Tears were Shed and Pain was Sustained

Posted on February 8, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

This was a really long and tough week.  Without going into any details, a friend passed away early on and that messed with my head a lot.  It was only a few days earlier that I stumbled onto a letter he had sent me years ago and tucked into a book that I then packed away until after the flooring is done.  It’s in a large series of piles of books and DVD’s, so I can’t get to it when I really want to read it.  This put me in a mood for the rest of the week, which means I got snappy at some people.  I’m writing this on Friday and can feel that I’m more drained the normal.  Eyes are drooping and my son is still awake, so I’m not going to last very long here.

Work was very busy too.  I don’t think I had much free time and all of my destressing gear (puzzles, books, etc.) are packed up.  That means, I worked hard, helped son with homework, took him to his appointment/martial arts class, and then crawled back home to crumple on the bed.  This happened every night and I’m surprised I didn’t collapse at school.  There were a few moments on Friday of me feeling like I was about to.  Had a good-bye and good luck party for a friend who is moving on to a bigger and better position too.  As you can guess, I had no time for writing, but maybe next weekend will see some activity.  That will be the start of Winter Break.

What else is going on here?  The big thing is that I’m spending this weekend packing up almost everything else from my room and my son’s room.  The flooring guys show up Thursday and I’ll be on a couch come Wednesday night.  By the end of the weekend, our rooms will only have a box spring, mattress, and dresser in there.  I’m trying to rethink the set up for my room in the hopes of clearing space.  One thing I’m planning on doing is getting rid of my old stationary bike and buy a foldable one, which will be a couple hundred bucks.  Totally worth it since I can store it in a corner instead of having to move around a big one.  With it being wooden floors, I can’t drag things around like before, so a lighter piece of equipment would be very appreciated.

Really wish I had more to talk about.  Finished scheduling posts for April . . . requested books from the library to study for the GRE . . . Finished part of the online class I’m taking on helping kids learn to read . . . I definitely don’t feel like an author or even a writer after this week.  Keep wishing that I could write at night, but I’m far too tired.  I don’t understand how it keeps going this way.  Maybe the stress of having to uproot my stuff and then lose all levels of privacy are taking a toll.  I have 18 chapter sections left of War of Nytefall: Ravenous, which would normally be 6 author days.  I haven’t even tried to tackle the outline for the next volume and I need quiet time for that, which isn’t going to happen until . . . April.  My plan was to write at least 3 books this year, but I didn’t plan on the exhaustion and people taking advantage of me having free time.  Losing my space for this break eliminates 4 days that I could have used.  People don’t get that it isn’t the same if I’m working at the dining room table.  Just no winning here.

I wonder if this is triggering the strange bursts of nostalgia.  I don’t know how to explain it, but it was really bad this week.  I’d hear a song or see a picture that would trigger part of a memory.  It was always being in a car and driving through upstate New York or the more rural areas of Florida.  Maybe some Connecticut in there too.  These were trips that I took with my family as a child and my now ex-wife when I was married.  I enjoyed doing this and loved the scenery.  Many times, these visions make me think of going back to where I went to college, which is upstate New York.  It was a nice trip and there was a sense of joy I got from seeing the mountains, rivers, and forests that we don’t have on Long Island.  It was peaceful.  Now, I feel like they’re painful and I’m left wondering if I’ll ever be able to go on such a trip again.  Also, angry that I can’t do the same with son as easily as it was when I was younger.

A friend said that he read of such things being a precursor to depression, but I recover from the burst of sadness fairly quickly.  Maybe it’s a simple yearning to take a trip even for a weekend.  Just to get away from all the stress of my life and be either on my own or with my son.  Doesn’t help that some people keep telling me that I can’t take such a trip alone because it’s a long drive.  That sense of freedom could be partially caused by feeling trapped in certain aspects of my life.  Why can’t the human mind be clearer when it starts mucking around?

Anyway, goals of the week:

  1. Continue scheduling future posts.
  2. Finish packing up for flooring work.
  3. Autism instruction class one night.
  4. Work on taxes.
  5. Maybe work on War of Nytefall: Ravenous.
  6. Research foldable exercise bikes.
  7. Maybe work on outline for War of Nytefall: Savagery.
  8. Maybe put time aside for finishing the notes for ‘So, You Want To Be a Fantasy Author?’  (Title work?)
  9. Watch more of ‘Wu Assassin’.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Writing a Rough and Violent Couple

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

There is a touch of violence to the Mab and Clyde relationship.  I’ve mentioned this before in passing, but now I’m going to think a bit more.  It is an important dynamic to how they operate and it’s not a common, or healthy, thing to add.  At least when the people are mortal because it takes a really bizarre tone when it’s being done between immortals who can heal quickly.  Still, I find it strange at how this came about organically and stuck for the long haul.

