Early Bird Special
Mar. 6th, 2014 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeSo for two weeks in a row I've left home early in order to avoid rush hour when I get to Ottawa, and it's working out well. Aside from the fact that I don't get to spend as much time at home as I'd like, it has allowed me to arrive here not feeling rushed and stressed, which is great.
Previously I'd spend a little under two hours getting to Ottawa, and then another hour stuck in traffic. Factor in another hour or so for errands, and I'd be getting in at about 19:00-19:30. My landlord would inevitably be home at that time, which meant I had to make small talk and be polite and sociable when I would rather gnaw off my own arm to escape. Afterward, I'd have just enough time to unpack, grab a hastily improvised dinner, and try to be in bed by 20:00. I'd be exhausted and stressed from all the driving and frustrated by the traffic, and on a bad night I wouldn't be able to sleep right away, resulting in a short night of bad sleep. When you have to get up 03:50, getting a solid eight hours in is kind of a big deal, especially if the rest of your life involves getting broken and insufficient sleep.
So, anyway, last Tuesday and today I left around noon instead of 15:30, and here it is 16:30 and I'm all unpacked, dinner is in the oven, and no one will be home for at least another 20 minutes, so I have time to refill my introvert batteries a little bit before being forced to be sociable. I'd rather not talk to the landlords at all today, but at least having quiet time and not being forced to unpack my groceries while they watch me is a start.
The plan is to have dinner quite early, so hopefully I'll be able to go hide in my room before my landlords even get home. Then I'm going to settle in to do some writing. With any luck, words will actually happen. I haven't managed to get any fiction written since last Thursday, so it would be nice to get something written, even if it turns out to be utter shit. My writing has always been about momentum. If I keep going, the writing gets better. The minute I stop for even a day, I get bogged down. The process gets laborious and the words stop flowing the way I want. So, yeah, a week of not writing? Not good. I need to try to nip this in the bud before I end up not writing for months again.
All righty. The timer has beeped. Time for food. See you on the flip side, LJ!
Previously I'd spend a little under two hours getting to Ottawa, and then another hour stuck in traffic. Factor in another hour or so for errands, and I'd be getting in at about 19:00-19:30. My landlord would inevitably be home at that time, which meant I had to make small talk and be polite and sociable when I would rather gnaw off my own arm to escape. Afterward, I'd have just enough time to unpack, grab a hastily improvised dinner, and try to be in bed by 20:00. I'd be exhausted and stressed from all the driving and frustrated by the traffic, and on a bad night I wouldn't be able to sleep right away, resulting in a short night of bad sleep. When you have to get up 03:50, getting a solid eight hours in is kind of a big deal, especially if the rest of your life involves getting broken and insufficient sleep.
So, anyway, last Tuesday and today I left around noon instead of 15:30, and here it is 16:30 and I'm all unpacked, dinner is in the oven, and no one will be home for at least another 20 minutes, so I have time to refill my introvert batteries a little bit before being forced to be sociable. I'd rather not talk to the landlords at all today, but at least having quiet time and not being forced to unpack my groceries while they watch me is a start.
The plan is to have dinner quite early, so hopefully I'll be able to go hide in my room before my landlords even get home. Then I'm going to settle in to do some writing. With any luck, words will actually happen. I haven't managed to get any fiction written since last Thursday, so it would be nice to get something written, even if it turns out to be utter shit. My writing has always been about momentum. If I keep going, the writing gets better. The minute I stop for even a day, I get bogged down. The process gets laborious and the words stop flowing the way I want. So, yeah, a week of not writing? Not good. I need to try to nip this in the bud before I end up not writing for months again.
All righty. The timer has beeped. Time for food. See you on the flip side, LJ!
