Check In- What Are You Doing?

RA - We all need a good wallow now and again... hope you come out the other side soon.

FB - The reviews (blog and site) are more of a hobby than anything else, something to help me organize my thoughts on what I read and whatnot. (I have Amazon links, but admittedly mostly because it's free to be an affiliate and because I think the cover images look nice with the reviews, not out of expectation of creating a viable second income or anything.) If/when I get more stories published, it's good practice for getting some manner of author site up and running, too, but it seems a little pointless with only one notch on the belt and nothing else going out for too long.
And I'll cross a few fingers for you, too, on the condo. (Well, not when I'm typing, that is... )

Headin' off to bed soon, now that the bathroom's free (sibling was in a huff when someone was using the bathroom when she wanted to shower - 'cause a few minutes' wait totally ruins her life, apparently) and I can get teeth brushed and stuff. Got everything ready to go for work tomorrow, and got the groceries (that I've been told about) entered in Wunderlist, an app I'm finding quite useful. Should try spitballing at least tonight, but most of my creative energy's tied up in the workshed right now.

Off I go. (Enough with the throat tickle, damn it!)

Wednesday afternoon/evening (is 4 pm afternoon, or evening? It gets dark early around here, so it feels like the latter), and I'm considering a nuke-your-own dinner night; work was tiring, shopping was tiring, and I just really don't feel like making dinner, nor can I expect anyone else to make dinner. Plus we've got two large containers of leftover leftover stew from last night.

We start early tomorrow and Friday at work. An hour early, for half an hour's extra pay a day. (Why can't we just do a Monday-Tuesday shift thing so we get paid the full six? Why do we lose the half-hour lunch they make us take? I know one guy's just plain not going to do it unless we do an hour and a half early to at least get an hour's pay for the effort. Very tempting stance to take.) Urgh... I danged well better get to sleep in on Saturday after this week.

Mom went back to the doc about her ongoing hair issue. Doc now thinks it may be fungal, so she's trying something different. Mom just wants this resolved while there's hair to save.

And I guess I'll trudge off. Had a story idea last night, but I'm too drained after work to do much with it; I did pin it down in a Word file this morning, at least, and my mind chewed on it at work (another good thing about the job is it's mindless enough I can chew on ideas while I do it.)

Well, that mini break didn't go as I planned.

Needless to say, I had baking disasters (which involved exploding hand mixers and burned fingers), food disasters (Olive Garden as first meal of the day is noooot a good thing), and sleep disasters. I did manage to write 7 pages and...honestly, BD, yeah, I'm probably gonna drop the romance in edits. It's boring, I'm bored, and it's time I threw an undead creature stalking them at the festival to shake things up. Blah. But I can't hide from the world forever and it's back to work tonight. Hopefully I'll get some more writing done.

Also thinking about acquiring a sun lamp because now that the darkness of winter is upon me, and I work third shift, seeing sunlight is a challenge. My best friends' fiance actually takes 10,000 units of Vitamin D (either per day or per week, but it's a lot) just to get through the winter.

Hope the past few days have been productive for everyone, despite drama and weather and other shenanigans.

thereeness - Bummer on the break, though the exploding mixer sounds like story fodder, or at the least a minor plot complication to further inflict conflict and injury on your characters, as a good author should.
I take 5000 units of Vitamin D daily, myself; D deficiency's apparently almost ubiquitous in my part of the country. (I wouldn't guess dosage or need, though; you'd want to see a doctor about that.)

Well, it's properly evening now, almost 7 PM, and I need to do something other than stare at the screen. Should take my shower now so I don't have to do it tomorrow morning; early starts are a pain in the tail, especially since I'm not a morning person to begin with. And I'm still tired from work, though I know I won't be tired enough to sleep even if I go to bed early... ergh.

I so need another job...

Off I wander. Maybe I can get some writing in tonight. Maybe I need to make myself get some writing in tonight.

@thereeness: Hey, at least you wrote for the day! That's progress. Even if it doesn't go anywhere you improve your craft, right?

