Julie's Web Journal

I've not been sleeping well lately, so allow me to apologize for typos up front. There will probably be many. I thought I'd be able to get some rest last night, but digestive issues kept me up. Yes, I'll be euphemistic and spare you the ugly details.

You're welcome.

I should have just shut off the alarm this morning, but I've been trying hard to keep a normal schedule in hopes that at one point I'd finally sleep. Why am I having trouble? Oh, a combination of things, mostly because I'm going through the process of trying to break a rather nasty block. That's a writing block, in case you think it's related to the other problem.

There are several things I try when I get stuck like this. One is to start a new story ideas file. I may not be able to write during these periods, but for some reason I can come up with ideas. That's sort of frustrating, having all these snippets of dialogue and narration running through my brain but with no coherent idea where it's all going. It helps to get things down on paper (or pixels), which helps clear my brain of some of the noise. Another thing I do is go back and revise existing works. This morning I opened up a story, killed a couple of paragraphs, wrote half of another, and then realized a that a major event that helps drive the story is wrong. Well, innacurate may be a better word. But since the event drives timing, I'll need to tear the story apart and start over. It will be better for it anyway. The opening paragraphs dragged terribly. There was nothing to hook the reader into the story.

The accuracy problem also started me down a long line of research, and I'm afraid that if I go for accuracy that I may sacrifice some tension. So what do I do? I'm going to sleep on that one. As in take a nap.

Of course, I couldn't just go crawl into bed. It made sense to visit the grocery store first. I figured that if I do manage to fall asleep that I may not wake up until the phone rings at 5. Of course, that won't happen. The phone solicitors will start to call half an hour after my head hits the pillow.

Nevertheless, a visit to the grocery store was in order. I was out of food. Not that I had any ideas for dinner, but I thought perhaps I'd come up with something. I just wandered the asiles in a fog. I went to the meat case: REDMEATREDMEATREDMEATchickenREDMEATREDMEATturkeyREDMEAT - Oh, you get the idea. As I'd already had some beef meatballs over the weekend (just a few), I decided I'd better go healthy. Turkey? Again? Fish? Had that last night. But I've decided to do the seafood thing again as lobster tails were on sale for an almost reasonable price. This was the last day of the sale, so I had an excuse to splash out on something a little out of the ordinary.

It crossed my mind that a bottle of wine would be nice, so I walked over to the new wine section and tried to peruse the offerings. "Tried" is the operative word, for as I approached the first shelf a man wandered by, talking loudly into his cell phone. I now know more about girls who work in physical therapy than I wanted to know. And no, I'm not going to pass it along. Every time I moved to another asile, he followed. I finally left.

I tried to leave. I got up to the express lane and realized I'd forgotten paper napkins. Dang. That meant another long trudge through the store. This store is being remodeled, which means they're replacing the floors and moving all of the merchandise to new places. God forbid the paper towels and paper plate should be next to each other. No, the paper plates now have to be on the same aisle as baking goods. Why, I ask? I'm still trying to find the foil, plastic wrap, and trash bags.

Ah, but the store will have a Starbucks when all is said and done. I hope it's a real Starbucks and not some teenager-operated machine that spews out something resembling Starbucks coffee. Want a mocha? Great, as long as the kid knows what button to push.

Checkout was great, though. B. was back today. I had planned to get in her line, but it was long and I just had a few things, but after I found the paper napkins and went back to the front, there was just one person in line. B. had been out with the bug. "Sounds like you needed a HOUSE call," I said. B. is a huge fan of the show. She confessed that a HOUSE call would certainly have made her feel better!

And yes, there are two episodes of House tonight.

I'm off for that nap. I'll try to post a picture later. Betting is now open for how long it will be until the first phone solicitor calls. Step right up.

Tags: Writing, Life