I decided to take a bit of a mental break before I jump into my editing plan. I had been really fired up and ready to go. However, there were some speed bumps this weekend that really took a chunk out of my momentum.

First was the nearly 8 hours it took to get from Houston to New York this past Friday. Normally it's a flight that's just a little less than three hours. But, it was snowing in Houston. Yes, you read that right. SNOWING. (See the photographic proof taken in downtown on the way to the air port.) It snowed for quite a few hours and as a result, our plane had to be deiced. To make a long story short, we got to de-board the plane for an hour, only to have to wait for another three hours on the plane sitting on the tarmac to be deiced before we finally took off about 4 and a half hours after our scheduled departure time. Since I got to my hotel well after 10 p.m., I deemed it a lost writing day and instead went down to the hotel and had a drink at the bar.

After that very frustrating day lost almost completely to travel, I decided I needed another day off. (Are you seeing a trend starting to develop here?...Procrastination!) There was a trip to Little Italy for lunch where we ate ourselves stupid on the best Gnocchi, Fettuccine Alfredo and Cannoli ever (no writing). Afterward was an almost painful trip through Chinatown for some of the finest knockoff items in the country (no writing done here either). Usually I enjoy haggling in Chinatown, but the sky was heavily dumping a slushy rain/snow mix and it was very, very, very crowded. I was completely occupied with trying to not get my eyes poked out from a stray umbrella tip instead of being able to enjoy looking at the items in the vendor stalls. After fighting our way through the deadly sea of parapluies to the subway station and back to the hotel, we made plans for dinner. At dinner we ate ourselves even more stupid than we did at lunch and finished it all of with a creme brule trio (nothing that could have even been mistaken for writing at night either). All the while it continued to snow, and snow, and snow even more.

Unfortunately, none of the snow stuck in the city. But, on the way from the city into central PA, the hills and the trees were still covered with the fresh dusting of snow from the night before. (See the above picture, taken somewhere along I-78 in New Jersey) A warm, well heated car was the perfect way to enjoy the winter scenery. I'm very much a tropical person. And while I love the look of snow, I'm not a fan of the cold.

Over the past three days I've gotten bupkus done in the way of editing. However, one thing I noticed during this time is that I haven't had any coffee. I believe that this is scientific proof for why I have not been productive in my editing endeavors. So tomorrow morning, I'm going to begin my daily caffeine regimen again and hopefully make some progress.