santa monica life

a week "off" is really a lie. i don't know if my brain wants to be "off" for any length of time. ever since i was a child, i wanted to always be doing something. it didn't have to be training to be a surgeon...just coloring would do. but i wouldn't just want to color, i would want to watch tv while i did it, or vice versa.

when i used to do homework, i would watch tv. killing two birds was the only way i liked it. otherwise, i felt like i was wasting time. my grandmother always commented on my early affinity towards time management. i would sit in my leotard and tights between ballet and team practice just plugging away. people thought i was a nerd. i was...but i also was NOT a morning person, so doing that same homework the next morning did not appeal to me in the slightest bit (nor did the idea of the assignment being late...whoa panic attack). so while time management looked like a nutty, i-think-i'm-better-than-you trait...it was really just me knowing how late we would be in practice (most of the time i got home at two in the morning on a school night) and realizing that i was a crappy morning thinker.

i am still that way, although i want to want to wake up early. that's easy here in santa monica. i am loving that i wake up at 9:30 at home, but it's 7:30 here! tricking my brain seems to be the only way :)

i'm stealing a moment out of my vacation to write a post because i have every intention of writing my book for the next four days and not writing as much online. it's my goal to finish the first draft of this novel on this vacation, just like it was my goal to finish my other one on my honeymoon.

crazy? maybe. but i find that writing large chunks is difficult while juggling a couple other jobs, cleaning a house, walking the dog you think is your child, and being a real person (hanging out with friends and going to dinner, etc). there is always something more pressing...something with a concrete due date. for example, it's going to rain one day...charlie needs to walk because i want him to live forever and he needs his exercise...but this pocket of sun might give way to rain soon so i better take him out right now...i can write when i get back. i can write when it's raining. i like rain writing....but then i get five phone calls with different requests that are un-charlie and un-writing related.

so, i am happy to say that i am writing now...or was like 5 minutes ago before i decided i needed to blog. hmmm maybe i'm the problem? :)

back to work! back to the "office" :)

have a great week!

ashlyne huff revelette 

lovely weekend

i don't know about you, but i had a lovely weekend. i went to mobile, alabama with my good friend (better after this weekend), and i got to not only research for my new novel, but also be surrounded by people i'd call "near-family"now. 

the mccarson family thought they would be something i'd never seen before. they were wrong, but in a good way. in fact, i felt right at home. big personalities, loud dinners, kids running around...that's where i come from. that's where i feel at peace...amazingly. 

i went to mobile to get a real view of the family my book is modeled after...and the place where the characters live for half of the book. i got all of that and more. they welcomed me right into their lives. they shared details with me, they weren't suspect of my being there, and they asked me to come back. 

we traveled to fairhope, point clear, downtown mobile, ate a cracker barrel for breakfast (of course), and then we ate dinner at meredith's sister's house with her family. we watched home videos, i got to hang out with carson lily (my new sidekick), and she showed me how she sang and dance (which were both amazing...especially for a four year old) :) and then i got to go to church with them yesterday morning and eat lunch with them as a big family before we got back on the road. 

there really are good people out there, especially in alabama. i am more inspired to write this second of my book now than i was before i went...that was the goal. to "feel" the story come alive. and boy did it. 

i sit here on monday morning exhausted, but thrilled to get started. excited to look through all the pictures and footage and audio i took. excited to write write write. 

let go and let God

a good friend of mine and i were talking about faith today. she needed it because she was hovering over some potentially difficult circumstances. and of course, she's fine now. she told me she cried when she got the news she got, hurried and got her Bible and just started reading.

it got me thinking about all aspects of my life. what's been in the works for a while, what seems to have figured itself out over time (like writing books for instance), and what's new and hasn't exactly found a finish line yet.

the outliers, the things that have not been resolved, are hard for me to stomach. if you have learned anything about me in this blog, you know i like neat and tidy...maybe not my room all the time, but my head, my conscience, my heart, my office :) patience isn't always my problem, but today it is.

i just want some of this stuff to WORK OUT! partly so i can check it off my list, partly so i can believe in myself a little. (oh and for the record, my books are not what i'm talking about at the moment, although i want them to work out of course...i will write until/even after they do)

SO, this is where i have to have a mini pep talk, prayer time. i pray for patience, for peace, because i know down to the depths of my soul that i will be taken care of. i don't doubt that for one second. but it's this in between time where i fidget. it's like i want to know the ending...just know the ending so i can deal with it, whatever it is. the waiting game is the worst game in the world.

but that's what faith is is it not? i was promised to be taken care of, not that my life, the days, the minutes, the hours, would be easy peasy. i was promised to be held, not that my life would be perfect and everything would go the way I planned.

We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)      -Romans 8:24-25  (NLT)

 obviously, i need to read the bible more often. sweet dreams. 

ashlyne huff revelette 

week ahead

hey everyone!

i'm exhausted, but that's ok. i'm used to getting a lot accomplished on weekends, but i guess i'm going to have to get used to not having it my way all the time aren't i? :)

i did get to hang out with my family, my husband, and my husband's family though, and i consider that to be a wonderful use of that time.

i don't know if you're like me, but i have a hard time not being superwoman every day. i want to cross like forty-five things off my list at a time, and i try, i really try.

but most of the time i fail (at that) and i think i'm realizing that i probably should change my personal expectations. i have five jobs and therefore, i work all the time.

i posted an excerpt from Kristin Hannah's description of her days as a writer. i want that so much it hurts. i don't need an ocean every day. i think i would get tired of a vacation if i lived in one. but i would love to have less 'due' all the time. i'm always hurrying to get something completed, turned in. i'm spread so thin (my fault) that if anything in my life jumps in, which it always does, i am instantly behind. so i stay up late and do work until around one or two, crawl into bed, unable to wind down. then i'm completely tired the next morning. and it starts all over again.

i'm complaining, and that's awful of me. my life is really not that bad at all. i'm actually very happy, even with all my deadlines due. it's just my perfectionism creeping in and telling me i'm not being as productive as i'd like, therefore, i'm no good.

do you ever do that? i find that i have a hard time finding a balance. that i'm bored when i'm not busy, but i'm freaked out when i'm too busy. my dad says i do my best work this way...frazzled. and i supposed he's right. but it's hard :)

i am doing some of my best work right now, so i should probably just shut up...and get back to my work.

and so i will.

peace out.

ahr

big girl spring break!

ok, so maybe i'm too old to have a spring break. i didn't even get one my senior year of college because nerdy me graduated a semester early. but i feel like i have two this year within one month! first, i am heading down to mobile, alabama with one of my new best friends meredith to research my new novel. half of it takes place in her hometown, and i need to see it for myself. i am so excited. i get to meet her family and see all the places i am putting into my story.

then...i get to go to santa monica...and see another place i put in my first novel. it reminds me of all the time i spent walking around the 3rd St. Promenade before we moved home, taking notes on a notecard, trying to get all the specifics seared into my memory before i wrote those chapters. so i'm going back to relive it a little and to take a mental break with my husband.

he misses cali, and i have to admit, i do miss it a little too. it was an extended vacation though, and after a while, vacations stop having that sheen. you realize there is a lot you can't get done on a vacation (that could be me and my ocd need to always be doing something).

i am sitting in my office right now, in nashville, and with my little doggie underneath the desk. and i have to say, i'm very happy. i'm excited to get to go back and see the place from a true "vacationer" perspective, but i love where we are.

have a wonderful week, and if you had a spring break, for real... i hope it was great!

oh ya, and Happy Easter!

ashlyne huff revelette