Who Knew?

more animals

That cats are as full of s(urprises) as toddlers? Well I did actually. But why did my Merlin have to 'surprise' me twice in under two hours this morning--day one of NaNoWriMo?

I fell asleep shortly after ten last night without really meaning to. I didn't even turn out my full spectrum lamp. I couldn't believe after all the anticipation and prep work for that magic hour that I was suddenly having to pry my lids open two hours beforehand.

I don't know whether it was the light in my eyes all night or the days of obsession culminating in that last hour as I wrote up last night's post but my dreams were full of images, ideas and characters influenced by or related to my NaNo story. I woke at 5:22AM with several thoughts and images strong in my mind that I wanted to get recorded.

But I was also ravenous and needed my coffee so I chose to tend to that first. I got back to the room shortly with a bowl of oatmeal and yogurt and a cup of coffee and settled on the bed with them. I hadn't taken two bites before I heard a very odd sound coming from near the TV which was off. It was the sound of a nearly empty mustard squeeze bottle as you squirt out the last of its contents and get as much air as mustard. I rolled onto my knees to lean over to see and there was our Merlin in the litter box but with his butt hanging over the edge.

And it wasn't mustard coming out of him. Tho it had the texture of mustard.

It took me a good half hour to clean up the mess and by then both my oatmeal and coffee were no longer hot. But neither was my appetite.

Shortly after that, around seven, Ed left for work. He expected to be back well before noon as he would be going on overtime after 2.5 hours and did not have authorization for it. My plan was to have my 1667 daily NaNo quota by the time he got home.

I got the pillows and blankets piled behind me to support my back and the box that supports the laptop between my legs. I pulled the board holding the laptop and reference books and notebooks over onto that box. I slipped on my typing gloves--wrist supporters made of something like spandex with elastic straps (like ACE bandages) you wrap around your wrists and fasten with Velcro.

I was just starting to relax and gather my thoughts and was thinking that I just might still be able to recapture a couple of those strong images from the dreams I woke from when I felt Merlin pad up by my hip which was up by the pillows at the head of the bed. He started doing that turning in circles thing that he does in two places--when making a nest to sleep in; and when preparing to make a delivery in the litter box (or grass when outside). I turned to look, sure that he was settling for a nap. But there he stood with tail raised, making his delivery right beside my hip!!

Thank god it wasn't the faux mustard. But faux lemonade is not much more to be desired. Especially by the spot you rest your head to dream.

As if to taunt me he was standing on a library book with his front paws and as I yelled at him he took off. Without shutting off the spigot.

I was penned in by my desk but was able to grab some napkins, a paper towel and then a bath towel and stuff them in the general area. I had to strip off the support gloves and move my 'desk' back onto its cart beside the bed before I could deal with the mess properly. By the time I got the fitted corners of the bottom sheet and the mattress pad off and pulled them back it was already too late to keep the mattress itself dry.

So I had to strip the bed and put the sheets, mattress pad and two pillowslips in the washer. It was after eight before I got myself and my desk set up on the bed again. This time I found it impossible to relax. I was half pissed and half worried with Merlin. This was so untypical of him!!

So I started playing Spider instead of writing. And after an hour or so of that, I decided that I could at least go back to working on the prep material which I hadn't finished with yet and maybe that would get my mind back in the game. That's what I was doing when Ed got home from work at ten-thirty, grabbed a book and headed to the porch to read. That's what I was still doing when Ed came in at noon saying he wanted to lay down. I said we needed to make the bed first.

It was a good half an hour before I was once more set up at my 'desk'. This time with less elbow room and less support behind my back. I finally started working on something that could be counted as story word count about 2PM. I had about 400 words by 4:30. Slow even for me. I was doing more daydreaming than writing but it was the productive kind of daydreaming. It was dreaming the story.

I took a break at 4:30 to go out on the porch to 'workout' on my mini-tramp for half an hour. I did little more than five minutes of actual aerobics level exercise in that half hour but I got my circulation stimulated and my limbs somewhat limbered. I've only missed one day of some kind of motion work on my mini-tramp since I got it three weeks ago tomorrow. That was this past Thursday--the day that I walked to the library and back.

I got back to work shortly after 5PM and managed to clock in with just over 1000 words by the time I was called to dinner. Got busy again after dishes were done around 7. I wasn't typing steady over the next two hours. It was hard to get back in the groove. It always is. That is why I so hoped to be done before dinner. Waaaaaaay before dinner.

Sometimes I really miss the days when there was no one telling me when to eat or sleep on those days when I just wanted to sink into the story and not pull myself out until the story released me or sleep and food deprivation got a stronger grip on me.

Well at 8:30PM my word count was at 1640. I was tempted to call it good enough but made myself give it twenty more minutes before checking again. It was 1709. I headed over to the NaNoWriMo site to enter my word count. The site was busy or having problems and kept timing out on me. It took me until after 9:30 to get my word count updated. Last year when I updated after 9PM my new words got attributed to the next day. I don't know if that happened this time as I hadn't the heart to try to get back on to check on it.

So here it is after midnight. This is the middle of what is usually the most productive hours for me but tonight I'm ready to sleep again. No wonder?

And the clock is already ticking on NaNo Day 2. *sigh*