Wednesday, August 24, 2005

September Approaches

The revision of The Outlaw Bride is going along swimmingly. As I'm filling out the scene capsules I'm finding plenty of areas where I can cut things out or combine things to shorten it up. I'm glad I had a little over a month away from the book because it's made it that much easier to go in and look at it objectively, and breaking it down into scenes really helps let me see what is working and what isn't.

I'm hoping this will move along at a steady clip. I'm doing about 10 scene capsules every morning, which should have me done by end of this week / early next week, depending on if I get anything done this weekend or not. I have company coming this Saturday and Sunday. Maxx and her daughter are coming up for the big shopping extravaganza. Can't wait! Woo hoo! New clothes!

Am I the only one that still operates on a school year even though I graduated ooohhh say - good gawd - twenty years ago. Ack! Twenty years. Wow...when did that happen? I've now been out of school longer than I was in. And yet, I still think of the year as starting in September, not January. When I get geared up for projects, I'm always more focused to start something new in September. My new year's resolutions seem to happen as summer comes to a close, not after the haze of Christmas lifts and Baby New Year lets out a squall. And when I see the school supplies at Staples, I get down right giddy. And I hated school. But I loved getting ready for it. New clothes, thick new scribblers in an array of color, a supply of fine point pens, and don't even get me started on the joy of a brand spanking never used pink eraser. (Proof positive that I am a consummate planner...)

School was fun for me for the first week, but once the newness wore off and you had caught up with your friends, about the only thing I looked forward to were playing soccer, the intramural sports at lunch time, and writing funny stories for the school newspaper. I skipped almost as many classes as I showed up for, and most of the ones I showed up for I slept, daydreamed or wrote through. It's a wonder I made relatively high marks in most cases, proving my theory that one really can absorb through osmosis and that high school is way too easy.

But September is almost upon us again, and once again I am raring to go. I feel the urge to finish Outlaw Bride, jump into Desire & Brimstone, finishing half completed knitting projects, knit a few new blankets for Project Linus, workout every day, and of course, buy lots of new clothes.


Now that 20 years has passed, I look back on my time in school fondly. I still hate being stuck in a classroom. I get fidgety and antsy and can't wait to get out. Just like high school. But I miss seeing my friends every day and the drama and comedy that was high school life. Too bad we couldn't combine the freedom of youth with the wisdom of age. Oh wait...we can...it's called retirement. Sigh...another 20 years to go...

Unless of course I'm writing full time, in which case retirement will happen when I'm pushing up the daisies and not a moment before.

10 comments:

Maxx said...

I said to my cohort literally just yesterday that I wished I could go back to high school... as the person I am today and see what it would have been like. I can't say I hated high school, because I didn't, but there are alot of things I'm still carrying around with me to this day, a lot of things I'm still trying to prove people wrong about. Which probably isn't healthy. Oh well, just a few more things to add to the 'things to tell my shrink' list.

But for now... countdown to shopping extravaganza! \m/ Woohoo! \m/

Kelly Boyce said...

Just wait for a cool night and you're good to go.

Kelly Boyce said...

Me too! Odd since I'm such a planner but I hate operating on someone else's schedule, telling me where I have to be. Once I have to do something, that just sucks the fun out of it.

Maxx said...

You know who I'd love to see again? Yeah you know who I'm talking about. I'd love to see that shrimp with the big mouth again.

Kelly Boyce said...

Well that doesn't narrow it down very much but let me take a stab - Buckwad?

Maxx said...

apparently it was narrowed down enough

Melissa Amateis said...

I LOVE this time of year. I used to love buying all my school supplies, going shopping for school clothes, etc. Now I get to do it with my daughter, even though she's not nearly as excited as I was. I was one of those kids in kindergarten who looked at the little boy who was crying and thought, "What is WRONG with him? This is FUN!"
I enjoyed high school, although I hadn't come out of my shell yet.

Anonymous said...

I love new school supplies. I remember the joy of looking for the perfect pencil box. Do they even sell those cardboard ones anymore?

Maxx said...

My daughter's been at me since July to get her school supplies. I always loved school supply shopping too. There's something invigorating about a brand new pen and shiny virgin paper just waiting for inspiration.

Donna Grant said...

lol. I LOVE buying school supplies, too, Kelly.

I didn't hate school, but there were times I did get bored. :)