See-Sawing Through

I wish I had a writing schedule to share with you. I really do.

But I don't. My life is like the old seesaw on the left of this. Up and down. And all around like the merry-go-round. 

Yep, at times my life is like a trip to the playground including the bumps and the bruises.

See, I don't get to write full-time and lately, not even part-time. I work in retail management to make actual money that will keep me and my family fed, clothed, and housed. And last June I was transferred to a new store in which the manager doesn't believe in set days off or set schedules, so every week is a new challenge. This week I was off on Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday, early the next three days. And truth be told, I'm not as young as I used to be and it takes time to recover from the clopens (close-opens). I'm usually a zombie when I get home.

However, I take my current WIP pages with me wherever I go. Right now, I have the last couple of pages I wrote on the baseball book and Chapter 17 of Bix that I'm revising in my lunch bag. I have tomorrow off and I plan to go to B&N and write in the morning. Hopefully, I'll get a good couple of hours of work in before I have to meet my mom for lunch and then come home to my husband, who will want some more of my time.

Therein lies the dilemma as well. The erratickness of my schedule leaves my family insisting on my attention when I am home. And all I want to do is swing away into my imagination. 

But there is a light on the horizon, I talked my fellow managers into a rotating days-off schedule that will give me a four day block every three weeks--barring vacation time by one of them. This rotation will hopefully go into action in February. Sure, I'll have to work 7 or 8 day stretches, but four days off in a row?? Totally worth in.

Now, time to get off my swing and head to the merry-go-round that is my life.