Nicola Cameron Writes

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Pain level: Self-inflicted wound.

Jessica (AKA She Who Must Be Obeyed, also the adorable grey tabby at left) has had either a kitty cold or allergies for the last few days. As a result, she has been producing a prodigious quantity of snot and puke.

I don’t mind cleaning up mucus puddles, but unfortunately a good half of the puke puddles has been deposited on our bedroom carpet because that’s her favorite room, so I spent a full hour today spot treating and running the carpet cleaner over the multitudinous stains because they drive me nuts. On the plus side, all the stains are now gone and the bedroom smells lovely. On the minus side, doing this meant I had to carry a vacuum cleaner/carpet cleaner upstairs as Ramón was out of the house, carried the carpet cleaner back down, and still have to carry down the vacuum cleaner. Needless to say, the bad knee and the ouchy foot are not pleased with this or me.

And yes, we have a spot cleaner. But it was actually easier to use the big machine because there were so many spots to clean, hence me hauling it upstairs. At least she hasn’t horked anywhere else as of this afternoon, so I’m hoping she’s feeling better (she’s dozing on my chest at the moment).

After that and a couple of hours in the garage I was once again drenched in sweat, so now that I’ve taken a shower I’m gonna cuddle Miss Silver for a bit and turn in. Until tomorrow, mi amigos.

Time on Treadmill: 0 minutes.
Frustration level: Middling.

My right foot is still really aching, and at the moment the suspect is peroneal tendonitis. Since the only real cure for that is rest, I’m taking the day off from Chuck. Which is annoying, but let’s be real — I’m 53, I don’t heal as fast as I used to, and if I want to be able to get back to Chuck without pain I need to let this irritated tendon rest and heal. In order to do that, ice, ibu, and compression will be the order of the day.

In writing news things continue with Shifter Woods: Growl. Don’t worry, I’m getting back to King of Blades and Uncertainty Principle, but I can knock Growl out fairly quickly as it’s a novella and I’d like to get a new release out toot sweet.

Time on Treadmill: 10 minutes.
Hydration level: Sahara.

Update on the client meeting — went really well, I have a very good feeling about it, I get to learn some cool new software which always makes me happy, I am going to be seriously busy until October 1, and I’m thrilled about it because that money will be going to wipe out at least two bills and half of a third, so yay. Also, my knee and foot are still really hurting so I decided to bail on the walking after ten minutes. Not giving whatever I did a chance to heal is not a good idea, after all.

Now, about yesterday — what I failed to mention in the last post was that it was FANTASTIC. I got compliments from not one, not two, but three jewelry customers, I got 1800 words knocked out on Shifter Woods: Growl, Ramón found out that he has an interview on Friday, and I got the news about the client meeting. The only thing that could make yesterday better is learning that we won the Texas Two Step lottery contest and I get to split $1,675,000 dollars with my editor. Which reminds me, I need to check my ticket.

Oh, the hydration level thing — it was seriously hot here in the clavicle of Texas today, to the point where we were being asked to conserve electricity until 7 PM because the wind farms were just barely keeping up with the demand. The official high for Dallas and Plano was 102°F, but my car’s thermometer was reading 110°F when I was on the toll road and read 107°F when I got out of the meeting (and it was in a parking structure in shade). But we’re supposed to get thunderstorms tonight and the temp is going to drop so what does idiot here do? She goes into the garage to get a start on a really cool pendant concept. Yeah, except that I’d forgotten that the garage was still hot as blazes, even after opening the door to get some air exchange going, and I was drenched and blinking sweat out of my eyes within minutes. So now I’m freshly showered and chugging water and electrolytes.

Pendant’s gonna be SO cool, though.

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Wish to drink something soothing and alcoholic: Middling.

As it turns out, my contract job has some work for me and I need to go see the client tomorrow and get an idea of what they want me to do for them. Since I haven’t been in an office situation since May 2011, I am perhaps a bit nervous about this. I mean, I can do the work, no problem. But there are certain social cues you need to observe when in an office environment, and I’m gonna have to dredge those up and dust them off. Firm handshake, look the person in the eye, answer questions with the right amount of detail, give the impression that you are the answer to their prayers and can do anything they need, that sort of thing.

I suspect it’s going to be a dodgy night of sleep due to nerves and the fact that I seem to have pulled something in my foot which is making walking difficult. I got my thirty minutes in with Chuck tonight, but if I’m not feeling better tomorrow I may cut down my time or skip altogether.

