Bouncy Toddlers Chasing Butterflies - ROW80 Check-In

 

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 3 2023

The writing challenge that
 knows you have a life

The pain is less but still a significant factor as it is easily triggered in unpredictable ways.  A bigger factor was how the Prednisone dose affected me.  I described it inside the goals list and now I wish I'd saved it for the essay part as the title referent is down there.  But I'm too tired to move it now.  Even if I wasn't so tired I'm pushing the limit on how long I can maintain this posture without triggering the pain again.  Both sustained typing and sustained handwriting have triggered it in the last three days.  Not nearly to the extent of the scary one last Monday but no need to tempt it.



 ROW80 Round 3 Goals:

• Morning pages daily.  Average 40 minutes (ala Julia Cameron The Artist Way and Writing For Life) YES In fact I just passed a milestone by filling the first spiral notebook.  70 pages both sides.  Started May 20.  Probably would not have jumped into NaNo and ROW80 without having had a month of morning pages behind me. Must must must watch my posture.  No hunching over.  No leaning on elbows.
• Storydreaming with notebook for noting ideas for characters or scenes. (ala Robert Owen Butler From Where You Dream)  30 minutes per day Not since Sunday  (Until about ten days ago, lots of storydreaming. No notebook.  I'd misplaced the one I used to use for this and was reluctant to start a new one but I think I need to be less fussy.  The notebook is the key to this goal as without it the storydreams go to the same place night dreams go an hour after waking.  I found the notebook. So.  No excuses left. Return of the pain is a legit excuse maybe?)
• Working on the Fruits of the Spirit (aka FOS) Storyworld Bible at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.  I'm sure this will expand as I get involved but I need to set a minimum for that jumpstart. NOT since last Sunday (still hoping to make this and storydreaming  my ROW80 main project for the remainder of this round as I need a substantial start on it in time to use it for Preptober and NaNo next Round.  The pain that was last week's hiccup has lessened but it remains easily triggered.  The main issue since Wednesday tho has been the does of prednisone messing with my head and bio rhythms.  15 years after menopause and I swear I just went through PMS on sterioids.  HaHaHa  Pun totally intended.  For most of everyday since Wednesday I've had the mind of a butterfly in the body of a toddler n a bouncy chair who suddenly falls asleep in the middle of a giggle.  Those are the afternoons.  The evenings my body and mind calm down.  All. The. Way. Down.  All the way to Zen.  Now I'm the gekko that's watching the butterfly but has forgotten why it matters.  And sleep?  What's that?.)
• Weekly Artist Date (ala Julia Cameron)  This is about doing something to recharge your creative battery.  I'll go into more detail in one of the check-ins. NOPE 
• A minimum of 5 minutes of physical activity daily.  Either a walk outside with my caregiver or a session on my mini-tramp, or pacing the floor between front and back door. YES (may need to look at upping the expectation soon.  this is getting too easy.  even wit the pain returning I was able to maintain this easy level and I think it helped moderate the pain tho when you get in the range of excruciating I'm not sure what 'moderate' might mean)
• I want to reengage with my blog so: Two blog posts per week besides the two check-ins. One about encountering other people's stories via print, video or audio which can include formal reviews.  The other about a current fiber art WIP or about one of my personal challenges: widowhood, independent living with visual impairment and autism and issues related to health and aging among them.  NOPE  (I've continued to choose reading over blogging.  I've been finishing 2 to 3 books a week so there is plenty of fodder for reviews. I think the main hurdle is my personal issue with transitions (part of my high functioning autism) it is hard to change the channels in my head which translates to: hard to switch from awake to asleep and back again.  hard to switch from dry to wet and back (think swimming and showers). Forgetting to eat and then forgetting to stop eating.  Really it is any activity including topics on my mind. Except for reading NF books.  For some reason I'd rather read one chapter each in ten books in one sitting then read ten chapters in one book.  Odd that.  I wonder why switching channels is preferable in that one instance.  Is it just the fact that it is all reading and uses all the same neuropaths and I don't have to get up and move to another location but even if I happen to I can still switch to a different book without a glitch?  These are not idle questions.  This is an example of the self-reflection I've talked about in earlier posts.  Questions like these often lead to insights I can plug back into my life in another context and increase my success.  (even reading has diminished this week.  That is partly because when I manage to get into a story far enough to lose awareness of the pain I'm suddenly too sleepy to keep reading. Update: I did get my reading back Friday evening and every evening since beginning 12 hours after the Prednisone dose.  Even increased my reading speed significantly and am really going to miss that if it was an artifact of the steroid that will go the way of the mood swings now that I've had my last dose.  But between last weekend and this one I read the entire Stephen King Mr Mercedes Trilogy.  I'd planned to stretch those out over the several months before the release of his new Holly novel as Holly was a secondary character in that trilogy and in the more recent The Outsider.  The character, Holly is obviously on the spectrum tho King never names it as such but it's obvious that's what is going on with her.  Now he has given her a whole novel as POV protagonist.  I can't wait.  For obvious reasons.  I still have The Outsider tho but I'm going to wait at least a week and maybe longer to pick it up as I got behind on my Libby and Kindle NF lineups and Libby novels that have wait lists)