It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
– Confucius, Chinese teacher, politician, and philosopher

Another bold outfit for a Monday. Retro-inspired Talbots dress and Kate Spade handbag.

I was supposed to take this week off for vacation, which I was going to use to work on the final revision of my novel – the novel that I started back in 1997. Coupled with a three-day weekend, I had high hopes that I would indeed finish my novel, and then have to figure out how to carve out the time to consider my next steps – research online publishing and social media marketing, and then actually execute on publishing and marketing. I believe that’s two separate jobs, in addition to my blogging, which is a part-time job and takes up my weekends and free time when I’m not doing everything else that I need to be doing to have a functioning home and world and happy family, and then there’s my day-time job.

As fate would have it, I found out that I didn’t have the hours to take this week off. My first reaction was of outrage and then defeat. How could I finish my novel when I have to rely on the two weeks of vacation allotted to me on a yearly basis? (My third week is actually used for doing something with my family.) And beyond finishing my novel this year, and online publishing and marketing it, how on earth can I find the big blocks of time to return to my second novel, which I had begun in 2006 and requires a lot of research?

Go for the jugular with blood-red carnelian earrings and necklace by Carmela Rose and Juicy Couture ring.

The more questions I encountered, the more frustrated and helpless I began to feel. As the days passed since learning of my fate, I realized it was just as well. A few projects are due around this time, and there is no escaping having to work on them this week, so my “week off” would have been compromised.

Of late, my “free” time has been reserved for fixing image issues with my blog and limping along as I build a Facebook fan page for my blog. The former has been time and labor intensive, the latter I’m still trying to figure it out. Stay tuned.

Slip on statement sunglasses and I’m ready for Monday, come what may.

Despite coming into this week, which has shaped up to be quite different from what I had planned a few weeks ago, I tell myself: There’s nothing I can do for the time being, but I will get there. I will get to my destination and be made stronger for the detour in my journey. I will finish my novel and I will be happy with it. The technical issues for the blog will be resolved. The fan page will be populated with images and content, though it may not look pretty in the first iteration. But everything will happen because this time I won’t stop. Sometimes it’s okay to push the timeline, the deadline. I may die a little inside because things are delayed once more. But it’s a gnat hovering in my face. Nobody is going to die or get hurt for yet another delay.

So long as I don’t go backwards, everything will be okay. It’s Monday, the beginning of a new week. The beginning, the beginning.