Days six, five, four and three until THIRTY

Well, as predicted, both days six and five were devoted to my best friend and helping her bring Patrick into the world. I won't go into details, which I know Jessie will appreciate, but I will say that it was the most worthwhile, important thing I've ever done. Twenty-nine was a pretty damn good year for me, I have to say. Going to Belize, meeting Charlie D'Ambrosio and George Saunders, and watching my first birth and being a part of that process...I have nothing to complain about. There are other highlights, of course, people I've met and new groups I'm associating with that make this year a truly memorable one.

Day four, Wednesday, I wrote. As usual it was shitty shit shit. I think I have to get back to some basics of writing, the craft. I did register for a Gotham Writing Workshop through Zoetrope, though, which should help me out. I'm flailing wildly without a writing class. I also met with my writing group tonight. Well, most of my writing group. One member was late and the other didn't show, although she called. It's a struggle to coordinate schedules and everyone obviously has priorities. It's frustrating to balance business and friendship. Writing groups and I don't seem to mix well. I've been in two now, and the struggles we have are very, well, almost like how I imagine families with more than one child have to deal with things. We were talking about Greg's story, which was 64 pages of brilliance and I know he worked his ass off on it, and we were rescheduling all over the place and when we finally did manage to get together it was for less than an hour and we weren't all there. I don't know how he could help but take that personally--I know I would. So day four did not end up as well as I hoped.

Today, day three, was a phenomenal day. I slept in, of course, but not too late. I then sat down to bond with Chuck Klosterman, whom I'm going to see with Greg on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. Gatsby slept for a good four hours this afternoon, allowing me to read without interruption. The sky cleared and the sun came out and there was a great breeze and life was just awesome. I loved today.