I've decided to start something new. It's a story about a typical diabetic girl. But it's not just me writing it. It's a chain story. So I've written the first chapter and handed it off. It's the story of one night (maybe more?) of Sam who walks into a bar. That's about as much direction as I have given it. Let me know if you want to take a stab at one of the chapters (really just a couple of paragraphs, as much or as little as you'd like to write.) I'll send it off to you next. Just leave your email in the comments (if you don't mind making that public) or stop by my facebook page and send me a message. And when it's all been said and written, I'll post it here for all to read.
Finally a Useful Upgrade
I just received the new Minimed pump. It now asks stupid questions to remind me to do things I instinctually do because I have been pumping so long. After I prime the tubing, it asks me, "Do you see drops at the end of the tubing?"
I usually yell at it, "You think I would have stopped priming if I didn't?"
I wish I knew how to hack into its software and program it to ask more relevant and helpful questions. Maybe questions Stewart Smalley would have been proud of.
"Did you know you are a really good athlete?"
"Did you know that book you're writing is going to be read and loved by millions?"
Or maybe it could just make statements.
"You deserve a vacation today. Take the day off and don't even think about feeling guilty for it."
"All the work you do to take care of your diabetes everyday is paying off. You are a better person for it and will live a long and complication free life."
Now that would be an upgrade I would pay for.
If you haven't yet, drop by my facebook page and click "Like"
I usually yell at it, "You think I would have stopped priming if I didn't?"
I wish I knew how to hack into its software and program it to ask more relevant and helpful questions. Maybe questions Stewart Smalley would have been proud of.
"Did you know you are a really good athlete?"
"Did you know that book you're writing is going to be read and loved by millions?"
Or maybe it could just make statements.
"You deserve a vacation today. Take the day off and don't even think about feeling guilty for it."
"All the work you do to take care of your diabetes everyday is paying off. You are a better person for it and will live a long and complication free life."
Now that would be an upgrade I would pay for.
If you haven't yet, drop by my facebook page and click "Like"
My New Super Power
Since I've had this radiation treatment, I've been asked several times if I am going to have super powers. I laughed it off, humoring them for their silly questions. But now that I have been radioactive, being out among people today, I realize I do have a super power no one can see. An evil power, but a power none the less. I can sit down right next to a person in a restaurant and literally take days off their life without them even noticing. They can't feel it happen. I can leave invisible radioactive hand prints to radiate anyone who passes by. I can take a jar of my radioactive piss and hide it under someone's bed to nuke them all night for weeks to come and they would never be the wiser. So I do have a superpower. It's just not one I plan to employ, unless of course you really piss me off. And then you'll never see it coming.
If you haven't yet, drop by my facebook page and click "Like"
If you haven't yet, drop by my facebook page and click "Like"
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT- DAY 4
Today I hit a wall. A writing wall. It was probably because I spent the last seventy-two hours in front of a computer. I thought with all this time off I could accomplish great feats of writing, maybe even finish a book. But instead I have accomplished very little on the book front. I have left far too many status updates on Facebook and read far too many articles and books and blogs and theology (though I could never get too much theology.) I even read a, I think they call them, Paranormal Romance short story which I typically would never read.Today was going to be the day all that changed. I have gotten over the initial shock of radiation and isolation. I can be out in public just long enough to order breakfast out at my favorite coffee shop and eat it in the one chair that gets sunshine on the patio in the morning with everyone else a safe twenty feet away eating inside. My computer was charged. My chart notes were out ready to be cross-referenced for trip details.
And nothing. I could write nothing. I sat for over an hour writing nothing. I considered an early morning drink. considered writing in a new section of the book.
And nothing.
I gave up. No sense wasting good sunshine doing nothing.After a quick run and a shower I took off in my car, camera in hand to fill the well.
I once read The Artist's Way. Not much I remember except the concept of filling the well. Artists need a reserve of creative capital in order to create. If we draw and draw and draw out, eventually that well runs dry. It's a good practice to regularly do things that will put the creative capital back in. Usually, for me, this means sunshine, a good lunch outside, a dose of nature, and enough silence to let my brain run free, unencumbered by chapters to plot and scenes to write and dialog to remember.First stop was an open patch of land for a hike. Not more than fifteen feet in, I saw a guy sitting shirtless in a beach chair, soaking up the sun. Now that's what I need to be doing, but with my shirt on. So I gave up my hike, found an open field up on the left and sat. The bands on my brain began to loosen. I shot some pictures of small stuff nearby, a technique I'd been wanting to play with but hadn't found the time.
