Hi guys! Just a quick note to let you all know we're moving today, and life is crazy as usual. I'm also blogging at my website address too, in case you missed some sweet author interviews.
Somehow I can't quite give up this blog, though, nostalgia and all. I can't quit you, Blogger!
So that's the scoop!
What's up with you guys? Ready for the holidays yet? *snicker*
Showing posts with label Sleep is for the weak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sleep is for the weak. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2014
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Traveling in Time (But Only 5 Days)
I just spent the last five days sick. Super sick. As chance would have it, my husband caught the same thing I had, so we laid on the couch watching my Criminal Minds DVDs while high on cold medicine.
As some of you may remember, I don't do well with medicine. I have no idea why, but basically anything stronger than Tylenol makes me loopy. The night time stuff makes me go right to sleep, and the day time stuff makes me groggy and spacey. We packed the kid off to the grandparents and laid around wishing we were dead.
Yesterday was the first day I felt like a human being, so I spent five hours straight cleaning the house. All the blankets got washed, all the surfaces disinfected, and all the floors scrubbed. I now feel confident that we will not reinfect ourselves with the plague.
It's always weird getting back to the world and social media after five days straight of not thinking about anything but how much phlegm your body is producing. I feel like a time traveler who's not very good at her job, as I've only jumped five days into the future.
I didn't mean to, but I know have distance on all the writing and personal stuff I'd been working. I think I am going to take advantage of this, and re-prioritize my projects. I'm also trying to not over do it and "catch up" on all the stuff I didn't do whilst coughing up a lung. Wish me luck!
How you do get back into the routine after spending a long time sick? Any disinfecting rituals you have that don't involve setting fire to everything and hoping for the best?
As some of you may remember, I don't do well with medicine. I have no idea why, but basically anything stronger than Tylenol makes me loopy. The night time stuff makes me go right to sleep, and the day time stuff makes me groggy and spacey. We packed the kid off to the grandparents and laid around wishing we were dead.
Yesterday was the first day I felt like a human being, so I spent five hours straight cleaning the house. All the blankets got washed, all the surfaces disinfected, and all the floors scrubbed. I now feel confident that we will not reinfect ourselves with the plague.
It's always weird getting back to the world and social media after five days straight of not thinking about anything but how much phlegm your body is producing. I feel like a time traveler who's not very good at her job, as I've only jumped five days into the future.
I didn't mean to, but I know have distance on all the writing and personal stuff I'd been working. I think I am going to take advantage of this, and re-prioritize my projects. I'm also trying to not over do it and "catch up" on all the stuff I didn't do whilst coughing up a lung. Wish me luck!
How you do get back into the routine after spending a long time sick? Any disinfecting rituals you have that don't involve setting fire to everything and hoping for the best?
Monday, December 24, 2012
Ten Months Ago Today I was Screaming
Ten months ago we evicted my son from my uterus with an unscheduled C-section. After being a week and a half late, we induced labor, and after almost two days of labor he came screaming into the world.
He Did. Not. Want. To. Come. Out.
He figured he had a good thing going on in there. Food was delivered via a tube, and he was warm and cozy 24/7.
Ten months later, and he's adjusted to life on the outside well.
He took seven steps on Thanksgiving and promptly went back to crawling. He would take maybe two steps before getting down on his hands and knees.
Until we put up the Christmas tree. It was a great motivation. He wouldn't come to Daddy. He wouldn't come to Mommy. But the coffee table ends about two feet from the Christmas tree, so he would hold his hands out Frankenstein-style and walk towards the tree.
Now he pretty much walks around every where, heaven help us.
He's eating real people food. You go from Stage One food that's pureed single foods in small plastic containers to Stage Two food that's bigger containers and more mixtures, to Stage Three. Which has about five options (two of which involve marinara), a few chunks in the food, and is in a large jar.
You're basically thrown off a cliff after that. He has hardly any teeth, so most adult food is too tough for him. Gerber has these toddler meals, but they're expensive and designed for fork and spoon eating, so most of the meals aren't finger friendly (think mashed potatoes and beef, beef with noodles in a sauce). I've taken to just baking some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cutting that up into really small pieces, because Connor has decided he's DONE with baby food.
He loves the puffs though. Gerber makes these cereal puffs that come in a variety of flavors, and this kid is a puff-aholic. I can stuff him full of dinner, and he'll still eat the puffs I keep out on the table for him the minute his feet hit the floor.
He has four teeth already, his two front teeth, and the two bottom. His canine has a suspicious lump under it, so I have a feeling that might be making an appearance soon. I had all my teeth by the time I was two, so he might get his teeth early too.
He's sleeping through the night, mostly. He's gone back to waking up once or twice a night the last two weeks, but before that there was a three week stretch where he slept straight through the night. The light at the end of the Sleep is for the Weak Tunnel is getting closer. I can almost feel it. He takes a two hour nap during the day, but if he takes a nap later on in the evening he won't go to bed until ten. He goes to bed at 8:30 as it is.
I thought kids were supposed to get tired early, but not this one. He's a night owl like both his parents, so I guess he comes by it honestly. I've tried putting him to bed earlier, but he just wakes up two hours later like he's had a nap, and then he's up until ungodly hours of the night. The good news is this means he sleeps in a bit. Most kids his age are getting up around 6 or 7, but he sleeps until 8 or 9 most days.
He says Da-da, Ma-ma, and Ba-ba and knows what they mean. He's smart. He watched me pull some puffs out of his diaper bag, and the next day he was rooting around in the diaper bag and went straight for the puffs.
In short, we're in a lot of trouble.
I hope you're all having a happy holiday! What are your plans for the holidays?
He Did. Not. Want. To. Come. Out.
He figured he had a good thing going on in there. Food was delivered via a tube, and he was warm and cozy 24/7.
Ten months later, and he's adjusted to life on the outside well.
He took seven steps on Thanksgiving and promptly went back to crawling. He would take maybe two steps before getting down on his hands and knees.
Until we put up the Christmas tree. It was a great motivation. He wouldn't come to Daddy. He wouldn't come to Mommy. But the coffee table ends about two feet from the Christmas tree, so he would hold his hands out Frankenstein-style and walk towards the tree.
Now he pretty much walks around every where, heaven help us.
He's eating real people food. You go from Stage One food that's pureed single foods in small plastic containers to Stage Two food that's bigger containers and more mixtures, to Stage Three. Which has about five options (two of which involve marinara), a few chunks in the food, and is in a large jar.
You're basically thrown off a cliff after that. He has hardly any teeth, so most adult food is too tough for him. Gerber has these toddler meals, but they're expensive and designed for fork and spoon eating, so most of the meals aren't finger friendly (think mashed potatoes and beef, beef with noodles in a sauce). I've taken to just baking some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cutting that up into really small pieces, because Connor has decided he's DONE with baby food.
He loves the puffs though. Gerber makes these cereal puffs that come in a variety of flavors, and this kid is a puff-aholic. I can stuff him full of dinner, and he'll still eat the puffs I keep out on the table for him the minute his feet hit the floor.
He has four teeth already, his two front teeth, and the two bottom. His canine has a suspicious lump under it, so I have a feeling that might be making an appearance soon. I had all my teeth by the time I was two, so he might get his teeth early too.
He's sleeping through the night, mostly. He's gone back to waking up once or twice a night the last two weeks, but before that there was a three week stretch where he slept straight through the night. The light at the end of the Sleep is for the Weak Tunnel is getting closer. I can almost feel it. He takes a two hour nap during the day, but if he takes a nap later on in the evening he won't go to bed until ten. He goes to bed at 8:30 as it is.
I thought kids were supposed to get tired early, but not this one. He's a night owl like both his parents, so I guess he comes by it honestly. I've tried putting him to bed earlier, but he just wakes up two hours later like he's had a nap, and then he's up until ungodly hours of the night. The good news is this means he sleeps in a bit. Most kids his age are getting up around 6 or 7, but he sleeps until 8 or 9 most days.
