getting down to business

My goal this summer was to lounge a lot and to work a little and to write most of my thesis, or at least a draft of most of the essays that will be in it. I am good at lounging and working but I suck at writing. In the first couple of weeks of summer I wrote an article for Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living magazine about rodeos, which I knew nothing about going in and which required tons of research. Doing the article was a great experience but it burned me out on writing for a while, because I had just finished my first year of grad school before I started the article and was already feeling pretty tired. I didn't write much at all for a little while after that.

And regarding lounging: I've learned that I'm probably never going to be someone who has long unmarked spans of time stretching out ahead. Being interested in lots of things and liking lots of people and wanting to go to lots of places will always keep something out ahead of me. This summer, so far, has been good and relaxing and full of fun people and time to read magazines and ride my bike to The Scoop for ice cream. But it's also been full of work projects and article writing and people visiting and mission trip planning and traveling. I say yes to doing lots of things, and every week there's something going on, and it makes it hard to find some sort of routine to do any real writing.

So, while I was walking Emmy tonight, I had an idea: I should set a deadline for my next essay. I should give myself two weeks, which is how long I had to write my rodeo article, which was fairly long and very research intensive, so I know it's doable. And to keep myself accountable, I'll let you read it. If you read this blog and want to read my essay two weeks from now, post a comment telling me so, and I'll email it to you when it's finished. It probably won't be a perfect flawless gem like me, but it will at least be a pretty good draft.

And, as another attempt to help myself stay on track, here are some of the topics I'm hoping to write about this summer, in the form of personal essays, profiles, and research-based pieces. The list is kind of cryptic, but not to worry; I know what it all means.

• serial hobbyism
• vegetarianism, and my growing numbers of vegetarian friends
• movement and thought, and how they're connected
• working at a bank
• working at a church
• piano lessons
• longtime friends (and maybe high school reunions)
• writing about the secret world of rodeo
• the moment I knew I'd become an adult