I am supposed to be writing an essay about my experience at an airplane workshop I attended two years ago. The essay is due on Monday. I started writing it a month ago, sort of, so I have something to build from but I need several hours of uninterrupted time in my office to finish it. And though I often find it a challenge to keep myself on task with my writing it’s extra difficult today. Why? We got a new puppy yesterday. Rose and Ryan have named him Rocket and he’s a 12 week old Border Terrier. And really, the only thing I want to do is sit still with the puppy on my lap. Those of you who know me well know that I seldom sit still so me sitting still is a big deal.

I wonder if Rocket will sit on my lap while I’m writing? I’ll have to try that sometime. But, for now, Rose and Ryan are on puppy duty and watching the little guy sleep in the kitchen. Watching puppies sleep is almost as good as having them sleep on your lap. Seriously. They are that cute. And Rocket is the cutest of all puppies and, yes, I am biased and a totally in love with him so don’t expect me to write anything rational...but I’ll try.

I started a new writing class at The Loft on Thursday. It’s called Memoir: Writing of Family. The instructor for the 12 week course is Mary Jean Port. I mentioned Mary Jean in a past blog entry. She’s an excellent instructor and my writing friends, Joy and Christine, and I worked with Mary Jean on memoir writing over the last several months. Joy is taking the Writing of Family class with me and we had our first class on Thursday. I am excited about the class. The mix of students is interesting and it’s evident from the bit of writing that each of us shared at class that each student has a goodly amount of writing talent. Best of all, everyone appears easygoing and excited to be in the class.

Many of the students are focuses on what they want to write about - from stories about traveling with family to searching for information about grandparents and great-grandparents to writing to gain understanding of people in the here and now. No one mentioned writing about dogs, though. I suppose some people might not thing of dogs as family - but I do. And I’ll probably end up writing something in this class about our new pup, or, if not a story directly about Rocket, something about how the human members of my family learn and grow as Rocket grows and as Chaucer (our other Border Terrier, he’s nearly 14) ages. I’ll write about other things, too, I’m sure. Maybe write some more car stories or write about flying with my family. There’s so much to write about - I’m never at a loss of material, just the time to write it all down.

I promise to share some dog stories on my blog. How could I not? So much happens with a puppy in the house! But, for now I need to get back to writing the essay that’s due on Monday. Yep, I’ll get working on that. Well, maybe I’ll go downstairs and sit with Rocket for a bit first.