He says Da-da, Ma-ma, and Ba-ba and knows what they mean. He's smart. He watched me pull some puffs out of his diaper bag, and the next day he was rooting around in the diaper bag and went straight for the puffs.
In short, we're in a lot of trouble.
I hope you're all having a happy holiday! What are your plans for the holidays?
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Novelist Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia looks like it's spelled wrong, even though Google assures me it's correct. I for one am not going to question our Google overlords, so let's just go with it.
I'm in that weird place where I swing wildly back and forth between positive affirmations for my novel, to soul sucking despair. When you're doing any sort of serious editing, there's really no in between. You either sit down happy to put words to the page, or the minute you open Scrivener, you think of a million other things that have to be done right now.
I have the attention span of a hamster at the moment, so that just makes it worse. There are so many things I mean to do and forget to until I am in the middle of something else. These things range in importance from clipping a hang nail to paying a bill, so when I remember stuff while writing, the urge to take care of this other thing gets really strong. Unlike rocking my son to sleep, I can actually get up from the computer.
If I was a normal person, I could simply write this stuff down in a list and take care of it after I am finished writing. But depending on what I remembered, it turns into an itch that won't go away until I scratch it. Like that hang nail. I wish I was kidding, but it really bothers me when there's a catch on my nail. It bothers me so much that as I am writing, this is what is going through my mind:
"I really need to show how scary this zombie is...that hang nail won't go away."
*picks at the nail. It only makes the catch deeper*
"I really have to remember to cut it the next time I get up to pee. Back to the scene. But what if I forget? I keep forgetting to cut this darn thing and it's really starting to get on my nerves."
*bites nail. It only makes the nail ragged and gross looking*
"Damn, that's not any better. Now it's really going to bother me. Maybe I should just get up and cut it. No. The last time I did that, I got distracted and mopped the kitchen floor, made a sammich, and then remembered about the writing. Then I sat down and had to pee. No, I am just going to ignore the ragged nail and keep typing. Zombies. Think about the zombies."
So I think about the zombies for a little while, but the pressure to get up and cut the nail increases until it's like a klaxon in my brain...
"YOU HAVE A HANG NAIL IT WON'T GO AWAY OMG YOU NEED TO CUT IT THE HANG NAIL IT'S JAGGED AND GROSS AND YOU NEED TO CUT IT."
In the case of the hang nail, I gave in and cut it (I am sure there's a diagnosis and/or medication for people like me, but I prefer to just blame it on being really tired for about nine months now (But Liz, you say, your kid is only six months old, how can you be tired for longer than he's been alive? To which I say, thank you hypothetical person, for asking and noticing how old my kid is. Also, you don't sleep that last trimester of pregnancy. You're so big by that point that when you lay down, the baby sort of pushes up on your ribs and lungs, and mine decided that kicking was a fun way to past the time at night. So there's the other three months accounted for.)).
Now I've lost my train of thought, and I keep staring at the periods and parenthesis wondering if I have enough of them and they are properly placed. So we're moving on now.
For other stuff I just have to ignore it and keep writing. It's harder when the writing feels like crap, and it's pointless, and it's never going to get better and I am never going to amount to anything and everyone is going to be so disappointed I am going to have to physically move away even though this is the Internet and global warming is probably my fault too.
But seriously, you just have to buckle down and write. Even when you feel like it's crap, writing can be like a parachute. Writer's block? Write some words. Feel like it's all pointless? Keep writing, and eventually it will feel pointy again. Don't know what happens next? Write some words and make it up as you go along. Bored with the book in general?
THAT'S WHEN YOU MAKE THINGS GO BOOM.
You write some words, but man, add in something awesome. A nuclear-virus bomb explodes in Washington. Add a llama. Force feed a character with a nut allergy some peanut butter. Shake things up.
Above all, when you have a million voices in your head chiming in about your novel, only listen to the nice ones.
The rest of them can take a hike.
So, what do you do to quell the voices? Besides medication, I mean.
I'm in that weird place where I swing wildly back and forth between positive affirmations for my novel, to soul sucking despair. When you're doing any sort of serious editing, there's really no in between. You either sit down happy to put words to the page, or the minute you open Scrivener, you think of a million other things that have to be done right now.
I have the attention span of a hamster at the moment, so that just makes it worse. There are so many things I mean to do and forget to until I am in the middle of something else. These things range in importance from clipping a hang nail to paying a bill, so when I remember stuff while writing, the urge to take care of this other thing gets really strong. Unlike rocking my son to sleep, I can actually get up from the computer.
If I was a normal person, I could simply write this stuff down in a list and take care of it after I am finished writing. But depending on what I remembered, it turns into an itch that won't go away until I scratch it. Like that hang nail. I wish I was kidding, but it really bothers me when there's a catch on my nail. It bothers me so much that as I am writing, this is what is going through my mind:
"I really need to show how scary this zombie is...that hang nail won't go away."
*picks at the nail. It only makes the catch deeper*
"I really have to remember to cut it the next time I get up to pee. Back to the scene. But what if I forget? I keep forgetting to cut this darn thing and it's really starting to get on my nerves."
*bites nail. It only makes the nail ragged and gross looking*
"Damn, that's not any better. Now it's really going to bother me. Maybe I should just get up and cut it. No. The last time I did that, I got distracted and mopped the kitchen floor, made a sammich, and then remembered about the writing. Then I sat down and had to pee. No, I am just going to ignore the ragged nail and keep typing. Zombies. Think about the zombies."
So I think about the zombies for a little while, but the pressure to get up and cut the nail increases until it's like a klaxon in my brain...
"YOU HAVE A HANG NAIL IT WON'T GO AWAY OMG YOU NEED TO CUT IT THE HANG NAIL IT'S JAGGED AND GROSS AND YOU NEED TO CUT IT."
In the case of the hang nail, I gave in and cut it (I am sure there's a diagnosis and/or medication for people like me, but I prefer to just blame it on being really tired for about nine months now (But Liz, you say, your kid is only six months old, how can you be tired for longer than he's been alive? To which I say, thank you hypothetical person, for asking and noticing how old my kid is. Also, you don't sleep that last trimester of pregnancy. You're so big by that point that when you lay down, the baby sort of pushes up on your ribs and lungs, and mine decided that kicking was a fun way to past the time at night. So there's the other three months accounted for.)).
Now I've lost my train of thought, and I keep staring at the periods and parenthesis wondering if I have enough of them and they are properly placed. So we're moving on now.
For other stuff I just have to ignore it and keep writing. It's harder when the writing feels like crap, and it's pointless, and it's never going to get better and I am never going to amount to anything and everyone is going to be so disappointed I am going to have to physically move away even though this is the Internet and global warming is probably my fault too.
But seriously, you just have to buckle down and write. Even when you feel like it's crap, writing can be like a parachute. Writer's block? Write some words. Feel like it's all pointless? Keep writing, and eventually it will feel pointy again. Don't know what happens next? Write some words and make it up as you go along. Bored with the book in general?
THAT'S WHEN YOU MAKE THINGS GO BOOM.
You write some words, but man, add in something awesome. A nuclear-virus bomb explodes in Washington. Add a llama. Force feed a character with a nut allergy some peanut butter. Shake things up.
Above all, when you have a million voices in your head chiming in about your novel, only listen to the nice ones.
The rest of them can take a hike.
So, what do you do to quell the voices? Besides medication, I mean.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Recent Google Searches
Recent Google searches...
*What is the maximum strength Oragel for teething?
*My 6 month old ate some paper
*Is eating roadkill sanitary? How could you make it sanitary?
*My 6 month old is constipated
*What is a normal bedtime for a baby?
*Why won't my baby go to sleep?
*How long does it take leftovers to go bad?
*How do you effectively hide a dead body?
I'll let you speculate amongst yourselves which questions were related to my personal life and which ones were for the book.
*What is the maximum strength Oragel for teething?
*My 6 month old ate some paper
*Is eating roadkill sanitary? How could you make it sanitary?
