2 AM (Just Breathe)

Not only am I obsessed with Anna Nalick and her music (so soulful and deep, You've gotta check it out... my current faves are 2am, Catalyst and Wreck of the Day) but it is also 2am and I am awake so I thought the title would be appropriate!

So my writing group, that started at 7pm, has just left my humble abode. Granted, it was the same three as last time, same cancellations and no shows (sigh) but what a group we are! I can't imagine how late we would have been here had we had more people! We discussed writing and critiqued each others' work (after the girls could pull themselves from inspecting my library and cuddling my array of animals), which was so helpful. I'd been struggling for, hmm, about two weeks now on an ending for a story I've been working on and it's been pulling-my-hair-out frustrating. The girls gave me wonderful ideas and places to go, helped me clarify things that I was unsure about by asking the right questions about my characters or what I wanted the characters to be in my story and gave me some great tips on getting an ending hammered out! I'm so excited to work on the story and I LOVE that feeling... it is rare after you've been banging your head on a story for a couple of weeks. I hope that I was just as insightful and helpful to the women and their work as well. Then we started chatting causally and that lead to discussions of literature and art and that led to "kids today" and the changes in parenting this generation, which disturbs us all. We progressed to feminism and the way women are portrayed in the media and how sexy is not about how naked you can get without actually being naked. It was one of those college, idealistic, devastating, enlightening, hilarious (with stories shared that we all know the unspoken rule will never be uttered from each others' mouths outside of our circle), intellectual discussions that fills you and makes you feel like a human being, not just a zombie trying to get through the hustle and bustle of your uninspiring life and your uninspiring 9-5 job. It was the type of talk that reminded me of my dream to work internationally in underdeveloped countries, in war zones, in highly diseased areas to help the most deserving and the most helpless people, trapped by birth by a poverty and a life that is doomed from its beginnings. I think I've even agreed to go to Calcutta or some other underdeveloped country to work with lepers or refugees in Uganda or something with one of the girls! How wonderful. I was disappointed my current Uganda trip has fallen through and now I have found another opportunity to look forward, perhaps after my first year of grad school for Social Work? Hmm, that's starting to sound like a plan. One of my groupies has a friend that does work in those countries with an organization. How wonderful would it be to share this experience with a like-minded woman whom you've already bonded with so deeply with the most important parts of yourself? Your writing (which I consider the window to my soul), your thoughts, dreams, passions, pain, ideals and of course your most embarrassing moments! :)~

It was 2am before we knew it, and no surprise, my hubby who was dutifully staying out of our way in the basement with his Baseball Tonight, video games and exercise bike was dead asleep downstairs, bless his heart!

This entry is probably very naughty grammatically as my eyes are refusing to open all the way and I may have to come in tomorrow and touch it up, so apologies for any sloppiness, I really do try to put out cleaner posts than this!

Very at peace and so happy with the bonding of minds and hearts tonight, there's nothing like your girls no matter how amazing your man is.