one foot in, one foot back

It's been a while since I posted anything, though I've been around Twitter and Facebook pretty regularly. Let's see: last time we met, I was in my second week of work and feeling happy with my choices, fulfillment, and hope for my future.

Good news: still feeling that way.

Since then, I've been yelled at, cursed at, hit, pinched, grabbed, pooped on, treated a junkie, treated someone who is bona fide cray-cray, and seen more naked people than you'll ever hope to see in your lifetime. I cut stitches out of someone's throat--that was cool. My hands didn't even shake--aren't you glad?

I've also been told that I'm beautiful multiple times (mostly by little old ladies), told that I look like Marie Osmond (wha??), and told that I have the most beautiful smile that person had ever seen. Even if the speaker is half-blind and half-crazy, it's still a nice compliment, right?

Yesterday in class we spent 2 hours discussing the genetic code of E. coli and how mutations occur in bacteria.

Hubby and I have been watching Rescue Me for the last few weeks. It's free to Amazon Prime members right now, so we've been taking our liberties. Right now we're halfway through season 5. Great show.

As for my novel, things on that front are very good. I'm hoping beyond hope that I'll be finished with revision by Monday, July 2. I've learned so much during this third revision, especially about killing your darlings--although, I have to admit it's not that hard for me to cut entire chapters. I wish I'd kept exact track of how many words I cut and how many new words I wrote. I think it has to be somewhere around 15k cut, at least, and even with that I've still netted 6k over the second draft's final word count, and I have 4 more chapters to go. But the final product is something I'm going to be proud of. I pushed the story, pushed the characters, and ultimately (think) I've put the story right where it needs to be.

My garden is lush and productive. We have a watermelon the size of a big softball, but it seems to double in size every day. I can't wait to eat it.

I'm still training for the half-marathon, though it's not going so well right now. Since I have to get up at 5am four days a week, it's hard to find time to run--especially after working 13 hours on two of those days. And now that it's 106 degrees, even 6am is pretty sweaty. But, soon enough my externship will be over (July 25!), my summer class will be over (July 31!), and I can run as much as I want for a few weeks.

So.


Stay cool, stay hydrated, and eat your vegetables.