angels fall like rain

Today was a great day, if you ignore the fact that I only wrote a page and a half. My writing ground to a halt this morning, even though I got up relatively early and forced myself to stay at my desk until one. But I think I figured out what the problem really is, and I'm feeling like I might be unblocked tomorrow. Of course, this involves killing off four characters before they're ever born, which is going to do things to my plot that might be more dire than I'm currently imagining (for one, it changes the end game, which is always the part I hate the most (other than the beginning, and the middle)). But I think it's the right thing to do, and I hope that this decision will let me move ahead again without feeling like I'm banging my head against a wall.

However, I couldn't implement that solution tonight, since I had plans. So I stopped writing, took a shower, went grocery shopping with Terry, and then came home and had a nice, leisurely call with my parents (they are doing well, thanks for asking!). Then I cooked, since my evening plan was family dinner. I haven't cooked anything for anyone in ages, and my inner need to feed people was kicking into high gear, so I invited the family time group over for dinner. Only Adit, Katrina and Terry could make it, since John/Jess/Vidya were all out of the area and Priyanka was on call, but it was v. v. lovely. I made tacos, including a dish that was supposed to be a vegetarian filling but was actually totally fucking awesome in its own right (onion, serrano pepper, tomato, potato, and swiss chard - I'm not the world's biggest fan of chard, but this may convert me). So we sat around eating and catching up, then went to the roof in an abortive attempt to enjoy the evening before realizing ten minutes in that it was freezing as usual up there even though it was eighty degrees earlier in the day. So we came downstairs and watched '60 Minutes' instead, which was more appropriate for family time (and also hilarious, since we all know Sheryl Sandberg, who was the first interview, and were highly entertained by the bromance between David McCullough and Morley Safer in the second piece).

And now, I should sleep. But first, an update on my brooding. Serendipitously, I noticed that someone found my blog through a search term that led them to this post from June 2007. So I read the post...and reading it reminded me why this blog is quite good for me, even if it is probably mostly boring and an exercise in vanity. That post was angsty about my job and life, since as I recall that was when I was in one of my worst local minima over my workaholic tendencies. But even though I'm feeling similar angst now (and have similarly sparse and stress-eaten eyebrows), reading that old post reminded me that things get better, that I'm capable of changing my life if I don't like it, and that you're never stuck forever. So that was good, and may keep me blogging for another few years. Who am I kidding - I'll probably blog forever, unless Google kills Blogger the way they killed Reader (boo). Goodnight!