First, I did notice that there is a difference between when Mab strikes Clyde and the other way around.  She definitely does it more often, which stems from her thinking that she couldn’t possibly kill him.  This done either playfully or out of anger.  In a way, Mab will punch Clyde before a wall because it takes more time to fix a hole in the wall than for him to regenerate a few ribs.  There’s no malicious intent here and he deals with it to a point before he gives her a warning that he’s getting tired of the treatment.  For his part, Clyde only does it when Mab is about to do something very dangerous and he can’t stop her with words.  Locking her up won’t work because of her shadow abilities, so this turns into the only way he can stop her from causing trouble. Again, they take each other’s regenerative abilities for granted.

I have toned this down a lot since the beginning, but it turns up usually when Mab gets anger at Clyde.  That’s going to be happening a lot as the series progresses for various reasons.  Many people won’t like it because it is abusive.  Yet, I also see how a pair of immortals wouldn’t think twice about this action.  They aren’t delivering lethal blows or anything that can’t be healed in a matter of minutes.  I’ve always found that giving a mortal mentality to immortals doesn’t work in all ways.  They have different concerns and thoughts on diseases, injury, time, etc.  If the couple is a fairly violent one by nature then this is a possibility, especially when this is presented as a bizarre, sado-masochistic style of flirting. Even so, I do have some trouble with parts of it and usually have it be that Mab is hitting Clyde.

Honestly, I might be making a mountain out of a molehill here.  Nobody has mentioned this aspect of their relationship beyond stating that it’s kind of funny at parts.  This takes on a slapstick type of reaction, which may be due to there being no permanent damage and their reaction isn’t one of pain.  Normally, Clyde will sigh or just keep on talking as if he doesn’t have slash marks across his chest.  Mostly because those marks will be gone before he finishes his next sentence.  The incident comes and goes fairly quickly between them and they don’t revisit it.  It’s almost like how we might do a gentle punch to the shoulder or a playful tickle.  Only there’s blood being drawn.

Posted in War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 5 #fiction #throwback

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

The Mandervale house is not really a house, but a huge mansion.  It has three large stories of rooms that are decorated with expensive pictures and marble statues.  The well-kept grounds around the mansion are almost as big as the local park, but the Mandervale property looks a lot more beautiful because of the several fountains and colorful gardens.  Right now, Delila’s parents are out of the country on vacation and the hallways of this enormous building are supposed to be quiet.

“I can’t believe you had the gall to yell at me in a public place.  Everybody there saw what you did to me.  Some of them even have opinions that I care about.  I was embarrassed.  Who do you think you are?” says Delila as she paces the floor of the first floor living room.  It is the only room that can be seen from the front door, so it has some of the more expensive pieces of art behind glass cases.

“Who do I think I am?  I think I’m a person who is extremely tired of getting bossed around in front of his friends.  One of which used to be your friend, but that’s an entirely different argument.  Other people would have left you long ago because of your constant, irritating complaints.  But I am not ready to give up,” mutters Steve, who is sitting on a big, white chair in the corner of the room.

“That still doesn’t explain why you had to yell at me.  It hurts when you yell at me.  I thought you loved me.”  Without warning, the hazel-eyed brat breaks into silent tears and Steve rolls his eyes before he gets up to put his arms around her.

“I do love you.  It’s just that you have to start treating others like they’re your equals.”

“But I treat you like you’re my equal.”

“You only do that when Ed and Kelly aren’t around to see that you are capable of acting nice.  Don’t you think it’s about time you treated Ed and Kelly the way you usually treat me?  You used to treat Kelly like a sister.”

“But . . . ”

“No buts.  I know you don’t like them and they aren’t that crazy about you either.  You could help to change that if you decided to be much nicer to them.”

“Okay.  I’ll try to tone down the insults.  But it won’t be easy.”

Steve smiles at her and lets go of the short girl’s waist once she calms down.  He sits in the white, cushioned chair again and stares at an aquarium that takes up a whole wall.  Delila quietly sits next to him and looks dreamily at the various fish swimming around in the clean, blue water.  This is a peaceful habit that she has had since her early childhood.  She has always had an intense fascination with water and its unique inhabitants.  Finally, she decides to break the calming silence.