*My 6 month old is constipated
*What is a normal bedtime for a baby?
*Why won't my baby go to sleep?
*How long does it take leftovers to go bad?
*How do you effectively hide a dead body?
I'll let you speculate amongst yourselves which questions were related to my personal life and which ones were for the book.
Monday, July 23, 2012
How Much Sleep Do You Get?
I'm curious about the amount of sleep people get and feel rested.
I know "they" change their minds every few years about how much sleep you need and whether or not sleep deprivation will kill you (maybe, eventually). I've heard a wide range of people talk about the amount of sleep they get, and it all seems to vary.
My brother can sleep for 6 hours and be ready to conquer the day. My twin brother can sleep for 8 hours and still be tired.
Time of night you went to sleep and when you woke up also seems to be a huge factor, at least for me personally. I can go to sleep at 11, wake up at 8 and feel awesome. Going to bed at 10, and getting up at 7 leaves me feeling more tired. I am not a morning person, in any sense of the word, and from high school until right now I've worked jobs that required me to be there late at night, and thus, sleep in.
Now that the baby is getting up for the day around 8, it's a huge adjustment.
So despite the baby sleeping better through the night, I still feel tired. Not as soul-crushing-I-am-going-to-die tired, but still more tired than I did before the baby. Even if I go to bed early, and sleep for ten hours until the baby gets up, I still feel tired. It's extremely annoying. I know part of it is, again, I'm not used to getting up at 8 (or earlier if that's when the baby decides he's up for the day), but I still feel like I should be feeling more rested by now.
I know I have a huge sleep debt to make up, and I am busybusybusy during the day, so that doesn't help...
So I was wondering: how much sleep do you get? How well rested do you feel? Does time of day affect you at all?
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Pictures of the Baby!
This is not a real post.
It's Saturday and I've been up since 7 and I actually slept really well, and this is a run on sentence but who cares because it's Saturday!
So here I am, posting pictures of the baby because he's starting to look like a little person!
Enjoy!
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| Tonight, we feast on parrot! |
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| Why won't this leg come off? |
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| Happy baby is happy! |
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| Mush yon baby! Mush! |
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| Really Mr. Mammoth? And then what happened? |
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| My toes are my friends, my toes are my friends! |
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| Seal baby! |
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| This is Grade A sock right here. |
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
On The Night You Were Born
My husband and I went out and about this past Sunday, the first time I'd been out of the house (save for two doctor's appointments) since I had the baby. We were getting some pictures developed and while we waited, we killed some time in the shopping center.
A shopping center that just so happened to have a Babies R Us. After picking up an "abc dog" (as my husband calls it) and some more onsies, I found the book section and my chosen prey: On the Night You Were Born. When I rejoined my husband though, the conversation went like this:
Husband: A book? The kid's going to have an ereader before too long. Paper books are obsolete. We might as well buy him a VHS tape.
Me: But I want to sit in my glider and read him a book! With paper!
Husband: You just got a kindle for Christmas. Download it on there.
Me: But it won't be in color. The entire time I was in labor, I kept thinking about this book.
*husband wordlessly puts book in shopping cart*
BOOM! And that's how you play the game, people.
Seriously, I wasn't lying. Despite not having read the book, I had the title stuck in my head, because I kept thinking about how I'd look back on the pain and discomfort of labor and it would be worth it, because it would be the night that my son was born (which turned out to be totally true).
So Sunday night I sit in the glider to read him this book.
It starts:
"On the night you were born,
the moon smiled with such wonder
that the stars peeked in to see you
and the night wind whispered.
“Life will never be the same.”
Yes folks, that's how the book starts. It only gets more sentimental from there. I could hardly read the book to him, I was crying so much. I blame the hormones.
Also, the pain meds. I had a root canal yesterday and I am still somewhat loopy (ergo why I think this is amusing enough to blog about it). Yes, a root canal. My filling fell OUT of my tooth last Wednesday, so I had to have some dental work I was carefully avoiding taken care of yesterday.
Yes, between the root canal and my c section almost three weeks ago, life's just been a barrel of laughs. I say that to be sarcastic, but I am also serious. Because when you pick up the baby to burp him, and he spits up ALL OVER the front of your shirt, or when you just get finished changing him and he immediately poops in his diaper SMILING the ENTIRE time, you have to laugh.
As my friend Liz says about the baby, "he has this look like he's smarter than everyone in the room...and he's waiting for them to figure it out."
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Flexibility Matters
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| I smile because I am holding my son. Also? IV pain meds. |
I was supposed to be induced for labor on Thursday, February 23rd. I was. I spent the entire day in labor, walking back and forth between a 3 foot space. I was hooked up to an IV with pictocin and minerals in one arm, and a fetal heartbeat monitor and a monitor for my contractions around my stomach. But I walked within the space I had, because it would help me dilate.
Around six that night the midwife checked me, and found I was 3 cms dilated. Hooray! So I kept walking. I would sit on occasion, but that was very uncomfortable. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger as they upped the pictocin drip. It wasn't until 2 in the morning that I realized my legs hurt too badly to walk on, that they were swollen purple. So it was time for the epidural. They broke my water and set me up on some awesome IV pain meds.
I was told to get some rest, which I would have loved to, but people were checking on me often, and I had a blood pressure cuff that went off every 30 minutes or so. I named it Eeyore because of the sad noise it made after it finished deflating. I was 5 cms by this point.
A few hours later, very early on Friday, the midwife came in to check me again. I was only 6 cms for some reason. Breaking my water should have sped up the contractions, but instead my body just plateaued out. They started talking about a c section, but said we could try taking me off the pictocin for an hour and then starting it back up again.
We tried that. It didn't work. I actually went back to 5 cms dilated. I could have waited until later on in the day to see if I would dilate further, but it was a numbers game at this point. Once they break your water, you have a high chance of infection. My body was showing no signs of dilating further, and the longer we waited, the better chance there would be that they would move me from an unscheduled c section to an emergency c section where they are worried about me and or the baby.
So I decided on the c section, and less than 10 minute later they started prepping me. They gave me this nasty tasting stuff to prevent heartburn, which I promptly threw up (I would have rather had heartburn). They put pressure garments on my legs so I wouldn't clot. They wheeled me into this large, cold OR, and upped my epidural so I couldn't feel anything from the waist down. A thin blue curtain draped across my chest separated me from the doctors. My husband sat with me, holding my hand and looking funny in the hospital gown they gave him.
I was scared and cold and nervous something would go wrong. But I was lucky. The baby came out no problem. He was perfectly healthy. And while I am still sore from the labor and operation, I am healing well.
I would have rather not be induced. And then, I would have rather not had a c section. Nothing about my son's birth went how I'd planned, except the most important part about both of us being healthy.
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| On our way to see the doctor. He sleeps blissfully unaware. |
But it's important to remember that life has other plans. Being flexibile can completely change your experience of an event. I could have gotten really upset and pissed off about how the birth of my son turned out. I could have been mad that I also have to recover from major surgery after being in labor for a day and a half while taking care of a newborn.
But why? Why get all caught up on how you wanted things to be? Why not plan for every outcome and just know that things are going to change, things are going to be different, and that's okay?
If you get too upset about the curve balls life throws you, just look at this picture. I dare you not to laugh:
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| Sausage baby! To the rescue! |
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Waiting
This is the post where I explain that I have no idea what my posting schedule is going to be like for the next couple of days. I go to the hospital tonight where they'll prep me to be induced, and then at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning they wake me up to start the pitocin drip.
Then it's Labor City until the baby comes out. Then I will probably pass out from exhaustion. I will update the blog when I can, just to let you guys know how things went and to show off my new bundle of joy, but I am not exactly sure when that's going to happen. We have WiFi at the hospital, and someone is bringing a laptop, but yeah. No idea.
Right now I am tired from sleeping fitfully last night, and my brain is going a mile a minute. It feels like I found out I was pregnant yesterday. It also feels like it's taken forever. I've got my bag packed, and have double checked the contents twice as though I am going to Siberia and not ten miles away from my house.
