Archives for November 2017

I spent most of yesterday procrastinating like crazy but at least I helped making moussaka, and in the end I wrote 3,900 words which is pretty good. Of course by now I should be at the 20,000 words mark but it is what it is.

The thing that is driving me completely crazy is that I seem to need about two hours of procrastination for every thirty minutes of actual writing. This is getting a little tiresome. But then I might be able to retrain myself.

The thing that has changed, though, is that I’m in better training with the writing. I remember having to write 4,000 words for the first time ever, and afterwards my brain was all limp and numb and powered out. These days I find it a little strenuous but it doesn’t leave me in a heap unable to think straight. There is something to be said for training.

Speaking of training, I decided to go back to running today. I haven’t exercised the past two weeks because of the cold and the laryngitis. Now my voice is still not where I want it to be, and I am slightly sniffly but I’m thinking that I’m feeling well enough for a slow, short run. I have been missing it.

Of course today the weather is cold and wet adn disagreeable. Figures.

There will be quite a bit of teaching today, and the run, and some writing (I hope). I’m also hoping to not leave all the writing until late at night, that’s a really bad habit that I’m trying to break.

Oh, and I finished the body of my Simplicity cardigan. I like it but I’m not sure if it isn’t a little small. There will be quite a bit of blocking, I guess. Sine it’s all stockinette without any edgings it also rolls up like crazy. I’m hoping to start the sleeves today.

For a Saturday yesterday was exceptionally good but on the not so bright side I only wrote 552 words on the novel. I had hoped for something between 5,000 and 10,000 but that just shows how overly optimistic I always am.

I did finish the weekly cleaning in the morning, and then helped to make black beans and rice, and then I sat and crocheted for a bit, and then I did the dishes, and all the while I had the urgent feeling that I should get writing but I didn’t.

It took me until 4 pm to start writing, and the minute I did my husband stormed in and needed my help with a guitar repair crisis. And again. And again.

So I took a shower, and gave myself a pedicure, and ate too much chocolate truffles, and then it was time to meet my husband and the boy because we had planned to watch the Beethoven violin concerto together. The boy had expressed an interest in getting to know more about classical music, and since the violin concerto is pretty important both for my husband and me we thought we’d start there.

It took quite some time, and was a sheer delight, even if the whole concerto was a bit too much in one go for the poor boy. And he got a ton of information about music theory and history, and the orchestra, and how to play violin, and what things are hard to play and which aren’t, and about famous violins and such. On the other hand he is quite used to it, and we try to not just heap everything on regardless of him being interested or not.

Afterwards the boy and I had a delicious dinner of potato chips in front of TV, and then I decided I really needed to get going on the novel. I managed to get another 500 words in, and then the boy showed up, eager to talk about music. Which lead to us talking about music, and history, and people, and just about everything until it was almost midnight.

So that was it with writing. I barely managed to brush my teeth before falling into bed. I did get excellent sleep but was wide awake at 6.30, oomph.

So today will be interesting. On my to do-list there is: write!, and practice. Nothing else. And no pressure, I will get as many words done as I will get done. But I need to stop making the writing into this big, fat, scary thing. Every time I just sit down and write something, even if I don’t feel like it, I’m fine. Procrastination costs way more energy.

But it’s just so familiar and cozy!

Fridays are always pretty packed around here these days. It’s when I teach more students than any other day of the week, and I usually try to clean the house a little before the weekend, and every other week I make pizza from scratch on top of it.

Also I’m still not quite recovered from laryngitis. Can’t sing, and shouldn’t talk much which makes teaching rather interesting.

I did manage to cut my husband’s hair which had been overdue for quite some time now, and then I spent some time talking with my mother-in-law. She is still feeling a little shaken, and so we try to look after her once or twice per day.

Which meant that I didn’t manage to do all the cleaning. And since my teaching schedule changed, and I am now teaching right up until dinnertime on Fridays I couldn’t make up for it in the evening.

They boy and I watched an excellent episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” after dinner. First episode with Lt. Barclay for those of you who are interested. We finished early because my husband wanted to watch the Germany vs. England soccer game.

Then I returned to the kitchen to a huge sink full of dishes and pizza-making stuff. With the pizza-making for lunch, and the non-stop teaching I hadn’t had time to do the dishes after lunch, and so I had to do them at a time when all I wanted was go to bed.

And then I was really angry at myself for not writing a single word all day. I wrote my evening NaNoWriMo blog post, and then I sat down and wrote for half an hour, starting the new novel because I just couldn’t stand it anymore. Seems like I did 1,500 words. Which is great.

I did go to bed a little late, though. Am yawning as I type this.

Today I will try to finish cleaning, give myself a pedicure, write all the words in the world, and maybe spin a little since I am missing out on spinning meeting. Better to stay at home to rest my voice a bit more.

But I started the novel! (::grins::)

Yesterday was another day full of stuff I didn’t really plan for. Since I had only very few students, and nothing else planned I thought I could work on the novel for a few hours. Yeah, right.

