Friday Freestyle Writing 3/24/17

Our new puppy chewed up my McKenzie Roll cervical roll pillow. It wasn't expensive, but she chewed it up and it was mine :( The cervical roll is the only thing I've found that helps my messed up neck to not get even more messed up and cause me pain and headaches. And I've bought more than a couple way more expensive pillows specially designed for neck support. Now I have to order another one from Amazon but for some reason haven't done it yet. Oh I also need to order another bottle of the Glucosamine for my fingers. I'm refusing to admit age is setting in and perhaps arthritis, but I do feel better when I take the Glucosamine daily. For a while there I thought I had gout in my thumb. I mean I knew it wasn't really gout but man it was really sore and kinda warm to the touch. I started taking the Glucosamine again and it is improving quickly. Which leads to the arthritis theory which goes back to the getting older issue.

I told someone today that I am working on my second book. Lies, all lies. Unless you count thinking about working on my second book. And even though I always procrastinate in my writing, I think I figured out why this time. But, I'll save that for the intro to the second book. Which I really am (thinking about) getting to work on.

Why is my face so red and warm the past couple days? It's really weird. I'm not sick. I have been using a new face moisturizer recommended by the dermatologist to "heal some damaged skin cells that could lead to skin cancer". But I've been using it for a couple months now so surely it's not a reaction to that after this long. Today I taught step aerobics and my face and arms got really red. Now the room as exceptionally hot to start, and I haven't taught step in probably six months. But still, I was really red. I hope I'm not getting sick.

Now that my broken foot isn't quite as broken, I've gotten back into the swing of things in the gym. I was thinking today that I need a good weightlifting program for women so I decided to take a look online for free programs. What utter pieces of crap. After looking through a few sites, and getting annoyed at the bad alignment in the pictures, I remembered oh yeah, I already know all this. I am a personal trainer after all.

My cat just jumped and caught a mosquito out of the air.

An Almost Not Good, But Turned Out To Be Very Good Day

Today was a good day. One of those days that you have to hold on and be grateful for when they come around.

It had potential though to NOT be a good day.

We were supposed to leave early tomorrow morning on a road-trip adventure to Minneapolis. Kid 3, myself and Kid 5 had been planning this for weeks. We would see Kid 3's girlfriend, meet her family and visit the Mall of America.

But then about 1:30 this afternoon I got the phone call.

Kid 3's car needed about $700 worth of repair work. And the repairs were serious safety issues so they couldn't be put off until later.

We would be driving my car the 12 1/2 hours to Minneapolis, so transportation wasn't an issue. The $700 was the issue.

Kid 3 had enough to pay for the road trip, or enough to pay for the car. One of those crappy adult responsibility decisions that suck whether you are 18 or 48.

I am proud to say with very little hesitation he realized the road trip was off and he needed to pay for the car repairs.

That could have ruined the day. In the past I think it would have.

But not today.

This evening I had to go back to work to personal train just one client. Kids 3 and 5 came with me and got in a good workout themselves. When we got home, the rest of the kids joined us and we went to our favorite local burger and wings restaurant.

We didn't know the restaurant had started a new weekly trivia night every Wednesday. We had so much fun playing along as a family. It's even more fun playing now that the kids are teenagers and young adults and realizing how smart and well read they have become.

Between trivia rounds and burger bites, we got caught up on each others busy lives, laughed and genuinely enjoyed each others company.

Those rare moments of living life with ease are very special indeed.

Writing Recycling

March 1 question: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Yes! Who hasn't? Or why wouldn't you?

Most of the writers in the Insecure Writer's Support Group are fiction writers so I'm sure this question is really meant for those old half written stories that never got finished. But, as a nonfiction writer, I have often pulled out old blog posts, old ideas jotted down or even an already published piece to rework it and republish it.

As a freelance writer you have to find a way to get the most from your writing. Usually it's rewriting a piece with a different angle for a different publication. Or expanding on a shorter post to make it more in-depth.

I'm still in my writing funk and not doing much, if any, writing. Let alone any rewriting. I'm still not sure what that is about.

Maybe I'll go through some of my old stuff and see if there is anything to refresh and renew my writing spark.

This post is a part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, a monthly meeting of writers who over think, under write and just want people to like them.