Story Weekend: Deadlines

Sorry to be missing in action the past couple of weeks, but it was deadline time, which meant I didn’t budge from my computer for about 18 hours a day and was living more in my fictional world than the real world. But I made my deadline and here I am, back in reality. Well, actually, I’m in New Jersey visiting family, but you can’t get any realer than New Jersey.

So deadlines are much on my mind and I thought that would be a good topic for Story Weekend.

There are all sorts of deadlines in our lives. What’s your deadline story?

19 Comments

  1. Martha O'Quinn on August 4, 2012 at 7:44 am

    I love deadlines! They are my incentives for anything and everything. Currently, my deadline is 11:00 AM. Tax free weekend is here and the Early Bird Special at the shoe wharehouse calls. I need new walking shoes. Happy weekend to all.

    • Diane Chamberlain on August 4, 2012 at 3:58 pm

      hope you got a good deal martha. last tax free weekend i bought my macbook air. yum.

  2. Lois Manowitz on August 4, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    I sure do know what you mean about New Jersey, Diane……but, um……isn’t it “more real” than “realer”? Yikes, who am I to correct a writer, but I know you have a sense of humor!!!

    • Jayna Lalli on August 4, 2012 at 3:15 pm

      I believe an ellipsis only has 3 “dots”… I guess we all make mistakes here and there… myself included… hee hee! Good thing we all have a sense of humor! Sorry, I have the need to defend Diane, not that she needs me to defend her but…

      • Diane Chamberlain on August 4, 2012 at 3:56 pm

        you guys! In jersey we can use any grammar and punctuation we want.

        • Jayna Lalli on August 4, 2012 at 4:24 pm

          Atta girl!

        • Lois Manowitz on August 5, 2012 at 1:33 pm

          Jayna & Diane…I hope you both know I was totally kidding!!! Jayna, actually Diane and I go way back to Brownies together, so I knew she knew it would be in good fun.

  3. Steph Walford on August 4, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    My shoulders ache as I press hard and fast on the white and almost waxen chest under my hands. In the corner of my eye I see the seconds marking the transition from health and vitality to this. I adjust my position slightly as colleagues gain IV access, hook the patient up to the defib monitor and cut the clothes from his body. The only sound in my ears is the hiss of oxygen and the bleeping of the monitor that records each compression I make. We work hard, sweat breaking, as we try to win the battle. But we lose. The flattened wavy ‘deadline’ reveals asystole. We glance at each olther, nod silently, and step away from his warm but lifeless body.

    • Diane Chamberlain on August 4, 2012 at 3:57 pm

      oh, steph. . .

    • Cindy on August 4, 2012 at 11:46 pm

      Steph..I cannot imagine this kind of deadline. You all are a special breed to work so hard to help God make the miracles happen. And when Gods decision overrules… You have to give it to him..that can’t be easy.

      • Sheree Gillcrist on August 5, 2012 at 5:03 am

        Steph. It seems we are always on the wrong end of the Long Goodbye. Internalize the loss because there is always someoneelse who needs you right now.xx

  4. Anastasia on August 4, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    I hate deadlines. I am a procrastinator by nature. As an Open University student I have to write 4 essays per class per year that makes 8-12 essays every academic year. They all have VERY tight deadlines which I MUST keep. On the day before the deadline expires, I am usually staring at my computer screen daydreaming, Then almost at the very last minute I write 3000 words within the next 5-6 hours and make it just in time. The funny thing is that I do all the preparation WAY ahead of time but I start writting at 5 minutes to midnight time.

    • Diane Chamberlain on August 4, 2012 at 6:00 pm

      I can relate…

  5. ita on August 4, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    looking for the following books:

    1- Secret Lives

    – the Escape Artist

    3 – Reflections

    4 – Fire and Rain

    5 – Lovers and Strangers

    6- Private Relations

    If anyone can help me please email me at – trochel@netvision.net.il

    thanks so much

    • Diane Chamberlain on August 4, 2012 at 6:17 pm

      Ita, I suppose you know the first four are available as e-books? In print, all six are hard to find because they’re out of print and can only be found used. Sometimes they’re available on eBay, so you might check there. Lovers and Strangers and Private Relations are my first two books and were my ‘learning books’ and are very different from my usual fare! Hope you get some help finding them.

  6. Cindy on August 4, 2012 at 11:53 pm

    For a procrastinator like me..well..It is just the way i roll..and it has cost for sure… Because I always count down to the last minute… I don’t have to actually punch a clock right now..so a minute or even 5 late to work is no big deal…but there was a time that I had to punch that clock…and I would always make it. I don’t know how. I knew in minutes and in seconds the exact time I could leave the house and clock in and get to the line before the buzzer went off. Of course I am sure that I broke speed limits more than once..

    Also, paying that bill or filling out a form…this is really when it has cost me. I know exactly when I have to pay a bill, exactly when it has to be there…and I know it and I am going to do it..and what happens..I forget what day it is, or something else unexpected happens out of my control and I have to pay a late payment.. I am the worlds worst procrastinator….because I don’t do it very well.

  7. Kat on August 5, 2012 at 6:57 am

    I am currently on a constant deadline as I race towards the finish of my health diploma course. I really don’t want to be this close to the end – I’d rather be back at the beginning of this incredible journey but ultimately an incredible year has to end. A year which has taught me loads and helped me to develop in ways I didn’t think possible. A year ago I’d have never imagined myself taking blood or chatting easily to people. That said the remaining 6 units hanging over me currently seem rather scary and that deadline is looming ever closing.

  8. Sheree Gillcrist on August 5, 2012 at 8:37 am

    Of the many hats I wear , music promotor, song writer and reviewer is one that I am very proud of. To have the opportunity to encourage emerging artists, help them write their bios, spread the word, pass on the joy or to introduce the world to my favourite hard working, long travelled established musician friends through the mags that I write for, Well, For me that is what life is all about. Sharing the joy. The year before the expiry date arrived on my marriage , my life in a muddle of misunderstanding and malcontent, I was invited to a huge music festival to act as emcee. Truly an honour. I am sure they invited me for my cock sure attiitude gleaned from my many years reading my rambling writing on radio and at literary festivals an but I was no longer that girl anymore. I was one of The Lost Ones who had set her sails on a sea of uncertainty. A 5 hour drive found me at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival staring up at a set of stairs at the Opera House that would lead me into my new life. Make me a new me and I froze, turned to the sound man( a veteran of the musical wars) and I said ‘I can’t do this’. The audience of hundreds and many of my musical friends all gave me the thumbs up and had come to cheer me on knowing th path that I had journied in my soul to get there. The sound man however was having none of it.lol. The deadline was upon me. Fright or Flight? He turned to me and said ‘Get your butt up on that stage right now. I am Not doing this alone’ and I did and I loved it and I knew then what I had always known. That it takes a village to shore up the foundations of a soul. That the mortar is the magic elixir that makes this crazy world makes sense. As I wandered in the Green rooms in that building before the performances that day that smelled of mildew and magic and popped in to listen to world famous musicians tune up for their shows, some asked me what chord sounded better and it struck me that no matter who we are or how far we have come, there comes a time in our lives when we all need validation.I fouund mine there. If Music be the song of my life. Play on

  9. Diane Chamberlain on August 5, 2012 at 10:31 am

    Cindy, may you always get those bills paid on time! Kat, as someone who needs the help of medical professionals, I appreciate your passion. Sheree, it’s hard to ever imagine you without confidence. Thanks, all, for sharing.

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