you said, "baby we don't speak of that"

The writing is happening and I'm letting it take me over, likely to the detriment of everything else. I don't really want to acknowledge that everything is coming to an abrupt end at work, and so rather than think about it or even socialize with people, I've spent the last couple of days (and will likely spend the rest of this week) in hiding, doing whatever absolutely has to get done and then running away to work on the novel. Today's "must get done" list included interviewing somebody, sending some emails, ordering discounted office supplies from Office Depot (I should have enough of my favorite post-it flags for research to last me a year), ordering discounted Fandango bucks (so that I can see movies at an effective 16% discount), and ordering a year of access to Rosetta Stone (so that I can learn French and run away to Carcassonne -- through my corporate discount, I was able to get a year's subscription, starting November 15, for only $116 instead of the $749 that the disks would have cost).

Feeling quite good about all I had accomplished, I slipped out of the office around 5pm and went to Cafe Borrone, where I wrote like mad for a couple of hours. Then I came home and wrote until now -- the total word output isn't high, since I only netted ~1200 words and deleted another 3000, but I'm trying to polish the first half so that I can send it out to some lucky beta readers (volunteer if you want to be one of them -- people who are consistent readers of romance and not just interested in doing a find/search for 'manroot' get priority). So, the lack of wordcount wasn't a bad thing. I actually was quite pleased with what I did write -- I finally got a draft of that stupid scene with the twins that has been giving me fits for a week, and while it's not perfect, at least it's getting there.

Now, though, I suppose I should go to bed. The only other thing of note is that I spent a bit of time researching prices for the California Zephyr -- maybe I should take the train from Iowa to California after Christmas? I have to cancel/rebook my plane ticket for Iowa anyway because I stupidly booked it before I quit and now need to extend the trip on both sides -- but the cost of a one-way flight to Iowa in mid-December and the cost of a one-way train ticket with a sleeper berth to California in early January is the same as the cost of my roundtrip air ticket. Granted, train travel through the Rockies and the Sierras in January might be a bit dicey -- but it's probably the most beautiful time to see the mountains too, and since I have no deadlines, I wouldn't be screwed if I got stuck someplace (unless we ended up in a Murder on the Orient Express situation, and then I would only be screwed if I was the victim). It would also be good practice to see if I want to do the Trans-Siberian someday; there are probably more Mennonites than Russian mafiosos in tracksuits on Amtrak, but otherwise, it probably wouldn't be so different.

Okay, enough blogging for one night -- goodnight!

Daily word count: 1209 (65.45% of goal)
Productive time: 5.5hrs
RescueTime productivity rating: 1.43 (global average: 0.93)