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busy silence
friday, november 14, 2014
this year has had the same number of hours as any other, and yet somehow i'm getting a whole lot less done.
anyway, to keep with the theme of the last entry, yes, i'm still alive. there's been a lot going on that i can't talk about, and that's probably for the best. while i'm disappointed in the events in question in general, all ended well. not sure they were the wake up call i hoped for, but we'll see.
i have been figuring out bits of things to get stuff in: i make sure to get 500 words in (after workout, sometimes after dinner and dishes, but always before anything else), i've trimmed my workout time, we rotate cleaning so it's not all on one day. still can't seem to keep up with everything. i did finally relegate the time suck of tumblr to after reading before sleeping. i can get lost in that monster, and i don't even do that much when playing there. really hoping i can get a better handle on life stuff in the new year while keeping up with the writing stuff, but it's all looking like more of the same right now.
i do have an idea for the new whysper layout. the problem is, of course, finding the time to put it together. *sighs*
so, writing, the one thing that seems to be getting better. both assassin's and charms are with agents: one is under a full request. i've had to set aside tirs (the sequel to charms) for the moment: it needs a complete overhaul to work in some subplots. it's a lot of work for a book that has a prequel that needs to be picked up first. i'll finish the current round of revisions on quest then set it aside until assassin's has a home. a third book has also been put on the back burner as well until i can sort out the ending (why it takes me so long to figure this crap out, i have no idea: i'm trying to work faster, but the plotting portion of it never seems to get shorter). in the meantime, i'm finally working on chosen, a book i've had in my head for nearly two decades, and a new idea that will revamp an old horror idea and make it more urban. yes, i write vampires, but i honestly don't write true horror and have never really been interested in doing so. it's actually a little frustrating. okay, maybe more than a little, but i get a whole lot more frustrated when i don't write, so, here i am.
i'm still working out, focusing on strength and muscle right now, so not a whole lot of losing going on. but i'm also back off my bp meds again--haven't been able to afford the office visit co-pay to get the doctor to refill them. and it may get worse before it gets better on that front. our current humana plan, with the aca help, is 7.20 a month. next year, it jumps to $192, and that is sooo unaffordable. what happens next will depend on what i find on saturday. if we can't find something affordable, and we can't opt out, we may just have to take the hit on our tax bill in 2016 and go without insurance next year. this is bad in a whole lot of ways, but may be unavoidable. and considering the election, it may just be what happens anyway. we'll just have to see.
i am getting healthier: my bp didn't bounce up as high as i expected when i went off the meds. the weight is lower, if only a little bit, the body is stronger and getting a little leaner. i've actually had very little illness this year, which is amazing to me. some things are the same: still have bad knees, achy joints, and in the right weather, asthma. but other than that, i'm definitely in a better place. it's been a rough year with the menopause plateau killing any weight loss, but i'm about halfway and not giving up.
the biggest event of the last two months: saxy's mum coming out to visit. she arrived last thursday and went home tuesday, and it was busy and fun in between. wednesday and early thursday were spent cleaning up (including spraying...again). thursday, we went to pick her up (including youngest, who has moved out--more on that later) and had dinner at el taco. friday, she spent the afternoon here and met the great grandbabies for the first time. we had a steak and lobster dinner cooked by saxy. saturday, hubs and boyo went off with her to the coca-cola museum, then they came by and picked me up for a dinner at cracker barrel. sunday was an all day family affair with small plates through the evening and watching maleficent (well, most of them got to; i only saw parts, and saxy didn't see much if any at all). monday, saxy and mom went to the gone with the wind museum, and we all went to see intersteller (good movie!) and had a light mediterranean meal. we really enjoyed having her here, and i hope both she and his dad make another visit soon.
her timing to leave couldn't have been more perfect: a cold front has brought temps waaaay down. which also makes it good that gambit, who disappeared the monday before the visit, made a reappearance. it's freakin' cold out there! and for the next time he slips out, he now has a collar (courtesy of grandma) with his name and my phone number on it. it's quite possible we'll get a call asking why we put a collar on someone else's cat, but if they weren't worried about him getting picked up by the pound or getting lost and no way to tell where his home is, then who really should care for him. i mean, he was with us for four months before this disappearance. if my cat was gone all that time then came back, i'd collar him in case he disappeared again. we're working on keeping his disappearing butt in the house.
meanwhile, in a case of bad timing, youngest has decided this town isn't any use to her, and she's not patient enough to finish working on her g.e.d. she's decided to try to make her way in downtown atlanta and try to find an internship at a tattoo place. which would be fine if her plan wasn't to stay in a hotel or "on the street, if necessary" while she looks for work and this tattoo place. i tried to convince her to wait until winter was over (which is supposed to be longer and colder this year than last year...and is already well on its way to being just that), but no dice. but she's an adult, so all i can do is worry and hope she doesn't get hurt or freeze to death.
speaking of the cold, it's wrecking havoc on my eating. that cold weather munchie thing was fine in the last chill, but with this one...yeouch. and it's apparently just starting to trigger my asthma a bit. need to stock up on my stash teas to help with both.
having the mum in law out tapped us out, so we're probably not doing much of anything for thanksgiving this year. we are planning our christmas dinner, but it will probably be a bit scaled down to make it more affordable. middle girl has moved in with her bf and has plans to be down here, but from the convo i had with oldest, her family won't be. youngest plans to be here, but it'll depend a lot on her circumstances at the time. hub's will be looking for a second job to give him two or three morning shifts to make up for the shifts he lost. that along with his raise should help get us, if not totally on our feet, at least in some kind of manageable balance, at least once this winter is over (even though i'm trying to keep the heat down, i'm still expecting some nasty heating bills). what would really help is getting rid of the damn car payment, but that's 2 or so years away.
still, other than a little financial wobbling, we're managing, and the last couple of months, while busy, and other than the one major bump i can't really talk about, have been good.
still, really hoping next year is better than this one. i could really use a good year right about now.
word of the moment: cauline
growing on a stem especially on the upper part of a stem ("Cauline leaves"); producing a well-developed stem above ground
