thursday thoughts

Holidays have a way of totally destroying schedules, don't they?

This week has been a bit up in the air and I'm not expecting it to go back to normal until next week and with Thanksgiving coming up fast I don't think the calm regularity of life will really return until after the new year. I like my schedule. I'm a routine home-body so I'm making a concentrated effort to roll with the changing plans this holiday season so I can enjoy them rather than resent them.

I did pretty well with my goals over the last three weeks but this week has been a bit of a disaster which tells me that I'm good with time management when I have all my time to myself but I suck at it once other things start encroaching on my typically wide-open evenings. Which I shouldn't use as an excuse but often do. My writing and ASL goals only require half an hour a day each and in reality I can manage that even when my day is busy but it's so easy to just crash and blow an hour playing sudoku or watching Netflix. Pretty sure I got an unofficial degree in procrastinating while in school and I'm currently getting more use out of that than my actual degree.

We've dipped into the 50s this week. I dragged my leggings out of storage yesterday [aka the top shelf of our closet] and I suspect I'll be switching over to my pea coat pretty soon here. Tim turned the heater on last night which means it must be officially cold and while I appreciate not freezing to death at night the dry spot in my throat this morning reminded me how much we need a humidifier. I always manage to forget how much my throat and sinuses hate winter. Bleh.

I've only got a handful of pages left in my current writing notebook and when I bought two last weekend for some other story ideas that ought to be written down by now I considered getting another one for Marked but it's kind of a characteristic of this book that it's thus far been written on a succession of pre-used notebooks [I think the count is up to five] and moving to a brand new one would just feel weird. How's that for a run-on sentence? Have I mentioned that I'm perpetually tired? At any rate, it's really satisfying to see those notebooks stacked together and see how far I've come in this project. I'm started to get my wind back and I'm excited to figure out where this thing will go. I know there's always the realistic probability that this story never gets read by anyone but me. Publishing is a jungle and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to navigate it successfully but I've realized that I don't want that dream in order to become famous or wealthy or whatever. I want my stories out there so people can see my characters and maybe relate to and find enjoyment in their journeys. If a book I wrote were to only connect with one person in the way so many have impacted me it would completely make my life.

Now enjoy this little bird with his paper towel. You probably haven't seen any adorable toddlers in Halloween costumes yet so this might still be the cutest thing you've seen all week.