So, NaNoWriMo is going well. If you don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month where you challenge yourself to write a 50k-word novel in 30 days. This is my 17th year participating. I've won 7 or 8 times, I think. The last time I won was in 2017 which was right before the chronic fatigue set in. I was already starting to suffer towards the end of the year, but it was in 2018 that I was sitting there one day and realized the exhaustion I felt every moment of every day wasn't normal. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue the next year.
Anyway, I was only shooting for 25k words this year because 50k is a bit much with the fatigue, but so far I've stayed ahead of the actual 50k pace. I'm currently at 12,554 words for my project which is a fanfic for Ouran High School Host Club. I don't plan to post the fanfic anywhere. I'm writing it only for me for fun. Which is for the best because it sucks. The brain fog that comes with chronic fatigue (and my other illnesses) is really zapping my creativity. Nothing I write sounds right or even good. It's all very clunky and sounds like a 15yo newbie wrote it, not a 44yo woman that has been writing for the last eleven years. Sigh. I keep pushing on, though, hoping I'll find a groove or a tone or something that will make the story work. Thankfully, I'll be the only one that ever reads anything other than the little snippets I post to my tumblr.
On an unrelated note, I'm not sick anymore. I got over the cold I had in just a few days which is a record for me. Usually, I catch a cold then I'm sick for at least three weeks if not longer. I've even gotten walking pneumonia from a simple cold and was sick for four months. Everyone else that got the cold was better in about a week. My immune system sucks.
My son is finally not coughing every few minutes either which was going to keep him out of school longer than the 10-day isolation required for every cold if you don't get a Covid test which are hard to find in the area because all of the schools require them for everything. I can't wait for his doctor to get some of the vaccines in. Or for our Rite Aid to offer them for younger kids. So far neither is happening because Washington state has very few vaccines for younger kids. So they say. Our clinic only has some at one of their offices way north of us and is supposed to let us know when our office gets some. The only Rite Aids in the area offering to younger kids are in Oregon. So I guess we're waiting.
On another unrelated note: after over a year with a broken keyboard, I finally bought a USB one in September to set on top of my laptop so I can type again. Well, now my mouse has decided it no longer wants to scroll up. It scrolls down just fine, but I can't go back up. It was working fine yesterday. I did what I could to clean out all of the cat fur and other debris from inside. If anything, that made it worse. I was forced to just order another one. Luckily, they were on sale on Amazon. I've been using the same brand/model of mouse for like fifteen years. It's the perfect size/weight for me. Normally it's $24, but I got it for $17 ($19.50 with tax). Should be here some time tomorrow. I'm a bit miffed because I just bought this mouse earlier this year when the last one started having clicking problems. I shouldn't have to replace the mouse every year.
Anyway, it's like I can't win. I have two good things (good numbers for NaNo and getting over my illness quickly) just to be countered with something crappy (the mouse). Not to mention that today, my fatigue has been ridiculous. I was shocked to get 1100 words of writing done this morning. I was hoping to add another 500 words, but there's no way I'm going to do that now.
I'm calling it a night with this exhaustion and hoping getting more sleep will let me make up the difference tomorrow. I know eventually the fatigue will be too much, and I'll just quit writing. That's why I was only aiming for half the actual words of the challenge. Right now I'm proud to have gotten as much as I have
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