Cluttered House Cluttered Mind

The title of this post is generally my personal mantra. I like to keep things around the house to a level of OCD clean and organized. But despite my best efforts, sometimes the stuff begins to feel like an episode of Hoarders in the making. I can let it go for a while but at some point I’m going to look at it and get so irritated with its messy presence that I’m going to take care of the issue.

That’s where I’m at today with my office.

When we moved into the house last summer and Matt went back to an in-office position I was able to claim the office as a room solely dedicated to my pursuits. MWAHAHAHA! It’s all mine! Still! So one might think I would take special care of the place and make it somewhere I really want to be so I’d spend as much time as possible writing. But I didn’t fulfill that need and now it’s in a desperate situation.

Because I’m the queen of ‘try just about anything once’ there is so much random shit in here I look around and feel trapped under its weight. And, hello? Can that be good for a Writer who needs to be able to stretch her inside arms in order to let the characters come flooding in? No. The answer you’re looking for is no.

So today is the day when I either finish or file it all. Some stuff may end up in a now empty but still useful Rubbermaid tub and find its way to the garage. I’ll mark it Fall Projects and at some point when I get to this same mental headspace at the end of the year (because yeah, it definitely does happen at least twice a year that I go on an insane purge) I’ll pull it out and either do them or trash them. Well, usually Goodwill is the recipient. I’m not one to toss stuff someone else could get use out of.

But nothing can be done about books being dust collectors on the table top in the corner. Every single one of those should be sold by now. Obviously I’m not taking multiple copies of my book to the Goodwill but maybe it’s time to get my ass into a local bookstore and inquire about stocking my titles. Couldn’t hurt and it would sure free up a lot of space over there for more important things. Like a lot of space.

And maybe a new paint color. Hmm, wonder how Bruins gold would work in here? Once all the crap is out of here I may just give that color a try.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge C is for Clutter

Another Doctor, Another Diagnosis?

Normally when taking part in a blogging challenge where my topic is predetermined I wouldn’t chintz out and use the first word of the title as my day one ‘A’ but today I’m feeling a little less than together and so you’ll have to excuse me. That’s because this morning I went to see another doctor in an effort to alleviate the weird head crap that’s been going on since last November.

For those of you friends who have been around a while you know that back around Thanksgiving sometime I started getting all kinds of weirdness like vertigo type symptoms. I’ve learned to live with it to a point, no longer am I scared straight, but it’s still there and I’m sick of it. So this morning I went and saw another doctor.

And this one gave me another diagnosis. Well, sort of. He essentially reconfirmed what my ENT said last fall, that in his opinion I do in fact have BPPV.

Which I guess means I didn’t really get another diagnosis but the same one I’d had before. The same one that the Vestibular Therapist poo-pooed earlier this year.

So what does that really mean? It means none of them likely have a slight clue what’s what and that I’m back to square one.

The doc I saw today was a neurologist because I’m ready to rule out any other big stuff at this point. But it was your everyday consultation until I started describing when and how my symptoms come on. He immediately honed in on the fact that my body being in motion seems to trigger the wonky feeling most often (walking, forward motion, rolling over in bed, etc.) and agreed with the initial diagnosis.

And then he performed an Epley maneuver. The same thing the NP at the ENT’s office did back in early December last year. Only he did it a little differently and pointed out exactly why he was doing what he did. Doc said if I don’t notice a lack of symptoms by Wednesday to call back & he’ll schedule a head scan.

I have a sneaking feeling I’ll be going in to get that scan.

At any rate I’m no worse off than I was yesterday, except for being out another co-pay, so I’m just trying to stay positive about it all and just keeping my fingers crossed that his new-fangled Epley did the job and I’m fixed.

Because when I get to it two weeks from today I really don’t want my letter ‘M’ to stand for MRI.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge A is for Another

Boop Boop

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I’m long overdue on writing. But at the same time I’m really not. See here’s the thing with Writers, we do write. Then there’s a big drought when we’re out and about promoting, marketing, living life to collect more to write. My issue right now is that I’ve taken WAY too much time to live and collect.

Hence the ‘long overdue to write’ part because the ideas and words are starting to bubble up and I realize space up there is at a premium. It’s time to purge.

So this afternoon I sat down and started working on the sequel to Reckless Abandon. I decided there’s no reason to follow any rules this time. I’m not going to set it up in some type of formula or follow the first one situation-to-situation like many sequels tend to do. I think that’s the issue with a lot of follow-ups and why they don’t live up to the original – too many of them try to be the original when being original would be better.

This next book needs to share a different story. I think I owe it to the readers who loved Shaw & JJ to give this story a little more about their journey. We’ll see how it goes, I’ve got a lot of ideas how it can come together and though it might fall into a completely different genre than the first, that’s okay.

So while I’ve been out living life and collecting, a whole bunch of stuff happened. There was sister weekend

Which ended with us going to see Wicked with my mom (and it was…wicked awesome!).

There was a whole bunch of this

We were all drinkin’ at McSwiggins! Better known as our house when I made boiled dinner on St. Patrick’s Day and we had some friends & family over for a day filled with laughs & getting our Irish on.

Yummy veggies started growing in the garden. We’ve spent some time with the in-laws. Life stuff kind of took over. And it’s been a couple months of the ‘life stuff’ excuse.

Neither of us are going to die if the laundry doesn’t get done for a couple weeks. We’re not going to fall apart if dust builds up for a while. So it’s definitely time to get back to writing again.

I’m even comfortable starting with just these 420 words.