We had a beautiful trip to DC.  Brett is so warm and so funny and so smart.  Kelsey and I had awesome Mommy/Daughter time.  William and Brett got lots of good talking in about all kinds of things.  The two of them were fabulous hosts.  Fun visits with friends, moving and stimulating sites to see downtown, one helluva good dinner at Founding Farmers, near the White House, and some great down time at their apartment.  Thoroughly great weekend.

I'm excited about the week ahead.  My writing has been full speed ahead for a couple of weeks now.  I'm doing lots of work on Voter Id and other election law issues, but have also written some pieces in direct response to specific political events.  This week I will finish an article on the NC State Board of Elections - I snagged a great interview again - this time with one of our elections officials who I had seen appear on Rachel Maddow!  I just had to call her and introduce myself and congratulate her on her appearance - as I told her she was very clear and effective, and communicated a lot of energy,and a focus on fair elections.  Maybe I can find a clip and add it here.

In any case, we ended up talking at length about the voter roll challenges that have occured here - I have my notes but with the trip out of town, haven;t written it up yet.  Seems fun if I could just get organized and get started!!  I'm up late so I'll sleep 8 hours and then coffee, news, hop up and run to the bank, pharmacy, and quick stop at the grocery, then back here to tidy up my office, then I am settling to finish it.  My find of day!!!  I will grab something easy that the guys can throw together and just work and work until it's time for football at 8!

I've been thing more and more about how drastically I want to shift gears after the election.  Many many thoughts about it....  Take a few days off, finish my "What I've learned"-type piece, maybe take Rufus and run down to Topsail for a few days to clear my head and think.  I think I will write a whole separate post with an outline of what I want the time between say, November 6th, before which I will do analysis of where we stand post-election with a 2nd Obama term.  From 11/6 - 12/22 or 23rd I want to do a lot of planning and goal setting - a little retreat for myself.  Then I usually take a few days off for the holidays - maybe hit Topsail again, then I can't wait to plunge back in hard and heavy in January.

I know what my new writing focus is, and I can't wait.  And I'll start putting the book in my sites.  I'm going to be absolutely ruthless about guarding my time - man, I have never felt so little interest in/need for a social life, plans, etc.  I'm not in danger of getting isolated because of close family and a couple of close friends.  And I want to stay balanced with lots of walking as usual, taking snapshots every where I go, cooking, TV nights with William, some craft stuff...  But those things are only going to be here and there because mostly I crave to write write write.

I've never felt better about where my life is and where it's going.

Welcome, October.

Ahhhh...Friday morning.  Even though I work at home, and make my own schedule, I love Friday mornings like I used to when I was working in the schools.  It feel like you can get a lot done, but the pressure of the week is off, so everything you complete is a bonus.  It feels like "casual Fridays" gear is called for.  It feels like you can knock off early. 

I actually love working on the weekend a lot anyway, so it's not clear to me why Fridays still feel like Fridays, but it's nice.

I have to drink a little toast (with my coffee, don't worry) this morning to the two young ladies above who helped avert a little Maslow's Peak crisis I was having.  I don't get my posts out as fast as I'd like, and have little freakouts sometimes, because the stuff I write about is so tied to daily events - at least in my mind.  Sometimes it seems like hourly events.

But I have taken some sound advice, and will finish my piece on the PA court proceedings I watched online yesterday, and hmm.. maybe stop promoting my work before it's completed???!?!?  What a concept.

Anyway, those two pretty faces at the top of this page belong to a couple of the smartest women imaginable - always thinking, always questioning, soaking up ideas from around them likes sponges, then sharing them, with their own take.  VIP's, in my book.

Happy Friday.

PS - just thought of something.  I ought to give shout-outs to my friends more often.  There are some people in my life who I couldn't make it without (you know who you are) and I need to throw them some love from this space. 

There I go again, pre-promoting....