I am not in a coma. And my post office peeve.

Well, I hit 20K today, which is about 25%, and I just had a glass of wine to celebrate. It was Gruener Veltliner, incidentally, not the Riesling with undertones of turpentine and a strong plastic finish I tried to drink the other night. And it was quite nice with the lemon pepper salmon.

But word counts aside, I’m not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. In fact, I am almost embarrassed to admit that I fell asleep sprawled across a metal mesh picnic table at Abby’s school. I have no idea how many people saw me drooling, but I shudder to think. (Ian’s been waking up in the middle of the night the last few nights, reminding me — as if I needed a reminder — of why I am happy with two, and only two, kids.) In fact, if it hadn’t started sprinkling, I’m pretty sure I’d still be in a semi-coma at the school playground, with the kids seeing how much pea gravel they could fit into my ears before I woke up.

But with the help of the rain and a few shoves from Abby, I did manage to pry myself up (I still have mesh marks on my left cheek). And this evening, while I was frying up a flank steak and a couple of salmon filets — it was another what-fell-out-of-the-freezer night chez MacInerney — Maggie Sefton called, which was an unexpected delight. Truth be told, I forgot to call her this morning, due to my sleep-deprivation-induced haze. But she forgave me, and told me about her great trip to New York, meeting all the bigwigs and impressing the socks off them. Her books are selling like hotcakes. I’m so happy for her; she’s worked so hard for so long, and it’s wonderful to see good things coming her way.

And something about that last paragraph made me think of another thing I wanted to talk about. Why, I don’t know, but since I spent a good forty-five minutes waiting in line (with mesh prints on my face and two bored and active children hanging from me like ripe fruit), I guess it’s still a bit fresh in my mind.

Traditionally, there is a long wait at post offices. Like, twenty to twenty-five minutes at the least, if you go to the one I go to. What I want to know is, would it be too much to ask that one use this time for things like, say, selecting the envelope one would like to use for one’s correspondence? Or, perhaps, writing the address of the intended recipient on said envelope? Or maybe even investigating the certified/return receipt requested options before approaching the desk with six piles of paper whose intended destinations include Tasmania, Hong Kong and East Burlington, Timbuktu?

Ah, well. Next time, I’ll just bring a paperback — and about forty lollipops for my kids. They can stick the half-eaten ones to the bottoms of the people with stacks of certified mail for Tasmania, who are on their cell phones trying to make sure they’ve got the right zip code.

I’m off to make sure my son doesn’t drown himself in the tub.

How was your day?

9 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Hi,

    Love your story about falling asleep in public. How embarrassing & mortifying. LOL. What’s worse is that the people around know you and if they know you’ve been hitting the wine…well, you know how rumors start. “Sure she said she was exhausted…” LOL.

    Post office? Don’t get me started. And they have the nerve to want to raise the price of a stamp.

    I spent an hour at the dentist office for my exam & cleaning. It’s a very nice office, but I hate it. I think I’d rather spent the time at the post office.

    To top off the trip to the dentist I’m sick. I went to bed last night and it hit me and I still got it. Head hurts, throat hurts, I’m exhausted (so I’ll try not to sit outside and be careful at lunch tomorrow) and coughing & sneezing. Just what I need.

    Last night I put the edits for two chapters into the computer and tonight I just finished two chapters. I would like to continue, but I think it’s time to go to bed.

    Oh, great job on the word count. 20K is very productive. You deserved that wine!

    Have a good night,
    Debra S.

  2. My day? I’m thinking I will have to let one of my freelance clients go. It’s OK because it will free up my time for fiction (if not editing, which pays better ;)) and I won’t be dealing with mis- (or no) communication anymore. But it was decent income and that will be sad to lose.

    Hope sleep returns to your nights soon!

  3. And here I thought the 20K you wrote of was the profit you had made from your writing. I was getting really excited. 🙂

    I have two children, too! And a son named Ian, while your Ian seems to be a husband. Gosh, I wonder what else we have in common?

