Vacation Prep and Various Thoughts

I leave for vacation on Tuesday and I'm finally starting to get a bit excited about going back to Milwaukee and seeing my beading and writing friends once more. I'm reviewing what I want to pack, and it is an indication of how sick I am (LOL) that the first things I am deciding is whether to bring colored pencils or only my graphite ones on the trip, and how I hope I can access WiFi in a variety of locations while out there so that I can continue to write and download my next two class assignments while I'm out there. There should be a business area somewhere that I can print my class assignments out from...right? LOL. OK, I know I'm sick, but it's really a good sick. And I have story deadlines that I have to meet....

Love these singing birds painted by Brian Barber.

One of the articles that I referenced in a second post yesterday mentioned several things that allow an author to clear their mental space and allow themes, characters, and other things such as story lines to enter into the brain. Silence was golden to this blogger, and although I can't disagree on principle, I can disagree in my own personal life. More often than not I prefer some noise around me. I get a bit antsy just listening to Mother Nature, although I admit it can be soothing. But when I'm writing I don't want soothing, I want edgy to keep me moving along. Soothing would just send me to sleep over my keyboard, and I've done that. It wasn't fun and I accomplished nothing by doing it.

Apocalyptica is a Finnish group of heavy metal cellists. I'm in love!

No, I want noise, whether it be the TV or music. I am starting to get more into music again lately, after several years of pushing it behind me. I suppose because my little Apple Nano is so easy to use, but also because I have f-list friends who are far more savvy about music than I and who keep putting up links to videos by their current favorites. So my repertoire of music has been shifting to include more popular tunes such as "Florence and the Machine" and "Apocalyptica" instead of concentrating on JS Bach, Beethoven and Mahler. This can't be a bad thing, because I love music and for many years was going to make my career in it. So keep those recommendations coming f-list friends. I'm picking up a lot of great tunes and it's making my writing come easier, which is allowing me to write better, etc. All good!