Having Been Away

Thursday, September 30, 2010

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Hello, friends!  I’m here, I’m here!  So sorry about the wind blustering in behind me… I have been in such a rush!  I’m back, however, here to assure you that I haven’t died or joined the circus or taken a vow of internet silence with the local monastery.  But I have been away, in so many ways, and there is a fair bit of catching up to do.

During the first week of August, I was out of town, visiting my Northern sister, who, incidentally, is also my oldest friend.  She’s one of my September girls, if you remember my mention of them in a previous post, and we’d been planning this trip for over a year.  This is our 20th year of friendship in this life, you see, and by the gods, we were going to celebrate!

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, I was the new girl in a small town in North Dakota.  I met a girl there in my literature class, a quiet figure with a porcelain face and a baby doll dress, who sat at a desk ahead of me in the next row, and who, for no reason that I can recall, turned around one day to smile at me.  I smiled back.

There are some people that, when you meet, the moment remains etched in your mind.  You may forget some minor details.  You may forget what day of the week it was, for example, or what you were wearing, but the moment, friends… that spark of a moment remains, as accessible as if it were something that happened just minutes ago, and if you could only take a single step back, you could be there again.  That was my meeting with Sarah.  Perhaps she felt it, too, because the way she turned to me, a stranger to her then, was as if I was someone, as if we already were a we.  And, I suppose, from that point on, we were.  Yes... sometimes things happen like this in real life.  At least, they have in mine.

As you can see, we haven’t lost touch in all of this time, even though I’ve traveled far and wide, she relocated to a Much Bigger Town, and I ended up living several states removed from where we met.  This, in itself, is a testament to the strength of our bond, and something to mark as sacred.

We had a fantastic time in August, she showing me around her world, taking me to where all of her favorite things reside, and dutifully watching copious amounts of Doctor Who (Sarah had promised Gingergirl that she’d have me hooked by the time she sent me home...  Mission accomplished, by the way).

Ever since then, I’ve been back in my where, with my people and pets, and have been reveling in the work that makes a house a home.  It’s fall now, you know, and the crisp air always makes me want to start nesting.  I’ve also been writing like a woman possessed and reading or listening (on audio book) to Potters 5 & 6 between the cracks.  We’re about to start on 7, come October 1st - Deathly Hallows… and then the movie in November.  I can hardly breathe for waiting.

We  have also just passed the birthday of my Libra sister, my other September girl.  I’ll tell her story on another day.  Maybe tomorrow.  We shall see.  

One More Thing...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

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I have another "not mine" thing to share with you.  I know it's been awhile and I'm well overdue for a full report, but I came across this in my work-a-day life, and it does just take a quick second to post... and it really is so perfect, it has to be shared... so...  One more thing that I've found... just this one... then, I promise, next time you hear from me it will be a REAL post.

This is an excerpt from a Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman...

You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Now read the whole thing.  And, as my writer friend GingerGirl instructed me, "Print this out.  Put it in your writing spot.  Print another copy.  Put it in your writing bag.  Print another copy.  Put it on the fridge..."
 
The link (if you didn't catch it up there)  http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/1065561