Career Planning

I awoke fresh and ready for life after watching a great movie, Leap Year, and getting a good nights sleep. Now I believe I will dust off my superpowers and take over the writing world...well maybe not so much...but I am ready to kick my writing life back into gear.

I've learned many things over the past year. Most of all I've learned that I cannot suppress who I am and what I want most in life. It always has a way of seeping out of the cracks and crevices and finding itself smack dab in my face, each and every time.

So I need to find balance - a way to feed my need to continuously learn new things, my art, and my writing. I can now look at my current hiatus away from the university classroom as a time for me to figure out how to find a balance between all that I want without fear of any other responsibilities aka procrastinations "getting in my way."

I spent yesterday in the presence of Writers Guild of Acadiana members, friends, and Cherry Adair. That woman is amazing. She bounced all kinds of knowledge and tips around us in a blazing orange ball that is her astounding energy...where does she store it, I wonder?

So now I sit and stew and plan...on making and finishing a career plan....and getting back to my first love, writing. I started writing my novel, Wolf Moon, in March, 2008. I fiddled a bit on it until NANOWRIMO 2008. Now I am the "proud" owner of 90k words of a story where I'm chasing my tail with nowhere to go. But I'm not putting it down even though it should be considered 'dead' and be buried.

I will poke and prod that thing into making a plan, outline, beginning/middle/end, etc...I will get this done. I'm giving myself one more year to finish her up...or I'm sending her to the trash pile. So what's it to be? I guess I need to start planning and writing.

I dusted off my wonderful binder filled with character sketches and pics and bios. I located all of my files under the drab that is my scary documents folder on my computer...and I'm sitting butt to chair and I'm going to figure it out.

Yes, I still need to clean my house which is falling down around me since I finished my last semester and went traipsing around Europe, and I still have bills to pay so I'm working 90 hrs a week, and I still need to get my butt into shape and start working out more and eating healthier as I cannot afford to eat out every day anymore.

But despite all of these needs, which are probably not going to change - any time soon - I need to live a creative life. I figure if I can work on my art pieces during my lunch hour each day at work, then I can be free to write and exercise, if I can walk after that shift of work, at night.

Totally doable and I cannot figure out why I was so dense I didn't see it before.

So thank you, Cherry, for lighting an orange energy bubble under my ass and inspiring me to sit butt to chair and get it done. 365 days. That's all I get. Starting NOW!

Pray for me (and that Wolf Moon makes it out of this goal alive!)

***For some reason, I've pondered this the whole day and the thought of continuing with this story gives me the hives...but starting from scratch, I don't know if I can do that...what to do what to do...I guess my first decision will have to be whether to give this story a chance or put it away to let something new come out! I just don't know what to do with myself.

A Constant Pondering:

What the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?!?

I just returned from a 2 week trip to Europe - my first. It was wonderful. Paris was cold and dreary but beautiful and inspiring. The food - not so great. The start of the trip was filled with jet lag and sleep/body changes associated with waking up in one time zone and flying around the world to another.

We finally got everything in sync...and it was time to travel to Spain. The train ride - long train ride - from Paris, France to Barcelona, Spain was interesting. The countryside took my breath away, inspiration flying out of my pores. I couldn't seem to absorb it fast enough. We rode first class all the way to the border - quite an experience. Then the second part of the trip, we rode in, what must have been, the first train ever made. It was long and slow and bumpy. I watched a couple next to me make a love connection. People-watching at its best!

We flew from Barcelona to Malaga, Spain, to what will be one of my new favorite cities to visit. I climbed a freakin' mountain, thought I would die from doing it, but hey, I made it - however slowly! We walked all around the beautiful city from beach to border. Enjoyed every minute of it. I loved the cafes, wines, pastries, tapas, shopping, sites.

And still it's so good to be back home...in this freakin' cold weather! It was wonderful weather in Spain and freezing temps back home...so weird. I have so much hope for 2010. But I'm right back to the question that has been on my mind constantly for the past few days, weeks, months, years...what the heck am I going to do with my life???

I'm 30, single, nothing to hold me back..so what is?!

I have no idea...but I do have a new "5 year plan"! So exciting and the details are all my own - a secret! I'm looking forward to normal temps in my old house so that I can start cleaning and reorganizing my life. Once my studio is back on track (I was so productive the last few months of 2009 - my studio is a nightmare!!!), I'm planning on taking an online art class.

I've never taken an online art workshop. I did purchase the DVDs from two workshops of a favorite artist of mine, Tamara Laporte. She taught me so much in her dvds, but I want to branch out, learn from others. I fought with my decision, who to go with: Tam, Julie Pritchard, SuziBlu, etc...nothing quite matching what I envisioned.

So I struggled with determining which online art class / workshop I would join. After 2 days of research I was right where I started...dreading the "only other option." But I refused to give up and dug deeper. And sure enough...I found a winner: Monica Zuniga from www.handsandheart.ning.com . Her work is fantastic and makes me want to fight the freezing temps in my old, uninsulated house to get that studio in order...stat!! I look forward to the learning ahead of me.

Now that I am not formally going to university, I can get back to other things...writing, exercise, cooking, art...okay okay so I never really "got" into cooking in the first place...or exercise for that matter...but there is no time like now to start. I'm searching for better job offers and hoping for the best to come in 2010. I look forward to the changes that this year will bring, especially since I'll be stuck at home since I spent so much money on my vacation!

I can't wait to get back to my writing. As far as I can see, I'm thinking the beginning of the year will be for taxes, writing and art classes...and the second half - who knows. None of my plans ever happen so I won't bother past these hopes and dreams.

What are you waiting for? What do you plan for 2010?