September 12th

Today started with a dream about moving to Palacios that almost had me convinced going back was the right thing to do. Even before I arrived at the house, I had gotten a job working in the Chamber of Commerce and discovered that a theater group was opening up right downtown. My only concern was protection and that was relieved when I arrived at the houe to discover that my Uncle Rod had bought - a lion. Yep. There was a lion living on a huge chain that had the run of the field across the street and the front yard. Even though closer inspection showed that it was actually a mix between a golden retriever and a lion - think huge retriver with a thick lion tail, I was still sure that no one would dare sneak up on my house if I had a lion in the front who was friendly to me and deadly to everyone else.

All my problems were solved until...

I woke up. And thought it was quite impossible for me to get a lion for safety and that there was no theater in the town and I was right back to where I started in the debate. And even though my living situation is quite settled until the end of November, I still woke with the "where shall I live" debate raging in my head. So much so, that I couldn't go back to sleep. I thought that I was a little sleepy but quite tired of laying in bed and ready to start the day. Was it too early? I reached for my phone and flipped it open pleased to find it was 6:20 and not 3:00 as I had feared.

So I got up and finished writing out the questions that I posted this morning. I read my Bible. I can't actually remember the order that I did things today. I ate cereal and then returned to read a second chapter of the book. Posted the answers, cleaned my room and then took "Swing" outside to edit. I edited a chapter and a half - since the first was halfway done - then returned inside where I discovered I was still hungry. Pop was up by now and my "eggs and toast" turned into a request for "eggs, bacon and homemade biscuts". So like a Hobbet, I set to work making "second breakfast" and unlike a hobbet, I discussed investing and real estate with my Grandpa.

My Grandpa is a genius when it comes to money-making ventures. Not all of them work. But I've seen the man take a pinball machine and have people driving from other towns to play the thing for trophy's bought from a resale shop.

Today we talked about renting and realistate and just a bit of the stock market. He's going to give financial classes to my newly-graduated cousins about money management, banking and investing and I intend to sit in every one of them.

Since I have no money to invest as of now, our conversation turned toward ventures. See, just about the time when I was thinking perhaps I would return to Palacios after all, my grandfather has informed me he's bought a new real estate with a building and a bunch of land. On this land, he wants to build a building that I've dubbed "Bouquet Enterprises." Here he is building a room for each of us - so Kayla could set up a dance studio. Lauren could teach voice or build a nutrition/fitness center. When we get tired of doing the business ourselves, we can hire others and eventually let them take over. I could have anything in my room that I want.

I know what I want. To make my living with my writing and to produce that writing into films and plays. That's a bit big to build and will take some time so in the meantime we discussed things I could do with my room to make money and how I could use it to delegate tasks to others to make money for me.

What will I do?

No clue. I could do piano and voice. I could open a costume shop. I could open a small publishing company. I could set up a grocery shopping team.

I wondered if this would actually pan out and if it did if it just happened to be God shouting at me that he's really telling me to stay here and I'm just not listening because I'm torn about leaving Palacios.

I don't know. But I got so excited that it was hard to focus on my stuff. After breakfast and cleaning out the dishwasher, I returned to put the "Swing" edits into the computer. Then I began formatting "The Calling." It wasn't supposed to take that long but I downloaded a new program and tried this and that and the other and finally found.... one of the many reedits that I did that looked great on my kindle. I just had to insert a few "centers" and see if I could tag the Table of Contents. I uploaded it. Crossing my fingers.

After this I realized if I wasn't careful the time would get away from me and I'd find it time to go to rehearsal without looking over the script. So I spent some time trying to get the dialogue perfect and thinking up dreadful things to do to the writers and editors of that script. A pet peeve is when a character repeats something three times. Dorothy says "Never, never, never!" at least three times and it doesn't sound any more realistic the last time than it did the first. And if I forget a line - it's probably, "Oh!" Or "Oh - oh..." I swear there's a hundred 'oh's sprinkled through the script and Dorothy stutters a lot.

*Glances down to notice the sides on the soapbox. Presses lips together and gingerly steps down*

Anyhow. Moving on.

I sent a check to be deposited with Ryan and helped put away groceries. I think I reached a record on the backenbooks blog. It had 15 visitors today.

Now I think I'm going to read another chapter of the "No Excuses" book. Tomorrow I need to work really hard on getting "Swing" ready to go. Hopefully tonight I can arrange with Marie to meet to do the book cover.

Then it's onto "The Captive" with full throttle and less distractions and I'm going to whip that baby into shape. Okay, I won't really whip it. That would be cruel. I shall gently coax it to perfection - rapidly.