A Whole New World

Today was the first day of school and of course I wasn't there. I expected to feel a little remorseful about my leave of absence, but all I felt was relief. I was also expecting to sleep last night without anxiety, but that did not happen. Instead, I lay awake for a long time stressing out. I was not stressing out about the first day of school like normal. Rather, I lay awake wondering which job my boyfriend was going to pick once he concluded negotiations. The final offer arrived via email this morning. We spent a few anxious hours debating the finer points of living in San Francisco versus Seattle. In the end we both chose San Francisco. Financially this wasn't the best choice, but I think overall we will both be much happier living there.

Now the real fun begins: trying to find an apartment in San Francisco that is both affordable and adequate before the end of the month! We are going to drive up tomorrow to start looking. My boyfriend has been obsessively scouring Craigslist for a while now, so that is helpful. But trying to find a place in the next 10 days seems daunting. Fingers crossed we find something quickly.

I'll be able to walk/ride BART/Muni to Bay to Breakers!!

 In the midst of this great upheaval, I've been working on editing and revising a story that I’d like to send to an agent soon. It’s pretty amazing how much easier it is to cut down on words after you've put a story away for a while. I know that everyone recommends this, but there are lots of things that people recommend that in practice seem less true. I was able to cut out about 150 words without even trying too hard. I've also asked a few people to read the story out loud. This is actually very interesting to listen to and I was quite pleased with the result. I think I wrote it in such a way that people are reading it the way I imagined. Now I’m working on some more revising and then I’m going to send it to a few writing friends for their feedback.

I've also been climbing more which has been great. I've still only gone to the gym, but I’m already starting to see progress. On my first day back bouldering I was only able to manage climbing a few V0s (the grade scale starts at V0 and goes up to V16). When I went to the gym a few days ago I was able to flash (climb on the first try) two V2s and a V3. I was pretty excited. My arm/shoulder was also quite sore afterwards, but I’m feeling better now. I’ll need to start hangboarding soon to build up my finger strength and of course I need to continue with my weight lifting.

What I’m reading: I finished The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear. This book was well written and a nice piece of historical fiction. But it just never sang to me. I've actually been enjoying part four of Private Life although it’s been making me sad because the main character seems to realize how unrewarding her life has been. I’m now about a third of the way through The Thorn Birds. It’s quite good and reminds me of the saga In the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark. There are many parallels between her books and The Thorn Birds.