I am not so good with waiting. When it's a long ways off, I can just sort of forget about it and concentrate on the here and now. When something gets closer, however, I start to get jittery. Especially since this is the first baby and I have no idea what to expect, I just know that my life is going to change forever, the waiting is extra hard. I am finding things to occupy myself, but nothing is really getting done. It feels like I just woke up, but it's also the afternoon, and I know it's going to be time to leave before I know it.
I think it's really important to live your life, rather than sitting and wishing things would happen already. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's easy to just wish your life away. There's a part in the movie Click that frightens me. Adam Sandler's character is sick and impatient to get a promotion, so he fast forwards until he gets the promotion.
But it turns out it took him a year to get there, and in the meantime he missed the death of his dog and he and his wife are in counseling. A whole year, just gone.
So I am going to be patiently waiting, enjoying the last day of being pregnant with my son, and embracing the moment.
I hope you guys have a great couple of days while I am off giving birth. I expect you to keep it down to a dull roar and not throw too many keggers while I am gone.
Then it's Labor City until the baby comes out. Then I will probably pass out from exhaustion. I will update the blog when I can, just to let you guys know how things went and to show off my new bundle of joy, but I am not exactly sure when that's going to happen. We have WiFi at the hospital, and someone is bringing a laptop, but yeah. No idea.
Right now I am tired from sleeping fitfully last night, and my brain is going a mile a minute. It feels like I found out I was pregnant yesterday. It also feels like it's taken forever. I've got my bag packed, and have double checked the contents twice as though I am going to Siberia and not ten miles away from my house.
I am not so good with waiting. When it's a long ways off, I can just sort of forget about it and concentrate on the here and now. When something gets closer, however, I start to get jittery. Especially since this is the first baby and I have no idea what to expect, I just know that my life is going to change forever, the waiting is extra hard. I am finding things to occupy myself, but nothing is really getting done. It feels like I just woke up, but it's also the afternoon, and I know it's going to be time to leave before I know it.
I think it's really important to live your life, rather than sitting and wishing things would happen already. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's easy to just wish your life away. There's a part in the movie Click that frightens me. Adam Sandler's character is sick and impatient to get a promotion, so he fast forwards until he gets the promotion.
But it turns out it took him a year to get there, and in the meantime he missed the death of his dog and he and his wife are in counseling. A whole year, just gone.
So I am going to be patiently waiting, enjoying the last day of being pregnant with my son, and embracing the moment.
I hope you guys have a great couple of days while I am off giving birth. I expect you to keep it down to a dull roar and not throw too many keggers while I am gone.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Still Alive
...but just barely. When I said last week was busy, it was the understatement of the year. Just about every day was filled with last minute wedding errands. By the end I was so tired I thought I was going to die. So these last few days I've done a bunch of nothing and tried to get my strength back.
I am starting to feel like a human being again.
My apartment is a mess of course, so I am also slowly getting that back under control. Just in time for the holidays!
I haven't had time to work on my book, nor the energy, but now that I am feeling more human I will be getting back to work today. I have managed to do a lot of thinking about the novel, and sometimes that's better than writing.
I was sort of struggling with the pacing and the character development, and this forced time away was enough time to give me some space to think about what the problem was and how to fix it. So even though I didn't get to write the book, I still managed to work on it. :D
How are you all doing with your book? Your family plans?
I am starting to feel like a human being again.
My apartment is a mess of course, so I am also slowly getting that back under control. Just in time for the holidays!
I haven't had time to work on my book, nor the energy, but now that I am feeling more human I will be getting back to work today. I have managed to do a lot of thinking about the novel, and sometimes that's better than writing.
I was sort of struggling with the pacing and the character development, and this forced time away was enough time to give me some space to think about what the problem was and how to fix it. So even though I didn't get to write the book, I still managed to work on it. :D
How are you all doing with your book? Your family plans?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The Baby and the Bump
Guys, I think there's something growing inside me.
It's pretty much impossible now for random strangers to not know I am pregnant (not entirely true. There's about two dresses I have that just...compress the belly so it just looks like I am really chunky). This week was my 20th week, which is the half way point (tomorrow is the start of my 21st week). It feels weird that I've been pregnant for five months now. It definitely looks like I've shoved a beach ball down my shirt.
 | |
| If it looks like I am tired, that's because I am. |
It's pretty much impossible now for random strangers to not know I am pregnant (not entirely true. There's about two dresses I have that just...compress the belly so it just looks like I am really chunky). This week was my 20th week, which is the half way point (tomorrow is the start of my 21st week). It feels weird that I've been pregnant for five months now. It definitely looks like I've shoved a beach ball down my shirt.
 | |
| The baby! |
| Connor Nathanial is 11oz, right on target for growth. He's already sucking his thumb, and while I've felt him flutter around in there for some time, his kicks are starting to have some oomph behind them. Which is adorable when I am sitting here typing, but not so much when I am trying to fall asleep and he is literally kicking my bladder (The baby has a vendetta against my bladder for some reason. He enjoys kicking, laying, and rolling on my bladder as though it was his own personal trampoline. I wish I was exaggerating.) This last ultrasound was to check the anatomy of the baby. They looked at his heart, kidneys, umbilical cord, spine, arms, legs, head, etc. They also check the level of amniotic fluid and the thickness of my placenta (which can indicate if I am going to carry to term). Everything was normal and fine. It's not a definitive test, but they said if there was something abnormally wrong they would see it. So yay! for piece of mind! The only "bad" thing was I somehow lost three pounds. When I went from 111 pounds to 108, they started talking to me about making sure I each lots of protein (also, remember I am five foot nothing. I gained between 11 and 8 pounds which doesn't sound like much, but feels HUGE to me). Now, I already feel like I eat nonstop. I'm being really good about eating lots of veggies, and fruits, and grains, and even protein, but I guess it's time to amp it up a bit. So now I get to sneak cheese, eggs, and meat into my meals more often. Some of my kind friends have suggested bacon wrapped in bacon, and I have to agree: that's a lovely source of protein. So far I feel great. I am sleeping fitfully, but I still manage to get enough most nights. The only major issue I've had is I've pulled a muscle at work (which I thought was a blood clot and went to the emergency room for chest pain), and a week later I threw my back out. That wasn't pretty. I woke up at 4 in the morning with excruciating back pain and couldn't get comfortable or sleep. Every time I tried to eat or take Tylenol, I threw it up. This last week I've been off of work, resting, so when I go back to work tomorrow I will try to take it extra easy. The difficult thing is I am a massage therapist. We pretty much use our bodies during the massage. At school we're taught how to use our center of gravity (which is at your hips and pelvis) to provide the pressure we're giving (that's why if you sit on the couch and rub someone's shoulders for five minutes you're exhausted, but I can stand for an hour and be fine). But, the baby has completely thrown off my center of gravity and as a bonus, my ligaments are doing their werewolf impression and stretching really easy. So yeah. This pregnancy thing is interesting. It's really weird to think that there's actually a little person inside me. Like...inside me. I don't know how to explain it. It's surreal at times. And other times, I can't wait to have the baby so I can hold him and squeeze him and dress him in cute little baby clothes. Yeah, the hormones are pretty much in full swing, can't you tell? So there you have it: the bump and the baby causing it. |
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Great Sleep Deprivation Experiment
I am so tired right now I feel like a zombie. I also suspect I will be coming up with more creative metaphors for feeling tired, especially after I have my baby, or as I like to call it The Great Sleep Deprivation Experiment.
Here's the thing: I don't do well on lack of sleep. I just don't. I've always been like that. I usually get between 8-9 hours of sleep. How you might ask? I make sure to go to bed early or sleep in. Sleep is a priority to me, because I know how I am when I don't get enough. When you have a physically tiring job like massage therapy, it's hell if you haven't gotten enough sleep.
