In which I am achy breaky
Nov. 8th, 2010 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynIt's been such a busy few weeks, and getting busier -- two potential jobs coming on top of a new book I got today that is the first for a major travel book publisher. I'm very nervous about this one -- even though it sounds like I passed their (insane) test with flying colors, I still feel like it's a lot of work and very unfamiliar territory. The copyediting isn't really, in many respects, the big issue, it's more about the codes. They have the most convoluted typecoding system I've ever seen, and every single thing is coded, so the page is a morass of complicated Quark codes. Still, they give new CEs and proofers 2 hours of paid time on top of the estimated time for the book, so you can peruse their lengthy guides and codes and whatnot.
It's something I'm going to have to do on the couch, because I still can't sit here in my office for very long. I finally ended up at a new chiropractor -- I have always been afraid of chiropractic care because it just seems so incredibly dangerous to have people jerking your spine around, and every time they snap your neck, I am totally skeered that I'm going to be paralyzed for life. But the first time I went to one I was in so much pain that I literally couldn't move, someone had to help me walk from my office chair to my car so I could get to the place, and I instantly felt relief in a way that muscle relaxants and pain pills hadn't given me. I've only been a few times since then, and it took a lot for me to go this time, but my acupuncturist sent me to her guy, and already things are a tiny bit better.
But this time I'm in it for a longer haul -- they're working with me on costs and stuff, so I can do this, but I really wasn't surprised when he showed me how badly out of whack my hips and lower back are on the X-rays. I know it's going to be more than a few treatments; we're talking about probably three to four months before I begin to get a little better. The hard part is taking it easy -- like right now, there is so much work, and the yard is a mess, and so on ad infinitum. Plus, honestly, I'd really like to do something fun, like writing or vidding; not to mention that Yuletide is coming up (although apparently I completely missed all the deadlines for Festivids, c'est la vie).
I have started writing in one of my blogs but it's not much so far, I'm mostly trying to get back in the swing of things. For weeks I was a nervous wreck about this workshop I was doing on Saturday, and it's such a relief now that that's over with and seemed to go well, allowing me to concentrate on funner things. And I even started a tea blog just for the hell of it so I could keep track of all my tea tastings. Which means I'm not without some creative output, but it's not necessarily fannish in nature and I kind of miss that.
The hard part is just that there's nothing that really makes me feel that incredible rush of fannish love right now. I feel like I need to talk about my love/less than love with Fringe right now (I'm so torn! There's Charlie and Broyles in hot, tight black t-shirts in the alternaverse, but I really don't like the alternaverse! I don't like alternaLivia! Walternate creeps me out in a bad way! But then... then they do things like the twin storyline, which just... well, come on. Those of you who know me will know how deeply that story touched me --I was pretty much a blubbering idiot afterward). I'm waiting for next season of Justified. New Burn Notice this week. Chuck is... I don't know what Chuck is right now for me.
Until end of January, I have all the pay premium cable stations, which means I've been able to watch Boardwalk Empire and Dexter in real time (and was able to catch the end of True Blood in real time, too, which was awesome), and Dexter is intriguing me a lot this year (though I am seriously hoping they don't do with Lumen what they've done with everyone else who knows about Dex in the past, I think it would jump so far past the shark if they follow formula here), plus there's bonus skeevy Peter Weller, which is awesome.
Yet even with all this bounty o' TV, I don't feel that heart-fluttering need for fannish content the way I used to. Where is my Buffy equivalent, or my Mag 7 or Fast and Furious passion? I don't know. Maybe it's just that I'm so lonesome lately, and I don't have anyone nearby me to share passions. Most of the shows I watch, I used to watch with other people. That would certainly help a lot. I don't even really have online communities I feel part of for that. I wonder if at Escapade I'll feel as dissociated as I did last year? There's a lot to be said for having fan friends... I'm looking forward to watching Mag 7 with some newbies in a few weeks and seeing how people react to it (and keeping fingers crossed for some fannish interest).
I know some of it is the time of year, too -- as the birthday creeps ever closer, and the feeling that I have nothing to do on that day (everyone's usually busy or gone on T-day weekend) but sit home alone and be reminded that sis_r is gone, overwhelms me, it adds a lot of gloom to an already dark, dreary time of year. I just feel so isolated and alone, and having to be home, resting my back so often makes me feel like even more of a shut-in. I wish there were fun things to do in November. A lot of times I've gone up to Vancouver for my birthday, but this year the person I usually go with is gone. And anyhoo, I have this new job, which is due the day after.
