Corner of Bourbon & Division

Today has been A Day.

It started out kind of meh, nothing special. I got up later than I intended but not actually late after a night of really fucked up dreams about work.

I am a little sad that I forgot to write a post about the suuuuuuuuper intense dream I had somewhere in the night from Friday to Saturday. When I awoke I still had really clear memories of it, and I thought I should write them down, but I got distracted and forgot and now I only have the haziest of recollections. It had a fairly complex plot and was in a sort of post-apocalyptic cityscape that was filled with monsters that were reminiscent of zombies, only not quite. I don't remember what had caused them to be that way, but it wasn't your standard zombie infection. It was a pretty action-packed dream, too, with lots of running around the city and climbing up rickety fire escapes and dodging the monsters. There were even "quiet" interludes like in a horror movie when we'd find refuge in high rise penthouses filled with luxuries (swimming pools, entire rooftop greenhouses, etc.). It's too bad I've lost the plot, to be honest. Maybe it'll come back to me another time, but probably not.

Anyway, I got out of the house without issue, except that Peggy decided that today was going to be a Put Up A Fuss About Mama Leaving day. She is usually fine being crated, but every so often she takes serious exception to my leaving her behind and barks and howls and fusses and does her level best to break out of her crate. Usually after I leave she settles within about five minutes, sometimes ten, and is good for the rest of the day. On a couple of occasions she has managed to break out of the crate, and I've found her wandering happily around the house, having terrorized the cats and sometimes having left a "surprise" behind on the upstairs carpet. I've taken to closing the baby gate even when she's crated now, and that has kept her confined to the living room when I'm gone, which has resulted in no accidents (why she feels the carpet is an okay place to go is beyond me, but we're working on it).

Today, though, she was NOT going to be contained by mere human walls, no! She collapsed the crate entirely (I've reinforced it a few times, but it's clear I need a different solution now), and then turned her attention to the back door. She removed the wooden 2x4 I have wedged in the sliding glass door to keep it from sliding, shoved aside the chair I have wedged up against the door to keep her away from the lock, then unlocked the door with her nose (she figured out how to do that months ago) and went for a happy frolick outside. Let the wild rumpus begin! Of course, I had long since gone to work and was none the wiser. The first inkling I got that something was wrong was receiving a call from my neighbour: "Hi! I've got your dog."

THIS is why I have my number on her tag AND have a microchip. She also has a tattoo from her breeder. I should have named her Houdini, clearly. Little shit. So she took ten years off my life today, and got sent to a half-day of daycare at PetSmart to play with all her dog friends as "punishment" for her actions. In the meantime, I need to get a better crate and figure out a better way to barricade my back door. *sigh*

I went back to work and spent the rest of my time there putting out fires and answering questions from people who really ought to know better. All the employees are getting seriously burnt out, too: it's clear everyone is worn down to their last nerve, and there's very little I can do about it. We need more people, and the best I've been able to manage is a single hire this year so far. It's disheartening. I'm trying to think of little things I can do to bolster morale a bit, and kind of drawing a blank. It's all very well to buy pizza for folks every so often, but at least two employees are actively trying to lose weight, and I don't want to be the person to sabotage their efforts. ;) I will keep thinking about it and hope for inspiration.

Last but not least, I am half-vaccinated! Got my first shot today (Pfizer, for those who are curious, but I would have happily taken any vaccine destined to fight COVID-19), and the next one is slated for September 6th. In two weeks I will be more or less 80% immunized against the more common variants of the virus, which is a very nice feeling. We're on lockdown here in Ontario until June 2nd (it was extended from May 20th), but they're finally ramping up the rate of vaccinations, so there's something of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course, the more extended problem of vaccinations not being available to most developing nations is still a huge fucking deal, and the idea of all the pharmaceutical companies insisting on maintaining their intellectual property leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. For instance, Pfizer made 78 billion dollars from its vaccine this year, and they're blocking IP access mainly so that COVID-19 can't go away entirely and becomes a chronic thing we all live with (like the flu) and have to get vaccinated against every year. It's a super fucking cynical ploy, and I am not especially thrilled to be a party to it. Refusing to get the vaccine on principle is very much a cut off your nose to spite your face proposal, but I am going to find organizations that are putting pressure on governments and pharmaceutical companies to ensure more equitable distribution of vaccines. 

And in other news, I veeeeery gingerly began poking at an idea I had years ago for an urban fantasy novel that has the potential to turn into a series, provided I actually manage to figure out the full plot and, you know, actually write it. It's an idea I really like, but the alternate universe isn't really fleshed out in my mind, and I also don't have the plot fully figure out, either. So, ugh. Writing is hard. OTOH, it's been several hot minutes since I actually tried to write in a serious way, and I need to at least try to get back to it. So that's what I'm doing now. Trying.

On that note, it is bedtime. Good night, folks!

I got to go to my writer's grip meeting yesterday for the first time in months. I think the last time I managed to go to a meeting was September, because my work schedule is jacked and doesn't let me have nice things. There was a brief glitch as I forgot they changed venues, so I was comfortably ensconced at Chapters in Pointe Claire when I remembered I actually needed to be in Central Station downtown. Whoops. Luckily it's a short drive without traffic, so I didn't get there too late.

It was great to get to talk to actual people who weren't my coworkers or my girlfriend. Not that I don't love chatting with pdaughter (let's be fair, I don't care if I talk to my coworkers or not), but she makes allowances for things and so I've mostly forgotten what normal human interaction is like. I keep forgetting myself and talking over people because I have so many things to say, you don't even know, and I'm a little worried that most of what comes out of my mouth these days is either inane or really inappropriate or both. /o\ Luckily no one seemed to think I'd grown an extra head yesterday, so I'm taking it as a win.

