When Jane suggested that it might be time to bring back blogging I agreed.  Because blogging made me write, a lot.  It gave me the courage to find the time to do NaNoWrimo.

Twice!

Then it all just kinda died out… we didn’t need to blog; there was Facebook to keep everyone up to date.

I still wrote.  I started a not for NaNoWrimo novel and got about 8000 words into it as well as a couple of short stories that I submitted to contests.  I didn’t win.  I occasionally add to the stack of details that will (maybe) ultimately go into my revised 2010 NaNo novel.

Then work got crazy.  I moved. New work was just as crazy.  I leave my house at 8:30 am.  I get home by 8:30 pm on an average day and all I want to do is eat and veg.  I work most weekends during the semester.  I sometimes had ideas for my various writing projects and if there was a writing implement handy and I wrote them down.  One afternoon I even wrote a new and vastly superior outline for the 2010 book.  Then I lost the paper it was on while cleaning up the shop because it was on the backside of a list I no longer needed.

But… as soon as I began to blog again I wanted to write again- even though the thought of tackling either of the 2 novels in play seemed daunting.  I have now written a new outline (new? There’s no old outline, you never wrote one.) outline for my adventure/ fantasy/political thriller novel.  I haven’t lost it either.  It’s filed in the folder I keep for notes about my stories.  I am also attempting to finish a short story.  Yay for blogging!

Of course this is probably because until this coming week I haven’t been able to  move forward on my school projects but who knows…

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SHOWTIME! or The Infinite Wisdom of the Powers That Be

The students are back.  Classes start Monday.  Overnight the campus went from seeming like a quiet restful  park, a few people, the squirrels, and me- to a weekend rock festival, crowds, music, parties, and traffic.

Deadlines approach and supposedly I spent the summer preparing.  What I actually did was go to Europe, then Music Circus, and when I got back and because there was nothing that needed immediate attention I was, well, a bit lazy.

Please, taking care of yourself.

No, you were lazy.

Really?  Because I went to the masseuse, the dentist, the farmer’s market, petted the cat, cleaned the house, got a haircut? Took a vacation?

So this week I had a panic attack and went into production mode.

Because:

Costume storage.  Last year we shifted from expecting to find Dracula’s coffin in our dungeon of a space to checking for anacondas in the jungle of clothes.  It was that jam packed with extra racks squeezed into every available space.

 

I usually do some stock reorganizing during the summer but this year it was on hold while the TD built me some extra hanging space above the exsisting fixed racks. Thumbs Up!

Then to clear the floor space of all the extra racks, he put everything from the rolling racks all the way up near the ceiling.  These are the items we need all the time, pants, petticoats, and skirts. Since I don’t want to be that costumer who dies from falling off a ladder under a pile of clothes in a locked room all by herself with no cell phone reception,  I put reorganize stock on the list for the work study kids. Which I need to do with them because I am tired of finding contemporary nighties in the medieval section and, well, ladders.

Only a few other things are happening at that same time.

The department decided to do a opening of the semester show the 1st week of classes.  2 actors, not complicated, but it means I will be in dress rehearsals next week.  Also production meetings, welcome back events, and measurements, shopping, designing for the actual 1st show, and patterns for the 2nd show which is a period piece.

Knowing all this, I got the shop cleaned, organized, and ready to go.  I also dealt with all the costumes that overflowed into another room which is now going to be a design classroom.

BUT there was a glitch.

Of course there was, mercury is in retrograde

A couple of weeks ago, I tripped a breaker.  Only one machine and the iron were on so this should not have happened.  The electrician came, assessed the situation, and decided the shop needed more power.  Surprise!  I only asked for this when we moved into the room 3 years ago. Last week they rewired the costume shop and the laundry room and the adjacent design room.   Like any remodleing project on an older building, they kept uncovering more broken disfunctional things and making a bigger mess and so it went on. Finished except for “just 1 more thing” on Friday.

I am ready to go?  No, but hey, if there was really enough time to get things done, I’d never do anything.

 

 

 

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Digging out

It’s my favorite time on campus.  Only a week to go before finals.  The students are busy but I have some leisure to sit back and watch them fumble frantically thru the last few projects.  Occasionally I lob some encouragement or advice their way.  Of course, the last show will leave me with a mountain of laundry and restocking just when they all run off for the summer.

The costume shop seems to attract more than the usual suspects at the end of the year. Which is very gratifying; I feel very popular.  It’s also noisy and crowded.  The usual topic, besides gossip about the last show, is the possibility of pitching a reality TV show about the shop to the campus television network.

After a month of non stop work, today I did my personal mountain of laundry and dishes.  I get the laundry but I don’t know how the dishes pile up when I am mostly eating on campus.  I think the cats must be having parties in my absence.

I made the mistake yesterday of going to Trader Joe’s when both hungry and tired.  I am not sure what all I bought but the freezer is full.  It was all so exhausting that I slept all afternoon to recover.

There’s still a long to do list of things that took a back seat to the dance concert but I am quite satisfied to cross those few things off.

 

 

 

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