Random Thoughts

I asked Chloe the cat whether she was going to help me find a topic for today’s blog. She said “Meow” and jumped off the couch, which I took to mean “No.” So I’m on my own for today’s topic.

I’m listening to the “Always Sunday” chill mix on iTunes. It has 35 hours of music on it, which means more hours than Sunday has. I’m impressed with someone’s attention span, that’s for sure. It makes my thirteen hundred words a day look much less impressive.

Even though I have grading to do, I will not start it till Monday. I am jealously guarding my weekend, and as I already gave up part of it for a school function yesterday, I feel justified. I might regret it somewhere toward Tuesday, but I need this weekend for myself.

This is my 84th day straight of posting on this blog. I thought it was more, but apparently the timer had a glitch in it and finally righted itself. Or it’s wrong now and I have more posts than that.

Coffee and chill makes for a perfect Sunday.

Making my Space More Motivating

I have trouble motivating to write in my house, preferring Starbucks and its optimal level of distraction. But, as the temperature outside is getting up to 94 today, I’m stuck at home. I’m now working on how to make motivating space at home.

My writing nook is the loveseat in the living room, because our office is a claustrophobic experience with too many bookshelves and not enough room to think. The library table is right in front of and facing a wall. Even though I’ve put posters on that wall based on book covers my niece has designed, I’m staring at a wall. Maybe they’re too high on the wall, I don’t know. To the right is one of these posters; my niece is rather talented. If it weren’t for that? I still doubtless wouldn’t write well in the space, because it’s too isolated as well. I enjoy having people in my space, even if I ignore them.

The living room has its advantages. I have a table for my laptop that scoots up to the couch. I have control of my music on iTunes on my laptop and send it through Apple TV to decent speakers. I play modern classical and all the iTunes playlists that tout ‘focus’ and ‘concentration’. When my husband is around, I have that person distraction, and that helps. But sometimes there’s too much distraction, like when Chloe crawls all over me or tries to clean my nose.

I still feel distractions, though. I stare out the window less (my ‘thinking mode’), and slink off to Facebook and Reddit more, which cuts down on thinking time. If that’s the problem, I can focus my solution on staying on the current page. What would help me with that?

Or I could choose to do something else. There are promotion-related items I could always do. I could take a break from the novel to write a short story. Or I could just take a break. It’s Sunday, and I have the rest of my life to write.

Writing with Chloe the Cat

Today, Chloe is helping me write the blog. Chloe is my second-youngest cat at age 4, and she is peculiar:

We adopted her as a kitten from the Humane Society — she was the one who spent her visit climbing all over me, so we knew what to expect.

The kitty we nicknamed “Itty-bitty-bitty-bitty-BABY-BABY girl” has grown into a chubby adult. She sits with me when I’m in my writing spot (a loveseat in the living room) or sits nearby, looking out the window. Often she asks for attention so it takes longer to get things done.

I’m trying to figure out what to write today (if anything). She is not helping any, choosing instead to sit on the back of the couch and read over my shoulder. Just now she ran toward the stairs for no real reason at all.

I guess I’ll just write on my own, then.

Chloe’s New Adventure (which she would rather avoid)

Chloe (AKA Little Girl) is going to the vet today to get spayed. Right now she’s in the cat carrier and very unhappy. I doubt the surgery is going to make her much happier.

Chloe is about 8 months old at this point, and just as much a devil as she was as a youngster. She still bites my toes to wake me up, and she crawls up on my clothes rack to hide. I can’t see her getting any calmer as a grownup cat.

I worry a little about putting any cat through surgery, but I also wholeheartedly believe in spaying and neutering cats. There are too many kittens and cats in shelters (as Chloe was an unwanted kitten at the Humane Society). There are too many feral cats out there having kittens.

So Chloe will go to the vet’s, and then she will come home groggy and disoriented and not very happy with us. And we will shower her with love.

Now What?

I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish and experienced everything I needed to experience by self-publishing the book.

I wanted to have a “book-signing” party. I wanted a listing on Amazon. I wanted to sign books, even if it was just among my friends. These are all shallow goals vs making big sales, but I’m pretty sure that Amazon is so glutted that making sales is a pipe dream anyhow.

If I’d have known it was this easy to settle that howling need, I’d have done this sooner.

What are my stretch goals? I don’t know right now. I’ve been too busy with writing for NaNo and grading to think about it. It’s going to be something about advertising, though. I need to make that into a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goal.

2323232323232323232323232323232348eu4444444444e (I’m leaving the above typo here, as my kitten Chloe had something to say).

A Convalescing Chloe

Sorry I’m running late today, but I had to take Chloe to the vet for what ended up being an infected cat bite on her foot. Despite our efforts to keep the other cats quarantined from little Chloe, Me-Me keeps barging in, and occasionally they get in a scrap.

Chloe is sitting next to me today — no, she’s not sitting. She’s making an immense effort to stand, which isn’t happening because she’s wobbly from the sedation she’s gone through to get her abscess drained.

So right now (blesssedly I have a work-at-home day) I am supervising the wobbly little monster. She isn’t feeling much like being petted; she’s laying on the bed next to me trying to escape … somewhere. I’m not sure she knows where, because I don’t think she can see straight yet. She sort of stands up, wobbles, and falls over. She’s scared of me but doesn’t mind curling up next to me. I feel so bad for her!

There are worse things than trying to get your work done next to a wobbly cat.

Life with Chloe

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we acquired a 8-week-old kitten who we named Chloe. This is a recent picture of Chloe:

Ok, that wasn’t such a good picture of her. How about this?

Ok, so she doesn’t pose well for pictures.

Chloe is a mixture of sweet and spicy — she curls up with me at night, right before springing over me and attacking my foot. Her acceleration rate far surpasses mine, and she can jump eight inches straight in the air. She licks my face, then nips my nose.

I’m her favorite, but only because she’s quarantining in my room until we can acquaint her with the other cats. So I am the source of food and pettings.

Yes, the other cats are jealous — not so much of the cat, but because they want kitten food too. Given the extra calorie punch of kitten kibble, of course the cats want to eat the kitten food. When one (usually Me-Me) finds their way in, I have to hide the food dish until they leave.

Me-Me and Chloe stalk each other. Today I watched Me-Me sneak up to Chloe until she had Chloe literally pinned up against her cardboard carrier. Then, as Me-Me walked off, Chloe started stalking her.

Someday Chloe will be a full grown cat, without so many of the charming kitten antics. But I’m sure she will be as magnificent and quirky as she was as a kitten.