Blog No. 345
I normally get Mondays off. The hate for Mondays is one of those things that has always seemed bizarre and kind of exhausting. I get the 9 to 5 office drone hatred for having to go back to work after two short days of freedom (probably spent doing all the chores that get missed all week). My issue comes from that group being a minority. I have never worked a job that has weekends off. Most professions (and crappy jobs) that I can think of don’t fit within that bubble. People have to work evenings, weekends, or shift work. So. I normally get Mondays off, but usually on Mondays I have plenty to do. Besides the chores thing since it’s basically my Sunday (or whatever. It depends on the day). It’s a big writing day for me, and I got to boxing. Those things alone are enough to carve out most of my time. This week, though, I just stayed inside any had a day to myself.
Part of this is because I am (or was, hopefully) fighting something. My throat was sore, and that’s the first sign for me that I’m getting sick. Sometimes I can fight it off with an extra dose of my medication, sleep, and tons of water. Staying home helps all three of those things happen, so that’s what I did. Plus, Anchor was closes and both Christian and Elly had do to family things, so I wasn’t really up for a solo trip. On top of that, I worked all weekend. With all the things going on (like my nemesis parades) and figuring how full of children some places would be, I called it early. I did get some dishes and laundry done, but they are hardly things to count when I watched two movies, the entire first (and sadly only) season of Clone High, and played some early 2000s GameCube games. It was a day steeped in nostalgia.
I don’t think I get overly stuck on the good old days. I get waves of it from time to time (depending on if something triggers it). Clone High certainly triggers it. There is something about that time for me, I was in college, working at a video store, spending a lot of time hanging out with friends. It was a time steeped in fun, new experiences, and a bit of challenge. I’m all for looking to the future. I couldn’t keep writing if I didn’t depend on things to come. It’s the doing now that creates the nostalgia for the future. Sometimes, though, there is something else hiding just under the fond memories. There is a sort of yearning for things that I haven’t experienced that ether, I always intended to, or watched happen on those television shows I remember fondly. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it tends to stick with me for a few days before I get busy with the things in front of me and forget all about it.
Things like writing. I missed my mark for July. I was already behind, but I told myself that I would have a good couple of months to make up for it. So far, I haven’t. Some progress was made, and I’m feeling like I figured out some things with the story (and characters) even though some of that came from going in the wrong direction first (some of which I’ve fixed and some that I’m leaving for future Ben to worry about). I’m doing okay for my usual summer slump, but my word-count goals are slipping away. As I’ve mentioned multiple times before, I wanted to speed up my first draft and improve my summer writing. 
Both are slightly better than average, but that’s not enough to reach my goals. I just have to be okay with it (I think) and push to continue to improve. In my focus, some other things have slipped away (like the podcast and the ebooks) but I’m not going to worry about them right now. I have to focus on getting the minimum done in between my increasingly busy day job schedule. Considering that Christian is entering his period of kids at home for the summer and won’t be available basically, anytime. I’ll have to force myself to do a lot more on my own. I hope that day off helps and won’t turn into a bad trend for the month.
Ben Van Dongen 