“Wouldn’t it be great to control water?  Like those wizards and sorceresses in my fantasy books.  Just having the power to create it and do anything you want with it.  That would be so much fun,” mentions Delila.

“I guess it would.  Honestly, I would prefer to read minds.  That way I would never fail another test again in my life.  But there are better things to be.  It would be even better to be one of those superpowered aliens.  Just flying around the galaxy in high technology spacecraft and fighting to save the galaxy,” states Steve.

“I should have known that you would want to be an alien.  I swear that a lot of the time you act like you’re from another planet.”

“Well, it could be that humans were planted here by an alien race.  That would mean that none of us are from this planet and we’re all aliens.”

“Whatever.  I don’t really care.  Oh!  I just remembered something.  It isn’t related to our conversation, but I just remembered.  I have a gift for you.  I found it in one of my jewelry boxes.  I’ll be right back.”

Delila quickly gets up and leaves Steve to wonder what little surprise she has in store for him.  When she returns after a couple of minutes, he is handed a silver chain with a golden thunderbird on it.  Since Steve has always been interested in mythological creatures like the thunderbird and the phoenix, it was the perfect gift.

“This thing is beautiful, Delila.  But I can’t take it.  I don’t have anything to give you for it.  Or the money to get you something in return.”

“You bought me those romantic white roses last week.  This is just a little something in return.  Now, take it before I decide to yell at you again,” whispers Delila.  Before Steve can stop her, she puts the exquisite piece of jewelry around his neck.  She makes sure to steal a kiss before pulling away.

“Thanks.  I never had anything like this before.  It must be great to be rich.  You could probably buy just about anything you ever wanted,” remarks Steve.

“Not everything.  There is one thing, which I can think of, that money can’t buy.”

“What in the world could that possibly be?”

“You.”

“That is probably the corniest line I’ve ever heard.  Still, you could always try to buy me.  I wouldn’t mind.”

A smile appears on Delila’s face as she playfully says, “You’re so silly.”

They lean toward each other to kiss.  Right before their lips meet, a blinding flash of light appears and the form of a man in red armor stands before them.

Posted in Immortal Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The Evolution of Clyde and Mab

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

War of Nytefall (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR AMAZON SITE)

First, I tried to find a vampire couple picture to use here, but the results weren’t very appealing when it came to Clyde and Mab.  Closest thing was Alucard and Seras from ‘Hellsing’, but they aren’t a couple.  Anyway, I just wanted to mention this while I get my notes and head together.

Over the course of War of Nytefall, Clyde and Mab’s relationship change as the characters grow.  Yes, I know this is obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this needs to be explained. I think this side of the story gets overlooked by some because of their personalities.  Mab is very independent and not mushy, so the romance side of things doesn’t come out.  Clyde isn’t much better with his monstrous side peeking out fairly often.  So, their relationship going from partners/ex-lovers to lovers isn’t the easiest thing to write.  It’s also a very action-packed series that is very episodic and hosts a cast of immortals, which removes the time factor of many romances.  Still, Dawn Fangs possess emotions and that means love can be on the menu regardless of there being an action/violence heavy plot.

I said the Clyde/Mab relationship is hard to write and that is because they don’t act like the lovey couples I’ve done before.  Xavier and Nadia are easy since they’re in love and act that way.  Clyde and Mab are more likely to argue, physically lash out, and bumble around with their true feelings.  A part of this is because they are thieves and there is a distrust of others in their nature.  Not that they aim this at each other, but it means they have spent over one hundred years keeping secrets.  You will see this in War of Nytefall: Eradication that they, especially Mab, hide things from each other because they aren’t sure they can share it.  This means I’m always having to step back and think if this is a secret worth keeping and how the reveal will be met.  Not only by the characters, but by the audience who I’ve found to rarely be as forgiving about these types of things as my characters.

An interesting aspect of this relationship is that you can see it coming from a mile away since the beginning.  Mab spent 50 years believing Clyde was alive and wanting to free him.  Out of everyone he knew, Clyde believed that she would be the one who would look for him.  They get angry when someone messes with the other.  There’s a bizarre ‘vampire’ flirting here too because they take advantage of their high pain tolerance and fast healing ability.  It’s more Mab who will tear off one of Clyde’s arms and smack him with it since he needs to be calmer in general.  Yet, this has been going on since she tore his chest open to see that his heart was beating and it was met with a ‘do you mind?’ reaction.  They are a fun source of comedy, which acted as a major clue that they would eventually go from partners to lovers.

