Ahh, what a funky couple of days it's been.

As you know, I've been working on the copyedits for my next book Ordinary Beauty, which comes out in June 2011. Getting close, right? I know.

Well, since the copyedited manuscript was due back to my editor by the end of this week, and with the snow coming and all, I figured I'd get it out on Wednesday overnight carrier, instead of waiting till the last minute and then blowing the deadline.

So, I call a carrier for a pick-up and they set it up for the next day. That day -- after it snowed and we have about 7" (and remember, I live in the woods on a winding, one-lane road) -- I'm waiting and waiting, then I call to confirm and they say yes, I'm still scheduled for a pick-up. Finally, around 4 in the afternoon, I hear the truck rumbling its way toward the house, so I grab the manuscript packed in a box, and run out through the snow, waving and all.

They stop, and I tell them my name and I'm glad to see them because this was a scheduled pick-up, and while I'm filling out the label one of them says, "We took a wrong turn and we're lost. Do you know where Laura Wiess lives?" And I looked at them, boggled, and said, "Uh, I'm Laura."

They gazed at me in astonishment -- apparently they had not heard me say my name 14 times or that this was a scheduled pick-up -- and so I guess they'd thought I was just some lunatic hunkered down on a snowy back road in the woods, lying in wait for an express carrier to trundle by so I could launch myself out of my house and hurl a package at them.  Bizarre, and it cracked me up.

So, the manuscript is back in New York now, safe in the hands of my editor and for a litlle while I am free, free, free! Except that I'm really not, as I have three ideas -- well, two revisions and a very intense, brand new idea -- nipping at my heels and I'm eager to mess with them. So.

Today we went out to dinner and were supposed to go to a movie, only we had a lot of free time before the movie started, so we went into a guitar store to kill some time. My boyfriend sat down to play a gorgeous black Ibanez acoustic/electric 12 string guitar, and I fell in love with it and so did he, and, well, you know how it goes from there. So instead of leaving it laying in the car while we went to see a movie -- that thought made me really uncomfortable, as it was a crowded parking lot plus it's like 9 degrees here tonight -- we decided to forego the movie, and take the scenic route home.

Fabulous idea. And there was a moment during that ride, while we were drinking coffee Coolattas from Dunkin Donuts, cranking the ancient but still funky and kick-butt Let the Sun Shine In,  with a beautiful new black guitar in the backseat and the sunset glowing like jewels, that it seemed like everything came together, all questions had been answered and it was great in the most satisfying way. Noticeably satisfying, if you know what I mean. The kind of moment that freezes time to make sure you don't miss how good it is.

I don't know why it chose that moment, or how it all seemed to come together, and I had no questions left right then which, if you know me, is an astonishing thing. I am not a restful woman, all things considered, as I always have questions but at that moment everything superfluous disappeared and I was just content to be. 

I will not soon forget that.