  4. Debra,

    I wish I could say mortifying moments were unusual for me. But oh, well.

    And poor you! Go to bed, drink tea, eat soup, and read good books. Forget work for now; just get better. For all my ‘words a day’ stuff, there are months when I don’t even want to look at a keyboard; my friend Maggie calls it filling the well.

    Take care of yourself first; the writing will come.

    Thanks for the congrats on the word count, btw… let’s just hope the majority of them are keepers. 😉

    Take care of yourself, Debra, and let me know how you’re doing.

    Hugs! (From a safe distance.)

    Karen

  5. Christa,

    Decisions like that are hard… and the results can a mixed blessing.

    Everything is a balance, isn’t it? But I’m betting something wonderful — like a new book contract, or a client you adore — will come in to fill the space you make.

    Keep us posted!

    (And stay well — the whole country seems to be down with the flu.)

    Karen

  6. Julia,

    If the 20K was the profit I made today, you and I would be sharing a magnum of Dom Perignon, Julia.

    And my Ian is a son, but if I’ve given the impression that he’s a husband, I need to go and reread my posts. Immediately. Although he and my husband share some similarities… a love for legos and pirates among them.

    How old is your Ian? And your other kiddo? My Ian is 5, and his big sis is 7.

    We both write books for Midnight Ink, so there’s one. And I believe we share a fondness for poetry. How do you feel about chocolate and coffee? (My twin addictions, which thankfully are both legal.)

    Speaking of chocolate, I just got a box of truffles. I’m going to do my best French pig impression and sniff them out.

    Ciao for now,

    Karen

  7. Laura K says:

    Karen –

    Lemme guess, your post office is the one by Central Market. I remember when they opened that one and it became “my” post office even though there was a post office half a block from my house.

    Where I live now, our post office is so bad that you can regularly wait in line 20 minutes with only three people ahead of you. Because of my business, I mail things at least twice or three times a week. I now use a shipping service (expedia.com) and in the rare instance that I have to send something overseas and need to physically show up at the post office, I drive 4 miles out of my way to go to one in a different town.

    I’m about even with you on the word count. Considering I started out about 10k ahead, that’s not so thrilling, but you do what you can do… Plus, I’m beginning to wonder where the right amount of plot for the other 50k or so words will come from. (I invariably add a bunch during edit, so I set out for 70k to begin with). It’s not so much that I am *worried* per se, I’m just at the point where I wish I were the kind of writer who outlines so I would know I had enough left. So much has already happened!

    Debra –
    I’ve needed to go to the dentist for well over a year. I have two cracked crowns (I *know* they’re cracked, but I don’t want to make it official at which point I will have to pay a lot of money to be subjected to pain–not my idea of a good time). Since we moved a couple years back, my excuse has been that I don’t know of a dentist hereabouts.

  8. Laura,

    Actually I use the one in Westlake, but now I know not to try the one near CM.

    And bravo on the words. You are doing great, girl. See the post I did today for further discussion of word counts, and why my rather ridiculous goal isn’t necessarily the right one for everyone. (And remember, I’ve got 20 hours a week slated to write, which is more than many of us have; including me, at several times in my life.)

    In fact, I think I’ll be posting about “Delightful Day Jobs I’ve Survived” soon. I tried writing the world’s worst romance novel during one of them, come to think of it; I think it has been consigned to a dumpster somewhere, thankfully…

    You’re doing great, Laura. I’m proud of you, and you should be, too.

    Karen

  9. meshia says:

    "Traditionally, there is a long wait at post offices. Like, twenty to twenty-five minutes at the least, if you go to the one I go to. What I want to know is, would it be too much to ask that one use this time for things like, say, selecting the envelope one would like to use for one's correspondence? Or, perhaps, writing the address of the intended recipient on said envelope? Or maybe even investigating the certified/return receipt requested options before approaching the desk with six piles of paper whose intended destinations include Tasmania, Hong Kong and East Burlington, Timbuktu?"
    When fat women quit grocery-shopping in McDonalds Drive-thrus. Folks will actually start to use comman sense.

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