Are the Debs rich with great friends to guest blog, or what? This Wednesday, Lisa Daily is cutting in to dance in place of Deb Jennifer. Lisa is the author of the bestselling dating book Stop Getting Dumped! (Penguin Putnam) and does a weekly dating guest spot on Lifetime Radio. She is also a syndicated dating columnist whose hilarious advice column appears on approximately 150 dating websites, and in college newspapers across the country.
As if that weren’t enough, Lisa’s debut novel FIFTEEN MINUTES OF SHAME will be published by Plume/Penguin Putnam in 2008!
Dance on, Lisa!
Last night I was relaxing in my bathtub in the first time in what seems like forever, reading Deb Mia’s book, Good Things. I was just getting into chapter three when panic hit me.
Ohmygawd,
I jumped out of the tub, mistakenly thinking I had forgotten to turn in this blog post: I have a column due tomorrow (today, actually), I had an essay for an anthology due yesterday, my in-laws are in town, I spent all of last week interviewing new agents, I’m smack in the middle of a line-edit of my new book, and I have a TV interview on Friday.
Did I mention my in-laws were in town, and they’re sleeping in my office?
I’m not complaining. Really.
(Okay, fine, maybe I am complaining.)
And yesterday, instead of tackling the giant pile of work on my desk, I decided to clean out my closet.
I hopped out of the tub, slip-sliding in the puddle in the bathroom floor. Half-naked and dripping all over the bedroom carpet, I poked my sleeping husband and begged him to go get my laptop (in my office, where my in-laws were sleeping) so I could check my email. My in-laws are elderly –well, older than me — and I didn’t want to accidentally flash my mother-in-law and send her to the ER.
I frantically scrolled through my inbox, certain I had already missed the Deb deadline. (Deb-line? Is that too stupid? Yes, it is.) (Insert by Deb Kristy: No it’s not, I love it!) I was relieved to learn I had one more day to finish (okay, start) this post, and dripped my way back into the bathroom, where I promptly refilled the tub and sunk in with my book.
I. Am. Winded.
I have a lot on my plate right now. Mostly good things. But I have so many things going on right now, and everything is moving so fast, that I don’t have the time to catch my breath or enjoy it all. Which is a shame.
I know people who say smugly, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”
But I think that good things, like bad things, often happen in clusters. That your life can be so jam-packed with joy and chocolate (or conversely, misery and distant relatives) that you can miss the really important moments just because you’re so caught up in the whirlwind.
Lots of good things are happening right now. And it’s easier to both appreciate them, and not feel crushed by them, when I think about each event as its own uniquely fabulous occurrence, and not just a collection of crazy that is going to keep me insanely busy for the next four months.
Whenever you get winded, the best thing to do is take a step back and breathe.
Otherwise, you’ll probably pass out.
I so know this feeling (well except the part about flashing my in laws)
Some days I feel like I’m playing some sort of “put your head down and keep running” sport. Thanks for the reminder to stop, look up and take a few deep breaths.
Aw-w-w, there you were following your own advice about taking deep relaxing breaths (in the bathtub) until remembering another good thing….
You DO have a lot on your plate right now! 🙂 And I totally get that panicky feeling that you’ve missed something REALLY important, like, oh, taking the baby out of the car seat and you’ve already been home for twenty minutes (note to CPS: this has never happened). The “Did I leave the oven on?” (when I’m at least two hours away on the other side of the island) has been my big thing lately.
But you’re right – there are so many Good Things (cough!) available in stores everywhere, I mean, good things happening to us in every moment that keeping perspective, especially in the days leading AND following publication, is an important part of being an author, too. A great post to help me start my day – thanks!