Oct 26 2011

My scarf by Darlene gives me power

Rosemary

I am still in overtime, forget-about-the-rest-of-your-life mode at the dayjob. Upside: I’m continuing to have discussions with my boss about whether or not this state is permanent, and he does sympathize. Downside: We have no answer yet. Until it’s sorted out one way or the other, I’m still working too many hours.

I generally try to keep my writing life and my DayJob as separate as possible. People around here don’t read much, and it’s more trouble than it’s worth to teach people who already aren’t interested in books that there’s more to SF and Fantasy than UFO’s and vampires. So I tend to just clam up, do the job, get the paycheck and health insurance.

I even dress differently, and there are certain items that wear at conventions and in my personal life, things I haven’t worn at the job because to my mind they are specific signifiers of my Writer persona.

Chief among these being: my collection of gorgeous silk scarves hand-made by Darlene Coltrain:

The center, here seen as the top

The center, here seen as the top

I first started buying them in, I think, 1998. They’re filled with images that remind me of the things I love best: stars, skies, water, the natural world, anything both clearly seen and mysterious.

further down

further down

This is one of my favorites, and one of the ones I’ve had the longest…

near the bottom

moving downward

And yes, I am wearing it at the DayJob. Looking at it reminds me of what’s important, what I love, and makes me feel strong.

Thing are really hard right now, and it’s been going on too long. And I realized that instead of leaving my writer self outside, I need to keep her right here, right up front and center. This so that can I stay focused on fixing things on the job so that I can HAVE TIME TO WRITE AGAIN.

Therefore, for as long as this is going on, I’ll have the same conversation with my boss every Monday, asking what the plan is to fix this — and I shall wear one or another of my beloved scarves to work every single day.

As a reminder to myself — and to everyone around me.

as much as I could fit in the picture.

as much as I could fit in the picture.