Art of the Odd

Work is heating up, with the usual “We need it before the holidays!” nonsense. This makes it challenging to focus on anything outside of work. I’m working on it, though. I went to my dance class tonight, despite the temptation to say “I’m too busy” and stay home. I also went despite the wheezy and the swollen-eyed and the low-energy that comes of the air quality having been even worse than usual the past few weeks. And I cooked dinner, too. So now I’ll write for half an hour and try to do some knitting before bed, and tomorrow I’ll take a close look at my workload and my schedule and figure out exactly what I need to do to get myself situated for the holiday next week and reaching that magic 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Y’all haven’t heard me bitch about work in awhile, have you?

Don’t worry, I don’t intend to do it this evening.

I mean, I could, but I won’t.

I have, however, set a date. It’s only the second time I’ve done that, and the first time, I didn’t have my credit cards paid off.

This time, I do.

The countdown starts tonight.

Last year, I gave up Britney Spears for Lent. Not that I know Britney, or anything – it’s just that I was spending far too much time and mental energy on stories about her public meltdown. And it wasn’t just Britney – it was junkotainment in general and a particular social networking site in particular. Gave ‘em up for six weeks, and it dramatically changed my relationships with both.

This year, I took up two Lenten disciplines – one was to give up booze (except on Sundays, which are feast days, and a few other narrow exceptions, like last Thursday, when NovySan took me to the Tiki Ti for the very first time.), and the other was to cut down the amount of time I spend at work, so I have more time for other things, like writing, dancing, starting my law practice, reading a few of the books stacking up in corners of my house… Y’know – the whole rest of my life. The only way to do that is to really, really focus on the work I’m doing, while I’m doing it, so I can get it done, get it out of the way, and move on to other things.

I’m not so good at that. I get bored, and I drift, and next thing I know I’m reading essays on Victorian Baby Farming and getting crap-all done. (I can justify it, though! Of course I can! I’m doing research! Those baby-farmers will will make a literary appearance, someday.)

I did it today, though. Powered through what needed to be powered through, and then realized that I had no idea what to do with myself. Not because I didn’t want to spend some time on the personal parts of my to-do list (and I did that), but because my usual timewasters weren’t exerting their normal appeal.

Maybe I’m getting better at this, after all.