At all.
Going to bed on time was good, as was sleeping well but then I skipped my morning routine and spent the rest of the day reading and trying to get started on things.
I actually did get quite a few things done in the morning, went to the doctor’s office to renew a prescription then bought yogurt in one shop, vitamins and vegetarian white sausage in another and went to the health food store as well.
The weather was super hot and I was happy to be back indoors after that.
Deciding what to eat for lunch was a group effort this time, the boy complained about there being too many plain potatoes (my husband bought the new ones the week before and they are delicious). Husband had also bought a smoked trout at the lake the day before. The boy then was inspired by the picture on his vegetarian ersatz-cutlet and we had fish with potato salad. Which is perfect on a hot day because it’s all cold:
Then I sat and took a break, sat and waited for the boy to show up, waited for the boy to be finished with lunch and then waited until I was ready to figure out what to do next. Spoiler: I never figured it out.
I thought I had two students that day starting at 6. I managed to tackle the dishes around 4.30. I must have spent three hours playing solitaire and lots and lots of time reading „Divinity 36“. That book is so good, I’ve already read it but I was sitting there thinking, just a bit more, just one page, basically until after midnight.
I watched a bit of the „Publishing 101“-course. Around 5.30 I finally figured out that I had misunderstood a student’s text and that it didn’t say, „If I don’t text you again I’ll come back next week,“ but instead, „I won’t come in for several weeks for sure.“ Who knew? I mean, I didn’t.
Determined to finally tackle the harder stuff I retreated to my studio for a change of scenery and opened the HSK 2 textbooks. That don’t contain the answers to the practice questions. But, internet to the rescue.
I did a couple of questions, found that I am very, very bad at the listening ones and was briefly convinced that I don’t know Chinese at all. Then realized that all Duolingo ever gives me is listening together with writing in a very predictable computer voice or the exact same sentences I have heard a thousand times before. (Which reminds me that I should go back to the TrainChinese-app, they have native speakers recorded on the street which is very good practice but also very hard for me.)
And then I tried writing down a list of publishing tasks. And didn’t know where to start and what to use. I don’t want to use my notebook because I’ll need that more often than once (I hope). I would use Excel but I don’t have that on my iPad and I find Google Sheets slightly off-putting for some reason.
I opened a Notion-template I have called „Author Central“, took a look at all the tasks that are so different from what I need, briefly tried to figure out how to delete a task and gave up.
By the way, this morning I was going on and on again about that list, thought to myself, „Well, I started doing that list a while ago, didn’t I?“ opened the PDF on my iPad and executed a literal facepalm because, there it is. The list that I need. The only thing missing is author bio and photo.
Sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself. But it’s no wonder that I resisted making that list so hard. I had already done it. In 2021, by the way. Because there is a column for a „NaNo 2021“-project. Duh.
There is definitely something to be said for moving through projects faster than this. For one you won’t forget everything you did before.
My second student then canceled because they suspect they might have covid which I really appreciate. I had eaten dinner before six already, then procrastinated a bit longer in my studio getting irritated by my husband walking back and forth in front of my studio door and the fact I couldn’t keep it open. That studio is so hot and stifling in the summer, it’s no fun.
I went back to the kitchen and realized I had forgotten all about bodyweight training. I almost decided to skip but then just gave myself permission to do a short 20-minute session.
Then I sat down trying to get myself over to the living room for watching C-drama, finally gave up, went to bed with a book and turned the lights out at 12.30 or so.
I mean, I did finish „Divinity 36“ and am already halfway through book 2 („Demigod 12“) at this point. I guess I won’t be good for anything until I finished the whole trilogy…