No, I did not go into hiding or drop flat dead when I turned 37. It’s all been well.

I’m flabbergasted, still, at how busy my life has become. I was under the impression that I would work while Clara Jane was in school. She’d come home, I’d banish the computer, and it would be all quality time.

That doesn’t work, does it?

Instead, I’m spending more time at school during the day than I expected. In fact, I’m pecking this out as fast as I can before I need to be at her school to volunteer. And then there was the week of early dismissals last week, along with the Halloween parade and party and ,oh, did we mention that it’s a four-day week? No? Oh, well, it is! And here are two more writing assignments, which you’ll love doing during breaks in making Clara Jane’s witch costume. And Halloween! Pumpkins and feathers and costumes and …

Good lord.

I’m not complaining because it’s all been fun and rewarding and damn if I’m not doing exactly what I want to do. It’s just not quite as well-scheduled as I’d hoped. But is anything?

The extra articles were much fun. How can I possibly complain about writing an article about the best mustaches in music video history? While I was working on it, I kept feeling like I was slacking because emailing with Kristina and swapping links to cheesy music videos? That’s not work. That night I got to review John Oates’ show at the second annual ‘Stache Bash, a writing job that led to me irritating the two hardcore Oates fans in the world. Again, stuff I used to do for free in an attempt to shirk grown-up responsibility.

It’s true. If you do what you love, the work will find you.

You know how, if you say a word over and over, it starts to sound weird? By the end of last week I’d written so much that all the words sounded weird. That was pretty cool.

Halloween? Such a good time. I have a five-year-old so of course it was awesome. She was a witch with a very bad crow-eating black kitty:

And I’m out of time. Again.