Hunger jumped into my thought stream, so I was off to obtain another fish taco in some more sunshine. The knots in my brain started to untie themselves. Finally I had found a way around one of the biggest problems of my work in progress, trying to make my villain(ess?) not completely evil, because they say a villain must have some redeeming qualities and also because she isn't really all that bad. With that problem solved the other ideas began to flow. Lucky for me I had my notebook and pen I carry to jot down these ideas before they run away.
Ice cream was now a must and a chance to work out on paper what had been swirling in my head. Now I am off to resume my role in reality; pick up the kids, clean the house, toss the food containers and silverware I'd been collecting from breakfast, lunch and ice cream into my radioactive trash pile, take the kids to the pool to play at least ten feet from me and watch them enjoy another seventy-seven degree January day in sunny San Diego. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT-DAY 2
What a completely different experience than yesterday. I woke up feeling hungover. I don't think my body handled the twelve hours of hyper that was my day yesterday. I was dragging all morning until I passed out for two hours. After that I felt a little more human. But the solitary confinement is starting to wear on me. I realized today the reason I love to have eight hours a day to write all alone is because I come home to an amazing family. Now that I can't hang out on the couch with the kids or sit around and talk about my day with Tony, that isolation is a bit overwhelming. Only twelve hours left of the damned low-iodine diet, which also made today unbearable. After eleven days of eating the same meal again and again I am ready for a change. I am thinking a big plate of fish tacos tomorrow is definitely in order. I made the worst batch of low-iodine blueberry muffins, but had to eat them because there was nothing else in the house on the diet.
The only good thing that happened today was that I got tired at 9:30. It has been over five years since I have gotten tired by ten without taking one type of pill or another. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT- DAY 1
My day started at five am so that I could get one last meal in before six hours of fasting in preparation for my thyroid ablation today. I was back in bed by five fifteen after yet another bowl of oatmeal and plate of egg whites- some of the only foods I could find that are easy to prepare, somewhat appetizing, and on the low-iodine diet I've had to be on since the first of the year- but since I have been off the anti-thyroid meds for five days, there was no chance I'd be able to go back to sleep.
I saw Tony off to work at seven with a big, gotta-last-for-seven-days hug and got the kids ready for school. I dropped the kids at school and had coffee with a friend, or rather, I watched a friend drink coffee-damned fasting rules- while sitting in the morning sunshine. Then off to the doctor's office to swallow a pill they brought to me in a lead vial. "Don't touch it. Just take it straight out of the vial," the doctor told me. I do wonder what on earth I'm doing taking a pill that isn't safe to touch. And thus began seven days of solitary confinement.
While everyone was at school I had free reign of the house, but once the kids were home, I was confined to my office in the garage. Once Tony got home and had to do a workout in the garage, I was sent to the upstairs bedroom. If I had to enter the common areas, I found myself calling out to warn everyone of my presence. I felt like a leper calling out, "Unclean. Unclean." I have dutifully used paper plates, cups, and utensils, double bagged all my trash separately and stored it outside. I have stored all my radioactive clothes and towels in my now radioactive office and always flushed twice. I waved goodnight to my kids and gave them air hugs from down the hall. My evening ended with a quick hazmat sweep of the upstairs bedroom and making my bed downstairs all alone.
Since I could not spend any time with my family, I spent most of the day writing and editing and I have to say, I absolutely loved it. Although I miss my family desperately, six more days of my writer's retreat and I should be one very content writer.
I saw Tony off to work at seven with a big, gotta-last-for-seven-days hug and got the kids ready for school. I dropped the kids at school and had coffee with a friend, or rather, I watched a friend drink coffee-damned fasting rules- while sitting in the morning sunshine. Then off to the doctor's office to swallow a pill they brought to me in a lead vial. "Don't touch it. Just take it straight out of the vial," the doctor told me. I do wonder what on earth I'm doing taking a pill that isn't safe to touch. And thus began seven days of solitary confinement.
While everyone was at school I had free reign of the house, but once the kids were home, I was confined to my office in the garage. Once Tony got home and had to do a workout in the garage, I was sent to the upstairs bedroom. If I had to enter the common areas, I found myself calling out to warn everyone of my presence. I felt like a leper calling out, "Unclean. Unclean." I have dutifully used paper plates, cups, and utensils, double bagged all my trash separately and stored it outside. I have stored all my radioactive clothes and towels in my now radioactive office and always flushed twice. I waved goodnight to my kids and gave them air hugs from down the hall. My evening ended with a quick hazmat sweep of the upstairs bedroom and making my bed downstairs all alone.
Since I could not spend any time with my family, I spent most of the day writing and editing and I have to say, I absolutely loved it. Although I miss my family desperately, six more days of my writer's retreat and I should be one very content writer.
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