Shag, Marry or Chuck off a cliff?

I have been busy recreating that bit out of Close Encounters when Richard Dreyfuss builds a big hill out of clay in his front room . Except with clothes.

Deciding which clothes to take to the US is unbearable. I love my clothes. I'm no fashionista - in fact, recent viewing of old Spice Girl videos has reaffirmed my belief that my fashion development stopped circa 1998 - but I have a lot of stuff. I'm your basic jeans and t-shirt kind of girl; there's a part of me that will be Forever Student, mixed with a fair old dash of theatricality and a slight hint of Rock Chick. I mainly do High Street, with the occasional well chosen label and a lot of Vintage - dammit, I was into Vintage before it got a capital V! I adore cashmere, have more boots than shoes and own a vast collection of Fat Face chenille socks (an invaluable writing tool). I have a thing about oversized pajama bottoms. I wear a different hat almost everyday and I can never have too many wrap dresses, long coats, scarves and denim.

I'm a sentimental horder. I have a pair of Converse from 1991 that I bought in Australia when I was backpacking and simply cannot get rid of because they have been through so much with me. I have a skirt from when I was 10 - it's been altered, but I STILL wore it up till about 5 years ago because it reminds me of being 10. I have a couple of my Dad's shirts (he died 7 years ago) that make me smile when I wear them to paint the flat or clean the kitchen floor.

I cannot throw anything out. The thought of storing these things for 2 years and them not seeing the light of day makes me feel a bit glum and pointless. The thought of taking them to the States makes me feel ridiculous.

There's such a skill in being able to pack a capsule wardrobe. One of my oldest friends recently went to Dubai for a week. She was unsure of what to take and showed me her suitcase. The case was large, and rattling around in the bottom somewhere were 3 casual dresses, a skirt, 2 tops and a swimming costume. I was gobsmacked. Where were all the clothes? She turned her back for a few minutes and I chucked in some more items, so panicked was I on her behalf. When I went on honeymoon in 2006, I took 14 bikinis. Yes, 14. And a swimming costume. And 2 tankinis. 3 sarongs. 4 coverups. And that's only the swimwear. We were only away for 2 weeks; some days I changed 4 times. It was fabulous.

Yet, recently I've been stuck in a sartorial rut. A combination of stress, no time and weight gain has left me wearing the same pair of jeans and uber-comfy wooly pullys. I'm at a place in my life where it's hard to imagine when I'll be slipping out in my amazing platform-stripper-boots and that suede mini skirt. Am I {gasp} now too old to wear such items? Should I store 'em or ship 'em...or chuck 'em?

Friends say I'll buy lots of new exciting stuff while I'm out there. So in every drawer there are a million decisions to be made. When I said I was creating a hill of clothes, actually it's more acurate to say there are 3 hills: US-bound, storage and charity shop. Shag, Marry or Chuck off a Cliff. Currently, it's safe to say I'm doing a lot of shagging.

Brain Too Full

The thing is, when I haven't written for a little while I forget that I can do it. I haven't written for about 2 months now and that part of my brain is only just beginning to kick back into action. There's only so much that I can hold in my head at one time. Running my business, preparing to sell my business, the move to the States and all that's associated with it...that's enough for now. I cannot wait until I have the time and head-space to start writing again! I'm fair aching to write, but there are not enough hours in the day and I just have to jolly well wait, like the patient girl I'm not.

So the proposed meeting with the Agent Who Quite Likes My Book hasn't happened yet. It was supposed to be this week, but for reasons I'm not at liberty to explain here it has been postponed. Nothing I can do about that; it's frustrating but there's no way round it. Nuff said.

On the America move, I'm busy stuffing myself with Britishness while I still can. I'm stockpiling Marmite, Tetley's tea and Dairy Milk chocolate to take, and packing my Spaced, Blackadder and Monty Python box sets for when I want a bit of home. I love the States and am so grateful for the opportunity to live there for a while, but I get the feeling that I will really miss the BBC, British accents and Balti. Still, I'm not going to fret about it. 2 years without hearing a Cor Blimey or Why Aye Man isn't going to kill me, and I'm sure Boston has a curry house.

So much to do! Must get packing them boxes!

Still here...just!

A belated Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

Oh lordy, I can't believe that I haven't blogged for a month...well, actually I can as it's been a crazy time. It actually feels weird to be sitting here typing again; I haven't written anything in the last 6 or 7 weeks and my fingers have forgotten how to do it.

Anyway, the news in brief:

1 Work has been insane. I've been producing a pantomime for my theatre company and the hours have been really, really long. I've felt exhausted since mid-November and have had quite a lot of travelling and mucho stress. I've even had to go on stage as an understudy for one of my actors who was rushed to hospital. It was a terrifying 48 hours of worry over my actress and being utterly freaked out over having to act again after several years of working behind the scenes. Anyway, good news is she's ok again and I'm back behind the scenes again! I actually enjoyed being on stage once I was in the middle of it, but I will never forget the fear I felt beforehand! I used to take this in my stride, god how things have changed!

2 I've been really quite poorly. Not anything major, but enough to make me take to my bed - tonsillitis, cold-turning-into-flu. I'm still not completely over it, it's been over 3 weeks now and I feel utterly SHENT and a bit old.

3 BIG NEWS!! The Agent Who Might Be Interested (see previous posts) is still interested and wants to meet me! Aaargh! Very exciting.
I wouldn't say she's been particularly effusive about my book, but she has said that she feels it has potential. She thinks some of it needs work, so I guess she's going to suggest a bit of a rewrite, which I suppose is all part of the normal way of things. Will keep you posted.

4 Just to redress the balance, I had another rejection from another agent!

5 BIG NEWS AGAIN!! I'm moving. To the USA. In about 7 weeks.
My husband has been offered a job for 2 years in Boston; it's been a possibility for a few months now but we only got final confirmation just before Christmas. I'm hugely excited, not least because it means I'll be able to WRITE FULL TIME! But it does only give me 7 weeks to sell my business (impossible, but I need to get the wheels in motion), pack up our lives and ship/store/sell our belongings, rent out our flat in London whilst working at the day job and trying to keep my writing up! (How the hell I'm going to manage to do rewrites for the agent in the midst of all of this - heaven knows - but I guess you find a way, huh?) I'm so nervous about getting everything done, and I'm really unsure as to how this might affect my chances of signing with an agent in the UK. More about all of that in another post...

So that's the catch up! I'll post more on each soon, but now I MUST do my bloody tax return before my accountant has a coronary.