writing with Gwen

This morning I left the house at 7:10 AM to go meet three of my pals for my birthday breakfast. We've been doing this steadily for over twenty years. We meet at a diner - The Ardmore Tearoom - and fete the birthday gal. We've kept it to four because that is how many people fit in a booth. In the last few years it has been pretty dodgy to get together. One of our gang lives in Merigomish - a two or three hour drive (depending on weather). One is retired and takes off for big chunks of time to visit her girls out west and so...My birthday is in a week today but we thought we'd strike while we had the opportunity. It has snowed us out on mine the last few years and plus the retiree leaves before the 21st. All this to say - we did it!  Linder was a bit late - the wind was blowing wildly and the rain was crazy. 71 thousand without power this morning in Nova Scotia!

I just walked the dog and I swear it is so warm I really felt like jumping in the ocean. I think it would be fine and I just might do it. Maybe I'll do it on my birthday wearing my birthday suit! I could've worn shorts today. It is pretty crazy considering back where I was last week they are now declaring a state of emergency and bringing in the military. Over 300 folks couldn't get off the highway last night - they were trapped in their cars in a blizzard. Yikes.

I got back home at ten and Gwen was here soon after. We did some writing and talking and the phone kept ringing with fairly goofy stuff. I'm going to spend another hour or so on my novel. I'm just doing one bit of an edit on a hard copy before I zip it off to my first readers. They are all up to their eyebrows in holiday jazz so won't get to it until after the big day anyhow. And I do want it to be the best it can be right now so I should be done by the end of the week. Then I'm going to fuhgedaboudid for a while and work on getting The Rock Walker out to a contest and a few more publishers. Yep, no rest for the wicked.

Gwen brought out my birthday present (we shop our closets) because she thought I was busy next Tuesday on my birthday. I told her NO! I want to write on my birthday. I'm always psyched about doing what I want to be doing all year on my birthday - so I'll want a good snuggle with my SP, a wonderful meal, some celebrating with the kids at the church (Children's Day & my birthday coincide most years) and some good time spent writing. Not necessarily in that order you understand...

What do you do on your birthday in the line of goal-setting or taking stock if anything? Maybe it is because my birthday is so close to the end of the year but it does put me in mind of the BIG CLOCK ticking away. And no I don't mean the baby-making one! jeesh - I'm so done with that! I mean the one that has a little cuku bird that pops out and sings "have you done anything meaningful with your life this year? Or ever?" Think I'll catch that bird and get Ron to knock its head off.