Day three of Lexapro, and I think I’m going to try taking it in the evening instead of morning. The first two days, I’m not sure I noticed any effect on my mental state yet. (And yes, I know it takes 4-6 weeks to ramp up to full efficacy, thanks…)
I felt pretty chill, more so than many past weeks, but I’ve also been finishing off a lot of things in preparation for the semester starting, so it may just be that I simply have fewer tasks pressing on me. I was able to read two books this week without constantly simultaneously feeling stressed and like I should be dealing with urgent tasks instead, which was just lovely (book report soon, Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop and Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway, enjoyed both quite a bit), and reading like this is definitely what I want for my life. A writer who can’t relax into reading is just WRONG. But as I said, not sure if it was the Lexapro or just actually having less stuff to do.
But I do think the meds made me feel a little physically lethargic — for the past two days, my body’s felt a little bit like it did when I took painkillers after major surgery (such meds make me super-sleepy), at the point when they were wearing off, but not completely out of my system yet. I had a hard time getting myself to exercise, Sunday and Monday, and that’s not good. I’m trying hard to set up daily exercise habits, and I managed to do it Sunday, but it took a fair bit of effort, and I completely missed yesterday. I’m hoping that taking the Lexapro at night will just lead to better sleeping — seems worth a try, at least.
No negative effects on sexual function yet, so that’s nice. Lowered sex drive / difficulty achieving orgasm can be a side effect. (Sorry, Daddy, but it’s important to talk about these things…)
No writing Sunday or Monday either, but I don’t think that’s the Lexapro — Sunday was mostly focused on straightening up around here, which was needed, and getting some last baking done for the Patreon treat boxes. Monday was treat box assembly and shipping day. Back to writing today, and I’ve been revising for a while this morning, so that’s good.
The writing will be interrupted slightly by needing to take Kavi to go get a few things at school, and then I’ve got a coffee meeting with the head of the OPRF faculty senate
(Side note: I’m auditioning a new top I found at Trends Oak Park, which I think might be perfect for first day teaching paired with these adorable typerwriter earrings that I think I may have gotten from Rina Elson Weisman, what do you think? Do I look like your favorite college English teacher? 
).
I’m meeting with the faculty senate head because as part of school board, I just want to get to know the faculty a bit better, since I currently hear a lot from administration and (some) parents. I also want to get to know the kids better, but with Kavi starting there, I think there will be lots of opportunities for that soon.
Our house cleaners come today, and I’m proud of myself for resisting the urge to spend two hours running around straightening up — they’ll clean around any big piles of laundry or whatever, and I should be prioritizing writing. Which I did. Even though it wasn’t easy!
I may stick around at Fairgrounds afterwards and just try to keep writing there for a while (staying out of the cleaners’ way), which isn’t something I’ve done in a long time (coffeeshop writing). I’m mostly trying to do less indoor stuff with Delta rising, but Fairgrounds is a big, airy cafe. Maybe I can talk Lori Rader-Day into coming down and writing with me…
Speaking of writing — I’ve just about finished drafting “Thin Air,” a roughly 25,000 word novella. (An average book is around 80,000 words.) It’s meant to be part of the Jump Space book coming out from Constellation & Riverdale Avenue Presses, but I’m curious whether it works as a stand-alone.
I’d like a few readers to look at it — ideally people who *haven’t* read The Stars Change, or anything else in my Jump Space universe. If this is you, let me know? I don’t need detailed critique (although comments are always welcome), just a sense of whether this makes sense to you without having read anything else in this universe. Would want feedback within about 2 weeks, if possible.