Now that I've gotten pregnant the hours of sleep have increased, but also sort of not. I wake up in the middle of the night more (but not as much as I will in the coming months). I wake up early in the morning and can't fall back to sleep despite laying there for an hour. Today I just decided I couldn't lay there anymore and got up early. I was going to be tired anyway, I might as well get up.
The kicker is I know this is nothing compared to having a newborn, but I guess I'll learn how to take a nap, right?
Last night I toured the maternity ward at the hospital. It was great. I got a lot of my questions answered, questions I am having a hard time finding answers to (like, how long am I going to be in the hospital after the delivery? Two days, if I don't need a C section. Will I get to keep the baby in the room with me or not? Yes, but there's also a nursery I can check the baby in if I need to sleep or take a shower. It's like a baby library.). I know I can Google stuff, but it all depends on the hospital and polices and then you find this website where people are sharing their horrible labor stories and it makes me want to pull all my hair out. So I have been wary of the Internets and their awesome power of information.
But still, there are all these nagging questions I somehow must find answers to. Did you ever just not study for a big test? You were lazy and didn't bother. You forgot. Whatever the reason, you're sitting with a huge test in front of you and you are totally unprepared.
That's sort of how I feel right now. A lot of these baby questions have no clear answers to them. Like the pacifier thing. I don't want to shove a pacifier in my kid's mouth every time s/he gets fussy. I don't want a crutch. But on the other hand, I've read in books they reduce the risk of SIDS. How, I don't know. They are just supposed to.
There's also the drugs during labor thing. I have a very high pain threshold. Very high. My jaw was locked open for three days and I didn't take any of the Percocet they gave me because I took one at the hospital and started hallucinating. I got a second hole pierced in my ears, and one side got infected badly enough to engulf the earring stud. That was a fun conversation. I come home from school and Mom says I've lost an earring. I say no, touching the two earring backs, I haven't. We check my earlobe more closely, and presto! The magic disappearing earring! The doctor had to cut it out of my head, and didn't give me an anesthetic beforehand (he was a swell guy).
But I so don't want to test this pain threshold thing with natural childbirth. Just...no. I want something to take the edge off labor pains. I am not on board with a completely natural childbirth. Nothing against those brave souls who have done natural childbirth, but yeah I'd rather not test that pain endurance.
However, I would really rather not have an epidural. I don't like the idea of being numb from the waist down, and the midwife has to tell me when to push. I don't like the possibility of low back pain for the rest of my life. An epidural can also make the baby really sluggish. I want to experience the birth at least a little bit.
See, these are sort of important questions. And they aren't half of the decisions you never realize you have to make. Let the baby sleep in the room in a bassinet with you or not? Circumcision or not? Should I take a breastfeeding class or will the support from the Lactation consultants at the hospital be enough? Also, my best friend's mom was a Lactation consultant for year, so I can get extra help from her.
And our living space! We thought about trying to get a house, but might wait until my husband gets further into training. We have a two bedroom apartment, but the second bedroom is full. My desk, my husband's desk, we have a daybed, two bookshelves and a filing cabinet. We can either put things in storage/consolidate, or check and see how much more a three bedroom apartment would be.
I actually felt sort of like this when I really got into writing. There were so many agents! Genres! Publishing considerations! Suddenly the entire publishing world opened up it's yawning maw and I was swallowed whole. I am trying to avoid this with the baby. Because this stuff might feel like a big deal, but I know it's not. I'm not going to know what I want to do until I get to that situation most of the time.
It's very much like writing that first rough draft. There's a lot of trial and error, a lot of doing what seems like a good idea and what feels right.
I just hope the baby turns out better than my first rough draft.
I also hope this post makes sense, because I think I have fallen asleep.
What events have you experienced that you didn't feel completely prepared for?
Here's the thing: I don't do well on lack of sleep. I just don't. I've always been like that. I usually get between 8-9 hours of sleep. How you might ask? I make sure to go to bed early or sleep in. Sleep is a priority to me, because I know how I am when I don't get enough. When you have a physically tiring job like massage therapy, it's hell if you haven't gotten enough sleep.
Now that I've gotten pregnant the hours of sleep have increased, but also sort of not. I wake up in the middle of the night more (but not as much as I will in the coming months). I wake up early in the morning and can't fall back to sleep despite laying there for an hour. Today I just decided I couldn't lay there anymore and got up early. I was going to be tired anyway, I might as well get up.
The kicker is I know this is nothing compared to having a newborn, but I guess I'll learn how to take a nap, right?
Last night I toured the maternity ward at the hospital. It was great. I got a lot of my questions answered, questions I am having a hard time finding answers to (like, how long am I going to be in the hospital after the delivery? Two days, if I don't need a C section. Will I get to keep the baby in the room with me or not? Yes, but there's also a nursery I can check the baby in if I need to sleep or take a shower. It's like a baby library.). I know I can Google stuff, but it all depends on the hospital and polices and then you find this website where people are sharing their horrible labor stories and it makes me want to pull all my hair out. So I have been wary of the Internets and their awesome power of information.
But still, there are all these nagging questions I somehow must find answers to. Did you ever just not study for a big test? You were lazy and didn't bother. You forgot. Whatever the reason, you're sitting with a huge test in front of you and you are totally unprepared.
That's sort of how I feel right now. A lot of these baby questions have no clear answers to them. Like the pacifier thing. I don't want to shove a pacifier in my kid's mouth every time s/he gets fussy. I don't want a crutch. But on the other hand, I've read in books they reduce the risk of SIDS. How, I don't know. They are just supposed to.
There's also the drugs during labor thing. I have a very high pain threshold. Very high. My jaw was locked open for three days and I didn't take any of the Percocet they gave me because I took one at the hospital and started hallucinating. I got a second hole pierced in my ears, and one side got infected badly enough to engulf the earring stud. That was a fun conversation. I come home from school and Mom says I've lost an earring. I say no, touching the two earring backs, I haven't. We check my earlobe more closely, and presto! The magic disappearing earring! The doctor had to cut it out of my head, and didn't give me an anesthetic beforehand (he was a swell guy).
But I so don't want to test this pain threshold thing with natural childbirth. Just...no. I want something to take the edge off labor pains. I am not on board with a completely natural childbirth. Nothing against those brave souls who have done natural childbirth, but yeah I'd rather not test that pain endurance.
However, I would really rather not have an epidural. I don't like the idea of being numb from the waist down, and the midwife has to tell me when to push. I don't like the possibility of low back pain for the rest of my life. An epidural can also make the baby really sluggish. I want to experience the birth at least a little bit.
See, these are sort of important questions. And they aren't half of the decisions you never realize you have to make. Let the baby sleep in the room in a bassinet with you or not? Circumcision or not? Should I take a breastfeeding class or will the support from the Lactation consultants at the hospital be enough? Also, my best friend's mom was a Lactation consultant for year, so I can get extra help from her.
And our living space! We thought about trying to get a house, but might wait until my husband gets further into training. We have a two bedroom apartment, but the second bedroom is full. My desk, my husband's desk, we have a daybed, two bookshelves and a filing cabinet. We can either put things in storage/consolidate, or check and see how much more a three bedroom apartment would be.
I actually felt sort of like this when I really got into writing. There were so many agents! Genres! Publishing considerations! Suddenly the entire publishing world opened up it's yawning maw and I was swallowed whole. I am trying to avoid this with the baby. Because this stuff might feel like a big deal, but I know it's not. I'm not going to know what I want to do until I get to that situation most of the time.
It's very much like writing that first rough draft. There's a lot of trial and error, a lot of doing what seems like a good idea and what feels right.
I just hope the baby turns out better than my first rough draft.
I also hope this post makes sense, because I think I have fallen asleep.
What events have you experienced that you didn't feel completely prepared for?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Last night was not very restful. I had a hard time falling asleep, and I woke up at three in the morning from a nightmare. It's vague and fuzzy now, but there was something about a guy who was possessing people and I had to stop him, and save the people he was hurting. There were spirits and demons involved. It doesn't sound like it (nightmare never do) but it was scary. I woke up, certain there was a demon in the room with me.
