Two Weeks Until Lift Off

As much as I hate to be repetitive (stop laughing!) or to copy others, the rash of kids going back to school blog entries has got me to thinking.

Shirley Jump's column on RTB today pretty much sums up my feelings to a T. My kids start school two weeks from tomorrow. While I'm ready to settle back into the rhythm of routine, not to mention the peace and quiet of a child-free house, part of me is sad to see summer go. My kids have finally reached that age of self-sufficiency where they can get their own bowl of cereal in the morning to allow me an extra half hour of sleep. I've so much enjoyed the lazy days of freedom where we didn't have to be any particular place at any specific time. I'm not looking forward to hectic mornings, daily carpools, and the constant shuttling back and forth to activities, lessons and practices. Plus there's making lunches and helping with homework.

Ugh.

Except...I. Can. Not. Wait!!

No more arguing over the remote control. My daughter discovered the TV show Full House this summer, and if I have to hear Dave Coulier's Popeye impersonation one more time, I'm going to scream. No more neighbor kids running underfoot, turning me into the mother of four instead of the more manageable two. No more begging to go to the pool/park/bike riding/zoo/amusement park three thousand times a day. No more Legos and Bratz dolls scattered into every corner of every room of my house. No more constant chaos.

But something even bigger will happen in...let's see...approximately 350 hours.

My youngest enters kindergarten this year. It's only half day, or rather, two hours and forty-five minutes minus the fifteen minutes on either end that I have to leave to drop off or pick up. Even so, as of fifteen days from now, I will have about two and a half hours five days a week to do what I've wanted to do so long.

Sit my butt in a chair and write.

No excuses. No interruptions. No reasons I can't begin to treat this dream of mine as a real career. This is the beginning.

I'm considering August 29th the start date of my new job.

Of course, this means the end of my three year procrastination. Ever since I was laid off from my "real" job and my husband and I decided that me at home was probably more practical than me getting paid to work forty hours a week, I've been biding my time. It was pointless for me to treat my writing seriously because I could never devote the time I felt was necessary to make it work. Sure, I wrote at night and every free chance I got. I've done research and I've sketched out story ideas and characters. I've filled notebooks with charts and have read book upon book about the craft of writing.

I started this blog to make sure I wrote something - even just a little thing - every single day. I discovered the blogosphere and all of the on-line resources waiting at the tips of my fingers. I've paid attention to what's going on the industry, and I've sampled books across a variety of sub-genres, some that caught my interest and affected my decisions.

In short, I feel like the last three years have been my Writing University of sorts. I've been training and practicing.

Now it's time to pony up and get busy. The last of my reasons has been taken away.

So instead of crossing off the days until to Back To School Day, I'm looking forward to First Day Of My New Career Day.

WooHoo!