Another Wild Week of Working From Home

Plusses:
Impromptu don't-put-underwear-on Tuesday

Kitchen table office is prime for eavesdropping when upstairs neighbors have screamy fight and somebody declares he's moving out. "Good luck paying rent you stupid bitch." (Imagine this said in a deliciously-elongated Texas drawl - and yes I did get up and lurk behind the blinds to make sure I didn't miss anything).

When the kitchen chairs are no longer comfortable, it's possible to transfer to the auxiliary office - i.e. to pick up the MacBook and work in bed.

Minuses: 

"This story" [which we've sat on in radio silence for two months] "feels like less than a full feature."

"We love what your writing! .. Budget issues .. We need to renegotiate the price."

Working in bed is kind of terrifying. I already spend so much time at home, spending too much time in one room feels like the whole world is getting smaller. I'm afraid if I do it too often I'll morph into an anti-social shut-in a la Emily Dickinson (lolz, except way, way less talented).

This week, the days had a weird bad news/good news/bad news pattern and by Thursday afternoon my lower back was one massive stress knot - somewhat alleviated by going to yoga Friday night.

Sometimes after I eat really greasy, salty fast food, I feel uncomfortable for a couple hours. But the tightness in my back is more annoying and has lasted for about two days now, even though I don't feel particularly stressed at this moment. The discrepancy in the bodily repercussions of a late-night Whataburger run versus a couple shitty work-related emails is interesting to me. Takeaway lesson: It's better to have gainful employment and eat as many cheeseburgers as you like.

Quick Post

It's been almost two weeks since my last blog! Sorry!

The main problem is my novel requires a lot of computer time and my freelance work requires a lot of computer time and it's hard to commit to even more computer time to keep up this space. But I'm still going to try not to let two weeks go by between posts.

Plus, this is a bit of a slack week for freelancing, which means more time for writing, which also means looking for excuses to delay writing ... liking blogging! Also, tomorrow I'm taking part in a jury focus group at a law office. I hope I get to be the faux juror who is like the guy in 12 Angry Men who convinces everyone else to vote not guilty.

Other news:

My freelance workload hasn't evaporated. Things are still popping up, I'm querying a new story, still have one under consideration. And I have a decent load of un-bylined writing/editing work.

I'm within an inch of a first draft of my novel. I think it's going slower here at the end because it's hard to wind things up, and after that the monumental task of rewriting begins.

This was my first Chinese New Year not in Asia since 2010. Some Beijing friends posted to Instagram photos where the pollution was too thick to see the fireworks. Happy year of the horse, y'all!

James and I are taking an improv class. I haven't done anything theatrical since high school, it's very fun.

At the end of next month we're going to New Orleans for a weekend - yay!