Planning to Relax

I'm soooo excited! I'm just about to start a long weekend (four days off, back to work on Thanksgiving), and for the first time in a long time, I don't have any writing to do. *

I mean, I have things I could do, writing-wise, sure. I have a few things I need to work on soon. But at this exact moment, I'm under deadline for NOTHING.

So you know what I'm going to do?

1. Clean out my office. I've been buried in it for the last six months, and it was made worse when, for a moment, I thought I was going to try to fit a large chaise in it. I moved everything, stacked boxes and book and papers up against a wall and created disorder in the only area that was still ordered. I hate it. I hate being surrounded by chaos and clutter, but I literally haven't had time to deal with it. Now I do, and I feel a purge coming on. I'm going to call Waste Management, too, for a bulky trash pick up, so I can just throw out things (like the ancient chair that I never sit in, the one I rescued off a sidewalk and is now too old to even try to donate). Getting this done would be heaven. Hard work, and relaxing, all at the same time.

2. Manicure. Have you heard about the new gel nail polishes? They last TWO WEEKS without chipping. A couple of my friends have them, and I'm gonna try it. I love nail polish, but I hate how trashy my nails look in two or three days, so I never paint them.

3. Massage. I got one as a gift from Lala for my birthday in JULY. Three months I've been sitting on this bad boy. I wanted to save it as a present to myself when I finished the nonfiction book (DONE COMPLETELY, even copyedits are complete) and the third novel (DONE but waiting for revisions back from my editor).

4. Night of Writing Dangerously -- the NaNoWriMo night that shines like a brilliant, wordy diamond over the rest of the other 29 days of writing -- Bethany and I are going, thanks to the kindness of our fairy godmother. (Also, I'm giving a little talk at it. My pal Chris Baty asked me to. Squee!) (Don't ask me how I'm doing in NaNo. I'm wayyyy behind and likely to remain so, since I had the other deadlines. But I'm still plugging along.)

5. Bed. Book. Repeat.

6. Yoga. I'm TERRIFIED to go back, haven't been in at least four months. I'll be the most out-of-shape (and the largest, although those two don't necessarily go hand in hand) person in class, and I'm not going to care. You have to get back up on the horse at some point. You know, the yoga horse. My pretty asana. Stopping now.

I also have lunches and an interview with GrannyG in New Zealand (!) and some naps. Also some meditation ( we went to hear the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche speak last night, and he kind of blew my mind (typo: nose, I just sneezed) -- I'm going to try to still this brain of mine sometimes. HAHAHAHA. Yes, but I'll try).

 

*Note: I am nothing but grateful that I HAVE writing work to do. I'm so so so so so lucky to have it. However, that will not prevent me from relaxing this weekend and doing NOTHING. Except for this whole list. God, I'm bad at relaxing.