I know some people will say that romance shouldn’t be in an action-packed series like War of Nytefall.  The thing is that this is an important part of Clyde and Mab’s character development.  To be fair, it’s more for him than her because he’s the one who can go full monster at any moment.  I’ll get more into Clyde’s human vs monster thing at another post, but it is a worry of his.  His relationships are what remind him that he isn’t purely a force of destruction.  The biggest anchor is Mab and you will see that his outbursts are fewer when they are together, but the ones he has when she is in danger will be fairly violent.  This connection is a major point in the story of his humanity and how she became the way she is when she showed up in The Mercenary Prince.  The hardest part was the go through with the relationship and not reduce either character.  Clyde became a little more mellow while Mab became more focused and group-oriented.  She has definitely assumed more of a leadership role in Nytefall instead of being the one who will go off on her own.  It isn’t much since they still at the same, but it’s a change that shows they are growing.

Going out of the story, there is another challenge here that I mentioned on Monday.  It is really hard to maintain the Mab/Clyde relationship when they were me and my ex-wife at one point.  Can’t kill her off or remove the relationship without hurting Clyde and removing his humanity anchor.  So, I can only keep going forward and separate fiction from reality.  This means plenty of breaks, but I do think this has added to their relationship being less physical and not mushy at all.  They’re fairly casual about being together as time moves on, which works for their personalities.  After all, they were partners before and after their first romance, so Clyde and Mab have always been together in some fashion.  That gives me a strong foundation to work with and it blocks a lot of mucking around.  This isn’t a new or young couple that you can derail, which helps me work through my own issues.

That isn’t to say I won’t mess with them in some fashion, which is another big point of the story.  Clyde and Mab will have a really rough road ahead.  That part of their story will begin in War of Nytefall: Eradication.

Posted in War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

5 Things Millennials Look for in a Book

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Frank Hamilton | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's booksAs they grow older, millennials are turning into quite a big market. Who better than Frank Hamilton, a millennial blogger and translator from Manchester, to answer some questions about them? Frank is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing, and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.

5 Things Millennials Look for in a Book

What are Millennials looking for in a book? | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

Millennials make up a huge portion of the target audience for many modern authors. This is why it is so important to understand what they are looking for in a book to make it appealing to them. Here are five things millennials are looking for in a book.

#1 Available in Print

While it might seem obvious that younger generations would prefer digital books over print ones, many millennials, in fact, prefer reading physical books. This is just the first one of the many surprising preferences…

View original post 882 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: A Message from Leo Kandrel #fantasy #vampires

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

War of Nytefall (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR AMAZON SITE)

Welcome back to Teaser Tuesday.  I’m actually really excited about this because it shows Leo Kandrel and the Fist of Durag in action.  You’ll get to see why Clyde and the other Dawn Fangs are a little worried in War of Nytefall: Eradication.  Have fun. Continue reading →

Posted in Teaser Tuesday, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Writing After Divorce . . . The Lion/Elephant Hybrid in My Mental Room

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

My plan was to start hyping War of Nytefall: Eradication since it is going to be coming out soon.  This is the 4th book of Clyde and the Dawn Fangs’ adventures.  It’s also been 10 months since I published War of Nytefall: Rivalry.  That means I’m a little rusty, people might not remember the series, and other issues with getting back into the game to some extent.  So, I need to carefully choose the first topic here.

That or I can hit the topic that keeps finding itself on my list.  It’s something that I think I need to bring into the open.  Might sound like a preemptive excuse, whining, ranting, or something negative.  Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that I need to bring it up, which I obviously did in the title.  Here we go:

War of Nytefall: Eradication is the first book I wrote since my divorce started, which means it took longer to finish.  There were long periods between sections because of work and just not feeling it.  Quite a few reasons for this such as my ex-wife messaging me the morning I was going to write and that ruining my mood.  Dealing with heartache makes it very difficult to write anything with a positive message until you wrestle control of the emotion.  Letting it run wild resulted in a few bad scenes that I rewrote and I hope I did the rest of the book justice.  My confidence was shot so badly that I couldn’t trust my own judgement, which made editing a trick and a half.  In another life, I had someone I could bounce ideas off of every day, but now I only have shadow puppets unless I can snag a friend by text.  This all meant my usual process was no longer an option.