@Brightdreamer: Wow. I didn't know that Vitamin D deficiency was such a common thing. Hopefully you can get some writing in!

I'm so tired but I'm finding it hard to sleep.

Damn.

I am yawning and getting ready to sleep....

Having a slow, dreary Thursday. I am so mentally exhausted. My drivers are very unhappy; between that and little miss "rx is lazy" causing a frigid work environment, I just can't right now.

Starting on the day. Feelin' good!

Just finished up work and wrote another chunk of pages, which I'm happy about, until I came across the fight scene. Now, I love fight scenes. I took martial arts for years, so I do know what I'm doing around most hand to hand combat and some weapons. But choreographing that shit? That's hard. So it's a good thing I bought Rayne Hall's WRITING FIGHT SCENES, there's a crapton of information in there that I'm eager to get through. Only, gee, I didn't bring it with me to work.

I'm brilliant. *Sarcasm.*

The night went better though and I'm getting back into the swing of things. My roommate's leaving for ten days starting tomorrow so I'm hoping to get some more work done without her distracting me with things like...being social. Ugh. (I kid, I kid, but seriously, sometimes it's so exhausting.) But I'm off to bed and will, hopefully, bring my book with me tomorrow. And there shall be no more exploding kitchen appliances or missing books to muck up my day XD I'm not the MC in this book, darnit, haha.

thereeness - But you may be the MC of someone else's book...

Way too early on Thursday, on maybe three hours' sleep (cumulative, not consecutive), and heading out soon. Not at all sure what the commute is like this time of day; they shuffled school starts so I normally don't hit them, but I can't remember if thet moved them this early.

Off I wander. Should hit another store after work, because heavens forfend someone else shop once in a while, so that only adds to the fun that is today. Yippy skippy...

Thursday afternoon, and a bleh day. On the plus side, no early start tomorrow, so it'll feel like sleeping in (assuming I get any sleep.) On the minus side, it was one of Those days. You know - where you forget to bring bandages so you're guaranteed to snag nails and get finger splits, where no matter how hard you work you feel like you're backsliding, where you hit every red light when you really, really need to get home to the bathroom...

Yeah. One of Those days. (And, yes, I got to the bathroom in time. Just.)

So I canned the shopping trip, because it was almost guaranteed to be even more annoying. I have stuff for a few nights, not counting yet more leftover leftover stew, so I'm good. I'll probably shop tomorrow anyway.

And Mom found out the new doctor she likes is apparently out of network, but they're paying anyway, so for now she's keeping things as they are. No way is she going back to the place that told her she didn't have gall stones...

Away I drift.

--

And it's later. Wound up going out for dinner (it's the last time until next year the sibling will be out of the house for her class, so we celebrated - she's really rather a wet blanket to live around most of the time...), then hitting the store. Still going to have to go shopping tomorrow after work, though; great deal on ground sirloin, but no burger buns to go with it, so I'll have to see if the highland Safeway ever finished the bread reset it was mired in last time I went.

It's always something, isn't it?

I have one F review to transfer before it's on to the G's, but I'm no longer focusing and am bound to make some stupid mistakes if I force myself, so I'll leave it for tomorrow. Same for writing, save maybe spitballing where hitting the wrong letter and spelling the wrong word doesn't matter.

Will probably make a half-hearted effort then crawl into bed early. Too tired. Work tomorrow.

And this is why I wake up at stupid o'clock. Driver is sick and can't work today, can't actually reach literally anyone to say they can't work. So they call me, because I am never unreachable. Message relayed successfully. I almost thought about sleeping in, but who has time for that. Not me. Guess I'd better get my day started.

I got some more pages written last night, but spent most of the night reading my fight scene book. It's not bad, I can tell it was self published (there were some spelling/grammar errors I noted >.>), but it had a lot of really good tips and tricks. It also hammered home that fight scenes are like choreographing a dance, with lots of people, and with tricky terrain. I didn't let it paralyze me though and now I'm moving onto the good stuff. We're going on a siege! I'm also getting my spoons back and getting back into the swing of work, but there are still days when I just want to blanket burrito myself and shut everything and everyone out. But since I'm an adult and need money and a job, I can't exactly do that.

