Nora - Glad you got your serpetine belt changed before it went bad, I had one break on me while I was driving and it's not anything you want to deal with in the middle of traffic.

Yeah, I've had some belt issues that, unchecked, have actually ruined my alternator.

We're all, "Oh my God! I'm doing what I want to do! I'm a grown up! I am soooooo going to screw this up!"

Hoo boy, don't I know it. It doesn't help that I wrote the first draft of my very first science article yesterday, and it was kind of crappy and not the superultrabrilliant thing it was supposed to be. Like, maybe I should have picked something I was actually good at.

It's so great having you all here. The Buffistas are like this huge resource for that thing that is life.

For example: I am so going to screw everything up when I finally get a car. I don't know what a serpentine belt is. But it sounds cool.

VW!! I know, it's been forever!

My new medication is weird. I'm supposed to take it in the evening; only I haven't been taking it early enough, I don't think, as it doesn't help me go to sleep or get sleepy until about 2am, and then I can't wake up in the morning. I've had a headache ever since the babies had their dirt fight, which still isn't cleaned up because I was hoping letting the dirt dry before I tried to vacuum it would minimize the stain. So, just bleagh. I know I'd be less with the gronk if this damned headache would just go away. I think it's the weather.

t /whine

{{PC}} I am not so oblivious as I sound today.

{{{Deena}}}

thanks -t-.

It doesn't help that I wrote the first draft of my very first science article yesterday, and it was kind of crappy and not the superultrabrilliant thing it was supposed to be

And I'm sure the amount of pressure you were putting on yourself, along with setting the standard that it must be superultrabrilliant, and the subsequent overcriticalness (is that a word?) had nothing to do with that.

Aw, {{Deena}}

It doesn't help that I wrote the first draft of my very first science article yesterday, and it was kind of crappy and not the superultrabrilliant thing it was supposed to be. Like, maybe I should have picked something I was actually good at.

It's your first article. You'll learn and get better. Who said it was supposed to be superultrabrilliant? You'll get feedback and improve. Like when ya learn to walk, you're probably going to spend a lot of time falling on your ass before you start cruising at speed.

For example: I am so going to screw everything up when I finally get a car. I don't know what a serpentine belt is. But it sounds cool.

I am the designated car-repair-interpreter. Tom can't even deal with them. The only reason I know anything about anything about cars (which isn't much) is because I have driven such crappy cars, so I've heard these terms coming out of various mechanics' mouths, followed by, "the cost to replace it will be..."

{{PC}} I am not so oblivious as I sound today.

{{Deena}} I haven't talked to you in forever either.

Trying to go slowly. I think what I need to do today, first, is refresh my memory on the types of potassium channels.

(The reason the freakout came today is this is the first day since I got back that I have nothing scheduled (besides The O.C. ). The day is completely mine, and that's way too much day for me to have to deal with. It means that every second of every minute of every hour should theoretically be devoted to my Master's.)

P-C, there's a reason "shitty first draft" is such a popular catchphrase in writerly circles.

I mean, I wrote some lame, limping dialogue for my hero and heroine last night. And felt horrible about it, because if their dialogue doesn't work, they don't have chemistry, and if they don't have chemistry, it's stupid and implausible for them to have a whirlwind affair, which makes my whole book stupid and implausible, and so on.

But I left it as is, because I've finally learned that if it doesn't come easily, I need to leave it alone for awhile. I can't fix it while I'm in the middle of it, stressed about it being bad. But I can nearly always fix it.

Shitty first drafts. Let them happen. Trust me, you can write.

I'm really sorry, Gud.