I got up to use the bathroom, and had to avoid the mirror. I have this weird thing with mirrors. Most of the time, I think nothing of them. They are just there. But after a nightmare I can't look at them, because I am afraid I will see someone standing behind me, or something will reach out and grab me. I NEVER played "Bloody Mary", even as a kid.
Because here's the thing: when you're a writer, you tell yourself stories. Even if you're writing literary fiction, you are still making stuff up. I write fantasy, so believing in what isn't real goes double for me. During the day, when I am rational, I know elves and fairies and ghosts and demons don't exist. At least, I sort of know that. I am willing to concede that there is a possibility there are things out there we don't know about, but I don't actively search for it.
But at three in the morning, when it's pitch black out and no one's awake? That certainty goes straight out the window. No matter what I tell myself as I lay there in bed, I still think there *might* be something under my bed that is going to reach up and grab my ankle. And no amount of rationale will change that.
I think this is a negative side effect to writing. Or being creative in general. I spend so much time thinking about people and events that are a product of my imagination, and believing in them, giving them words and weight, that sometimes after I just wake up, this flexibility in my suspension of disbelief turns out to be a hinderance.
As a result, I am sooooo tired today. The thought of going to work makes me tired. I have a list of things I need to do, and I am doing them, but S-L-O-W-L-Y. I was hoping to be extra productive today, but things aren't looking so great. Unless of course I add to my list of things to do. For example, I already took a shower today. Check. Ate breakfast. Check. Wrote a blog post. Check. Go to work. Check soon enough. I guess if I extend my creativity further, I could add even more things to my list of things to do. Breathe. Check. Brush hair. Check. Get dressed. Check. Read other people's blogs. Check.
See?! I am feeling more productive already! I guess it's time to do what I actually need to do--work on my notecard outline--though. I am getting so close to being ready, that it's tantalizing me. But yesterday I made chicken pot pie for my parents from scratch. They loved it, but it took longer than I thought it would.
Hey, I can add to my list! Make dinner for parents; have enough for leftovers today. Check.
What do you guys do when you have bad dreams? Am I the only one who think is has to do with being creative?
I got up to use the bathroom, and had to avoid the mirror. I have this weird thing with mirrors. Most of the time, I think nothing of them. They are just there. But after a nightmare I can't look at them, because I am afraid I will see someone standing behind me, or something will reach out and grab me. I NEVER played "Bloody Mary", even as a kid.
Because here's the thing: when you're a writer, you tell yourself stories. Even if you're writing literary fiction, you are still making stuff up. I write fantasy, so believing in what isn't real goes double for me. During the day, when I am rational, I know elves and fairies and ghosts and demons don't exist. At least, I sort of know that. I am willing to concede that there is a possibility there are things out there we don't know about, but I don't actively search for it.
But at three in the morning, when it's pitch black out and no one's awake? That certainty goes straight out the window. No matter what I tell myself as I lay there in bed, I still think there *might* be something under my bed that is going to reach up and grab my ankle. And no amount of rationale will change that.
I think this is a negative side effect to writing. Or being creative in general. I spend so much time thinking about people and events that are a product of my imagination, and believing in them, giving them words and weight, that sometimes after I just wake up, this flexibility in my suspension of disbelief turns out to be a hinderance.
As a result, I am sooooo tired today. The thought of going to work makes me tired. I have a list of things I need to do, and I am doing them, but S-L-O-W-L-Y. I was hoping to be extra productive today, but things aren't looking so great. Unless of course I add to my list of things to do. For example, I already took a shower today. Check. Ate breakfast. Check. Wrote a blog post. Check. Go to work. Check soon enough. I guess if I extend my creativity further, I could add even more things to my list of things to do. Breathe. Check. Brush hair. Check. Get dressed. Check. Read other people's blogs. Check.
See?! I am feeling more productive already! I guess it's time to do what I actually need to do--work on my notecard outline--though. I am getting so close to being ready, that it's tantalizing me. But yesterday I made chicken pot pie for my parents from scratch. They loved it, but it took longer than I thought it would.
Hey, I can add to my list! Make dinner for parents; have enough for leftovers today. Check.
What do you guys do when you have bad dreams? Am I the only one who think is has to do with being creative?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunshine and Rainbows
In an effort to reset my sleep schedule I got up really early this morning, and now I am regretting that decision. I am TIRED. But I haven't been tired enough to fall asleep until 11 at night or later lately, despite work and other demands on my time, so hopefully tonight I will be able to go to bed at a decent hour.
I am at that stage in my book where I am really excited about everything and thus, am hyper and bouncy. This is one of my favorite phases of writing, where I know enough about the plot to be uber-excited, but I haven't nailed everything down yet. The broad horizon of possibility stretches out before me.
This lunatic optimism never fades with each book. I have three completed and three half completed manuscripts, not to mention dozens of false starts, short stories, and ramblings under my belt, and this phase never diminishes despite how many times I start a book.
I tell myself *this* time the book will be easier. It will flow out of my fingertips like water from a river, and it will be inspired and poetic, and perfect. Editing will then be a breeze, all my beta readers will weep with joy and sorrow at the appropriate parts when they read it, and I will know exactly the right final touches the book needs, and be ready for querying in record time.
All of the agents I query will love it, and want to represent me. They will be kind and wonderful, ready to have a great working relationship with me, and I will start a friendship that will last me for years to come. My book will be a commercial and literary success, I will sign a multiple book contract with a wonderful publishing house with an editor who is also wonderful.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
It's like a defense mechanism. Sure, I remember the horror of editing my last book, not to mention the several dozen occasions that things went splat while writing said book. The same thing happened with the book prior to that one, and the one before that.
But this time will be different! My lunatic optimism tells me. This time it's all sunshine and rainbows!
As a result, I lay awake at night, trying to fall asleep while my voice chatters to me about my book. Some of the stuff I think about is useful for the plot, but mostly I just lay there and quiver, like an over-excited Chihuahua on the night before Christmas.
Am I the only one who does this? Or are the rest of you just as crazy-optimistic for a period of time while writing, before reality crashes the party?
*thanks to wikicommons, http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/, and http://www.dragonartz.net for the clip art and photo. You've made my blog more vast, sunny, and rainbowy-er.
I am at that stage in my book where I am really excited about everything and thus, am hyper and bouncy. This is one of my favorite phases of writing, where I know enough about the plot to be uber-excited, but I haven't nailed everything down yet. The broad horizon of possibility stretches out before me.
 |
| I could add dragons! I could set it on the moon! That could make the book so much better! |
This lunatic optimism never fades with each book. I have three completed and three half completed manuscripts, not to mention dozens of false starts, short stories, and ramblings under my belt, and this phase never diminishes despite how many times I start a book.
I tell myself *this* time the book will be easier. It will flow out of my fingertips like water from a river, and it will be inspired and poetic, and perfect. Editing will then be a breeze, all my beta readers will weep with joy and sorrow at the appropriate parts when they read it, and I will know exactly the right final touches the book needs, and be ready for querying in record time.
 |
| Shiny rainbows! |
Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
It's like a defense mechanism. Sure, I remember the horror of editing my last book, not to mention the several dozen occasions that things went splat while writing said book. The same thing happened with the book prior to that one, and the one before that.
But this time will be different! My lunatic optimism tells me. This time it's all sunshine and rainbows!
 | ||||
| ALL SUNSHINE! |
Am I the only one who does this? Or are the rest of you just as crazy-optimistic for a period of time while writing, before reality crashes the party?
*thanks to wikicommons, http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/, and http://www.dragonartz.net for the clip art and photo. You've made my blog more vast, sunny, and rainbowy-er.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Back from the Dead
Song Playing: Holding On by VNV Nation
Hello! I am still alive! Class was intense but rewarding. I have returned, armed with enough CEU credits to choke a horse.