I also stopped by my old office to see my friend bullonir and get the comic books he'd picked up for me. I have the entire run of Hawkeye to read now, which I'm really looking forward to. I've not been reading my comics of late, mostly because I don't have time to read at all. I can usually squeeze in about two pages of a novel before bed these days, on a good night. Otherwise, no reading. I plan on trying to change that in the near future, as I do very much enjoy comic books and would like to actually read the ones I have in my possession.

As a result, I only got home at about 1am. The cats kept me awake for another half hour, after which I managed to doze off on the sofa (which is where I sleep when I get home stupidly late, as I'm trying not to disturb anyone). At 3am, Bean started screaming and calling out, so I spent the next hour or so trying to get him to settle back to sleep. He's been under the weather, though at first it didn't appear that he wasn't feeling well. He complained that he'd lost Malik Mollum (his plush Ikea doll), so I found the renegade doll at the foot of the bed and put it back in Bean's arm. Then later he told me something was "weird" with his ear, and from what I could make out it sounded as though he'd slept on it funny rather than it being an ear infection, especially as he wasn't running a fever of any kind. Then after that he complained that his pyjama pants had come unzipped, and that he wanted to take them off and go to the bathroom, because his diaper was wet (it was). There ensued a very confused explanation that he couldn't put the diaper in the laundry hamper because it wasn't in his room anymore (not the case, it was actually right there, but I think he was still half asleep). By then it was 4am and pdaughter woke up and took over, and I was able to go to bed again. Bean continued to fuss and call out until 5am, until pdaughter ended up staying in his room with him, and even after that he continued to fuss, though a lot more quietly. I finally fell asleep again around 6:30 and awoke for the last time at 7:30.

The two of them left around noon to go visit Pake in Cornwall, leaving me to my own devices. So I've done laundry (well, I'm still doing laundry) and puttered, and tried unsuccessfully to nap. Apparently my body thinks that 2.5 hours of sleep is more than enough, especially since I an hour of sleep from Tuesday to Wednesday, too. Twelve hours of sleep in five days is plenty, according to my body. *grumbles*

Tonight is my monthly (sort of) Numenera game, and I'm looking forward to yet another day of adult interaction. Two in a row! It's madness, I tell you!

Not me, Bean. He refused dinner last night and this morning wouldn't eat breakfast, and he's running a low-grade fever. Apart from that, though, he's much the same as he always is, if slightly quieter. Right now he's playing a computer game with pdaughter and providing running commentary about the "tricky" puzzle she's working on.

So today's plans have changed. I was going to try to work on my novel, and I still might try, but obviously I'm not optimistic about whether I'll be able to manage anything on it today. If the current level of quiet persists, I might be able to write at least a few hundred words. Maybe. Afternoons are usually harder for Bean, though, because he's a lot more tired by then.

I think I'll try writing this morning while things are still quiet, and do things like laundry in the afternoon. I have at least one load waiting for me, but I'm reluctant to "waste" the quiet right now. ;)

tx_cronopio has asked me to talk about the French language and whether or not it's as easy for me as English, and while I was originally going to write about that today, I think I'll save it for tomorrow. What little writing time I have today I'm going to try to devote to fiction, while I can.

I made pancakes this morning, and am about to have a second cup of coffee. Currently chatting with pdaughter about the clusterfuck that is the Sochi Winter Olympics so far. Human rights violations aside, the whole thing sounds like a shambles. I might try to articulate my thoughts/feelings on that too, in the coming days.

Today was Power Point Day. Much like last week I ended up learning quite a lot. Oddly I learned less than I did last week, mostly because this week was truly a beginner-level PPT course and last week we covered more advanced topics in Word. That being said, I did learn what I was hoping to learn, namely how to make bullet points and other stuff in PPT do the fancy twirling/fading/sliding/flashing thing. I am now reasonably sure that I can pull off a decent, if somewhat basic, Power Point presentation if I have to.

I bought myself a new notebook today. The one I have carried around with me since 2008 is battered beyond recognition and is falling apart. So I have been transcribing the information in it that's still relevant, and leaving the rest behind. I'm a little sad at "losing" that stuff, which is weird since it's mostly phone numbers that are horribly out of date and grocery lists and to-do lists from years ago, but it feels like I'm tossing away part of my history. Of course that's not true, but I'm feeling a little twinge nonetheless. I'm also not transcribing some of the longer quotes I had in there before. For one thing, I haven't looked at them in a while, and for another, they are easily found elsewhere if I truly need to read/use them again.

The new notebook is also a little more compact, which means it fits better in my purse. So hooray for that!

I got some writing done, too, which was nice. I came home from my class, puttered for a while, did some cleaning/dishes, and then buckled down and wrote about 800 words of fan fiction. It's nice to be slowly getting back into the swing of writing, even if I don't have as much time as I'd like to devote to it these days. I also finished writing the outline of the novel I'd like to complete this year, and either tonight or tomorrow I shall transcribe it into Scrivener to see if that helps me get a sense of how it's working out. I've never been much of an outliner, but I'm beginning more and more to see that outlining is beneficial for my stories, to prevent me from meandering off into why-is-section-even-here-it-should-be-purged-and-burned territory with my writing.

Speaking of devoting time to stuff, I remembered today to do a 5-minute mindfulness exercise. I have an app on my phone that has 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 minute meditations, and right now they're a good way to keep my mind a little more focussed than my trying to do it all on my own. I'm starting with 5 minutes a day, and I'll see how it goes from there.

I have been remiss about answering everyone's comments in previous posts, but I want you to know I do read them all and appreciate every single one!