Fires licking at my heels...

The strangest thing happened to me yesterday (Wednesday). This weird warming sensation struck my posterior area. Not sure what was happening, but it had something to do with the fact that November is quickly slipping away from me. The date December 2 held special significance in my mind. Hmmm.

December 2...

Ass on fire...

Word counts...

Holy crap, I have just over 2 weeks to get my entry ready for Romance Writers' of America's prestigious Golden Heart contest. Picture my heart melting into a puddle of electrically charged goo rolling in a somewhat forward motion. Got to ... get busy...

I've enrolled, paid my $50, and now I have to have the book finished and all the pertinent copies and paperwork ready and in the RWA Houston office by Dec. 2.

Being a compulsive 'how-many-words-do-I-have-to-write-every-day-to-get-this-done" sort of person, I immediately burned 2 or 3 perfectly good hours figuring that out. Happily, I'm all caught up with my critique partners on their stuff, so I should be able to concentrate on mine full time.

I'm having a great week, comparatively (last week of chemo cycle which is generally good), but next Tuesday is a new treatment and a new cycle. Hopefully I can get a reasonable amount of writing done this week and next. Ugh!

Love you guys - happy writing - make your dreams happen!

~pinkie

Everything's a Trade-Off

Well, yes, I'm on the upswing for this cycle and many things are feeling quite normal. Unfortunately, I don't get a "Get-out-of-jail-free" card. I got the "Now's-the-time-for-pain" card. Yesterday was the most excruciating day I've had since I went to the hospital and found out the cancer had spread to my liver.

I called the doctor on call, and she upped my pain meds quite a bit. Luckily, I have a ways to go before I hit the ceiling on those types of meds. Not much interesting on the left side.

I'm quite sleepy, however. Another boost to today is that my daughter and son-in-law are in town along with my west Texas aunt. I can't get everything going my way at once, but I also *don't* have everything going wrong either.

Love ya!
~pinkie

Throw Your Arms High in the Air..........

..........'cause today has been designated CHEMOCOASTER DAY!!

I woke up feeling pretty darn good. My appetite was close to normal and food tasted more like it should. I had forgotten how chemo distorts the taste of food. I ate the biggest breakfast (2 pcs of toast) since all this started.

Then I found out my cell phone had died in the night. I bought it less than a month ago, so I was hoping I could just call in and get it taken care of. If I were able to run around, the phone option would have been fine, I'm sure.

While I thought about what to do, I decided to make banana pancakes. Unfortunately, by the time I got them made, I was too tired to eat. My appetite was gone.

I laid down for a while, then called Sprint to deal with the phone. We tried to reset it but no luck. She said I had to take it in. I asked her if she could just do the return and sell me a new phone, she said I should take it in so that if they could fix it, I would have service while I waited for the new phone to come in.

So I called my mother-in-law who was kind enough to give me a ride to the Sprint store. They couldn't get the phone working either. They processed the return. They don't carry the phone I want, the HTC Touch Pro 2 in the store, so they got my phone-before-last working and instructed me to call from home to order the TP2.

Yes, I'm back at the house on the phone. This time, however, it all works and my purchase is complete.

My pain, unfortunately, is spiking and my novel is calling my name. I'm loving the plot and characters. *sigh*

Two of my critique partners and I signed up for the Golden Heart this year, so NaNo has another dimension of importance to it. Got to get the ms done for the contest.

My granddaughter just visited me, so it looks like I'm ending the day on an upbeat. She brought me a beautiful necklace and a cake she picked out for me. She has great taste! Nothing like family, is there? And truly great friends....like you!

Love ya!
~pinkie

Sunshine and Peppermints, NaNo Day Three

Day 3 of NaNo, 1 day 'til birthday. All in all a good day today. I got 8 hundred-something words, not my highest ever but decent.

I'm convinced I'm on the sunshine side of the chemo cycle. Food commercials are no longer revulsive, I don't wish I were laying down everytime I'm sitting up or sitting up everytime I'm laying down. My eyes feel clearer, my attention span longer. Little things that add up and multiply.

Need to go give the dogs their pills and shut down all my little projects around the house. About that time, it'll be my time for bed and meds.

Get ready for another day of writing all, rev up those engines. We are off!

~pinkie

NaNo Boo Boo

Halloween was pretty darn cool this year. Quite a few kids moved onto the block this year, so we gave away most of the candy we bought. I love seeing the kids' costumes. My stepdaughter has moved back in with us for a while, so I got to see one of her costumes and a picture of the other. She and her friends are so cute all dressed up.

Opened NaNo on Sunday morning with 745 words. Not a great start, but I discovered I needed work on my GMC's and got that out of the way. Used one of my favorite resources, Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain. WARNING: His is an advanced book for those who've mastered the beginning principles of writing. If you don't get what he says now, keep coming back as you learn more and his principles will make better sense.

Hope to get more writing done today if I can get to feeling better. Had a hard time getting out of bed. Four more days of bad before the body starts to bounce back. Ugh. Been a long week. Two of my buddies got around 2500 words done yesterday, so that's got me really encouraged. I've got to catch up! :-)

I can't believe I'm only on Day 6 of my treatment cycle. Yesterday I told Mom I just wanted to go by the hospital and get one of those mega-painkiller shots. *sigh* Today is the same as several issues conspire to get me down. Cancer in liver kills the appetite, pain meds stall digestion, chemo causes mouth irritation (feels kind of like invisible canker sores). I had forgotten what chemo was like, but I'm thinking I'm doing better this time than last, espcially since I'm not doing 'speed-chemo'. We'll see how the second half of the cycle does. Looking forward to losing hair probably in about 4 or 5 weeks.

Well, off to drink the lemony wonder that is magnesium citrate! TTYS.
~pinkie