Another draft down

Yesterday, I read My Big Sister Is So Bossy She Says You Can't Read This Book while I worked out. I might not have exercised at full-speed, but I stayed at it for two hours, and I read the entire book!

After my workout, I took the girls swimming. Baby K was tired. We came home so she could nap. Amazingly, she took an almost-two-hour nap, just long enough for me to finish up my fleshed-out first draft of my WIP.

Here's where my day got hectic:

One and a half hours before critique group: We picked A up from camp. I put her in charge of the kids so that I could tweak my draft and print it.

One hour and fifteen minutes before critique group: I ordered a pizza.

One hour before critique group (BCG): My husband called to tell us to eat without him. He had to work late. Yes, he had forgotten it was critique group night.

55 minutes BCG: I called the neighbor. Chit-chatted with her mom. Begged R to babysit. She agreed.

53 minutes BCG: I ran around the house, wiping up slushie syrup, picking up choking hazards.

45 minutes BCG: I fought with every printer and computer in the house to get my manuscript printed. I was about to give up and read my manuscript from my laptop, when I had this bright idea: forget about the network, plug directly into the printer. Success! YEA!

40 minutes BCG: Loaded three kids in the car to pick up pizza.

30 minutes BCG: Fed the kids, checked on print job, ran a brush through my hair.

20 minutes BCG: Picked up more choking hazards. My artsy kids destroyed the place. Decided to tell the babysitter to watch out anyway. It would be easier to clean in the morning.

15 minutes BCG: Babysitter showed up and I left.

5 minutes BCG: I arrived, bought my Diet Coke and took a deep breath.

We had a great meeting. Once again, I managed to write a story within a story (bad!) where I have two main characters and no one knew whose story it was. I got some good feedback, and was ready to revise (rare!). When I got home, I caught up with my husband. He went to bed early. I finished up some work and went to bed shortly after.

4:00 a.m. Honey's alarm rang. He had to catch a flight to NYC this morning.
4:30 a.m. Honey kissed me goodbye.
4:31 a.m. I was wide awake. I walked to the computer and began to revise. I tore apart yesterday's story and focused on one character.
7:05 a.m. Baby K woke up just as I finished this draft.
7:30 a.m. Emailed story to people in my summer writing club for tomorrow's critique.

Tonight, I plan to work on the second character's story. In a way, this two story problem I have works out better because when I actually take the time to revise, I get two stories for the effort of one.