Good things in the last few days:
• I finished revisions on the pilot script for _Liminal Space: episode 1_ and sent it to someone in the industry who agreed to look at it. It will probably come to nothing, but I worked hard on it over the last several months (taking two screenwriting classes and some individual tutoring, dragging myself out to the writing shed even when it was chilly out (it takes a while for the heater to warm up the place, so I go out and turn it on, go back in the house, and come out again half an hour later, all of which takes some willpower, especially when I’m feeling anxious about writing already…))
• I’m very happy to have completed a script that I think is fairly decent. Also happy that I got past my anxiousness enough to actually finish the revisions and send it out the door — there were a few weeks in there when I should’ve been working on it but just couldn’t make myself do it. So go, me. (Thanks to Ted Schneider (teacher) and Alex Gurevich (tutoring buddy) for all the great feedback over the last few months; super-helpful.)
• I finished a design for Spoonflower that I’m reasonably happy with, and even entered it in time for this week’s challenge. (I also submitted it to a surface pattern critique group here on Facebook, and now I know several things I should work on to improve it, which I’m looking forward to doing; I think they’re all within my power).
*****
Not so good things:
• my faculty union had to go on strike today; there’s another bargaining session tomorrow (Wed), but it means that I’ll be on strike and not teaching tomorrow (and not being paid for that day, obviously), which is frustrating for me and frustrating for the students and I really hope administration will start showing *some* indications that they actually value our teaching sometime soon. Strikes are very stressful; I’ve done this once before (back in 2014, I think), and it was pretty awful, even though it only lasted a few days.
• I ran out of the sleep meds (Unisom) I’ve had to take ever since chemo put me in early menopause — without them, I wake up after my first three-hour sleep cycle, and generally can’t get back to sleep. And, predictably, that’s what happened last night, so I slept from 11:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., and then I was awake, gah. (It did give me a lot of time for drawing).
• as a result, I have been feeling sick and exhausted and having a hard time thinking all day.
*****
Other good things:
• I didn’t actually have to do anything today — there were many things I wanted to get done, but none of it was required, and I guess since I’m on strike tomorrow, I’ll have some time to get some of those things done.
• Roshani coaxed me into going out in the afternoon, instead of blearily trying to keep my eyes open while staring at the computer, and I somewhat groggily rode along to a couple garden stores, where I picked up fertilizer that will hopefully result in more flowers, and a few tiny terrarium plants to renew my terrariums with; we also visited a coffeeshop, where I had nice chai and oatmeal, and imagined what it might be like if we moved back to the city after the kids are done with high school (maybe we will, maybe not; all up in the air right now)
• Kevin has kindly walked six blocks over to Walgreens just now, because I don’t trust myself to drive when I’m this sleepy, to pick up my meds so I can sleep tonight
• my renewed passport arrived today, so I’m one step closer to being able to go teach science fiction writing in Pakistan for a week in March; now we see whether my visa arrives in time, and whether they can book my plane ticket for a price this nascent group can afford; fingers crossed, but at least I’ve dealt with my part.
• the University of Hawai’i people have confirmed my flight and hotel info for going to give a presentation there in February; I’m looking forward to it tremendously. I feel very lucky to get to go to Hawai’i twice in one year.
• I’ve been invited to an opening reception this coming Friday for a poetry & art exhibit at the new South Asia Institute in Chicago, which I will tell you more about soon, but I’m actually quite excited about it; they’re featuring some of my poems in conversation with some beautiful artwork; the exhibit will run for the next two months.
******
Okay, I think I’m hitting the limits of my coherence. Going to send my students some notes about the strike and how it’ll affect our classes, and then I am going to just try to stay awake until a semi-reasonable hour for sleeping — I’m thinking 8? 8 is probably manageable.
