The Mother of all writer's blocks

For the past month I have been unable to write.  Why?  I had a letter of recommendation to write.

I've written dozens of rec letters over the years.  They are not a big deal and I am not sure many ever get read... but this letter is for a former student who's become a good friend AND it is for him to get into NYU.  The southern part of Manhattan is home to Little Italy, Chinatown, the Village (the cultural heart of New York City) and Wall Street.  In the midst of all of that is NYU.  For my Moroccan friend to have a chance to attend one of the best universities in the world in one of the best locations in the world?  Well, I just didn't want my recommendation letter to screw it up for him. 

This blocked my ability to write anything.  I didn't post to the blog (obviously)... I couldn't even write new powerpoints for our new textbooks.  E-mail was difficult.

The deadline for his recommendation was September 30.  On the evening of September 29th I finally had an epiphany of how to write his story.  In 25 minutes I wrote the letter and only made minor revisions the next day before submitting.  Twenty-five minutes of work held me up for an entire month.

Anyhow, I hope the writer's block is gone permanently.  I have a lot of work to catch up on.

*****

My trip to the US was excellent:  Five days in DC followed by almost a month in Iowa.  It was simply a great trip... including...

Bacon Happy Hour!  In the picture above you see bacon, tempura bacon, and bacon wrapped dates.  Zins does bacon Happy Hour once a month and I was happy to be able to attend on a perfect Iowa summer day.

Unfortunately, the bad news from the trip home was that I, 1. Ate way too much bacon and other food.  I gained 20 pounds in four weeks.  I didn't think that was even possible. And, 2. I spent way too much money - $5000 in 4 weeks.  Considering I never rented a car or a hotel room I'm not really sure how I possibly spent that much money.  The single biggest purchase was $400 for a year's supply of contacts.

I'm happy to be back at work to literally work off the weight I've gained and earn some money to pay off my extravagant holiday.