Thank you all for your words of wisdom and encouragement; it's always good to hear one's not alone in one's writing angst. Oddly enough, about an hour after I posted that last entry Tim and I went, at my insistence, to a cafe, where I proceeded to crank out the beginning of a story that just flowed out of me as if I were one of those new age moms who later tell other (disgusted) mothers that during the birth of their child they just "breathed the baby out". Not that I know anything about birthing babies. What I'm trying to say here is that the story was easy to write, that writing was a joy for a change. I wrote until my hand cramped too badly to continue, and I've been working on it on the train all week. Still going well (knock on wood). I hope to have a draft by the end of the weekend. Go me!

Now if only we can get the novel to start doing this, we're in business!

In other news, planning a wedding -- actually calling caterers and bridal shops -- sucks major ass. Seriously, I long for last year when I was in the daydreamy stage. The actual nitty gritty is really fucking annoying. Caterers don't like to use email. I can't take calls at work. They hold normal business hours. I want to cry. Also: expensive. And bridal shops are a major racket. I had this great idea: have all the bridesmaids gather to try on dresses, to make sure they flatter everyone well enough, then have them order at a 25% discount through Discount Bridal Service. But it seems I'm too late in the game, as the bridal shops have wisened to this ploy. Either that or they're bastards: it's $30 per bridesmaid PER HOUR for them to try on gowns. Of course, it's a "deposit towards the gown" but what if we'd decided to buy from a shop that carries a more flattering style?

Of course, the fact that it takes 30 WEEKS to get the gowns means that I'll probably have to give up the idea of seeing them in the dresses before having them buy them, as we need to leave time for alterations and the wedding is Oct. 1st. Hopefully it doesn't cost anything to go look at swatches to make sure I'm getting the right color.

Did I mention that the caterers suck too? But, ultimately, not as purely evil as the bridal shops.