So…yeah. This project is all about
getting the most out of life, and making time for the little things
we enjoy even when time isn’t exactly lying about like spare
change. I should know better than to tempt fate like that by now –
I’m 36 years old, and pretty much every time I’ve made any kind
of overreaching statement or goal, life conspires to make it as hard
as possible for me to reach it.

At the risk of sounding like an
ego-maniac, I do normally reach my goals eventually. It has
far less to do with being talented or organized than you’d think –
it’s mostly just because I’m very persistent and focused. Or
stubborn.

So this summer, I figured after two
years of pretty solid focus on the writing goals, I’d give myself a
bit of a break. Branch out, explore my other interests, and have a
more rounded conversational set for those rare times I do go out in
public. And while it’s been a pretty hefty transition to make, I
was just getting settled in and really starting to enjoy myself last
week.

Then the day job exploded. I won’t
talk about specifics here (because I don’t think it’s
professional), but suffice it to say that my job has gone from a
fairly mundane eight hours per day to a very intensely focused eight
hours per day. The mundane 8 hours job thing left me plenty of
creative energy to burn at night, as well as social steam. I had
plenty of energy to work on my writing, promotion, my web sites and
blogs, and hang out all over my favorite social networks chatting
w/friends.

The intensely focused eight hours
leaves me barely enough energy to chat with my husband, poke my head
in on the social arena, and get a scene written every night. Needless
to say, this frustrates me, and I’ve been whining about it for the
last week or so. Because sometimes, you need to just wallow for
awhile.

But all things eventually come to an
end, including wallowing. Personally, I can’t wallow for long.
Actually, this is the longest I’ve felt sorry for myself in awhile,
and it’s because I got spoiled and took the good situation I had
for granted.

In any case, it’s time to buck up,
realize that this new reality is not going away anytime soon, and
figure out how to deal with it. I’m not cutting back anymore on my
writing, so all that has to stay. And I’m keeping some of the fun
things too, because I really do need more interests than just work
and writing (second job). But I will need to cut back a bit on some
things, because…well, because a side-effect of being human is
wanting to do more than we can.

So once again I find myself in a state
of flux, redoing my schedule and trying to organize my life. It’s
all good though. I can do this – I’ve done it before, and once I
settle into a new routine, things will be business (and fun stuff) as
usual.

First order of business…set up the
home office for a workspace. I had planned to do that awhile ago,
then hubby was going to use it for working at home, found out he
couldn’t really, and now it’s free again. So work space and
regular home “office hours” for evenings and weekends. Defining
those leaves me time to pursue fun things in the off hours. Like
Facebook gaming and TV shows I can’t live without. And twitter.

What do you do when life throws you a
curve ball? Do you roll with it and stay the course, or do you need a
little time to wallow before you accept the inevitable?

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