Please take the best care of you. We want you safe and intact. ❤️ Sending so much love. 

I think I’d be in for Inktober. I am not sure I can commit to anything really amazing (or even every day) but it would be nice to be part of a group doing things. 

Heidi took a hit from the .303 Bookworm and felt the world spin and grow dark. Her ears rang and nothing made sense. She fumbled in her small satchel for a Maxalt potion and her flask of tea, swallowed, and laid down in a patch of moss until the storm passed, however long that might take.   The storm unleashed some serious TBI effects, with a tornado coming through and messing with the atmospheric pressure, which also messes with my head. It was a long night, friends, and I’m glad I have Maxalt and a safe sturdy building. 

Hi Friends!   Thanks for the love, I appreciate it. Feeling better today which is good. I have taken a few extra tabs of my antidepressant over the last few days for that little bump and I think that helped. I am also trying hard to be at ease when nothing is required and that seems to be helping a bit, too. I am not quite back to rights, but I am less distressed and that is good news.    I went to the gym Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was abs and I was more tired than sore by the end of it. Doreen really likes circuits, and they are a good format for a class of six people. I find them challenging and very tiring, which is probably a good thing. I didn’t feel like I’d worked really hard according to my muscle soreness on Tuesday although I got a decent sweat going, which made me wonder if I’d been doing things right. I did get some DOMS by the evening and they continued into Wednesday so clearly work was accomplished, but it was hard to tell if I’d achieved anything immediately after the session which was a little weird. Thursday was an Intensity 10 class, another circuit, that Doreen said was cardio and weights. It was definitely cardio, I was sweating really heavily by the end of the second circuit and tapped out of the third round because I kept getting winded and struggling to get my breath back (thanks, BOSU ball crunches, I hate it). I think I need to modify for those crunches specifically because they really mess with my breathing, as if my diaphragm is getting compressed in a weird way during the crunch. Everything else I think I could have done, just poorly because I was damn tired. lol So I spent the ten minutes of the last circuit on the treadmill and felt good about it. I don’t think the intensity classes are going to be a good fit for me (not only because of the intensity, but also they are at 6:15 am, which is a hard pass for me right now), but having one in my regular slot now and then lets me know that I am capable of things I wasn’t aware of which is useful info. Doreen and I have different expectations of what “weights” looks like, though. This is not powerlifting and I still miss it.     Last night I ran a solo for my Druid so he could have an extended conversation with his birth mother whom he has just been reunited with for the first time. It was incredibly touching and fairly emotional and I am really proud of how it went and the dedication my player brought to the table. He said after we finished that he’d been reading Reddit threads on questions to ask your birth parent and different things around adoption to prepare for the conversation and I was so impressed that he wanted to invest so heavily in that process. I did a LOT of prep for that session myself, wanting to do justice to what was bound to be an emotionally charged character growth moment. It was so, so, so good. I am still existing in a satisfied glow this morning knowing that it was an excellent session. It also really filled my well, because normally the party doesn’t invest in NPCs at all, so I don’t get to “play” in character much and end up telling the story through Lore and Environment cues, which are fun, don’t get me wrong, but operate completely differently from storytelling through the lens of a person. I have been missing being a player as I only get to play when Dave is home and running things. When he is gone that dries up for me. So getting to step into Ghislaine’s shoes was so satisfying.    I decided to bake a banana chocolate chip Bundt cake this morning to take to work. I had bananas at the perfect baking ripeness and it feels like a day for a treat. So that will come out of the oven soon and then I will bundle half of it up to take to work, saving the other half for here. It’s a big cake.    The wind has been strong the past few days and the leaves are already falling fast. I wish they’d linger in the trees a bit longer, things are always so dreary once they are down before the snow comes.    Goblin meals continue, although I have managed to air fry some chicken nuggets the past two nights for cheap, junky protein. They are a comfort food, so that was a nice treat. I might have enough to have tonight before my game with AP, but after that I will need a new bag.    Alright, I need to go get ready for work. I hope that your beverage of choice is satisfying and that you get a glimmer of something good today. Thanks for being here. ❤️ 

I have two things I need to be working on: A novel and the readings/writings for my doctoral Qualifying exam. Obviously the second takes precedence over the first, and I’m not certain that I would want to post the writings of either anywhere at this point — what’s the format for the challenge for those of us who are long form (ie, not limerick) writers? Word count for the day?

I don't know whether this is useful or horrifying. Four hundred times?

It didn't feel remarkable when I was doing it, but I was undeniably calm afterwards. Obviously we need a lot more data.

I'm taking a 3 days break (today included) from tracking anything. This is taking too much space in my head and I want to let it drop a little and see if I can get a clearer mind to understand my longer term goals better. Have fun and see you on Monday!

Friday September 27 Tattoo this afternoon and it's a big question mark. The plan was to do the last two lines of the Maggie Smith poem with a house of bones, but after spending a bit of time doing mockups, every house permutation looks terrible. I know it's all clipart and just supposed to be a jumping off point to communicate the idea to the artist, but christ no. The skull idea is maaaybe my favorite, not sure yet, but Liam is allergic to skull tattoos, finding them badly overdetermined. I'm pitching the skeletal hand and bee idea, possible with dandelions as the flower and the finger bones done in solid black while the bee and flower are a bright gold?? But I'm not sure how well gold does on skin.   Rotting house  Bone House Smear house Decomposing skull skeletal hand and bee Drum circle night! I've been adding bits of bodhran practice here and there this month, and lets see how things feel tonight with having more of a consistent practice behind the single night of drumming.  Weigh loss stuff New trackable goal, who dis. 4 meals a day with 30g of protein. 4 is green, 3 is black, 0-2 are red.  

Week 3 Thursday No workout scheduled, but I did do candles and teeth for a short rest.   Ranger Hal: 10 hp Needle Blight 4: 9 hp Short Rests: 14 Week 3: 28 xp