Upswing

Tasty Tidbit #1:  A Week in Review

            Sounds boring I know, but in reality things have begun to flow rather nicely.  Here are a few notes on the last week.

Chicken Hater. 

Fluffy white bunny that will eat your soul.

Invisible ninja hamsters now guard my meditation room. 

Coconuts and their many uses.

Run Away! Run Away!

Blueberry Patch and Anemone (not necessarily in that order)

Simplify

Completing chapter one

Is butt-hurt one word or two?

Mid-afternoon pickle spritz

Squirt

And the thing I'm not supposed to mention.  :) 

Tasty Tidbit #2: Bull in a China Shop

            I’ve been on a rampage today.  I’m normally not a graceful person.  I run into walls, door frames, and everything else.  I also have a tendency to break stuff.  I don’t mean to, most of the time I’m trying to help and shit just breaks.  Today I managed to knock a soda off a table, causing it to almost explode, knocked over some metal bars, which in turn broke a C, nearly broke a table, and that was just for starters.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you were reading this blog and your computer shut down without warning, for no other reason than it sensed my presence.  Does it count if I mean well but break your stuff?  I hope so, because I have some bad news.  I think this was yours. Sorry about that. 

Tasty Tidbit #2: Hey I Found the Floor

            As mentioned in my previous blog, my meditation room has been in a state of chaos for some time now.  The thought of going through all my papers, sorting through boxes, bins, and books, kind of made me want to puke.  However, I became convinced that the state of my meditation room was having a direct effect on my writing and probably my emotional state in general.  My sacred space had been turned into a dumping ground, gee why didn’t I want to sit in there and write? It took three days to sort my room out again.  Three very long days filled with trash bags and swear words of a colorful sort.  Now I am sitting in a clutter free space and I have to say it feels so much better and so do I.  I finally took the time to take care of my space.  Beyond just having my space back, I found a pile of writing material.  Actually, I found a stack of loose writings that is literally 23 inches high and stacked next to my bookcase.  One whole bookcase shelf is now occupied by journals of all shapes and sizes, all of which are also filled with writings.  Bits of stories, poem ideas, and prompts were all just scattered around waiting for me to find them.  It will take a lot more work to sort through it all and get it organized, but I have already started the process. I was thrilled about finding the floor; I can’t wait to see what I find in that pile of goodies.

  

Upswing

            Well, we have had a couple weeks of weepy so let’s turn it around shall we?  Finding my meditation room and returning it to a state of sacred space was an important first step.  I had ignored my space for far too long and allowed other things to take up my time.  Most of those other things were pretty pointless, like playing video games on my cellphone.  To be honest, getting my space back together was key.  It started me writing.  Not just writing a note here or a story idea there, I mean real writing.  Of course, caffeine had a lot to do with it too.

            My husband has been through four deployments now.  That means that he can sleep through anything.  I may have mentioned this in a previous blog but since I don’t go back and reread them deal with it.  Anyway, my husband explained to me that the best and really it’s the only way, to wake him up is to get close to his ear, shake him and tell him he’s late for guard duty.  Conditioned much?  I usually don’t mind him sleeping as though dead, except when he flops on me.  This story has a point don’t worry.  I get knocked in the back of the head with an elbow or pushed off the bed when he rolls over completely oblivious to the world.  I am a light sleeper so it makes going to sleep and staying asleep difficult.  One evening about a week ago, Ben was sleeping at a perfect angle taking up the vast majority of the bed making it impossible for me to fall asleep.  All attempts to move him to his side of the bed failed, so I gave in.  I planned to sleep on the couch, but I found myself wide awake.  Instead of shacking up on the couch I went into my partially cleaned meditation room.  There was a story idea floating around in my head and for the first time in a very long time I sat down and typed it out.  I typed for a couple of hours in fact.  Believe me I was shocked when I looked at the clock. It seemed so easy.

            It struck me that writing at night was a great idea.  My sleeping pattern fluctuates. Sometimes I am an early riser, other times a night owl, right now I needed owl.  I noticed that when I was typing I wasn’t thinking about needing to get up and take care of anything around the house, Ben and the animals were asleep, I found an opportunity.  The problem is that currently I am on my early riser schedule.  Ben’s alarm goes off at 4:30am, and it’s difficult for me to fall back asleep.  Though one might suppose that I could use that early morning time while Ben is at PT to write, you have to consider that I have a house full of animals just waking up, all wanting attention and breakfast.  So morning writing is pretty much out.  Still a plan was brewing.

            The day after my writing escapade, I had a soda.  I’m not usually a big soda drinker; I try to stick with water as much as possible.  I’m a bit sensitive to caffeine, can we say MELTDOWN.  If you don’t get the joke don’t worry about it.  The soda kept me up that night long after Ben had fallen asleep, so I tried this whole writing thing again.  It worked.  I stayed awake a couple of hours again, writing out my stories and crafting outlines.  The next day I went out and bought a twelve pack of Dr.Pepper and I have written every night.  I drink one soda a day, which is enough to fuel me a few extra hours in the evening after everyone else in the house has passed out.  Though I can understand how I might not be forming the best habit by drinking a soda every day, I can see excellent results in my writing.  I managed to finish the first chapter of one of the stories I am currently working on.  I haven’t made that much progress in the last six months.  I’m hoping that after a week or two my body will get used to staying up the couple of extra hours a night and I will be able to wean off the soda.  Until then, I’m going to crack me open a tasty Dr.Pepper and get creative with my bad self.