Writing Journal

I've been ridiculously sick with a nasty cold for almost a solid week.  I'm down to just the drainage left.  It was seriously the worst I can remember feeling from an illness as an adult.  I coughed so much so hard that I popped a blood vessel in my eye!  Headaches, fevers, chills, congestion, fatigue, all of it.  Three solid days.  Then three days where some of the symptoms were lessened.

I didn't want to touch anything because I didn't want to spread the germs.  In fact, I left church earlier than I anticipated yesterday because a family came in late and sat behind me.  With an infant who was less than two months old.  I was like, "Jesus, get my germs away from this baby!"  I didn't even shake hands with people.  Gave a couple of air hugs.  But I mean it when I share everything except my germs with people.  Even when I lived alone, I would cough and sneeze into my shirt collars.

Anyway, that's what's kept me from writing.  In an odd way, it made me grateful that I hadn't applied for jobs, or gone looking for one.  Terribly poor form to call out of your first full week or an interview because you have a cold.  Even worse to show up with one.  I seriously rubbed my upper lip raw.  There's a small open sore between my nose and lips from all the wiping.

But I'm going to write today.  About a drunken painter in a city of wonder, thanks to a 60 second art challenge by a couple friends of mine.  Watch here.

Came back to add that Pandora, even though I have all my stations on shuffle (and I listen to a wide array of stuff) started my writing session off with Carrie Underwood's "Just a Dream," and ended with George Jones' "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me," which is funny because I made Underwood's song the motivating factor for my MC to leave his regular bar early that night and my page ended up with him passing out as he entered one his ex hated.

Reading Journal

Finished a Maeve Binchy book in the span of about a week.  I tend to use those to relight my reading fire.  I always enjoy them, and since most of my collection is purse sized paperback, I get through one quickly and can ride the success of that.

Not sure what title is next.  I think I might do a movie-book combo with Roommate One's copies of Stardust.  I've seen the movie a couple of times, and what's funny is her copy of Stardust is on the shelf directly above her copy of Eleanor & Park, which I borrowed without her knowledge/explicit permission one weekend she went out of town in the second place we shared.

Saw something on twitter I might try next year, if I can meet this year's Goodread's Reading Challenge.  I like challenges and need to get back into them, honestly.  Anyway, the thread was about what people used for bookmarks and a guy said he used a playing card because he tried to read 52 books a year.  I thought it was cool, and you could write the title and year on each card.  If I can get through fifteen this year, I'll give it a go next year.

Reading Journal

I finished Persuasion today.  Now my Pandora shuffle is playing the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, from the 2006 version.  I'm supposed to be writing.  That's my goal for being down here.  I did do some typing on an LDS forum.

I also just updated my goodreads.  I'm only four books behind my reading goal.  Which I set at 15, planning on one a month, plus about one more per quarter.  My own books are still packed.  I need to get my bookcases, or at least one of the big ones, somewhere other than my bedroom.  I need to be sleeping on my bed.

Finished a blanket today, too.

I guess I'll just go out, get  a writing prompt and do that.  Small but simple things.

Writing Journal

I'm doing this for real.  Again, I guess.  But for real.

I read this article by Kiki Schirr about setting a rejection letter goal, and it inspired me to start writing again.  This weekend, I made the final moving steps into a new home.  It's a humbling experience, but I needed to leave a toxic work environment.  And there was no other place in the town I was living in to make what I needed to make in order to afford my apartment.  My best friend had a room open in her home, offered it to me, and I decided to take a leap. 

My life still feels a little shambly as of this current writing, but I can already tell that it's going to be better for me than what I left behind.  For instance, I don't have a place in my room for a bed.  For the past three nights, I've been sleeping on communal couches.  It's a process.  One that, quite frankly, I'm hoping will be conducive to my artistic endeavors. 

Right now, I'm writing on a table set up in the basement.  Last night it was used to play Magic: the Gathering.  My plan is to listen to Pandora and write until the battery on my laptop gets to low or my drink runs out.  Not sure what I'll be writing.  Mostly journaling to start with.  I might work my way into book or movie reviews or short stories.  We'll see.

Reading Journal

I set a goal in January to walk sixteen minutes every day this year.  I did that for about two weeks, then I got lazy one day, it got cold the next, I got off work too late, the third day, etc.  The past month or so, though, I have taken to reading walks, wherein I read while walking.  People think it dangerous, but thanks to (marching) band, I have excellent peripheral vision.  I also come to a complete stop a good three or four feet from the road at any intersection busy enough to warrant a sidewalk.  In short, I'm safe about it and can put the book down for the few moments it takes to check for vehicles in all directions or in otherwise unsafe conditions.  It's the only way I can read LotR.  I'm almost done with the second book.

In general, I've been better than I have been in recent years about reading.  However, after I finished Monica Halloway's "Driving With Dead People," I decided to pull my Thomas Hardy anthology off the shelf and read "Far From the Maddening Crowd."  I'm only a couple of pages in, but I just don't think I made the right choice for a second book right now. 

Today, just now, I kind of feel like I've had a bit of a break through in thought.  I wanted to restart my Old, New, Random, True cycling habit, which I fell out of for a while.  Until I got a library card this week.  This means I can read books that have been published in the last three years without having to go to another town to purchase them.  However, I also have what I refer to as my Personal Gospel Library, that is, books and films I own related to theology and Gospel topics, the majority of which are of the LDS faith.  (I couldn't pass up a fifty cent copy of the Apocrypha inscribed to someone who shares my first name, or a manual about Jewish courtship and marriage practices from the 50's/60's.  That kind of thing.)  I have been wanting to read "Jesus the Christ" for years, and finally purchased a copy of it for myself just over two years ago. 

Hence, I have decided that one book will be from my cycle.  (So, the LotR series are counting as my Old.)  The other book will be from my personal Gospel Library, which means I'll be starting on rereading Daughters in My Kingdom, partly because I need a refresher and partly because I'm considering sending a copy to one or both of my sisters.