Weekly Check-In

Sorry I haven't checked in lately, but all of my writing energy is going into the NaNoWriMo project. I'm doing fairly well: after a very difficult first week, I've finally managed to catch up to, and then exceed, my recommended word count... last night I posted at 39,445 total words, and the recommended word count for Day 23 is 38,334. And I'm very pleased with how the story is shaping up, I'm now working on sharpening the story down to the climax. Go read it if you have a chance; or if you want to wait until it's finished, I'll be posting the complete first draft of The Math Teacher is Dead on December 1.

I've given up pretty much all other activities to this project, so I don't have a lot else to talk about; I've been watching movies a good deal, things I've seen before and can keep as background noise and eye-candy, focusing on Elizabethan period movies (Elizabeth, Elizabeth: the Golden Age, and the Showtime series The Tudors) and Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew) because of the school play in my story, getting a feel for the costumes and the language.

And I've seen other movies... but I just don't have the time to devote to reviewing them for you. Maybe later. Though in passing, I can heartily recommend Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I was quite surprised by how good it was. I can also recommend Tom Ford's A Single Man, which was an orgasm of visual style as one might expect.

MOOD

I had an interesting experience last week: last Wednesday morning, getting ready for work but with my mind on other things, I accidentally took my night-time meds (Seroquel and Zoloft) instead of my day-time meds (Wellbutrin). My meds are so divided because the former have a sedative effect and the latter has a stimulative effect. Once I realized my mistake, I went ahead and took my daytime meds and doubled my daily vitamin in hopes of counteracting the drowsiness.

Well, I discovered after about an hour at work that my night-time meds are a lot more sedative than I had thought: by 10 a.m., I was nodding at my desk, completely unable to form sentences, and confused by everything anybody said to me. So I went home, slapping myself the whole way so I didn't fall asleep behind the wheel, and got back in bed... where I slept like a log for six hours.

When I woke up, I remained groggy the rest of the day, and then went promptly back to sleep at 10 p.m. when I took my proper dose at the proper time (at my doctor's behest...I emailed her about any possible overdose issues and she assured me my meds are pretty lightweight and I can OD whenever I want without hurting myself). Of course, the next day I felt fantastic, fourteen hours of sleep under my belt.

Nevertheless, I have to be a lot more careful about that sort of thing... and to remember that if I ever accidentally take my PM meds in the AM, call in sick to work and for God's sake don't try to drive.

I learn something new every day.