Also, my roomie's gone for the next 10 days so I can focus on my writing and not worry about her distracting me by being social. I'm a hermit and I'm not afraid to admit it XD

Friday morning, about to head out. At least I got a little more sleep last night. Not a full night's sleep, but more than the night before.

Yawn...

Guess I'll get shoes on and head carward.

--

And it's later. A painterly day, aesthetically: big, dramatic clouds with bold darks shading from silver-black to rich winter-blue, completely with windows with picturesque shreds riding past on high winds. (Watched a hawk circling in one of those shreds this morning on the way in to work.) Every so often, shafts of light would stab down, illuminating the last of the autumn gold.

Otherwise unremarkable, save them letting us go early.

Now I'm poking at my computer trying to find the gumption to do a little site work before dinner. I don't know where mine went, and none of my usual sources - Gumption.com, Gumption-R-Us, Gumption Junction - seem to have any in stock. Must be a seasonal rush on gumption.

It's snowing! The first snow fall for my part of Ze Cheese State has arrived! Whoohoo!

Yes, I'm weird, but because I don't have to drive in snow, just walk in it, I actually don't mind it. As long as I don't have to walk too far. Or for too long. And waiting for the bus can be kinda crappy. But it gives me an excuse to buy more cozy hats, scarves, and gloves, so that's a win.

Finished previous chapter and started a new one. The siege has begun and we're getting into act 3. All that remains is to storm the castle (farm), kill the baddie, and save the day. Only, the mage is a newb who's a sheltered rich miss, Desi just did something stupid, and there's undead wyverns with Breath of Death. So lots of challenges already piled up and lots more to come. And saving the day is never so easy. Mwuahahaha, I can't wait until I get to act 4, that's gonna be the proverbial icing on the cake.

Off to sleep with the windows open so I can watch the snowfall.

Another Slack-Off Saturday, with 50% less slacking off (seasonal offer only.) Got my snooze-in (high point of my week), got the room tidying done, and I'm giving myself until afternoon to do my weekly slacking off. Once lunch is over, it's out to the workshed in a battle to the death against twelve unfinished ornaments; I want to get the base/"junk" Apoxie coat done at least before Wednesday. Ideally, I want to be starting on the "good" coat, which is going to require at least a couple steps, but there's only so fast one can work, and I'm anticipating being drug out at least once to some manner of store. (Need to drop my dead monitor off at the recycling place, if nothing else.)

Also need to keep at least a little effort going in the site transfer. Should get to that after my internet rounds, I suppose. (At least I'm into the G's...)

Just rented 6 books from the library.

Voracious reading planned this weekend and next week.

FB - Wrapping gifts? Before Thanksgiving, even? *squints suspiciously and steps back* What are you? You can't be human... My holiday shopping can't even begin until Turkey Day, when people say what they want. Got a few ideas for a couple people, but I have no flippin' clue on too many of them to start.

Lunch is done, a few reviews have been transferred, so I'm about to pop on the MP3 player and head out to the shed, where I mean to stay until I have to start dinner (unless I need to use the bathroom; I'm determined to make a dent, here, but not that determined...) Wish me luck.

--

And later on Saturday night. Ornament work went okay; used up the last of my first tubs of Apoxie, but I got the next stage of junk coat down. Need at least one more session and some evening out of the inevitable lumps and divots, then I should be able to get going on the good coat - which I hope doesn't eat as much Apoxie. (I have a second set of tubs on standby - may consider ordering another. We'll see how it goes...

Heard from the aunt; not great news on her dog. They're comp-pricing vets to see if they can find one to do what needs doing for a rate they can afford, though the dog is older and high risk.

