Update on Wear Them Down

First, there is an owl hooting outside my window. If I were to give into my superstitious side I would wonder if it was a screech owl. They say that when a screech owl hoots it's foretelling the death of someone. Not encouraging that the damn thing sounds as though it's directly overhead.

So far my diabolical plan to get emotional support is going swimmingly. I started out by announcing I needed a hug. Hugs are addictive! I would not be surprised if I started soliciting strangers for a hug. I've had three or four in the past 4 hours, every time that man moved I was up and asking for a hug. 1:00 am, 4:00 am, 7:00 a.m. - got my hug on. It was wonderful.

I also decided that I can work from home. Mainly because getting out of the house seemed a little out of my league this morning, but just the same, this is progress on my part. I'll call one of my specialists and see what they have to say about my newest discomfort and if they have me come in maybe I'll solicit hugs from the doctor (he's very nice, i don't think he would turn me down). Even the postal deliveryperson isn't safe at this point.

Also, I'm reading "Don't Panic" by Neil Gaiman (www.neilgaiman.com) about the author of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/), Douglas Adams and it is phenomonally funny. Gaiman is a masterful writer with a keen sense of humor and Adams was just a ridiculously funny and intelligent bloke. I would have loved to drink tea laced with rum on a beach somewhere with him. Anyway, Adams had a terrible time with deadlines and one passage in the book details the promotional work done for his 3rd of 4th book in the Hitchiker's series. Basically, the publisher sent out a flier that announced they knew jackshit about the book because it hadn't been written although every imaginable deadline had long-since passed and the book was *supposed* to be on shelves already. In addition, they detailed the daily prayer meetings in the editorial department (not a religious lot, but they were turning to the only help they could get at this point) that went a little something like "Dear god, please help Douglas Adams finish this manuscript. And in addition to his daily bread please help him find inspiration..."

that's really, really funny to me because I think that might be the universal creative artists' prayer. Dear God, let me eat and give me inspiration and enough pride or humility to start and finish this work. I hear it all the time - I feel it all the time and I love stringing words together. I've been editing through some of my stories and there are spots where it's obvious I was in such a tizzy to put words on paper that I literally put anything down just to fill the space. I'm amazed when I look back on it now because the story will just be swimming along and then - whammo - you know exactly when i ran out of steam and story and started grasping about for something, ANYTHING to say. My giveaway is a string of adjectives to create a strange image. Poor me.

Well, that's the 12 o'clock update. More later.