Dream on.

Gosh.

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here.

Not that I haven't been writing. It's just that lately it has been restricted to grant applications, standard operating procedures, and pen-to-paper scribbles in my journal. It's been a little easier to stick to those particular things these days, especially since my personal computer decided to call it a day after limping through summer with apparently enough trojans to prevent teen pregnancy in the U.S. for the next three months.

This is a quick post to get me back in the game. Hopefully, consistently. Although tonight I'm currently distracted by the time and an annoying case of Reynaud's that's still bothering me even though I'm wrapped up in fingerless gloves, two pairs of socks, and an infinity scarf that's wound so tightly around my face I look like a wooly pink ninja. I'm also oddly distracted by the combination of RufusWainwright and Snoop Dogg serenading Billy Joel at the Kennedy Center Awards.

But that's a subject for another day when it's not so late and my fingers don't feel like I've been hanging in a bobhouse ice fishing for a week.

I thought it would be wise to start using my blog to update y'all on progress regarding getting myself to Bali for The Daily Love's Writers Mastermind next November. Sure, next November might seem like a long way away, but let's face it. Time flies like those crazy, shockingly-handsome adrenaline junkies that were flinging themselves off mountain tops in nothing but flying squirrel costumes on 60 Minutes tonight.

Next November will be here before you know it.

Before I tuck myself into bed, I wanted to give y'all an exciting update before I start truly lambasting you with GoFundMe promotion. I'm almost at 20% of my goal in just 10 days of starting this campaign. I know the site says I've been campaigning longer, but that stat is incorrect. While I created the template of the page at an earlier date, I didn't start to promote the site until 10 days ago. Since then, 28 people have generously tossed in almost 20% of my goal.

Unfathomable. Cartwheel material, really. Especially since, while doing hours of stone-fingered grant and scholarship research today, it has become even more apparent that this GoFundMe campaign is going to be more important than I had anticipated. As you might have gathered, this whole sabbatical will actually cost more than my GFM goal. (How many of you are laughing at this acronym right now? Raise your hand...)

Anyway, my original plan was to fund what I can, which has already included the down payment to secure my spot in class, to raise money via GFM, and to tap into art and writing scholarships to supplement the rest.

But guess what?

All NH State Council on the Arts Arts and Entrepreneurial Grants and Individual Artists Fellowships are suspended  for FY2014 due to insufficient resources.

All of them.

My heart cracked a little. Not for me, I might add. I'm actually more inspired than ever to raise the required funds. But I did feel a bit banged up when I read this.  I mean, here we are, on the verge of perceived newness--a new year lined with shiny new budgets, dreamy possibilities and an armful of Danielle Laporte-inspired goals with soul. And damn it, like a March reality check when January's resolutions fall and face-plant in the slush, there is simply no money available for a single individual artist in 2014 through the NH State Council on the Arts. Not a penny.

How the hell are we supposed to get our "Virginia Woolf" on when there's no way to afford a room of our own unless it's attached to a Section 8 application?

All I know is this. If it gets to that point , I'm putting in an application for a 4 bedroom so I can move my muse in.

Sweet dreams, dreamers.

S.

Dream with me here.