April Sweeps - Day 443

This is the first time I've been to the library in a while.  I told you about Saturday, and how I came so-very-close to not writing at all that day, breaking this cycle once and for all.  All it would take would be one day, and I think I'd tear up my goal sheet (it's in my laptop bag at all times) and proclaim a writing-free life from now on.  I don't know if I would actually give up writing, but Saturday night, I'd have gladly paid YOU to do my writing for me.*

If I had failed, and my obligation to write was no longer upon me, would I be here today, writing this blog?  No, I don't think I would.  Except I'd still feel obligated to do my exercise, and it would be hard not to write down my number of sit-ups and push-ups anymore.  Well, we'll find out soon, surely.

So, I got a great deal of work done today, but when the mailman came, it was a substitute, and the way I know is that he scanned all my mailed packages as "Delivered" instead of "Received."  I don't know that it's the same substitute that keeps doing this, but it happens so often that I have a saved reply I can paste into emails when people ask why I shipped their package to the wrong address.

Today, I got no less than five of those emails (and the day ain't over yet).  One of them was particularly nasty about it, accusing me of shipping something they paid for last night to the wrong address and demanding their money back.  Every other upset buyer I said the same thing to, but this asshole issued a dispute with eBay over it, and if the package doesn't arrive by Thursday, they'll get their money back without my being able to stop them.**

Sit-ups Today: 200
Sit-ups In April: 1933

I only got eight hundred words in at the library.  I could've done better, but I finished a short scene (just the main character, Layla, talking to a classmate), and I just didn't want to write more after that.  I guess that's what separates me from the real writers out there.

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In April: 2036

Are you familiar with a Marvel Comics character known as "Werewolf By Night?"  

He's a werewolf character who occasionally shows up in superhero books and tussles with everybody from Spider-woman to Doctor Strange (and the C-list Marvel character, soon to become a B-list character, Moon Knight, first appeared in his book).  The reason I bring him up is because Werewolf By Night's alter-ego is Jack Russell.

That is all.***

Words Today: 805
Words In April: 12,991

*Indeed, if you had said, "You can either write or do two hundred push-ups," I'd have arms so sore today, I couldn't put on socks.

**I really ought to do a "Tales of eBay Horror" about this one.  After the third irate email from the outraged buyer, I put them on my Blocked list, so they could never buy from me again (it's really the only recourse I have available, since eBay already put the funds on hold because of the dispute), and then, when she tried to send a fourth email, it told her she was barred from communicating with me from now on.  I hadn't realized that blocking somebody also prevents them from sending messages . . . except that I still got the "Why would you block me from communicating with you if you were not a scammer?" email, so she's clearly able to send messages back and forth.  Sigh.

***There were two more emails I got by the end of the night from people telling me I'd mailed their package to the wrong state.  One even said, "You fucked up, so Ima want a refund."  He used Ima.