Dues are up

I’m wondering what I should do this morning. It’s such a warm, beautiful morning that I had to pull the covers over my head to sleep in. Another night shift tonight – I ride them pretty easily, it’s steady work, but mundane and not creative. News design is the assembly line of design – headline here, head deck here, byline here, body here. Every once and a while if you’re lucky, you can put in a fact box or quote to break up the gray blocks. The jackpot is a photo – if you get a good photo and not a photo of some Jack sitting at his desk with a cup of coffee and a story about how he’s an adventurous mountain climber/doctor who saves children in Chile – Wouldn’t you want to see the picture of him hanging off a cliff with a child in his arms?! I sure would. Good luck telling that to the photo department.
I sort of want to go on a hike; I sort of want to pack again; I want to write; I want to get a base tan before I go to Hawaii (did I mention I’m going to Hawaii?!!! In the middle of trying to prepare for a cross-country move – that’s why I’m starting so early. Time is going to pull the rug from under me and before I know it, I’ll have a week before I’m gone.)
It’s hard looking for apartments in a city you know nothing about. I have a week there before I start my job, so I’m hoping I can find a nice enough place for us to start out. I know where NOT to go – that helps.
I’m still plugging away at my collection – if I can even call it that. Another handful of rejections – one to a writing retreat, others individual poems – but this is how I’m supposed to learn how to write, is it not? This is the hazing period. I have to make it out alive and still believe in myself.