Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Challenges to Dedicated Writing Time

About a month ago, my husband and I agreed to sign up my two year old for a very part-time Montessori program near our house.  My little guy was super excited and still is.  Every day he comes home from his three hour class saying, "I love my school.  Where is my sucker?"  The sucker - a very tiny one - was a reward I offered on day 1 to keep him from crying, to make it easy on both of us. 

When we initially signed him up, they only had a slot for two days a week, Wednesday and Thursday.  This was ideal for him starting out, but I really am more productive at the beginning of the week.  You take what you can get, so we took the slot. 

Two weeks ago they said they had an opening for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The plan was that I would have an amazing nine hours at the beginning of the week to dedicate to writing.  We also agreed on a three hour block of time on the weekend where I can leave the house to write.  Twelve hours is a lot for me.  If you add on the writing class, that's fifteen hours a week - almost part time work.  Perfect.

Nothing is ever perfect.  Last week I had a migraine on one of the days.  This week, my husband is under the assumption he is doing me a favor by letting me sleep late - into my writing time.  Today, on day two of my first three day writing marathon, just when I was in my groove editing the last of three chapters I had planned for the day, prepared to write one new chapter before I pick up my baby, I heard a car pull in the driveway.

It was my dad.  He never comes over.  I went downstairs and opened the door.  I told him I was writing. 

He sat down and talked for 15 minutes before he realized my son wasn't there.  I told him again (but very gently) that this was my writing time and the baby was at daycare.  He talked with me more and gave me the play by play on what he had for breakfast.  Eventually, I stopped worrying about what time it was and thought about writing stories about him and his unique childhood.  He seemed preoccupied with the idea of nutrition and what would be the best breakfast, so I didn't ask if I could write his story.  I just listened to what he had to say until he was done and shared my thoughts on vitamin A, which he seemed to be very interested in today.  I'll talk to him about it later.

I am not allowing myself to think about the time I lost this morning.  I have exactly an hour left now, maybe enough time to at least start the chapter I meant to be finishing up by now. 

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