And we’re back! Well, technically, we’ve been back for two days now, but this is the first chance I’ve had to log on to wordpress. The trip was awesome, except for a little “lost luggage” incident which took a week to clear up. Despite that, we had a great time. We’ve got tons of pictures and +20,000 words of travel log (I was verbose).
So consider yourselves the lucky few who get a sneak peak at the journal/photos! I’ll be updating this blaag with snippets from the log, along with the pictures to accompany it. I’ll see about getting the first peek up tonight or tomorrow.
Other than getting home in one piece, there isn’t too much news. Or rather, there’s so much to do, it seems like a whirlwind of stuff happening, but it’s all fairly mundane. I did call Social Security to get the form to start legally changing my last name, and Andy and I finally got a joint bank account (which we couldn’t do until we had the marriage license anyway). We also got his financial aid stuff signed and taken care of, and thankfully it’s enough to cover all of tuition and even some for room/board.
*pulls out to-do list* Let’s see…what else… Ah, we got the fixie project Andy’s selling, and we stopped by his old house to see if the lawnmower was still there (we’ve had a few offers on it, so hopefully someone will take that off our hands). Andy cleaned out the Jeep, and we had the oil changed today (which normally Andy would do himself, but decided to have it done for him this time). I’ve also started organizing our financial stuff into an simple filing system.
All in all, there’s still a ton to do. Our room at my parents’ house is jammed full of all our stuff, plus extra stuff Andy got from his Mom that may have sentimental value later on, which she came across during the hyper-packing of their house. There’s just so much going on, so much changing–I’ve got to admit there are times when I feel a little overwhelmed. But that’s what to-do lists are for, right? ^_^
Writing has been shoved to the side for the last three weeks, and I’m sorely missing it. In Switzerland, I was driving myself half crazy plotting in my head without really being able to write. I’m hoping to start hammering out a summary draft of the current novel project. Unfortunately, that means the “weekly” (haha) updates of chapters will be at a stand still until I get the summary draft finished, likely for all three books in the group. Luckily, summary drafts are pretty fast, so I think I can get all three drafts finished by the end of the year, and then turn my attention to the prose itself. I’ve got two and a half descent chapters for Marha’s stuff, so I’ll leave those as is and just plug forward from there in the hopes of accomplishing something. Everything’s just so hectic, it’s nuts trying to find some sit-down time to get any real writing (or editing) done, and I’ve got so many projects I want to work on, I need to just set a schedule and keep it. I’m hoping once we get out to Portland I’ll be able to schedule myself a little better and get into a daily routine. Until then, I’ll scribble out a summary draft and see how that works.
So look for the Switzerland Travelogue Sneak-Peak coming to this blog soon!
Maggie Slater 