I’ve been distressingly low-energy lately, partly because I have the Family Cold, but also — I must admit — because my eating habits have deteriorated drastically in recent weeks, with too many meals (read: most) consisting of burgers, or sausages, or just chips and ice cream. Delicious, yes, but not energy-imparting. (I’ve been pretty good about getting better food into my kid, but not myself.)
So I’m going to work on fixing that. I’d love to get back to our tradition of having salad for dinner a couple of times a week, and other reasonably healthy meals the other nights, with bratwursts-filled-with-cheddar returned to the status of an occasional treat rather than a mealtime staple. I’m in the mood to start making soups and stews and such anyway, now that the weather’s turning colder and more damp (in theory, anyway — yesterday was 70 degrees and sunny).
Despite feeling pretty drag-ass, I’ve been writing, steadily if not quickly. The current novel project — I’ll call it the Snake book, just so I can call it something publicly — is growing by the rate of 1200 or so words per day. I expect to get more done on my weekend days, so it wouldn’t shock me to hit 50,000 words by next Monday, and I may even manage a draft by October 1. That would give me a month to do revisions before it’s due to the editor.
My kid’s been a lot of fun lately, though his sleep habits have been odd. He came to our bed to sleep with us a few days ago — no big deal, as he’d clearly had a bad dream or something. Then the next day he came to our bed again, a little earlier. Then again, even earlier. He always went back to sleep, in our bed, with only moderate parent-kicking and other demands, so it wasn’t terrible, but it was a bad trend.
Last night he came to bed at 1 am. So he got stuck back in his own bed with some brief snuggling and reassurances. We were prepared for a middle-of-the-night installment of Toddler Tantrum 2010: The Tantruming, but he settled down after some pro-forma squawking and didn’t rise again until 6:30. Let’s hope we’ve broken the cycle. Snuggling with him is awesome, and he won’t be this little and snuggly forever, I know, but it was starting to prove detrimental to his mother’s health, as she’s a light sleeper who has insomnia problems anyway. (I sleep like a rock, myself, and I’m also willing to relocate to the couch if the bed gets overcrowded, so it’s easier on me.)
We’re watching season one of Lie to Me, and enjoying it, though only the clinical psychologist interests me at all as a character — otherwise they all strike me as very thinly characterized, with identifying tics and gimmicks tacked onto cardboard cutouts of people. (Maybe the clinical psychologist is the same way, and I just like her tics and gimmicks more — or maybe it’s just that she’s the most likable character on the show). I do also like the guy who adheres to Radical Honesty, since that’s a cute gimmick that’s even somewhat justified by the show’s premise, but I think he’s been underutilized, pretty much just used as comic relief so far. I’ll keep watching it, though, because I like stories where people lie and get called out as liars constantly.
As the father of a 2 yr and a 7 month old I can relate with all of the above. We’re all sick and I’m lucky if time presents itself to eat healthy. Our 2 year old has been booted from the bed for his little brother so now I sleep with him instead. Good times.
New to your work so thought I would post. Your short fiction is amazing so thanks for writing! I’ve not been this excited about shorts since Kelly Link.
Get better and good luck with eating better! – and btw, my sons eat better than me too. My 2 year old begs for carrot hummus…