Monday, December 28, 2015

i can send you into overdrive

Shockingly, I crossed a bunch of stuff off my to-do list today - I think I've hit the point in my lethargic vacation where I feel like getting stuff done, which is always a good thing. I'm also supremely glad that I changed my flight to stay an extra week - today would not have been a pleasant day to leave Des Moines (all the snow means some flights were canceled and some people apparently aren't getting seats until January 3, which is ridiculous). And even without the weather, spending another week here will probably be better for me than the bustling chaos of the city (although by the time I go back, maybe I'll actually be ready for it).

As you may have guessed by now, we didn't lose power - but we got six or more inches of snow, and some ice to go along with it. I spent the morning discussing politics with my dad while drinking iced coffee (the iced coffee alone probably makes me 15 percentage points more liberal than he is). And then I spent the afternoon throwing stuff away - I wanted to organize my desk and bookshelf so I can actually use them, and my file cabinet was in dire need of purging. As it turns out, I probably don't need bank statements from 2001, right? I kept some of my college papers out of an unnecessary amount of nostalgia, and I still need to decide what to do with some keepsake-type stuff, but I cleared out half the file cabinet and my desk looks almost usable, so this is all good. The real question is whether I'll tackle my closet on this trip or leave it to continue mouldering - we shall see how much enthusiasm I can muster for it tomorrow.

But by late afternoon I no longer wanted to sift through my childhood, so I went upstairs and did some plotting and scheming for my 2016 schedule (books I want to write and places I want to go). I took a break for supper (roast beef, so traditional), and then I alternated between reading and watching some fine CBS programming. The fine CBS programming was action packed (Scorpion, then NCIS:LA, both of which I really like), which was kind of distracting from my book.

But the book started off great so far - I'm reading Elizabeth Gilbert's BIG MAGIC, which is about creativity/creative living. She's the one who wrote EAT PRAY LOVE, which I never actually read, even though I've been joking about having a 'basic white bitch' experience and then writing a memoir about it. And I typically abandon self-help type books halfway through, so we'll see how this goes. But so far, so good - she has some similar philosophies about creativity as I do (or at least as I aspire to), and I'm always curious to learn about other writers' processes.

And then I messed around on the internet and looked at hotels/travel options for a wedding I'm going to in February, and then I messed around with my 2016 production plan some more, and now I need to sleep before my eyes fall out. Goodnight!

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