Monday, April 27, 2020

Been Really Sick (Not Covid)

So I was diagnosed with this thing called EOE back in January.  It's basically a type of allergic esophagitis where your system starts pumping out ungodly amounts of white blood cells in your throat (where they aren't supposed to be to begin with) and it can lead to trouble swallowing and heartburn and stuff like that.  My GI didn't seem overly concerned about it since he prescribed a pill and never really bothered to explain it to me in detail and I only got to talk to him for like 5 minutes in three months.  So, why should I worry, right?

Well...40 pounds later (20 of which was lost in the last week), 3 emergency room visits, a proof positive allergy to milk, a new diet that consists of removing every major allergen for the time being that's like half vegan hell and the other half with a distinct lack of pizza or tacos for my tastes, it's being pretty fucking horrible.

Imagine having heartburn that is the worst heartburn you've ever had and no antacid or pill or anything anyone on this entire world can do about it and you're stuck like that for a week.  Plus no eating.  Plus no sleeping.

During a fucking pandemic.

And oh yeah, I made the mistake of wheezing on the way in the second time--cuz Asthma--and I got sent to the HOLY FUCKBALLS scary part of the hospital that day.  Oh, all the doctors are in outbreak suits all of sudden, look at that.  Oh, people stuffed into dark glassed off rooms.  Me, sitting there in the middle of it, in shorts and a t-shirt, little tiny cheap ass mask, asthmatic, overweight, high blood pressure, THIS IS JUST SO FUCKING SAFE, ain't it?

"Don't worry, dude, if we actually thought anyone had it in here, they're be in there own room."

You're in an outbreak suit!

You have a handlebar mustache!

Why is there a homeless guy walking around in here with two different shoes on?

Why can I see that nurse's asscrack?  She's in an outbreak suit and somehow still her asscrack is showing and no one has bothered to tell her?

Why is that glass door open three inches?  Anyone?  Why do you all keep going inside of it and yelling at some poor old lady?

I just wanted a GI cocktail so the pain would stop for an hour!   One fucking hour!

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS TIMELINE?!?!?

So...no writing has been done.

Just FYI...

I might be able to eat corn flakes tomorrow.

Yay!

With coconut milk...

:(

Important Update:  oatmilk > coconut milk, at least in the cereal-soaking-yummy-yummy department.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Quick Notes: Forced to Write Edition By State Order Edition

1.  Writing has improved to a couple pages a day at the moment (we're talking handwritten pages so they're quite a lot bigger than word processor btw).  At this rate, one of the books I'm working on will eventually get finished months and months from now, so...there's that!

2.  The scene I'm working on is KH meeting Class 2015 for the first time, so I'm pretty much doing 29 character (since he already knows one of them technically) introductions at the moment, one after another and trying to make it work.  Adding to the difficulty is the fact that all 31 people are talking on and off.  Very chaotic so far, hope you all keep up with it...

3.  How is it that I used to be able to write 90k novels with two storylines and now I'll be lucky to wrap this school story business all up in just 150k?  It's definitely going to be an indulgent book, no question about that.  For those that like twenty pages of Val, KH, Welf, and Miranda eating breakfast or KH spending multiple scenes attempting to prank the Lady or learning more about Welf family trees...

4.  But it's the last school story, and once it's finally done we can move to the new era of 24/7 CRAZY WEIRD MANCY SHIT.

5.  Health wise, everything is completely on hold.  Don't have an appointment until May and we'll fucking see if that actually happens, right?  No COVID so far...Fresno seems to be doing a really good job (California as a whole really), unless the Plague I had late February was COVID, but I'm pretty doubtful about it.  Did catch it from a hospital and was super, super sick even with a flu shot, but probably not.  The weirdest part was that Sherbert and the other cats caught it, which they say COVID can do, but no way to know until someone starts mass producing antibody tests...so...stay home and write, Raley.

6.  Can't believe how much I'm missing sports.  Other than the Football Manager addiction making me watching the occasional soccer game over the last couple years I really haven't been into much for the last five or so years, what with the books to produce and all.  Yet it's weird not have the general background noise that the sports leagues are going on, highlights on reddit and youtube and what not.

7.  Final Fantasy 7 Remake is great so far, about 14 hours in, having a blast.

8.  Anyone else having trouble focusing enough to watch television shows?  I find it so nerve wracking for some reason, I keep watching 2 or 3 episodes of something and then switching across to another the next day, where usually I'm a complete binge machine.  I just don't enjoy tension and conflict at the moment.   Wonder if there's money to be made in tv and movies where everything just goes the character's way and it's all nice and pleasant?  Probably why people turn to HGTV and Food Network and the like...

9.  Grandpa turned 90, fuck you cancer!