I should hit the big one too.  For those who remember, Nyx was the DnD character that my ex-wife played.  Well, Mab was her Vampire: The Masquerade character.  She played Nadia Sylvan and a character who turns up in volume 5 too.  Yet, it was incredibly hard to write Mab because she enters a relationship with Clyde, who was me.  These were the only character played by my ex-wife and I who became a couple.  Now, I have to continue writing them as such while my heart does that weird sensation of feeling like it’s leaking blood into my chest cavity.  It’s not really doing it, but that’s the only way I can explain what I feel.  Now, many have told me to kill her off, but a few problems:

  1. Mab is an integral part of the overall series.
  2. Mab is what is helping Clyde retain his control and humanity, so he would go down with her.  To do otherwise would feel out of character and betray all of the development of the previous books.
  3. Mab appears in Legends of Windemere: The Mercenary Prince, so we all know she survives.  Oops.  That doesn’t mean I can’t put her through hell.  At least in a way that isn’t too cruel and could explain why she’s so cold when she is interacting with Delvin Cunningham.

All of that brings up the question of ‘How do I write through the pain?’

I take a lot of breaks, which could be television, puzzles, or just crying if I wrote a scene that tore up a few emotional sutures.  One of the things I swore is that I wouldn’t take my emotions out on my characters to the point where I ruin the story.  This is especially true with the ex-wife inspired characters who I see as having evolved beyond her and become their own entities.  I mean, they don’t act, look, or think anything like her, so I should be able to make a big division in my mind.  That and I feel like it would be a victory for her if I self-destructed all of my ideas to the point where they’re unusable.  So, there is a little bit of stubborn pride at work here.

There is the belief that one can use the pain to enhance their writing, which is very true.  I would love to do that, but there’s nothing in War of Nytefall that allows me to utilize this type of pain.  To do so, I’d have to shoehorn in a storyline specifically for the expulsion of these emotions.  That’s not going to fix anything, especially when I reach the editing stage and hate myself even more.  So, I’ve had to do a lot of compartmentalizing and finding time to relax.  Sadly, I haven’t been that successful with part two of that, which I hope to improve this year.

Maybe this isn’t the best way to begin a hype period of two months.  I can see why, but I still felt like I had to throw it out there.  With this book being the first one I wrote during my ‘new life’, I fear that it will be different and I would need to explain where I was at in the first place.  Funny thing is that I still enjoyed the editing part and the story, so a rewrite wouldn’t have done much.  Well, fingers crossed when the time comes.

Posted in War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Character Archetypes: The Mentor

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Great write up of the Mentor archetype.

coldhandboyack's avatarStory Empire

Hi gang, Craig with you today. This is post number two in the character archetypes series. In the Hero’s Journey, there are some common characters that are likely to show up in all stories. This doesn’t mean each archetype shows up in every story, and aside from the hero, the rest are kind of optional. Almost every story will have an assortment of them.

This series is to introduce you to them. Once you’re aware of them, you can decide if they can benefit the story you’re writing.

Let’s meet one of the more fun ones.

The Mentor:

Heroes should start off as being capable. These aren’t completely inept characters, and you want your readers to believe they can succeed against the big odds they’re about to face. But early in the story, they aren’t quite ready yet.

Think of the hero at this stage as a beautiful prime rib…

View original post 974 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Another Collection of Finished Puzzles

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

With it being the Super Bowl, I have a party going on and people visiting, so a complicated post isn’t going to get the response from me that it deserves.  Instead, I’m going to be showing the next set of puzzles that I just finished.  Sadly, I had to pack up the table, glue, and 18-19 other puzzles in preparation for the floor getting worked on.  That means I won’t be working on another until late February or early March.  Pray for my sanity since this was my anti-anxiety activity.

Now, this is the entire 8-in-1 box set of Ocean Life Puzzles.  I got it from a supermarket clearance bin since the box was battered and they were clearing shelf space.  You get what you pay for.  They look great and the circular ones were a fun challenge, but the pieces had a lot of gaps that made it hard to glue together.  The last puzzle (1,000 piece) was a nightmare in this respect.  3 times, sections in the middle exploded out as I was gluing the thing together.  This meant I had to stop and scramble to put them back before things dried and it was harder to do.  Kind of a chore in this respect, so I’m glad to have it done and in the finished pile.

Enjoy!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Goal Post . . . Was This a Week or a Month?

