Writing

I looked through my posts from last year, and I was so deep in revisions on The Second Time We Fell in Love, and knew if I stopped for a month, I would never get back to it. So a broke a streak of writing a new story every fall. And revision still took another gazillion years. 

Much like knitting, after you've written a book or three, you are sure you have a rhythm and a process and you can just slip and slide your way through the next story. Now I confess, I never actually used a slip and slide. Possibly because I never knew anyone who had one. Also possibly because I watched those kids in that commercial gleefully flinging themselves on the ground to get enough momentum to slide and thought, hmm, that looks like it leaves bruises. 

One of the things they don't tell you when you start writing, is that you get used to your brain being in that mode sometimes. You start to yearn for a new shiny story. Not just because the next one will obviously be better because you've perfected your slip and slide now. But also because your brain fills up with characters, and plots, and if you don't let someone of them out, they start rattling the cages. 

So if you are writing right now, I salute you. And if you are chilling, or reading, or some combo of the above, I salute you as well. 

Time

I took the day off of work today, mostly because I went to the Lucy Darling show in Baltimore last night, and didn't want to worry about if I got home late. I had planned my trains a little closer to the beginning and end of show than normal, because I wanted to play some mahjong too. (Yes, this has taken over a lot of my entertainment schedule.)

Of course my trains were completely on time, and the biggest issue was that I was ravenous when I got back to DC. I had food at home, but decided to stop and eat there.

It was Sunday, so many of the places closed early. With the time shift nine in the evening felt many hours later than my normal dinner, instead of just a couple. 

Of course nine pm is a construction which we proved by changing it. But so is dinner time. I used to eat much earlier because I worked second shift and so my "lunch" was basically a very early dinner. Now I tend to eat post work, in the evening. 

The shift of an hour doesn't seem like much, but I just read that even birds get jet lagged. So it turns out it's not just our obsession with clocks and time that have us confused by the light changing on us. 

I know time shifts differ by country (and state or county even) so your time may not have changed this week. But even so, I hope you give yourself grace when the hunger strikes not according to schedule.