As we speak this morning, I am looking at a jar of preserved, raw quahogs, and I just really wanted to mention it because they look like inconsistently chopped hunks of flesh and I’m maybe just a little bit terrified about actually trying one, but I am totally going to.
For a tiny bit of context, my buddy has returned to work, and he brought a bunch of random stuff from new Brunswick with him, including pure maple syrup, and two bottles of the aforementioned quahogs. I’ve never had a quahog, but the three French-Canadians I’m working with seem quite keen on me trying one. I am trepidatious because I’m not the biggest fan of seafood to begin with, but I’m also not a pussy, sooooo….lol
We are now halfway through May, and I am a week into the new job. In case you were wondering, it’s going well so far! I’m working with two guys (the boss being the third) who I only just met on this job, but they’re both nice, and the boss is my buddy from a previous job, so that’s great. It’s standard work, fairly laid back, and the weather is finally starting to turn around so I’m not freezing for a change. It’s looking like I’m going to get a good run out of this job too, which is what I really wanted. It’s going to suck if I ended up working straight through the summer, but after the past couple of years of very little work I am absolutely going to take it without question or complaint. It’ll be nice to build up some hours into the health plan and pension as well, and I’ll obviously have more than enough hours for an unemployment claim when the job finally does dry up. Let me tell you, it would be nice to approach Christmas without any concerns about spending money for a change. Not that I ever let lack of cash ruin Christmas, but you know what I mean.
Plus I really, really want to get a heat-pump installed in the house so that we can stop relying on electric baseboard heaters, so there’s that too.
In other completely random news before I get into the goals… Before I left for this job I planted some pumpkin seeds and onion bulbs to see if hubby and child can grow some food and/or jack-o-lantern-fodder while I’m gone. Within days of being gone hubby started finding the crows pecking up my pumpkin seeds, the little bastards. But yesterday hubby sent me a picture showing that he’d evened out the garden bed and spread a layer of that black wood chip/dirt mixture that people usually use for their landscaping, so fingers crossed that it helps! I’d really love to see a few pumpkins pop up so we (well, them, unless I’m home by then) have something to carve at Halloween that they grew themselves!
Okay, let’s dive into the nonsense, shall we?
Goal Set #1: Creative Fulfilment
I am genuinely frustrated to say that I don’t really have anything significant to report on the art side of things this week, although there is a little bit of something. Firstly, while chatting online with the kid the other day, I did a rough sketch of Jacob from The Other World. It was very rough, and I didn’t really finish it, but I was fairly amused with it and may actually digitize it at some point. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a picture of it, and I’m writing this post from work on my breaks, so I can’t share it right now. Maybe if I digitize it I’ll share it next time. ^_^
Secondly, I finished up the line-work on a sketch I did of a collared-and-cuffed Crowley a few weeks ago. I consider this a little thing because it was already mostly done, isn’t all that detailed, and I’m not particularly pleased with how it came out. I might try to re-do it at some point, but for the time being I’m just kinda DONE with it and want to move on to something else. That said, if you’re interested, you can find it over on my Patreon. :3
On the writing side of things I am much more pleased, firstly and foremost because I smashed my word count goal for the week. Pacemaker.press wanted me to write 8641 words, and I blew past that with 9938 words by the end of yesterday. It would probably be more if I didn’t find the first week back to work has my brain all muddled and tired, but we’ll see how the current week goes. I’m also only working 10-hour days at the moment (as opposed to the usual 12s), so that leaves me more time at night to lay back and bang some words out. Hopefully as my brain and body get used to being back to work, that extra time will be more usefully used and I won’t wear out as easy by the end of the day. đ
Either way, I’m pleased with what I managed to write last week. I will say that most of the writing went toward You Can Stay At My Place for this week’s new chapter, as well as an Our Flag Means Death fic idea that I’ve been playing with on the side. That said, my full intention (ha ha) for this week is to get the new chapter of YCSAMP out of the way early in the week, and then focus on The Other World: Book Three for the remainder of the week. Now that I have Scrivener available to me again there’s going to be a bit of setting up and transferring of what I had done in Google Docs, but I don’t imagine that will take too long. Here’s hoping I’ll have a solid chunk of new writing done for next week’s post.
Goal Set #2: Physical Focus
Okay, SO. You know what is really, really difficult? Convincing yourself not to gorge until your stomach explodes because you’re surrounded by free food. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before with the whole ‘staying in camp for work’ thing, but even when the food isn’t great, it’s free and it’s plentiful, and my stupid brain tells me that I should be eating as much of it as humanly possible.
