Somewhere East of Life

I've been managing to keep up with my word count on NaNoWriMo, though only just. There are some days I don't write at all, but then do major sprints on another day. Not the best way to do it, but I've got a cold. I figure I'm allowed.

I've also been having issues with my hemiplegic migraines. Just the other night I had an attack. I hadn't realized at first what was happening. I had come across a word I wanted to use, but couldn't remember how to spell it. Brain fart, I thought at first. But then I knew what word I wanted to use, but couldn't quite figure out how to say it or spell it. I thought to ask my Mom, but then couldn't get the word out. All I could recall is that it started with a C. But I couldn't say the word. I really couldn't. The knowledge just wasn't there. In the end it took me a full 5 minutes to come up with the word "Compensate". O.o

Other than that, I've been sick since Sunday. Started out with the scratchy throat, and now I'm up to headaches and sniffly nose. I think I'm actually getting better, but my head is still killing me. My poor Mom got sick now too, though I don't think she minds much. She'd been planning a trip to a nearby town a couple hours away to do a big meeting for a project she's part of. She really didn't want to go. She kept bemoaning the fact she hadn't got sick yet for days now. LoL. Luckily for her, she woke up feeling awful today. Sore throat, temperature, and all. I think she'll be regretting that by tomorrow though. Be careful what you wish for.

Now, I'm off to get a few words caught up before I set off to have breakfast. With any luck I can pump out a few thousand words. We shall see.

Hope you all had a great weekend, and that your week will go swimmingly. :)

It's been very odd weather here lately. We went from horrid heat wave to drastic drop in temperatures and storms. Not that I mind the cooler weather, quite the contrary actually. It's just the migraines the sudden shift in weather causes me I'm having issues with.



It's these rolling black clouds that always get me. Hail storms are the worst, but any dark clouds will do some damage. The past few days have been a lot of memory problems, slurred speech, exhaustion, blurry vision, dizziness, and of course head pain.

When the storms pass, I'll get around to moving again. Until then, I hope everyone's week has went well for them.

My mother and I had a relaxing weekend. It was a three day weekend for her due to Memorial Day on Monday. I think she rather needed the rest. The closer she gets to retirement means more and more work for her to finish out her projects before she leaves her position. She's rather exhausted.

We've been trying to clean out all of our storage rooms and get rid of furniture we don't need. It's been a long process though as we've both been up and down health wise. We took a break back in December due to us both being sick all the time. We're better now, and with retirement looming on us, we're trying to work as fast as we can to get it done before she retires. That gives us a month.

So, for this week I've got to finish spring cleaning and rearranging the living room. We're considering a move to Wyoming in a year or so, so for now we're also taking this spring clean as a chance to go through everything we own (room by room) and get rid of the excess as we go. I've set a timeline for the end of the week for the living room as my Mom has a co-workers tall son coming in next Saturday to help us short folks change light bulbs, and also help us move in her oversized plants from her office.

Pfft. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I've got some plants and seeds to get in the ground too since the monsoon has moved on.

So, in summary: my week is going to be super busy. Hope you all are going to have a good week!

I'd love to say I had tons of things done by now. Maybe my weeding and planting done or something. I'd have even settled for reorganizing my kitchen.

But no. I'm still suffering headaches. After a week. Hopefully good news on that front soon, though. I've got an appointment to see a dentist on Friday to get rid of an abscess. I'm hoping that's the majority source of my migraines. If not, it'll be back to the drawing board.

I've not got much more of my writing done as I'd wanted to, unfortunately. I've made some notes though, which is about all I've managed to concentrate for any extended period of time.

Meh. Hope everyone else's weekend and upcoming work week is going well for them!

Has this become a yearly update? I tend to journal more in my personal diary more these days. Plus, I'm all over social media. I recently updated my profile if that's of any interest to you. If not, prepare to be spammed. I've got most everything I do these days cross-posting to Twitter, from my various articles to my Polyvore boards. So in light of that I'll be making sure those end up here. I don't ever cross-post my entries to my social media, so that's a relief there at least. I'm sure that you won't ever hear from me much if I don't do it this way. Such is life.

Life as we know it
Speaking of life, it's rather weird right now. I've been doing a lot of writing. Some Harry Potter fan fiction, but mostly my own things. My dreams are, and always have been, very weird. So I'm putting some of them in either book or script format. I'm afraid with my migraines as they are I'm rather home bound at the moment. So I do what I can. I also freelance writing, social media managing, and graphic design for various outfits. I keep busy when I can.

The wonderful world of fangirling
Fandom is an ever evolving thing for me. I'll always love my first true blood fandom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I no longer follow it in any way. I'm still in love with Harry Potter to some degree (if by degree you count obsessively reading fan fiction), and I've even involved my mother in that (whoa nelly!). I don't have cable TV anymore either, and as many do these days I've only got my trusty Netflix. I tend to watch British mysteries these days more than anything (Inspector Lewis, Rosemary & Thyme, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, etc.), and documentaries more than anything. I'm still always up for a weatherpocalypse, ghost haunting, murder mystery, or action thriller (anything with an abnormally high body count and awesome fight scenes).

