Our power is back on!!

As has been widely reported, in California, we’ve been experiencing some “planned power shutdowns” (or PPSD’s for short — which makes them sound like an electrically transmitted disease or some kind of power-oriented mental disorder to me) for the past couple of weeks. Most of the people I know have been pretty chill about the whole thing because the fires PG&E are hoping to curtail with a preventative shut down are no joke. 

Lou and I were used to hurricanes when we first moved to the California Wine Country, but fires are completely different. They blow up quickly and spread in the blink of an eye. During the 2017 fires, Lou and I were racing down the only evacuation route in our area, and we witnessed an actual fireball taking flight and flying parallel to our car going faster than 60 miles an hour! 

It was insane!

So memories of things like that — and then rumors and the occasional radio report from the front lines of a nearby fire — make you stop your complaining for a minute or two because you realize how easily a fire could blow into your own area and consume everything with just one angry spark. So if keeping the power lines quiet helps then, of course, you have to get on board with all of it.

But even all of that didn’t keep me from constantly flicking on the light switch in our bathroom to shed some light on things — even after many days without electricity — or from making a strategy for my day that would ultimately unravel because the things I wanted to do required power and access to the Internet. (I’m ashamed to admit it, but for the first week or so of this power outage situation, I seriously turned into a lab rat that kept bumping my nose up to the pellet dispenser because I’m so conditioned to believe that will get me what I want!)

But then… 

A lovely box from my sister-in-law arrived via FedEx…

And it was full of books!!!

Real hardback books!

I felt giddy inside as soon as I unpacked the box — which also came with some delicious snacks and all of her love for her brother and for me! That’s the best feeling ever! And my sister-in-law knows I really love to curl up with a good book. But it’s been ages since I’ve made time for that in my life. I always come up with more things I “should be doing,” and so I seldom crack open a good read unless I’m out of my own element for a stretch of time. 

But since there wasn’t much I could do until the power was restored, I gave myself total permission to use all my free time to read!! It was absolutely indulgent! In fact, I tore through three novels in five days this past week, and I can’t tell you how much reading the stories other people wrote has inspired me. And the books my sister-in-law sent were all terrific! (Lou is reading the new Grisham, and as soon as he’s done, I will make time for that one!) 

Lately, I’ve been focusing more on the non-fiction parts of my life in the things I’m writing on my blog and in my journal. And even when I’m inspired by a podcast on a hike, I’m more inclined to look inward and sort the stories in me that apply to my real life — not the creative elements of weaving together a new fiction narrative.

But I really do love fiction writing the most.

The permission I can give myself to explore characters and different circumstances that I might never directly encounter in my own life is so much fun for me! I adore that feeling of seeing where the story takes me while I’m elbow-deep into the writing, and mentally lost in the life of someone only I know. It’s delicious and even if no one ever reads those stories, they give me so much purpose and joy. 

I actually started writing a new novel a few months ago, but with the intensity of wedding season and some of the other distractions going on in my life, I’ve only written a handful of chapters so far. But I really like my new character, and the circumstances of her life borrow from my own life, but somehow, they don’t seem so mundane or…in some cases, insurmountable because as the author, I know all the plot shifts and pivots I can create in her future. And even when I don’t know exactly how I’ll get my latest character out of a jam, I know as soon as my fingers start moving across my keyboard, I will write her out of a pinch and give her some unexpected workarounds that make her story that much better!

So I guess you could say reading a few good novels lit a fire inside of me — a good fire, not a destructive one. A fire that reminded me of how much I love to tell stories of all kinds. And it made me realize how lonely I am for a new best friend who is born in my heart, then grows in my mind… 

And finds a new life in the pages of a novel.

(I’ve got the power!)