According to Weather Underground we were supposed to get thunderstorms this evening, then it was changed to tomorrow. About an hour ago the sky got Very Interesting and I moved the truck behind the garage (car’s already in the garage). Tornado siren’s gone off once, most likely due to the tornado in Lewisville, and I’m keeping an eye on radar for round two which should hit us in a half hour or so.

Could be so much worse—looks like Richardson and south Dallas got hammered. Late spring in Texas, whee!

In the meantime I decided I also wanted to relax a bit (yeah, I know—relaxing while watching the radar? I am nothing if not an engima wrapped up in a contradiction smothered in creamy sauce), so I cued up the theatrical release version of Earthquake on Netflix.

*blink*blink*

Up until now the only version I’d ever seen was the one edited for TV. I’m not going to pick on the SFX—they were state of the art at the time, and as the animated blood zooming out at the screen when an elevator plummets to the bottom of its shaft, well, it probably made sense at the time.

But what I found truly hilarious was the idea that Lorne Greene (born in 1915) could play the father of Ava Gardner (born in 1922). Ava played Charlton Heston’s wife and they were similar ages so that worked, but why not hire something a little more appropriate in age to play her dad? I understand the need for suspension of disbelief but kids, that stretched it to the snapping point.

Also, if someone could explain why Geneviève Bujold was hired as Chuck’s young widowed love interest I would really appreciate it because 1) she seemed bored out of her mind most of the time and 2) I’ve seen more chemistry in a salt solution than between Chuck and her.

On the plus side, I just paid off the work we had done on the downstairs AC unit last month. And it’s still working, which is good because we’re about to go into the Hell Months down here in the clavicle of Texas.

On the minus side, that pretty much drained my bank account and next week will have to be absolutely minimal with regards to any purchases, including food. Luckily I was raised working class and shopping cheap is part of my DNA (why do you think I’m so good at making and fixing things? I’m too damn cheap to pay for artisans and repair people), but despite all these claims I hear that inflation is easing I haven’t seen a damn price drop on anything except for maybe gas.

On the plus side we will have enough to eat and enough food for the J Crew. Mortgage and bills are covered, there’s gas in both our tanks. If an emergency comes up, we have credit cards. It’ll just be a lean week. No biggie.

On the minus side my stupid brain panics at times like this and wants to buy All The Things. Which I will not allow to happen. Which means I will not be looking at any online shopping site until next Friday for mental health reasons.

I really should clean out my office closet. That should keep me distracted for days…

*rubs mouth* I have been doing my best this year to finish craft projects and get them out the door to the intended recipients or put away in other parts of the house. But somehow my office closet is still full to the brim with bags of projects, two enormous storage containers full of fabric, a serger, boxes of tools, musical instruments, a high shelf full of financial records stretching back seven years, pillows for when visitors need to sleep in my office, and my really cool swashbucker hat.

I thought I was doing pretty well on Swedish Death Cleaning but clearly I have to get on my stick about this because damn. I don’t have any more time this weekend but next weekend I need to pull everything out of the closet, go through it piece by piece, reorganize the shelves and cubbies, and make some hard decisions about letting stuff go. I have sufficient room in that closet and my office in general. I just have to arrange it all in the most efficient manner.

In the meantime the J Crew have been taking turns peeking inside the office while I’ve been walking back and forth with my hands full muttering to myself. They like to sleep there when the bedroom door is closed, but I think even they realize that this is not the time to bother Mom.

Instead, I am going through my office and giving it a medium clean which it desperately needs. For me, medium clean means putting everything away, dusting the surfaces, and vacuuming. (Granted, the office also needs a deep clean, but I need a cruise so nobody’s getting what they need right now.)

Why am I doing this instead of writing? Basically, because I work better in a clean environment. I get distracted when I see crap scattered around me and it’s hard to get into the headspace to write. It’s easier to take a weekend, clean and reorganize everything, and start fresh on Monday.

Of course, in the progress of my medium clean I had to put a lot of stuff back into my office closet. All that did was remind me how badly I want to pull everything out of there and build custom shelves and cubbies that would be more useful for me. Right now it’s a standard bedroom closet layout and I don’t need hanger poles—I do need shelves sized to hold storage boxes, equipment, and other writing and jewelry stuff.

Just have to keep selling books and jewelry so that I can pay for the overhaul, right?

I’m taking tomorrow off. And yes, I recognize the solemnity of Memorial Day so don’t @ me. It’s not like I’m throwing a pool party or getting hammered in Deep Ellum.

But it is a federal holiday and I need a day off. No, I deserve a day off. I’ve been working my ass off formatting books and getting them uploaded to Smashwords and Google Play, which is completely separate from the ad maintenance, record maintenance, writing, editing, cover design, and all the other tasks that come with being an indie author. Oh, and let’s not forget fulfilling various creative commissions, doing the food shopping, the cooking, the cleaning and laundry, looking after Ramón and the J Crew, checking in on various people who need it, and generally being Helpful Hannah to all and sundry.

I may not be able to afford a cruise right now, but I can damn well take one day off to rest, recharge, and see if I can recover just a smidgen of enthusiasm. So I am going to play around with my plasticine and investment and see if I can make this pair of amber and silver earrings I’ve wanted to take a crack at, then I’m going to catch up on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and then I may well crawl in bed early and read to my heart’s content. Luxury…

To my surprise I learned today that Ramón would be heading off to his D&D game today (since they started meeting in person again this has stopped being a weekly thing and now depends on the other players’ schedules).

So did I tear through the house like a Tasmanian Devil cleaning everything? Did I crank out 3K on Crystal Blade? Did I at least put the cross bars that have fallen off two of the back yard fence sections back up?

No. I went out to coffee with my editor like a civilized woman of a certain age, then came home and finished a jewelry commission (faceted golden rutilated quartz in a marquise cut, and I got to build my first double gallery and V prongs for it). Which turned out wonderfully. I’m very happy with that because I was sure I’d accidentally melt something or have a prong fall off.

Look, sometimes I need to step away from the computer and cross-train my creative side on something completely different. Kristine Kathryn Rusch just did a brilliant blog post about this very topic, and I agree with all of it. Making jewelry, quilts, or other crafts keeps me fresh and helps me with my writing, believe it or not. I’ve tried going cold turkey and doing nothing but writing before, and you know what happened? I would up with a massive case of writer’s block. Crafting is literally part of my writing process now because it acts as a space where I can mull over things while my hands are busy.

And if I can sell the results of those mulling sessions? Even better.