Recovery Time

Real Life Pokémon Hunting at the Hubby’s Office

After several weeks of being on-edge, running close to non-stop…

I am stopping.

Not permanently, not even for a whole day even, I am stopping… for a time.

So… sorry, but no trite commentary, nothing profound, no lovely pictures (okay, so one–I HAD to try out my new phone!).  Today and yesterday were days to stop and reassess the state of things.  And to recover after far too much… stuff.

It was a good time to stop.  I made my CampNaNo wordcount goal on Friday, while having a mini-write-in with my Syster-for-Years, Shan Jeniah, before going to see the new Star Trek movie as part of her birthday celebration.

It was also the last day for my husband at a job he’d had for the past 16 years.

As a measure of change, this weekend seemed the ideal period to consider things and to note with some personal change too.

Row80 Check-in & Assessment

I haven’t anything much to say here either.  As far as goals go, this week was pretty much a bust.  I don’t even remember what I did most of the week now…  All is a blur of busy and do-this, do-that, go-here, go-there, answer-this, reply-to-that, return-X, buy-Y…

So…  I don’t really have much to say here today.

• CRAFT
  • Goal: spend ~three hours a week delving into writing craft related learning
  • Progress: I… don’t know.  I really don’t know anymore.
  • Goal: Hand-write new words daily! (the Five Sentences thingie)
  • Progress:  I can say I’ve most succeeded on this goal, especially thanks to the wonderful gift my husband bought me (a Galaxy Note 5) because we’d thought my old phone had died.
  • Goal: typing two pages a day of old notebooks into the computer
  • Progress:  umm, I did some today, and I think I did a few days before Wednesday
• SOCIAL
  • Goal: maintain local critique group submission of excerpts and critiques during non-NaNoWriMo months
  • Progress: thankfully we were still in “Camp” and I didn’t have to submit anything.  I still owe one critique
  • Goal: return to regular posting in the WIPpet and WeWriWa blog hops
  • Progress: I did a WIPpet, but no action on the WeWriWa crew; actually I suspect I need to delay that part of this goal another month, as August is when I’ll be offline out in the woods doing some real camping
  • Goal: sponsor duties for the ROW80 twice a week
  • Progress: on track, amazingly enough (except for that sponsor post!)
• PERSONAL
  • Goal: Explore my creative side daily
  • Progress: I did have some doodling time Thursday–trying to figure out why all my faces look like corpses
  • Goal: Daily languages (except Sundays)
  • Progress: on track
  • Goal: daily exercise amounting to a minimum of 30 minutes a day
  • Progress: I made time for this; it kept me sane
• Temporary! Goal: write and submit my sponsor post
• Progress: Hahahahahahaha…  ouch.  I shouldn’t laugh like a madwoman.  It hurts the head. 

That’s all to it.  Hopefully, I’ll have some real news on Wednesday.  At the very least, I will have another snippet of my most recent work in progress for your reading pleasure.

Rally the Troops

Though it is a day late, here I come,armed with my Powerful Platoons of Pidgeies, my Wary Weedle Warriors, and my Raging Ranks of Rattatas to… present you with another WIPpet and ROW80 check-in. It’s Wednes–Thursday after all.

First off, the WIPpet

Breaking from the tradition of recent posts, I’m taking something from my Swan Song Series today as opposed to the Unnamed Story.   Alanii has his very first command as a member of the Royal Guard, intended as a bit of a cake run to get him used to things…

We have thirteen sentences here today, close to NaNoWriMo raw (I corrected any obvious spelling errors, but not much else..  sorry).

Alanii shook his head. “I’m fine, Maurush. Simply thinking about what we’ll find when…” He stopped speaking when all around him the men flinched. At first he could think of nothing to say in place of his grim thoughts, then he sighed. “We’ll find what we find, I guess. W will greet them with appreciation and honor… and carry them home as best we can. And for those who cannot return, we will sing their names to the night skies until the stars ring with their praises.”

