I wish I could say that the reason I haven’t been writing is because I’m doing a lot of work on the novel, but that’s not really the case. I think it’s more to do with the fact that I’m feeling a bit guilty for not being further along on the novel than I should, and so avoid doing any kind of writing at all in some futile effort to make my brain focus on what it should be focusing on instead of what it wants to do.

I did have one particularly productive day this past week where I churned out about 7000 words in the space of only a few hours, but the rest of it’s come in dribs and drabs, and by this weekend I’d only managed to just break 30,000 words.

It’s been kind of a busy week, though, so it’s not as if I’ve had oodles of time to write. It seems lately like I have something scheduled every evening after work. Tuesday night I made two more batches of bread (this time it was nut bread) for the bazaar, and then Wednesday night was bible study, where we continued our trend of singing Veggie Tales songs every time a story crops up in the Old Testament chapters we’re reading that Big Idea has covered. We especially had fun making references to the Pie Wars, and how it is wrong to covet your neighbor’s rubber ducky (go rent King George and the Rubber Ducky if you’re completely lost here). Thursday night was choir practice, as usual, and I brought my oboe and had marvelous fun switching back and forth (in the same song) between playing and singing. Another tenor did show up but he hasn’t been back so it’s still just me. And Friday night I went over to a friend’s house, bringing with me all the flats of pomegranate jelly we made, and we ate an incredibly delicious chicken pot pie and then spent a few hours cutting out little squares of fabric and attaching the tags to the jars. I’d say we did a pretty good job because the bazaar (which I had to miss – sniffle) was yesterday and our jelly sold like crazy. We’re already all talking about how we’ll have to make even more next year, now that we know what we’re doing (well, sort of). We also worked on arranging a few songs for the food fight at church because this year the women’s and the men’s ensembles are the team leaders and so it’s our job to get up in front of the congregation and do our best to encourage them to bring lots and lots of food for the food bank in town.

Yesterday was a mostly non-writing day because I drove down to San Jose and met up with Richard’s sisters and mom and niece and his oldest sister’s matron-of-honor-to-be, and we all spent a few hours having fun at the Jessica McClintock store trying on bridesmaid dresses. I’d link to a picture but I can’t find one, and besides, the four of us all ended up choosing completely different styles (which was fine with the bride-to-be because all she wanted was for us to be in the same color and fabric), all of which are just gorgeous. Also I was faced with the fact that Richard’s niece somehow turned 16 without me catching on (because for whatever reason my brain insists that she has stayed eternally stuck at age 11), and has developed...um...womanly parts. I am not old enough to have a niece who has womanly parts, darn it.

Dresses ordered, we then consumed huge plates of Mongolian barbeque (in which I think I may have managed to consume my five required servings of veggies in one meal) and then I headed off to Napa (with a quick detour through Concord to go to the Trader Joe’s, which had the gall to actually be *out* of the cheese blintzes that were the sole reason for the side trip!) for my brother-in-law’s birthday. There was Chinese food in a restaurant with a huge fish tank which was far more exciting to my youngest nephew than anything on his plate, and there were presents, and angel food cake with sweet whipped cream (so very good!) and lots of chatter around the table, until Richard and I checked the time and realized that it was getting late so we headed home to be greeted by a horde of cats who had to wait a whole TWO HOURS past their dinner time to get fed (oh, the drama).

And that brings us to today, which has included a lot of music (oboe and voice) and a lot of laughing and chatting with new people, and then a few hours of napping because the last few days have worn me out. So I might be trailing further and further behind on this darn novel, but at least I’ve been having fun while not writing.