A Surprise

 I have a day before I get the proof pages of MAKING IT WRITE.  In the meantime, I turned my attention to other things like the PR class I'm taking and starting the next Writer for Hire.  I have the title, SENTENCED TO DEATH and the basic plot, but I finally started the actual writing of the first pages.  It's always daunting, but once I have the first pages it seems the rest will follow.

I always find it easier to start with a pen and legal pad.  There's something about the white screen on the computer that makes me freeze.  And there is a different brain connection to handwriting.  It is like the words just seem to tumble off my fingers (if it's going well).

I've gotten a lot of information from the PR class.  Now comes the decision what to do with it.  I have to consider the time involved in pursuing the options and whether I think the the possible benefit is worth it.  There is also the consideration of what I want to do. Do I want to pursue being on podcasts, try to place articles and blogs and then write them.  I did come up with a brand for myself.  Yarns with yarn, murder and fun.  

In the midst of all this there was the couch caper.  Someone I know has recently moved her newly widowed father into assisted living and now is clearing out his house to sell it.  The plan was she was going to move some of the furniture to his new place including a couch.  She hired movers and everything seemed okay until they tried to move the couch into his place.  It wouldn't fit in the elevator and when they tried the stairs, there was a problem with the sprinklers.  I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what it was other than somehow the couch would have set them off.

The couch couldn't go back to where it came from because the company she hired to clear the place didn't want it, nor did the movers.  Slightly desperate now, the wandering couch was strongly offered to me.  We have two couches in our living room that are 30 years old. One is okay and one has been ravaged by sun streaming in the window and dogs jumping all over it in an attempt to look out the front window so they could bark at dogs and people going by.

I hadn't seen the couch being offered me and it clearly wouldn't match the other one, but it certainly was in better shape than the ravaged one.  All   I knew about the new one was that it weighed 200 pounds which seemed excessive and I asked if it pulled out into a bed, but was told it wasn't.  So all the info I had was a massive couch was coming very soon and I had to move stuff so the old one could be taken out and the new one could be brought in.  I shoved boxes out of the way, packed up DVDs, and did what I  could to make a clear path.  

The movers arrived and took out the old one, only having to shove a few things out of the way.  I rushed in to sweep up an embarrassing amount of dust balls and forgotten objects like pencils and an old dog toy that had been under the old couch.

And then the big reveal of the new one.  As they tried to maneuver it in without taking out my doll collection, I saw the underside and commented that it did look like it had the frame work of a pull out bed.  Still she said no.  At last it was lowered in place and all the protective covers taken off.  And the movers said it was indeed a pull out bed.  It's brown leather and looks like nobody ever sat on it.  Our other one is more of a rust.  The styles are different, but who cares.   It was all rush rush and drop what you're doing to get the old one out and the new one in, but everybody 's happy.  The wandering couch has a place and our ratty looking couch was picked up by the trash people.  I felt good that I was able to move all the stuff out of the way so quickly. 

And now I can sit on the new couch with my yellow pad and pen and write the rest of the beginning.