Okay, who’s bright idea was it to jam so much chaos and crazy into a single month?  I feel like I’ve aged 5 years and it’s only been 31 days.  This week wasn’t much better and I even got Wednesday off for the Lunar New Year.  Happy Year of the Snake to everyone who celebrates.

On the plus side, I didn’t have a cold this week.  I can only imagine I was so stressed that even viruses and bacteria didn’t want to go near me.  Can’t even tell you what caused the mess, but work was definitely wild on a few days.  That left me tired and then helping my son with stuff put me over.  All I really accomplished was a bunch of April blog posts while I was waiting for appointments to start or since I only had 30 minutes of free time.  So, not a stellar author week.

That isn’t to say I did nothing.  I did almost nothing!  The only progress I made on Darwin & the Beast Collector was printing out the whole book.  I wanted to start editing it on Wednesday when I had off, but a bunch of appointments left me too unfocused to start.  I want to dive into this book with a semi-fresh mind since it’s one that I’m uncertain about.  Changing the ending and realizing a few issues that might not really exist has me in doubt.  For example, a group of monsters have individual names, but I don’t know how to introduce those since they don’t really talk and nobody can research them.  Right now, everyone uses a descriptor with a species until names start getting discovered.  Is this a good thing to have for most of the book?

Another issue is that my villains didn’t come out as evil as I wanted.  One is almost nice and another is simply a creepy jerk.  Guess this also isn’t a bad thing since it can open the door for more sensible actions.  The more evil a villain is, the more outlandish some of their actions can be.  Am I just giving myself excuses?

My plan is to start editing Darwin & the Beast Collector today between running errands and attending a Pokemon Go event.  Tomorrow will have more open time, but I’ll be fine bringing chapters to work to edit during breaks after I start.  Really didn’t want to begin with other people around.  We have a break in February that will help me get through a bunch of chapters too.  I’m looking at finishing this by the summer, which means typing it in during that time.  I might even be able to start Darwin & the Joy Path by end of August.  Fingers crossed.

I’m feeling like this is a precursor to the 7 week stretch of no days off between winter and spring break.  That’s always stressful because the weather is changing, a lot of events are going on, the 3rd quarter push, and meetings.  This is both as an educator and a parent, so I’m getting it from both barrels.  It’s weird because I’ve done office, retail, and food jobs with these kind of stretches, but that didn’t drain nearly as much as working in education.  It isn’t the physical drain either.  It’s the emotional one, but that could also be due to the personal stuff I’m getting battered with.  That’s going to be getting fairly interesting this coming week too.

Speaking of next week, I’m not going to plan out a lot because there are changes coming down the road.  Mostly, a new doctor for something that is a weekly appointment.  The place isn’t as close to home as the previous person, which means I lose more of at least one evening.  Plus side is that I was successful enough at this Wednesday’s Pokemon Go raid that I don’t have to go out for the next one.  I can do some catching after work, come on home, and maybe do some editing.  Guess this is balancing out, but next weekend is Super Bowl and we’re having a party.  That’s going to change things a bit.

Haven’t talked about what I’m watching these days, but I only tried a few fringe anime series that sounded interesting.  One was decent and the other I stopped halfway through the first episode.  Last night, I started a show on Amazon called ‘Cross’, which is based on the Alex Cross series.  Stars Aldis Hodge, which is why I started it, and I like it so far even though it’s not my norm.  Probably finish it before Monday since it’s only 8 episodes.  Be even easier if my back continues giving me trouble and I have to stay lying down with a heating pad.

Goals of the week?

1. Start editing Darwin & the Beast Collector.
2. Watch ‘Cross’ this weekend.
3. Play Pokemon Go daily for exercise.
4. Help son study for tests.
5. Prepare throughout week for Super Bowl to avoid rushing next weekend.
6. Hydrate!
7. Sleep!
8. Figure out what to do for dinner tonight and tomorrow.
9. Do whatever it is I forgot to put on the list.
10. Tolerate and survive the upcoming stress storms that I can’t talk about on here.  :-s