Tag Archives: writing

For Tabby on Tired Tuesday

Sorry, kids, it’s Tired Tuesday. I did work on a blog post today, about Saturday’s adventures, but it needs more work and I have completely petered out. In my defense, I did laundry. Hmm, that doesn’t sound like much of a defense. So don’t forgive me. In the meantime, I offer a Pedestrian Post with thanks to my beloved schnoodle, Tabby.

I neither walked nor ran yesterday, and my legs definitely felt the lack. And my conscience felt the guilt from not walking my dog (although she got a nice long walk with both her peeps Sunday, in addition to walking my cool-down with me after my run). Therefore, after I got the laundry in the house and the non-drier items hanging in various places, I got Tabby into her harness and we were on our way.

It was still nicely warm out, somewhere in the 60s I believe. Many people were out and about. A couple of neighborhood kids said hi to us, and one unknown college-looking kid said hi to Tabby. Tabby led me down Bellinger Street to Meyers Park.

I still haven’t gotten over my delight at all the snow being gone, so I felt contented to be outside in addition to my legs’ enjoyment of the exercise. We saw two young boys playing baseball in the park. At least, one had a glove and ball, the other had a bat. I suppose it was just batting practice, or else they had vivid imaginations (nothing wrong with that!).

After the park we headed towards Main Street and the downtown area. I looked longingly at Basloe Library as we went by. They are having a book sale. I could use a couple of paperbacks for this weekend, but I do not foresee an opportunity to go there. Of course, I have three or four paperbacks I purchased at Basloe a month or two ago which I have not read yet, but still.

Up to the Historic Four Corners. I must take another walk by the 1834 Jail after dark some night and see if I spot any ghosts. I rather doubt I will; I’m not at all sensitive to that sort of phenomena, but as the great Fats Waller said, one never knows, do one?

A very sweet toddler wanted to pet Tabby. His father told him to ask first then asked me himself when the toddler was too shy. I said sure, Tabby’s a good dog. A lady with a beautiful baby in a stroller joined us as Tabby was being petted. Tabby was immediately interested in the baby.

“She likes baby feet,” I said. We parted friends.

I enjoyed our walk, and I think Tabby did too. I even enjoyed writing about it. Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Too Many Meanderings

So I had some Mohawk Valley adventures on Saturday. I started to write about one of them this morning, and I got bogged down. No matter, I thought. I can dash off an overview of the afternoon the cover each adventure individually as the week progresses. That did not seem to be working out either. After staring into space and questioning my life choices, I remembered: Monday Mental Meanderings. I can just follow my recalcitrant mind around the page a little, hit Publish and call it a day.

In my defense, I was doing some magazine work. I was revising and polishing (or do I flatter myself?) my articles for Mohawk Valley Living magazine, for which the deadline is tomorrow. I got them emailed out, for once forgetting to courtesy copy myself. In my detriment (I guess that’s not the opposite of defense; does anyone have a better suggestion?), I should have gotten those articles done last week and they’re not such brilliant prose at that.

My overall plan is to work more on my writing. Better blog posts, finish that novel. And that play. And the other play. Oh, and at least one interactive murder mystery. And here we come to my problem: I have too many potential projects. My mind won’t seem to settle on any of them. It skitters hither and thither. It — dare I say it? — MEANDERS!

This has become a rather circular post. I can’t seem to write, so I offer a Mental Meanderings Monday. The reason I can’t write is that my mind is meandering. Got that? If so, I shall hit Publish and call it a day.

Yes, Sweat!

I make bold to offer Running Commentary two days in a row, because this is the first time I’ve run two days in a row since I started running again last month.

I did not get out of the house till after nine. For one reason, since it was supposed to be warm today I figured I might as well wait for a better temperature. It was 42 when I set out, according to my thermostat, three degrees below where I usually dress in shorts and t-shirt. However, I had already put on the shorts and t-shirt. I observed that the sun was high in the sky. This would be fine.

It was fine. It looked like spring. I was running on completely bare, dry sidewalks. There was no snow in sight. Only my hands got cold. That was to be expected.

And my legs were tired. I thought, this is bad. I can’t keep writing blog posts about runs that aren’t fun. Well, apparently I can. I pondered how my readers might feel about it. Some readers might feel better, “Oh, it’s OK that my runs are still difficult; so are Mohawk Valley Girl’s.” Some might feel worse, “There’s no point in running! I guess runs NEVER get better!” I think the worst thing of all would be if they feel bored, “Oh no, not another dull Running Commentary! Just stay home, girl!”

I continued to feel tired as I ran down German Street. I decided to let myself off the hook as far as hills were concerned. Just keep going, I told myself. I ran through the high school parking lot and over the little footbridge. I would go up one street and down another, working my way back home.

I occupied myself with looking in people’s yards for flowers. Some people had nicely cleaned up last years skanky leaves. I must do that. Other people had not, so I felt a little better about that. Then I saw some purple crocuses and felt better yet.

