No longer MIA

I realize I’ve been MIA for quite a while. I’ve been taking some much needed “me” time since the holidays and the new year to just reflect on the direction I need to take this coming year. My memoir is now receiving a second thorough and final edit and it looks very promising – I’m very excited!! I feel confident the manuscript will find an agent (I’ve already scoped out a good handful) and ultimately, a good publisher. My biggest struggle is whether I should also focus on writing and submitting magazine articles. I’m frozen in place right now. If I follow what my heart wants to do right now it would be to focus solely on the memoir. I do have an idea for an article regarding a local individual, so I may just pursue that for the moment.

I’ve also applied for a paralegal position at work that I feel very optimistic about as well. The posting doesn’t come down until this Wednesday, so I’m thinking interviews will probably be the first week in February. It will be rather wonderful to actually work a profession that I received my degree in! I’m also taking a drawing class (two sessions – one tonight and one next week) to brush up on techniques. After nearly an eighteen year hiatus from art, I’m finally returning. It feels good too, although I haven’t completed much of anything yet. Just moving back in that direction feels good. The creative component has been missing in my life and I finally realized it! I’m considering it a hobby for now, but we’ll see where else it may lead me.

And the best news of all!!!!! I booked our vacation this weekend – woo hoo! We’ll be spending a week in Puerto Aventuras (Mexican Riviera Maya). It’s exciting to know Charlie and I are finally embarking on our life together without any outside annoyances, with our greatest plans being to travel - a lot. We’re planning on two other trips this year, but those trips will be within the U.S. We want to start checking out different areas of the country where we would like to move eventually (probably within the next five to eight years). We’ll be going to Austin this summer to visit my brother and to check out the area.

That’s all for now… I promise to be more regular in my writing from here out!!

My brother and his wife are in from Texas for the weekend, so I’ve been getting ready for the visit (i.e. cleaning). I’ve been in a mild funk here lately and I’ve also been spending the time trying to figure out my next steps. While I want to write, I don’t believe that alone is going to fulfill the creative void I feel right now. There is a little art studio that recently opened not far from here and I think after the new year I’m going to start taking some art lessons. I was in advanced placement art in high school and loved spending time doing “artsy” things, but I let go after graduation for some reason or another. I want to take a few lessons to brush up on techniques since I’m a little rusty. The writing will happen but first and foremost the memoir has to be completed. I really don’t want anything taking away time from that. Revisions are moving along and I hope to wrap them up in the next week or two.

I’m also geared up for planning our summer vacation! I’m still not sure about a location yet, but I’ve also been eyeing up Barbados as well. I’ve gotten a little more Christmas spirit in me this year than I have for the past nine years. I actually put a tree up this year (the first in nine years) and Charlie and I can actually have a Christmas this year, which is wonderful. So many of the past years we have been broke from buying for everyone else, but this year we said we come first. And, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it.