Last weekend, I told a friend that I had a rough school year.  There’s been the health issues due what put me in the hospital and a few other maladies.  I’m dealing with legal stuff, which will be in the spotlight next week.  Been trying to help my son navigate some rough emotional and mental waters.  Still, I said at least nothing was going wrong with my car . . . You think I’d know better.

I brought my car in because it was making ‘ufo’ noises when it accelerated.  Joke was on me because the real problem was in the rear suspension.  Not enough to make the car undrivable, but it’s too expensive to repair on such an old machine.  It won’t make it for long distance trips or out of the month, so I had to spend the last few days of the week dealing with this crisis.  Getting a new used car next week after I do the DMV shuffle and I’m getting cheaper, better insurance too.  So, I’m kind of coming out ahead on this fiasco in that respect.

Unfortunately, I can’t take the 6-CD changer with me, which makes my collection moot.  I can only find external machines that hold a single CD and it’s too expensive to install a new one.  So, I’m going to turn my phone into the sound system.  Already set up Spotify and got the premium to make a huge playlist.  So far, I’ve added rock, hip hop, metal, cartoon themes, movie themes, anime music, instrumental, and video game music.  I can add 10,000 songs, so I’m going to put my entire CD collection on it and more.  Hard to remember all of the songs I want on there though.  It’s a small project for the weekend that I’ll do when I’m not walking or writing.

Speaking of Coven of the Gray, I didn’t get to touch it like I had hoped.  Two half-days at work were taken up with talking about work or just chilling.  There’s no place at the school I can go to for solitude, so I doubt I’ll get any done with half-days start up next week.  My hope is to finish the chapter ‘outline’ this weekend when I’m not walking or running errands.  My mind hasn’t been on point lately and several ideas have been ephemeral.  Part of it is trouble sleeping due to my cortisol levels being high.  Thank you, stress.

My summer plan is still to start writing Darwin & the Deadlands Queen.  I’ve gone over the outline a few times, but I’m worried about my mental state.  Keep thinking I screwed up Darwin & the Joy Path.  Don’t know how, but a voice is telling me I made some mistakes.  I feel like I forgot some of Darwin’s habits like toe-walking and arm flapping.  At the very least, they weren’t as common.  I can fix that in edits though.  It could also be the usual ‘imposter syndrome’ that has gotten worse over the last few years for some reason.  I’ll get to editing once I write the last half of the series though.  There are two more after Deadlands Queen.  I don’t know exactly about the final one, which was originally a spin-off trilogy.  Don’t want to give spoilers, but it revolves around a problem that comes from facing off with the Big Bad in the penultimate.  It almost feels like an epilogue.  Maybe I’ll check out the outlines and see if I can combine them into one story, but I doubt it will work due to the timeline

Aside from car and court stuff, my son had the SAT last Saturday and two regents tests (English and Algebra 2) this week.  So, a lot of studying and resting were required.  We went to see ‘He-Man’ after the SAT, which I loved.  My son never saw He-Man before and wasn’t sure about the campiness.  The fight scenes were cool, which he begrudgingly admitted to me.  I think he was mentally burnt out from the test too.  At least, that and the other tests are over.  He only has a history regents and a few extra helps for that left of 11th grade.  Then, it’s a summer of . . . Not sure yet.

With so much going on next week, I don’t really know if I should get my hopes up.  Every day has a major event either at work or home.  The court situation has me stressed the most because I don’t know how things will go.  Can’t talk about it in public in any detail beyond that.  Be nice to make some progress and gain some closure.  Don’t mean for myself, but for others involved.  The car situation isn’t any better, but I think that’s getting fixed enough.  Need to find a phone holder for my car too.

Goals of the week?

1. Get a new car and insurance.
2. Get through court.
3. Help son study if he lets me.
4. Set up Spotify playlist.
5. Try to rest.
6. Stay cool and hydrate.
7. Finish watching ‘Resident Alien’ Season 4.
8. Work on Coven of the Gray, which really should be higher on the list.
9. Figure out where I can put Lego Minas Tirith.  No space in my room and it’s basically 2 foot x 2 foot x 1 foot.  It’s the width and depth that gives me trouble.