I think the hardest work week (at the day job) is the week after you’ve had a week off. I’m so ready for it to be Friday.

This is more of a life update I guess than a writing one but doesn’t everything in our lives eventually turn to writing? Newbery (the car) and I are becoming closer. I definite like driving him in the daylight when it isn’t raining. It was something approaching fun to be able to take a sharp corner. Not so fun driving in the dark (I’ve always had issues with that and now I’m having get used to new car issues with driving to work in the dark) and not a lot of fun driving in the rain, which we’ve had a lot of the last couple of days. Yesterday I left work at 2:30 to go to the knee doc. It was dark. It was pouring. It was the kind of rain that made you wonder if someone was standing over you dumping out buckets of water. And I had to take the freeway. There I am, going as slow as I can (while people around me are going 75mph and more without their lights on) and I hit the wipers to turn them up a notch but I ended up TURNING THEM OFF. This is while I am on the freeway surrounded by cars. MAJOR panic attack and I drove like a little old lady (not from Pasadena) the rest of the way to the doc. Sigh.

Finally had an orthopedic doc look at my knee which hasn’t healed in way too long from me trying to get back into an exercise program. He said I have the classic signs of a meniscus tear so it’s an MRI to confirm and then most likely surgery. I really don’t like the sound of that even though I know tons of people have knee surgery and are fine. But from what I have read, after you have this surgery you are at greater risk for knee problems down the road. Ick.

Okay…I do have writing thoughts. One, as I finish one project and haven’t really committed to the next book project (I thought I had but due to a bunch of things, well, I was wrong) I am cleaning out my drawers of stories written long ago and trying to decide if they are worth working on, keeping, or tossing. I have is a file full of what I once thought were picture books (many moons ago) but now I realize that they are all probably short stories. Even though I can logically acknowledge that it’s still hard to let go of book thoughts.

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a reading of Oliver’s Must-do List at the Stanford Children’s Book Fair. 1:30pm Stanford bookstore. This is the end of their weeklong Children’s book fair. All kid’s books are 20% and there’s a great line up of authors all day long with prizes, games, face painting and so much more!