Curiouser and Curiouser

14k.

And I'm only three chapters in. I plan for 20. The math is not good.

I told elenuial last night, and he pointed out that I am writing the Silmarillion in length.

First step in the editing process after this, the "DUMP ALL THE TEXT" phase? Cutting out massive chunks where I can.

14400 / 50000 words. 29% done!

Tuesday: DO ALL THE THINGS.
Get up ass-early. Bring Elsa to vet.
Go to work. WORK NONSTOP and get all of the big things from the last month finished.
Win at talking to insurance companies.
Win at talking to clients.
Win at efficient urine screens.
Win at eating lunch quickly.
Win at staying on the toner ball the WHOLE DAY.
Leave work ~4ish, pick up Elsa at the vet.
MOMENT OF ELSA WIN:
Elsa meets screaming baby in carseat. Never seen a baby before. Mother asks if I'd show her Elsa to see if she'd cheer up. As soon as the baby lays eyes on her, baby quiets and reaches for her. Elsa hops out of my arms, crawls into the carseat, sits on the baby's lap. Licks baby's face and hands, bringing gigglefits. Lets baby grab fistfuls of fur, no complaints. Baby is happy, mom is happy, I'm happy that Elsa likes babies despite never having met one before.
Drive to oil change, where I also have them put air in the tires, check the wipers, and top off the antifreeze. Elsa makes a ton of friends in the waiting room. Maintaining my car LIKE AN ADULT.
Come home, turn on Dragon Age, Zevran proposes immediately. Romance quest win!
Make dinner! Go to dance party downstairs! Hem pants! DO ALL THE THINGS

Wednesday: ...all the things?
Have mental breakdown about Better off Dead and wedding. Flop around like a moose with no bones. Do absolutely nothing for most of the day. elenuial helps me around, brings me downstairs to food, and then I sit my ass down and get things done. Do a chunk of bluesheet writing for the game. No longer despondent.

Today: ALL THE THINGS
Get up early!
Let electrician in!
Feed dog!
Clean Elsa's kennel!
Do ALL the dishes!
Tidy up bedroom, living room, kitchen!
Start packing for Arisia!
Sort out hotel stuff!
Remember to eat!
Write most of a character sheet, and stay under the word limit!

I still have things I plan on doing, like packing and laundry, but still. Pretty dramatic curves, there.

I'm worried about going to Vestival for a number of reasons.

One, all we have written for the game is the bluesheet, which, admittedly, is the only thing we can write without knowing how many players we'll have. At least with Intercon, you can assume a full game, but Vestival is hard to fill. elenuial will be freezing the numbers soon, so that will help somewhat, but it'll still be difficult.

Also, an issue I had with our Intercon game, Leash, was that because I was all for talking about it and advertising it, everyone just referred to it as my game, and not my and elenuial's. I made an effort to correct people who came up to congratulate me on it, but it was still kind of disheartening. I don't know what the middle ground is, though, since I'm so enthusiastic about the games I help write/run, and toning myself down seems like the only option. Now with Pop Diva on the docket, I'm making it clear in all my posts and tweets and to everyone I speak to that while I think it'll be awesome, it's elenuial's game. I'm just helping write it. I know that he tends to fall into the background roles a lot, but I also know how validating it is to be praised and congratulated. No matter how much he tells me otherwise, I know how happy it makes him when people tell him how much they enjoyed things and he gets to be in the spotlight. (His J-z game was awesome, as I heard from lots of people - why did no one tell him this to his face? It would've made him so happy.)

The main thing, though, is the social aspect of it all. I spend way too much time with creatures with four legs and not nearly enough time with two, and the parallels between the social structure in both species' worlds leads me to observe a lot of things that I don't think I should notice or take too much stock in. After all, a lot of humans don't function as dogs do.

( How I'm half-wolf. This got long, but I couldn't stop. )

elenuial is dating a dog. Honest to god - it's clear in everything I do, the poor guy. I hate asking anyone to babysit me socially, but I suppose I do need a lot of help.

Like a trainer on how to be a normal human.

Do I get biscuits?

So, as some of you may have seen on Twitter, I took a trip (ha!) to the emergency room today with a skin rash and a head injury.

I emerged later with a diagnosis of soap and concussion/sprained neck.

I'm still a bit dizzy and loopy, but attempting to write character sheets all the same.

Eight left, and Intercon is friday. =(

Totally left my phone charger in RI. Thus, until I find out what day I have off next week, I am phoneless. This is frustrating.

And, even if someone had a charger that they could lend me, I have no free time to go charge it for a few hours. So my best bet is to go early next week to grab my charger from home. Grr.

Thus, I am incommunicado by phone. E-mail is best for now.

So, for those who aren't quite as informed when it comes to my life, I've taken a semester-long leave of absence from Becker to work.

My reasoning comes from the fact that I have no discipline whatsoever when it comes to academics. I coasted with As through high school and the first year of WPI, where it was easy for me to work on the classes I enjoyed. After that, when it turned out that I really didn't want to be a chemical engineer, it was near impossible to motivate myself to work on the classes I hated. And I know that I'll have more of those in the future, so that attitude needs to go.

And this year, my first semester was one that I had rather easy, enjoyable classes. And I still fell into the trap of missing one class, then two, then not wanting to show up at all. So it's not motivation, it's discipline. And I think working full-time again to remind myself of what that's like will help me get jarred back into the real world.

When I told my parents of my plans, they agreed and, after a talk, thought that the idea was a good one. My father actually said that he'd respect me more for it (which was nice to hear, despite the fact that his work ethic is a huge part of his life) and my mother reminded me that as long as I had enough certification to get by in a job I liked, it was fine.

But subsequent talking with elenuial and a lot of reflection on my part have let me know that I at least want a bachelor's degree. I could have an associate's (and vet tech certification) in a year and a half, but if I waited the full three years, I'd be a lot more satisfied with myself. Granted, the complete major-switch will require me to have been in college for seven years rather than four (thank the gods of scholarships!), but I'd rather spend seven years to get something that will contribute to my future happiness than spend four years to get a degree for a job that'd make me miserable.

If elenuial goes for grad school, he'll be here two years, and then have a year to try his experiment he's mentioned to me: trying to live off of writing alone. And after that,we'll see what happens. Although I don't think we'll be in the area for long after that; my best job opportunities are further south, and I don't think he can take much more of New England. I also have that restless feeling, probably stemming from the fact that I don't want to have lived in one place my entire life. Of course, this is all speculation (and pretty hazy speculation at that). Who knows what'll happen.

So if anyone knows of any full-time jobs in the area, I'm open to suggestions. =)

-Haz