So, I need to go ice my back, and start reading all this material on coding and processes and what have you. Fifty pages of basics, and that doesn't even count the manuscript!
It's something I'm going to have to do on the couch, because I still can't sit here in my office for very long. I finally ended up at a new chiropractor -- I have always been afraid of chiropractic care because it just seems so incredibly dangerous to have people jerking your spine around, and every time they snap your neck, I am totally skeered that I'm going to be paralyzed for life. But the first time I went to one I was in so much pain that I literally couldn't move, someone had to help me walk from my office chair to my car so I could get to the place, and I instantly felt relief in a way that muscle relaxants and pain pills hadn't given me. I've only been a few times since then, and it took a lot for me to go this time, but my acupuncturist sent me to her guy, and already things are a tiny bit better.
But this time I'm in it for a longer haul -- they're working with me on costs and stuff, so I can do this, but I really wasn't surprised when he showed me how badly out of whack my hips and lower back are on the X-rays. I know it's going to be more than a few treatments; we're talking about probably three to four months before I begin to get a little better. The hard part is taking it easy -- like right now, there is so much work, and the yard is a mess, and so on ad infinitum. Plus, honestly, I'd really like to do something fun, like writing or vidding; not to mention that Yuletide is coming up (although apparently I completely missed all the deadlines for Festivids, c'est la vie).
I have started writing in one of my blogs but it's not much so far, I'm mostly trying to get back in the swing of things. For weeks I was a nervous wreck about this workshop I was doing on Saturday, and it's such a relief now that that's over with and seemed to go well, allowing me to concentrate on funner things. And I even started a tea blog just for the hell of it so I could keep track of all my tea tastings. Which means I'm not without some creative output, but it's not necessarily fannish in nature and I kind of miss that.
The hard part is just that there's nothing that really makes me feel that incredible rush of fannish love right now. I feel like I need to talk about my love/less than love with Fringe right now (I'm so torn! There's Charlie and Broyles in hot, tight black t-shirts in the alternaverse, but I really don't like the alternaverse! I don't like alternaLivia! Walternate creeps me out in a bad way! But then... then they do things like the twin storyline, which just... well, come on. Those of you who know me will know how deeply that story touched me --I was pretty much a blubbering idiot afterward). I'm waiting for next season of Justified. New Burn Notice this week. Chuck is... I don't know what Chuck is right now for me.
Until end of January, I have all the pay premium cable stations, which means I've been able to watch Boardwalk Empire and Dexter in real time (and was able to catch the end of True Blood in real time, too, which was awesome), and Dexter is intriguing me a lot this year (though I am seriously hoping they don't do with Lumen what they've done with everyone else who knows about Dex in the past, I think it would jump so far past the shark if they follow formula here), plus there's bonus skeevy Peter Weller, which is awesome.
Yet even with all this bounty o' TV, I don't feel that heart-fluttering need for fannish content the way I used to. Where is my Buffy equivalent, or my Mag 7 or Fast and Furious passion? I don't know. Maybe it's just that I'm so lonesome lately, and I don't have anyone nearby me to share passions. Most of the shows I watch, I used to watch with other people. That would certainly help a lot. I don't even really have online communities I feel part of for that. I wonder if at Escapade I'll feel as dissociated as I did last year? There's a lot to be said for having fan friends... I'm looking forward to watching Mag 7 with some newbies in a few weeks and seeing how people react to it (and keeping fingers crossed for some fannish interest).
I know some of it is the time of year, too -- as the birthday creeps ever closer, and the feeling that I have nothing to do on that day (everyone's usually busy or gone on T-day weekend) but sit home alone and be reminded that sis_r is gone, overwhelms me, it adds a lot of gloom to an already dark, dreary time of year. I just feel so isolated and alone, and having to be home, resting my back so often makes me feel like even more of a shut-in. I wish there were fun things to do in November. A lot of times I've gone up to Vancouver for my birthday, but this year the person I usually go with is gone. And anyhoo, I have this new job, which is due the day after.
So, I need to go ice my back, and start reading all this material on coding and processes and what have you. Fifty pages of basics, and that doesn't even count the manuscript!