That’s how the first four or five days of work went, anyway. *cough*
I’ve since managed to push down that urge a bit and I’m trying desperately to do better. This involves drinking a metric ton of water (which, thankfully, is provided in easy-to-carry bottles), along with tea and black coffee, and trying my damnedest to focus on fruits, veggies, and protein for what I eat throughout the day. It is really hard to ignore all the desserts and baked goods, but I’m genuinely trying really hard to focus on fruit for my sugars instead, and to make sure that I get enough protein and fiber for my body to feel satiated.
Also, two of the three guys I’m on this job with are currently doing intermittent fasting, so I’m kinda tempted to try to play along. It can be hard when you’re out here because there are only certain times of day when you can get to the food, but I’ve also never been one for breakfast, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. I just have to take a look at my hours and see if it makes more sense to eat lots at work, or drag it out longer and have a big supper instead.
I haven’t gotten back into any proper exercise yet, but I’m taking it a little slow on that front, mainly because I don’t want to exhaust my body and then be cranky and achy at work. That said, I’m getting a decent amount of steps on the job, and I’m planning to start the 100-Pushups/Situps/Squats challenges again. I did those once back a few years ago, and it did a pretty decent job of building some muscle and getting things moving. Hopefully it’ll help motivate me again to get into something a little more robust.
Goal Set #3: Self-Promotion/Branding
I’m not gonna lie: I haven’t even looked at my numbers for this week, and I’m deciding right now that I’m not even going to bother. I started a new job, I’m getting lots of writing done, and I’m working on getting my body and mind back to snuff for surviving this kind of lifestyle. If I had gains or losses on the social media last week it can wait until next week for my joy and/or scorn.
That said, I did have a random burst of page-reads the other day on Kindle. It looks like someone downloaded and devoured a couple of my pen-named smut. I hope they enjoyed it, but it has also reminded me that I’ve learned so much about writing smut since dropping those on Amazon and I really do have to go back and fix them up at some point…lol
Goal Set #4: Mental Well-Being
The first couple of weeks being away from home for a new job is a bit of a kick in the head mentally, but I’m doing okay so far. The previous job wasn’t that long ago, so I think, emotionally, I’m mostly already into the groove. Also, this weekend will be my days off, so it’s always nice to look forward to that and have a few hours chatting with the kid about absolutely bugger all important. lol
Obviously getting back to work slows down a few of the free-time things, but I do have a few little things to mention…
Games are right-out, not even worth mentioning, because I’ve been choosing to spend my free-time elsewhere. Although, I will say that I’ve been picking up Pokemon Go the past few days, just for a few minutes at a time, because there’s actually a gym at our camp, so I can earn coins while I’m at work. đ
Reading has slowed, even for fanfic, but is sure to pick up again soon as I get into the swing of things. I did read a few short fics, which I then shared on my Twitter account, because that’s apparently a thing I do now. On my days off, though, I plan to claw through the rest of Part of Your World, and maybe even possibly look at a few of the ebooks I have sitting on my phone. OOH, but I also have to finish the Book of Dust audio book, before I forget what the hell was happening, so I might do that instead while I’m drawing or something. ^_^
Watching is where I have a few little things to report, nothing major, but worth mentioning. Firstly, I did a rewatch of Our Flag Means Death, and I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it yet, please track it down and enjoy the silly queer pirates, it is SO good. Secondly, because I’m strangely drawn to baking shows, I started watching one called Baking Impossible, which is a contest show where bakers are paired with engineers to create edible insanity. One example is that they had to build a cake ‘tower’ that would survive a simulated earthquake courtesy of a shaker table. It’s highly amusing, if you’re into that sort of thing. Lastly, last night I watched The Mandela Effect on a whim, and omfg it is hamfisted as sin. lol I won’t necessarily say that I didn’t enjoy it at least a little bit, but the way it shoved all the most common Mandela Effect examples in your face was a bit silly, and the ultimate conclusion was QUITE silly. In the end, I think it’s more of a ‘background noise’ movie than anything else, but that’s just me. :3
So that is that for another week! I managed to get this one out on time, got the new YCSAMP chapters up for everyone, and all in all it’s been a pretty decent Monday morning so far! I hope yours is going just as well! â¤
Feel free to let me know how your year is going so far! Do you have any big goals? Specific plans? Anything awesome on the horizon? Share whatâs going on with you!Â
Tracey Tobin 