235. big week (part 2)

Two big news items for me this week. First, yesterday (Monday) my big shipment of Hawaii stuff got delivered. That means my drums, my recording equipment, my tools, and more of my clothes came in. I forgot how much stuff got shipped so opening all the boxes was a bit like Christmas. Everything was wrapped (packed by professionals back in HI - my mom hired a shipping company) in large sheets of heavy paper (they don't use packing blankets anymore) and so it really felt like unwrapping presents only these were items that I already owned. But it had been so long since I'd seen them that it was fun nevertheless.

Second news item, I started my new job today. Guess I passed their background check. It's a very active, physical job. Very different from the clerical work I've been doing for the past three years but that was the point of taking the job - to try something new and different. I work at a warehouse where they store boxes of files. Lots of them. Today, they gave me a list of boxes and files to pull and my job was to try and find them. The place is really well organized so it wasn't too hard to figure out what was where but still, there were lots of times when I must have looked like a man who didn't know which way was up.

There's tons of walking involved with this job - the warehouse is freaking huge (actually two big warehouses stuck together to make one huge one) and some of the boxes are maybe 40 or 50 pounds. Not a lot, but they're stacked three high and three deep and sometimes the box I need is in the back, on the bottom so I have to pull out eight boxes to get to the one. And then I have to put them back.

I'm hoping a few months of this job will make me a buff warehouse dude.

Oh, and as for the NaNoWriMo, I've already given up on it. My writing style is just not suited to the event and now I feel stupid because there were a few times, before the event, when I felt the pull of a story but held off in the hopes that it would still be there when the NaNo started. But the muse is a fickle maiden and try as I might, she would not sing again what I would not hear when first offered.

But I'm not bummed or frustrated like I was last year (see blog 117 for example - caution, potty mouth). I know it goes against the whole point of the event, but I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself to maintain my word count. The way I see it, writing is something I enjoy and to twist myself into knots just to "win" an event that isn't a competition is actually counter-productive.

Now I know I've written before that I want to try and get published (see blog 229), and I know most professional writers have a strict work ethic, but...but...but it's not like "winning" the NaNo has any prize money attached to it and I'd like to think that if I was writing for a paycheck (or after receiving an advance) that I would place nose to grindstone to spin golden threads of prose.

Speaking of a writer's work ethic, this past Sunday I got to hear Aimee Bender read one of her unpublished stories at a place called Hugo House (see what an amazing city Seattle is?). In one of the write-ups on the event, someone mentioned that she attributes her success to her discipline: "I write in the morning, two hours, that's the law." I really need to pick up her books because her slightly bent view of the world is something that I see in my own work (albeit, nowhere near her level).

One last bit about Aimee Bender and Hugo House. She teaches there and on the first Monday of every month, they hold a gathering for people looking to join up with writers groups. Part of what excited me about Seattle was the writing community that they have here and a writer's group is just what I was hoping to find. I know this past Monday was the first Monday of November but like I wrote above, all my stuff arrived from Hawaii and I was busy trying to find a place to put all the stuff. I'll try to make it to December's meeting.

Oh, and I might have found the church that I want to attend here in Seattle. More on that soon, but for now you can see their website at www.seattlequest.org.