It’s been crazy. Sorry I’m not keeping up. 

Last week I was licensed to teach Zumba! I’m really excited about it – I’ve got about half a class ready to go, so I’m not hounding for a job yet, but I’ve definitely got my eyes open and I’m looking at some possibilities. I’m having a blast putting together choreography from both the ZIN materials and my own experience, and arranging playlists of “classes” I plan to do. 

The book is coming along slowly. I had to rewrite a scene and it totally stopped me in my tracks until it was done, I’ve been bad about getting up every morning and writing…definitely a slump, and a time during which I’m grateful that I don’t depend on my writing to put food on the table. I’m getting back into the swing now that the scene finally isn’t stabbing me in the brain with wrongness anymore. I’m expecting that I should have the first draft finished by my birthday in November, which will bring the time to write a first draft to one year, which I think is cool. I’m about 117k words in – thank goodness this is a fantasy novel, where word counts like that are more acceptable for a first book!

The leaves are turning here in CT, and everything smells of autumn. It’s my favorite time of year. I wish it could stay like this until spring!

I’m up to 9 pen pals – though two of them I have yet to hear from. I just know to expect letters from two people because the LWA sent me two names of new pen pals, which I’m pretty sure means they also sent my name to two people as well. I finally got an international pen pal – in Croatia!!!! So cool. Plus an excuse to buy Global Forever stamps. 

I’ll miss this month’s poetry meeting because Matt, Eevee and I are heading to Block Island to stay overnight in a B&B. I’m so excited – I’ve never been there in the fall and Matt has never been there at all! We “sail” on the ferry from Point Judith at 7:15 am (which means leaving the house shortly before 5 am). We’ll have all day to roam the island, and I can show Matt where we stayed when I was a kid, etc. The B&B claims on their website to have fresh cookies in the afternoons, and then naturally breakfast the next day. 

I have to say, though – of all the exciting things this trip will bring, the thing I’m most looking forward to is the dog seeing the ocean for the first time, because he’s never been to the beach. You can bet THAT’S going on video tape. HA!

Oh, one other thing – I’m doing YouTube videos now. Few and far between, but you can at least count on a monthly un-boxing of my Birchbox. Check it out!

See you around ^_^