Those who marched around him seemed to brace themselves, standing a little taller in their saddles. Heads that had begun to hang low only moments ago were now erect and eager. Though Alanii had not realized or known what he’d done, he was glad he’d done it.

Next to him, Jkesri nodded, adding in an en soto voice, “Well done, sir. Thank you.”

Now with EXTRA sugar

If you enjoyed that, why not head  head over to the WIPpet linky and visit some our other awesome members for variety and fun.  An extra helping of sugar-coated Sugar Puffs (now with extra sugar) to Emily Witt for her willingness to keep this bloghop going week after week.

Next, we have a…

ROW80 Quickie

Except for sleep (and that sponsor post), I’m on track.  I even took the chance to indulge myself last night by getting to bed before midnight.  Of course, it was one of those hot sticky nights that made the sheets feel like I should wring them out before sleeping, so…  I might have been better off staying up and writing.  I might not have…

Slowly I am finding my way through all the chaos of my commitments.   Over-scheduling is…  I need to work on the fine art of knowing my limits.  I still don’t have a good eye for that yet.  I am working on it.

Change of Tempo

After an insanely busy week, this evening, instead of going to my weekly writer’s group for some wordsprints and socializing, the Hubby and the Boodle and I headed over to Scotia to see a concert.  One of the Hubby’s friends was performing.

The Hubby took this shot with his Note5 (I tried with my iPhone4, but… no.)

Toward the end of the show we had a lovely evening and a pretty sunset.  I wish the phone pictures did it justice:

People hard started leaving-we thought it was because the mosquitoes were fierce

Testing out the camera on my husband’s Note5… since he bought me one to replace my broken iPhone

Row80 Check-in & Assessment

This week could have gone better.  It could have gone worse as well.  Not really complaining, just tired.   And Thursday?  I could have done without the nine-hour wait for car repairs with a bored ten year-old.  We broke the time up some, walking (in the icky, nasty heat along Central Ave in Schenectady) to go to the nearest McDonald’s… also the nearest spot to eat, though just a bit further was a Panera, and had I known how long the wait would be better food would have been chosen.  And we did play some Pokémon Go, but really…  the day was a bit pile of stress, phone tag with a phone that had no volume controls anymore, and a huge repair bill for what should have been an oil change and a safety recall.

If anyone asks about my feelings on our car….

Other than that, no real complaints.  I need a bit more sleep, so… off to do that next.  Looking forward to another busy on next week as the Hubby finishes his transition to his new job.

• CRAFT
  • Goal: spend ~three hours a week delving into writing craft related learning
  • Progress: HA! Ha!  *sad face*
  • Goal: Hand-write new words daily! (the Five Sentences thingie)
  • Progress: almost no; most of my handwriting has been taking notes lately
  • Goal: typing two pages a day of old notebooks into the computer
  • Progress: on track, barely
• SOCIAL
  • Goal: maintain local critique group submission of excerpts and critiques during non-NaNoWriMo months
  • Progress:  actually submitted two of the critiques I owe; now I only need one more
  • Goal: return to regular posting in the WIPpet and WeWriWa blog hops
  • Progress: WIPpet, yes; WeWriWa, no
  • Goal: sponsor duties for the ROW80 twice a week
  • Progress: on track
• PERSONAL
  • Goal: Explore my creative side daily
  • Progress: nada, nothing, zip *sad face*
  • Goal: Daily languages (except Sundays)
  • Progress:  Thursday became my Sunday this week because life got so crazy, but on tack otherwise
  • Goal: daily exercise amounting to a minimum of 30 minutes a day
  • Progress: with Pokémon Go and swimming in the pool (either one or the other sometimes both—I am exceeding this goal; it’s about the only “rest” time I’ve had lately
• Temporary! Goal: write and submit my sponsor post
• Progress:  ANOTHER rough draft…  not winning any awards

After the concert was over and we’d begun to head off in search of Pokémon, we saw  fireworks on the other side of the road near the Glen Sanders Mansion.  I only had my (overheating) iPhone 4 with me, so I didn’t get many great shots.  But this one came out wonderfully IMHO:

It almost looks like the streetlamp is exploding