Halfway Vacation

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Now on to the blog.

I’ve been taking a break from the writing lately. I’ve just changed jobs after ten years as a middle school registrar (now I’m the office manager!) and I have a lot to learn. And I need to learn it quickly, because we’re gearing up for another school year. So when I finally set aside the manuals and the cash handling procedures and the notes and files of my predecessors, the last thing I want to do is take up some other form of work.

So I’m reading books and watching movies and generally lazing about. It’s very odd for me, but I’m enjoying it.

I’ve discovered the Dresden Files. I’d heard they were good, but I never thought they were “my thing” so it’s taken me a while to jump on the bandwagon. But some time ago I bought the first one and it’s been floating around my room since, and finally I read it and had to go acquire the next three. I haven’t read them all yet, but I’ll get there. I like Harry Dresden a lot.

Last weekend I went and saw Pacific Rim at the theater. I don’t generally see movies in the theater, but I’d heard good things about it, and I want to support the idea that Hollywood should make more movies without numbers after the title. I loved it. You should go see it. For reals. Mako Mori makes me happy. It’s also fun to make your own Jaeger, should you feel the urge. Here’s a Tumblr that collects funny ones, if that’s what makes you happy.

My kid is starting high school in a little over a week, so we’ve been spending some time going over what she has (nothing, according to her) and what she needs (everything, according to the same expert.) All the things she owns are so middle school. So there’s that. Oh, and the other day I swept behind my couch! That’s an accomplishment. It gets kind of scary back there. If I get to feeling really energetic, I’ll pull out the stove and get back there.†

Being on writing-vacation doesn’t stop the writer-brain, of course. Yesterday I was clicking around deviantArt looking at cool dragon pictures, and I stumbled on a blue crystal dragon that gave me a hint at how I’m FINALLY going to solve the mystery of how one of my as-yet-unwritten books is going to end. And no–I won’t be sending a blue crystal dragon to make rocks fall so everyone dies.

Anyway. That’s what I’m up to, when work uses so much brain there’s nothing left for writing. I expect in a few more weeks I’ll be looking for something, ANYTHING to write. For now, though, I’ll just enjoy the all-too-rare mostly-quiet inside my head.

† Energetic is not a likely event.