Thinking in Broken English and other stories

After a full four weeks of intensity, including an extended visit from the niece and nephews we hardly ever get to see, two family medical emergencies, a detail-critique that involves hunting down subtleties that are awfully hard to spot in the dozenth draft of a book, one week of being sick, a lot of insomniac nights, and... and I think that might be it, unless you count the near-constant rain... anyway, this week I'm having trouble forming complete sentences.

Yesterday, it hurt to concentrate on anything. In the half hour I had at the computer for revisions, I stared at one bulky sentence and considered throwing a tearful tantrum in frustration, as I couldn't figure out any way to divide it.

Fortunately, all I really had to do yesterday was ride in the car down to Bremerton, smile and spend time with family, and ride back. I brought a scene print-out to work on revising, notes for future blog-posts, and two novels on my Kindle. In six hours in the car, I read through the scene once and spent the rest of the time staring at the scenery, letting my mind settle.

As for the family visit, it was honestly very fun, and I only fell asleep in the rocking chair once. I think.

It all helped somewhat. Today, if I get a blog-post up and the house clean and dinner made, I'll count that as success. If I get half an hour at the piano, trying not to lose the finger flexibility I've gained in three months of practice, I'll count that as success covered in glory. If I get anything done on my book... no, no, I'm not even going to hope. It's there and waiting, if my mind wakes up and reaches for it.

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All right, I have never been a wild fan of the yarn bombing deal, but this bit of recent Bellingham fun is made of oh-so-much awesome:

Photo and yarn-bomb R2D2 by Sarah Rudder, whom I've actually met, and can therefore tell you that she's as awesome as her knitting. :)

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Since you've been moderately shortchanged on posts this month, and since I happened across these the other day: here's some desperately cute evidence of how a cautious human acquires a Resident Destroyer of Worlds. Destroyers start off life as pure adorable:

Click to expand, if your heart didn't immediately go all squishy with delight. Or if it did, and thereby set you yearning for a bigger picture.

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Writers' link of the week: In sympathy with all ye busy and ye stressed, here are two excellent reminders that it's OK to not do everything: Rachelle Gardner on recognizing your limits, and Nathan Bransford on a reasonable fear of noise.

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Music of the week: When I'm happy and I know it, I play techno or rock, but when I'm stressed—there are a whole range of options. Gregorian chant, some of the more soothing Romantic or Classical-era pieces, quiet piano and/or violin-based works, and any of the Celtic songstresses. I can't recall whether I've ever linked Enya—most of the time, I avoid the stuff that gets played on the radio—but she's a favorite, and here's one of my favorites of hers.



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Random amusement of the week: Hey, Christian Girl, based on the supremely awful and awkward Hey, Girl meme that's mostly centered around cheesy pictures of Ryan Gosling. (It is Ryan Gosling, right? OK, I seriously just had to Google that.)

So, some of these: AHAHAHA. I was quite the stereotypical Christian girl growing up—homeschooled and everything, unfortunately including backward—and my responses to this range from laughter at the occasional perfect imitations of the mindset to “strange... that one's almost appealing” to “yipes, man-as-sex-object photos mashed up with comments about modesty—this is a bit too ironic”, and back to AHAHAHA. Have fun.

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Blog-post done, dinner in the crock-pot... now if I can get the house clean...

Happy weekend!