A Very Good Day

I'd like to start this post by thanking all of you for your encouraging comments. I know it must be difficult to find time to read this blog every day. Trust me when I say it's been hard finding time to write everyday, so I feel your pain. To answer your question Jenna, no I haven't made any videos since I got my new computer. There were a few kinks in the new editing program on this computer, and I haven't taken the time to smooth them out. I know it can be done, I just haven't taken the time to do it yet. I don't think there were any other questions...or maybe my memory is going.

OK, on to the other stuff! I have had a great day! It was the sort of day I haven't had in...I can't remember when. I got my hair cut, and I love it! I'm getting new headshots next week, and I was worried about cutting my hair so close to that in case it didn't turn out the way I wanted. It's one thing if you know it'll just grow out in a few weeks, so who cares, but it's another when you know it will be immortalized in digital photos.

After that, I went over to ye old eye doctor to get new contacts, something I've needed to do for a loooong time. It feels good to accomplish things!

Now, I'm sitting here, having just a finished dinner (a veggie burger from Dizzy's Diner), with a beer in hand (not literally, it would drip on the keyboard) writing to you while I wait for Biggest Loser. It's makeover night, when the contestants get a chance to celebrate all their hard work, and show it off to their families who they haven't seen in months.

Also, I am really loving this short story. So much so, that I'm going to share more with you. (See, I told you I wouldn't be able to keep it all to myself!) It's just another snippet, but it's something that completely surprised me the moment it shot out of my fingers. I hadn't realized I was going to introduce Tom this early in the story, and his character suddenly sharpened, and solidified before my eyes. This was the last thing I wrote last night, and I'd been about to quit just before, when I made myself write just a little more. I'm so glad I did.

She learned a great deal from Mr. Cartwright, who was a fair hand at painting, though he didn’t love it as he loved wood craft. She also met Tom, Mr. Cartwright’s son, who was a year older than she and much less serious. Tom loved nothing more than to drag Ryan from her work to run with him outside in the sun for a bit. He said he was afraid she would turn old before his eyes if she stayed indoors stooped over her work, squinting at the tiny lines she painted in the dim light all day. Before Tom, she hadn’t realized that she’d forgotten how to act like a child. She’d forgotten what it was like to run so fast she thought her body would fly apart at the seams, or how good it felt to lie on the grass and imagine she could see shapes in the clouds. She’d forgotten how to laugh.

The first time Tom imitated Mrs. Pennyweather, the retired deportment teacher at the ladies’ college who now spent her afternoons shouting instructions such as “don’t shuffle your feet” and “chin up, young man, you look like a great slouch” from her perch outside the tea house in the middle of town square, Ryan let out a belly laugh which nearly frightened her to death. She clapped her hand to her mouth in horror as she realized it was the first time she’d laughed like that in over 4 years. Tom, expecting her to be amused by his impression, found himself instead asking if she was all right, for her face had gone quite pale. She nearly began to cry, and could not explain that she was grieving for the loss of something she had only just realized was missing. She didn’t cry. She hadn’t cried even when her father died, and she certainly wasn’t about to start then. Instead, she took a steadying breath, looked up into Tom’s worried face and said, “Yes, I’m fine.”

That's all for now. Biggest Loser is on, so I'm going to sign off. And I'll just keep chugging along!