Retiring and other life events
My mother is retiring soon. I've been helping her renovate her condo to prepare for sale. She's wanting to pack up and move to parts unknown when that happens this summer, though likely won't actually move to another state for another year. She's been carefully examining every state for retiree tax benefits, crime rates, weather, cost of living, and etc to pick the very best state. So far she's got her eye on either northern Nevada or southern Wyoming. I'm sure my sister would have loved it if we moved southeast to be closer to her, but Mom seems to have an aversion to all things racist and Bible Belt. We've taken a look in and around close to her state, but can't seem to find anything that doesn't just make her skin crawl with the idea of sharing breathing space with them. I don't think my Mom ever really did grow out of the 60s, but that's entirely a good thing I think. She was ahead of her time in terms of treating people fairly and equally. Gotta love her.

And so it goes

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll keep far more updated than I have in the past if for no other reason than I've got a new laptop to play with and plenty of free time. Catch up with me on social media if you're out there. I'd love to hear from you all (at least the ones I don't already talk to).

Pretty sure I've got the beginnings of a nasty cold. I woke up early this morning with a nasty cough. Now I've got sniffles and sneezes. I've been sucking on cough drops and drinking my tea with lemon and honey. I've got plans this weekend, so hopefully it passes quickly.

 

Its giving me weird dreams though.

 

Last night's odd dream was a post-apocalyptic survival nightmare (sun kerplosion, no zombies). It played out a bit like Tomb Raider meets Blade Runner. Just woke up from another one that was another post-apocalypse, but this one was animated like a Pixar film meets the Twilight Zone.

 

Best conclusion I've got is my dreams are weird on colds. o.O

I honestly think that laughter is the best way to go. I was lurking on a Twitter conversation with Bruce Campbell ( @groovybruce ) and somebody commented on Spider Man 3 that it was just bad. I thought it was awesome! But then I'm an easy sell. I rather enjoyed Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and I thought the first sequel to Pet Cemetery was a fantastic parody of the first one and laughed the whole way through.

 

I once spectacularly irritated a coworker when I started laughing in the middle of a project that was heading towards disaster quickly. How can you not laugh? The only other option you have is to cry in despair, but I don't cry. Just... Not ever. I dealt with my grandmothers death with anger. I dealt with my first cats death by cleaning everything. I dealt with my divorce by getting a manicure. I just don't cry.

 

I suppose that's why my Mom freaked out so much when I burst out crying during my first serious hemiplegic migraine. I was so frustrated my body wouldn't respond to my requests. I couldn't stop my tears when I demanded they get right back in there. Incidentally, I responded to that by watching a comedy.

 

On a side note, I tear up quite frequently watching Hallmark commercials, Oprah, and movies with sad endings (which is why they're on my Never Watch list). Go figure.

I feel bad for not updating more, but to be honest it's been more a case of lethargy. I have finally been able to put a name to my condition and that is familial hemiplegic migraines. For me, they tend to manifest as vistibular migraines. But that basically means is I get dizzy and confused quite often. Unfortunately they are completely out of control and I'm getting migraines on a daily basis, which is frightening because a serious condition will see people having them one week. What does that say about me?

 

Rethinking life goals

 

There are a few things I have had to rethink in my life. The most obvious is my ability to work. I don't think I will be able to seriously hold a job outside of the home anymore. Which is a really hard thing to face. But given my job skills I don't have this set required to telecommute at any serious level. Which means, I need to go back to school. I will have to re think my degree and change fields completely.

 

In that I am actually hopeful that I have an idea for my future. It is just going to take a helluva lot of time and effort get there, mostly because I have to come up with a way to pay for my schooling while I'm having trouble being able to do any significant amount of work. But I will find off way before, because I am very determined.

 

That's it for now

 

There is more to this thing called my life, that but that is not enough depression for one day. Maybe I can try to update more than once a year. We will just have to see how that goes, right?

Long time no see! I've gotten out of the habit of updating this like I used to. This past year struggling with my ever worsening migraines has been hell. I can't think straight most days. It's gotten better, meaning I'm not blacking out much anymore. But there are still days my brain won't function right.

I'm spending most of my time at home these days. I'm doing a bit of freelance web and graphic work when I can.

Been taking some time to spring clean my life in the off times. My mother and I are consolidating our storage rooms. We've both got years worth of crap from our failed marriages to sort through. We're finally getting around to selling off what we won't use (seriously, there's like five storage rooms worth of stuff we're facing here).

Got around to sorting through old love letters yesterday. Threw away every last one of them. Feels rather good, you know?

As for Christmas coming around, I'm about ready. I'm going Hermione Granger this year and getting academic worthy presents for almost everyone I know. It's a bit unusual for me, but it seemed right this year. I've just got a few more stocking stuffers to get and then I'm done.

Hope everyone of y'all is having a good holiday season so far. Everyone got their shopping done yet?

Back to trying Melatonin. Been trying to do without any sort of sleep aid for awhile now, but ever so often I just can't sleep without something.

Had an odd experience with Half & Half today (if you don't have it where you live, it's a dairy product that's half cream, half milk). I think it was tainted. I opened a fresh bottle and it tasted almost like almonds. Very odd for a milk product. Didn't taste right, so I only drank half and threw the rest of my tea out.

Didn't toss the Half & Half though, because it wasn't sour. Just... off. Thought maybe it was just me, so I asked me Mom to test it tonight, and I got it out and it smelled bitter. Not sour yet, just... a bit like an almond-sweet buttermilk. I ended up pouring it right out. It was really thick like full fat cream.

So, so weird. I reported it to the store I bought it from. Not sure what to think. Tried to Google some reference on the smell, but nothing came up.

Bah. Short update for now. More later. Off to head into the basement so I can attempt to cool down.

Hope everyone else isn't melting where you are!