Hello newcomers! I hope you enjoy the madness here. I try to post helpful stuff about writing, but that doesn’t always work out. I have a feeling that today isn’t that day, considering my brain is still fuzzy from 32 hours worth of training in four days.
I went to a Qi Gong training seminar and it was exciting, exhausting, even life changing. Qi Gong is an exercise that focuses on controlling your breathing, and using slow movements to increase energy and flexibility. I feel awesome, but exhausted. So if the post doesn’t make any sense whatsoever today, I blame exhaustion.
Would you believe I went four entire days without even looking at the Internet? FOUR entire days, and I lived!
(I am aware that is actually a hamster. Thank you for your concern.)
I got home every night in time to eat something and crawl into bed, and then it was up at 6:30 the next morning. 6:30 in the morning. Let me explain something to you.
I am not a morning person.
This is a gross understatement. I do not regain the ability to talk until I am awake for at least an hour or so, longer if I had to get up early. So if you expect to communicate with me right after I wake up, be ready to translate grunts. Some of you might be complaining/rolling your eyes, thinking you have to get up earlier every morning, so what’s the big deal? I must be a huge whiner. My best friend Melissa is a nurse, and she had to get up at 5:30 every morning to be at work at 7. My fiancée has to get up at 5 in the morning. I know the world does in fact start before 8 in the morning. When I worked at a gas station, occasionally I pulled the opening shift, and we opened at 5 in the morning. Which meant I had be awake before 5 in the morning, when normally I worked the 4 to midnight shift. Lucky for me, I lived two minutes away, so I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and drove to the store all in about ten minutes.
BUUUT you forget I work the night shift (or afternoon, depending on your POV), and have for years and years. I don’t get off of work until 8 or 9 o’clock most nights, when most people are winding down for bed. I try to be in bed by 10:30 so I can get up at a decent hour (8 in the morning is a decent hour. 6:30 in the morning is an indecent hour). So I am not used to getting up that early, on top of not being a morning person anyway. I need time to wake up.
We commuted to the Atlanta World Congress Center where our training was held with three other therapists, one of them my sister in law, and another was a coworker/friend (she’s the same one who came over for Saint Paddy’s Day, for those of you who saw that post. If you haven’t, I suggest you check it out. It involves squirrel whispering.) The other therapist was a friend of my sister in law’s, but this was the first time I met her.
She was so amused at how different of a person I am in the morning versus during the day, after I wake up. In the car ride there, I stared out the window looking squinty eyed, and mumbling. Then the morning’s training would commerce, and by lunch time, I would be awake and bubbly It almost became a joke, and when I confused myself with directions (The Atlanta World Congress Center is a BIG place), they’d laugh it off and say, “It’s okay, it’s not 10:30 in the morning yet.” By the time we were ready to go home, I was bouncy from not socializing for hours.
This experience made me think about how other people view your habits. To me, it’s perfectly normal lie awake in bed for ten minutes or so before I get up for the day. I use the bathroom, get some iced tea (but not breakfast. I can’t eat as soon as I wake up), and check my email. It’s around this time I start waking up. Some people are wide awake the minute they open their eyes (my sister in law is a morning person. So are my dad and my little brother. Morning people don’t annoy me like they do some people. I like that they talk enough for the both of us. They just shouldn’t expect me to carry my end of the conversation.). Morning people are strange and should be studied by science.
I know this not getting up early thing will change when I have kids, but in the immortal words of Aragorn, that is not this day (by the way, MS Word recognizes “Aragorn” as a real word. How cool is that?).
There, everything you never wanted to know about some of my daily habits.
I have the day off today, in a serendipitous event where the training ended yesterday, and I usually have today off anyway, so I didn’t have to take extra time off of work. I am not really sure what I am going to do. I am beta reading a novel that I am excited about, so I imagine it will involve lots of loafing around and reading. I feel like I need to recharge my battery.
I am having some issues getting all my tax stuff taken care of, and that’s making me anxious since I only have two more weeks to get my taxes done, but hopefully I will get the rest of the information I need today. *crosses fingers*
What about you guys? Any morning people out there? Or do you know where I am coming from when I say I am nonverbal when I wake up?
(Once again, thanks goes to I can haz cheeseburger for the pictures)
Hello! I am still alive! Class was intense but rewarding. I have returned, armed with enough CEU credits to choke a horse.
Hello newcomers! I hope you enjoy the madness here. I try to post helpful stuff about writing, but that doesn’t always work out. I have a feeling that today isn’t that day, considering my brain is still fuzzy from 32 hours worth of training in four days.
I went to a Qi Gong training seminar and it was exciting, exhausting, even life changing. Qi Gong is an exercise that focuses on controlling your breathing, and using slow movements to increase energy and flexibility. I feel awesome, but exhausted. So if the post doesn’t make any sense whatsoever today, I blame exhaustion.
Would you believe I went four entire days without even looking at the Internet? FOUR entire days, and I lived!
(I am aware that is actually a hamster. Thank you for your concern.)
I got home every night in time to eat something and crawl into bed, and then it was up at 6:30 the next morning. 6:30 in the morning. Let me explain something to you.
I am not a morning person.
This is a gross understatement. I do not regain the ability to talk until I am awake for at least an hour or so, longer if I had to get up early. So if you expect to communicate with me right after I wake up, be ready to translate grunts. Some of you might be complaining/rolling your eyes, thinking you have to get up earlier every morning, so what’s the big deal? I must be a huge whiner. My best friend Melissa is a nurse, and she had to get up at 5:30 every morning to be at work at 7. My fiancée has to get up at 5 in the morning. I know the world does in fact start before 8 in the morning. When I worked at a gas station, occasionally I pulled the opening shift, and we opened at 5 in the morning. Which meant I had be awake before 5 in the morning, when normally I worked the 4 to midnight shift. Lucky for me, I lived two minutes away, so I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and drove to the store all in about ten minutes.
BUUUT you forget I work the night shift (or afternoon, depending on your POV), and have for years and years. I don’t get off of work until 8 or 9 o’clock most nights, when most people are winding down for bed. I try to be in bed by 10:30 so I can get up at a decent hour (8 in the morning is a decent hour. 6:30 in the morning is an indecent hour). So I am not used to getting up that early, on top of not being a morning person anyway. I need time to wake up.
We commuted to the Atlanta World Congress Center where our training was held with three other therapists, one of them my sister in law, and another was a coworker/friend (she’s the same one who came over for Saint Paddy’s Day, for those of you who saw that post. If you haven’t, I suggest you check it out. It involves squirrel whispering.) The other therapist was a friend of my sister in law’s, but this was the first time I met her.
She was so amused at how different of a person I am in the morning versus during the day, after I wake up. In the car ride there, I stared out the window looking squinty eyed, and mumbling. Then the morning’s training would commerce, and by lunch time, I would be awake and bubbly It almost became a joke, and when I confused myself with directions (The Atlanta World Congress Center is a BIG place), they’d laugh it off and say, “It’s okay, it’s not 10:30 in the morning yet.” By the time we were ready to go home, I was bouncy from not socializing for hours.
This experience made me think about how other people view your habits. To me, it’s perfectly normal lie awake in bed for ten minutes or so before I get up for the day. I use the bathroom, get some iced tea (but not breakfast. I can’t eat as soon as I wake up), and check my email. It’s around this time I start waking up. Some people are wide awake the minute they open their eyes (my sister in law is a morning person. So are my dad and my little brother. Morning people don’t annoy me like they do some people. I like that they talk enough for the both of us. They just shouldn’t expect me to carry my end of the conversation.). Morning people are strange and should be studied by science.
I know this not getting up early thing will change when I have kids, but in the immortal words of Aragorn, that is not this day (by the way, MS Word recognizes “Aragorn” as a real word. How cool is that?).
There, everything you never wanted to know about some of my daily habits.
I have the day off today, in a serendipitous event where the training ended yesterday, and I usually have today off anyway, so I didn’t have to take extra time off of work. I am not really sure what I am going to do. I am beta reading a novel that I am excited about, so I imagine it will involve lots of loafing around and reading. I feel like I need to recharge my battery.
