The story of the distracted writer

My friend Elle33's blog inspired me to catch up on my own. I couldn't remember the last time I wrote in it, and then when I looked I was embarrassed. Nearly a year. Whoops.

But it's not like I've been thoughtless or even lazy. I've been devoting my time to other projects, and some even include writing. Not the other other blog I have though [Garden Spider Hollow]...that's dead. It was a one year gardening project that I never gave an official send off to when it was over. My last post on that one was a year ago as well. Just as well though; the growing season last year sucked due to the constant monsoons that hit the Northeast. To sum: slugs, lettuce, small pumpkin, lots of pickles, no flowers, and lots of squash that people thought were sweet potatoes.

The other projects I've worked on since last February have been diverse...running, baking, canning, noveling, 100words.com, poetry of different states, and getting knocked up. Not in that order of course.

Let's start with the last one. I'm pregnant. Not preggers, cause I really don't like that word. Due May 4 (3 months from today, s*#t!) and having a really good pregnancy so far. It's uneventful which is good, and I've never heard the word "perfect" from the doctor more in my life. Not to say I haven't had weird things happen (mainly weird rashes) but I just dont feel pregnant. Until I catch a sight of the basketball belly in the mirror that is. And then I see our guest room, which hasn't housed a guest since July and has become more of the kittens' playground due to the boxes of stuff that I'm storing in there. [To be fair, for November and December it was the Christmas present staging area.] By now people tell me it should start to resemble a nursery. It doesn't at all. But when I shut the door I can pretend it is, right? Out of sight, out of my mind. Totally out of my mind.

But not really. I've developed a great coping mechanism in the past few years for being out of my mind. Exercise. Particularly running and yoga. Not so much running these days, but being active and yoga have really trained my mind to focus. I am less likely to fly off the handle over nothing (except when dear husband tells me how to do something in the kitchen--off limits buddy). Marathon training has led me to be able to sink into my head at a moment's notice and take over my body. Complete control. It's a relatively new thing for me. I can only imagine where I would be in life right now if I learned this skill 15 years ago.

Now on to the oddest of my hobbies. Canning. Yes, as in food preserves. My dream is to have a wall of shelves in a pantry (which I do not have) with jars lined up in rainbow colors of food to get us through the winter. In this dream there is also a nice window in the pantry that allows the sun to bounce off all the jars too. Ahhh. Last year I focused on pickles, jams, and apple-butter. This year I will be incorporating fruit preserves as well.

Lastly, writing. I really have been writing. True, not as much as I should or could be. But I'm putting the pen to the paper. Or fingers to the keyboard. I was involved with an online poetry group that created collaborative poems and now I'm working on getting them together and publishing them. If I can remember how to use Quark. I also dabbled in the website 100words.com but just cannot write every day. Then I completed the a novel in a month challenge, which I'm still editing and rewriting. My goal is to apply for the Boston Library Writer in Residence. It offers a $20K grant, writing space, a chance to work with some of the library programs, and time to finish my manuscript. We'll see. I'm sure there is stiff competition, and I need recommendations that just aren't out there for me really. One of the consequences of working in a medical editorial office with people who don't understand writing. But if I can get my manuscript in good enough shape (at least 20 pages of it) I'll apply.

Cause you gotta put yourself out there for the universe to find you, right?