Avoiding seclusion

Last night my wonderful husband gave me the night off, which I accepted before he could change his mind, and I headed off to Starbucks with my laptop and my new book. BTW, have you guys ever had the awesome thrill that comes when you pick up a book and it has a picture of *your friend* as the author? It's unreal. The worst part is the book is broken into 31 segments that are meant to be read one a day so I don't get to sit and devour it all at once.

As I read the first section, I got to thinking. One day I might be a famous author and have to answer questions about why I write and how I got started. So I opened up my text editor and typed out my reasons and experience so far because I want to have a real answer when I get asked one day. Knowing myself, I know that I'll forget the order of things and the sense of unfulfilled purpose that is driving me. One thing I included was the first time that I had written something of which I was incredibly proud (6th grade Language Arts paper) and I was amazed at the details I remember about how and where I wrote the paper, watching Mr. Cates (I even remember his name) read the paper aloud, and how I felt when the instructions I wrote *worked*. Wow. It's that kind of affirmation that fuels dreams.

Oh wait, this post was supposed to be on avoiding seclusion. So I sat at Starbucks writing when my 6-year-old called. She was homesick and we spent a long time just chatting and being silly. I typed out the final few thoughts on my why I write essay as I was talking to K, so the ending is a bit choppy, but I figure I have a little while to clean that up :-) After I closed that file, I opened up Chapter 2 of the novel I'm writing and got 1 1 /2 paragraphs written before a friend came in with some of her friends. I was introduced and we ended up chatting for an hour. I had a fabulous time just talking with these ladies. On the way home, I got a call from another friend and had another great conversation. Today, I met with a group of moms and kids for a play date that extended into a lunch date. I am so incredibly thankful for women that are willing to arrange their schedules and put their time and energy into spending time with me. The thing I fear the most is getting out of the habit of friends - having friends, being a friend, getting out of the house and doing things with friends. Being a SAHSM is a very isolating position if I don't work to build new relationships and nurture the ones I've already got.

So yeah, I didn't get as much work done on my novel as I would have liked, but I wouldn't have traded the time spent with friends for any number of words written.