The Worcester Pobble?

(subtitled: DonDon, Step Away from the Pharmacy!)

Interesting to get back online and see how many people have been hibernating recently. I know I have. Contrary to popular belief, I am indeed an introvert. Actually, I am, according to my therapist friends, what's known among therapist circles as a Hub. It means that I require equal amounts of introverted and extroverted times. Personally, I think I'm just an introvert but they're the ones who've gone to school for this shit so who am I to argue. ;) Anyway, there isn't any "good" reason for me to have been offline. Nothing "bad" happened. Just...didn't write. Didn't socialize much. Turned down some invitations to some parties. Didn't even work (too much) on my books (as FAEE looks at the calendar, my deadlines, and grabs her heart, gasping.) Didn't return many phone calls. For no reason at all. And now I'm writing again. Probably still won't return phone calls but that's vintage Pobble regardless of if I'm being introverted or extroverted or whatever.

Okay, Pobble, fine. But what's up with the title? Well, it appears that I won't be moving to Philly anytime soon. Even Philly isn't inexpensive enough. So, until I succeed in making people give me things just 'cause I'm cute (which I will find a way to make happen one of these days), I have to find a place I can afford to live and keep writing.

Here's the thing ~ I can get a "real" job and stay here. Except what I am qualified to do in the real world is exhausting. No matter how much I have loved my jobs in the past (and Lord, have I loved my jobs) they have worn me out. If I choose to go back there, it means, in essence, these three books will be the only three I ever write. Guess what? I'm not going to do that. I'm a writer, dammit. It's who and what I am. It's what I love. So, I will live wherever (almost) I have to live in order to keep writing full-time. And if that also entails getting a part-time job at a bookstore or answering phones, that's okay. But I won't give up full-time writing.

Once this decision was made, others had to follow. The Lovely Cats and the Divine M invited me to live with them. As did my mother. Because I am neurotically independent and stubborn as a mule, I am trying to not take TLC and TDM up on their offers. My mother lives on the West Coast and that would take me too far away from my family (see my first post "Whose Family" for an explanation of that statement.)

Which made me realize...being close to the Muppet, Brian's wife, the Lovely Cats, the Divine M, Nemeria ~ that is as important as writing full time. And others. People who aren't my family but are the best friends I've had in a long time... BJ, the Happy Couple and their evil twins, Peaches, Jaded, my not-ex-friend, FAEE, the Girlfriends. Being near them is important.

Would I have moved to Philly? In a heartbeat. It's close enough that we would have all figured something out. Away from the East Coast, though? I can't. I won't. And not because it's the East Coast anymore. Because of these people. Who mean as much as writing does.

So maybe my therapist friends aren't crazy to have spent that much cash on their educations. Maybe there is such a thing as a Hub. And maybe I really am just that such thing. But no maybe ~ I'll go to Worcester before I'll leave here. At least right now.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.