The answer to that question is, of course, yes.
I had it all planned out: I was going to eat lunch with my writing chicas, go to the bank and find out what happened to my new Visa card (which seems to have mysteriously disappeared in the mail) and sit on my balcony and write for a while.

The first two items I took care of with ease. It's never a problem to go to Kharazmi, my favorite café in Stockholm, and eat lunch with my SWG (Stockholm Writers Group) chicas. Going to the bank is usually something I avoid--I hate the queues, I hate having to take a number and just sit and wait wait wait while the person ahead of me blathers on about not understanding how to use a Bankomat. But I was lucky today--I only had to wait five minutes, ordering a new card took less than five minutes--which should have left me with plenty of time to write...

And then I saw something I had to have (or at least try): a patterned silk blouse at Indiska on Odenplan.

Okay, I didn't actually see it from the street--I'd scoped it out a few days ago--but I had to try it on, didn't I?
Now this little detour only took ten minutes. I tried on the blouse, I fell in love with it, I bought it.
The next detour was actually necessary: I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up nasal spray. And since I can't use regular nasal spray--it makes my nasal passages swell instead ofdecreasee in size--I had to discuss alternatives with the pharmacist. This didn't take long--we found a good over-the-counter spray, and I was out of the pharmacy in a matter of minutes.

I came home with still plenty of time to write but then something awful happened: my husband turned on the TV and I became mesmerized by Oprah Winfrey.

Lately, I've been watching Oprah all the time. I never used to watch Oprah. I think the last time I watched her show on a regular basis was back in 1987-88 when I was a freshman in college and my friends and I would watch Oprah while avoiding studying. The only thing I can think of that has led to this Oprah coma is that I am still hanging on to the idleness of this summer--a pretty damned good summer by Swedish standards, and watching Oprah lets me pretend I am still on vacation.
So now Oprah is off and Tord is playing Halo 2 so why aren't I writing now?

That's a good question. I told myself if I blogged I could say I was writing. I know it's a cop-out so I am going to sign off soon.

But to answer my question--why aren't I writing? There are a lot of answers. The project I'm working on feels like it's hit a brick wall. I'm revising the first draft of a novel it took me a billion years to write and I'm a little more interested in it than my ghost story-weird Edinburgh story. But mostly I think I am not writing because I just feel like I need a break. Catherine from SWG would probably thump me on the head and order me back to my laptop but sometimes a break is a good thing.

Besides, I've already started writing a short story I really like. That's not so bad, is it?