Still Alive Over Here

Yup, still alive. Sorry about the unexpected mini-hiatus. It's been really crazy lately. As predicted - and to my one smart aleck cousin: it takes 3seconds to predict and 1hour to write so... there... - I didn't have any time to work on my blog either this past Sunday or the one previous.

Once upon a time Sundays used to be the perfect day to update my blog. My husband does a once-a-week overnight shift from late Saturday in to Sunday morning, and I would typically have insomnia while he was at work. Something about him not being in the house when I tried to go to sleep.... So I'd stay up almost the full eight hours he was working. Awake in a quiet house, not wanting to leave my bed in case I could lull myself to sleep, and nothing to do but to stare blankly at the walls usually resulted in me working on something via my laptop.

If I couldn't get my blog done before Hubby came home - for whatever reason - I then had Sunday afternoon to write. The house was still quiet while Hubby finally crashed after his long day. Before I started working I would use Sundays to either write, clean, and/or play video games. This is how Sundays became my official "update day."

Over the past year situations have changed. With my laptop now dead I only had two options for Sunday Insomnia nights. Option one: stay up on the desktop; which wasn't ideal since it kept me from my bed and further prevented any sleep I might have gotten Plus I was killing my shoulders, back, and eyes straining to sit and type at a desktop while sleep slowly set in. Option two: Swipe Hubby's laptop; which is an older model so it's big, bulky, not as comfortable to type on while laying down, and has to be plugged in at all times since it is too old to hold power in its battery anymore. Neither option is the most ideal.

My insomnia is waning as well. I don't know if it's my body finally getting used to the routine or if I'm just so exhausted from the rest of the week, but I've been passing out only an hour, two, maybe three after Hubby goes in to work. Granted, that's still enough time to work on a blog post, but for me that's only BARELY enough time. Plus, if I can manage to fall asleep even FASTER so I can get a full night's rest in, I'd rather take that then push to get a blog post up.

Finally, with Hubby's work days getting later and later my window for not only posting before noon on Sundays, but posting at all before I go in to work myself is getting smaller. Most Sundays I just don't have time if I actually sleep. My routine has become: Take Hubby in to work, stay awake for another three hours tops, pass out until I get the "I'm done, come pick me up" call, fetch Hubby, have something to eat and snuggle for a little until he passes out, do some light cleaning, go to work, come home and crash.

WEDNESDAYS. Wednesdays on the other hand seem to be the new "perfect" day for blog updates. I'm sure things will change as soon as I put this out there - because that's how my life works - but for nearly a year now I've had Wednesdays off about 80% of the time, and when I do work Wednesdays it tends to be a closing shift.

Meanwhile, Hubby has his opening shifts on Wednesdays. I'm up and have him to work at 6am, and then I have four or five hours of a quiet house before I have to go pick him back up. Having roughly from 10:30am on to do whatever I need done that day, I am more than willing to use those four hours of alone time to work on my blog. It seems to have been good for my writing momentum in the past.

Maybe I've found my key "writing time": first thing in the morning for a few hours. That way I can justify that I have "the rest of the day" to do whatever else I need - cleaning, exercising, socializing, crafting project, hanging with the Hubby, etc - and I won't feel guilty about taking a few hours to write.

In the past, if I take a "time out" to write in the middle of the day I feel a touch guilty about it. Sure, I accomplished something that might push me further towards my goal of a professional writer, but at what cost? Is the house still a mess since I spent four hours writing instead of laundry, dishes, or dusting? Did I miss the small window of socializing with Hubby between his shift and mine? Could I have completed that crocheting project that I need done for a gift? No matter what, I always sort of feel like my time writing should have been spent doing something more productive. However, I don't have this guilt when I get the writing done first thing in the morning.

I'm also pretty creative later in the day, but I rarely get around to utilizing that time now that I'm figuratively shackled to my desktop. I either "run out of time" doing all the things I'd feel guilty "neglecting" while writing mid-day, or I get caught up in a movie/game and completely lose track of time until I'm about ready to pass out, or I'm suckered in to watching my normal prime-time shows instead of writing. It's rare that I have the discipline to stop whatever I'm doing at about 8pm, ignore the TV, and use the evenings to write.

