Thursday Thirteen #17

Thirteen Reasons I Haven't Posted In A Week

1. I didn't wanna
No offense, it's not you, it's me. Seriously. Not enough sleep, a very busy schedule, and consequent fatigue made me not care about low-priority stuff. That mostly meant housework and this blog.

2. Appointments
Orthodontist (x2)
New tires on car
Service for car
Eye doctor (x2)
Plus travel time for each. Really cut into my days.

3. Errands
Grocery store (like, every freakin' day)
Pick up Triptik from AAA
Post office
Picking up files for transcription
Shopping for pets and kids
And so on

4. Workload
I'm trying to do revisions on The Color of Courage so my agent can start submitting it. They are daunting, and I feel I need silence and hours of time to tackle them--which, of course, is virtually impossible during the summer. I've been working on it in pieces, but allowing fear to hold me back, something I very rarely do. In addition I've had medical transcription and proofreading work, and critiquing for friends (which shouldn't take priority but this time did because last time I didn't).

5. Family Time
With the kids home in the summer, there's a lot more demand on me in this area. Soccer camp and practice, cup stacking camp, the aforementioned appointments and errands, playing games, making meals, driving to friends houses or taking them to the pool or park. It's neverending.

6. The Damned Ants
We have had those little tiny grease ants (or whatever--I assume they are grease ants because you throw a butter or peanut butter knife in the sink and they are all over it in our kitchen for weeks now. We had traps out at first, though I said they are not colonizing ants, but nomadic ants (according to some "expert" in my childhood). I may not be right about that, but the eight traps around the sink were not helping. We never can see where exactly they are coming in, but we figured it was the windowsill. We tried white caulk. Plumber's goop. And finally fingertip rope caulk, which stuck the best and was easy to use. I have spent hours over the last week sealing every crack and hole I can find around the window. No luck. So yesterday I bought Borax. It's boric acid, isn't it? The stuff the Naturzone people use. So I laid a very Supernatural-like trail along the windowsill and around the sink. For 12 hours, not a single ant. This morning? They were swarming the sink and crawling ACROSS the Borax.

Damned ants.

7. Potter Issues
I'd said I was going to post on Monday about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I started at least three posts, writing two of them almost to completion. But after an abruptly ended discussion with a friend (my fault) and participation in/witness to discussions elsewhere, I decided I'm not going to post about the book here. Why? Because I love it. I love the entire series. I do not find it flawless, but the flaws are meaningless. And in every conversation I see, the list of things people love is glossed over, and then nitpick after nitpick is made. I end up going into defensive mode--not necessarily defending Rowling, who needs no defense as she wrote the books she wanted to write and doesn't care if they are universally loved or loathed--but defensive of my own appreciation. As if people calling the epilogue "nasty" or "cheesy" are calling me such things because I love it. I don't like myself when I get that way, and I don't like anyone who puts me there, so it's best to just avoid the topic.

8. Fatigue
Kind of connected to #1, except #1 is about not caring, #7 is about not having the mental energy to come up with something to say. Last night is a good example of this category. I have avoided blogging in the morning because of all the other stuff filling my regular day (see numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). But by the time night rolls around, I'm way too tired to think. Then I have issues about going to bed. Whether it's because my biorhythms trend later, or because I don't want to give up the peace and solitude of the late evening/middle of the night, or because I have a computer/book/food addiction issue, I've been going to bed very late every night. Last night I finished transcription at 10. Finished critiquing near 2. Skimmed a few blogs, was about to head upstairs, but saw about the bridge in Minnesota, and had to read the timeline of events/notices about that. It was 3:00 a.m. by the time I fell asleep, and I got up at 9:00. I won't go to bed before midnight tonight, at least, which means just as little sleep for tomorrow. Which makes me tired. I know, I know, go to bed earlier, idiot! Maybe someday.

9. Summer Overload
July was a very, very busy month. Family in town for a week. Nickelback. Harry Potter movie (midnight showing!). Harry Potter book (midnight release!). Number One's 12th birthday and subsequent slumber party. It's been one big event after another, leading to fabulous highs and one big crash at the end.

Also, there's the desperate need for the middle of my day to be mine again. I always reach a point where I loathe the routine that becomes a rut during the school year, and I'm not ready for summer to be truly over. It's been a nice one weather-wise, with all the extra light. I love not having to get up at 6:30 every day (unless I flake out when scheduling auto service). I like the lack of structure, the unlack of flexibility (I LOVE flexibility!). But I really, really long to be alone for six hours.

10. Gilmore Girls
I've been watching it on DVD from Netflix, and enjoying it a lot. Also Dark Angel, as you know. But Jim and I watch DA together, which means pretty much just Friday, and I can watch two GG in a week. I have a problem watching less than a full disk once I start, though, and have not wanted to sacrifice GG time for blogging time.

Here's the funny thing--on several levels, actually. Jim has gotten hooked on the show. So much so that the other night he turned off City of Heroes to come watch on the couch with me. He says he likes the banter and the dialogue, but what he comments on most are the relationships. It's delightful and amusing and I love him. But he wouldn't let me watch last night because he has a standing team on Wednesday nights and they are very experienced and move very fast and he can't split his attention. So that kinda sucks. But I'm not complaining that we have another shared interest, especially when we've had so few over the last few years.

11. Nothing good to say
Usually, in the shower I'll think of something I want to post about. It comes out well-written (hopefully) and makes me want to post it right away. I've had nothing like that for more than a week. I'm not sure when, or if, the drought will lift. Hey, if you think of things you'd like to hear me talk about, post them in the comments!

12. Instant Messaging
On the rare times I haven't been away from my desk or working on the workload, I've had some really interesting and valuable conversations with friends. It's the only way I do it, usually, because I hate the phone. HATE it. Hatehatehatehate. I can do IMs for hours, and not resent the lost time because I can do other things at the same time. In theory.

13. Thursday Thirteen
Items 1 through 12 applied intermittently over the last couple of days. But then I thought this would be a kinda good TT topic. Which meant I shouldn't post until today. Yes, I am a cheater. But you love me anyway. :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for my July Goals Progress and hopefully the End to Ennui!

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