Inauguration

My daughter's student group arrived in DC after 24 hours in a bus trip from hell. They missed a lot of fun stuff, but ended up going to a great Italian restaurant, and then to the WW2 Memorial. Yesterday they were able to tour the city and see more memorials, and they got to visit their congressman's office. I had emailed the office about their plight on Sunday and they responded yesterday. The staffer followed up with calling the group and the chaperones. They were invited to see the congressman's office and get pictures made with him. I was pleased for them and very impressed with the man for following up. I told my husband I'd vote for him again because he did this one thing right for me. I know it will have an impact on the students' memories and my daughter called to say thanks as well.

I managed to write about one hour on Sunday, and three hours on Monday, MLK Bday. Also my actual birthday so lots of well-wishers calling. Then my DH took me out for a grown up treat: movies with wine and appies in the adult section of the theater. Very nice atmosphere. And the movie had Clint Eastwood in it--amazing actor and story.

Today I am writing the black moment--not feeling very good about the prior scene, but at this point, I am rewriting the entire thing, so I just need to get the story down--again-- for the zillionth time. I am so sick of this book. I can't wait to see the last page on my computer. I've cut 20,000 words!!!!!!!!! Argh -- I move forward, cut, move forward, cut again. I have approximately 53,000 words. The length of the BLAZE catergory is about 60,000. I easily have that many words with the cut ones LOLM, but I have to write new words. I WANT THIS BOOK OUT OF MY HAIR.

I gave myself a deadline: Friday the 23rd. I will finish it by then--late or early--and then weekend OFF. And then I start a new challenge--Book In A Week. I am looking forward to writing something completely NEW. I feel ready to start a new story, a new idea, anything but this swill I am serving up.

Now, off to read other blogs, pop back into bed and read for a bit, and then sleep again--I HOPE.

Oh My How Worry Distracts

My daughter is on a bus going to DC for the Inauguration. They left last night at 5:30PM. They were supposed to arrive in the DC area this morning. They are still on the road due to ice, bad roads, a 6 hour pull over and a major wreck.

They will be lucky to get there by 6pm tonight. The day is in tatters for these middle school/high school students. They had a tour of the capital planned... gone... tour of Union Station... gone... tour of the WW2 Memorial... gone... and they are still stuck on a bus for at least 6 more or longer hours...

Meanwhile, the juice on her phone is gone... so we have no way of keeping up with her. As of 10:30 we have operated in the dark. I just pray she gets there with her group safe and sound.

Tomorrow I hope they have a great day. I could care less if they see the inauguration at this point. They should tour what they missed seeing today and skip being cold. But they will probably go to the inauguration.

I feel so bad for them. And it is hard to write when I am worrying about all those chicks and how rotten they must be feeling right now!

But maybe, if I get some energy up, I will start the next scene and tackle it. My goal is to finish by Friday afternoon -- at the latest.