I have one habit that makes my husband crazy. Well, I probably have more than one, but this is a biggie.
I talk back at the TV. Sometimes I yell at it as if it can hear me.
This goes back to a series of TV commercials from the late 1960s to sometime in the 1980s for a laundry detergent.
Why is it the wife’s fault the man doesn’t wash his neck?
Sometimes it feels like being an author while holding down a full-time Day Job makes my life all work and no play. It’s a good thing I love writing–almost as much as I love having written!
But I do tend to goof off a good bit. Facebook and Pinterest are two of my favorite time sucks. My very favorite, however, is reading. I could read 24/7. I read the way most people I know watch television.
What’s your favorite way to goof off?
Many authors work a Day Job in addition to writing.
Sometimes I envy people who commute via mass transit because they can read. Or write. But that’s the only thing I do envy (other than not having to drive in a snow storm). I’ve heard of authors who dictate while they’re driving, but I would worry that I would get so caught up in the story I would become a menace on the road.
I feel bad for some of my writer pals who drive long distances every day. After a particularly nasty drive–which is not uncommon this time of year–they are too drained to write.
I tend to have Day Jobs that are less than two miles from my home, so I don’t commute. (I don’t walk or bike either, but I should.) This saves me a lot of time that I use for writing. I can listen to a song or two from my book sound track, depending on how many traffic lights I hit. And if I have a tiffany, I don’t have to fumble for my phone to make a note or try to remember it until I get home, because home is only moments away.
When I started my current Day Job, my office was located in a suburb. I had a minimum fifteen to twenty minute commute each way every day. I couldn’t dash home for lunch. But I did find a way to rig my car’s cassette player to my mp3 player and listen to RWA workshops, so the commute became educational.
I’ve learned to take advantage of every moment I can.
I love hats.
I have many.
But hats don’t like me, because I’m short and short people have a limited range of hat styles they can wear with out looking…stubby.
I was leafing through an old note book and came across an exercise in which I was asked to describe my perfect work space.
Bare windows with blinds to close at night. Bare wooden floors. Pale apricot walls. A desk. A great chair.
Laptop computer. 
Great audio system. A rocking chair in front of the windows.
I work there whenever I can. My dream schedule–work 7am to 3pm every day. No other people around.
How do I feel working here? Good. Productive. Fitting inside my skin.
Welcomed. I feel welcomed.
I guess it’s still a work in progress.