Last week was the first time in my life that I have been home sick for an entire five days. In fact, I rarely get sick other than a cold or flu. Monday morning, I woke, fed the cats and dressed to go on my usual run. I pushed myself out the door, just as I had been doing for the last couple of weeks. Well, about halfway through my run, I started getting nauseated and ran out of energy. I ended up walking the rest of the way home. By 8:30, I was still feeling nauseated and not very well and called in ill to work. To make a long story short, I had a fever and nausea for most of the week, had no appetite whatsoever and slept a lot. On Tuesday, the doctor told me to try to fight off whatever it was with my own resources, but to pick up antibiotics if I was not remarkably better toward the end of the week. About six hours after taking my first dose of antibiotics on Thursday, I finally began to feel better. Now, I am not 100%, but I am on the mend.

During the week, writing was the last thing on my mind. I seriously thought I was going to die. Well, on Friday night, I could not get to sleep- I tossed and turned, read, had a small bowl of cereal. Nothing would lead me into that sweet slumber. Finally, I brought my laptop into my room and wrote on my novel. Once I let my characters come out and live their lives, I was finally able to get to sleep.

Now that I have made changed in the plot of my story, it is moving along quite well. My critique group likes it thus far. I no longer feel like I am trying to force the story, but that the story is now coming together on its own. My job is to make sure I sit down and write, and to write to the best of my ability. All I can say is that it is coming along.

The other thing on my plate is my upcoming class reunion. Thirty years. I told the reunion head that I would love to help find missing students. To be honest, I could not recall how many kids I graduated with and expected there might be 15 or 20 missing students. Well, there was around one hundred! (I now know our graduating class must have been over 200!) I did not know how I was going to do this, but I truly believe where there is a will, there is a way. The glass is always half full in any given circumstance. Finally, I discovered USSearch, an extensive public records database, was offering a seven-day free trial. I found addresses for 88 missing kids! Some addresses I'm sure of, others are as sure as I can get right now.

I feel well and blessed today. Happy writing all!