Long-winded update

Well, that was a way longer hiatus than I ever intended. Things got chaotic at the end of the Fall semester (as usual), but "thanks" to Covid it ended early (before Thanksgiving!). So, I had the entirety of December off from school, and I think I slept, watched TV, and ate for most of the month, lol.

But Spring semester started up in January and by Feb I was flattened by a flare up of my probable Rheumatoid Arthritis (didn't make it into a Rheumatologist for the official diagnosis before Covid made that an impossibility - currently waiting for my new referral to come through). I am still in the throws of whatever this is, though it is improving slightly and slowly with the meds I've been on for almost a month now.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Spring was not kind. It included putting two of our dogs to sleep (old age).

Because I was a wreck all the way around, I dropped down from 4 classes to 2 (bumping my graduation from May to Dec in the process), and then, not being able to keep up with even that lightened load - I did only exactly what was due for school, floating everything else to some perpetual mañana where I'd feel better. 

Spoiler, it never came. 

So, in my Art History course, which was self-paced (never had one of those before), that meant I floated everything. Note to self: self-paced is not for me!

I took one test early in April, then got the rest of the semester done in 4 days during the last week. I do NOT recommend doing this, no matter what. 

After that week I "joked" with my partner that I suspect I can now survive anything - that at the end of the world it'll just be the cockroaches and I left standing ... and that I'd have those little feckers worshiping me by the end of the first week. 

I also kinda moved on the 19th of April (mostly for the sake of having the space, physical and mental, to get through the final week of school). My new digs are the fixer upper I bought in June 2019 that never got fixed up. You would literally not believe me if I tried to describe how close to camping this is right now. But it was better than 4 dogs and my whole life in a bedroom that was probably 12x12 while trying to do the on-schedule final work for one class and nearly the entirety of the other one.

I admit to never having been a Kesha fan in my life, but her song Woman did get played a lot during that last week of school - it just had the vibe I needed.

So, school ended April 25th (my school didn't do Spring Break because of Covid so we finished early this semester too). And I basically collapsed in a heap afterward. 

My one dog with Addison's disease (the only one left who requires medication), Chica, and I are living in one larger bedroom, a bathroom with only a toilet that is usable, and a kitchen equipped with only a mini fridge and a microwave. So improving my experience of this place is pretty much my entire personal agenda for the summer. 

But, I did get back on the laptop yesterday (for reasons other than watching Hulu) for the first time in a while, and catching up with writing and this site/blog are high on my list of priorities. I edited the academic tone out of my midterm paper on Billie Holiday and posted it to Medium today. And I've gotten inspired to write a completely new book series by my final project in that class.

It is a fictional journal from a reporter working in the 1950s, and I'm in love with the idea (as happens with all new ideas). But, I do still intend to do the next book in the Kat Steals Life series ASAP. This new series is going to be based on what ended up being a short story of about 6500 words, so it's got a lot more work ahead of it. At least with Kat Steals Life I know the gist of what happens in each of the books - which is possibly part of why it has been languishing. 

I'm an inveterate pantser, cannot and do not outline anything ever. But I had a general story arch in my head for Kat and I didn't want to forget it, so I slapped the basics down on a piecce of paper. Since then I haven't felt much like writing it, and now that I mention this, I suspect it is because of the boredom of knowing how the story goes.

In other health news, I am fully vaccinated against Covid (thankfully), and as of yesterday the second dose is in full effect. So, anyone who wants to sneeze on me or lick me - come and get it 😆 The first dose kicked my butt, but for the second one I had no ill effects at all (I suspect that might be from being on prednisone at the time for my RA flare).

My post semester reward was to re-watch the entire Case Histories series so I'm now primed to listen to the audiobook I have now of Atkinson's Big Sky. And I binged the first few episodes of the new season of The Handmaid's Tale.