Wow. Just wow. A little over a week ago I wrapped up the third season of the Heat Flash Erotica Podcast, just in time to take a 3-month break. I’m amazed at how much time I suddenly have available now that I’m no longer scrambling to write, record, edit and upload the podcast every week. I’m also amazed at what I have, and haven’t, been doing with that time.
For starters, I have not been writing. The plan with the hiatus from the show was for me to take time to write a novel I’d started a couple years back and to write some short stories I owe people. I’ve not really gotten into any of that. I guess that should not be a surprise. After three years of turning out a short story a week, I suppose I’m due for a break. I’m thinking tomorrow will be the day I start writing in earnest, at least in terms of taking notes for the next story and working on an outline.
I’ve also not been sleeping real well the last few weeks, which is a huge pain in the ass because it totally screws up my schedule. Honestly, I have not been able to find a decent solution to the problem. I exercise, avoid caffein in the evenings, try to get up early and I am definitely tired when I lay down at night. But none of this prevents me from staring at a dark ceiling for a couple of hours or more on the nights when insomnia hits. I’ve tried an over-the-counter sleep aid, and that helps, but also leaves me just as groggy the next morning as if I hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. So not sure what to do. Honestly, if I were smart, I’d get out of bed and do some easy work, something to lull me to sleep, but I’m usually so tired I don’t want to get up. I just want to lie there and hope sleep comes soon. At some point, it eventually does, but not soon enough to make me well rested the next day.
What I have done the last two weeks is work on computer graphics and other odds and ends things. I’ve been turning out book covers for a client, trying my best to keep up with the assignments they send me. And I’ve been designing posters and t-shirts to take to the Rally for Sanity and March to Keep Fear Alive. I’ve set up the “Fear Me” t-shirt in a Zazzle.com shop, with all the profits going to DonorsChoose.org, so if anybody is so inclined, they can buy the shirt and help out a good cause related to the march at the same time. As soon as it shows up online, I’ll post a link here and you can all go buy my shirt!!!
I’ve also started playing piano for some reason. Not obsessively every day, but often enough that I can get through a few Bach pieces with few or no stumbles. I actually sound decent enough that I bought more advanced music books and I’m thinking maybe this is going to turn into a regular habit. I find this incredibly weird though, as I haven’t played piano regularly since my pre-teen years.
Finally, it’s October, so I took some time to work on Halloween decorations yesterday. I dedicated the entire afternoon and evening to painting up skulls to hang in the tree in my front yard. Here are some pics of that.
I started with three dried gourds that I trimmed the stems off of and drilled holes in to hang them from the tree.
The kids helped me paint the gourds white and add some yellowish brown stains with a sponge.
I opted for a Day of the Dead look and painted the features and designs on with black acrylic paint. Here’s one skull in progress.
And here are the three finished skulls. Now all I need to do is run a wire through them to make a hook and I can string them from the tree out front.
Those skulls are probably the most creative thing I’ve done in a long time, and I loved every minute of it. I’m thinking I need to do more projects like this, but I don’t know what I’d do with them once they’re done. Any ideas? I’d love to do more creepy, spooky artwork, either sculptures or decorations or even just painting and drawing, but again, no idea what I’d do once I finished the final product. Thoughts? Ideas?
The other thing I’ve done a lot of lately is knitting. I’m just about finished with a scarf for the Hubster and have been busy knitting a shawl for myself, as I mentioned last week. I’ve also signed up to knit hats, scarves and mittens for a charity that distributes them to kids in the mid-East, so soon I’ll be busy with that. Maybe that’s what I’ll do when I can’t sleep – knit. Or draw. If I can just figure out a way to do it without getting out of bed, because I am to damned lazy to get up once I’m all tucked in.
Anyway, inspite of the insomnia, inspite of the lack of writing, I’ve been pretty happy all around doing stuff. Just not the stuff I expected to do. I’m hoping tomorrow I get my assets out of bed early enough that I can get back to a regular schedule. We’ll see how that goes.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Rather than easy work, which still activates the areas of your brain associated with work and still has the emotional connotations of work, something simple and somewhat repetitive that calms your brain might be the way to go to get to sleep. Worry beads or a rosary are good meditation tools, and there are lots of prayers or mantras to be found for such. I’d actually recommend playing your favorite easy slow piece on the piano if it doesn’t make too much noise.
And rather than actual medication, another thing to try is melatonin, though I admit it doesn’t help me get to sleep so much as stay asleep, and I do tend to feel a little groggy the morning after, though not nearly so much as with OTC sleep aids. YMMV.