Where, or where were those endorphins? I had been feeling down when I left the house and thought a run would help. Well, one must get through the difficult runs to get to the good ones. I persevered. I was soon rewarded by reaching the coveted “I can rock this” stage. My legs felt good! I could keep this up for a while. It was not a euphoric feeling exactly, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Of course it did not last. However, as I continued to run, it came back. I debated how far I would run. Further than yesterday at least. Perhaps not to the 35 minutes I should have been at by this time. Something in between?

I ended up running for 32 minutes, the length of time I was running before I got sick. As I walked my cool-down with Tabby I felt pretty terrific. I don’t think I have experienced endorphins yet, but I sweated out my bad attitude. That’s a pretty good accomplishment on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

Lame at the End of the Tunnel

I had hoped not to have Lame Post Friday, after my week of illness and recovery. I was feeling much better earlier today. My stomach felt NOT sick. I did NOT have a headache. Oh, life was wonderful.

Of course it did NOT last. I didn’t even make it till lunch before I started to peter out. “I ran out of oopmh before I ran out of day,” I told a co-worker. Of course, that phenomenon often happens to the working stiff, convalescent or not. One perseveres and tries to get the work done regardless. I even did some writing during my lunch break, but it was not for the blog and it was definitely not finished. Still, it felt good to write.

Um, not that I have NOT been writing. I’ve been working on a letter to a friend. I’m often writing a letter to a friend or relative. At least it is putting words on paper. Still, it doesn’t help when I have to hit Publish on something or finally go a day without making a post (NEVER! NEVER! At least, NOT TODAY!). I have been fired with ambition to write lately but, alas, the ambition has not been accompanied by inspiration or even any ideas. So I write rambling letters or type in lame blog posts.

However, I say it again, one perseveres. At least I felt good for the morning. Perhaps tomorrow I will feel better for a longer period of time. Soon, dare I hope?, I will feel better for a whole day. At least I shall try to get my blog post written before I start feeling crappy again. As always, thank you for playing.

Too Sick to Type Anything Good

I called in sick to work today, and I am taking a Bloggers’ Sick Day. On the one hand, you might think I would not have to. After all, I spent the day sleeping and trying to hydrate (a doctor told me the body can ride out many things if it just stays hydrated). One might think I would be feeling better enough to write something decent (wait a minute, would this be one of those hypothetical people we discussed yesterday? Never mind). It has often been observed, I can’t do anything about what other people think about me.

I am feeling marginally better. I woke up in the night with dreadful insomnia. After striving NOT to toss and turn for a couple of hours, my stomach started in. I’ll spare you a blow by blow of my sufferings, but it was bad. I am a HUGE baby when I am sick, and this was worse than my usual sinus, headache, light-headed things that I seem to spend so much time complaining about. One thing about intense nausea, when it finally goes away, I feel SO HAPPY! When the headache goes away, too, my life will be perfect.

Being sick makes for quite the boring day. Sleep felt good when I finally got some, but I couldn’t sleep all day. I read a little, but my head didn’t like that. I thought about turning on the TV but couldn’t quite make up my mind to (indecisiveness is often another symptom of these illnesses). I got on Facebook, but all I could think of was this other (terrible) job I had. A guy had called in sick, and the boss said, “But he was on Facebook this morning.” I was not even on Facebook at the time, but I remember thinking, “Oh, come on, to sit in front of the computer and maybe hit a few keys, you can do that with your head in your hands feeling awful. Getting stuff done at work, not so much.”

This morning, I wondered if any of my Facebook work friends would say, “She can’t be too sick; she was on Facebook.” So I made sure I posted how awful I was feeling. Then I felt guilty, because other people have far worse illnesses than mine (see above statement about me being a baby). Then I got off Facebook, because my head was hurting again.

My husband just looked over and said, “It sounds like you’re saying more than, ‘I’m taking a blogger’s sick day.'” Thus proving my point that you can type in dire circumstances. However, as the late, great Truman Capote once said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”

My Non-Consecutive Week Continues

This is my third consecutive day of not having a terrible headache. Isn’t that wonderful? Wouldn’t you think I would be busily writing away, words falling from my fingers to the page, blog post, novel, play, LET’S GO!

I know, some of you are sitting there saying, “I wouldn’t think that.” Some people have no faith in me. And some people are no doubt wondering if their faith in me was misplaced, as I write Yet Another Post About Not Being Able to Write a Post.

A digression: previously I have talked about Posts About Why I Can’t Write a Post Today. Which is fine, when I actually know why I can’t write a post. Since I sometimes don’t, I switched to Posts About How I Can’t Write a Post Today. Then just now as I was typing, I thought, a Post About Not Being Able to Write a Post. Tomorrow I may come up with something else, except in the unlikely event I can actually write a post. One must be prepared for anything.

On another unrelated note, I inadvertently hit some combination of keys on my computer which made the letters on the screen get all itty bitty. It is difficult to see what I an typing. Damn my presbyopia!

So I see that after having Tired Tuesday on a Monday, Wuss-out Wednesday on a Tuesday, I seem to be having… oh, I know some of you saw it coming, Non-Sequitur Thursday on a Wednesday! No matter, whatever it is, it’s over 200 words. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Wuss-out Words

Yesterday I had Tired Tuesday on a Monday. Today I’m having Wuss-out Wednesday on a Tuesday. I offer no apologies. These things happen.

