And #3 done. This was by far my favorite of the classes I’ve taken so far, largely because it was the one where I had to work the hardest. Although that sounds wrong. It’s more that the exercises really required me to think, because I wasn’t coming into it with the background of already having done the work. And that also sounds wrong. It’s not that I don’t know my goals, because I do, but the approach was more challenging and more concrete than I anticipated it would be. It was good work to do, but I needed a lot more time to think about the exercises and my answers to the exercises than I expected.

I think I short-change thinking time when I’m planning. I know that’s been a constant issue with writing stories for me — I sit down, expecting the words to come pouring forth, and then I stare at the computer and have no idea what the words should be or what happens next in the story. In this current project, I did anticipate that it would take some serious time — I think I said January for learning, February and March for content creation, April and May to start marketing, June before I could hope to be earning any money — but I think I anticipated that the creation time would be straightforward, that I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, and that therefore it would be easy. Perhaps not so much. Well, definitely not so much. But progress, not perfection; mistakes are opportunities to learn; the journey is what matters. Right?

Moving on, I had a lovely time at Epcot last week. We went on multiple rides, including the incredibly nostalgic (to me) “Journey Into Imagination” ride, aka the Figment ride. I think it was literally 25 years since I’d been on it, but I knew exactly where the ride stopped moving back then, and exactly when three-year-old R started screaming to get off. I’m sure he doesn’t remember, but it feels like such a metaphor for parenting for me. I worked so hard, but in the end, it was out of my control.

On Friday, I met up with a new writing friend in downtown Sanford. I met her through the writing group, and this was the third week in a row where we met at a coffee shop on early Friday evening to write together. I worked on Cici for a while, decided I hated it, then moved on to my tea shop story, and solved some problems that I’d been stuck on. I didn’t actually get a lot of words written, but it was really satisfying to be writing, to feel comfortable with a writing buddy, to be sitting outside in the early evening, to be enjoying Sanford at 5PM on a Friday evening, when the live music at the bars has already started and so many people are wandering the streets, and appreciating Florida. I really love the atmosphere there as twilight falls.

On Saturday morning, I started to try to schedule online writing time with my friend Lynda — and then I very spontaneously invited myself to her house to write instead. She lives an hour away, so a completely reasonable drive to get to spend time with a friend. Why haven’t I done it before? I’ve been here for three months! I think maybe because I was worrying about Sophie, either leaving her alone in my house for hours, or bringing her and having her be restless and unsettled. But I brought her and she was largely very good. A little restless, but mostly willing to sit and be peaceful while Lynda and I chatted. I can’t believe that I took no pictures while I was there, but apparently I didn’t! We didn’t get a lot of writing done, possibly unsurprisingly, but had a lovely time hanging out, talking business and life and writing.

Sunday started out gray and rainy and chilly — okay, nothing like Arcata’s version of the above — but enough that I started my day by making a quick run to the new Publix (seven minutes drive away, just opened up, yay!) and buying the BOGO pot roast. It felt like such good pot roast sort of weather. I then spent the day puttering around with the delightful smell of simmering meat emanating from the stove. It was delightful — and actually it tasted delicious, too — but I eat meat and potatoes so rarely these days that I think I spent all of yesterday (Monday) in a bit of a food coma as a result. At least Monday felt like a wasted day.

Well, somewhat wasted. This morning when I was writing morning words, I started out beating myself up for how little I’d accomplished yesterday, and then I stopped and wrote a list of my accomplishments: laundry done, folded and put away; hair cut; healthy vegetables cooked and eaten; dog walked and played with; goal setting course completed; three books speed read for research (one on marketing, two on food). I need to not beat myself up in general, but I definitely didn’t deserve the abuse I was heaping on my head for yesterday. It’s just that I never sat down at my computer and worked on writing, course creation, or web design. And those are things that I’d really like to accomplish. The goals that I have not yet succeeded in achieving! Soon, though. In my list of aphorisms, I should include something about persistence or perseverance. Because it’s always just one step at a time, one word at a time, and giving up is really the only way to fail. I don’t intend to fail. So. Onward!