Happy Friday/New Years!

It's Friday again, and a new year. An end and a beginning all wrapped up together.

I love Fridays. This is no secret. But if today is any indication of how Fridays in 2008 are going to be, I may have to change that.

I've started mall walking. It is not a New Years resolution, but after I tore the tissue in my foot playing tennis (okay, it was Wii tennis, I admit it!), I've been a bit out of the exercise routine for a few months. Walking seemed as good a place to start as anywhere, except today it is 17 degrees and there is no way I'm walking outside in that! So our local mall offers walking hours every morning before the stores open, and I can easily fit in four miles between dropping my oldest off at school and getting my youngest ready for preschool.

First, I had to get past the very suburban feel of actually exercising in a mall. I mean, all this piped in music and recirculated air and endless rows of window displays seemed very not me. And then I realized, while I was exercising, I could window shop for my power suit and stilettos for that infamous meeting with my agent someday! I've got my eye on a few, and when I drop another two or three pounds, and finish my rewrite, I might actually try them on. When I'm not sweaty. Just to solidify my dream.

The best thing was that when I bent to get the newspapers off the driveway, my body didn't creak!

So the walking was fine, I suppose. A decent way to start the day, even if not ideal, but now I have my three hours of writing time stretching out in front of me and I realized that all this walking (and my cold medicine to boot) have me falling asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, which means that I am suddenly finding myself at the computer without a clue as to where to go after chapter six! Usually I toss and turn a good hour, playing different scenarios in my head until WaLa! The perfect next section materializes and I have the perfect wording and enough material to keep me busy the next day, and possible two or three. But the past few nights, I've slept, and now I am staring at a blank page with six chapters before it and twenty chapters after it, and wondering, "Okay, now how do I get from here to there??"

The end of this project is so close I can almost taste it. But in two and a half hours the kids come home, my Entertainment Weekly arrives in the mailbox, wine awaits, and possible a good movie on the DVR. So now, I've got my stilettos picked out, and no book to submit. Somewhere along the way, this year has gotten my priorities already turned around.