Ho ho ho and Oh oh oh!

It's Christmas over at Caroline's. Copies of her novella, Disraeli Avenue, are now available for pre-order. The proceeds benefit the charity One in Four. The limited edition signed and numbered copies will make a lovely addition to your shelves, so hurry up and get your copy! I've already ordered mine.

In other news, I've cut my hair. Again. I'm not quite sure what all the fuss was about, because these are real bangs (fringe for all the UK readers):
Oh yes, and did I mention I cut off all of my hair? Oh dear, oh dear. (Okay, actually it's fun and requires hardly any effort, but I realize some people just don't like short hair on girls, and I feel slightly self-conscious.)

I've been out with a migraine most of this week, so I'm struggling to keep pace with everything, but hopefully things will be back to normal soon. I'm almost to the halfway mark with my editing, which is exciting. It only hit me how far along I've gotten on Monday when I noticed I was on manuscript page 128! I'll give another writing update soon after I catch up with everything.

Oh, and did I mention tennis? First the Olympics, and now the US Open. Sport is taking over our Tivo!

C'est la vie in 90,000 words

The sun has been shining these last few days - an early spring preview - and life has done its best to distract me from writing. I'm bogged down with errands and to-do lists and appointments that seem to never end, yet things have not been this good in a long time. Last week my doctor upped my thyroid medication, so with any luck I will be on-track by the time I leave for my research trip. (Fingers crossed. I will need the energy!) She also gave me a new migraine med that lasts for approximately three days straight. It managed to work the first time I tried it--a major improvement--and I have been migraine-free for three days.

My writing is actually going really well, but I had a slow, errand-filled day yesterday, which influences my mood. I finished chapter ten last week, and I'm now working my way through chapter eleven. My book outline calls for fifteen chapters, which means two-thirds of the novel is complete! Because of that, I am revising my word count goal to 90,000 words since I was at 60,000 words when I finished chapter ten. I feel like changing the number on my counter is cheating, but it's likely that I will continue to average a similar number of words per chapter, which will put me around 90,000 words at completion rather than 100,000. I think 90,000 is still a very respectable number, though I'm curious where others finished. That's why my counter jumped from 65% to 72% today without a word count increase, if you were wondering.

Lagging

My posts have been lagging the past week, and I haven't been diligently visiting my writing blog friends, but I seem to have more new visitors lately and the only thing that seems to account for it is my recent add over at Author's Blogs. *waves hello to the new people* I hope you enjoy the blog. I'd like to pretend I have something profound to say about the writing experience, but this blog is really just my rants about writing, musings on life, and occasional (or sometimes frequent) discussion of migraines and thyroid issues. But I hope you find it funny and enjoy the read. Speaking of migraines, which I speak of too much, they are the main reason for my disappearance of late, along with husband's flu-like illness.

A recent new visitor to the blog mentioned that he was embarking on a collaborative writing venture with some friends, and I said I would give them a shout-out here. If anyone is interested in writing a chapter for this collaborative story about the end of the world, do visit their website at End of This World. Best of luck to you!

Today I had an enjoyable lunch with old work colleagues, and then I spent a few hours at the library looking for more research books. I found five good books, but they only let me take home three, so the other two are on hold for now. As I've been working on chapter three, I've found that I still have a lot of holes in my research. I'm trying to work to incorporate it into my day: writing in the morning, and when I stall, research in the afternoon. As usual, we'll see how well I keep to the plan.

Mopey and Spotty

Sorry for the spotty blog service this week. I seem to be entering another migraine marathon, so I'm trying to limit my computer time. Monday evening I got aura before my migraine hit, and since I've only had aura a few times before I didn't realize it was coming. I usually recognize all the symptoms of a migraine coming on, but this one snuck up on me. I just thought my eyes were fatigued and playing tricks. Yesterday evening the migraine came back and I woke up with it this morning. Usually I take excedrin and sleep for another hour in complete dark and I can shake the migraine, but it didn't work this morning. I took my prescription and finally it went away an hour later. The best part was this morning when the phone rang and I stumbled in the dark to answer it and slammed my shin against the coffee table causing a blue egg to develop immediately. Had a good cry on that one while Drew gave me some snuggles.
I didn't get very far on chapter 2 yesterday due to the head problems, but I'm hoping to finish the editing (past to present tense) today so I can work to finish the chapter by next week. Probably a lofty goal since we're leaving tomorrow, but I'm 2/3 through it already. Hope you all have a good weekend.

p.s. The aura link above also has impressive links to the effects of migraines on (some famous) artists: musicians, painters, writers, etc. Fascinating stuff if you ask me.

Have managed to avoid the computer *almost* all day. Last night I went to bed at 8:30 with a migraine and slept 11 hours only to wake up still having a headache. I took more meds, went back to sleep and got up an hour later without a migraine, but with what I call a migraine hangover: promise of a headache, upset stomach, dizziness, and severely challenged motor skills. All of which is lovely. Anywho, staring at the computer screen does not help, so I've been camped out on the couch with the dog reading my new Poets & Writers and watching the Discovery Channel. Not half bad actually. I just took him for his daily 30 minute walk and I'm completely knackered. It's amazing how much a migraine takes it out of you. Back to the couch...

