Monday was a floater holiday for me. I take this one every year in the hopes that I will get some writing done on whatever I'm working on for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I also had some errands to do. I visited a friend to get my documents sorted for my passport (again). Yeah, an unfortunate moment, where a signature box was missed, had me have to resend part of the application. I was quite embarrassed about this. I'm so very thankful I have awesome friends. If you're into house music and such, check out DJ Little Fever on Twitch because he's an awesome human I've known for 25 years. Yeah, we had to do the math. He also does irl gigs. After my errands, I tried to write, but I was falling asleep, so I headed for a nap. I've been a bit tired since I updated my vaccines and then injured myself. Unfortunately, late Monday evening I learned about a scandal involving NaNoWriMo and children, so I have since deleted my account. Several other friends have as well.
Tuesday morning was early morning physio. I wasn't healed enough to play, so I shadowed at GSL Curling to continue learning what I could. I took some notes along the way and learned a bit more about shots that make sense. My feet and hands were quite cold from the inactivity. The rest of me was OK because early on I went back for my winter coat. The rink is usually around +4 Celsius, but it gets chilly when we're learning as play stops often to explain things. My peers got to playing the two-end game sooner, which is good because the later we're on the ice, the more tired and accident prone we are and the trainers recognized that after last week.
On Wednesday, I was let out of a weekly meeting I've had since 2018. It'll be a bit odd to not have it after having it for so long, but given that I need to sleep in a bit for two curling seasons since GSL goes so late, this will be a good change.
Something that I've noticed since I quit NaNoWriMo? I'm writing more. And I'm spending more time to properly tell each story in my anthology because I don't have a ridiculous deadline that I haven't been able to meet since 2014. For me, I don't think it was ever the best thing. When one is spending so much time just trying to bang out any words, the amount of editing to fix it later is tremendous. I think it's far better for me to have a regular daily word goal that is achievable. My days are often too busy to get 2000 words into a project, but that doesn't mean I can't aim for 500. Five hundred daily words adds up to 182,500 on a regular year and 183,000 on a leap year. That's two novels and a full length screenplay, which is pretty good while working full time and enjoying activities, friends, and family.
I made a tough choice this week. That was to reduce how much time I spend in one friend's Twitch channel. I figured out I was spending at least 13 hours a week between their channel and other events related to it. I sincerely love them, but I need time to achieve my own goals. I now have 3-6 hours penciled into my calendar and they depend on what other activity is happening. It feels much more reasonable and healthy. I need to remind myself that it's good to have whitespace in my calendar!
Don't ask how much time I spend watching reels of cute doggos, baby animals, or sharks. I have no idea. It's probably a lot. I do that instead of doom scrolling as I find it a lot more mentally healthy. It's a good dopamine boost too ;)
A week into my ADHD meds and I'm definitely experiencing the appetite loss. I'd be worried about it, but it's not as if I don't have a few pounds to spare. I'm finding the easiest thing to do is to have some reasonably healthy easy meals around like a high fibre cereal, whole grain English muffins, hummus, canned soups, Kind bars, tortilla chips, hard-boiled eggs, and salsa. Anyway, eating has been a struggle since starting the meds for sure. I've read the appetite loss will reduce once I've been on it for a month. I haven't figured out if the dosage is right or not. I'd definitely be getting a lot more done if I wasn't injured, so maybe?
Physio is going well, but I miss curling so much. I get to try throwing some stones at GSL on Tuesday. I hope I will be ready. I have physio that morning, so I'll have a better idea then. I probably shouldn't play in the last RR game of this round to be sure I'm good for the rest of the season, but it all depends how I feel.
I sorted my passport stuff out on Wednesday before my Twitch stream. I'm surprised I like the Barbarian class in Diablo IV as much as I am. I think it's because I die so much less often. I may yet complete the game now that I've finally chosen a class. I'm still testing out the sorcerer since I had gear lying around for it in my stash.
Thursday was a gauntlet of a day at work. I had meetings all morning. But I also got all my projects moving thanks to a helpful colleague, so that was good. In the evening I visited my friends again as I had forgotten something at their house. I haven't done that kind of thing in a while. I finally got to give her birthday gift to her. I also got to spend some quality time with their kiddos.
On Friday, I learned that I am getting my first Twitch payout! I'm so happy about this. Also, I had very little pain left and my muscles were quite a bit stronger. On Tuesday, I was scared to touch a rock at all, but by Friday I felt like I will be ready to throw on the 21st. Sweeping may need a bit more, but I'm not sure.
Saturday was a rare, completely unbooked day for me. I thought about getting my hair cut after playing some Minecraft, but I decided I can go a bit longer. It's getting too long to spike, but it's not really the weather for that anymore anyway. I moved some small shelving units around, which may have been a dumb idea because my shoulder hurt after, but it wasn't the muscle that I hurt. Hopefully, it's just from lack of use. I can't really convey how annoying it is to finally have the energy and focus to get all my stuff in order at home and then not be physically able to because of an injury. I guess I can make some step-by-step lists for later though. I retrieved some packages and did groceries before gaming with friends.
Sunday, I watched my team curl without me. The game was close at moments. I n case it wasn't clear in the rest of this blog post, I want to get back to it so badly! Hopefully, I'll be able to this coming week, but the physiotherapist had said it's often 4-6 weeks. A lot of people don't actually do the exercises and I have been, so I'm hoping that makes a difference.