Day ??? - The Changing Face of the Coffee Beans Project

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a blog. When I posted my last blog, I was feeling a bit frustrated and overwhelmed. I was having trouble keeping up with writing a daily entry for my coffeebeandreams project, even though I thought the basic premise of the project was working out well.

It's easy enough in the morning to find 5-10 minutes to read about a subject that interests me. It's much harder to find time to actually write about what I read. Add to this the fact that I'm job searching and we've moved several times in the last few months, from temporary housing location to temporary housing location- all with a young infant, and things have been a little bit dicey.

Despite learning something new every day for the coffeebeans project, I was feeling a little lost. What would I do for work? Was my few minutes a day of quiet reflection and learning really making a difference? Maybe I should switch to a weekly blog post?

Somehow, out of all of this confusion in my head, I decided that it was the right time to work on writing a novel. I've been slowly outlining and working on a novel since about February. And by slowly, I mean SLOWLY. (But, give me a break- the newborn days were t-o-u-g-h!) I've always dreamed of being a writer. But, of course, that's not a real job, so I went to law school.

Uh huh.

Once I realized that law is not exactly the flexible, unlimited career it's touted as being, I toyed around with the idea of going back to my first love: writing. The great thing about writing is, you can do it while doing other things, like searching for a real job or chasing an increasingly mobile infant around the house. As a bit of a type A, however, I can tend to be all or nothing about things, so when I started writing again in earnest earlier this month, I went a little crazy. I'm now up to 78,000 words. I've probably got less than 10,000 words left to go. I've been spending every spare moment writing like a madwoman. the first draft will need a lot of work, I'm sure, but... you guys... I'm *this* close to being done with writing an actual novel. No. freaking. way.

So the point of this blog, I guess, is an update that yes, I'm still doing the coffeebeans project every morning, and will have a more detailed update at some point, and also, I'm still writing- just pouring my energy into finishing a book. I can hardly wait to see how it ends! :)

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 82 - Taking a Break

I've decided to take a break from this blog. I'm not sure when, or if, I'll start blogging again, but what I was hoping would be a nice stress reliever has become very difficult to keep up with.

I will probably still keep the essence of the project- reflecting each morning over coffee for a few minutes- but the time required to actually blog about it is too hard to find with a 4 month old. I have to wait until she goes to bed at night to actually write, and at this point, trying to care for her without any help from family or friends is too exhausting and I think I probably need to just take the time to sleep instead of write.

Thanks, everyone, for reading! I do love writing, so perhaps I will start this up again when things get on a more normal schedule! I hope you have enjoyed the posts that I have been able to write!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 81 – Land of Monsoons!

Today I’m going to talk about the geography of India. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_India) India is pretty much a giant peninsula into the Indian Ocean, with coastline of about 4,700 miles. The mainland’s coastline is a mix of 43% sandy beaches, 11% rocky shores, and 46% mudflats or marshy shores. The Ganges is the longest river in India. The central highlands consist mainly of three plateaus. The northern part of Italy is largely defined by the Himalayan Mountains. To the west is the Thar Desert, the seventh largest desert in the world by some calculations.

The Himalayas and the Thar Desert influence India’s climate, which has summer and winter monsoons. The Himalayas block cold winds from blowing into the Indian subcontinent, keeping it warmer than most locations at similar latitudes, but across the total of India you can find climates ranging from arid desert in the west to alpine tundra in the north to humid tropical regions in the southwest. The country has four seasons: winter, summer, monsoon, and post-monsoon. During monsoon season, many areas remain flooded!

That’s it for today, but here’s a picture of monsoon season in India. As you can see, it is no joke!

Xoxo,

Diana