Back in the Saddle...

Okay, stupid title, but I tire of coming up with titles and it seems to fit, cliche and all. I went to my new doctor today for the first time to get a general checkup, migraine med refill, etc. I hate going to the doctor, so I was nervous to start all over again with a new doctor, but she was actually quite fabulous and is a fellow migraine sufferer so she pays close attention to all the new research on migraines, which is great for me. I think I might even keep her around as my permanent doctor, but we'll see how this test year goes.
*Warning: Girly information ahead, if you have sensitive manly ears, I suggest you turn away now*
She decided to put me back on the pill. If I had started my blog a few years earlier, you would have seen many posts about my love-hate relationship with the pill and all the numerous ones I tried (4-5 off the top of my head in a matter of four years). Two years ago I finally gave up on the pill because it seemed to be a major factor in my migraines. HOWEVER, new research suggests that women get migraines when they have a dip in estrogen between ovulation and their period. Constant low-dose hormone therapy, or in my case the 3 month pill Seasonique ("sister" to Seasonale, but with estrogen during your placebo week to further elimate that hormone drop), helps to eliminate hormone-triggered migraines by skipping your period for three months (hurrah!). I will also have my current triptan medication to stop any migraines triggered by other factors (Splenda, watch out you evil evil sugar replacement with cute fuzzy fairy ads...). This should be very interesting. I'm hoping there are no "I have nausea every morning, but I'm not preggers I'm just on the pill" posts ahead. Yes, I am THAT sensitive.
Okay, I better buckle down on my chapter because I'm already halfway through the week, so my deadline is looming!

p.s. She also said no more caffeinated drinks in the evening (I SWEAR it does not affect my sleep!) and no reading in bed because the bed is for sex and sleep only. :( The husband will love that mandate.

Look elsewhere

My old friend the migraine is back with a vengeance today, so probably no other posting, but head on over to Jib Jab for your entertainment of the day. The news junkie will especially appreciate their new video.

Musing on the eccentricities of Quarter-Pint

Yesterday we went for a "small" hike in the Steven's Creek County Park with Joshin and Tiina. We intended to do a gentle 1.5 hour hike, but due to a confusing map and a ranger who really didn't elaborate enough, we instead hiked a very hilly 4.5 miles which took about 3 hours. I wouldn't have minded too much normally, but I still have a little phlegm in my lungs (yummy!) and had very sore quads from a small workout the day before. Also, we're not supposed to let Drew do too much activity for 3-5 days after the surgery. The length wouldn't have been so bad either without the lovely switchback hills. The view at the top of the hike was, I admit, fabulous. You could see the bay, downtown San Jose, the Pruneyard, and all the multi-million dollar mansions up in the Saratoga/Cupertino hills. (How do people ever make that much money?) Since quarter-pint never reads the blog, I'll take the liberty of making fun of him as well. (If you do ever read this, ah well you had it coming!) He was whingeing the entire second half of the hike. Now considering my phlegmy, sore-legged condition, I wasn't thrilled about all the hills either, but really, there was nothing we could do about it. Adam, Tiina, and I really didn't want to turn around since the map said we were already halfway through the loop (not to mention that those one-person-wide switchbacks would be a biotch on the way down!). Plus it was noone's fault because our map didn't have clear mileage information. Anyway, I could probably use the butt workout. ;)

Not sure if it has anything to do with the activity, but Drew's scar is looking a bit raw today so I'll probably call the vet tomorrow morning if it's still really red. I'd feel horrible if it was our fault, but it may just be that it's not healing well.

Now to continue making fun of quarter-pint, I have to mention an episode from last night. Adam barbequed a chicken and we all ate together over here, but since quarter-pint gave up alcohol for lent, he couldn't have any of Adam's beer or his fiancee's wine. In the car back he was complaining that it was hard not because he wanted to binge drink, but because drinking beer is a very social activity. I told him I understand this more than he knows because with my migraine sensitivity I'm usually the one who can't drink, and along with other friends, he harasses me for not having a drink when we're out. So what did he do? He bought O'Douls non-alcoholic beer. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this basically cheating? Yes, I know there is no alcohol in O'Douls and he gave up alcohol for lent, but the point of giving something up for lent is that you are sacrificing something you enjoy in the spirit of Christ's sacrifice. Yes? Correct me if I'm wrong (and I am paraphrasing for the sticklers among you). Drinking a non-alcoholic beer gives you the ability to still enjoy the social activity in the same way as before while technically only giving up the alcohol itself, but isn't the social enjoyment of beer part of what should be sacrificed for lent? Otherwise he may as well give up peanuts because that wouldn't be hard at all (he's deathly allergic, btw). Well that's my opinion anyway. Speaking of, I didn't get to have any of the tasty wine last night because I was fighting a migraine, and after abstaining, I still woke up with a splitting headache. Grr. And now we have O'Douls in our fridge because it didn't taste good. (Really? Non-alcoholic beer tastes like crap? Who'd have thought it?)

Since we got home pretty late we weren't able to get any of our to-do list done, so we're making up for it today. I still haven't finished that section I mentioned in a previous post, so I'm working on it today, while Adam does some errands. Should finish today though--fingers crossed. Guess that means I better stop blogging and start working.