Possible Impossibilities

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, capped off by just having turned in my two final papers. On time. I’ve even managed to find a place for us to live that won’t kill me with commute time–though the rates demanded for rent in the DC area are nothing short of astounding. I’m still no happier at being separated for a final, long stretch from my hubs and furbabies–and I won’t see them again in person for almost another month.

But I’m down to three classes before I’m done with my MBA.

It’s enough to make me feel light-headed. I’ve been taking these classes for long enough it’s hard to imagine I might have time to get back to an actual, consistent writing schedule sometime in the near future. It would be satisfying to be able to say that the 4K+ words I produced this weekend alone were propelling me toward my author goals–instead of just marking another professional check in a box.

I may be a little burned out.

😉

At least I do have three weeks off from school; it’s the final break before I’m done. Not that the time off will contribute to all the things that need to get taken care of in Wisconsin before I can import the rest of my family…

Yet, my MBA experience tells me that just marking off each week’s small list of to-do items does eventually get you to an end-point. And I know there are others who have worked full-time while finishing a degree and accomplishing other goals. So I will continue to slog forward, even though I fought a terrible case of “I don’t WANNA!” this weekend.

That I haven’t found the time to add any fiction words in the past two weeks may also be contributing to my crankiness. Plus the fact that hubs came down with a terrible flu this week, and I had to watch him suffer from a distance. When I didn’t hear from him for over 14 hours at one point in the middle of his illness, I contemplated the need to call his family to see if anyone could stop by to check in for signs of life. Thankfully, he is now on the mend, but the experience underscores the helplessness this kind of separation can raise. Still, he shared another moving post listing the 9 qualities of people who are good at relationships. It was gratifying to see we have all the bases covered. This was further elaborated on in an interview snippet posted at PurposeFairy between Oprah and Thich Nhat Hanh. I love the idea that being fully present–even if it is only over the phone lines–can bring such power and healing to a relationship.

So I will close out the final week of this round of ROW80 not even having come close to my fiction-writing goals, but at least having come up with the focus and energy to complete another round of classes and having implemented the remaining pieces necessary to get my family to Virginia by August. In the final week of this round, I need to complete the paperwork run-around madness to be able to sign the lease, but I’d also like to see whether I can ramp up my word production. I may take a day or two off just to read a book or two, though–in the nature of a palate cleanser after the series of vague annoyances brought to me by my classes. In the meantime, I suggest you visit with some of the other ROW80ers to see how they’re managing the final crunch.