Read 'Til You Drop

For the past several years, I've accomplished most of my writing by conducting "Writing Marathons", taking a week off from the day job and hammering out 30,000 polished words in nine days.  (I do one or two for a book, and get the other 30K in dribs and drabs.) 

That system, alas, is in jeopardy with my new day-job.  I gave up two weeks of annual leave to take the job, and I don't get any leave for the first three months of my employment.  I need to figure out other ways to get the writing done.

Announcing:  Writing Fun Run.  Writing Fun Run compares to Writing Marathon as a 5K compares to a Marathon.  By the end of this weekend, I'll have written about 10,000 new words, editing them into I-think-they're-final status.  I'm having fun with SORCERY - my First Reader spotted an oversight in narration in Chapter Three.  When I went to fix it, I realized that Chapter Four really was going to turn out a lot more interesting - if by interesting, I mean full of magic and character exploration.  Oh, and a little bit of sex.

After polishing up the revised Chapter Four, I went over to Macy's to do some emergency shopping.  I'm going to be on the road for all but four days of June, and I needed to get an interchangeable summer wardrobe, suitable for offices in very hot, often very humid cities.  I was overwhelmingly successful (let's hear it for the current fashion trend of black and white, with alternating small and large prints!  :-) )  My travel packing will be assisted by my not spending more than four days in any one city - I'll get to repeat outfits!

And now... back to more running.  For fun.

Mindy, serenaded by the motorcycles of Rolling Thunder

My current favorite toy is my PowerStation.  No, not PlayStation.  PowerStation.

Mark bought it for me, as a "welcome to the new job" gift.  It's a plastic case that contains three outlets, with a "drawer" that holds charging cords for three devices, and an exterior little shelf on which to rest said devices.  The entire plastic case has one heavy duty cord that comes out and plugs into a wall outlet.

The beauty of the thing is that I don't have wires sprawling across my desk, holding my iPod, my BlackBerry, and my cell phone.  Instead, everything is neatly contained, and I only need one wall outlet to charge everything.  And when I travel, I just pick up the entire Station and dump it into my suitcase, without worrying about whether I have the right cords.  At first, I thought it was silly, but now, I think it's an elegant solution to the cordage problem.

How geeky am I becoming?!?  (Have I become?)

Mindy, plugging away...

After I took the bar exam, I traveled internationally for seven weeks with my college roommate. For a couple of weeks before we left on the trip, my mother called me on what-I-remember-as a daily basis (it was probably once or twice), with Helpful Hints to assist us in our travel. Once my roommate and I reached Europe, we returned the favor, sending home one postcard for every day that we traveled, recording our day's journeys and summarizing with a helpful hint for the day.

I think that I'll have ample opportunity to apply those hints in the days/weeks/months to come.  Yesterday's Travel Tip:

Make sure your cell phone is charged before you travel. And if your cell phone is the same as another device you carry (Blackberry, Treo, etc), consider whether you'll have enough juice with your phone to handle long emergency waits with travel agents, etc., if your device is being used for other purposes.

Yesterday afternoon, at 5:05, I was supposed to fly out to Chicago, to report at the office for my first day of work, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at 9:00 a.m. Alas, I got to the airport, only to find that the travel agent had scheduled me to arrive tomorrow evening, at 7:30 p.m. Um, I don't think that would make a great impression on my new boss.

After a call to the travel agent (and a 20-minute wait with atrocious hold music), I was rescheduled on a flight for a 7:55 p.m. flight last night. I could have gotten on yesterday's 5:05, but that would have cost an additional $500 (for a ticket that was only $240 originally.)

I used the extra airport time as constructively as I could - once I could check my suitcase (yes, I needed to check luggage because I'll be gone till Thursday, dressed in grown-up clothes the entire time), I spent half an hour walking the terminal, getting some exercise and smiling nicely at the TSA personnel who must have thought it strange that I was repeating my path, end-to-airport-end, twice. Then, I went to Legal Seafoods and ate a lovely salmon fillet, remembering to substitute a green salad for the coleslaw (I've never been a fan of coleslaw...)

I'm staying at the incredible Peninsula Hotel, basking in the luxury.  This morning, my room service breakfast arrived, and the waiter asked my permission before doing anything.  "May I come into the room?"  "May I set up the table here?"  "May I shift the coffee table?"  "May I place your teabag in your hot water?"  It almost made me giggle - all I could think of was the 1980's Antioch Sex Code, where the university told students that they needed to ask each other for permission before moving on to each new phase of sexual exploration...

OK - off to the first day at the new job!

Mindy, sated with berries and tea :-)