In the morning I got the lab results from my doctor visit, and then I spent quite some time on the internet trying to make sense of them. The good news is that I’m not anemic and don’t have a vitamin deficiency, and that I’m mostly functioning within normal parameters. There is one thing off, though. It would point to Graves’ disease, only that usually goes with hyperthyroidism, and I have none of the symptoms of that. At lunchtime I realized that the doctor putting „sleep troubles“, and „big weight loss“ into her report means that it really does look like Graves’ disease. Only that weight didn’t just fall off, I had to work very hard for a long time (and right now it’s creeping back up), and I don’t have trouble sleeping at all. I’m just all tired all the time. And cold. I’m sitting here wearing long johns and yoga pants, and wool socks, and a fleece jacket that’s meant to be worn outdoors in a cozy warm kitchen and I’m still feeling cold.

So I might have Hasimoto’s. Or something else. I’m not a doctor after all, I’m just someone who reads a lot and knows how to use google. (Though I have to say I was about to explain to my husband how the thyroid works, and what all those hormones and antibodies did while he was making lunch, and had to realize that I might have read a little more on the topic than most people.)

Since I spent so much time on that (I also researched sleep apnea, and no, I still don’t think I have it) I did not spend enough time on the novel. But I’m making progress. It might be tomorrow until I start the actual writing, though. Hmpf.

Today will be extra busy. There’s the weekly cleaning (which is even more important today because I was feeling too sick last week to do it), and the making of the pizza, and the teaching of all.the.students, and the cutting of my husband’s hair. I’ll flop down in front of a TV show tonight and not do anything.

Also I keep forgetting that I’m still not at a hundred percent. My laryngitis is better but not gone completely. So I better scale back a little.

So I went to the doctor, and I’m happy to say that she took me seriously. Not that she thought my fatigue could be due to thyroid issues but she listenend and made notes, and seemed rather competent.

The first thing she suggested was doing a kind of sleep test to see if I have sleep apnea. Now I don’t think that’s the case, but it could be, and so I have an appointment for December to receive a sleep-measuring-apparatus (as you can see I have no idea about it), which I will take home to measure my sleep for a night, then I’ll bring it back the next day, and a few weeks later an ENT will tell me if I have sleep apnea. Which in a way would be good because it’s pretty easy to fix. (I’m pretty sure I don’t have sleep apnea but it doesn’t hurt to test for it.)

Then she looked at my thyroid, and that’s where things got interesting. See, I’ve complained about possible thyroid problems for ages, and this time she did an ultrasound and said, „So you know about the nodules?“ Nodules? Which nodules?

There are nodules in my thyroid. Pretty big ones that have developed since 2011. So it’s a very good thing that I had my thyroid checked, I guess.

I have another appointment at the end of November to look a bit closer, and will get the lab results of today’s blood draw some time tomorrow.

The good thing is that thyroid surgery (if I happen to need it) is fairly common and routine.

Of course that made my head swirl for most of the day so there wasn’t much happening besides that and teaching.

I went to bed rather early to read to rest and get some sleep.

No writing.

Today there will be minimum teaching, a lot of writing – I hope – the making of the pizza dough, and another early night. I’m just such a party animal.

My voice is slowly starting to come back. I did quite a bit of talking yesterday while teaching, and it doesn’t seem to have done any more harm. I should keep quieter so that I can heal faster but I have missed talking so much. My poor suffering husband had to listen to me for about an hour after he had just stopped teaching for the day, and wanted nothing but calm and no people.

I did my errands yesterday, and some housework, and then my mother-in-law came home from the hospital. She is well, there is nothing major wrong, just her blood pressure is mostly too high and is hard to get adjusted with medication. We’re all hoping that she won’t fall again. The only thing she can do is be more aware of how she feels and act accordingly. Which seems to be pretty hard for her. I guess her generation was taught to not listen to their bodies if they didn’t absolutely have to. Mind over matter and all that.

So with all of the other stuff I didn’t get quite as much done on the novel as I had hoped but I am rather happy to say that I at least wrote down everything I know so far about the story, and I decided to count those words against my NaNo-goal. So that’s a start.

What I would like to have is a day or two where I idly jot down everything else I need but the next day off I have will be Sunday, and so I have to try and use every minute I have.

I went to bed on time but didn’t sleep well because of today’s doctor’s visit. Which is silly. Thanks for your comments on my worries, I was so busy that I didn’t answer them, sorry. I have now decided to not write anything down, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I have to say that I don’t have high hopes for the visit. It would be a different matter if I could see the doctor who already knows me, but this way I am expecting to get a few more appointments for getting blood drawn and such, and then they will say that everything is fine. Which it isn’t.

If that happens I’ll ask around to get a recommendation for an endocrinologist. It’’s too bad that the one the boy and I saw for his thyroid only treats children. I really liked  him, and had a nice rapport with him. I have been thinking about calling his office to get a recommendation for someone treating adults. They must have someone on file because their patients grow out of their services on a regular basis.

So today I go to the doctor, try to focus and work on the novel a bit beforehand, go to the health food store in the town where the doctor is afterwards, then come home in time for lunch (I hope), then make use of the time before I have to teach, teach four students, work on the novel some more, and then go to bed early.

Last night I was so engrossed in „Victorian Secrets“ (affiliate link) that I almost turned the lights out too late. Fascinating book.

At least there will be time to read on the train, and in the waiting room today.