Working forty-six hours in four days can really tire me out. Don't get me wrong, the overtime is good and there will be more of it on Saturday and Sunday. I can hear the savings account growing for the lay-off season come November. But still, working a twelve hour shift doesn't leave much day left, no more than a scrap. It's that time of the year again (and it'll happen again in six monts): aerification on the golf course.

After a week like this, I'm glad I have writing-career ambitions. With that, comes another realization: I need to work harder on those ambitions.

Today was a great day! I was in great, happy mood. That's because I had the day off from work. Woo-hoo! Amazing what a day off will do for the mood.

I learned Jenn announced a dare. Since the dare period ended May 15th and since I needed my novel done by that date for a workshop, I thought I could do that. I also learned Journalscape was gone from the Internet for a period of time, but I had been so busy with work I hadn't noticed.

This morning I took the laptop to Barry's Espresso across the street. Catty-corner, actually. And if we lived at the other end of the building we'd have a good view of the coffee shop's front door. I love the location of our apartment.

So I had a breakfast sandwich, marionberry muffin, and two cups of coffee. I had my laptop up and running. I wrote some notes on other stories. And I ended up writing nothing on the novel. Damn inertia.

However, I did write later on. 274 words on the novel. Minuscule, maybe, but I've only just begun to chip away at the inertia. I'm not going to whine about not doing more (because if I had really wanted to do it, I would have) and instead I'm considering it a start back into the novel.

So, day one of the dare: 274 words. So many more words to come by May 15th.

I also got my Polyphony contract in the mail. I read it over, signed it, and sent it this evening. That made me happy, too.

Sure beats a day of blue-collar work.