Blue Skies

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I found my NEO. I am surprised. I have to finish my office/studio. I am a secret 2nd story hoarder. It’s a place where I put things when I just don’t know what to do with it or I’m too lazy to put it away properly. Boxes and bags of material and craft items and books and books and books. It’s also storage for The Snoogs’ things. Her items include lots of books, too. No one QV is afraid the ceiling will come down on us. If they can do a whole really messy house in one weekend on the Hoarders, I should be able to easily do it this weekend. There are things up there I completely forgot I have. I could do about 500 projects without having to buy anything new.

I feel a tickle in my throat when I woke up this morning. If I get sick from all of my trips to the hospital I will be pissed. My father thinks he’ll be going home today. He told my brother that two different doctors told him he’d be leaving. Since he still had his catheter in at 15.00 yesterday, I’m not so sure. He has a tendency to hear what he wants to hear. He’ll be 82 next month and mostly acts like my three year old MM. He needs to come home soon though. All of these trips to the hospital are wearing my mother out. She’ll be 79 next month and is riddle with arthritis and can’t really walk much. Her mental faculties are so hot either. She claims my father has a mild case of alzheimer's but she shows more signs of it. They both still live in their own home together and usually do very well. My father still drives. They just have trouble when they get tired yet they sometimes refuse to rest.

The rain finally stopped. Today it is clear and sunny but very cold.

The Codes is itching again and we will have to take him back to the vet for his itchy pills. He did go about two or three months without itchy. And it’s been a year since he had problems with his ears. It is hard to believe that just last year his other vet was trying to guilt us into cutting his ear canals and rerouting them to “cure” him. His new vet gave him a different medicine and we haven’t had a problem since. The thousands of dollars and hours of time and angst we spent before just pisses me off. I am so glad we got a second opinion.

Game of Thrones is back on next week I can’t wait. The previews look so good. I am re-reading book one, Fire and Ice.

I am trying to figure out how I can write while doing other things.

My mother complained the other day about my reading while we were endlessly waiting at the hospital. She said it was rude. I should be talking to her. I had to remind her that I’m not much of a chatter. If she had anything to say to me I would participate in the conversation (I can read and write while being interrupted no problem.) She said since we are mother/daughter we should be able to talk without problem. I said one would think after all these years, she’d accept who I am and stop trying to change me. I’m not holding my breath.

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Topsy Turvy

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My schedule is all messed up. It’s been several days since I’ve been able to follow my daily plan. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to get any writing done on my book and I am very unhappy. I need to develop a plan for when life intrudes. I am easily distracted so if I don’t have a road map to follow I can go off on long tangents.

Some examples of things I do when I don’t go with the prescribed plan:

Learn to juggle.

Read up on Viking Shield Maidens and plan out a costume to wear to Faire.

Watch Sense and Sensibility again and yet again in the same day.

Look up crow magic.

Find free books from Amazon on Physics and Philosophy.

Check out furniture stores for leather sectional sofas.

Scan through my old pictures.

Pluck the grey hairs from my chins.

Water the plants (because they are screaming from the edge of the abyss.)

You see the problem? None of these things come close to being writing. I can be distracted for days by these sorts of things. That’s why my Daily To Do List has things like:

Feed the dog.

Brush teeth.

Dress.

Vitamins.

500 words.

I have to have this kind of list to keep me on track. Otherwise I get lost in the woods of Fun and Interesting but Totally Useless Things. If I wasn’t able to focus on one thing for hours at a time I’d wonder if I had like OCD or whatever that thing is where you are easily distracted. It’s why I write 500 meaningless words before beginning on any other writing. It’s like running in place. My fingers limber up and I can purge all of those thoughts I have that are trying to force me off the road.

I’ll be breaking out my NEO. The internet on my laptop is too easily accessible. It’s small and easy to carry and has a screen that does not accommodate my obsessive need to go back and correct what I’ve written. It’s been awhile since I’ve used it but I think this is the perfect time. All of my words are ready to tumble out and I must give them the ability to escape without distractions.

I use project cards to write down the ideas I get when I am trying to avoid writing too. (I try to avoid writing because even though I want it so much the endless and formless fears I come up with scare me so much I never start.) If I don’t write the ideas down on index cards they don’t get out of the way. I’ve taken to keeping index cards and felt tip pens by my bed for when they wake me up. I like to big 5 x 8 assorted color cards so I can write big in the dark or jot down details I want to remember. For instance, there’s the Sunny Sunday photo I want to take of a sun made out of a hundred lit tea lights.

I wonder where my NEO is.

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