Yesterday I needed a rock… ok, I needed a paperweight. Annnd maybe “need” is too strong a word. I wanted a paperweight.

I had just pulled all my brainstorming post it notes from my plot board in preparation to swap from the chaos of creation to the semblance of order and outline the board provides once I get to the writing portion of the process.

So this pile of post-its sitting on my desk really gave me disaster vibes. I’m on the edge of being completely overwhelmed about 90% of the time when I’m writing, and this pile… well, I needed something to give me a sense of containment. 

Not that I don’t have other rocks in my office, but I also had an idea earlier than I wanted to take this enameled bee brooch I’ve had on my desk and glue it to something so it wouldn’t tilt to the side all the time. I’m never going to wear it as jewelry, it’s just a little token to remind myself to be a busy little worker bee when there’s a lot on my plate that day. So yeah, busy bee the paper weight needs to happen now. Because of course it absolutely can’t wait.

Yeah, it’s as lame and procrastinate-y  as it sounds, but

 our property is basically made of rocks, so I wasn’t committing myself to long term avoidance. 

In fact, I had almost convinced myself that I’d just grab a any old random rock and get it over with. The driveway is covered with them.

But of course, I really wanted something nicer. A bigger piece of black tourmaline, or a nicer bit of quartz, both of which I find regularly just lying around.

I think I took ten steps outside my office door when I found the second nicest piece of black tourmaline I’ve ever found. Not an inclusion but a nice stand alone chunk. It’s about an inch square… not particularly weighty. But it’s not like there’s wind in my office either.

Cleaned that puppy up, glued the bee to it and now my little “paper weight” is keeping that shit in check.

(Then I spent 20 minutes working on writing stuff before running off to get ready to go see Sparks in concert. I still can’t stop singing “When Do I Get to Sing My Way?” on repeat in my head.)