Posted on February 1, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

I really can’t remember much of what happened prior to Thursday.  I know stuff did occur and a lot of things were moved from mine and my son’s room.  It’s still 1.5 weeks until the floors get worked on and I’m left without a room to call my own.  Learned that even my bed is being moved out, so that’s something new.  The roughest parts of this are going to be the first two days since I have to work too, which means I’ll be crawling in minimal sleep.  I snore and the pull out bed isn’t really comfortable.  Maybe thinking about this so much is why I don’t remember much of the week.

Another issue is that I didn’t do any writing.  Managed to do a few April blog posts, but most of my time was spent getting things ready and finishing up a puzzle.  It’s the last of the Ocean Life set, which I’ll be posting tomorrow.  I needed to get it done because I had to pack up the table and everything else before the work is done.  This means that I don’t have puzzles, books, or DVD’s in my room.  Nights are going to get really boring fast since there isn’t anything on TV either.  My hope is to get a lot of the April/May posts done, which clears a lot of time in March to do writing.  Won’t be much, but it could be enough to bring War of Nytefall: Ravenous to completion. By the way, I’m still hoping to release War of Nytefall: Eradication by the end of February.  Hope I’ve got all the volunteers written down.

Gearing up for Super Bowl this weekend, which is going to be the annual party.  Got a lot of guests coming this time including my son’s godfather and one of my best friends showing up later today.  Been a while since we hung out and even longer since he spent time with his godson.  A challenge at Super Smash Bros has already been issued.  It’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m curious about the game too.  Might leave me with a rough Monday, but I’ll survive somehow.  Pretty sure a lot of people are going to be out that day, so I’ll need to be on top of my game to some extent.  Good thing I’m eating a healthier lunch of fruits . . . I’d say if it went smoothly.

Here’s where the big part of my attention went.  I repeatedly had a lunch of grapes, strawberries, a pear, and this sugar free/caffeine free/high protein/coconut-based coffee drink that tastes good.  It helped me get through the days, but was kind of boring and my hunger caught up with me on Wednesday.  Plus side, I didn’t take more than a cupcake and a slice of pie from the dessert day.  Still, I realized that I needed more substantial because I’m on my feet and walking around almost constantly.  Otherwise, I’m gorging myself at home and I’m not able to exercise for now.  More on that later.  My plan is going to change to doing the drink and getting a small panini that they make at school.  I usually get a deli-sliced buffalo chicken with mustard and pickles, but the things aren’t that big at all.  Going to avoid the cheese stick and chocolate milk, which is why I’ll stick to the zero sugar coffee-like thing.  Lunch is really the big challenge and I’ll be watching how much I eat in general.

This brings me to exercise, which is repeatedly an epic failure.  I can’t do 15 minutes of biking in the morning because I’m too busy getting breakfast and lunch ready for my son or trying to get a little extra sleep for the day.  I can’t do it when I get home from work because I only have 40 minutes before my son gets back and that’s only if I leave as soon as the bell rings.  That usually doesn’t happen and I need the shower too.  Finally, I can’t do it at night because I’m already drained and the nighttime phone call with my son is inconsistent.  I could get it in the middle of biking and it’s hard to do it when I know my ex-wife is listening in.  So, this leaves me with only on option:

Once the work on my room is done and I get my space back, I’m going to get rid of the old stationary bike and find a collapsible one.  I’ll do 30 minutes on Saturday and another 30 on Sunday, so it’ll be weekend workouts.  Weekday mornings, I’ll try to do 10 minutes of 10 pound free weights while watching the news.  Found the ones I borrowed long ago and I plan on not losing them again.  This won’t really kick in until after Winter Break, which means I have time to adjust.  Mornings are going to be tough because it’s freezing and that’s draining, especially when I lose the carpeted floor.  With any luck, I can maintain this and not run into a problem with finding time.

Wish I had more to talk about, but it was one of those weeks.  The things I can remember involved the ex-wife or stuff at school that I shouldn’t share.  There’s a medical thing with my son that is more annoying than harmful.  That’s really it.  So . . . Hope everyone enjoys the week.

Goals of the week:

  1. April and May blog posts.
  2. Move more stuff out of rooms.
  3. Plan more for fantasy tip book.
  4. Research folding stationary bikes.
  5. Work.
  6. Read more Ranma 1/2.
  7. Get extra sleep if possible.
  8. Enjoy the Super Bowl.
  9. Write some of Ravenous if possible.  Won’t hold my breath.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments