Stick Me With a Fork

What do you do when you're done?

That is, done as in finished with a book or another big project. Those who know me well know that when I say out loud, "I'm done," in a certain tone, it means walking away from a person or a situation that has frustrated me beyond my bounds and I will not be turning around. But that's not the kind of done I'm talking about. That's another blog.

I am a hit-and-miss disciplined person—that is, I don't seem to muster up much discipline about some things but am like a laser beam on others. Lucky for me—and Stephanie—I'm disciplined about my work. That doesn't make me better. It makes me the person with no children and no day job. Still, it takes some effort and it takes saying no. It used to be impossible for me to ignore a ringing phone because who knew what treasure could lie on the other side? Well, now, thanks to caller ID, I do know and I will return calls—at least if it's a treasure. And there are some people I answer the phone for no matter what, Baby Girl and Precious Angel among a few others.

Okay, I'm rambling and there's a reason for it.

I’m done.

And that's what I do when I'm done. I ramble, sit around in my pajamas, and listen to music by Lobo and the Jeff Healey Band on YouTube. I call people who don't have time to talk to me and should be screening their calls like I have learned to do. I search ESPN's website for clips about my beloved Crimson Tide and yell at them when they don't say glowing things. I work crossword puzzles in super easy books that a six-year-old could do.

After some solid gold advice from a successful published author friend, we have been rewriting a book that is close to our hearts. We gave ourselves a reasonable finish deadline so we could give it a really good read through by conference at the end of June. We beat our deadline by three days and Stephanie said, "Send me the full so I can read for typos and inconsistencies." These are things I can't help with right after I'm done. I can't find them until it gets cold.

So I sent it to her. Now, it's almost noon and I'm still wearing what I slept in. My house is clean, but my bed isn't made. (This is unlike me.) I am contemplating sending Precious Angel a message on Facebook to boss him around about something. I don't know what yet. I ordered new panties online instead of going to the store to buy them. Who does that?

Me, when I'm done. Because these things keep me from doing what I want to do, which is getting on with what we were working on before we went back to what we just finished rewriting. I can't do that, because Stephanie has a big old rule about not moving on until we are completely done. Which means reading for typos and inconsistencies, and getting the pitch written, and all those other pesky little unfun things. "KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THIS PROJECT," she says. "I NEED YOUR HEAD RIGHT HERE."

Okay, Stephanie. I'm right here. See? Not thinking about Nathan and Tolly from our other project, who we left in temporal stasis, miserable and confused. Not one little bit.

Hey, maybe I'll go back though my blogs and find all the ones where I've said, "That's another blog," and make a list of future blog topics. Yeah. Or I'll order some socks online.

What do you do when you're done?