You, again.

This weekend I drove from Louisiana to Austin for a girls' weekend with my college friends. It was weird to make the drive all by myself. The first three hours of the drive I plotted the rest of Miraculous Conception. I worked it out scene by scene, even writing some of the dialogue in my head. I often write in my head while driving long distances.

Then I stopped at Chili's for lunch. It was then that I realized I'd forgotten to take a yellow legal pad with me. I survive, in part, because of yellow legal pads. I carry little notebooks in my purse but they're not really helpful for writing out the rest of a novel. I thought about getting out my laptop but I wanted to write with one hand and eat with the other. I was only about halfway through the drive and I didn't want to take a long lunch. I found a piece of cardboard in my car and covered both sides with notes.

This is not the first time I have sat alone in a restaurant writing on trash I found in my car. Once I wrote on a wrapping paper tube I ripped up. This is normal for me. This is what I do. This is who I am. Every time I do it I feel a little crazy. Every time I do it I feel like Me.

So I guess the moral of this story is either:
Keep a yellow legal pad in your car at all times
or it might be
Always keep trash you can scribble on in your car