Tuesday, August 20

Honeeyyyy, I'm Hoooommeee!

You know that moment when you take the first step through the front door into your quiet, recently abandoned home after a trip or vacation?  Everything is still, exactly where you left it, and the sense of familiarity mingles with the hint of disappointment that the "fun" is over, but mostly it's relief at being back where you belong.

Clicking on my "blog" link in my favorites bar, and opening up a new post after so many weeks, I feel like I've just stepped through the front door after a long trip away and now I'm home again.  I plan to stop by and visit everyone's blogs as soon as I can, though I suspect it will be a slow process; I want to re-familiarize myself with this place and all of you.

When I last wrote I had just started working two jobs, and life was on the brink of turning crazy.  The weeks that followed found me working 50-60 hours a week, some weeks with as many as four double-shifts, the worst of which spanned from 7:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m.  Between work, eating, and occasionally sleeping, my writing time dwindled into obscurity.  My promise to myself to continue writing no matter what curled up on the shelf and accepted it's blanket of dust, but NO MORE!  I have recently been promoted to Shift Supervisor at Starbucks (yay! *throws confetti*) and will be spending my last couple of weeks working both jobs before I focus solely on my coffee career, and consequently gain a little bit more free time.  I have a thousand and one projects to work on--in the house, art projects, and about a dozen different writing endeavors I want to get back to or get started on, but I'm recommitting myself to my goal of writing more consistently.

At the end of June my boyfriend and I visited his family in PA and took a day trip to NYC.  There I got to meet up with one of my childhood best friends; a bubbly, fast-talking, classic NYC girl who I hadn't seen in years but reminded me of how some things never change.  Discussing careers she asked me why I hadn't considered writing as a career.  "You love to write--and you're so good at it."  "I'm not that good," I protested, "I don't have any sort of [writing] degree, and I break lots of writing rules all the time..."  She shook her head.  "You don't give yourself enough credit."  I still think she might be a little biased, but she planted the seed, and it made me realize if I ever do want to write in ANY sort of professional sense, that I would have to be more dedicated and focused about writing.  If I could work 50-60 hours a week, surely with a 40 hour per week job I could dedicate at least seven hours (an hour a day) to writing.

So that's it.  I've said it.  You all have heard it.  Now I HAVE to do it.  The end.