AndreaBlythe.com

I had all of last week off and chopped off most of my hair and got new color is kind of eggplant, which I LOVE. I lost a total of ten inches this week, which I will be donating to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, an organization that makes wigs for women with cancer.

Here’s a before and after:

My week was a good cross between relaxing, hanging out with friends, and getting things done. In terms of writing and Spanish practice, no progress was made.

But I did a total of four and increased the walk/run interval difficulty levels by two increments, which felt fantastic. Seeing the progress on my running skills is keeping me so motivated and I know I’ll eventually meet my goal of three miles, if I keep this up.

I also made some great progress on my paperwork. I have all my past years separated out and put in appropriate envelopes and stored away, as well as all my paperwork for the current year filed in the filing cabinet. I still need to buy a new filing cabinet that would be more accessible, as well as organize other stuff in my closet so things are functional, but I feel really good about the progress I made this week.

.

That which must be accomplished in the coming week:
– Finish Chapter Five of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Edit Letter Box poetry chapbook and submit it
– Workout at least three days with two workouts being running training (0/3)
– Do three yoga workouts, three sun salutations min. (0/3)
– Practice my Spanish
– Make Progress on Organization (do one or more of the following):

— Shred papers and dispose of them
— Find a minimum of ten items (big or small) that can be gotten rid of and get rid of them
— Take box of items to donate to Goodwill

Last week progress was made on Under the Midday Moon, which was sent to the Writing Gang, who gave me some fantastic feedback about the friendship between my two main characters. Rewrites will require me to work to show their intimacy (as friends have who have known each other since childhood would have).

I’ve also realized that I have a potential timeline problem in that starting my story at the beginning of school year probably won’t work, since basketball season doesn’t usually start until November. Will require some rearranging of events.

(Did I mention I love my Writing Gang? Cause I love my writing Gang.)

In terms of exercise last week, I got in only two days of my exercise training and Saturday’s run was miserable. I couldn’t complete my intervals and felt like I was going to have heat stroke. But it was a super hot day and proves that I need to run really early in the morning on these hot summer days.

No attempts at organization were made last week.

In other news I have vacation this week! Woohoo!

In theory this means I should be able to complete my entire list of goals, as well as bonus goals (shopping, make some phone calls, help to hang living room paintins, etc.), because you know TIME IS AVAILABLE. And yet, it never likely comes out that way, because vaca should be for relaxing, too. Anywho…

That which must be accomplished in the coming week:
– Finish Chapter Four of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Edit Letter Box poetry chapbook and find a place to submit it
– Workout at least three days with two workouts being running training (1/3)
– Do three yoga workouts, three sun salutations min. (1/3)
– Practice my Spanish
– Make Progress on Organization (do one or more of the following):

— Sort paperwork out by year for filing and set up system for the current year
— Organize craft supplies
— Shred papers and dispose of them
— Find a minimum of ten items (big or small) that can be gotten rid of and get rid of them
— Take box of items to donate to Goodwill
— Measure pictures and buy frames

Current Project: Under the Midday Moon
New Words: 1,860
Current Total Word Count: 10,718
Goal: Put together an workable draft of the novel that I would actually let someone read.
Accomplished: Finished Chapter Four!

Random Rough Sentence(s): I dribbled, starting slow until I got into a tempo, then passed the ball hand to hand and between my legs, back and forth, back and forth, dancing foot to foot with the ball tapping out a rhythm against the floor, the sound echoing through the nearly empty gym.

Notes: Well, I’m glad that’s done, though I still feel like I’m stuck in pre-action chapters, and I really can’t wait until I get past this part to the meat of the story. Though, if I’m totally honest with myself, I’d admit that that feeling might never go away. *sigh*

1. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
2. Kim (audio book), by Rudyard Kipling
3. The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry, edited by Rose Lemberg
4. Tank Girl (Remastered Edition) (Bk. 1), by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin
5. Park Songs: A Poem/Play, by David Budbill
6. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
7. Scheherazade’s Facade: Fantastical Tales of Gender Bending, Cross-Dressing, and Transformation, edited by Michael M. Jones
8. Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders, by Jennifer Finney Boylan
9. The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas

Read reviews on my livejournal.

Linden Avenue is one year old today, and in celebration, the journal has a shiny new web design! Yay!

I’m pleased and honored to announce that three of my poems have been included in Issue Thirteen, along with work from many fantastic writers who have been previously published in the online journal.  For joy!

Other than this announcement there’s not much to announce (though isn’t that enough), as I was entirely non-production last week (with the last minute exception of scouring my bathroom, because gross). In the scope of this procrastination, I managed to miss two contest deadlines that I had been planning to submit to.

*sigh* Oh, well. Onward!

That which must be accomplished in the coming week:
– Finish Chapter Four of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Edit Letter Box poetry chapbook and find a place to submit it
– Workout at least three days with two workouts being running training (0/3)
– Do three yoga workouts, three sun salutations min. (0/3)
– Practice my Spanish
– Make Progress on Organization (do one or more of the following):
— Sort paperwork out by year for filing and set up system for the current year
— Organize craft supplies
— Shred papers and dispose of them
— Find a minimum of ten items (big or small) that can be gotten rid of and get rid of them
— Take box of items to donate to Goodwill