Ach-Choo and Other Updates

I’d like to say I’m here because I’m a dedicated blogger and that’s what dedicated bloggers do when they haven’t updated in a few days. But the truth is, I need to throw some words around and right now, this is the only place that will have me.

As if they knew yesterday was the first day of spring, my allergies have kicked into high gear. I am a sneezing stuffy-headed snot machine. Other than that, I feel great. No aches, pains, fever or stomach yucks, which is how I know it is just my old friend the Seasonal Change Snotfest. But after attempting twice today to do a little substantial writing, I have a new discovery to add to my ever growing list of “things I’m learning about me as a writer.”

That discovery is that when I have a head full of boogers, I cannot write. Well, I can, but only in disjointed goo.

So with apologies to my blog and anyone who reads it, I’m here, since blogs are where disjointed goo sometimes lands.

A brief and disjointed update:

– Since I couldn’t write today, I did my taxes instead. I can do taxes with goo brain, because TurboTax explains all that awful boring money mumbo-jumbo in terms that even I can understand. I do my taxes late every year, partly because I’m afraid to find out I owe money I don’t have and partly because I hate math, even when TurboTax does it for me. But now the chore is done, my worries about owing are put to rest, and when my refund comes I will actually have a little pocket money for a change.

– We are still hiking a few times a week, and trying to walk every day or at least every other. I skipped today because of my snottiness, but we have a couple of good long hikes planned for this week because:

– I’m off all week for SPRING BREAK! How many 40 year olds get to say that? I guess that’s one of the perks of working at a college. Truthfully, it really isn’t. My college closes for spring break each year so that the kids can go down to Florida and try their luck at getting in a Girls Gone Wild video. But usually, we office drones still have to show up and work. For the last two years, though, the campus has closed for the entire week because we’ve been furloughed, and the best time to send us all home is when the kiddies aren’t around to need help. The money comes out of our checks over the course of the year, so by the time the furlough days actually come, it really does feel like you’re just on vacation.

So instead of dwelling on state budget cuts and furloughs, I choose to say “hey, look at me. I gotta dye my hair to keep the gray out and still get to go on spring break with the college kids.”

– Next week, after a week off, I am being sent to Denver for a big old college information systems geek conference. I’m looking forward to having a Kindle to fly with, because airports and planes skeeve me out and the only way I get through that is to lose myself in good reads. Given my choices, I’ll leave the flying to Troy Polamalu. But in spite of that, I’m looking forward to going somewhere I’ve never been and seeing things I’ve never seen. I’ve got cool co-workers going with me and who knows, maybe we’ll even learn something.

And the fact that this conference falling on the heels of spring break means I don’t have to see my office for almost two weeks? Priceless.

– I started my new writing class, and love it. The first one I took was on the ins and outs of publishing, and while I definitely needed it since the technicalities of finding homes for my stories and writing kickass query letters are where I struggle most, it was something I sort of plowed through the same way I do taxes or scrub the toilet. You feel better because you did these things and will get your tax refund or can park your butt on a clean seat when you have to pee, but they aren’t exactly fun.

This class is FUN. It is on creativity exercises to move through writer’s block. My classmates this time all seem to be committed, energetic and inspired writers who want to share thoughts and ideas on writing and offer reader’s eyes to each other’s work.

So I’m very, very psyched about that.

There’s lots I want to do this week. Lee and I have discovered 4 trails we haven’t explored, and I want to hit at least two them. I have a writing project burning in my brain, partly inspired by this class, and I really want to get a good jump on it this week.

But for now, the boogers are making me useless, so I’m gonna stop blathering, grab a cuppa tea, and read until it is time to watch Hines Ward dance with the stars later.