Sorry, babe. Can't help you there.

Can you write a very rough outline, go to bed (with snuggling), and set the alarm super-early to finish it?

c'mere Joe. She says I get to cuddle with you Chicago style in 5 places while singing U2 songs or something.

Yikes! Who can guess what site new guy to Texas just bookmarked?

Well Hello Dolly!

I know she's not heading for Dallas, but the headline said "warnings for Texas". Panic? what? me? NOOOOOoooo!

Well... I wrote a completely random conversation that had been tickling at the edges of my brain between two characters that if it happens, will be much later in the story. It's almost five hundred words of pure dialogue, but it's something. Then I went to the end of what I currently had and started writing without even going back and looking at what came before it. Another almost five hundred words. It might be crap, but you know, I can fix crap. I can't fix a blank page.

And it's something. I'd keep going, except I'm about to faceplant in the keyboard.

Last I heard, first semester I'll be in the group that will be teaching without a planning period. Budget cuts suck.

Dear god, GG. No planning period?? That sucks. We had a union meeting today to go over our new contract. We vote on it this week then it goes to the board on 8/4. While not fantabulous, it's okay.

I also went to go see the city youth summer theatre's production of Music Man tonight. A bunch of my kids were in it and they were so cute.

And echoing ChiKat in the "That sucks" for GG. Sheesh, no planning period?

Feh.

Guh. Got up too early. (See double-posting from phone at airport, earlier in this thread)

Flew to Portland. Met coworker for first time. Worked. Wasn't too bad, actually, the working. Did not feel like complete moron. Coworker did not make me feel stupid, though I didn't know some things. Sadly, she didn't know some of the answers either. Doh.

Met up with other coworker for hte other bit, later than planned. She knew nothing. Tried to get me to sign off on "i've done these things and given them to you" checklist thing, evne though she hadn't done any of them, saying she'd do them in the next few days. I refused, suggesting she fax it to me once she'd actually, um, DONE THEM? She had no idea what she was doing. People we were supposed to be working with got annoyed with Byzantine nonsense (which was not actually her fault but which her lack of knowledge was not helping, and her lack of helpfulness and communication over the past several weeks CERTAINLY hasn't made less Byzantine) and have seriously put their foot down and made my future life miserable.

Two more places to go!!

But coworker that I then spent two hours in car with, dinner, and the next two days with turns out to be quite pleasant. And a big gay homo. Yay!

It's so good to see you back, bonny!

Thank you sweet JZ. I really have been away...in a deeply dark period that, thankfully, has shifted. Still desperately scrambling to recruit clients to arrest the slide that occurred during the...we shall not speak of them, dark days. But, over all, much, much better. Smooch.

Barb, I posted and ran but wanted to add one more thing to all the great support offered by others. Writing about the actual stuckness...what it feels like, what it looks like, darkest imaginings, etc. might help to break some of the lock the fear has on you. It's one of those 'all we have to fear is fear itself' deals and "What we can actually SEE, becomes smaller."

It reminds me of that Twilight Zone (?) episode where the terrifying alien lands and we are built up to a fever pitch of fear until it is revealed that it's actually 4 inches tall and totally harmless.

This is not to compare being frozen with a trifle, but I think it really is true that getting whatever we are resisting out in the open gives us power over it.

Another thought replacement phrase I give clients is: Whatever you can't let be okay is standing in your way.

As weird as it may seem, there may actually be a 'benefit' in being frozen right now.

Wow Barb, good on you for getting your writing done.

Got home. Byron, who has been cooped up in the house most of the last couple of weeks due to playing Houdini in the back yard, has peed/sprayed so much that the entire house smells like a latrine. Drew and I have spent the last two hours scrubbing. Just what we needed.

(Nothing our housesitters could have done; no criticism intended in any way to them. Just frustration with the three-legged grumpy old man-cat.)