I went running, thinking to offer a Running Commentary. I narrated in my head while I ran, even editing, because I was afraid it would be too much like the Running Commentary immediately previous. But I can’t do it.

Of course it would have been better to write my blog post while at work. I worked on a letter first, hoping to ease into it. Unfortunately, I had brought some Cryptoquote puzzles I cut out of the Herkimer Telegram newspaper and couldn’t resist solving a few of those. I love cryptogram puzzles. I feel so clever when I figure them out.

In the letter I stated that by my rules any writing counts, letters, TV Journal, anything that puts pen to paper. As long as I’m stringing together words. I can just hear somebody huffing, “What, you can just write down random words and that counts as writing?” I explain, shut up (that’s an homage to S.J. Perelman). I have never actually written a mere list of unrelated words, but I’m going to declare right now that yes, it would count.

Table, rug, dog, sleeping husband, People’s Court on television. These are not unrelated words, they are things in my immediate line of vision. How about some random words? Cigarette, avocado, rent, persuasion, nonchalant. That’s not easy, thinking of random words, but it’s kind of fun. Try it.

As for me, I will try to write some non-random words in my TV Journal. Any maybe go for a better blog post tomorrow. Hope you’re all having a lovely week, whatever day you feel it is.

Post-Pain Post

Somebody at work today said it was Tuesday. In a sense it is, because we have Friday off. A four day week. I am quite delighted. For me it is like a Tuesday for a different reason: I am tired! All I want to make is a Tired Tuesday post!

I had thought I could do a Middle-aged Musings Monday. But I could not think of anything to muse about. I’m not so nuts about Middle-aged Musings Monday anyways. I mean, nobody uses the term “muse” in that sense any more. Once in a while somebody talks about having a muse, or being someone’s muse. Like in the TV show Castle, where Becket is Castle’s muse (I love that show).

So I tried to think of a different Monday thing. The Monday Malaise? I believe I used that as a title once. I wonder if the post was any good. Perhaps I’ll look it up and see…

Read it. I liked it, but I have an unfortunate tendency to like almost everything I write. That being the case, one might think I would have more self-confidence as a writer and not spend so much time listening to and arguing with my inner critics. Then again, I have enough self-confidence to hit Publish when I have typed in a bunch of foolishness like this.

I think this is after headache syndrome. I recall last week after having a bad headache one day, I did not have one the next yet wrote a ridiculous post. Yesterday I had a headache. Today I did not. Oh well, I’m going to slap a headline on this, hit Publish and hope for the best. I only wish I could think of a title with a little alliteration. Oh, wait, I think I’ve got one.

At Least the Tea Will Taste Good

Looking back, I see that last Sunday I did a Running Commentary and two Sundays ago I had a Wrist to Forehead Sunday. Today (Sunday, but I think you knew that) I had meant to have a Running Commentary but feel more inclined for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday. Perhaps a combination of the two.

Sorry to be tiresome about my health tribulations, but I have been plagued with headaches this week. It has been kind of an interesting plague, though. I seem to get a bad headache every other day. So at least there is some relief. I know, not for you from listening to my complaints. Well I don’t get much relief from my inner critic. We all have problems.

I was determined to run in spite of my headache. For one reason, the weather was supposed to be warmer. I spent part of yesterday staring out the window at the bare roads and sidewalks and WANTING to run or walk on them. But I was afraid the cold wind would bring on sinus pain. I ran in place on the mini-tramp. I watched more of that silent horror movie I had watched earlier in the week (perhaps you read my blog post about it).

When we first got up our thermostat said 18 degrees. Not the temperature I like to run in. I waited till after eleven. It was almost to 30. Only a few degrees below freezing. I could do this!

And I did. Unfortunately, I am not up to writing about it. I’m just not. I’ve taken a decongestant and will try the effect of another cup of hot tea. And try for a better blog post tomorrow.

Also, I’m Lightheaded

Yesterday when I shared my blog post on Facebook (as I always do), I made the comment that I proved I could make a blog post even when I had a terrible headache/upset stomach thing going on (NOT due to the subject of the post, I made clear). I did feel dreadfully ill. I felt proud of myself for not taking a blogger’s sick day. I felt better today.

Till after work, when I felt ridiculously tired and brain dead. OK, I felt brain dead most of the day at work, too. I tried to work on blog or novel during lunch but could not. I returned to a letter I had started to a friend and found I could not make much progress on that either. What gives, I asked myself. Headache aftermath?

All this by way of introduction to this week’s Non-Sequitur Thursday. I feel it is a non sequitur that yesterday I was ill but today I am taking a sick day. Is it easier to overcome illness or inertia? Hey, how did you like that sentence? Every word but “to” began with a vowel, and some people wouldn’t even count “to.”
And now I just ended a sentence with a preposition. That is one thing you are not supposed to end a sentence with.

And now I’m being silly. What a surprise. Sorry, sports fans, my head’s just not up to it. I’m going to slap on a non sequitur-ish headline and call it a night. Happy Thursday, everyone.