I haven’t even gone anywhere yet and I’m exhausted. I think it’s excitement exhaustion: it’s not even that I’ve done so much… although come to think of it, I’ve done an incredible amount in the past couple of months. But it’s not even that I’ve done so much in the last few days as it is that I’ve spent them poised to do ALL the stuff and so even though I haven’t yet done ALL the stuff, the tension of waiting to do ALL the stuff has tired me out.
All the stuff: pick up Serenity. Learn how to use her. Figure out what fits in her. Get a storage unit and put some of my belongings in the storage unit. Clean out the rest of the house. Get a Sun Pass transponder. Do some laundry. Get sheets to fit her beds. Figure out what size sheets make the most sense… It feels like I’ve got an overwhelming number of things to do. Realistically, there’s no rush. Tomorrow, the weekend, next week–they’re all just as good as today for getting things done.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, I was at a meditation meeting, sitting very still, trying to meditate and feeling very itchy. As soon as the meditation was over, I got up and switched seats, thinking maybe I was having an allergic reaction to the fabric of the chair I was sitting in. An hour later, it started to feel like a safe bet that the chair had been infested with some kind of bug. Fleas, maybe?
By last night, it was obvious to me that there was no way it was fleas. I’ve been bitten by fleas before. Annoying little itchy red spots. A pain, but nothing… well, interesting, for lack of a better word. (I’m tempted to use exciting, but that just feels so wrong.)
Anyway, I started researching. What kind of bug bites turn into inflamed red welts, bigger than hives? Ans: bed bugs. I’m now completely paranoid that I brought them back into my house with me. As soon as I got home I showered and threw my clothes into the laundry, but that does not change my paranoia. I am also equally paranoid that since I am one of the lucky people who respond rather dramatically to bed bug bites the welts could actually last as long as three weeks, as the internet tells me they might. I would guess that I have approximately 40 bites on my arms, back and shoulders. They itch and burn and some of them are forming blisters. And yeah, I’m feeling pretty damn sorry for myself.
I also ate some beans yesterday because I am bad at reading menus, and I’m fairly sure my general state of sluggish misery has something to do with that, too.
So, boring whiny blog post… Sorry! And it’s not even what I meant to write about when I opened up the browser. Yesterday I had an IDEA. Or maybe it was Tuesday. But either way, I saw a thing that could happen that would be a better thing than what I’ve been trying to make happen in Grace. It was very exciting. I haven’t actually tried to write it yet, but the day is not yet over.
Anyway, I was talking to my friend Tim about it (when talking is that thing that involves typing in a message window) and I decided to make a new writing rule: the Dany Rule. My Dany rule is, “All the bad stuff in the world can happen to your character, but the story only gets interesting when she starts to burn shit down.” Named, with great fondness, for Daenerys Targaryen, of course, whose clips I watch on youtube, even though I’ve never watched a single episode of Game of Thrones or even read the books. It’s tough to resist a character who is so very good at burning stuff down.
Anyway, Noah is not going to start burning anything down, but he is going to take action, I hope. A desperate action, but one that is going to be far more interesting than his current passive state of letting things happen. And I’m going to take some actions, too — although perhaps not today.
tehachap said:
I’d report that bed bug situation to the people who hold the meditation meetings… Try Sarna lotion for the itching. It really works and feels great.
sarahwynde said:
Oh, I definitely will! And I’ll look for that lotion, thanks for the suggestion.
Judy Judy Judy said:
I have a fear of bedbugs, too. Hope you are feeling better soon. And good luck with the new writing direction.