Fitting it all in

As I said in my last post its been awhile since I've written for my blog. There are two reasons for my absence. The good one, which I mentioned a couple of days ago, was my long, long-awaited vacation to Antigua. The second reason – I got a job.

Now here's the tricky part – I should be jumping up and down for joy and I guess a part of me – the part that likes a regular, decently-sized paycheck – is very happy. But part of me is completely resentful. Though I am currently an independent contractor for the company I am working full time, that means 7 to 8 hour days – that means no more extra time to work on my novel, or my blog.

And that's where the disappointment and resentment comes in. I was enjoying writing my novel, I was enjoying making progress every day, seeing the story take shape and even starting to get a feel for my main character. My first reaction to realizing I had a fulltime job was fear. Fear that I was going to have to give up my dream of being an author. I've made more progress on my novel since I lost my job than before. I don't want to go back to making no progress.

So now I'm back to where I was before, at my old job. I can't write in the evenings because I can't write when my husband is in the house. He's just too distracting. And, I'll admit I also like evening TV. On the couple of evenings I have nothing to watch I try to get in some reading --- I have a book review due at the start of January and I haven't started reading the book yet.

In the first two weeks of this new job I've written not one single word for my novel, and until two days ago, I hadn't written a single blog entry since mid-November. I felt like I was starting to see my dreams dissolve.

And then I read a thread on the Sisters in Crime Guppies listserv about trying to fit it all in – work, family, writing. And reading how other people are managing was both inspiring and helpful. It helped me look at my life and my schedule and figure out how I can get it all in.

So I've decided a few things. First of all Saturday mornings before my husband wakes up will be writing time. I should be able to get in 2 to 4 hours before he gets out of bed. Second, every other Tuesday I go into New York City to visit my newborn niece. On the ride to the city I'll write blog entries (guess where I'm writing this??). I'll also try to write at least one blog entry every weekend. That should keep me at 3 to 4 posts a week, which is fine with me.

But most importantly I will start getting up earlier on the weekdays (I work from home so have no commute time) and write for an hour before starting work. Even if I only get 1000, 500 or 200 words written a day, that will be forward progress and that's all I can ask for.

I will not give up my dream just because I have to work a full-time job. Most authors work full-time jobs and are still successful writers. If they can do it, so can I. It's not going to be easy, it's going to take hard work – but as I've said before, writing IS hard work.

And I feel ready to tackle the challenge.

How do you fit it all in?

Cool Antiguan Waves

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging lately. There are several reasons for this. The best reason, which only accounts for 9 days of absence, was a long-awaited vacation to Antigua. I'll have much more to say on our trip later, but for today I thought I'd share a little video of what the waves were like our last few days there. Impressive, especially for the Caribbean (there was even a small group of surfers who took their boards out), but because of the rough sea we couldn't go in the water or enjoy the kayaking or pedal boats. But they were fun to walk around in, though afterward we had sand all over everything!

More on the Carnival Dream

Any time I’ve been on a Carnival cruise ship I’ve always felt like I’ve stepped into someone’s schizophrenic dream of multiple personalities. I’m truly curious to know if some psychologist has ever tried to analyze Joe Farcus, the man who has designed the interiors of virtually all, if not all, of Carnival’s ships, based solely on his interior designs. And though the new Carnival Dream is actually the most subdued I’ve ever seen – FOR A CARNIVAL SHIP – I still had that strange feeling as I moved from room to room that this ship just doesn’t know who it is.

I’ll give you a perfect example of what I mean. In the middle of any large cruise ship, you’ll find the elevator banks. On either side of the elevators are two stairwells. On the Dream, if you use the stairs on one side (I don’t remember which was aft and which was forward), you’ll find artwork at each landing that is surreal, storybook-like or fantastical. There was no rhyme or reason to the art, each was distinctly different from the others. OK, fine, there’s a theme there. BUT, if you then switch to the other staircase, the artwork is 20s- or 30s-era slightly cartoonish Hollywood-esque paintings. Similar images, though not the same, line every cabin corridor. Separately, I liked the two themes, but together they just don’t make any sense. There is no way for me to relate them to each other, and so I’m left feeling like two different people, with widely different tastes, chose the ship’s décor. I can’t help it I find it confusing.

And that feeling pretty much sticks with me any time I move through a Carnival ship, there’s just no way to make sense of the interior designs.

With that said, the Dream is the most staid of the three Carnival ships I’ve sailed on. There is glitz, glimmer and burnished metal, it really wouldn’t be Carnival without it, but there’s less of it. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I spoke to several travel agents for an article who said pretty much the same thing. They were surprised by the ship, that it wasn’t as over the top as Carnival ships usually are. Pleasantly surprised.

Of course, as with any Carnival ship, there are lots of places to get a drink (they’re not known as booze cruises for nothing) and lots of activities to partake in. It is a Fun Ship, after all. One of the coolest things on the ship is the new water park, the largest on any cruise ship. Of course I barely got to see it as it was rainy and cold during my few hours on board the ship. But the water park has lots of water slides, splash zones, spray toys and the longest corkscrew water slide at sea. I wonder who will use it the most? Kids or adults?

One of the things I liked the most on the Dream was a new breakdance troupe that the cruise line has brought aboard, both for onstage entertainment, and as a roving troupe in the evenings teaching people basic breakdance moves. I gotta say, watching a drunk 40-something white guy trying to break dance is pretty funny!