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Urge to get back in the garage and burn metal: Increasing hourly.

Unfortunately, what with it being in the triple digits until Wednesday at the earliest and my garage being un-air-conditioned, it’s best for me to stay inside until it drops down to temperatures where I don’t have to worry about heat stroke. In the meantime I’ve been doing a buttload of Viking knit (which I still have to photograph, but wait until you guys get a load of the gold bracelet with pewter end caps — it’s GORGEOUS) and holiday earrings (Jo-Ann had a sale on their Darice beads so I stocked up on peppermint swirl glass beads and these cool resin Jack-o-lanterns) I have ready for sale.

I’ve also been having something of an Amy Adams film fest today, starting with Sunshine Cleaning and proceeding through Julie and Julia to Arrival (which I particularly love because of my linguistics background). Some days you just need to see a big-eyed redhead act her ass off, I guess.

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Sense of Relief: Surprisingly high.

I genuinely don’t remember much of today. The bulk of it was spent making jewelry to fulfill Etsy orders (remember, I have an Etsy store with all kinds of pretty stuff), running said orders to the PO, promoting jewelry and books online, sitting in on the lovely and talented Siobhan Muir‘s Saturday Soliloquy because she was kind enough to promote my stuff, making a buttload of Halloween and Christmas earrings, and carefully running the math to discover that if I add all the incoming funds from various sales and projects, I’ve successfully covered a major bill for the month and I have a skosh left over for next month’s, which is good.

Living paycheck to paycheck sucks, and having that paycheck disappear sucks even more. But hopefully we can get past that soon and get on a more reliable financial grounding. In the meantime, I work my side hustles as best I can, and feed Ramón gyro meatballs because he loves them and they make him happy.

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Weariness: Nigh infinite

Stress sucks, pure and simple. Not only does it make it hard to sleep, rob you of your creative drive, and turn you into a ball of anxiety, it can also have long-term physical effects on you.

Which is why I’m doing my best today not to stress. I am taking deep breaths (well, as deep as I can seeing that it’s triple digits down here in the clavicle of Texas and the air is full of plant detritus), thinking good thoughts, reminding myself that other people have it FAR worse than I do, and that the situation at the moment is temporary. It too shall pass, much like a kidney stone, with blood and screaming. But it shall pass.

And no, I’m not talking about any of the WIPs. Those are actually doing fairly well, surprisingly. Anyway, I shall get over this current hump one way or the other. In the meantime, one of my last fertile cycles is upon me and I’m retaining about two pounds of water, which probably isn’t helping with my mood. But God, two pounds is a huge improvement over five to seven pounds.

Time on Treadmill: 30 minutes.
Readiness for bedtime: Give my my hot cocoa and flannel nightie now, please.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed something disturbing. I’ve been having more and more of a hard time gripping things with my left hand. I would try to pick things up or hold them, and time and time again I’d drop the damned thing. As I am a woman of a certain age, the first thing that came to mind was, “mini-stroke”, followed by a raft of other medical maladies that are not pleasant to contemplate when you know your medical insurance goes bye-bye at the end of the month.

And then today, while I was cursing at a wrapped coil of wire I was trying to saw into jump rings without sawing into my own finger, I noticed that gee, the skin on my left finger and thumb tip is really coarse, almost as if–

As if you’d been making jewelry nonstop for the past six weeks and have been holding small, hot items pinched firmly between your left index finger and thumb while you sawed/filed/sanded them? my subconscious piped up.

Um. Yeah, that.

And in doing so, you’ve built up an extremely thick callus on those extremities, making it difficult to tell when you’re touching things and thus rendering you unable to grip them accurately?

Um…

You’re an idiot.

Yes, I know. But at least now I’m not worrying about stroking out in the middle of a session on Chuck. While I’m on the subject of my jewelry, however, I’ve got some stunning new sterling silver pieces up at the Etsy store as well as some very cool beaded and chainmail pieces, so please go take a look and help me feed the Horde of Five.

In other news, I worked on Shifter Woods: Growl, trimmed my beloved’s beard for him and then helped him dye it because ageism is rampant in the tech industry, and finished a Byzantine bracelet for a customer while watching Dr. Pimple Popper. Some very, very strange stuff grows under human skin, that’s for damn sure.