I am having some issues getting all my tax stuff taken care of, and that’s making me anxious since I only have two more weeks to get my taxes done, but hopefully I will get the rest of the information I need today. *crosses fingers*
What about you guys? Any morning people out there? Or do you know where I am coming from when I say I am nonverbal when I wake up?
(Once again, thanks goes to I can haz cheeseburger for the pictures)
Monday, February 8, 2010
Books are Like Onions
Quote: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” ~Mark Twain
Song being played: Professional Killer by KFMDM (and loud, so as to wake me up)
Good afternoon everyone! I had an early shift, and boy it’s hard getting out of bed when I am used to sleeping in. I swear I am nocturnal. For reals, folks, for reals. I think it’s from staying up late all through high school. I would get home, do my homework (first thing you say? Yes, first thing. I was/am a huge nerd. Nerdy nerd-nerd, they don’t come much nerdier than me) clean up a bit, then onto to my writing. This put me at 7-9 at night writing.
Even now as an adult (I almost typed that with a straight face…almost) I still catch these creative spurts, yes, you guessed it, late at night. My muse likes to play tricks on me, yes he does (my muse is a guy. *shrugs* it’s just the way he is. And he likes other writers more than me. He continually flirts with LenaLothanas). Even if I wake up early, fully intending to write all morning, I still stumble over the words. Hours later, I am tinkering around on some other project, and –whoash! Suddenly I have ideas, and thoughts. Or I could be working at night, trying to wrap things up so I can go to bed at a decent hour and be a productive member of society, when –wham! My muse hits me upside the head with the creativity bat. So much for sleep. (“Sleep is for the weak!” is my muses’s rallying cry)
So there was some football game on last night, called the Superbowl. It’s practically a holiday here in the U.S. of A. I don’t mean to sound like a stereotypical girl, but football bores the heck out of me. I don’t follow it. I go to my parent’s Superbowl party every year for the food and the commercials.
This was my favorite one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SciPkHsf-qk
LOL! My favorite part is at the end, where the girl goes after the robot, “Jeffery! Come back!”
I WANTZ A JEFFERY!
…Anyways, it’s time for my weekly update: Slow. Excruciatingly slow. Yikes. I am used to pounding out word counts in the 2-5k range, and even as much as 10K on a good day (yes, I type very fast). This editing nonsense feels m-u-c-h s-l-o-w-e-r. I feel like I will NEVER ever be done, EVAR. I will turn into one of those people who always says, “I am working on my book” because there’s always only ONE (1) book they are dithering with for YEARS.
But then I look at what page I worked on yesterday and realize I am indeed moving forward (and not backwards as I secretly suspected). So! Progress is being made. I am just impatient to be finished editing. But then I tell myself to enjoy the process, love each stage I am in. To be fair, editing IS pretty neat. Reminds me of that bit in Shrek, where Shrek tells Donkey that ogres are like onions, because they have layers.
Books are like onions. At least, mine is turning out to be. Hopefully because you will cry in parts, and because it has layers that I didn’t know about previously. I have a completed first draft, closer to being a second at this point, since I edited it BEFORE I started the Grand Editing Slog, and I thought I knew all the twists and turns my book would take. I thought I would spruce up the view point, and narration, and all that jazz during revision, but as I am working I have better ideas. I had an amazing idea the other day, that would really pull some scenes together. It’s like carving a stature, where my rough draft is the rough block of stone, and as I edit and revise, I chip away at everything that isn’t my book.
Pretty amazing, actually.
And the thing I love about editing?
The words are already there! Yay!
So, how is your progress going? Where are you at? If you need a swift kick in the pants to get going, consider yourself kicked. ;)
Writing Prompt:
I am doing a blogfest, hosted by Courtney Reese (http://courtneyreese86.blogspot.com/2010/01/critique-this-presents-love-at-first_04.html ) about love at first sight. Basically, you write a scene on the topic and then post it to your blog. Then everyone goes around reading each other’s scenes. Exciting! The topic, in honor of Valentine’s Day, is love at first sight. When two characters realize they are in love.
Why don’t you do the same? When does your characters realize they are in love? Is it a shocking revelation? A slow feeling over time? Feel free to join the blogfest, but if not, let me know how your scene turned out.
Song being played: Professional Killer by KFMDM (and loud, so as to wake me up)
Good afternoon everyone! I had an early shift, and boy it’s hard getting out of bed when I am used to sleeping in. I swear I am nocturnal. For reals, folks, for reals. I think it’s from staying up late all through high school. I would get home, do my homework (first thing you say? Yes, first thing. I was/am a huge nerd. Nerdy nerd-nerd, they don’t come much nerdier than me) clean up a bit, then onto to my writing. This put me at 7-9 at night writing.
Even now as an adult (I almost typed that with a straight face…almost) I still catch these creative spurts, yes, you guessed it, late at night. My muse likes to play tricks on me, yes he does (my muse is a guy. *shrugs* it’s just the way he is. And he likes other writers more than me. He continually flirts with LenaLothanas). Even if I wake up early, fully intending to write all morning, I still stumble over the words. Hours later, I am tinkering around on some other project, and –whoash! Suddenly I have ideas, and thoughts. Or I could be working at night, trying to wrap things up so I can go to bed at a decent hour and be a productive member of society, when –wham! My muse hits me upside the head with the creativity bat. So much for sleep. (“Sleep is for the weak!” is my muses’s rallying cry)
So there was some football game on last night, called the Superbowl. It’s practically a holiday here in the U.S. of A. I don’t mean to sound like a stereotypical girl, but football bores the heck out of me. I don’t follow it. I go to my parent’s Superbowl party every year for the food and the commercials.
This was my favorite one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SciPkHsf-qk
LOL! My favorite part is at the end, where the girl goes after the robot, “Jeffery! Come back!”
I WANTZ A JEFFERY!
…Anyways, it’s time for my weekly update: Slow. Excruciatingly slow. Yikes. I am used to pounding out word counts in the 2-5k range, and even as much as 10K on a good day (yes, I type very fast). This editing nonsense feels m-u-c-h s-l-o-w-e-r. I feel like I will NEVER ever be done, EVAR. I will turn into one of those people who always says, “I am working on my book” because there’s always only ONE (1) book they are dithering with for YEARS.
But then I look at what page I worked on yesterday and realize I am indeed moving forward (and not backwards as I secretly suspected). So! Progress is being made. I am just impatient to be finished editing. But then I tell myself to enjoy the process, love each stage I am in. To be fair, editing IS pretty neat. Reminds me of that bit in Shrek, where Shrek tells Donkey that ogres are like onions, because they have layers.
Books are like onions. At least, mine is turning out to be. Hopefully because you will cry in parts, and because it has layers that I didn’t know about previously. I have a completed first draft, closer to being a second at this point, since I edited it BEFORE I started the Grand Editing Slog, and I thought I knew all the twists and turns my book would take. I thought I would spruce up the view point, and narration, and all that jazz during revision, but as I am working I have better ideas. I had an amazing idea the other day, that would really pull some scenes together. It’s like carving a stature, where my rough draft is the rough block of stone, and as I edit and revise, I chip away at everything that isn’t my book.
Pretty amazing, actually.
And the thing I love about editing?
The words are already there! Yay!
So, how is your progress going? Where are you at? If you need a swift kick in the pants to get going, consider yourself kicked. ;)
Writing Prompt:
I am doing a blogfest, hosted by Courtney Reese (http://courtneyreese86.blogspot.com/2010/01/critique-this-presents-love-at-first_04.html ) about love at first sight. Basically, you write a scene on the topic and then post it to your blog. Then everyone goes around reading each other’s scenes. Exciting! The topic, in honor of Valentine’s Day, is love at first sight. When two characters realize they are in love.
Why don’t you do the same? When does your characters realize they are in love? Is it a shocking revelation? A slow feeling over time? Feel free to join the blogfest, but if not, let me know how your scene turned out.
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