!