I only managed to sleep in until just past 7. At that point, my body demanded food and I had to get up and do things. I started with my eye drop, and then walked to check the mail. Though I hadn’t checked it for several days, there was only one item in it. Still, it was a good item. I finally got my passport book. The process overall for getting it was actually quite quick; I only say finally because I was supposed to get a book years ago, but someone in the government misread my money order and send me a card instead. I should be getting my card back in the next week or so.
Then I watered my poor plants. I think the potatoes might be done for. I hadn’t watered them pretty much all month and there were very few leaves left. But I’ll give them some attention and see what they do. It’s a learning process for me.
After that, I ate my breakfast. The overnight oats that I’d set up the night before with milk and yogurt instead of water were much tastier. They also had some walnuts and frozen berries, and it was a good breakfast. I’m not sure what I’ll do differently next time. I’ll be making them differently when I want them for a snack as opposed to a full breakfast. Maybe I will switch to overnight oats instead of breakfast sandwiches. It would probably be healthier overall for me. And I can prep a full weeks worth of overnight oats at once.
I spent a good amount of time this morning trying to decide which prompt I was going to follow for my story assignment this week. The prompts this week were mashed together mystery and romance tropes, and I don’t really write mystery or romance so it’s been a struggle for me to figure out how to approach them. I tried writing each of the ten prompts in my journal, and I think I got somewhere with a few of them. I’ll pick one of those tomorrow and push my way through the story that I find. I don’t think it will be good, but writing to deadline is a good habit to cultivate.
Then it was time for lunch. And then a shower, and then my exercises. I wanted to get those done before I left the house for the afternoon and evening’s adventures. My first stop was in Payette, where I had an appointment to get my flu and Covid shots at 4 pm. I figured I might as well get those done sooner rather than later. I think last year the Covid shot hurt more, but this year the flu shot hurt more. Maybe it’s just the second shot that hurts more. My left arm is sore, but I’m glad to get that protection started.
Next stop was the Hillcrest branch of the Boise library for the John Scalzi book tour stop for The Shattering Peace. Well, that was the next formal stop. Before that, I had to stop somewhere to eat dinner. I drove most of the way to my destination, planning on finding a place to eat in the same parking lot as the library, but then I drove by the Thai place on Overland and turned around to go there. It’s a good Thai place, and I wanted food that I could rely on to taste the way I expected. I got myself fried spring rolls and chicken pad thai, which wasn’t spicy, but was good. I brought some home and I’ll add some hot sauce when I heat it up for tomorrow’s lunch.
Then I drove the short remaining distance to the library and waited for the doors to open. I’ll write a bit more about the event itself in a separate entry. But I do want to say that I appreciate that Scalzi reads from an upcoming work at his events rather than the work being promoted. That, to me, was the silliest part of the movie Argyle – no author anywhere is reading the ending of their new release at a book tour event.
The drive home wasn’t bad. If my friend’s husband didn’t have a cold, I would have gone to Nampa and spent the night at their house. But I don’t want to catch his cold, especially not with my fresh vaccines. I felt like the vision in my right eye was less of a hindrance in the dark than it was in the day time. I guess there was less detail to notice that I was missing. I mostly just had little halos on all the lights, which is annoying, but not terribly distracting.
I’ve been feeling a big down this week. I’m not sure exactly why, but I feel like I’m not feeling so down now. I have no idea how I’m going to write a story tomorrow that fits the assignment, but I’m going to do it. Maybe focusing on writing has improved my mood. Or maybe it’s just part of the ebb and flow of my emotions. Some days are harder than others.
I made myself a narrow little nest on my bed last night and left it that way this morning. I’m feeling comforted by being kind of boxed in on his side of the bed. I can lean against the bulwark of pillows I’ve created and pretend that I’m snuggling up to his back.