The other day, my college roommate sent me an email. She was going to the beach house on Sullivan’s Island, SC (near Charleston)—did I want to come?
Of course, I had no business going at all. My broken laptop put me behind on my WIP. I need to connect my daughter with my parents this afternoon for a week at their house and I needed to do her laundry and pack her suitcases. I’ve got stuff to do in the house and yard and … “YES!” I said. “I’m coming!”
So I left my kids at home with my husband yesterday morning at 6:00 A.M. and drove the few hours there. We had a wonderful day at the beach, wearing floppy straw hats, cackling over old jokes, and getting four and a half straight hours of sun (if my dermatologist is reading this—yes, I did have sunscreen. But no, I didn’t keep from getting burned somehow.) We stayed up late and ate take-out and had a great time.
So…obviously I didn’t get any work done yesterday on my writing. But the funny thing is that I woke up this morning and had all these fantastic ideas. And driving home this morning, the ideas kept flowing.
Maybe sometimes we need a little break from the ordinary to get our brains revved up again. It must have been the stimulation of something different that generated my brainstorming (it sure wasn’t the junky food I ate or the wine I drank, or the late hour I stayed up until.) I think sometimes it’s good to get out of our ruts, see different people, and get those rusty gears in our heads churning again.
Hi Elizabeth,
Sounds like a great day and you certainly deserved it. Yet here you are blogging on Sunday – just shows how dedicated you are! I’ve been thinking of swearing off the blogosphere on weekends, but I don’t seem to be able to do it.
I agree about doing something different as helping to rev up our creativity as writers. Today, for example, I marched in the Gay Pride Parade in Albany, helping to hold aloft a huge banner for the Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany. Loved all the cheering from the sidelines, although I felt a little fraudulent because I’m straight. But so what? It’s high time New York passed a gay marriage bill, and I’m proud to march for the cause.
Julie Lomoe
Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterioso
http://julielomoe.wordpress.com
There you go—something out of your routine and helping out for a cause you believe in. Definitely a red-letter day.
Elizabeth
Sounds like a great day, Elizabeth. I’m sneaking off to visit my son and daughter-in-law in Arizona for a long weekend 19th-23rd. I’m trying to talk myself into leaving my laptop at home, but I don’t know if I can make myself do that or not. Would be an interesting experience.