wherein Liz is very tired of being ill

I slept badly again last night, which is probably why I stayed in bed from ~7:15pm to ~10am this morning. A lot of coughing, a lot of thin, restless sleep with weird and uncomfortable dreams, and one particularly bad moment when I woke up feeling like someone was stabbing a trowel into my left ribs and realized that the position I'd wound up in (as a compromise between not murdering my back and allowing me to breathe without immediately turning my nose and throat into either an arid desert or a pipe clogged with wet concrete) had somehow squeezed and twisted an air pocket in my lung, the same way you can get a stitch in your side when running. Except all I did was sleep.

Anyway, I changed positions after that. *wry*

This morning I watered my houseplants, posted another round of Three Sentence Ficathon fills to Tumblr, and made a start at an index/table of contents for them, which will be relevant both for figuring out how to crosspost them to AO3 and for corralling them into my directory posts.

I then walked into town, deposited a check, and caught a bus out to work. I have bought the three items I forgot last night (none of which require refrigeration) and am now settling in at Not the IRS. I have one scheduled client for this evening (a potential amended return), and other than that I don't expect much excitement.

...

I really hate being sick.

I also hate that I can get this flattened by a simple cold -- and I am fairly sure it's a cold rather than the flu, both because I haven't had much by way of joint aches and because my internal temperature regulation has only been normal amounts of screwed up rather than really noticeable "YOU have a FEVER" style chills and sweats and such.

I have been particularly susceptible to upper respiratory infections all my life, and frankly, I hate it. I mean, I guess it's better than some other susceptibilities? And I don't catch every cold that goes around (at least now that I've stopped working retail; do not speak to me about my health when I was working retail), but when I get them, they're always doozies.

It's especially frustrating because I do everything right. I sleep as much as I possibly can, I drink lots of fluids and specifically fruit juice and tea with honey, I take hot showers to clear out my sinuses, etc. And I still get knocked flat.

Ugh.

wherein Liz blathers a bit about writing

I got really into writing at work during February, which is partly because both my jobs involve periods of "you are SUPER BUSY RIGHT NOW" interspersed with long periods where I just sit at my desk doing nothing in particular, so filling those interstitial periods with writing is an obvious move.

But it's also because the Three Sentence Ficathon is a particularly good fit for that kind of writing environment. It's all short, bite-sized things that mostly fit into a single slow period, rather than a longer work where you have to mentally keep your place in the story even while you are off showing an apartment, processing a large package delivery, doing somebody's tax return, wrangling an interminable phone call, etc.

Now I am trying to wrangle longer stories in between actual Work Events, and the constant stop-start is getting kind of annoying. *sigh*

But I persevere! Today, for instance, I went back and tweaked some earlier material in the untitled Narnia bridge fic both to better explain the sawmill (which I'd realized was kind of oddly situated) and to better lead in to what I now think will be the story conclusion. And then I wrote more fish-out-of-water stuff with a tax auditor trying to interview a naiad who doesn't know a damn thing about taxes or tax evasion, because that amuses me greatly. :)

This is going to wind up as one of my longest standalone Narnia fics by the time it's done, which is ridiculous for something I started writing as a tossed-off meditation on "but bridges are USEFUL, goshdarnit; you can't run a functional medieval country, let alone an early modern country, with nothing but fords and ferries." *hands* What can I say -- brains are weird, and I am willing to follow stories down some pretty random tangents so long as I have some sense that the threads will pull back together eventually.

daily update, Wednesday March 4

Things done today:

1. Not the IRS 1:30-7:30pm. (It was technically a 2-8pm shift, but I got in early and we closed up early on account of finishing all our appointments, so whatever.) I had one amended return (long story short, the client's employer had some hilarious-if-it-doesn't-affect-you payroll processor issues) and then one new client who had some interesting multi-state income.

2. Watered my houseplants.

3. Deposited a check.

4. Bought supplemental groceries, the most important of which was another box of NyQuil capsules.

5. Wrote ~200 words of the untitled Narnia bridge fic.

6. Read chapter 10 of A Fistful of Shells.

7. Wished my brother a happy birthday. :D (Via text. Normally I also leave him a singing voicemail, but I forewent that this year since I currently sound like a dying frog. *sigh*)

8. Created a list of my Three Sentence Ficathon fills, which is the first step to getting them crossposted to AO3 and correctly indexed on my directory posts.

9. Continued listening to my current Great Courses series, How To Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd edition, which I am now slightly over halfway through.

10. Attempted to call my parents, since I was unable to speak with Mom when she called me last night (I went to bed just past 7pm and neither my voice nor my brain were up for a conversation around 8:30pm), but got no answer. I'll try again tomorrow.

I should probably also mention that while I still have not found the combined time and energy to do my laundry, I did hand-wash a pair of pants in my kitchen sink last night and they have now air-dried completely, so I will not be without clothes tomorrow. So that's something.

And now I shall go fall ungracefully into bed, because I am still sick (UGH) and need my sleep.