back in cali, the days were, well, not really short, but not long. the sun was down around 7:30 pm, and time was easy to keep track of. if a kid was still up when the sun wwent down, there was no need for concern, it wa still early in the evening! i rarely wondered what happened to my day, and only occasionally felt the pressing need for more time in my day. granted, not having a traditional job probably had a lot to do with that because i sure can remember how pressing time seemed to get when i was in school. still, even then, loss of time had to do with being buried in schoolwork more than anything. nothing will give you a time crunch quicker then having to read 4 novels and writing 3 papers in one day.

but out here in georgia i'm losing days. time just evaporates. the sun doesn't go down till 9 or 9:30 and i keep losing track of time. it seems like i've just sat down to write and jewel is home. half the time i couldn't tell you if i managed to get anything done, the other half what i got done and the amount of time passed just don't seem to add up. time out here is just . . . different. or seems so, anyway. and if a kid is up when the sun goes down, 2 out of 3 of them are up past bed time - which is just incredibly odd to get used to! i asked a friend if i would ever get used to the way time is so different out here and she said "no." she's lived in the mid-north for years after being a cali girl and says she's still not used to the differences.

wonderful. my days will forever be lost.

however, despite the hours that hide away from me, i am starting to settle back into my writing routine and am making progress on the novel. slow progress, but progress none the less. and that's a good feeling. it's something i've needed for a few months now. next month i'll be getting involved with a new dii challenge and putting out some short stories again. i have one floating in my head that i am allowing to solidify until the challenge starts, and i'm sure others will come. so, even with hours in my day missing, i am doing really well in that regard, and i feel really good about my writing and my writing progress.

in other news, geico is being . . . difficult. the bluebook value of our car is $4800. and i made sure to look up the exact same car - model, year, same options. the insurance company wants to give us $2100 for it. $2100! are they nuts???? that's not even the amount mcat paid for it, and there's no way we could replace it for that amount. okay, yea, insurance companies are trying to make money, which means minimizing how much they pay out in claims, but to not even give a decent percentage of the bluebook? wtf is that? if i were to go to a dealer and attempt to purchase an exact same car, you know the minimum i'd have to pay is bluebook, and more than likely at least a couple of thousand more.

apparently i need to find not only my days, but a new insurance company as well.