Jour sept

Très intéressante.

Turns out I can actually concentrate well enough (for a day at least) to get some actual work done on the computer.

Three years ago, as one of my contributions as a board member of my local community theatre group, I started to produce a quarterly newsletter. If I do say so myself (which I do and which others have also said), it looked professional and was a good read. When I stepped down from the board last year (which every board member must do for at least a year after completing a four year term), producing the newsletter became someone else’s job. I did what I could to help this person out for the first two newsletters, but the third, the spring one, had no input for me. When I saw it, I have to admit, my first reaction was: “You killed my baby!” Perhaps no one else noticed. Perhaps I am overly sensitive. Both these things could be true, but neither lessens the heartbreak I felt. In fairness, the person who took it over is not a writer by trade nor does he have any experience with layout and design.

After our recent performance of As You Like It, I told him I would write something up about the show. Although the summer newsletter does not need to be ready before the middle of August, the person responsible is going away tomorrow for the entire month. When he contacted me on the weekend to say he would need my submission today, I got back to him, said if he wanted to send me what he had, I could take the pressure off him and finish it off. He agreed.

When I opened the file yesterday I could tell at a glance that the whole thing would need to be redone. The words dog’s breakfast sprang immediately to mind. (What, I suddenly wonder, is the origin of that phrase? Why a dog’s breakfast? Short break while I do a Google search and discover that the phrase has been around since the 1930s, although no one seems to know its provenance.)

So, anyway, after watering the garden and doing my French homework yesterday, I sat down at the computer to produce a summer newsletter. I did not stop for lunch (had a banana about four o’clock). I did not feel tempted to stop for a game of spider solitaire. I just worked the whole day until dinner time.

It’s good to know I can still do it, still focus my concentration without distraction. It’s been a while.

Now, if I can just figure out a way to do this and generate some revenue. Oh, right, the really hard bit. Okay, one baby step at a time.