“Finish the Book!” Challenge Revisited—NOT Day 1 AGAIN

Feeling … okay. Not great, for sure, and I slept late because I just couldn’t get up after getting up a few too many times during the night so I could actually breathe. But I’m going to at least try to get something done today that involves my fingers, typing, and adding words to my book. :D Never give up, never surrender, as Jason Nesmith says!*

1:06 pm: 0

*I will always love that movie.

Yeah. Not day 1. Again.

I’m not going to announce the beginning date of this challenge again until I’m over this cold. Tomorrow will be sick day 7, so I’m hoping I’ll start to feel better soon. There were times today when I couldn’t even keep my eyes open and yet I couldn’t nap either because I couldn’t breathe, then I couldn’t stop coughing, then I couldn’t breathe again, then my eyes wouldn’t stop watering, then my nose wouldn’t quit running. And on and on it went. I wish I’d been able to just make myself write, but frankly, I was just too tired. I’m going to squeeze out my 100 words so I can keep my streak alive and then I’m going back to sleep.

If I wake up still feeling this bad tomorrow, I’m doing my 100 words and not even worrying about it. This has been a terrible, terrible cold. I know it’s not the flu (no real body aches and my fever’s been persistent but low-grade) but whatever it is, it’s kicking my ass. I don’t think I’ve had this kind of cold in a couple of years.

Or maybe it’s just that I specifically remember the day I woke up sick this time and I’m paying attention as the days pass because I really needed to be working on my book. :( I don’t know though. I don’t feel like I’ve been this sick in a while.

You know what? Never mind. I just remembered last December, being in bed and talking on the phone and telling a certain someone how terribly, terribly sick I felt as I pushed tissues off the edge of the bed and covered a hacking cough. I can’t believe I forgot about that—and that that was just last year!

And—aha! It also puts my low word counts from last December in a new light. I’ve been looking at last December for months and using it to castigate myself for not working hard enough. Well, well.

I’d like to think I’ve learned a valuable lesson here about not slacking off the writing, because just when you think you’re going to be able to catch up, you could get sick, but yeah, this isn’t the first time I’ve let something like this happen, and I doubt I’ll change my ways.

Maybe the more valuable lesson to be learned is to keep notes in my spreadsheet so that when my memory turns faulty, I can’t use low numbers to rail against myself without good reason!