Excuses

I had such lofty goals at the start of Spring Break. I will write 10k words a day! I said. I will finish my book!

But Spring Break has, so far, involved mostly Easter candy, America's Next Top Model marathons, and sleep, all three of which I have missed sorely.

I had fine excuses. Oh, such fine excuses.

I cannot write, I said, without a writing space. Preferably one without Tyra Banks, as she is very pretty but sometimes scary and always distracting. Therefore, I cleaned the office.

See that? That is the floor. I have not seen that floor for a year or more. It's a nice floor, isn't it?



Oh, and look! Bookshelves! Crammed with lots of books! This is my MG/YA shelves. I've got another non-fiction shelf, a tiny bookcase for romances/mysteries/other genres I rarely read but sometimes love, and another shelf dedicated to my favoritest books of all time. Also, if you look closely, you'll see books stacked on the floor between the wall and the shelf, and a basket of books on the console by the wall! PS: Hey, Heather, if you zoom in beside the broom, you'll see my Fullmetal Alchemist collection--that whole bottom shelf is manga!

So now I had a clean office. But I could not write still. The desk in the office is full of my PC--and my book is on my Mac laptop. Those two don't play well together. So my excuse became: I don't have anywhere to type on my laptop...except on the couch....in front of the TV, next to the candy bowl.

The husband is having none of that.

This is the husband working. Isn't he cute? But he does not appreciate making a desk with a flash in his eyes.

He is building me a desk. A special desk, all for me and my writing.

When we bought the house we live in now, there were recessed shelves in the bedroom. One of those shelves is the one I've dedicated to my favoritest books of all time. The other shelf was designd to hold a TV, but I don't believe in TVs in bedrooms--I worry that Tyra Banks will come from the screen a la The Ring and force us to wear Covergirl makeup.

Previously this space has been used as a sort of stack-up-whatever-fits-here sort of place. My wedding bouquet (made of fake flowers) stood in place of the TV, old photo albums filled the bottom shelves, and just general stacks of paper filled in the leftover space. Not really appealing. So the husband took my roughshod drawing of "Beth's Desk of Hope and DOOM" and begun work.

Here is it so far! Please ignore the towel hanging over the saloon doors that lead to the bathroom.

It's still a work in progress--you're seeing it before the other leg gets attached, and without paint. Tomorrow, the husband is buying glossy black paint to paint both the desk and the recessed shelves--although I'm thinking about lining the inside of the shelves with old maps instead...

And, of course, this means that I have no more excuses not to work! This entire space is going to be 100% dedicated to writing. The top shelf is already filled on one side with stacked letter trays, each dedicated to a manuscript, or research, or some other form of writing. The middle shelf will hold a computer monitor (once I save enough $$ to buy one), and the little shelf under that will hold the keyboard/mouse when I have to clear the desk space for either my laptop or for physical pages of the manuscript.

In short: no more excuses.

And just in case I try to weasel my way out of further work, here's the husband's "gentle" reminder for me to get back to work!