My new 1000 words a day project: 15 October - 15 April

I have been in Singapore almost two weeks. My sister who regularly works with the Chinese says that for every time zone you travel, it takes one day of jet lag to adjust. So for the fifteen time zones or hours that we are now ahead, it should take us 15 days to adjust. We landed on the second, losing a day in travel. According to this calculation I have two days left of adjustment and jet lag. We did, I admit, adjust to the hour difference rather quickly. It seemed by the end of the first weekend – within three days that we were going to sleep at 10 pm and waking up at 7am just like we did at home. But it was also by the end of the first weekend that I realized adjusting to a new country and dealing with jet lag requires far more than getting onto the new country’s schedule. This occurred to me after I hit overwhelm when viewing a potential apartment to rent. I had been in one of those funky spaces where I just couldn’t articulate the source of my grumpiness or out of sortness and somehow saying I was jetlagged didn’t fit. It wasn’t until later that I realized – in the middle of the lease negotiations my husband had launched into - that I felt things were moving fast. And they weren’t moving that fast – just the normal rate they move when you move to a new city and are trying to get settled in. It was just my ability to process everything that had slowed down. It wasn’t until later in the week when I went to cross the street and looked the wrong way (almost getting hit by a car) that it felt like everything – all the changes from the last year – seemed to come rushing to my forehead to the cacophonous place of overwhelm in my forehead.
Singapore is a small country and while it is a densely populated city, it is not an overly large one. As a country it might be bigger than the city of New York; the densely populated area though is probably smaller or about the same size. I think there’s less subways here. At any rate, in general so far it is a pretty easy place to find your way around except that there’s an unusual amount of malls and a lot of things underground that can be hard to place or at least for me it can be hard to get my bearings.
What I’ve struggled with the first two weeks is finding things to do that entertain me as well as my baby. In Los Angeles, I had lots of friends who were moms so even if we spent the day at one of the many museums, we did so with our babies so they had someone their own age to engage and interact with and we did baby centered things too – mostly take them swimming. I haven’t yet made any mom friends. I haven’t made any friends here yet and I haven’t found much for Fyo to do. I’ve taken him to the art museum, the National Museum, a printmaking gallery, the Botanical Gardens, the National Library – probably next week we’ll head to the Asian Civilization Museum. These are the kinds of things I enjoy – But I’m a museum addict. I got addicted in LA. Singapore is new to the awareness that the arts are important; even so they’ve made an admirable effort in investing in the arts with free symphony concerts in the Botanical gardens and their museums, galleries, public art spaces, etc. Mostly, there are a ton of design schools here. There’s also a lot of things for older children to do – by older I of course mean like four. Even two. For a baby who is crawling almost walking and almost one – I’m struggling. We’re taking him to the zoo (which is supposed to be fantastic) on his birthday, in the meantime I feel like I really have to be creative thinking of things to do during the day. Today we went to the Toy museum. I let him crawl around the downstairs Starbucks so he could explore something. Today, as I was trying to think of things to do with my not-quite-year-old I realized that I was already bored. I mean, really, my biggest challenge of the day is trying to get baby and me out of the house so we can avoid the maid but still get baby the necessary naptime. Getting me my naptime is extra credit though it is most successful when it occurs during baby’s. My day and my life boil down to naptime scheduling. Naptime scheduling is what I pay (okay – what my husband pays) my student loans for and why I have a Master’s degree. Probably not ironic that I’m reading Betty Freidan’s The Feminine Mystique right now (for novel research – which I said I’d go back to November 1 as part of National Novel Writing Month).
As my sister says, I need a design problem or something like a project for my mind to chew on while I am trying to work out the day’s activities. This is not new information. I’ve known and realized for a while that as a new mom who isn’t working outside the home I do need my own project or source of satisfaction and fulfillment. Ideally, my time off from working to be with my newborn is also supposed to go to my novel or writing. It hasn’t much yet.
I just read NPR’s Guy Raz’s interview with Michael Chabon about his latest book on fatherhood. Chabon says that for him, writing 1000 words a day is as much part of his day as making all of his kids’ next day lunches before he goes to bed at night. Chabon has four kids. They’re school age but whatever. If a parent of four children can write 1000 words a day and make lunches surely I as a parent of one could write 1000 words a day. I also realized, if you can’t learn discipline from having a baby or the ability to develop a daily habit then what can I hope to teach him? How will I possibly have any authority when it comes time to tell him to do his homework? (Not to mention if we home school it would end up in utter disaster and disarray). So then I decided to launch a 1000 word a day project. For the next 6 months I’m here – October 15 to April 15 – I’m writing a 1000 words a day. It will include some novel, some new mom essayish things, probably some thoughts on losing a step-parent then abandoning the remaining parent as you move across the planet and who knows what else.
This will probably feel like flossing. Something I hate but have to do everyday anyway so that my teeth don’t fall out of my mouth. I’ll most likely end up writing my 1000 words everyday so that my brain doesn’t fall out of my head or that my sanity doesn’t fall out of my brain. Something like that. Anyway, it's more about the daily habit than anything.
My other natural inclination is to write my 1000 words a day and then to lock them up in the recesses in my journal or notebook. But ever present Rob Brezny is on to me. My horoscope this week says that usual business advice is to not tell everything you know, but it’s time to chuck that out the window and from now on tell everything I know. He says, “The act of sharing connects me to fresh sources. Open-hearted communication doesn't weaken me, but just the reverse: It feeds my vitality. This is the approach I recommend to you in the coming days, Capricorn. Do indeed tell everything you know.” Eeek. Me who tries to avoid vulnerability and public embarrassment at all costs now has to embrace her humanity, all her flaws, spelling errors and typos, and share it with the world. Yikes. So with that in mind, I’m posting my first 1000 words to my little space of internet. At least living in Singapore, I have the illusion of feeling like I’m hiding in the recesses of the planet. Oh – and this is word number 1431.