It has been a whirlwind August. My family went on our EPIC, three-part voyage to the West Coast, and while it was awesome, I am so tired now.
First stop: L.A.
We stayed in an AirBnB by the ocean in San Clemente and spent almost every day at the beach with my sister and her family. The boys are all pretty close in age, and played together for hours. We did nothing else, aside from eat delicious food, and sleep way too late, and although I got sunburned, nobody else did! A small miracle when Andy is an almost literal vampire who catches fire if he’s in the sun between 10:30AM – 3:30PM. It was so ridiculously relaxing. We visited my long-time friend Karen at her retirement community, and on our last day, we drove Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, and had In-N-Out Burgers at a Mulholland Drive lookout above the valley. It was so very cool.
Second stop: Portland
Portland was me and Andy’s stomping ground from the late 2000s to the early 2010s. We weren’t sure what we’d find there, since the news on the East Coast tends to focus on all the no good, very bad things that have happened there in past years. A lot of the old restaurants we loved have closed, but there were a lot still there! In fact, we were pleased to find it was very much like we remembered. We took the boys to a cat-video compilation show at The Living Room Theater, spent too much at Powell’s, got perfectly lost in the Japanese Garden, wandered the hills of the Hoyt Arboretum, stepped inside a replica of Mt. St. Helens (complete with lava), and spent a ton of time with our beloved adopted family out there. We drove by all our old haunts, and dined at Pig-N-Pancake and McMenamins and Escape from New York Pizza and PDX Sliders and Rogue Brewing. We toured the submarine at OMSI.
And can I gush a little about HOW FREAKING BEAUTIFUL the PDX airport is now? Like…OMG guys. Wow. Best airport we’ve been in lately by FAR.
Third Stop: Seattle
After Portland, Andy and the boys flew home, but I continued on up to WorldCon. I only stayed for a day and a half, which was probably a little bit too short of a time, but I got to see everyone I desperately wanted to see, primarily my friends, Katherine Quevedo and Rachel Unger. They’re the absolute best, it was amazing to hang out with them in-person again! I also got to hang out with the lovely Scott from BCS and the imminently unmatchable Maurice Broaddus of Mo*Con fame, and I met a bunch of other people and made some new friends, too! It was a total blast.
Home Again
Back home at long last (and after a somewhat terrifying landing at Logan in Boston), I’m easing back into our summer schedule once again. We’ve been dealing with a cracked tooth, an accidentally defrosted freezer that required emergency cleanup, a broken Telsa solar system (still… ongoing since 7/1), and rescheduling everything we need to reschedule as plans and work requirements shift while we were on vacation. Still, it’s amazing to be sleeping in my own bed again, even if my brain is still on West Coast Time, and doesn’t want to go to sleep until midnight. Thanks, Brain!
In two weeks school starts up again, and my days are going to be unrecognizable after the last ten years of having an under 5 at home at all times. Both boys are going to be in full-time school come September. I’m going to have a lot more time to myself, and I’m trying to brace myself for the inevitable transition week. Every fall, I’m eager to kick into high gear on writing, but it always takes a week for me to get used to the new schedule. So while I’m looking forward to the newfound freedom, I’m also a little intimidated by it.
Otherwise, I’m spending time catching up on submissions for BCS and walking around my garden, seeing what’s blooming and what’s done. A bunch of black eyed Susans have popped up in places I didn’t remember planting them. The weeds have overrun my little vegetable patch, but to be fair I’ve neglected it all summer. The day lilies are gone, but there are a few scattered tiger lilies that have bloomed. When I was in second grade and moved to this house for the first time, we had tiger lilies everywhere. Then one year, a beetle or some disease came through, and pretty much wiped them out. We haven’t had any for years. I replanted some last fall in the hopes that maybe they’d make it, but I’d forgotten where I’d put them, so I’m really excited to see them!
The hydrangea is exploding, too, though I didn’t seed them with enough wood ash OR coffee grounds to turn them colors this year (pink for ash; blue for coffee), but the bush looks lush and happy, so I’m happy about that, too. The stonecrop is bursting with white buds. I can’t wait to see their merlot flowers this fall as one of the last-blooming. I wish I’d gotten my zinnia seeds planted, but ah well! Next year, eh? The lavender is booming, even the one that I had to chop back because it went all woody and crazy. Lots of mojito mint still, lots of parsley. The bleeding heart is completely done and has surrendered its corpse to the earth. There are a lot of weeds to chop back. The Milkweed is nearing its finale with pods full of silky seed fibers. I saw a caterpillar on one that was black and yellow and spiky (did not touch). I don’t know what that one is, though I’m 99.9% sure it’s not a Monarch. I’ll have to look what that is, and will add a footnote.
What I’m Going to Work On in September
I am SO excited, because I just had a major breakthrough on my work in progress novel that has been honest to goodness stalled for the past nine months. It’s been trapped in that uncomfortable percolating phase, with nothing coming together, nothing connecting. But I think I finally got it, and I am so excited to tackle this.
So September will be planning, prepping, and starting to write that draft as fast as I possibly can. Looking forward to making progress on it at long last!
I’m also spending a lot of time thinking about how to track my writing-in-progress projects, and removes the burden of uncertainty (a little) in what to pursue and what to abandon (even temporarily). I’m a fast writer (it’s not at all inconcevable for me to write 2k in an hour, and I often do), which means I produce lots of rough drafts. The challenge I run into is finishing them–or determining which ones are worth finishing–and getting them submitted. Most sit around for years, untouched.
So I’m looking for ways to organize myself and take those projects I really do want to finish and move them towards the completion. I’ve been a recovering perfectionist for a few years now, leaning hard into the 70% Rule, and coming to the awareness that my shit-detector is a bit overclocked. Part of my Friday Flash challenge has been to teach myself to let go of things and play more.
So that’s what’s going on with me right now. Keep cool, hang in there, enjoy these last two weeks of August, and I’ll post a Friday Flash this Friday and next Friday. After that, I’ll see whether or not that’s something I’m going to continue during the fall season, or if I’m going to let that slide to focus on bigger projects. I kind of enjoy Friday Flash being as summer-specific thing, but we’ll see.
Until next time!