the underwear drawer

busting it out

(Yes, I did not get a chance to update yesterday, because I was at work very late, and anyway, it was February 29th and I have a policy about only doing posts on days that exist on that calender every single year. A policy that I made up...just now! So capricious!)

So I still cannot talk about The Thing because while I have signed papers for The Thing and have faxed documents for The Thing, I have not told other offerers of The Other Things that I will not be doing their Things, rather have accepted an offer for alternate and somewhat better (for our family) Thing. So!

While I am feeling great happiness because with respect to the move, two of the three Big Factors have fallen into place (we are still waiting to hear from Cal's school--the one we liked the most won't send out letters until the first week of April, a whole MONTH from now), there is always more stress to be had, isn't there? Primary of which is that I really have to get my ass back into gear writing this book. Everyone that I interviewed with in Atlanta was very interested about the book (I did put it on my CV, but just sort of at the end, in the "publications" section--I don't really do any research, so that section is rather short) and everytime they asked about it, I was like, "Ha ha ha, well, let me just FINISH WRITING IT FIRST and then you can have a copy! Ha ha ha! Now give me a job!"

See, the problem is (well, let's not call it a PROBLEM, that sounds so dire--the reality is) that there are very specific times that I can spend writing. Work days are out, and I cannot work in the evenings after work, because I have to give Cal attention before he grows up and writes his own book, "Foundling: The Story of A Little Boy Lost." Post call, I have the day off, but it is a day off after being awake all night, and usually I am too guilty to take the day for myself anyway, having spent the night away from home. Weekends are usually OK, but of course, I occasionally have to work on weekends, and now Joe and I are competing somewhat for weekend hours, as Joe has to take the ophthalmology written boards in a few weeks, and since we have been away in Atlanta for a week and are scheduled to go to an academic conference (in Florida! Near Disneyworld!) a few weeks from now, we are all feeling a little bit strapped for time.

Of course I feel that Joe has far more off days than I (he is off every weekend, and he has a good amount of flexible non-hospital time on Tuesdays and Thursdays), so, rather bossily, I feel entitled to a couple of hours on the weekends when I don't actually have to be at work to abscond with my laptop and try to do some writing. However, to be fair, Joe does do a lot of household errands during those Tuesdays and Thursdays when he doesn't have to be in at work (taking care of our sad little finances and whatnot), and anyway, it is a big deal to take boards, so maybe he should get the lion's share of the free daylight hours to go hole up with index cards and pictures of retinas or whatever it is that ophtho people study. (Aside! Joe has this textbook--it is very old skool--called "The Fine Art of Prescribing Glasses Without Making A Spectacle of Yourself" which is amazing not just for the fact that there is a pun in the title, but because it is 500 pages long. Who knew there was so much to it? Drs. Midler and Rubin, apparently.)

So anyway, the book, THE BOOK. I have to write this thing. I know it will get done, it's not a question of that, but I just get nervous when I am away from it for a long time, because there is a lot left to do and aside from actually finishing the damn thing, I don't want it to suck. Step one, finishing. Step two, proofread for suckiness. Additionally, I have a couple of new comics in my head that are percolating as headers for a couple of the chapters, but that takes some time to do too, and it is not always the easiest thing to write and draw when there is a two year-old climbing you like a tree--that is, unless you are drawing a comic strip in which footprints figure prominently. (Which may exist. Maybe some of those religious comic strips, with that, "My son, in times of difficulty, it was I who was carrying you" kind of thing.) But I want to get a little closer to finishing before I start working on the comic strip, because drawing the comics is sort of my little reward for finishing the writing. Not that the writing is so painful or anything, but, you know, there's a lot of it that I still have to do, so I have to have something to look forward to, even if it is more work.

Anyway, no big revelations here. Just wanted to tell you that I'm doing some work today. On THE BOOK. Getting there. Very slowly getting there. When I break 50,000 words, maybe I will have a little party.