Well, I’m glad I didn’t make any lofty goals for the week because it was crazy.  A lot of chaos ensued, so even sleeping was a challenge.  My day off on Tuesday helped, but I was a zombie when hanging with my son.  Exhaustion so bad that I started wondering if I was sick.  That really set the tone for the week as well, which means I never got anywhere close to my writing.

With this weekend being the big Pokemon event of the season, I won’t be getting any writing done.  I thought I might in the evening, but I’m going to be tired.  With things going sideways in other aspects of my life, it was really nice to get together with a bunch of people and work towards a shared goal.  Forgot my problems every evening I was out in the cold, so a full weekend will be worthwhile.  It might even clear enough stress that I can get extra writing done this coming week.  With no appointments, I might even finish chapter 8 of Darwin & the Joy Path before next weekend.  It’s a noble and lofty goal, which is possible.

The other side of the coin is that this is the last full week before Thanksgiving, which can be dicey.  Tests are coming for my son while students in general begin getting antsy about the holiday.  Think we have a field trip as well.  I’m going to try to get extra sleep like I did this week to avoid total collapse.  True, I had to go back to using Zzzquil, but it isn’t as bad as it was before.  The goal here is to have enough energy to doing writing on Wednesday and Thursday nights as well as enjoy next weekend with my son.

Speaking of the younger generation, I did get him a new video game, which I snuck onto the Switch last weekend.  It was something I promised him for the holidays, but he’s had a rough go of things lately.  So, he got his present early and is loving it.  It’s the newest Pokemon game, which is a sequel to the one that got him into the franchise.  I’m having a blast watching him run into situations and have to escape these massive, aggressive Pokemon only for more angry ones to pop up.  One could say this is a little gift to myself and the reason why I said he can only play it when I’m free to watch the comedy.  He has no problem with that because it’s an extra set of eyes seeing things on the screen.

Blog-wise, I almost finished the January stuff, but I need to pick the ‘Top 5 of 2025’.  It isn’t a pretty list since it’s my older posts that do better.  Already did a ‘Top 5 of All Time’, so I want to stick to this year.  I’ll see what I’m working with before I make a final decision, but I should probably wait until halfway through December too.  Gives me more time to figure out the Tuesday promo issue, which might be another rehash of the origins I did long ago and again in 2023.  Wish I had another idea, but promoting books doesn’t seem to be a thing any more.

Almost forgot that I have to start preparing an idea for a work pot luck the day before Thanksgiving.  All of the TAs do a little feast around this time of year, which is a nice community building thing.  I’ve had an idea for a main dish for a while and the timing allows me to put it together.  I’ll have the weekend to cook up one of the ingredients and can use the classroom oven to put everything together.

You know, it looks like my life is just a series of side missions, but I don’t know what the main mission is.  I don’t want to say it’s simply to survive because that sounds really boring.  It was always the ‘be a published author’ dream, which doesn’t seem plausible these days.  I can’t even carve out enough writing time.  When I do get the time, I’m usually exhausted from work, home stress, and the machinations of various narcissists I can’t escape.  Something has to give at some point, but it might be years before any of the obstacles are in a position to be removed.

Goals of the week:

1. Get all of the Pokemon on my ‘shopping list’ this weekend.
2. Get enough sleep every night.
3. Help son study for tests when he’s with me.
4. Finish a Lego set.
5. Start using the exercise bike on bad weather days.
6. Finish January blog posts.
7. Finish chapter 8 of Darwin & the Joy Path.
8. Food shopping for recipe.