Down But Not Out

This has been a heck of a week so far. I saw the rheumatologist on Monday for an RA flare-up. Flares hit me in different locations each time. This one chose my left collarbone and my right hip. I'm on low dose prednisone, even though I'm allergic to it, it helps. I stay on it until I can't tolerate the allergy symptoms it causes and then I take a Benadryl and stop. Fun.

My husband interviewed for a job on Tuesday and was shot down this morning. I get stressed all over again each time he doesn't land a new job. It's been eleven months yesterday since MassMutual let him go in one of their job elimination deals. He is miserable and discouraged. Depressive by nature, he is no picnic to live with lately.

Also having a problem with pain in my jaw where my tooth was extracted in December. Pain is in my ear now.

And then this morning I woke up with sinus congestion, post nasal drip, a sore throat and some loss of hearing in my right ear due to sinus pressure...

There're a bunch of things going on I cannot discuss because they are work related- crazy things, demanding people, and a lot of frustrations.

I'm trying to write my speech for next Wednesday's appearance at the Westfield Women's Club where I am the after luncheon program speaker. I really don't know what to say about myself since to me I am just an ordinary person who happens to write a lot of material. I have always lived a quiet life, have no ego to speak of, and find it kind of painful to have to explain or talk about where my writing ability comes from. Truth is, I was evidently born with it since I never consciously made a decision to write. It's just something I've done since I could hold a pencil and string words together. It's how I entertained myself as a child. It's how I still entertain myself today. I find it pretty amazing that my books entertain other people, the ones who don't live inside my head! I'll figure it out and come up with something interesting to talk about. I am a writer, after all.

I also need to finish the final revisions to Black Knight, White Rook, complete the tweaks to Black King Takes White Queen, and continue on with, yup, you guessed it, White Bishop Amid the Pawns, which is the tentative title of the third book in the series. I wasn't going to do it, but the main plot line popped into my head last night while I was driving home from work and it was so unnerving in nature but so right I had to start writing the book after dinner.

This is the story of my life...amid all the chaos, the writing continues like a quiet stream through a dark forest. I like walking along the bank, trailing a stick in the water, stirring the characters and plot threads until it all gets woven together into a raft I can jump onto to journey down the stream into their world, far away from the stresses, woes, hassles, and disappointments that plague real life.

Heading down to the stream...I'll be back tomorrow in time for work.