Going to do a few more review transfers, then it's writing and bedtime. Overall, a decent day on the productivity front (or it will be if I get some writing in; still feeling out a short, which hasn't let me know how it starts or how the images go together but danged if I'll let go until it does.)

--

And it's Sunday afternoon now. There was talk of winds later, so I got my ornament work out of the way before lunch. (As of now, the winds haven't hit, but at least I got ornament work out of the way.) Got at least one more session of junk coat work slated for tomorrow or Tuesday, then I should be ready for the "good" coat. Fingers crossed I can still hit my goal of being ready to prime and/or paint come December, though I'm thinking I might still be a week off unless I can get the energy to put in some shed time after work. (I might get some extra time on Turkey Day if we get home from the family gathering early enough, so maybe that'll help catch me up.)

This would've been so much easier if my first idea had panned out...

The plan now is to do some more site transfer stuff before dinner, then writing stuff after dinner (family permitting.)

Away I go.

--

And about to head off for the night, but had to note one decent-sized accomplishment, transferring a novel from WriteWay Pro to Scrivner (via exporting to Word document files, then importing again.) It's a significant step toward getting back on track with revisions. Skimmed bits, and don't hate it as much as I expected to, though this one's problem is somewhere deeper down than the surface writing... ergh.

Tomorrow will be a shopping day, and creative priority will be given to ornaments with what time I have to work with around that.

Off to bed, or at least reading in bed.

It is now officially my weekend and I have a crapton of stuff to do, including....finishing Act 3 of my book! Which means I only have ONE ACT LEFT, ZOMG. I'm like 30% away from being done and I can almost taste it and I might just hit my goals if the gods and muses are kind to me. Just got home from grocery shopping after work and it is really freaking cold in my apartment. I hate having a porch door for a window >.< The drafts are terrible. Luckily there's central heating, but still, even that doesn't do much difference when the drafts get really bad. But I hope everyone has a good, productive week and a good Thanksgiving. I'm off for the next few days and will check back in later.

thereeness - Congrats on progress!

Monday morning, and trudging out on the shopping trip soonish. Will be dropping off the dead monitor at the recycling place, too, so that'll get that out of my room.

Fingers crossed I have sufficient time to work on ornaments this afternoon.

FB - Sounds like you have things nicely organized. (I suspect there's a cackling horde of gremlins polishing extra-large monkey wrenches to throw into that, now that you went and blabbed about it... )
And any meal that doesn't require washing dishes afterwards is a great meal. Enjoy your linner! (As for the boredom factor of accompanying others on errands, well, that's why my Kindle lives in my purse.)

Well, two stores and too much money later, we hit most everything on the various lists I've compiled. (I left off the stuff for me. That's how it usually goes when I shop for and with family. But I did grab my trail mix, which I justified 'cause it was on sale and it makes a quick "lunch" when I can't get lunch.) On the plus side, I shouldn't have to shop before Turkey Day now. And I have a zero-prep dinner option (sandwiches and store-bought potato salad), so I don't have to rush in from the workshed. I'll be heading out to tackle ornament stuff soon, but I need some decompression time after shopping.

Off to drift about aimlessly for a while. (Should probably set up my Safeway stuff on my smartphone; Mom was ticked I hadn't done that, as they had a digital coupon she would've used.)

--

Well, two and a half steps forward, one step back...

Two and a half steps forward would be getting another day of ornament work under my belt, getting the Safeway app on the phone set up (I think), and finishing off the G's in the review site transfer project.

One step back would be having to shop tomorrow. Yes, again. There was an Incident during the boiling of eggs for potato salad.

Oh, and on an unrelated note, my aunt's dog got her surgery (for under 2 grand, as opposed to the 7K she was quoted elsewhere), and seems to be coming through fine thus far. (She's an older dog, found as a stray, whom we believe was used as a brood bitch - her teeth had been pulled, a trick used to keep the female from attacking mates - and was dumped when she was past breeding age.)

Probably should try writing before bed, though the creative energy's a bit low right now. Maybe spitballing or skimming, at least.