The Afternoons

I really hadn't intended to bore anyone with the minute details of my day, but I suppose I may as well finish what I started.

My afternoons vary. I try to schedule interviews in the afternoon. Sometimes I do research in the library or courthouse. Occasionally I research at my desk on the Internet.

Otherwise, I do laundry, return phone calls, catch up on email. Sometimes I work on articles, particularly on Mondays when I have deadlines.

Other times I work on a book project I have been making some progress with.

Many evenings I have a night meeting. I attend a lot of council meetings and such, so I try to keep my afternoons open on those days.

Today, for instance, was a little topsy turvey because I will be in a council meeting tonight. I don't particularly want to work 15 hour days, after all.

So this morning I saw a client and then visited my acupuncturist. After that I stopped by the grocery store. After I unloaded my haul and ate a salad, I ventured into the county seat for a look at courthouse records, a conversation or two with officials, and a stop by the newspaper office to see if my editor had any comments to share.

By that time it was 4 p.m. and I have been home an hour. Soon I will fix dinner and then I'll head to a nearby small town for the council meeting tonight.

If I didn't have a council meeting, I would be fixing dinner and then doing housework, maybe playing a little video game to relax, and then reading a book or magazine until bedtime while my husband flips through the TV channels.

I try to be in bed by 10 p.m. but it doesn't always work out that way. Some nights I don't get there until 11 p.m.

At 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, I'll start it all over again. Except I won't have acupuncture, of course.