Separated by Half an Ocean

Maybe it's appropriate that I mistyped the first word as "seaparated."

Nights like tonight--when it's edging towards 11 p.m. and I am tired from working all day, but have vowed not to go to sleep until my work is done--that I am occasionally struck by my distance to other writers whom I know online. Most of the friends that I connect with via the internet are four or five or six hours ahead of me (I'm never a hundred percent sure because I horrible with time zones, you crazy mainlanders and your daylight savings). In those wee hours of the morning, most of them are asleep, some might even be starting their days in a couple of hours.

It makes me feel terribly behind.



I live in a place still described as "paradise," where images like the above are probably pretty pervasive on the mainland (they certainly are here, tourism is still where we hang out economy) as the norm. How many movies, wherein a character travels to Hawai'i, is greeted by a grass-clad hula dancer with a lei?

Not here. I don't think there was anything like that when my family first arrived in 1990, though at the time, if you were meeting someone at the airport, chances are they'd have a lei with them. Nowadays you can't even meet people at the gate.

But I'm getting off-track. I do like Hawaii, kinda hard to think of leaving forever (all my books are here), but nights like tonight, when it would be nice to chat about writing, or work, or my proscrastination in regards to either of those topics, no one is around. The internet is empty, I can hear my text echoing -ing -ing.

And when everyone else is reading blogs in the morning, jumping into their day, I'll still be sleeping for a couple more hours. And I wait up thinking everyone else is gone again, lost in their own work, and I've come in late again.

Upside? I get verbose, and usually, if no blog post distracts me, I can get a lot done. That's how I completed my master's thesis--2,000 to 3,000 a night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. when I was most awake and eager to interact with someone. Barring that, I interacted with my characters.

Oh well. I still have syllabi to complete. :)

Happy Thursday writing, everyone, even though my Thursday is in 50 minutes.
~Sabrina

Interlude: A Vacation that's Not

On Friday, I submitted my final grades. By Friday afternoon, I was home and my first quarter as a teacher was over. I gave myself the weekend to not worry--I worried, but not enough to waste the weekend with work--and yesterday began a week of work before my second quarter begins on the 11th.

Also on the 11th, my family has a friend coming to visit. So this week is preparing two new syllabi for a different English class and an intro to psych (yes, I am squeeing even as I type that), and tweaking my syllabus for Eng. 105. (There's some stuff I want to keep but change a bit, other stuff I might cut down.) On top of that is cleaning the house. Those of you who have known me for a while might know just how little room there is in my house, so cleaning involves a lot of dusting of tiny tchotchkes, hiding excess stuff that takes up space, and rearranging things. We just have too many belongings for a house this small. Also we are cooking a lot. My mother insists on having homemade sauce and pasta ready for whenever her friend wants it. [And I gardened on Saturday and did -not- rip my hand open dealing with the roses. Go me!]

What it boils down to is a lot of work during a single week when I would rather write. I'm also preparing for Christmas and the winter holidays. I love Halloween, but I never seem to have anything to do that night. We never throw parties and I don't seem to have friends that throw Halloween parties, and I'm not one who's super big on wandering the bars. And then, judging form the one craft project I was going to do two months ago, it's clear that during the quarter I won't get a lot of time to craft, so I'm taking some time now to figure out what I'm going to make versus buy, and be ready for it, So if I have an easy weekend work-wise, I can get crafty.


Anyway, that's what I've been up to. How about all of you?