So, yeah, I think first thing in the morning - if I'm not a slacker and can actually get out of bed prior to 8am on days I'm not opening - might be my "writing sweet spot". Add in Wednesdays Off and I think I have my new update days!

Alright, I'm going to make it official now:

THE ROGUE'S SCRIBE WILL NOW BE UPDATED ON WEDNESDAYS AT NOON!

Moving along....

So, what is up with the hiatus?

Well, as mentioned, Sundays have flipped from "perfect day" to write a blog post to "no way in hell am I getting this done".... So, that explains why I wasn't able to update on March 30th or April 6th. What about this past Wednesday? Well, I missed out on utilizing last week's Wednesday Off because I spent it on two other slightly more crucial things.

April 5th is now a jam-packed Birthday Extravaganza day! Not only is it my one aunt's birthday, but it is also celestialTyrant's birthday - who might as well be the brother I never had - and more importantly, it happens to be the day my niece was born!

So this past Saturday Hubby and I got to celebrate our niece's first birthday!

Once we were done with the early-day celebrations, we then had CT crash for the night in order to celebrate HIS birthday too - kind of a big deal since B'day celebrating isn't high on his family's to-do list. They wish happy birthday and have a special dinner and whatnot, but they never really have a blow-out. So that's what Hubby and I are for!

Terrific, but that was all on SATURDAY. How does this explain the lack of updating on WEDNESDAY?

Well, we had some major prepping to do for Saturday. For those who have been a reader since at least Christmas might recall my crazy-long crocheting project. I made a baby blanket for my niece. Owls are her nursery theme and so I made a tree with owls sitting on a branch.

Sadly, I didn't plot everything out quite right, and so I didn't have enough space for two "adult" owls and one "baby" owl. I unoffically decreed that the baby owl was my niece and the larger owl was my sister-in-law. I felt bad about not having Hubby's brother-in-law represented in owl form since he dotes on his little girl. Therefore, before I even finished the blanket I decided I needed to make a companion pillow that has just "baby" and "Daddy" owl together.

I wanted it done for my niece's first birthday, but I once again miscalculated how long it would take me to make the thing. Especially when I have to hand-stitch the backing to it, hem it, and then stitch the hem as a boarder.

Even after forsaking my blog update on Wednesday I still only managed to finish two out of the four sides by Saturday.... So I brought the pillow back home to complete. If only I had those extra two days that it kept me to finish - or if only I thought far enough ahead to start two days sooner...

Now to get started on the stuffed bunny I'm making for my bestie's newborn boy...

Anyway, last Wednesday wasn't completely used to work on a pillow. This place was a disaster due to my neglecting to do chores in favor of working on the gift. I had laundry and dishes piled up. I couldn't see my diningroom table. The living room was a maze of snack tables and other displaced items. It was a mess. So Hubby and I rolled up our sleeves and cleaned house. There went the rest of my writing opportunity last week.

I was debating working on the blog leading up to my Wednesday Off and even leading up to this past Sunday. That way I just needed to do some quick proofreading/editing before posting. I was even going to do so this past Monday and Tuesday to get the update ready for today. Work, cleaning, celebrating CT's birthday, and finishing that darn pillow took up pretty much every free minute.

Thus, the unexpected hiatus.

This also explains why ChibiSunnie is back to waiting around for me to beta-read the rest of her stories, why I haven't been able to really give Omnibladestrike more input on his story, why I haven't really focused on the local writing group, and why I've finally hit a string of Zero Days.

Hopefully today starts a new string of Non-Zero Days. Perhaps I should put up a sign somewhere - a small one - that has the ongoing count of Non-Zero Days in a row. Kind of like what companies do for "Days without an accident." That way I can see how long my streak has been going, and in the corner I can write down my previous "longest run"; a goal for me to attempt to beat.

I kind of like that idea... I just might have to do that....

Anyway, I haven't been COMPLETELY slacking off since my last update. As I stated two weeks ago, I was working on the Creation Story of Gyateara. This post is getting insanely long as is, so I'll save the details on my writings over the past two weeks for another post that I'm actually working on right now.

So, I hope this Double Post Day is the start of my new Wednesday Noon Updates schedule. A schedule I can keep... in theory.

Until next week!