Since I’m too fuzzy-headed to actually get any writing done, I figured I would publish a blog post whining about how I contracted the Bubons (i.e., the common cold) from one of my darling nephews or niece (I suspect the baby was at fault… his nose was a little crusty, and I asked my brother if he was sick, and my brother said, “No! He’s fine!”… yeah right). It is inevitable that during a large family gathering (in this case, my younger sister’s wedding), I will contract some sort of plague or another. My immune system was already compromised. In the last couple months, I have had acute sinusitis, a UTI (sorry for the TMI but you know) and some sort of horrible either migraine or norovirus. I’m still not certain, but there was badness involved. So, being that I was sick a few times over the last couple months and just got my flu shot on Tuesday, it came as no surprise to me that I catch the first thing I come across during my sister’s rehearsal dinner. It had to be that because of the two day incubation period.
Fast forward today, and I’m now behind on my writing. I already took two days off (Friday and Saturday) so that I could give my full attention to my duties as maid of honor at my sister’s wedding. Those were planned. Now, it’s Monday, and I still haven’t finished writing to my inciting incident, which is where I planned to be today. I’m mostly there, but I need at least one more scene. My head feels like it’s filled with cotton balls, though, ones that are slowly fluffing around my eyeballs and maybe filling up my nose. Ah, the cold! I can sometimes head them off with zinc tablets, but this one has been pretty aggressive. I woke up with a sore throat the morning after the wedding. I thought for a moment that I was just hoarse from the loud wedding music, but I quickly recognized the dry, nasty feeling of an impending cold. Immediately starting zinc tablets does not appear to have done much to ameliorate the symptoms. Raspy, thick sore throat, cough, sniffles, headache, body aches, all the usual suspects. I even had some slight peripheral neuropathy, which I think is probably unrelated.
Needless to say, no words got written today, and I am still stuck at approximately 5700 words. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow, but I somehow doubt it! The other source of my current stress is that tomorrow is the deadline for the NYU Creative Writing Program’s low residency applications. I have been waiting patiently to learn whether or not I will be joining them in Paris in January. I can only assume that my application was good enough not to be rejected outright but not good to be admitted outright, and they are waiting until all the applications come in to decide whether I make the cut. It’s not a very encouraging thought, but it could be worse. I am essentially waiting for the axe to fall, though, and it is certainly nerve wracking. I am keeping my fingers crossed that not too many people applied! Hah.
As a final note, I finished the second Landover Series book by Terry Brooks last week, The Black Unicorn. I enjoyed it more than the first one of the Series. I think Mr. Brooks really hit his stride in this second book. It seemed to flow much more naturally for me than Magic Kingdom for Sale… Sold! He did a good job weaving the backstory into the second book. There was almost no cabbage-headery. I feel like it was a valuable read for me for those reasons. It was also entertaining! I’m too tired and sick to write any more on it now, but maybe I will analyze it further once I have finished reading the third book.
About the Photograph: Taken at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in July, 2003 in Atlanta, GA.
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Alia Luria - BLOG 